before they were born and many other Historians for a much longer time and we give them credit and certainly such an Occurrence of such remark as the Universal Flood and the Re-peopling of the World must needs be fresh in memory for such a Period of about 800 Years especially considering that the Peopling of the World was a gradual and successive business that must needs preserve its Memory even upon its own account for it was still current and many were concerned in it in the preservation of the laying the first Foundations of their States and Republicks 3. As the Period or distance of time was not great so if we consider the longevity of Mens Lives in those times the Period was not much longer than three Generations and so the Tradition of things might be preserved fresh and certain unto the time of Moses without any great difficulty For Shem that was an Eye-witness of the Flood was contemporary with Abraham Abraham was contemporary with Jacob Cohath the Son of Levi was contemporary with Jacob and with Amram the Father of Moses and Son of Cohath So that the Tradition of the Flood and all that succeeded might be handed from Shem to Abraham from Abraham to Jacob from Jacob to Cohath from him to Amram and from him to Moses 4. Besides all this without any more Hands in the delivery of it over it appears that Abraham Isaac Jacob were great Men had great Families and Wealth were Men of great Note and Observation for their Learning and Knowledge Men that had great Expectations having a Promise of that Land to be given to their Posterity and although they kept Sheep and Cattel according to the custom of those Eastern Countries yet they were great Princes and Men of excellent Education doubtless Abraham instructed his Son in all the Knowledge that he had received by Tradition from his Ancestors the like did Isaac and after him Jacob. And therefore it might very reasonably be thought that the Traditions of former things were kept fresh and pure in this Line of Men. And though we have no Writings extant ancienter than Moses yet probably in his time there might be Books or at least Monuments and Inscriptions of things done before his time which might preserve the Memory of things past as well as our Books do now For it is not to be doubted but Writing was much ancienter than Moses his time Job speaks of Writing as a thing in use in his time Job 19.23 24. and Josephus tells us of certain Pillars erected by Seth wherein the Monuments of Learning and History were preserved Joseph l. 1. Antiquitat cap. 2. and Moses mentions Books written by others either before or in his time I very well know that Moses had a greater means to know all those things that to a Jew or a Christian are of greater weight than all these namely the Infallible Conduct Revelation and Inspiration of the Divine Spirit But the truth is we are faln into an Age of many Christians in Name and Profession that yet think it below them to believe upon that account without some farther Evidence that may satisfie their Reason I have therefore subjoyned these and the following Considerations to make it appear That upon the bare account of Moral Evidence more is to be said for the truth of the History of Moses than may be said for the truth of any other History of things transacted before the life of the Historiographer 2. Again we usually allow such an Historian to be worthy of belief even in those things whereof we have no other Evidence than the Credit of the Historian if we find many things delivered by him to have so great an Evidence of Truth that they cannot well be doubted by any reasonable Man I will admit that Moses delivers many things that were antecedent to him and can have now no other Evidence than the Credit Prudence and Fidelity of the Historian himself as touching the Derivation of the Nations of the Earth from the several Sons of Noah and though possibly when he wrote there was a vigorous and authentical Tradition or other authentick Evidence of the Truth of them which it may be is now so lost that we have no other Evidence thereof but the bare Relation of Moses this I do for the present admit though in the sequel it will appear that there are other concurrent or collateral Evidences that assert and attest it yet it is plain that the same Moses writes many things that have so undoubted and so solid a Tradition asserting it that no Man can doubt it that will not first deny his own Reason As for instance Can there be any doubt but that the Family of the Israelites were derived from Abraham Isaac and Jacob and the 12 Patriarchs that they were brought out of Egypt under the Conduct of Moses that they lived in the Wilderness forty Years and were there miraculously fed by Quails and Manna since this was written in that very Time and Age that could and would have contradicted it if false Can there be any doubt but the History of his making the Ark and the Tabernacle were true since both continued for many hundred Years after Can there be any doubt of the History of the Fiery Serpents and the Cure of their Biting by the Brazen Serpent which continued in the Wilderness until the time of Hezekiah which was many hundred Years after with an unquestionable Tradition of the reason of its Making Can there be any doubt whether he divided the Land of Canaan in such manner as is set down in his life time namely to the two Tribes and a half on the farther side of Jordan and his Prescripts for the future dividing of the rest since it was enjoyed according to those Prescripts for many hundreds of Years after and part of it until the coming of Christ Can there be any doubt that he gave those Laws Moral Judicial and Ceremonial recorded by him since those very Laws have been for the space of near two thousand Years the very Rule and Model by which the Sacred and Civil Concerns of that People were always ruled and governed and that in contemplation of the same Law that was given by the Hand of Moses and so recorded in his Books of Exodus Leviticus Numbers and Deuteronomy I say we have not greater Evidence that there was such a Man as Alfred Edward the Confessor or William the Conqueror or that there were such Laws of the Confessor such a Survey of England called Doomsday made by William the Conqueror such an Abbey founded by him in Memory of his Victory in Sussex called Abbatia de Bello such Laws made by H. 1. as are transcribed in the Red Book of the Exchequer under that name such a Charter of King John made at Reningmead or such a Charter as Magna Charta made by King H. 3. than we have that there were such Laws such Distributions of the Land of Canaan and such
MATHE HALE Miles Capitalis Iustic de Banco Regis Ano 1677 For W. Shrowsbery at The Sign of The Bible In Duck Lane F. H. van Hâ—ue Sculp THE Primitive Origination OF MANKIND CONSIDERED AND EXAMINED According to The Light of Nature WRITTEN By the Honourable Sir MATTHEW HALE KNIGHT Late CHIEF JUSTICE of His MAJESTIES Court of KING'S BENCH LONDON Printed by WILLIAM GODBID for WILLIAM SHROWSBERY at the Sign of the Bible in Duke-Lane MDCLXXVII TO THE READER THE subject Matter of this Book is a free Disquisition according to the Light of Nature and Natural Reason touching the Primitive Origination of Mankind consisting principally of these Parts and Assertions I. That according to the Light of Nature and Natural Reason the Mundus aspectabilis was not Eternal but had a Beginning II. That if there could be any imaginable doubt thereof yet by the necessary Evidence of Natural Light it doth appear that Mankind had a beginning and that the successive Generations of Men were in their Original Ex non genitis III. That this Truth is evident by Reason and Arguments demonstrative or at least little less than apodeictical IV. That there are Moral Evidences of the truth of this Assertion which are herein particularly expended and examined and how far forth they are concludent and how far not which I have impartially delivered V. That those great Philosophers that asserted this Origination of Mankind Ex non genitis both ancient and modern that rendred it by Hypotheses different from that of Moses were mistaken Wherein the several Hypotheses of Aristotle Plato Empedocles Epicurus Avicen Cardanus Cisalpinus Beregardus and others are examined and the absurdity and impossibility thereof detected VI. That the Mosaical System as well of the Creation of Man as of the World in general abstractively considered without relation to the Divine Inspiration of the Writer is highly consonant to Reason and upon a bare rational account highly preferrible before the Sentiments of those Philosphers that either thought Mankind Eternal or substituted Hypotheses of his first Production different from the Mosaical VII I have concluded the whole with certain Corollaries and Deductions necessarily flowing from the things thus asserted as well touching the Existence the Wisdom Power Providence of Almighty God as touching both the Duty and Happiness of Mankind Though this may seem a laborious Work to little purpose since the generality of Christians among whom I write do generally believe this Truth of the Origination of the World and Mankind as it is delivered in the Holy Scriptures and thus to write in proof of a Truth generally received doth rather create Doubts in Mens Minds of what they already believe than any way advantage or confirm their belief I Answer 1. That for my part I think Atheism so unreasonable a thing so abhorrent to the Light of Nature and Sentiments of Conscience that I cannot think there is so much speculative Atheism abroad in the World as many good Men fear and suspect But if there be but one quarter of that Atheism in the World I do not know any better Cure of it or Preservative against it next to the Grace of God than the due Consideration of the Origination of Mankind 2. Again though the Creation of Man be generally acknowledged by Jews and Christians yet we must likewise consider that many take it up only as a part of their Education and not upon any serious deep Conviction of the truth of it and had such Men but an Education in such a Place or Country where it is not believed or where it is doubted they would be at least sceptical and doubtful in the belief of it 3. The best of Men and soundest believers of Divine Revelations may be better confirmed by the accession and suffrage even of Natural Evidences of the Verities they already believe but howsoever it better enables them to convince such Gainsayers as will be governed in their Judgments by no other Light than the Light of Nature and Reason and many such there may be met withal in the World And upon that account my whole Discourse is bottomed upon Natural and Moral Evidences suited to these Mens Principles or Motives by which they are guided and governed yea when I make use of the Sacred and Infallible Scriptures I do use them abstractively from their Divine and Infallible Authority and only as Moral Evidences of the Truth I assert for any Man may easily foresee that an Atheistical Spirit that denies or questions the truth of the Fact therein delivered will not be convinced by the Infallibility of that Scripture which delivers that for a Truth which he denies or questions This whole Book as thou now seest it was written by me some Years since and hath lain ever since in my Chest and surely therein should have lain still but only for Three Reasons 1. Because that some Writings of mine have without my privity come abroad in Print which I never intended and this might have had the same fate if not in my Life time yet after my Death 2. Because possibly there hath some more care been used by me in the Digesting and Writing hereof than of some others that have gone abroad in publick 3. That although I could never be brought to value the Writings of mine that are published as worthy of the publick view yet I find them well accepted by many which encouraged me to let this Book come abroad under my own Name wherein I used more care than in those lesser Tractates although I have not yet confidence enough to say that this may deserve any great acceptation though there be many things in it which may not please yet I do think there be many things useful and such as will not displease Judicious Readers If there be any Faults or Mistakes in Quotations in Syntax in Translations in Transcriptions or if there by any Errours as possibly there may be in my Deductives Inferences or Applications or if the Language be in some places either improper or obscure or if the Expressions or Words which we sometimes use be not so full so significant or proper or delivered from Amphibologies yet I must desire the Reader to take this Apology for it 1. It was written at leisure and broken times and with great intervals and many times hastily as my busie and important Employment of another nature known to the World would give me leave which must needs make such Breaks and Chasms and Incoherences that possibly a continued uninterrupted series of writing would have prevented and carried on the Discourse with a more equal Thred 2. A long indisposition of Health hath much hindred and interrupted me in a strict revising and amending of what possibly might have been requisite to be done 3. A Man whose scope and intent and drift is at some one thing and hath his Eye and Design fixed upon it many times is not so solicitous nor so curious nor so exact in the choice of
because a Monarchy or Kingdom had its Beginning that therefore the People that constituted the Moles of that Kingdom had its Beginning Kingdoms Monarchies and States often change their Governours and the Forms of Government and their Stiles and Denominations as the Silk-worm doth his shape and yet the People in a continued succession the same Rome took its Name from Romulus but the People were a Farrago collected and gathered out of the neighbouring Nations Greece fell into one Monarchy under Alexander yet the People that were the Stuffing as it were and Materials of that Monarchy were existing before in other Forms of Government and under other Governours And though it is by some supposed That the Assyrian Monarchy began in Ninus yet Diodorus out of Ctesias tells us That he made up that great Structure of the Assyrian Monarchy by the Conquest of divers People who thereby were added to it as the Egyptians Phenicians Syria Coelicia Pamphilia Lydia Caria Phrygia Mysia and many more mentioned by him l. 3. cap. 1. England began not to be a People when Alfred reduced it into a Monarchy for the Materials thereof were extant before namely under the Heptarchy So that the finding out of the Head of a Monarchy is not like the finding out the Head of a River in the Fountain or the Head of a Family in one common Parent The ancientest Monarchy might have a Beginning and yet the People that are the material constituent of it might exist long before under other Forms or Vicissitudes of Governments 2. All Nations do not always begin their Histories or the Matter of the same Antiquity with the People touching which they write but some earlier some later according to the variety of their Opportunities Educations and Disciplines The Israelites were certainly the most knowing People of the World began early to record the Memorials of their own Times and of those that anteceded them delivered down by Tradition from the Patriarchs Thus did Moses and the Annals of that People are carried down to the very dissolution of their Government The Phenicians began their Historical Monuments after them the Grecians after them The Pelasgi and Attici were a People long before Homer wrote England was doubtless Inhabited before Caesar came over yet we have few Monuments of Britain more ancient than Caesar gives us and from him except Beda we have few Authentical Histories by any known Historian before the Conquest by King William but they have been all written since or very near his time and many of the things which they have put together touching the Britains Picts Danes yea and the beginning of the Saxons have been collected out of broken Monuments in Monasteries and Tradition and digested into series and order of times by those that have written long since the things done by men that lived since the Normans came in as Henry of Huntington William of Malmsbury Roger Hoveden Matthew Paris and others 3. A third difficulty is this That in those elder times there were not those means of preserving the Monuments of things past as after times afforded for whatever antiquity the World may be supposed to be it is plain that Arts have increased and grown Printing is a new Invention and although Letters and Writing were ancient among the Phenicians and from them derived to the Greeks yet we must suppose they were not so perfect or so common in the elder Ages as in those that succeed them And therefore those that contend for an Eternal succession of Men in the World do suppose that by a kind of circulation or rotation Arts have their successive invention and perfection and traduction from one People to another and consequently though some might be early able to deliver over Historical passages as being better instructed in Letters and Writing and more civilized than others yet others attained it later As the Europeans had their Learning from the Asiaticks so the Americans have it from the Europeans and yet the People of Europe Asia and America may be of equal Antiquity Besides all this there have been many vicissitudes and changes whereby ancient Monuments and Histories have been lost As 1. The Variation of Languages or at least of the Characters wherein they were written many things written in former Ages being scarce legible in after Ages and so neglected 2. Wars and Desolations hapning thereby which obliterate many ancient Monuments If by a kind of common stipulation or pact as it were Monasteries had not had a kind of common Protection in the vicissitudes of the Conquests of England by the Picts Danes Saxons and Normans we had had very little extant of ancient things 3. Transmigrations of People from one Country to another whereby they left their ancient Monuments behind them which were neglected by them that succeeded them 4. Floods and Inundations especially in the parts of Asia which swept away many ancient Monuments These are the Allays that are to be given to this particular touching the Epochae and Original of Monarchies Kingdoms and States and the Monuments and Historical Relations of them or hapning in them and to the weight of those consequences deduced or deducible from them in order to the Argument in question touching the Origination of Mankind CAP. IV. The Third Instance of Fact proving the Origination of Mankind namely the Invention of Arts. I Come to the Third Instance of Fact namely the Discovery and Perfecting of Arts and the new Discoveries that later Ages have made of things that were not formerly known And this Topick consists principally of these parts 1. That there have been such Discoveries of Things and Arts not formerly known 2. That consequently the World especially of Mankind is of a far later Edition than Eternity Touching the former of these it is very evident both by the Tradition of the Ancients and also by our own unquestionable Experience that very great Discoveries have been in several Ages made of Things and Arts that were hidden and unknown unto precedent Ages I shall not trouble my self with those large Catalogues of profitable Inventions which have been successively discovered when before they were not known at least for ought appears to us as the use of Husbandry the making of Wine and Oyl the discovery of the Letters of the Alphabet in successive Ages Musick Military and Civil Discipline Engins of War and Navigation These and infinite more have been by the Industry of former Writers reduced to their several Epochae and Authors of their Discoveries and some of the Authors have had therefore divine Honour given to them by the admiring Heathen These several Inventors and Inventions are registred by Diodorus Siculus in his first six Books by Clemens Alexandrinus in the first Book of his Stromata by Pliny l. 7. cap. 56. and ex professo by Polydore Virgil in his eight Books de Rerum Inventoribus In which and other Collections of that kind although possibly there be many things that are fabulous or grounded
by Wars Oppressions and Internecions Plagues Famines and other Calamities we find the Product of one Nation derived from only two Persons Isaac and Rebecca in the compass of about 5000 Years swoln into incredible numbers of Millions of Persons now existing and known to be of that Linage and Descent and still continuing unquestionably in that Distinction besides those multitudes derived from the Line of Esau and the ten Tribes which are as it were lest and confounded without any distinction among other Nations And thus far of the first Instance concerning the Multiplication of the Nation of the Jews The next Instance that I shall give shall be nearer home the Kingdom of England I shall not give any Instance touching it before the Conquest because those times are dark and besides the Vicissitudes and Successions of various Nations in this Kingdom renders the discovery of the Progress of Generations of Men or the Increases thereof difficult as Britons Romans Picts Saxons and Danes The ancient Inhabitants were the Britons the Body of which People hath been in a great measure shut up and contained within the Country of Wales but what by the transplanting of many of the Welsh into England and by transplanting of the English into Wales it is not possible to say that all the Britons are confined to the Country of Wales or that none but Britons are there and therefore there can be no particular or evident Conclusion made touching their Increase or Multiplication But I shall take a shorter Period or Compass of Time namely the last 600 Years or thereabouts since the Norman Conquest And although it may be true that many Persons of Forein Countries have come into England and planted themselves here so that the whole Increase of this Kingdom cannot be singly attributed to those that were either Natives or such as came in with the Conquerour but many Scotcâ— Irish Dutch but especially French either by Naturalizations or Transmigrations have increased the Inhabitants of this Island yet considering that probably the Migrations of the English into Scotland Holland France and other Countries have made amends for their Migrations hither We may make a reasonable Conjecture that the Descendents from those that inhabited this Kingdom in the time of the Conquerour have increased exceedingly above what they were in that time And the Evidence thereof is this King William the First after his Victory over Herald did in the 16 th Year of his Reign over England caule a Survey to be made of all the Cities Towns Mannors and inhabited Lands in England Northumberland Cumberland Durham and North-Wales This Survey was finished in the 20 th Year of his Reign and the Book it self preserved to this Day among the Records of the Exchequer not only a Transcript or Copy but the very Original Book it self and is called Doomsday In this Book are entred the Names of the Mannors or inhabited Townships Boroughs and Cities and the Owner of them the Number of Plough-Lands that each contains and the Number of the Inhabitants upon them under the several Names appropriate to those Places As for Instance Ibi 12 Burgenses 5 Villani 5 Bordarii 5 Nativi 5 Radiminches 5 Cotterelli and the like according to the quality or condition of the Inhabitants So that this Book in effect gives an Account not only of the Manurable Lands in every Mannor Town or Vill but also of the Number and Natures of their several Inhabitants To make a Calculation of the Number of Plough-Lands and Inhabitants through all England as they are recorded and to make therewith a Comparison unto the present State and Number of Inhabitants at this Day throughout England is a laborious piece of work but it is not difficult to be done in any one County I have tryed the Comparison in the County of Gloucester through some great Boroughs as Gloucester it self Thornbury Tetbury and other places and in effect through the whole County and I do find 1. That there are very many more Vills and Hamlets now than there were then and very few Villages Towns or Parishes then which continue not to this Day but now there are as many as then and many more The 5 th of March 9 E. 2. there issued Writs to the Sheriffs of the several Counties to return the Names of the several Vills and Land-Owners in their several Bayliwicks which was accordingly done and remains of Record in the Exchequer under the stile of Nomina Villarum and the Sum of the Vills of Gloucestershire together with the five Boroughs of Gloucester Bristol Berkley Dursly and Newenham amounted to 234 which I take it are more than are in Doomsday and yet not so many as are at this day and those that continue to this day are far more populous than they were at the taking of either of those Surveys 2. That there is much more Tillage and more Plough-Lands now than there were then which happens by the reduction of many great Wasts and Commons into Tillage or Meadow or Pasture which then were only Wasts and therefore not particularly surveyed because of no considerable Value and not taken notice of in that Survey 3. That the number of Inhabitants now are above twenty times more than they were at that time as well in particular Towns Boroughs and Mannors as in the general extent of the County and yet that Survey even as to the number and quality of those that resided in those Towns or Mannors at least as Housholders is very precise and particular I have not yet made an exact particular Calculation of the Number recorded in that Book through the whole County but I will give a few Instances of particular Towns which may give an estimate touching the whole Gloucester is now a very great and populous City formerly before the time of H. 8. a Borough In the Survey of Doomsday it is surveyed distinct from the Bertun of Glouc ' the gross of the Borough is surveyed together in the beginning of the County but there are some other particular Burgages thereof mentioned under the Titles of particular Mens Possessions as Terra Rogeri de Lacy Terra Elnuffi de Hesding c. The whole concretion of the City of Gloucester consists partly of what was the ancient Borough partly of accessions from the Mannors or Villages adjacent as Barton and some others I shall therefore cast up the whole Number of all that were in Gloc ' or Barton In the Survey of Gloucester there are reckoned 23 Burgages and Houses 16 that were demolished for the building of the Castle 14 that were wasted and some that belonged to Osbertus Episcopus not numbred but yielded the yearly Rent of 10 Shillings which according to the usual rate of the Houses in Gloucester at that time which was at 5 d or 6 d a House might produce 20 Houses in toto 73. Besides these there are surveyed under the Titles of several Owners of Lands sparsim through the Book as under the Title