to the particular Lords of time and that these particular Lords who receiv'd it of their general distributed them likewise to their followers so that every star had its lordship of time in order That also those general Lords had special ones in their bosoms yearly monthly daily hourly in the accounting of which and placing them in order it cannot be set down how diligent the antient Astrologers have been especially in the giving and receiving of time which the stars substitute to another did borrow from one another They observ'd that stars did alter and change from good to evil and that one Lord of time did not confer good or evil but many and when good or bad at one time happen'd to one man these contrarieties could not have been foreseen from one Lord but many For as the aspects of the stars their courses circulations and meetings were mix'd so were mens actions and fortunes mix'd upon earth Several things besides were observ'd of this kind which are common with the Masters of this Science And a great many more things which by the antiquity and malice of time are bereft us and lost with the books of the Chaldaeans and Egyptians Of which if they were extant we would perhaps see what Psellus hath written of the Books of Teucer of Babylon Whosoever sayes he reads them shall find many things in them wonderful of the Celestial signs and Decans which arise with them which have influence on several actions and events I confesse that all these things and all matters of Nativity consisted of wandring and arbitrary principles but being various and so often reiterated for that very same reason were to be found out by observation and experiment And for that cause must needs have been a perfecting through a great many ages For which canse the antient tradition of them was in such repute amongst the antients that it had Patrons both Gods Heroes and men Mercurius Aesculapius Anubius Petosiris Necepson Orpheus and a great many more who have written Aphorisms concerning the determinations of the stars and who have thought that something which wee think idle stories and have added weight to this smoke Which things so often as I consider with my self I wonder no longer at so many Thousand years which Cicero sayes the Chaldaeans set down in trying of Children according to their Nativities Hence that scrupulous care amongst the ancient Casters of Nativities in finding out the partile Horoscope in distributing the lordships of time among the stars in searching out the Climactericals Most of which to this age unknown the singular and excellent Salmasius hath wonderfull exactly and learnedly laid open according to his hidden learning in all sciences in which he is excellent CHAP. XI Of the antiquity of the Divinity and Magick of the Gentiles THat the Divinitie of the Gentiles was an addition to that most ancient and first Astrologie none can deny For the first men strayed a great while upon earth before they turn'd towards heaven and gaind from the dimensions of the earth the dimensions of heaven Astronomers who succeeded them stray'd long in heaven in finding out the courses of the stars Astrologers who followed them look'd long down upon the earth to find out by diligent consideration what power the stars had upon earth The Divines who were the Disciples of the Astrologers turn'd their eyes back again upon heaven and when they saw those celestial fires as it were pierce our inferiour bodies with their rayes for which cause the Bible calls them the host of heaven they thought them to be Gods omnipotent to whom all things did give obedience and turn'd all things towards themselves and so gave them names either from the power they exercised upon earthly things or from some peculiar effect that they had in mens destinies They attributed to the world its God or genius whom before I did shew at large to have been the Prince of the inferiour Gods and a spirit of the first creation They call'd him Pan and gave to him a whistle of seven reeds at the sound of which all the rest of the Satires and Pans did dance signifying that that universal spirit and God did move and moderate all the rest by the harmony and consent of the seven Plants Afterwards they assign'd to particular places towns peoples houses their own Genius All which because they are tedious and known to most I passe But likewise because most men did referr the beginnings and causes of things not only to stars but to supercelestial intelligences and to the author of the world many things were spoken of gods and their degrees which contentions Mercury of Egypt to compose call'd by them Trismegistus and esteem'd a God perform'd a wonderfull thing as Firmicus relates Mercury of Egypt says he wrote twenty thousand volumes of divers substances and beginnings of degrees of celestial powers which were diversly related In which the Astrologie and Divinity of the Egyptians was explained Which arts he had taught Aesculapius and Anubius The which that it may be confirm'd by good authority Iamblichus relates this of those bookes in his Mercurials Mercury says he made twenty thousand books as Meneteus says yea thirty thousand threescore thousand five hundred and twenty five books He wrote a hundred books of the Empyrean Gods as many of the ethereal a thousand of the selestial Hence we may guesse how exceeding antient the Theologie of the Gentiles was both by the Antiquitie of Mercury himself as also from the first authors of the Theologie of the Gentiles who long before Mercury could not agree concerning their own Gods Hence it is also manifest that the Theologie of the Gentils flow'd frō the knowledg of the stars because whatsoever fables the Gentils did invent concerning their own Gods were understood of the influences of the Planets their aspects and conjunctions Therefore they feign'd that Saturn was harsh and cruel because the appearance of that star in heaven was malignant and hurtfull That Jove was given to love because his star was bountifull and exhilarated mens hearts That Mars being fierce and bloodie was mollified by the intervening of Venus That their conjunction was hinder'd by the Sun And the rest which in relating I should be troublesom Besides the Theologie of the Gentiles begot their Magick and those which were the Priests of their Gods were also their Magicians The Antients thorght there were hidden vertues in all things terrestrial either by a divine ray or a vertue so disposing them or infus'd by intelligences by ways of mediate or impress'd in them in the creation by primitive copies That likewise all things terrestrial were in heaven in a celestial and pure form in the intelligences more simply and intellectually in the primitive copies purely and in manner of Idea's And that all things by divine attraction and symbolical love were reciprocable and by mutual breathings fed one upon another That things celestial and supercelestial by their influxions did draw things
very place The Spirit of this world These two are at continual variance and eternal discord since God made a mixture of all things when he gave to all things breath and life The Spirit which is of God we shall call that Spirit of regeneration which flows immediately and is produced from God which is altogether spiritual stable incorruptible and eternal which is fed with the fire of the vision of God which God onely loves and chuses We shall call the spirit of this world that spirit of creation with which the whole world was animated and which was infus'd into the whole frame in the creation Then that is the Spirit which by interposition of a medium being created by God is animal material carnal and corporeal which is changeable and subject to vanity which is corruptible which savours of death which faints and melts before the eyes of God which God disdains and rejects God when he made the world breath'd upon all things created and living in the world by that Spirit of the world and creation by which they live but did not likewise infuse into all things created and living in the world his Spirit of regeneration by which things created and living which are antient are renewed the corrupt refresh'd and the dead rise up into eternal liâ—e Nay he did communicate that to a certain company of the Elect to himself known with such resolution and decree that whomsoever this Spirit should inspire unto grace by his power they should receive immortality and through patience become that holy fire by which he shall try all things On that day when all the faultiness of the world shall be purg'd on which all things which have been fram'd shall be remov'd and consum'd and all changeable vain â—ortal and corruptible things which God abhors and rejects CHAP. VII Of one God and of one Spirit which is of God Of divers Gods and Spirits THe Spirit of regeneration is the same Spirit which is the Spirit of Christ by whom comes regeneration he is one neither enduring number nor consort The Apostle tells us that there are several spirits of creation both in the heaven and in the earth Cor. 1. chap. 8. which in that place he calls Gods and Lords The words of St. Paul are these For although there be those which are called gods both in the heaven and in the earth seeing there are many gods and many lords yet wee have but one God The same Apostle in the 8. to the Romans call'd those Gods and Lords in the heaven and in the earth heighth and depth whom he makes mention of amongst the Spirits of the creation for he addes Nor any other creature And certainly as the same St. Paul sets down wicked Spirits amongst the celestial you may likewise imagine that there are evil Spirits likewise amongst the terrestrial For seeing you read Sam. 1. Chap. 28. That the Witch saw Gods that is Spirits ascending out of the Earth The chief of those Spirits is he whom the holy Writ commonly calls the Devil Sathan Belial Mammon Prince of the power of the air of this world and this life That every one has their Angel and attendant the books of both the Old and New Testaments doe witness Jude the Apostle tells us that the chief of these Spirits and all the Angels under his command were created in the beginning good and upright as also that they were made with a creation changeable and corruptible in his Catholick Epistle in which place he sayes expresly That those Spirits did not keep their Principalitie but left their habitation Therefore it is to be presum'd that they had a good Principality which they kept not Hence that of Job Behold those which serve him are not stable and he finds wickedness in his Angels According as those spirits breath'd upon those things which were subject to the Lawes of the creation and as the Apostle speaks in the second to the Ephesians wrought upon them it is credible that all the created things of the world degenerated from that perfect good uprightness where in they were created when those Spirits fell from their Principalitie and habitation And hence it has come to pass that the men of the first creation forgetting their first Creator and stirr'd up by those Spirits of the corrupted creation strayed from the uprightness of their first creation and perish'd in their own thoughts Hence certainly was that foolishness of their darkned heart by which they thought God not to be their Creator by which they serv'd the creature rather than the Creator by which lastly they chang'd the glory of the incorruptible God into the similitude of a corruptible man of fowls beasts serpents Rom. 1. The Priests and Philosophers amongst the Gentiles who knew not God the Father and the Creator observ'd several Spirits and Gods whom they determined governours of several ranks and degrees and whom they plac'd either in the heaven or in the stars or in the fiâ—â— or in the air or in the water or in the earth or under the earth and whose shapes they did not deny might be called up by several wayes of sacrifice and inchantment For certainly they considered a certain affinitie and fellow-suffering of those Spirits with all things created on whom by their sympathie and similitude they had an influence They thought that all animals and vegetables from trees to metals and nones were mov'd and led by those Spirits Yea that all things did pray and sing hymns to the leaders of their own order Therefore say they the Heliotrop moves towards the Sun and if any one could observe her stamping that she makes in the air in her wheeling about he should observe a kind of a sound compos'd towards her King such a one as a Plant might be expected to make The Lotus opens and shuts her leaves turning towards the same Planet according as the Sun ascends or descâ—ends by degrees whom she seems to honour with the motion of her leaves as it were with the morion of her lips They have boasted the same things of Selenetropes which turn to the Moon as are related of Heliotropes The clapping and singing of the Cock at the Sun-rising are known which I should interpret to be mourning at his departure The Dogs bark at the Moon and inflam'd with the Dog-star run mad What shall I say of the stone Helitis which by its rayes imitates those golden ones of the Sun As also of the stone Selenitis which is shap'd like a hornd Moon and by its change follows the motion of the Moon What shall I say of the Helioselen which seems to present the conjunction of the Sun and Moon Not to speak of the seven metals to every one of which there is a particular Planet assign'd Then the Oakes dedicated to Jove the Laurel to Phoebus the Olîve to Minerva the Poplar to Hercules Horses to Neptune Swine to Ceres Goats to Bacchus Black sheep to infernal Juno Serpents to Aesculapius
brought to Adam all the creatures of the earth and all the fowls of heaven Which it is not likely he did in half a day For thither must the Elephants come from the furthest parts of India and Africk who are of a heavy and a slow pace What shall I speak of so many several species of creatures and fowls unknown to our Hemisphere who must swim so much Sea pass over so much Land to come from America to Mesopotamia and there receive their names Seventhly He saw what he would call them He saw that is that he took notice that he should fitly call every one of them and in every name he disputed with himself that is he had those operations of mind which are distinguishable discursively and in time Nor is it possible that Adam could in one half of a day see all the creatures of the earth and the fowls of heaven and then premeditately give every one of them a convenient name which neither in pronouncing of their names not in a continual rehearsing of them he could have perform'd in so short a time Eighthly God sent a deep steep upon Adam and when he had slept a long and deep sleep God took one of his ribs and filled up the flesh for it Ninthly He made a â—oman of the rib Nor did the Grecian Jews believe that the rib of Adam was made a woman the same day that Adam was made for they affirm That Adam was made in the New Moon that is the first day of the Moon But Eve was made the second day of the Moon Which the famous Salmasius has mentioned in his Climacterical years and refuted the superstition of the Jews and withall has cleared their Opinion who believ'd that there was the distance of a day betwixt their creation Tenthly God brought Eve to Adam If you all reckon these things severally not half a day not a week not a moneth will suffice for half of them Nor is it to be overslip'd that Adam called that Female a woman as being taken out of a man nor call'd her man as the females were in the first creation He created them male and female For this man in the second creation did so much excell all other men who were created before and begotten till his time for which cause he was to be the first and the Father of a Nation chosen by God and by which he was to represent by Gods decree all mankind That he could find no fit helper for him amongst all the women of the former creation But a woman must be fram'd for him more excellent than all oother women And hence it comes to passe that Marriages with the rest of the Nations are strictly forbidden the Jews and that the marriages of the sons of God must not be made with the daughters of men left the holy and elect people should be defiled with the prophane Nations and those that were created altogether in a huddle CHAP. III. Of the marvellous framing of Adam Of the marvellous conceptions of Isaac and Christ Adam was made a type of Christ in all things like him but his justice Eve the wife of Adam was likewise a figure of the Church who was the spouse of Christ THey which take pains in reading of the holy Scripture and are serious in the perusal of them find three men marvellously and peculiarly brought forth The first is Adam The second Isaac The third Jesus Christ The first was Adam whose mother was the Earth God his father The second Isaac whose father was Abraham God was his mother for it left off with Sarah to be according to the manner of women Gen. 18. To which God alluding Isa 46. speaking to the Jews the sons of Isaac says he carryed them in his womb The third is Jesus Christ whose mother was a Virgin and whose father God God was father both to Adam and Christ under whose imputation all the world was sometimes to fall God was the father Adam was the son of God Christ was the son of God and God the son Adam was a sinner Christ was just In all other things Adam and Christ were alike Adam was a type of Christ and opposite to Christ Isaac was a type of Christ and in the middle 'twixt Adam and Christ Christ was a Prototype of Isaac and an Antitype of Adam The common Opinion is That Adam was created by God of a full age of the perfect stature of a man and that the day wherein he was created he might be a man of thirty yeers of age at which age Christ died Truely I shall rather think that Adam was in all things like Christ except the justice of Christ as Christ was made in all things like Adam except the sin of Adam and that Adam not streight nor the first day but by leisure and by several ages successively grew from infancy and youth to man's estate by as many degrees as Christ arived at the same state at which Isaac arived at it being himself likewise miraculously brought forth and as other men begotten after the ordinary manner arise from children to be men And he shall finde this to be most probable whosoever shall seriously peruse the History of Adam from the framing of him till the framing of his wife Eve for God framed Adam out of Paradise whom he afterwards carried into Paradise that he might manure it sayes Genesis Hence I gather that Adam was framed an Infant without Paradise because I read that he was carried into Paradise to till it at such time of his age and strength as he was able to perform it Again I believe that that Paradise was that place of the Holy Land which is called Arabia felix for it is bounded Chap. 2. Genesis By Tigris and Euphrates two Rivers joining their streams in their course towards Arabia fall into the Bay of Persia Arabia felix is likewise to be understood the Paradise of the Lord in that place of Gen. 12. where Lot lifting up his eyes saw all the Region about Jordan which was altogether watered like the Paradise of the Lord and like Egypt as thou comest from Segor for it is probable that Genesis has compared and joyned to Arabia felix and Egypt two neighbouring Regions and two of the most pleasant I think that Adam was brought to that Holy Land even as I finde Abraham led to the same Land that Adam might have the first natural possession of it the first and the father of all the Jews and which by a stricter title and a more peculiar obligation God might afterwards promise give Abraham and to the Jews his posterity being Adam's seed and his own Adam being a young man and cultivating of Paradise God thought of giving him a Wife and being as it were uncertain whom he should bestow upon him he brought unto him all the creatures of the earth and all the Fowls of heaven that he might see what he would call them for every thing whatsoever Adam called it
terrestrial towards them That things terrestrial likewise by their appetites drew down things celestial to them And for this reason that there was no growing thing in the earth but had its proper star by whose spirit it possesseth both life and strength and those faculties with which it was indued Not to speak of stones metals precious stones trees beasts and men to whom they likewise appointed their own stars Therefore with such efficacious things they were thought to work wonders preparing them according to the Moon Star or the Aspect For as the vertue operative from things occult produced things manifest so these Magicians by the help of things manifest seem'd to produce hidden effects by the influxion of stars and things natural sympathizing with the celestial And imagin'd that the celestial influxions mix'd with the power of things natural produc'd effects admirable here on earth though the causes of them were in heaven Hence it is that they relate that the shapes of stars and gods have by enchantments been call'd down and the Gods themselves forc'd by their charms by sacrifice consecrations incense invocations and imprecatious Those forms of gods and stars they call'd persons and presences such as the Decans were For Decan according to the Chaldee and Persian as the same Salmasius relates was a presence or appearance These presences or appearances somtimes were prosperous somâ—times unfortunate The direful shapes and Gods that ruin'd Troy Present themselves In sacrificing they appear'd either hostile or friendly For the depulsion of hostile appearances the Purple tyre of the head was appointed amongst the Romans as Trojan Helenus ordain'd A Eneas Aeneid 3. With purple vail thy sight and head attire Least at the sacrifice and holy fire Some direfull interrupting shape thou see Which after must a solemn custom be To thee thy friends and thy posterity From those inchantments all witchcrafts and Philtres took their beginnings by which men were either bewitched to love or hatred or made well or ill To this adde the impressions either of good or bad virtues in those Images which they call Talismanical by characters adjuration lights sounds numbers words and names For they thought that Nature express'd hidden effects in like shapes as it were by sympathie and that the Gods express'd the truth of Ideas by manifest Images As also the antient Priests of several things composing one thing liken'd it to that one thing which is above many things The separation of which composition would weaken every one of the materials but the mixtion of them by exemplary force restore the Idea They relate that the Decans in those Talismanical figures were used to be painted one with an ax another with a dart another with a head of a man or woman with rayes about it and that the images of them were graven upon the stones of rings for charms And that they thought there was a great deal of force in those Talismans if they had consecrations graven in them in the Chaldee or Egyptian tongue those being the tongues of antient Nations What shall I speak of those Magical words breath'd upon things enchanted which fitted them for the susception of any vertue the Magician pleased besides the ordinary custom and that being spoke backward would cause unusual effects Is it not ordinary that by the force of Magick it has thundred without the knowledge of Jupiter rivers turn'd back the Seas staid the Sun stopt the Moon clear'd the stars pull'd down the jaws of Vipers broken and the heads of Asps by charms split in pieces What shall I speak of the River of Hell turn'd back Ghosts call'd up mens shapes chang'd the course of nature interrupted and the whole world astonished Besides there were several ways of Prognostication by Astrological and Magical inventions by Physiognomic by Metoposcopic by Chiromancie Geomancie Hydromancie Aeromancie Pyromancie by sacrifice thunder lightning by dreams by apparitions after long waking by surie and madnesse after watching in all which things there were predictions of future things It is not my desire that all these things which I have declar'd should be believ'd But that it may appear that the least part of Magick and Divination had its arts found out by manifold observation and long experience and those not frivolous and vain but of such weight and moment that they were next to miracles Such as were to turn rods into Serpents to change the waters of the river into bloud and to bring up Frogs Which were not meerly the cosenage of the Devil but the mighty and wonderful power of Magick Which Magick St. Stephen in the 7th of the Acts calls Wisdom and which Moses was chiefly skill'd in according to the Hebrew Writers themselves and not only in that but all the wâ—sdom of the Egyptians as sayes the holy Martyr in that place in Astronomy Astrology and the Sphare whence Magick had its original But if the Egyptians were so skilfull in Magick according to the Scripture as also the Chaldaeans who in this did contend with them How skillful must we think them in Astrology Astronomy and the Sphaere Yea if they were skillful in many things of Magick in this age unknown Why should not we think they knew many things in Astrology Astronomy and the Sphere which we know not And if they knew more in those disciplines Why should not wee think that they bestowed more time in the learning of them To these let there be added many other Arts and Sciences depending and adherent to these which whosoever knows must be thought to have learn'd the other And let us seriously consider whether or no which we undertook to demonstrate the Chaldaeans and Egyptians could learn all those Sciences which is betwixt Adam and Abraham the Chaldaean or Moses the Egyptian Certainly if we doe this freely and with clear intentions there is none but will think this time exceeding narrow to have found out the most trivial experiments of Sciences not to speak of the highest such as were Astronomy Astrologie and Magick curiously observ'd weigh'd and demonstrated The Fourth Book of this SYSTEME OF DIVINITY CHAP. I. Adam though fram'd perfect could not that hour he was made understand the Sphere Astronomy and A strology But in progress of time might gain the knowledge of them Of holy Writ Many things copied not original TO salve these doubts a miracle steps out of the Engine They that say the world was created with Adam say That Adam the first hour he was made had all sciences arts and disciplines perfectly which afterwards without any trouble or experiment nor no long processe of time he taught his posterity Let those famous persons pardon me if I tell them that they doe not seriously consider what they say Adam as we said before being made perfect had in him all perfections belonging to a man but notwithstanding gain'd nothing by that perfection which might exceed that perfection and his own humanity But Adam had exceeded the perfection of all humanitie
oblig'd mankind Let them consider that they are living souls and that such perceive not the things which are of God nor can understand those things which are ponder'd by the Spirit Cor. 2.1 That worldly wisdom is call'd Devillish by St. James Chap. 3. and opposite to divine wisdom that flesh and blood cannot discover the mysteries of God but God who is in heaven Matth. 16. Therefore let them consider with themselves how great their weakness is in knowing God That they are clouds driven with winds which as St. Peter says are carried about with the wind of every doctrine and are not constant to one God That they cannot from themselves receive the spirit of truth because they neither see him nor know him in the Gospel according to St. John Chap. 16. Nay they know not themselves That they know not the ways of the the spirit nor know how their bones were set together in their mothers womb Eccles 11. But if they understand not their own wayes how shall they understand the ways of the Lord Prov. 20. Therefore the riches of the Lord are called unsearchable by the Apostle because a man cannot conceive them Yea because he cannot comprehend them for their exceeding height and splendor Therefore let them think with themselves that of themselves they are destitute of help and means to find out God that they are blind and darkned in the knowledge of him for whom according to their desert and the words of St. Peter the obscurity of darkness should be reserv'd Let them hence take occasion to bless God so goo and so mercifull who has prevented and assisted men that knew him not and hath of his own accord offer'd himself to be known by them yea that has taught them his wayes and hath as one friend speaks to another spoken to them plainly Let them again consider how wicked the affections of their hearts are All men and all the world naturally wicked S. John 1. cap. 5. setled in the dregs of their own matter Wisd 1. That they drink fin as fishes drink water That their devices and thoughts are evil from their youth Gen. 8. that 't is by their own nature and disposition But as the Ethiopian changeth not his skin nor the Leopatd his spots because they are naturally born with him no more can men do good having learned evil evil being likewise born in them that by the help of their nature they are perverse and by their inbred wickednesse that the will of the flesh is contrary to the will of God and that therefore the wisdom of the flesh is enmity to God and is not subject nor can be made subject to the Law of God as the Apostle tells us Rom. 8. That they are hard and their necks a cord of iron which despise the uprightness of their creation and could not submit to the harsh yoke of the Divine Law Let them again remember that God is not only just and upright as men were created in the beginning just and upright but which is most high above all men that he is most holy to whom all sins are most odious abominable detestable Let them therefore extol the bounty and liberality of God who notwithstanding hath so dealt with men that he has freely come to these wicked and reprobate sinners and has not disdain'd with the kiss of Justice and Peace to breath upon them a part of his Sanctity At last let them thus think that man is rottenness and the son of man but a worm and that God hath made man in vanity that they are grass and fade like the flowers of the field yea that like Hay to which they are compar'd they are out down from morn till night That men are feeble altogether nothing that they dwell in houses of clay which have no foundation and which are consumed as with a moth that their substance is vain like stubblé which is consumed with the breath of the fire and that they at last by the sin of their corruptible nature of necessity die or which is the same that all of them drink deep of death and necessity And that their nature being as it were flax before God who is a consuming fire before whom the frame of humane nature shakes is chang'd by a miracle into that fiery nature of God himself by vertue of which they are fed with the most glorious contemplation of him And what is most glorious in men that their mortality is chang'd into immortality that they may be eternally satisfied with glory Therefore let them consider with themselves that they were created in the beginning right and perfect but only with that righteousness and perfection which is contained within the circumference of men and with such a corruptible disposition that from the top of their circle and their perfection they fell headlong into the centre of corruption and imperfection But if they being created right and perfect could not retain their righteousness and perfection how much less could they being wicked attain to those things which were above their righteousness and perfection I say above it as far as heaven is from the earth the creation from the Creator and God from man yea there was a ladder given them to climb up to heaven or swiftness of wings to flie up to God By what intellect of their own or by what cleer eye of the mind could ever they gain the knowledge of God unto whom no man can find the way and who have not the least knowledge of themselves by what disposition or nature of their own could they attain to the holiness of God who do that evil which they would not Rom. 7. By what confidence of their own or conscience of goodness could they seize upon immortality the causes of which are so far distant from them that they cannot lengthen the appointed bounds of their lives one moment or one scruple of time Let them therefore confess themselves utterly unable to compass great blessings and plac'd at such a distance from them and therefore let them more submissly and fervently worship God who has so bountifully and liberally supplyed their wants and their weakness CHAP. IX The Regeneration of men is the grace and gift of God It is not granted to all men to be regenerated but onely to the elect Election is in things natural Divine Election is in God's elect Who are elected And who are called Reprobates THerefore let us be assured of this Divine Knowledge Sanctity and Immortality of which the salvation of Man consists could never be procured for man-kinde by the force of the first Creation in which men were created perfect as being placed above Humane perfection But that these things are bestowed upon men by the meer liberality and bounty of God and that they are carried away to the possession of so great riches by the Spirit and power of Regeneration which is man's second Creation But although God as I said before did not breath that Spirit
upon all things created but gave it particularly to men Neither hath he yet given that Spirit to all men by vertue of which they may know God as he is by the essicacies of which all men may be holy as God is holy by whose power lastly all men may gain eternal life which is Divine immortality Yea God has onely imparted that Spirit to elected men whom he has advanced from the degree and rank of men to the highest rank and degree above all men whom he had adorned with his Divine Gifts with his Knowledge and Holiness and taken them into his fellowship as Gods so that most truely and fitly we may say of this that God who is the Lord of all things yet is the God of very few and only of the Elect. Election is in all things created Things that have a living soul are more elect than those which have not Then of things animated sensitives As also in stones and metals one stone in better than another one metal better than another There is also elected earth and reprobate earth The choiceness is in choicer flowers both for colour and smell The Cedar is more choice than the shurb the true than the wild vine and the pleasant fruits of Trees are sweeter than the wilde ones Among Creatures Lions excel in strength Harts in swiftness Lambs in mildness Amongst Birds Nightingals excel for singing the Eagle for flight As likewise of the flesh of beasts and birds some make choicer dishes than others What shall I say of men Some are more commendable for the gallantry of their integrity some higher spirited than others fairer more noble more fortunate in honour and riches others more excellent in the study of Vertue in cleerness of wit and knowledge of things There is likewise an election in life and permanency of things Some things quickly grow and quickly fade The Crow lives nine times the just age of a Man The Hart lives four times the life of the Crow The Rook lives thrice the life of the Hart. The Phenix lives nine times the Rook's life And if we believe the most ancient Traditions before Hesiod's times The Hamadryades lives ten times longer than the Phoenix To these adde if you please the life or duration of Heaven and Earth and that eviternal Marriage by which the Heaven descends into the lap of the Earth and by which the Earth fructifies with continual Buds towards Heaven and the order of the Stars surrounding the Heaven from aeternity as also the unwearied motions of the Sun and Moon by which they are inceslantly mov'd and by which eviternity it self is accounted But the Divine Election is not in all these created things I say that Election by which God did elect to himself all men which is not of kin or blood with the first Creation which surpasses all kinde of things created and is infinitely above them and which is the Election of Regeneration that is of the second Creation not of the first Certainly if there be any thing in the first Creation either exquisite precious or choice delicate strong high or fair or noble or fortunate or abstruse in wisdom or long in continuance of permanency and life That is in the second Creation much more exquisite beyond exquisitness far more precious beyond preciousness far more choice beyond choiceness far more delicate beyond dalicateness far more strong beyond strength far more fair beyond fairness far more noble beyond nobility far more fortunate beyond fortune far more wise beyond wisdom far more permanent beyond permanency But of this we must hear Baruch Chap. 3. of his Book Where are sayes he the Princes of the Nations that have Dominion over the Beasts of the Earth who treasure up silver and gold wherein men trust they are rooted out the sons of Agar have sought for wisdom which is of the Earth idle speakers and seekers out of understanding They were those which from the beginning were called Giants men of great stature great warriours Those the Lord hath not chosen He sayes The Election of God was not towards Kings and Princes of Nations not towards learned Men and excellent in humane wisdom not towards the Rich and Noble not towards the strong and the Renowned those famous Thunderbolts of War because they fulfilled that Law of Nature and their first Creation by which all men are born and created to die and attained not to that Eternal Life which consisted in the power of Divine Election and the vertue of the second Creation God is said to chuse and to take to himself those whom he intends to frame a-new and to new create them to whom he made manifest and discovered himself whom he has gifted with his sanctity whom he has made partakers of his immortality and Life Eternal and whom from Men he advanced to be Gods Moreover God is said to reject those and to cast them out whom he is pleased to create but not to regenerate into whose hearts he has not shined whom he suffers to live defiled with the pollution and wickedness of their flesh whom being subject to the power of Death he has not redeemd from Death and whom he suffers not to savour any thing above man Not to elect signifies to reject and cast out which is common in sacred Authors Samuel comming into the house of Jesse that he might anoint one of them whom he knew not King over Israel as soon as he saw Eliab Jesse's first-born in whose countenance was a royal majestie straight he believ'd that he had been chosen by God But God admonishes Samuel Look not upon the countenance of Eliab for I have rejected him Sam. 1. Chap. 16. I have rejected him is in that place directly I have not chosen him This will more clearly appear by the Gospel of St. Matthew Chap. 24. concerning the judgement of the Elected and Reprobate which shall be in the day of the Lord Then sayes the Evangelist one shall be taken another left shall be left in that place is cleerly the same which is cast off and rejected Thus prayed Solomon 1 Kings 8. Let our God be with us not leaving us nor casting us off but enclining our hearts towards him where observe first to leave and reject with the most wise Prince are the same Mark secondly That God enclines the heart of man which again when he does not encline he is said to harden as also to hate when he does not love As that is to be understood I have loved Jacob and hated Esau Lastly that is a remarkable place in the Prophet Jeremy where he brings in God threatning destruction to the Jews I will sayes the Lord turn my back and not my face to them in the day of their destruction There to turn his back to the Jews is to fight against them to leave forsake and fly from the Jews is to overthrow cast them down and destroy them Men therefore rejected and reprobate are properly such who are left by God
God so intimate with the Jews that he entrusted them with his laws and decrees that they were admitted to the secrets of God that they were called a wise and understanding people Deut. 4. Nor was there any other Nation so honourable which had those Ceremonies just Judgements and the whole Law In the same Chapter What is all flesh that it should hear the voice of the living God which speaks out of the fire and can live cries out Moses Deut. 5. where observe the prerogative of the chosen Jews and of the second creation of men which is not granted unto flesh that is to say to the first creation for flesh the first creation consumes at the hearing and sight of God here the same Moses in the same Ch. Behold the Lord our God shews unto us his Majesty and his greatness ye have heard his voice from the middle of the fire we have found this day that a man can speak with God and live The holy Prophet could not be satisfied thinking upon the beginnings and first fruits of the Jews regeneration what should be their full election by force of which they received the fery words of God into their eyes and ears and by which they shone and did not burn with that holy lightning Enquire of the days of old which were before thee from that day on which God created man upon the earth from the height of heaven to the foundation of it if at any time there was such a thing done or was ever known that a people should hear the voice of God speaking out of the middle of the fire as thou hast heard and lâ—v'd Hence it is that they were the chief and choice in Gods esteem that the Jews were called a Nation drawing near unto God that they were stiled a great Nation nor that there was any other Nation so great which had Gods drawing near to it Ch. 4. For this cause you shall read That God carryed them upon Eagles wings Exod. 9. and very often that he freed them and took them with a strong hand and stretched out arm What Nation is like thy people Israel for whom thou hast done so great and horrible things upon earth to redeem them Sam. 2. Chap. 7. And that was the matter that God appointed the Jews to be the head and not the rail of the Nations Nor did God only chuse the Jews for a time according to the distiny of empires and people but God did chuse his people for ever Thou hast confirmed Israel to thy self for an eternal people As David prophecies Sam. 2. Chap. 7. And many things to that sense we read in the Prophets which I must handle another time and which was a special token of their election The Lord would not have the Jews defil'd by mixture of Nations but set them apart for an inheritance out of all the Nations of the earth 1 Kings Chap. 8. I have set you aside from all people that you might be mine Lev. 20. Hence it is that God is said to have hedg'd enclos'd and as it were with a wall of fence surrounded Israel his possession his land his vine Hence it is that the Church and the Israelitish Spouse is called a fenced garden and a sealed fountain in the Canticles least being plac'd in the high-way it might be trodden by passengers nor the South wind spoyl her flowers nor the Boar spoil her waters Because the Nations were not partakers of that mystical Election by which God had elected the Jews Neither would God that the Jews should enter into fellowship with the Nations either in body or mind either in Matrimony or Religion either in civil affairs or in divine Thou shalt not enter into a league with the Nations or joyn thy self in marriage with them Deut. 7. Thou shalt not give thy daughter to his son nor take his daughter to thy son that the Jews might not be mingled with other Nations who taught the worshipping of Idols CHAP. III. To the elected Iews an elected Land was given A holy Land because the Land of the holy And the land of Promise because it was promised with an Oath to the Fathers of the Iews A description of the Holy Land That was a choice Land not of its own nature but according to the pleasure of God who bless'd and chus'd it The land of the Iews And for the Iews only to dwell in TO the elected Jews God gave elected ground which was likewise called holy because the Land of the Holy That there is elected and blessed earth as likewise rejected and cursed earth is witnessed in the Epistle to the Hebrews Chap. 6. A land says he drinking the shower that comes upon it and bearing seasonable fruit to them who tills it receives a blessing from God But that which brings forth thorns and bryars is rejected and almost curs'd the end of which is to be burnt Which the Gospel according to St. Matthew express'd in these words Chap. 13. God loves not that earth which is in the way that is commune trodden and unclean nor that which is full of briars but he loves good ground in which the son of man may sow good seed Nor am I ignorant that these things are allegorically spoken of the hearts of the Elect but we must likewise know that Christ here meant literally the Holy Land in which the sanctified Jews who are meant by good seed shall be sown by Jesus Christ which sowing we shall have occasion to set forth more at large That the Land of Canaan which the Jews inhabited was that choice blessed earth and belov'd of the Lord is set down in the 8. of Deuteronomy where Moses call'd it A Land of rivers waters and fountains in the fields of which should break out pools of water A Land of corn barley and vines in which grow olives and pomgranats A Land of oyl and honey where the Iews should eat their bread without want and should enjoy abundance of all things A Land which Ezechiel Chap. 20. calls An excellent Land amongst all Lands and chief of all Lands Which therefore God call'd a high land Deut. Chapt. 32. God hath plac'd Israel upon a high land to eat the fruit of the field to suck honey out of the rock and oyl out of the most hard rock butter from the heard and milk from the sheep with the fat of the Lambs and Rams of the sons of Basan with the marrow of wheat and that he might drink the most choice bloud of the grape Canaan was call'd a high land not for the lying of it for it is a Valley according to that in Numb 14. The Canaanite and Amalekite dwell in the valleys which he had said in the former and thirteenth Chapter By the Sea and near the streams of Iordan For which cause Esdras called that Land a Furrow Book 4. cha 5. Thou hast saies he of all the world chosen one furrow that is Canaan which is a valley Therefore it was
called high for its fruitfulnesse and the excellency of goodnesse by which it was advanced above other Lands The Land of Canaan was likewise call'd The Land of Promise because God by a peculiar Covenant promis'd it to the Fathers of the Jews It is written Gen. 12. That God appeard unto Abraham when he came into the Land of Canaan to which he led them by the hand and said to him To thy seed will I give all this Land And in the 15 Chapter In that day the Lord made a Covenant with Abraham saying I 'll give this Land to thy seed This promise was confirm'd to Isaac the son of Abraham 26. Gen. in these words Abide saies the Lord in the Land which I shall name to thee That Land was Canaan For to thee and to thy seed will I give all these Lands fulfilling my Oath which I sware to thy Father Thirdly this was likewise confirm'd in Jacob the son of Isaac The Land wherein thou sleepest sayes the Lord I will give to thee and to thy seed Hence that 104. Psal Remember for ever the Covenant of his speech which he ordain'd for a thousand generations which he promis'd to Abraham and his Oath unto Isaac which he appointed Jacob for ever and Israel for an everlasting Covenant saying to thee will I give the Land of Canaan the lot of thy inheritance God declar'd this Oath himself more openly Exod. 4. I have made a Covenant with the Israelites that I should give them the earth over which I lifted up my hand that I might give it to Abraham Isaac and Jacob Psalm 104. Canaan is call'd The lot of Israels inheritance According to which signification the people blessed God Psal 16. Because their lot had faln in a fair ground That Land of Promise Oath or Covenant which commonly and improperly is call'd Canaan because Canaan was only a regîon or a Province of it I say that Land God describes to Abraham in the 15 of Genesis I will give thee this land from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates And of this God spake to Jacob in the Vision of the Ladder Thou shalt be stretch'd out in it from the East to the West from the South to the North. These degrees are mark'd out in length and bredth Exod. 23. By these words I will put thy bounds from the Red sea to the sea of Palestin from the desert to the River To which adde that of the 89 Psalm Understand also by this red Sea not of the Gulf of Arabia but all that length of the Ocean which is saild about from the Gulf of Arabia to the Gulf of Persia which is either the red or Erythraean sea or more properly the Idumaean from Esau or Edom whose posterity inhabited the borders of that Sea which in the Hebrew is Edom in the Greek Erythraean in the Latin Red from whom this Sea took its name not from the colour but deriv'd from the first Prince Adde likewise Psalm 89. I will put his right hand in the Rivers Understand those rivers Nilus and Euphrates according to Genesis before-cited Chap. 15. I will give thee this Land from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates Nilus by excellency is the River of Egypt For although in the borders of Egypt and the Holy land there is found a little stream which is called The River of Egypt and the River of Nile Yet understand the Nile it self that the borders of the Holy Land may be fair and large from a very great river to a great river from Nilus to Euphrates And take Nilus here not as it divides Africk but the mouth of the Sea of Alexandria into which Nilus flows This mouth of the Sea of Alexandria is call'd Nile because this Sea is said to be changed into Nile and to receive the colour and taste of Nile it self where the Sea here with seven mouths disgorges it self into the Sea so Lucan in the end of his first book Where by the famous Nile the sea is changed The desert is stretched from the border of the sea of Alexandria continued along by the border of the gulf of Arabia which by a name largely taken the Hebrews call the flood of Egypt where it disgorges it self into the Red Sea and that is it which is meant in Exod. 23. I will put the bounds from the desart to the River That is to say from the Border of the Sea of Alexandria which is Nile and the Border of the gulf of Arabia to Euphrates which is here simply called the River These bounds then were appointed to the Holy Land the Red Sea which is the Ocean the Sea of Palestine which is the Mediterranean on one hand Nilus and Euphrates on the other And here really was that fenced Garden of the Jews nor could there be one better fenced then one environed with two Seas and two great Rivers That you may not onely imagine but see plainly this description I will here insert the Map of it First you must take notice That as the Jews were not chosen according to their own desert being made of that common clay but of the meer grace of God So the Land of the Jews was good and chosen not of its own nature but of the pleasure of God who blessed and chose it which Moses tells us in Deuteronomy 11. That Land sayes he is not like the Land of Egypt where after the seed is sown they dig rivers to water it but it is of hills and fields expecting rain from heaven to water it which thy God visits alwayes and his eyes are upon it from the beginning of the yeer to the end of it Therefore that ground was fertile not of its own nature and disposition as the Land of Egypt which is accounted of all Nations the fertillest upon Earth but because God had blest it because he gave it rain in his own time and opened to it his good treasure as it is Deut. 29. and Chapter 33. because the heaven mizled with rain upon it and that I may end in a word because God descended most upon it God provided that elect earth for the elected Jews Ezech. 20. That Israel might dwel in it alone and without fear Deut. 33. That is undefiled with admiration of Nations which ascribe to that chief right of election what we handled in the former Chapter in which God set aside the Jews for a peculiar people and Nation out of all the peoples and Nations of the earth whom being chosen for his portion and the lot of his Inheritance he likewise placed in a choice Land that they might inhabite it alone without fear TERRAE SANCTAE DELINEATIO CHAP. IV. Jerusalem the holy City of the holy Land the Temple placed in Jerusalem on the forked hill of Sion Eternal hills The City of David The City of the great King Of the Kings of the Jews JErusalem which was chief of the Cities of the Holy Land in greatness and
right and manur'd stock Which St. Paul hath taught us Rom. 11. where he compared the Gentiles to a wilde Olive but the Iew in which the Gentile is engrafted to a good and right Olive Likewise Saint Paul in that place made that wild Olive partaker of that juice and fatness which is in the true Olive Therefore the Gentile being sanctified or this wilde Olive turn'd into a a true Olive may well wonder at the new fruits of his works his new sap which is none of his own CHAP. VI. Gentiles different from the Jews in Kinred and Original in as much as they are ingrafted in them Gentiles called Atheists because without a God called simply men and Sons of men and foolish wicked c. WE shall prove the Gentiles different in their Original from the Jews both by their adoption and by their engrafting in the Jews for adoption concerns strange Families and trees of several kindes are grafted one in another Nor am I ignorant that Kinred by the Female side and Cosens might be adopted for Sons but we must observe that Saint Paul Ephes 2. set down the Gentiles that were received into the Family of the Jews strangers aliens unknown far distant from the Family of the Jews which in that place the Apostle calls a Commonwealth and in regard of that calls the Gentiles their fellow-Citizens with the Saints that is to say of the Jews But this Commonwealth so to be understood as that the Jews and the Gentiles are both the Domesticks and Sons of God I know likewise that in Trees of the same kind sweet are grafted in sweet and true stocks in true ones but you must take notice that in Rom. 11. Saint Paul has a two-fold grafting according to Nature and against Nature The Apostle has given us in that place one example of grafting according to nature when he sets down that by which he tells us the Jews shall sometimes be again grafted in their own Olive Again he has given us an instance of grafting against Nature which the Gentiles are grafted in the Jews That against Nature he calls this when the Gentiles different in original from the Jews against the Nature of their stock were grafted the wilde stock in the tame one Nature then which is the Original and Linage of the Gentiles is different and not the same with the Original and Linage of the Jews And by no more distinguishing congruous difference could the Gentiles have been noted different in stock and Original from the Jews thâ—â— by such a presupposition which grants the original of the Gentiles or of the first men to have such a beginning as was determinable from Adam and accounts them created many Ages before Adam and which again affirms that the Jews were later and created in their first Father Adam from whom to us according to the vulgar account there is no more then five thousand six hundred and seventeen yeers Yea you will say If adoption admits onely in imitation of Nature the younger into the Family of the elder according as Sons ought to be younger than their Fathers What Monster of adoption is that by which the Jews being younger adopted the most ancient Gentiles to be their Sons And again if in regard of the same age a Tree is said to adopt a graft I say if a tender and new plant is grafted in an old and strong stock what new manner of grafting is that by which the most ancient Gentiles shall be grafted in the later Jews and if you look upon the original quite green I answer That the Gentiles in their Creation and Nature are indeed ancienter then the Jews but the Gentiles are said to be adopted into the Jews by that mystical Election not by Creation and Nature of which Genesis gives a fair instance where Esau was elder but younger in election The Apostle calls those Gentiles who according to my supposition were the men of the first Creation Atheists or without a God in respect to that opposition by which that true God the Creator of Heaven and Earth was not the God of the Gentiles as he was God of the Jews and as the Gentiles did not enjoy him for their God as did the Jews And that was for this reason because God had discovered himself to the Nation of the Jews and to them alone but not so to other Nations wherefore the Jews are called The people of God Hence it is that God speaks to them friendly Ezekiel 34. You are my flock you are the flock of my pasture you are my men The Jews are the men of God Let the Nations know because they are men sayes David Psal 19. The Gentiles are called Men simply not the men of God in that regard because at first being simply created they could have no rellish of God for God is above men and because they could have no taste of God nor draw neer to him they were without God nor deserved to be called the men of God Wherefore men simply so called in holy writ are meant the Gentiles so in Psal 66. Thou hast put men over our heads that is to say thou hast set the Gentiles over our heads which are to be understood of the Jews vanquished by the Gentiles to which refer that of Jeremiah Thou hast given Israel to the Nations and made him contemptible to men Where Nations Gentiles and men are the same Isaiah exhorts the Jews Chap. 51. Fear not the revilings of Nations Then in the 6 Chap. of restoring the Jews and putting the Gentiles to flight God sayes he shall set the men a far off and she that was desolate shall be multiplied in the midst of the earth Men in that place are the Gentiles whom God â—hould drive out of the Land of the Jews that the Jews might again be restored to it But for the same reason as the Gentiles were called Men they were likewise called the sons of men Of which there is as many witnesses as there are Chapters almost in both Testaments for which cause it will be here in vain to quote those innumerable Autorities The Gentiles were called the sons of men by way of opposition as the Jews were called the sons of God Those Gentiles which were called Atheists and without a God were called wicked foolish corrupt abominable in their iniquities Psal 9. Thou hast reproved the Nations and the wicked shall perish that is the Gentile Again in the Psalm 14. which is likewise the 53. The fool hath said in his heart That there is no God Which are to be understood of the Atheistical Gentile They are become corrupt and abominable in their in quities There is none that doth good God looked down from heaven upon the sons of men that he might see if there were any that understood and sought after God They have all gone astray they are become unprofitable there is none that doth good no not one This was a lively portraiture of the Gentiles because they
taken for a foolish and an ignorant person For a fool and an ignorant person hath nothing to say The Jews called the Gentiles foolish and ignorant because they knew not their Law nor thought they that any speech which spake not of the Law of God Lord open thou my lips and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise Straight the Prophet would have thought himself dumb if he had spoken any thing besides the praise of God his justice and his law which was the chief duty of the elected Jews whose lips therefore were said to be circumcised but the Gentiles were of uncircumcised lips And therefore were rightly call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Infants The Gentiles were call'd little ones for the same cause as they were esteem'd poor and because God had opend to them as to the Jews his treasures of election and grace Little small and poor the same as Servius upon that of Virgil Take from poor Micon Goddess in good part This wild boar's head these horns of an ag'd Hart. Little Micon that is poor Micon The Gentiles by the poor are chiefly meant by Authors in both Testaments There was not a poor man nor a beggar amongst the Jews because the Law did forbid it And those which begged within the Ports of the Jews were strangers and gentiles nor did the Lord so earnestly recommend the poor to the Apostles as they were meerly poor for the Apostles being likewise poor themselves how should they have holpen the poor but because the Gentiles were poor whom by his comming Christ call'd to the participation of election and grace which is by the Jews and to whom he open'd the door of his gospel CHAP. IX The Gentiles called the sons of wrath the enemies of God beasts and so esteemed by the Jews yea unclean beasts the opposite comparison betwixt the Jews and the Gentiles IN the Epistle to the Ephesians Saint Paul call'd the Gentiles the sons of wrath and reckoned himself amongst the Gentiles being the Apostle of the Gentiles when he sayes And we by nature are the sons of wrath whether we conceive them to be the sons of the first Creation whom the Lord abhors or whether we take them as opposite to the Jews who by the Nature of their Election are esteemed the sons of love The Gentiles likewise called the Enemies of God in as much as the first Creation which is Elesh is enmity with God or because the Gentiles by a narural imbred hatred are Enemies to the Jews Let all thy enemies perish did Deborah sing who had destroyed the Gentiles who were Enemies to the Jews and to God but concerning the Gentiles Enemies to God and the Jews more at large in its due place Furthermore that which is the chief disgrace of the Gentiles is that they are compared every where to Beasts in sacred Authors and are accounted Beasts beneath men by reason of that great opposition by which the Iews are accounted Gods The 22 Psa thus complains of the Nations who had assaulted Israel Many Bulls have encompassed me fat Bulls have beset me they opened their mouth upon me like a ravening and a roar-Lion Psalm 57. Deliver me from the Lion's whelps the sons of men whose teeth are weapons and arrows Yea the 74 Psalm called the Gentiles Beasts Give not the beasts souls that trust in thee that is Deliver not the Jews who acknowledge thee to be the God of the Iews to the Gentiles their enemies who neither know thee nor acknowledge thee to which apply that of Baruch Chap. 3. Where the Princes of the Nations shall have dominion over the beasts of the earth that is over the Gentiles their flocks and their people There is a remarkable place to this purpose in Isaiah Chap. 3. Thou are made honourable and glorious in my eyes said God to the people of the Jews I have loved thee I will give men for thee and Nations for thy soul That is I will expiate and redeem thee by the death of men and people that is of the Gentiles whom like Beasts I will sacrifice for thee There could be no thing granted to the Jews more honourable and glorious than that honour and glory to become honourable and glorious before the eyes of God As likewise the Gentiles are numbred among the Beasts and Creatures walking upon the Earth in the same Chap. Isaiah 24. So sayes the Lord who created the heavens giving breath to the people upon the earth and life to them that tread upon it The people walking there upon the earth is indifferently taken for men and beasts for which cause the Gentiles are called a people not a people Deut. 32. I will provoke you by a Nation which is not a Nation and a people which is not a people in which words Deuterònâ—my meant the Gentiles as also the men of the first Creation who were properly in flocks like Cattle nor made up in Cities and Civil Societies of men The Jews did not value men by their reason but by their understanding I say by that intellect by which the true knowledg of God is gained which is above reason by which the manifestation of the Divine Law was given to the Jews and by which the granting of the Spirit of Christ was revealed to the Jews Hence that famous promise to Israel Psalm 32. I will give thee understanding and inform thee in the way wherein thou shalt walk Then immediately after a Precept given to the Jews Be ye not like to horses and mules which have no understanding And cettainly Divine understanding makes all men quite different from brutes Which although men have excellent beyond horse and Mule yet have they it in a manner commune with horse and mule so really did the Jews believe that the Gentiles were not men because they thought them altogether destitute of the knowledge of God But you shall likewise finde the Gentiles reckoned amongst the unclean Beasts Mat. 15. It is not good to take the bread of the children and throw â—t to the dogs said the Lord to the Gentile a Caâ—aanitish Woman In which the Jews are the sons and the dogs the Gentiles The Lord meaning so likewise said to his Disciples Jews Gave not that which is holy to dogs nor cast your pearls before swine That is beâ—â—ow not that which belongs to the sanctified Jews upon the Gentiles whom the Evangelist here call dogs and swine It is meant that the Apostles ought to preach the Gospel to the Jews first before they addressed themselves to the Nations Lastly it is excellent which the Lord advises us Luke 12. God sayes he caeres not for the sparrows or the crows which are said of the Jews and the Gentiles whom God should esteem and care for without any difference is here meant by the unclean sparrowâ— the Jews the foul Crows the Gentiles The Gentiles are esteemed unclean by thâ— Jews Acts 10. where Saint Peter sayes thuâ— You know how abominable it is to a man who is a
Iâ—â— to enter into a stranger But God hath shewed me to caâ— no man common or unclean For the Angel haâ— said so to Peter What the Lord hath cleansed 〈◊〉 not thou call common Before then that the Lorâ— purified the Gentiles that is before Christ 〈◊〉 death the Gentiles were common and uncleanâ— but after the death of Christ and after that God had purified the Gentiles it was not lawfull to call any man common or unclean But that I may comprehend in brief what 〈◊〉 have spoken here of the Iews and the Gentiles and to show that in stock and nature the Gentilâ— were different from the Iews let us imagine 〈◊〉 our selves the Gentiles every way opposite 〈◊〉 the Iews The Iews by their Election and Creation placed in the degree of Gods the Gentiles in their Creation thought meer men the Iews the sons of God the Gentiles the sons of men the Iews holy the Gentiles wicked and ungodly the Iews just the Gentiles sinners the Iews wise and understanding the Gentiles foolish and unwise the Iews great and high the Gentiles low and small the Jews rich the Gentiles poor the Iews sons of love the Gentiles sons of wrath the Iews friends the Gentiles enemies the Iews thought clean the Gentiles unclean and raised of unclean beasts But if sometimes we likewise read the Iews called simply men as also sons of men wicked impious sinners unwise unworthy sons of wrath enemies unclean beasts and so stigmatized these Iews must be understood such as had fled over to the Customes of the Gentiles which as the first Psalm speaks Have departed to thâ— councel of the ungodly had stood in the way of sinners and not in the Law of God Of Iews who called themselves Jews but were not but of the Synagogue of Satan such as they are called Chap. 2. of the Revelations CHAP. X. The Jews form'd by God in Adam The Gentiles created by God And created by the word of God as other creatures as also on the same day when other creatures were created The Jews peculiarly form'd by the hands of God God call'd the fashioner of the Jews Adam first Father of the Jews The Jews are call'd the sons of Adam THe Jews are the Sons of God by election and fabrick By election which was a mystical generation By fabrick which is nigher to Nature God form'd the Jews in Adam as he took them in Abraham and led them into Canaan of whom Isaias in the 41 Chapter And thou Israel my servant the seed of Abraham my friend since I took thee from the furthest parts of the earth and took thee from far God brought the Jews into the Holy Land in Abraham by that mystical promise by which he gave that Land to Abraham the first Father of the Jews and promised it with an Oath to his seed In which respect Abraham by the right of the Promises is fitly call'd the first Father of the Jews God form'd the Jews in Adam when he form'd Adam the first Father of the Iews and made him in the fashioning of him the first Author and Father of them Wherefore God was call'd the fashioner of the Jews Isa 45. Thus saith the Lord the holy one of Israel the fashioner of him God was the fashioner of Israel because he was the fashioner of the first Father of them whom he made of the clay of the earth Wherefore God is said in Deut. 26. To have made the Jews higher than all the Nations he had created For God had first created the Gentiles and the men of the first creation then form'd the Jews the sons of Promise and the second creation It is worth our taking notice that the men of the first creation who according to my supposition are Gentiles as also the whole world were created by the word The first Chapter of Genesis hath this expresly which is the Chapter of the creation And God said Let us make man according to our own Image He said Let us make And by his word he made him But not by his word but of wrought clay the Lord made Adam Gen. Chap. 2. Which Chapter peculiarly handles the creation of Adam and the framing of the Jews in Adam Whose Historie Moses being about to write began it from the dust of Adam the first father of the Jews as is usual amongst all Historiographers who write the Historie of their Nation to begin from the first Authors of them And God made Adam of the dust of the earth saith Gen Chap. 2. He did not create Adam by his word but made him with his hand out of the dust of the earth That dust of which the Lord fram'd Adam was as the clay in the hand of the Potter as Ieremiah speaks to this purpose Wheresore you shall find it written in the 45 Chapter of Isaias now mentioned Ask the things to come of my sons and command me concerning the work of my hands Where the sons of God and the work of Gods hands are clearly the Jews I know it is written in the same Isaias My hand hath laid the foundation of the earth and my right hand hath measur'd the heavens As also Chap. 19. The Assrrian is the work of my hands But you must understand where you read that the hand of God was us'd in the creation that phrase is there used according to the force of the Hebrew tongue for the force and power of God which is the word of God And in that regard the word of God who is the Son of God and who is the only force power and great strength of God is not only call'd the hand of God but the arm of the Lord which I must in another place more exactly examine But where the hand of God is ascrib'd to forming and as it were to the Potter they are meerly taken for the hands wherewith he as a Potter moulded the clay and made the work Therefore in the same sence as the Lord is called the fashioner of the Jews Isa 54. in the same signification the Jews are truly and properly call'd the work of the hands of the Lord in the same place and the same Chapter Certainly Adam in the genealogie of Christ is call'd the first and the Father of the Jews where Christ is deriv'd from Adam in the third Chapter of the gospel according to St. Luke Where take good notice that Adam the first author the first Father of the linage of the Jews is called the son of God For it is said about the end of that Chapter Who was the son of Enos who was the son of Seth who was the son of God Adam then was the son of God By that fashioning and for that reason because being made of the dust of the earth he was the work of his hands For which reason all the Jews descended from Adam that is the sons of Adam made by God and the work of his hands in Adam are calld the sons of God But why may I not
that is the name thereof Here I imagine two things first because it is said that he might see what Adam would call them that he might see denotes that Adam made use of his reason in the proper and determinate Names which he gave to all the living creatures and fowls And hence I gather That Adam being now of ripe age was taught the natural history of all Creatures and Fowls As is known of Moses whom we read to have been by the care of Pharaohs daughter bred in all the wisdom of the Egyptians As also Rabbi Moses Ben-Maymon makes mention of the books of his Predecessors which make relation of Adam's Master whose name say they was Somboscer And although I give little credit to the Fables of the Rabbins yet there is nothing so fabulous but has a tast of an ancient truth Then it is written all which Adam called any living thing that is the name of it Hence I guess that at what time Adam did conceive the nature of all creatures and fowls he at the same time set them down in writing and made a book of all their names for how could it come to passe that every thing which Adam called any thing should be the name of it unlesse Adam at the same time when he nam'd them had then composed a Dictionary of them for the use of posterity least Adam himself should have forgotten all those living creatures and fowls which he was never afterwards to see For all Lands and Countries are not stored with all manner of Cattel and Fowls Adam call'd by their names all creatures and all Fowls and all Beasts of the earth But for Adam sayes Genesis was not found a helper like to himself It would be absurd to think that a helper was sought for Adam amongst the Beasts of the earth and the Fowls of heaven For what similitude or relation has a man with a four-footed Beast or a Bird But here you must observe that the Gentiles and those men of the first creation are here numbred amongst the rest of the living creatures as you shall finde them without distinction called with the rest of the beasts The People that treads the earth Isa 42. Yea that they were called Beasts by the Jews and so esteem'd as is prov'd before This then is the meaning of Genesis That Adam did not find a helper amongst the Females of those creatures that is the Gentiles For Adam such an excellent man who was Isch an excellent wife must be chosen who should be Ischa and not an ordinary and Gentile-woman Therefore a wife was fram'd for Adam But as a house does not arise from the bottom nor is perfected so soon as in one day to be inhabited so doe I believe that Eve was not made so perfect in that very day wherein she was taken out of the side of Adam that she was marriageable Besides Eve was a mystical figure of the Church of Christ for that same reason as we laid before Adam was a type of Christ Yea and that is most certain that the marriage of Adam and Eve was a Sacrament and mystery signifying that unanimous conjunction by which God adheres to his Church Again we understand that the Church the spouse of Christ was built thus Mat. 16. as we find Eve built in this Chapter of Genesis where God speaks to his Church in these words I multiplyed thee as the herb of the field Thou wast multiplyed and made great and thou enter'dst in and came to have womens attire Thy brests swell'd and thy hair sprouted and behold thy time a time of lovers I guesse that Eve the wife of Adam grew from her infancle to ripe age by little and little as a house grows as trees grow which are call'd the sprouts of the field from twigs to large branches so as we read in this place the Church did which was the Spouse of Christ The Lord brought Eve to Adam I guesse that Eve being now of age and ready for a man was brought to Adam at that same time when Adam was of ripe age about the three and thirtieth year of his age so as Adam may be thought to have sinned in the same year of his age as Christ dyed for the sinne of Adam Which things if they be so what difference was there betwixt the forming of Adam and building of Eve which are rehearsed in the second Chapter of Genesis and the creation of man whom God created male and female upon the sixth day of the creation which is made mention of Chapter 1. of the said Moses CHAP. IV. Cain a tiller of the ground Abel a shepherd and a keeper of sheep Cain having kill'd his brother Abel is afraid Flies the punishment of fratricide Flies like all guilty men to the East of Eden Marries a wife begets a son and in the same East of Eden builds a City Adam is said to have begotten sons and daughters from the birth of Seth to the death of Adam himself It is not written that he begat either sons or daughters from the death of Abel to the birth of Seth. WIthout doubt it is so That except the framing of Adam who was made of the dust of the earth and except the building of Eve which was taken out of the side of Adam it is probable in all other things that they grew and liu'd as other men who were created long before yea after the same manner as we know that Christ the Antitype of Adam conceiv'd after a more wonderfull manner did live and grow Which that by the History of Genesis it may be more clear let us go on After Adam had sinned he was afraid because he was naked And God made coats of skins for Adam and his wife and cloth'd them with the skins of cattel which had been kill'd With which it is probable men in those dayes did use to cloath themselves but who from thence will not guesse that there were in those dayes Curriers Shoo-makers and Skinners Adam knew his wise Eve and she conceived and bare Cain her first-born then Abel her younger son And Adam divided his substance among his children being men of age as men do who are under the verge of the Civil Law He gave his lands to till to Cain and his sheep to keep to Abel Therefore there was at that time a Meum and Tuum as there is and has been alwayes in all societies well ordered Cain had his Patrimony and his grounds to till Abel had his own goods his sheep to keep Such division being made betwixt them as uses to be made by all good Masters of Families Cain was a Husbandman Abel a keeper of sheep He that speaks of tilling presupposes a great mony other arts and he that speaks of a husbandman pre-supposes a great many other artificers But if there was no artificer in those dayes beside Cain certainly Cain was a very busy-body Therefore he digg'd Iron-Mines made Fornaces made his Hammers and his Anvile and
humane science mens actions and inventions Solon who was the wisest thought and the learnedst man of his age and whose times are just betwixt ours and Adams and whom we think not very far distant from us and who told as is credible to the Egyptian the History of many thousand years could he have been ignorant of the beginning of the world if it had been from Adam from whom to Solons time were not as yet passed three thousand years Would not he have confuted those tales and fables of the Egyptian with such a pregnant argument for telling him stories which transcended his record ten thousand years Beside shall we think those Egyptians chronicled for Wise men by St. Stephen himself to have been so unskilfull as not to know the beginning of the world which had been so lately or so much Sycophants as to relate those things for truths which they knew to be lies if they had either known or supected any thing concerning such a beginning What shall I say more of so many famous Philosophers excellent in learning who flock'd to those Priests that they might learn the Egyptian customs knowledg with such a general opinion of the Egyptian learning and prudence Do we think that those Philosophers were such blockheads that they would not have found themselves grosly gull'd and abus'd in Histories of so many thousand years ago if they had but smelled or had the least hint that the world was so lately made and only from the time of Adam To these adde what is reported of the Scythians alwayes reputed most antient as also that contention which continued long betwixt the Scythians and Egyptians As likewise that which is spoken of the antient descent of the Phaenicians The French imagin'd their own beginnings so obscure that they were said to be begotten by the Night or by Pluto which is the same For that reason they defin'd the space of any time not by the number of dayes but nights and observ'd the birth-dayes the beginnings of yeares and moneths ' so that the day followed alwayes the night which Caesar diligently observ'd of them The account likewise of the Americans concerning the original of the world runs backward a great many ages Scaliger thought the time from which the Chinensians reckon'd most prodigious According to which sayes he this year of Christ 1594. in which he wrote his Book De emendatione temporum is since the creation according to their account eight hundred eightscore thousand and seventy three And no doubt we should find a great many such accounts in the Southern parts if they were but known to us For in those thousands of ages there is a general Harmonie of those new found Nations with the Chaldaeans Egyptians Phoenicians and French CHAP. VIII The most antient creation of the World is prov'd from the progresse of Astronomy Theology and Magick of the Gentiles In this Chapter the fabrick of the Sphaere is handled IT is certain that those Sciences of the Chaldaeans that is to say Astronomy which observ'd the motion of the stars Astrology which observ'd their Periods and Magick which found out the harmony of things celestial with terrestrial flourish'd in the time of Abraham Yea Abraham made exceeding skilfull in all these arts by his own Nation is said to have taught them to the Egyptians when he sojourn'd amongst them Besides Moses is said to have been learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians Acts 7. But the Egyptians wisdom was the same with the Chaldaeans for it consisted chiefly in Astronomy Astrology and Magick It will be worth while here to consider whether or no it was profitable for the Chaldeans to gain that exact knowledge of those sciences which they had in the time of Abraham in that space which was betwixt the creation of Adam and Abraham and which Scaliger according to the Jewish Greeks reckoned to be a thousand nine hundred and eight years And whether or no the Egyptians could perfectly learn those sciences as they had them in Moses time in that thousand years space which is reckoned from Adam to Moses his writing of Exodus and which according to the former Authors is two thousand four hundred and fifty three years They which have the least knowledge in Astronomy not to speak of those that are perfectly skill'd in it could no otherwise have been found out but by knowledge of the earth For the first men by several experiments observ'd that the Inhabitants of the earth in diverse places did inhabite some cold some hot climates and according to their several dwellings that they had diversities in their nights days and seasons and that the shadows fell contrary to one as to the other Nor were these observations made slightly or by chance but by long and reiterated journeys by many and wise searchers of these truths Which after long and grounded experience when they found to be certain and indubitable from the earth turning towards heaven they enquir'd from the Sun the causes of all these vanities and changes of dayes and nights Summers and Winters They observ'd that the Sun went out and return'd to the Aequator as they call'd it being confin'd in his course by two circles on both sides call'd the Tropicks through a circle which they call'd the Zodiack which touches the two Tropicks but cuts though obliquely the Aequator And that those Countries which the Sun look'd upon betwixt the Tropicks his rayes were upon them directly but his beams more distant from the other the more distant they were from the Tropicks and nigher to the Poles of heaven Then were the five Zones found out and distinguished The Torrid Zone which was under the scorching Sun betwixt the Tropicks two temperate ones which being plac'd betwixt the Tropicks and the Poles enjoy'd a meeker heat The two cold ones which from the Polar circles environing the Pole it self were always benumm'd with ice and cold There were imagined also two Colures one of the Solstices another of the Aequinoxes the two props of the Sphaere To these the Meridian was added which standing still when the rest moved might be assign'd to move and every motion might have his own Meridian The Sphaere being thus invented and fram'd and according to his position fitted to the Horizon they observed a three-fold Sphaere a direct an oblique and Parallel In the direct Sphaere they plac'd those that inhabited betwixt the Aequator In the Parallel those which were under both Poles In oblique those which liv'd in places betwixt the Aequator and either of the Poles To those that inhabited the direct Sphaere they observ'd that all the Stars did rise and set But to those that inhabited the oblique Sphaere some did rise and set others never did arise but remain'd perpetually under the Horizon that some did never set but were continually upon the brink of the Horizon That in the Parallel Sphaere none ever did arise or set but part of them were alwayes above the Horizon and part
beneath Unlesse those that running through the Zodiack in their course were half seen half unseen That those that were in a direct Sphaere had a perpetual Aequinox That in the Parallel the day continued for six whole moneths as also the night for six whole moneths more That in the oblique Sphaere there was inequalities both of dayes and nights according to the elevation of the Sphaere towards either of the Poles Observing alwayes this tenor and temper in the partition of days and nights That there was no place upon the earth that had not in the revolution of one year six moneths of day and as many of night which was apparent to those that inhabited the Direct and Parallel Spheres That in the Oblique the length of the dayes and shortnesse of the nights in Summer was recompensed with the shortnesse of the days and length of the nights in Winter Besides they took notice of the Perioeci inhabiting under the same Aequator in a Parallel Circle under several Meridians to whom the days and nights fell out at contrary times but their Summers and Winters at the same time The Antoeci under several Parallels at an equal distance on this and th' other side of the Aequator on both sides at the same height of the Meridian who had their nights and days at the same time but their Summers and Winters at several seasons The Antipodes or Antichthons under parts both aequidistant from the Aequator but plac'd in parts opposite of the Meridian who had their times altogether different both their Summers and Winters and their nights and dayes Took notice likewise of the Amphiscii who had two shadows to the right and left The Heteroscii who had but one shadow either to the right or to the left The Periscii who had shadows about them to all parts of the Horizon I speak not of a great many things which belong to the frame of the Sphaere the heads of which I have but here briefly handled And which being long since known and publick may be thought easie to be found out and to need no great pains to such as take not notice But if we observe well these of them that seem the least could not have been found out but by long and continual search Nor could all disciplines as they now hang together have been demonstrated except Arithmetick and Geometry had first been well known by those exquisite Masters of Sciences in many ages In many ages because all the Mathematicians though excellent found not out all in their own times Nor could a clear demonstration of the Sphaere such as the Egyptians and Chaldaeans had been gained but successively and by experiments and observations searched and gather'd over all the world CHAP. IX Of the antiquity of Astronomy BUt whatsoever belongs to the Sphaere were but Rudiments of that wisdom and Astronomy which flourish'd chiefly amongst the Chaldaeans and the Egyptians for by such beginnings the infirm knowledge of the stars first was strengthned For the first authors of Astronomy when they guessed the motion of the stars They observ'd the seven Planents plac'd one above another and innumerable six'd and wandring stars higher than those Planets towards the North and the South distinguish'd by several figures of constellations They observ'd likewise that all the stars did rise and set diversly Astronomically Poetically Cosmically with the beginning of the night or according to the Sun Concerning the Planets that they rose and set now in one place of the Horizon now in another and that under the Meridian they did arise now higher to the North now lower to the South but both within certain bounds That all went sometimes more fast sometimes more slow seem'd sometimes bigger sometimes slower Many more are observed about the Sun and Moon That the Sun went thorough the Zodiack where a line divides it in the middle which they call the Ecliptick dividing the two Hemisphaeres the North and the South That the Sun moves only that way That the Planets courses are oblique towards this line and strayes from it now to the North now to the South That the Moon appears in several Cantons encreasing or decreasing and that she is in travail and is eclips'd when she is opposite to the Sun and cuts obliquely the Ecliptick in either of the opposite points which they call nodes the head of the Dragon being one and the tail of the Dragon another That Mercury and Venus go round the Sun and are called his followers That Mars Jove and Saturn are not so tyed to the Sun but sometimes opposite to him That their course is sometimes concentrical sometimes excentrical either high from the earth or low towards it Which sometimes comes to passe in Epicycles sometimes direct sometimes retrograde sometimes continued But the fixed stars kept not alwayes the same distance from the aequinoctial points but that in their reaching of them they were exceeding slow To salve and explicate these appearances several grounds were laid disputations broach'd of some that said that the heaven mov'd and the earth stood still of others who swore the contrary that the earth mov'd and the heaven stood still Affirming that the stars mov'd in very free distances or bounds and that their natural motion was from the East to the West and those that mov'd more slowly to the West seem'd to move toward the East And others on the contrary affirm'd that the stars were fixed and planted in solid sphaeres by whose motion they were turn'd about and together with them did move from the East to the West And to end in few words several Theories were assign'd to every Planet found out by long observation and experiment which could not have been atchiev'd but in a very long time and observation They observ'd likewise various motions of the stars their several wayes and periods and diverse knots of them That the Planets were diversly and wonderfully configurate one with another Manifold conjunctions of the stars I passe by the lesser They relate that the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in once in Nine hundred years Of the great Period at wich time all the stars return to their first point enough before I omit a great many things to the same purpose which for fear of displeasure and tediousnesse I passe by All which because they are already publish'd seem to people that understand not to have been suddenly found out and without any trouble but whosoever shall consider with himself that the most ancient and most famous Astronomers for the speculations and observation of the least of them dwelt upon mountain tops all their lifes will not think that they were so easie and so slight to be sound out Take notice of that that as a good King or a good Poet is not born every day no more were there such Astronomers who to find them out would bestow such care night and day Therefore it appears that the knowledge of Astronomy of far more large extent than the Sphaere could
not but in a longer time and farre more ages be gained and found out CHAP. X. Of the antiquity of Astrologie BUt although it must needs be a vast and incomputable time in which those first searchers bestow'd their studie in contemplation of the Sphaere Astronomy their little of no consideration in comparison of those in which the influences natures of the stars were found out by which the strength of the stars both in the motion of the air moderating mens fortunes were found out to have a special command The first Astronomers advanc'd their faces to heaven to attain to the positions and motions of the stars The Astrologers who followed them return'd their eyes from the heaven to the earth to consider earnestly what the force and influxion of the stars could operate upon the Earth for they imagined that the stars had long goads with which they did punch us from heaven and that qualities were ingendred in men as their stars did encline them They found by manifold and long experience that some of the stars were of a fierie quality hot and cholerick some earthly dry and melancholy some ayrie moist and sanguine some waterie moist and phlegmatick They believ'd that every Planet had their winds assigned to them and that the courses and returns turnings and passings of stars did foreshew the times that some of the stars were bountifull some malevolent those bountifull which foretold happinesse to men those malevolent which foreshew'd danger and were destructive to men That those were mix'd and temperate which sometimes made mens lives happy and good sometimes unhappy and unprosperous That some stars were masculine others feminine some Homogeneous others Heterogeneous That some were happy for the day some for the night That some stars by their presence and testimonie wrought some by their rays and aspect That they foreshew'd good or evil if their presence were good or bad their rayes good or evil That there were destroying stars which upon their meeting cut the thred of life Others Climacterical which troubled the course of life That there were heavier or lighter climactericals and by the meeting of some malevolent star became deadly That the numbers of seven and nine was not the cause of a Climacterical but the decree and finishing of a star and that therefore every Planet had his particular Period to signifie the climacterical returning to the same Period every year That there were besides trigonal retragonal hexagonal and diameter aspects That the trigons tetragons and hexagons some were placed on the right hand some on the left on the right hand those that wrought by radication and aspect on the left those that wrought by presence and testimonie In Diameter were weekly Climactericals in ninths or nine dayes in the Tetragon That benevolent stars softned the force of a climacterical star or place and that the aspect of a star sometimes chang'd the aspect of a sign They observ'd that the Zodiack had its parts masculine and feminine And as the Astronomers divided the Zodiack into twelve signs or parts the Astrologers divided every sign of the Zodiack into three Decans and nine benefactors or patrons that divided the twelfth part of the Zodiack into twelve parts which had the impression of the force of the twelve signs and their names alotted twelve parts in a twelfth sign in signs predominant Besides the antients painted these Decans with several colours The seven Planets and the twelve Asterisms of the Zodiack those in more flourishing colours the others in darker and obscurer colours To Saturn they alotted black to Jove white to Mars red To the Sun a shining colour to Venus diverse colours to Mercury sand colour to the Moon an ayrie colour They thought that a clear star was blunted by a dark one a dark star enlightned by a clear one and that stars by admixtion of others receiv'd a hundred colours different from their own Also to these Decans the Casters of Nativities attributed the first place in all Astrologie and Divination which arises from casting of Nativities Nay they thought that those Decans were so powerful that there were so many people in government and so many universal Laws as there were Decans Hence not only the nativities of Cities but likewise the nativity of the world was essayed But the Chaldaeans and the Egyptians were most acurate in the casting of Nativities in the framing of the Dodecatrope and the Scheme of the Horoscope They first sought for the Horoscope with all diligence they found out the Planet of the Nativity whom they call'd the Lord of the birth the Prince and giver of life then sought for the Lord of the time the alotter of his time and fortune In the erecting of the Scheme they appointed twelve places bad and unhappy according to whose determinations or aspects they gave Judgement As many they made fortunate or unhappy in Fortunes dodecatrope which they styl'd the twelve rewards of Fortune and so styl'd by the learned Salmasius not the labours of Fortune as they are commonly call'd According to the position and fabrick of the Scheme they ordain'd stars who received strength from the Horoscope and which moderated every ones Nativity And although every one of them were of sufficient force of themselves yet for divers aspects and configurations by which they were allay'd they either lost their forces or gained new influxions The Horoscope was generally with them the same which a Decan but in division and in their visibility according to which the Egyptians and Chaldaeans did cast Nativities they enquir'd out the twelve parts of the Horoscopant star and not only in what part of the twelve the Horoscope was but in what twelfth part of the twelfth part nay whether there were any one in the sixtieth part And they who were more acurate in their search whether there were any horoscope in the sixtieth part of the sixtieth The stars seem'd well or ill dispos'd when the Planets were plac'd in good or bad signs in good or bad parts of them Besides they ordained several Climactericals according to the Horoscops or Decans And as to every Decan they assign'd their own Planets they made also several Climactericals according to the order of the Planets to be disposed in every narivity Nor did they only take notice of the Planets and Decans in finding out of the Climactericals but considered likewise the ascensions of stars and the bounds of every time All which by exact and division to the least were inquir'd out and invented and accommodated and fitted carefully to their definitive art They observ'd besides general Lords of the times who from the beginning of their lives to the ends of them were constant companions of their fortunes and actions Who disposed the times years moneths dayes and hours to the following stars and those that follow'd to those that next them ensued That the general Lords of the time receiv'd its times from none but from its self But did dispense them
Divines think that this darknesse was spred over the face of all the earth Because all the Evangelists agree with one consent that they were upon the whole earth Which notwithstanding the better Interpreters have translated upon all the Land of the Jews according to the Hebrews say they which for the earth mean Palestine Nor was the miracle without a mysterie for there had been a time when dark night covered all the Land of Egypt at the command of Moses but all the Israelites had light in their dwellings Now was the day come at the death of Christ when the light of the Gospel should appear to the Gentiles and all the Land of the Jews and the Jews themselves should be o'r-cast with the darknesse of incredulity Here let us speak of the Star which appear'd to the wise men on the Nativity of our Lord which it is common and ordinary to place in heaven amongst the rest of the Stars which that it never was nor ever could be is made appear thus All other men on the earth had seen it as well as the wise men Herod had seen it among the rest being troubled at this report whom this appearance did more especially concern But Herod neither saw it nor could see it for calling the wise men privately sayes the Evangelist he enquired of them what time the star did appear Therefore it is clear it was neither a Star in heaven nor visible to all as is commonly believ'd but that Star that fire did only shine to the wise men that by the guiding of it they might arrive at Bethlehem and which those wise men did follow as a torch that they might worship the King of the Jews nor did it appear to Herod nor any of the rest Such was that fierie army sent to the help of Elisha from heaven whom the Prophet saw and yet his Servant that stood by him could not see such another miracle though different in the species of it for one man did not see those fires innumerable which Elisha saw The three wise men saw one Star which a great many men could not see It appears out of the Gospel it self that that Star was not fix'd in heaven from these words Behold a star went before them and stood above the place where the child was But if that Star had bin in heaven how could it stand above the place where the child was or how could the wise men draw a perpendicular line from the point of that Star upon the house The wiâ—e men might have discern'd to what Countrey that region of the heaven where in that Star was did answer But to know that small place that manger in which the child lay could not be done by seeing by any count or wit of man Therefore it is certain that Star or that light or fire as I may call it as it is written in the 8. of the Apocalyps It fell from heaven burning like a lamp I say it is certain that lamp from heaven which lighted the Magi was sent from heaven for their particular use after which the Magi should walk and which standing still above the place where the Child lay they should likewise stand still and adore that Jesus Christ whom they sought for Such was that cloud like a white one in the day-time and fierie in the night which no man will say was an apparition in the whole Hemisphaere for it was particularly over the Jews camp and particularly covered the holy Tabernacle They marched according to the particular motion of that cloud and stood still when it stood still as we must likewise believe the wise men did with their Star As also if that Star had been fix'd in heaven it had gon before others also who journeyed from the East to the West which is not written yea only that it went before the Magi. It would likewise have run according to the account and course of other Stars which are about the Tropick from the East to the West But who could have followed it with like swiftnesse Lastly if this Star had been placed in sight all famous Historians would have spoken of it who wrote the memorable things of their own times and ages which none did Therefore it is sufficiently prov'd that most thought not the wisest Interpreters erre who think that that Star appear'd to all men in heaven which appear'd indeed to the wise men onely onely to three men as is written They erre I say because they understand that generally of a Star which ought to be particularly understood of a light or a burning flame CHAP. IV. In the miracle of Ezechiahs sicknesse the Sunne went not back in heaven but in the Dyal of Achaz THat which I shall speak of the miracle which God did in curing Ezechiah being sick is lesse common of greater concernment as it is in the Kings Book 2. Chap. 2. The Prophet Esay being to give Ezechiah a sign that he should be whole and go into the Temple of the Lord calls upon the Lord. And God brought back the shadow by those lines that it had gone down in the Dyal of Achaz back ten degrees Which is written in Esay ch 3â— in these words Behold I will make the shadow of the lines by which it is gone down in the Dyal of Achaz to return in the Sun And the Sun returned ten lines by the degrees that it had gone down In this miracle it is received as current that the Sun went back in the heaven For the miracle which was only in the Dyal of Achaz is put in the Sun and the heaven and because the shadow is brought back in the Dyal the Sun must needs go back in Heaven nor could God make a miracle in the Dyal of Achaz but with a violent motion he must turn the whole heaven and disturb the most general frame This is to fool one with that fine sport as if one would cause remove the chimney and the fire from him that he might not be burnt rather let him goe back himself and let the fire stand still lest the house be undermined by the removing of the chimney Let the miracle be plac'd in the Dyal as is the meaning of the Scripture and then the miracle will be in its own place Nature will stand in its own frame and mens intellects will not be fool'd with vain jugglings For good God what a mistake is this that has befool'd a great many wise men that they believed that the Sun had gone back If the Sun went back either he went back in the Zodiack or that degree of the Ecliptick standing still which he was running that day the primum mobile came backward and with the primum mobile all the rest of the Sphaeres amongst which the Sun was likewise turn'd back If we say that he went back only in the Zodiack and a tenth part of the Zodiack according to the proportion he is said to have gone back in the Dyal of Achaz the Sun must
needs return through a great many signs of the Zodiack and return pass'd moneths yea seasons of the year which were past in the minute of one hour which were an horrid confusion and absurdity But how much are they gone backward not to say from truth or from any probable conjecture who think that the whole heavens went back that the shadow of the Dyal might goe back That were to disturb all nature to make a difference in the tenour and order of all things to confuse the rising and setting of stars to destroy all Ephemerides and Astronomical tables and to make a confusion in all Astronomy But who ever heard of any such confusion who ever heard of this back supersant for the memory of things which past in the days of Ezechiah is yet extant among the Gentiles But why should there be a greater miracle in the sicknesse of Ezechiah than in the death of the Lord. There was darknesse only about Jerusalem in the death of the Lord and should the Sun shine longer to the world in the sicknesse of Ezechiah Christ died Ezechiah was only sick Christ in his death was perfecting the redemption of the World Ezechiahs sicknesse only concern'd himself and his people How ill such compariâ—ons shew let the miracle be placed in the Dyal not in heaven and all things will be very agreeable with that Dyal for the life of man is very well compared to a shadow yea to the shadow of a Dyal The last period of a mans life and of his Dyal is called the last hour Again the life of the King is well compared to a Kingly Dyal The shadow went back which was descending in the Dyal which Achaz had made The life of Ezechâ—ah who was dying whom Achaz had begotten went backward likewise nor could Ezechias have any more convenient sign of his recovery than this miracle which therefore was given as a particular sign to Ezechias Chron. 2. chap. 32. Ezechias was sick unto death and God gave him a sign he gave it to him not to all And this sign was seen in the land of Iudah not in all lands which is to be observed is proved by the same place of the Chron. That their was Ambassadors sent from Babilon who came to enquire of the sign which had happened not in the heaven which take notice of but upon the earth meaning the land of Iudah Nor had the Babilonians needed to have enquired of the Iews concerning the miracle if it had happened in Babilon or if the Sun had gone back in the Firmament for they themselves had seen it Therefore this miracle must be reduced to the Dyal of Achaz yea the holy Scripture expresly meaned so and directly sets it down in both places of Esay and of the Kings if the words of both places be well weigh'd as is fit The words in Kings are these The Lord brought back the shadow by the lines by which it had gone down in the Dyal of Achaz Observe here that the miracle is expresly signified in the Dyal of Achaz The words of Isay are And the Sun returned ten lines by the degrees it had gone downe In these places the bringing back of the shadow and the Sun are the same because the shadow could not return unlesse the Sun returned nor the Sun return but the shadow must return And that is it which Esay says in the words immediatly before Behold I will make the shadow of the lines return by which it is gone down in the dyal of Achaz in the Sun or with the Sun which is the same The Sun is not there taken for the Sun it self but for the light which it throws upon any superfice whereon it shines which it throws upon all dyals and such a one as you may believe it cast upon the dyal of Achaz Moreover those lines of which the Kings and Isaiah here speak were drawn out upon the dyal of Achaz according to the shadow of the Gnomon which according to art is plac'd in the middle of the dyal There were twelve chief ones of these marked upon the dyal to shew so many degrees or hours of the dyal whilst the shadow of the Gnomon in the mean time over-running the whole superfice of the dyal cast out a great many other lines by which it design'd the smallest minute of every one of these degrees and hours But these lines are hâ—re promiscuously call'd the shadow and the Sun because they are really set down and composed in all dyals by the Sun and shadow without prejudice to the principles of Geometry who define their lines pure not compounded longitudes Nor can I call those precisely shadows or precisely the Sun but rather the extremities or individual distinctions of the Sun and shadow for in them the last part of the Sun is the first of the shadow but the last of the shadow is not the first of the Sun But what Mathematician ever imagined such lines in the heaven if the words of the Kings and Esay are taken here for the Sun it self and the light it cast upon the dyal of Achaz Take notice that Esay here calls that indifferently the shadow and the Sun which the Kings simply in that place calls the shadow never the Sun Wilt thou have the shadow to ascend ten lines or go down ten lines And Ezechiah said It is easie for the shadow to grow ten lines let it not be so but let it go back ten lines And Isaiah call'd upon the the Lord and he brought back the shadow ten lines by which it had gone down in the dyal of Achaz It seems all this miracle was within the compasse of the dyal of Achaz For Ezechiah said It was easie to make the shadow to come forward Not that it was indeed so easie for a shadow to come forward ten degrees in a minute which could not be done but in ten hours but because it seem'd more easie for a shadow to goe forward than to turn backward he requir'd that which seem'd harder and a greater miracle that it might run back ten lines Certainly the force of this miracle was altogether in the dyal of Achaz according to the intention of sick Ezechiah and according to his Prayer For Isa had ask'd him Wilt thou that it go forward or turn backward Let it turn backward says Ezechiah and the shadow of the dyal was brought back According to the intention of Ezechiah and the Prayers of Isaiah there was herâ— nothing to do with the turning back of the Sun in heaven but the turning back of the shadow upon the dyal and the miracle according to the will of the King and prayers of the Prophet was perform'd really not in the heaven but in the dyal Nor had it been a miracle that the shadow was turn'd back in the dyal if the Sun had turn'd back in heaven for the shadow follows the motion of the Sun in the dyal not bâ— miracle but by nature And it is certain too that
water 's nigh That is 〈◊〉 suffers thirst God could indeed by his miracle in which he is wonderfully powerfull have done all that that the Jews should not be hungry nor dry nor their clothes be worn nor their shoes be spent And there haâ—â—â—en need of these miracles if they had had no wool nor no leather but they wanted none of these things nor was any such miracle needfull Yea this miracle would rather have manifestly evidenced the want of clothes and shoes if for want of clothes and shoes and by the virtue of that miracle they had always put on the same clothes and the same shoes which could never wear out On the other side it shew'd the abundance of clothes and shoes which they had because neither their clothes nor shoes grew old because they chang'd both so often And ascribe this to the providence and care of the Lord by which all things which were necessary for the Jews were provided for them because he led them sometimes through pleasant and plentifull places from whose Inhabitants Deut. 2. and elsewhere They bought mâ—at for money and did eat and bought water for money and did drink for which the Israelites were beholding to the Edomites and Moabites And when Sehon forbad them this privilege they smote him with all his people and all his Cities and took the prey and spoil of his Towns Deuteronomie Chap. 2. And in the third Chapter they destroyed Og the King of Basan And that time they took the land from the Amorites which is beyond Jordan Moses himself would have said On this side Jordan which observe And that amongst the prey and spoils of these two Kings there were garments and shooes found and more than enough of materials to make both clothes and shooes This you may imagin also of the Amalekites oververcom by the Jews Exodus Chap. 17. before the Law given in Sinai To this you may add that the Jews for many years compassed Mount Seir inhabited by the Edomites from whom they bought victuals and water which I made now appear and from whose Cities they had clothes and shooes at a price CHAP. VII That the Flood of Noah was not upon the whole earth but only upon the Land of the Jews Not to destroy all men but only the Jews GIve us leave to discusse this last miracle of the flood of Noah which is believ'd to have overflow'd the kingdoms of the earth with most mighty overflowings and which I rather believe overflow'd only Palestine and the Land of the Jews The causes of this conjecture are chiefly the causes of the Deluge which here I shall mention from their beginnings I show'd you before that the Jews were framed in Adam and esteem'd the peculiar sons of God that they were separated from all other Nations which God had created in the beginning And that those Nations were call'd the sons of men in many places of holy writ I have set forth at large The Lord likewise set the Jews apart from all Nations when he plac'd them in his holy Land as in a fenced garden whither it should not be granted to other Nations to come God then had forbidden the Jews to make any mixture with other Nations Chiefly he suffer'd them not to defile their sons with the daughters of men Against the command of God the Jews had admitted the Gentiles into their land Who sayes Genesis when they began to multiply upon the earth the sons of God seeing the daughters of men that they were fair or which is the same the sons of Adam who were after called Jews seeing the daughters of the Gentiles took to themselves wives of all which they chose and by that copulation Giants were begotten For the Jews being made strong and lively by Gods late framing of them and going in to the daughters of men as strong men are begot by strong and divine seed mix'd with humane begets Heroes the sons of God lying with the daughters of men begat Heroes valiant men as they are set down in that same place by valiant and famous men in their age It repented God being angry at the wickednesse of the Jews that he had made men and wrought the clay of which he fram'd Adam of whom the Jews were born an earthie and corrupt generation of men The cogitation of whose heart was bent upon evil continually at all times that is from their first beginning both in Adam their Father who had transgressed the commandement of God and in themselves who had likewise broken the covenant of God I will cut off saith the Lord in that place man whom I have created from the face of the earth from the man to the beast from the creeping thing to the fowl of the heaven for I repent my self that I have made them Here take notice that by earth we understand Palestine according to the Hebrew who by earth simply express'd mean their own As I observ'd of the darknesse before in the death of the Lord. God then had decreed to destroy man whom he had created from the face of the earth By the man whom he had created understand the Jews the posterity of Adam I say of that Adam whom he had created or fram'd for creation and framing here is the same By living creatures understand also the Gentiles mingled amongst the Jews and causes of the sins of the Jews according to what I formerly set down at large where I made it appear that the Jews are simply call'd men in comparison of the Gentiles that the Gentiles on the other side compar'd to the Jews were call'd beasts and a people which was not a people in holy Scripture And such was Gods anger that he resolved not only to destroy all those Jews and Gentiles but all the men of that Land and all the cattel of it from the creeping things to the birds of the air except only Noe the Jew who according to Gods command fram'd an Ark to escape the violence of the Deluge The treasures of the great depth were opened sayes Genesis and the windows of heaven were opened and it rained upon the earth forty dayes and forty nights And there was a deluge upon the earth and the waters were multiplyed and they lifted up the Ark high from the earth for they increas'd exceedingly and fill'd all things upon the face of the earth And the waters preval'd exceedingly upon the earth And all the high hils were cover'd under the whole heaven The water was fifteen cubits above the mountaines which it had cover'd And all flesh upon the earth was destroyed birds living creatures and beasts and all creeping things All men and all things wherein is the breath of life died And he destroyed all things that was upon the earth from the man to the beast as well creeping things as fowls of the heaven and they were cut off from the earth Only Noe remained and those that were with him in the Ark. All which Genesis prophetically expressing and opening
as by inspiration sets forth to declare that all the beasts of the land of Iudah perish'd when Palestine was drown'd which words if you take only the literal sence of them seem to intimate that all the earth or both Hemispheres round about which the Sun takes his course were overflow'd Nor is it material to me that which is said that the treasures of the great deep were broke up and the windows of heaven opened For that great Abysse was the sea of Palestine from which all the fountains spring Which Genesis sets down to us were to have been broken up to represent to us that all Palestine was dissolv'd in water and did sweat out all the moisture in its veins But there are some who to adde force to such things as are hyperbolically written interpret the Cataracts of heaven The waterie heaven disgorg'd upon the whole earth which is a meer soppery For these things were written in a high stile to expresse the abundance of rain by which the Land of the Jews was overflow'd The mountains were covered under the whole heaven must be understood of the high mountains of Palestine as also the whole heaven was that which covered Palestine For it is ordinary to assign every Country it s own heaven In the same sense understand the 2 Chapter of Deutr. where God casting a fear upon all the nations of the Holy Land to which he was to lead his people Israel exhorts them in these words To day I will begin to send thy fear and terrour upon the Nations which dwell under the whole heaven All the heaven is here understood which was over the whole Land of Palestine For God did not that time send the fear of the Jews upon the Nations that dwelt in China America the South or Greenland But if we will take notice of the thing and not of the words it will appear that the Deluge came only upon the Land of the Jews and not upon the whole world Both from the causes of the Deluge which I now spoke of and which I now told you were the sins of the Jews As also by Noe the Jew and his sons the reliques of the Jews as also from the place upon which the Ark stood upon the decay of the waters upon the mountains of Armenia sayes Genesis Which mountains of Armenia as they look toward Palestme make up a part of Syria next to Palestine But certainly Iosephus meâ—nt that that was a particular Deiuge where writing against Appion lib. 2. he speaks of all the authors Gentiles who have made mention of the Jews amongst whom he mentions Berosus Berosus says he hath â—ritten of the Ark in which the chief of our Family was prâ—served He said not in which the chief of mankind was saved but the chief of our stock or linage that is of the Jews For there he speaks of the Jâ—ws whom Iosephus calls his own and his own stick bâ—ing a Jew himself Who I say was the chief of the people of the Jews after the Fâ—oud for Iosephus derives the first kinred of the Jews before the Flood from Adam by which it is very clear that only the reliques of the Jews were sav'd in the Ark and that the Family of the Jews was restor'd by Noe who was the second beginner of that kinred after the Deluge CHAP. VIII The same which was prov'd in the former Chapter by the Dove sent out by Noe and by the natural descent of waters IT is clear that this Deluge was peculiar to the Jews not universal in all Nations by that which is written of the Dove which Noe sent out and she return'd to him at night For that branch with green leaves which the Dove pull'd from the tree was not of those Olives which the Deluge had overwhelm'd and for a whole year buried them in mudd Therefore it is more probable to say That that Dove being sent from the mountains of Armenia flew over all the waters of the Deluge and in the higher fields of Asia gather'd from an 〈◊〉 free from dirt and slime that branch with green leaves to shew to Noe a flourishing not a wither'd hope of his deliverance Which that we may more clearly perceive let us consider and recollect that violence with which the showers of the flood in great bodies of water broke out and did beat the whole earth without rest or interruption day or night Let us bethink us how great muddy streams fell from the mountains into the valleys And that deluge made up and sweld with those torrents was nothing else but Water mix'd with slime and clay which being afterwards macerated for a whole year in which it was upon the highest mountains and fifteen cubits above them the dregs of that slime falling down to the bottom stuck in the branches of the trees and every leaf of them For this we are taught by dayly experience where troubled and clayie rivers break over their banks For after theâ—e waters are driven off we see the reeds and the trees with which these banks are planted pressed down with the weight of the slime and defil'd with most filthy clay As also all the Olives were drown'd at the Flood of Noah As likewise we may very well read that all those Olives for a whole year in which the deluge is said to have whelm'd them to have been altogether spoil'd and destroyed and to have rotted at last And thus I conceive that the fields of upper Asia are higher than the Mountains of Armenia because I think the lowest earth lies always to the Sea side and those grounds are higher which are the farthest from the Sea and are higher raised within the uppermost and continued Globe of the earth which we see clearly when we see famous and swift rivers through great and long tracts of land hasten to the sea according to that reason by which they flow down from upper ground to a continued descent Nor shall I omit to relate what a most experienced Geometrician related to me That he had try'd the descent by which the river of Garonne run from Tholouse through the land of Burdeaux into the Ocean and measuring a hundred rods he found many timâ—s a whole rod of deâ—cent for this swift course to the Sea I perswaded my self that it had been so accounted by Ausonius in his Mosella Smooth Loyrs and swift Rhoans strong Garonns stream If you will not grant such a declination as the Geometrician said the Garonne run into the Ocean take the Danow that famous and swift River which runns six hundred miles of continual descent from its own soâ—ntain into the Euxine sea And let us know his deâ—cent not in a hundred but six hundred roâ—s measuring as also that after the measuring ofâ—â—x hundred miles there is found one mile of descent By which reason the fountain of the River Danew may be found higher than the shore of the Euxine sea one whole mile Grant also that decâ—iâ—itie not to be hindred
inconvenient to joyn Strabo to Plato in his third Book of Geographie where he relates this of the Turdetans the Inhabitants of Spain These sayes he are held the most learned amongst all the Spaniards they use Grammar and have their monuments of Antiquitie written and Poems and Laws in Verse for six thousand years as they say The Turdetans then had their Laws long before the floud if in the days of Strabo they had then written six thousand years which they being themselves in that deluge untouch'd kept likewise untouch'd for the space of six thousand years continually and us'd and observ'd them Scaliger likewise thinks that the first Olympiad was celebrated in the year of the world 3074 and that the destruction of Troy was four hundred and eight years or thereabouts before the first Olympiad And Servius has observ'd upon that Verse of Virgils Th' old Cities sack'd reign'd in for many years Ancient sayes he or noble because it is said to have reigned two thousand eight hundred years The beginning then of the Kingdom of Troy must be before the beginning of the world and if Troy was rul'd in for two thousand and eight hundred years Phrygia as also Spain must be said to be freed from the floud of Noah Which you may also think of India which Father Liber first enter'd From him says Solinus in his 25 Chap. unto Alexander the great there are reckon'd six thousand four hundred and fifty years and three moneths over accounting it by the Kings who are said in his time a hundred and fifty three of them to have liv'd Salmasius the restorer of Pliny in Solinus and the disperser of his errours sets down this number in Pliny Besides the same Scaliger is author that Semiramis was before the destruction of Troy and places her in the first age after the Floud and sayes that Sanchoniato liv'd in her time and makes Iombal more antient than Sanchoniato and sayes that Sanchoniato receiv'd many things from Iombal out of Porphyrius And Eusebius relates that Sanchoniato met with some reserv'd pieces or volumes of the Ammonites which he took out of the Repositorie of the Church where they had lain But how can such stories agree with the time of Noahs floud To this add that neither Sanchoniato nor Iombal antienter than he are reckon'd amongst the sons of Noah And it must needs be that those volumes lay without the Ark and were preserv'd on which Sanchoniato lighted as Eusebius says Here to reckon those things which I set out before more at large That is an inconsistent time which is reckon'd from Adam to Abraham the Chaldaean or to Moses the Egyptian and it is unadviâ—edly set down to be sufficient to gain the knowledge of those arts which Abraham and Moses were exact in But certainly the time 'twixt Noahs floud and Abraham would be likewise a great deal more incompetent if according to the same inconsideratenesse it should be proportioned as sufficient for the attainment of the forementioned disciplines especially Astronomy Theology and Magick The which that they did flourish in the time of Abraham is evidently prov'd because Vr of the Chaldees is call'd by Eusebius Camarina and Camarina is the same with the City of the Chaldaeans And the Camarini were call'd Chaldaeans aswell as Astrologers and Magicians For the name of the Chaldaeans was a token of Nation and Art It is likewise written of the Camarinian Magicians that they raise Leviathan who is the Devil That there is a land and water Leviathan is certain or which is as much that there are land and water Devils â—rom whom Philippus Codurcus a learned man and â—ell skillâ—â— in the Hebrew imagined that those Spirits which we in our mother tongue call Luithons or Luthins have taken their derivation To think that these Theorems of Magick or spels hatefull to God were kept in the Ark that they might not be lost in the floud were a wickedness to believe But to say that the art was invented or repaired betwixt the floud and Abraham were impossible to prove as other things are CHAP. X. Of Eternity before Eternity Of Eternity from Eternity THose who think that the floud of Noah was over all Nations erre much in the ordering of all actions and dispensing of them since that time They are likewise very much deceiv'd in the ordering and dispensing of all actions since the beginning of the world who affirm that the world was made with Adam They have streightned the beginning and the ending in such narrow bounds that it cannot by any means fit to so small room which is read of the world created from eternity and which shall endure to eternity I need not say amongst Historians and Philophers who were Gentiâ—es but likewise amongst the Prophets and Apostles But indeed that little space of time to which they limit the things past and things to come those two eternities how well does it accord with that expression of the short garment in Isay Chapter 4â—28 A short garment sayes he cannot cover both It is written I confesse That God created the heaven and the earth in the beginning That I dare boldly affirm we know not that beginning I know there is a setled number of the stars in heaven there is a determinate number of the grains of sand in the Sea shore But I think to make up a sum of all those stars all those grains all those ages which have bin from the beginning is without the compasse of all Arithmetick and humane account In these numbers there is no number nor need we to comprehend the number of them It is enough that God doth know the number of the stars which he created The times are not hidden from the Almighty Moreover I find two several acceptions of eternity in the holy Scripture The first is by which God is call'd eternal before time and before all things created Another by which eternity is bounded by ages and the beginning of the creation These two â—gnifications of eternity are both together comprehended in that place of the Proverbs where Wisdom is brought in speaking after this manner God possess'd me from the beginning of his wayes before he made any thing Or according to others I had a rule from eternity from the head from the beginnings of the earth or from the creation of the world There appears here a two-fold beginning one before time and before the creation of the earth one from ages from the beginnings of the earth or since the creation of the world The first is distinguished from the second because in the first God is only said to have possessed wisdom in the second place to have ordain'd and install'd her to have a rule over all things created Both beginnings then are eternal but the first antientest The first beginning was eternal by its self eternal before eternity The second begining was eternal in regard of us since our understanstanding cannot reach its number St. Paul hath most clearly
evidenc'd this to us in the last Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans and in the third Chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians and in the first Chapter of the Epistle to the Colossians when he call'd the Gospel in these places An opening of the mysterie which was hidden and conceal'd from ages and eternal times In his 1 Epist to the Cor. 2. Chap. he defined tother The hidden wisdom of God which he appointed before all times As also in his second Epistle to Tim. Chap. 1. The Grace which was given to us in Christ before the times of eternity And in his Epistle to Titus The hopes of eternal life which God had promis'd before eternal times St. Peter speaking of the same in his first Catholick Epistle ch 1. sayes That Christ was foreknown before the foundations of the world were laid By which places that difference of eternities which I observ'd is evidently found That eternity is call'd first before ages and eternal times That eternity is called secondly from all time and from all things That the eternity which is before eternity and before eternal times is the same which Peter calls before the foundation of the world Therefore the eternity from the foundations of the world is the same with that from eternal times and that therefore the foundations of the World were laid from eternal times or from eternity in regard of us or from times and ages to us unknown or from that beginning of which there is no certain knowledge That eternity of the world is not that eternity of God but the resemblance of it according to that of Mercurie in Asclepius God eternal says he had the World before it was found within himself But as the World is the image of God it is also the imitation of eternity CHAP. XI Of eternity beyond eternity Of eternity to eternity The Kingdom of Messias how eternal AS God is call'd eternal before eternity he is likewise call'd eternal after eternity or beyond eternity God shall reign to eternity and beyond it said Moses in his â—ong When the Scripture would expresse the continuance of any thing not to eternity which is only attributed to God but to eternity according to the duration of the world it uses to expresse it by the eternity of the Sun and the eternal course of the Moon and Stars Thus says the Lord who gives the Sun for the light of the day and the Moon and Stars for night If these Laws be left before me then shall the seed of Israel fail before me that it shall be no mâ—â—â—a Nation before me That Covenant made with the Israelites is call'd an eternal Covenant Genesis 17. Isay 55. Ieremie 32. Ezech. 37. and many other places eternal and for ever which is the same The Sun then and the Moon and the Stars are plac'd with Israel for eternity Take that eternity not beyond eternity but to eternity in which sense Ecclesiasteâ— is to be understood But the earth continues to eternity God does prove that the Kingdom of Messias shall continue to eternity by this argument Ieremie 33. If says he my Covenant with the day can be frustrate and my Covenant with the night that night and day be not in their own time then can my Covenant be in vain with my servant David which not in the same words but in the same sense the 72 Psalm has â—et down and it shall abide with the Sun and Moon from generation to generation Where observe that the Sun and Moon there answer to the night and day of Jeremy that is expounded in the 72 Psalm In generation and generation In the 88 Psalm I have once sworn to my holy one if Iâ—le to David his seed shall last for ever and his throne as the Sun in my sight and as the Moon perfect unto eternity as a faithfull witnesse in heaven Where a faithfull witnesse is the same with one permanent and eternal The tenth Psalm speaks that openly The Lord shall reign for ever And in the tenth of Daniel His kingdom shall not perish As also in the 6 of Chronicles I will confirm his Throne for ever That was it which was written in the 11 Chapter of Iohn Christ endures for ever But that the Kingdom of Messias should be eternal and for ever The Angel did most expresly say speaking to the blessed Virgin concerning her Son and of his Kingdom there shall be no end And notwithstanding there shall be an end of the Kingdom of Messias as Paul firmly bears witnesse of in the 15 chapter 1 Cor. And then an end shall be when he shall have delivered up the Kingdom to the Father but he must reign till he have put all his enemies under his fect The eternity then of the Kingdom of Messias in the forementioned places is to be underhood of that only which being taken in the second acception shall continue till eternity and not beyond eternity as in the same regard there was no beginning of the eternal beginning What the Kingdom of Messias was and what it shall be we may clearly see out of the forementioned Chapter of the Proverbs as also out of this place of St. Paul to the Corinthians thus says the Wisdom of the Father who is the Messias and Christ Proverb 8. The Lord hath possessed me from the beginning of his ways before he made any thing in the beginning the great depth was not when I was conceived and the fountains of water had not as yet broke out nor the mountains were rais'd up before the hills I was brought forth As yet he had not made the earth the winds and the hinges of the world which are to be understood of the eternity of Christ before eternity of that eternity I say which was before ages before the times of eternity and before the foundations of the world I was ordained from the beginning says the same Wisdom or I had a rule from the head from the beginnings of the earth when he prepared the heaven I was there when he confin'd the depths when he placed the heaven above and weigh'd the fountains of waters when he gave bounds to the Seas and gave a law to the waters least they should passe their limits when he weigh'd the foundation of the earth I was with him Framing all things Which are to be understood of the eternity of Christ by whom all things were made who moderates all things and rules over all things of that eternity I say which was from ages from eternal times from the foundations of the world The Kingdom of Messias begins thâ—n from the creation of the world from the laying of the foundation of the world and from eternal times It was from the beginning which was without beginning And that Kingdom shall also end within that eternity which shall have no end by which the world which had its beginning from ages times eternal shall be swallowed in eternal times and in the end of ages Then shall
there be an end says St. Paul when he shall resign the Kingdom to his Father The Kingdom of Christ was from eternity it shall likewise end within age and eternity For this cause all times were made by Christ Heb. 1. and Christ was called the Prince of time Timothy 1. cap. 1. Yea the Kingdom of Christ is called the Kingdom of all ages Psal 144. For which cause St. Paul calls Christ Blessed unto all ages God the Father reign'd before ages before the times of eternity before he had ordained wisdom and had given her command over all things God the Father shall likewise reign after ages after that wisdom who is Christ the Son hath yeilded up the Kingdom to the Father in the end of ages God the Father reigned before eternity and shall after eternity God the Son reign'd from eternity and shall to eternity In which sense understand that in the 90 Psalm From age to age thou art God As also which David sings 4 Chron. chap. 16. Blessed be the Lord from eternity to eternity CHAP. XII Eternity uses to be understood in Scripture by the duration of the Sun and Moon Of an age Of eternal times St. Paul expounded Eternity indefinite JEremie to signifie the eternity of that Law â—nd Covenant by which God had taken the Jews to himself to eternity as also the eternity of that Covenant which God had made with Messias and with his servant David by things undoubted and very well known If says he the Laws of the Sun and Moon and the Stars fail then the seed of Israel shall fail before him And again If the Covenant of the Lord with the day and night can be frustrate then can the Covenant of the Lord be frustrate with David his servant Therefore both of them are set down indubitable and unmoveable the eternity of the seed of Israel as also of the Kingdom of Messias as also the eternity of the Sun and Moon Stars Days and Nights And as they are conveniently joyned so are they conveniently convertible thus The seed of Israel shall never fail before the Lord for the Sun and Moon and Stars can never fail before him It is impossible that the Covenant of God should be in vain which he made with his Servant David that he should be and remain for ever It is likewise impossible that the Covenant which God made with the Day and Night should fail but they should be to eternity and remain continually God meant that impossibility of his Law which should never perish and of his Covenant never to be broken In the 6 chapter of the Gospel according to St. Luke It is easier for the heaven and earth to passe away than that one tittle of the Law should passe away Of the Law that is of the Coâ—enant which God made with Israel and with his Messias The whole world is here understood by the heaven and the earth and that impossibility he clears by another as great an impossibility that is the least tittle of the Law shall never passe away nor shall ever the world passe away Such is that which we read Psalm 72. The Messias shall endure with the Sun and Moon unto eternity Which is convertible thus The Sun and Moon shall endure together with Messias for ever It is written Genesis 1. Let us make lights in the midst of heaven that they may divide the day and night and be for signs and times for days and years Which the author of Ecclesiasticus rehearses in these words chap. 43. The Sun and Moâ—n shew the time and appoint the age Times are made up of days and nights months and years and ages which the Sun and Moon divide and dispense and appoint the measure of them especially the Sun who for excellency is called the Father of times and ages by the ancients For which cause holy Writ measures out the eternity of ages by the Sun It is common in holy authors to reckon weeks of years months of years years of years and with them you have many times also ages of ages which comprehend many myriads of years of which an eternity is made up Which you may well call the year of the world or the great world whose times ages are reckon'd innumerable Which you shall not need to wonder at if you wonder that the day of days the year of years the age of ages and all ages of ages have descended from eternal times and shall endure to eternity I thought upon the days of old I have the eternal years in remembrance I have counted the years which were from the beginning says David Psalm 76. The Prophet counted those days but could neâ—er find the number of them For there is no remembrance of things past Ecclesiast chap. 1. And truly For the memory of men being finite and fading can no way extend it â—eif to the knowledge of those former things which are infinite and derived from years eternal As if St. Paul had meant in those places which I mentioned before in the former chapters where he said that the mysterie of the Gospel was hid from eternal times and ages to expresse a thing so much secret and remote that the mystery had been hidden since the world was made with Adam from whom to the Apostle was not above four thousand years That had been indeed to have thrown four drops of water into the midst of the Sea or to have thrown four grains of sand upon the Sea shore according to what is written in the 18 chapter of Ecclus. As a drop of the water of the Sea or a grain of sand so little are a thousand years in the days of eternity The author of the Ecclesiasticus here meant that whatsoever proportion a drop has to the whoâ—e Sea or a grain of Sand to the whole shore a thousand years should have the same proportion to the day of eternity which containâ— the beginning and ending of all things created in the endlesse volums of years For eternity here is taken in the second acception which is from eternity and shall remain to eternity Which times are compounded of ages which ages are accounted by years Nor think here that age to be the first and pure eternity which admits of no distinction of years of no composition or comparison with this second eternity which is secular compounded For although the author of Ecclesiasticus seems to have taken this out of the 88 Psalm where it is said A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday It is to be observ'd that the Psalmist in that place meant that there could be no proportion or comparison betwixt 1000 years Gods eternity which 1000 years he compar'd with a day that is past with that which is not For there is no proportion betwixt an entity and a non entity But in this place the author of Ecclesiasticus admits a perfect proportion betwixt a thousand years and the day of eternity betwixt a drop of water and
dead Not that the sins of men were imputed to men but that by the damage of such things which were profitable to men those errours which they had committed might be more imputed to them so we read that for the sin of men all things that were upon the face of the earth were destroyed from men to beasts as well creeping things as the fowls of heaven Moreover for the wickednesse of the Sodomites both their Towns and themselves were destroy'd What shall I mention that for the wickedness of the Jews their earth was made iron that the heaven became brasse and fires were kindled to burn every tree both dry and green That became common by the mystical imputation of the sin of Adâ—m For the earth was curs'd for the rebellion of Adam The Serpent was accurs'd among all creatures and beasts of the field He was commanded to goe upon his belly and commanded to ear dust all the days of his life and those things which were joyn'd in no societie with Adam endur'd the condemnation of that fault This was the difference betwixt inflicting of punishments in Physical and punishments ordain'd upon the Mystical imputation of the sin of Adam That those punishments were Physical and real according to their Physical and real imputations the other Mystical and spiritually understood according to the spiritual and mystical imputation of the sin of Adam Certainly the sin of Adam added nothing to the sinfull nature of man but a meer guilt which ought mystically to be understood Nor did the punishment ordain'd against him from the imputation of sin add any thing to the corruption and natural condition of men but a mysticall condemnation which could only be imagin'd in the understanding The punishment decreed against the Serpent added nothing to the reptile nature of the Serpent besides a condemnation meerly spiritual and mystical For according to the reptile condition of his nature and his creation the Serpent was to creep upon his belly and to eat dust all the dayes of his life which I shew'd before and thought fit here to rehearse The punishment decreed against the earth to bring forth Thorns and Thistles added nothing to the condition of the earth but the meer imagination of condemnation For the earth is properly called the mother of thorns and thistles The punishment pronounced against men that in the sweat of their brows they should eat their bread added nothing to the natural destinie of men but a bare mysterie of condemnation For a man is born to labour and a fowl to fly And it is as natural for a man to labour as to a fowl to flie And the same is to be thought of the pains of women in child-birth Nor did the condemnation of death pronounced against Adam adde any thing to the natural death by which Adam and all men according to the Law of their creation ought to die besides the mystical condemnation consisting in mysterie and spirit Adam is understood to be dead according to that condemnation and all men are understood to be dead in Adam by that mysterie and mystical way of imputation by which the death of Christ ought to be apply'd to Adam and to all men Nor did Adam really die nor man ever dy'd really by the decree of that condemnation one Christ alone who was the expiation for all sin both ought to doe and did that and dy'd for Adam and all men and repeal by his death that condemnation which was gone out against Adam and all mankind Yea Christ himself who was slain before the world was ordaind and to whom was allotted the task of expiating Adams sin succeeded in Adams place at the very minute when Adam sinn'd and in the place of all men who were esteem'd to sin in Adam And God sustain'd the punishment for Adam and for all men who ought to have dyed for Adam and who from that very minute wherein Adam dy'd were understood dead not really and actually for they could not because they had no being as yet but by the force of mysterie and that mystical imputation which was in force after the death of Christ and before the death of Christ upon men not as yet born CHAP. IV. The imputation of another mans sin is not conceivable but by some supposition in Law Adams sin was imputed to all men in a spiritual manner not by natural propagation Divines confuse nature and guilt which ought to be understood apart in original sin Nature is before guilt Guilt did not corrupt nature yea on the contrary corrupt nature caus'd guilt Which is prov'd by the example of Adam when he sinn'd IT is a most certain truth of which no Orthodox Divine makes any question That God in a secret way and by a marvellous mysterie imputed to all men the sin of one man And that all mankind had a being in one man not truly and properly but mystically which is so to be understood by a certain presupposition in the Law of God according to the words of no ordinary Divine The whole nature of man sayes he was in one man Adam as in the head And all we not truly and properly for that time truly and properly we were not in being but potentially and virtually or by a certain supposition in Gods Law in the act of Adam broke the Law of God and transgressed his Covenant as sayes the Scriture And truly if we take diligent heed there is no imputation from anothers fault whether Physical Political or Mystical or any other kinde which is any other than imaginary or can any other way be conceived than by imagination which is chiefly to be thought of mystical imputations which are lesse corporeal and more spiritual and therefore more apt for fiction That is according to imputation mystical which the Apostle says Rom. 2. That uncircumcision is reputed to them that keep the Law for circumcision But how could the uncircumcised be thought circumcised but by that supposition which being corporeal is conceived in spirit and thought The sin of Adam was made the sin of all men by imputation and that same supposition of mystery by which all men that are that were that shall be are imagined to have plucked that forbidden fruit with their own hands at the same time when Adam did snatch it and to have eaten it at the same time when Adam swallowed it and by which supposition the numerical sin of Adam is thought to be numerically the sin of all men he in whom all men are thought to have been in him all men are said to have sinn'd and so have deserved death Nor were all men really and actually in Adam nor are they to be thought to have sinn'd really and actually nor did they really and naturally deserve death by that sin but by force of mystery which I have often repeated interpretatively and imputatively as the Divine says which was meerly by supposition And since these things are undoubted and believed firmly I see nothing that