the very names of these Patriarkes and Fathers an hystoricall narration may bee made vnto the Messiah himselfe who was Iesus the Sauiour the Emanuel God with vs. Then let vs not thinke that these names of Christ his Parents or others vpon occasions giuen or changed fell from the mouthes of these Patriarkes as lots fall from the lappe but rather doe those Prophets fore-seeing Christ to come met him with their thankfull remembrances and saw his daies a farre off and reioyced These Etymologies then leade vs vnto the Messiah as the Starre did the Wise-men vnto Christ wherein if our dull apprehensions fall too short as who can comprehend the full mystery that God would become man in the flesh where we vnderstand let vs reioyce and bee thankfull and where wee vnderstand not let vs pray for his Spirit that our darknes may be made light in Christ. CHAP. III. That the Scriptures Genealogies are the Scriptures staies for Chronology AS then the names of these Fathers affoord great light to the sacred stories and heauenly moisture to the thirsting Searcher So are their dayes the bounds of the yeere and their liues the measure of time and of the Sunnes course for neither by the motions of the Planets nor circle of the Moone the Sunne was obserued to passe the twelue Signes in the Zodiake for two thousand eighty three yeeres continuance but onely and altogether by the liues of those first Patriarkes for many generations successiuely This glory God gaue to parents of his Son that so long as they held him for their God Iehouah and with true worship honoured him aright so long that most excellent creature the Sunne the beauty of the heauens and the delight of the world gaue place for his measurings to these earthly men For no otherwise was the world calculated then by this threefolde accounts of begettings ages and deaths of the first nineteene Fathers before and after the floud which account is of such strength as the threefold cord of Salomon is not so strong As for example Adam at an hundred and thirty yeeres of his life begat Seth and liued after his birth eight hundred and died aged nine hundred and thirty yeeres Seth at an hundred and fiue begot Enos he liued after his birth eight hundred and seuen and died aged nine hundred and twelue yeeres Enos liued ninety yeeres and begot Cainan and liued after hee had begot Cainan eight hundred and fifteene yeers so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dayes of Enos were nine hundred and fiue yeeres and so of all the rest vnto Terah the Father of Abraham But Terah falling to Idolatrie with the rest of the profane beyond the Riuer besides that note of infamie to be the first of the holy Lyne that serued strange gods was the last of that Lyne that measured the Sunnes course and had that honour for computation taken from him as one vnworthy to direct the light of the world being fallen into darke Idolatry himselfe and God from that time tied the summe of times in holier bands as from the promise to the Law from the Law to the building of the Temple from thence to the Kingdomes diuision and their continuance by Ezekiels siege and sleep to the destruction of the Temple thence to the end of Babels captiuity and lastly thence to the eternall liberty bought with the bloud and death of our Messiah Christ. But God in Iustice euer remembring mercy hath not so eclipsed these holy Fathers renowne as to stand naked for vse in the computations following but hath rather set them for Stones in times buildings to giue the luster of truth in the Theologicall Chronicle of his sacred decrees and hath made them Iudges how the times set by himselfe fell in number weight and measure For in the sweete promises to Abraham that his seed should inherit the Land of Canaan this pill of bitter digestion came in that they should be afflicted in a strange Land the space of foure hundred yeeres and those expired in the fourth generation they should be deliuered Now the most noted affliction was the thraldome of Egypt vnder the burdens of brick and clay and the deliuery from that Iron furnace was as faithfully accomplished and as mightily performed in the fourth generation of Israels sons For of Iudahs tribe Hezron was one that went downe into Egypt and Nahshon the fourth in desent was a Prince in the Wildernesse So likewise of Leui Kohath was one of the seauentie soules and his fourth Eleazer diuided the Land Againe the dwelling of the children of Israel in Egypt as Moses to some seemeth to auerre was foure hundred and thirty yeers But the Apostle Saint Paul who wrote by the same spirit to proue grace before workes maketh the number no more betwixt the promise and the Law now wee know that the Law was giuen immediately vpon the departure of Israel out of Egypt in the wildernesse of Sinai as also that the halfe of those yeeres were fully expired before that Israel came to dwell in Egypt For Abraham at seuenty fiue receiued the promise and at an hundred of his life which was twenty fiue yeeres after Isaac was borne Isaac at sixty begot Iacob and Iacob was an â—…o when he came before Pharaoh all which added together make but halfe the number euen two hundred and fifteene Thus then by the sacred Genealogies the sure foundations of holy stories wee are taught how to reade Moses with vnderstanding who in these foure hundred thirty yeeres doth include the peregrinations afflictions and dwellings of Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the Land of Canaan with the Israelites soiourning in Egypt And so the Septuagints doe interpret the Text The dwelling say they of the children of Israel which dwelt in Egypt and in the Land of Canaan both â—…hey and their Fathers was foure hundred and thirty yeeres And in the same words doth Augustine expound it as Iosephus likewise before him had done The mistaking of this hath beene Gordius knot vnto many and hath â—…oubled Genebrard not a little to vnâ—…ose who to defend the Latine bad â—…anslation rather will haue Moses 〈◊〉 omit some of his owne Ancestors 〈◊〉 his Text then that their Text â—…ould therein be faulty But neuer any Hebrew Greeke or â—…atine euer set Moses further from Abraham then the seauenth nor is â—…is obiection of greater force of the impossibility that from seuenty persons onely sixe hundred thousand men besides women and children should bee proceated within the compasse of two hundred and fifteene yeeres For if we consider the wonderful increase of Israel in Egypt who aboundantly multiplied and waxed exceeding many so that the Land saith the Text was filled with them and that from seauenty persons all of them able and apt for generation we shal find it nothing so strange But stranger had it
beene if Israels abode had beene in Egypt fully foure hundred and thirty yeeres with no greater increase God promising to multiply that seede of Abraham as the starres of Heauen and the dust of the earth For in the like space of foure hundred and thirty yeeres the World from the floud was replenished onely by three persons Iaphet Sem and Ham with farre greater increase For in Abrahams story we reade of the preparation of nine Kings and of sixe Nations in Canaan and the Countries adiacent And that the earth was peopled and replenished both continent and Ilands long before wee see by the dispersions of Noahs sonnes through the world neither doth the Text being aduisedly read inforce any such continuance in Egypt for thus doth Moses write and our last translation reade The soiourning of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was foure hundred and thirty yeeres But that the Israelites dwelt not in Egypt foure hundred and thirty yeeres as Genebrard vnderstandeth Moses a second foundation by the holy Genealogies is laid for Kohath accompanied Iacob into Egypt and his sonne was Amram and his son Moses Then seeing Kohath is the enterer and Moses the departer the time cannot extend to foure hundred and thirty yeeres for Kohath liued but one hundred thirty three yeeres Amram his sonne but one hundred thirty seuen and Moses his son was eighty at the departure All which added together make but three hundred and fifty and yet some of them also must bee deducted where they liued together These ages therfore are so sure and true witnesses of Moses his meaning that Genebrard mistaking it affirmeth some betwixt Kohath and Moses to bee omitted To such extremity Genealogies enforceth And yet further to illustrate the text for story a weake woman may serue to support the truth namely Iochebed the mother of Moses who was the immediate daughter of Leui borne vnto him in Egypt by Elishebah his wife Nom. 26. 59. Now the life of Leui extended but to one hundred thirty seuen yeeres Exod. 6. 16. whereof forty three were spent before hee came into Egypt which thus may be collected Leui was borne of Leah in the third yeere of the second seuen of Iacobs seruice with Laban in the end of which seauen Ioseph also was borne Gen. 30. 25. Chap. 31. 41. So that Ioseph is but foure yeeres yonger then Leui. Now Iosephs age at his expounding of Pharoahs dreame was thirty Gen. 41. 46. And thence the seauen yeeres of plenty and the two of famine were expired Gen. 45. 6. So that Ioseph was aged when his Father and bretheren came into Egypt thirty nine yeeres and Leui his elder was at that time forty three whose continuance then in Egypt must be ninety foure yeeres for ninety foure added to forty three make one hundred thirty seauen his whole age to his death before which time it is manifest Iochebed his daughter must bee borne or be begotten Now if the abode in Egypt were fully foure hundred thirty yeeres then three hundred thirty six yeeres after Leui his death must be the departure thence but so long a time by Iochebeds age cannot be granted for she being borne but ninety foure yeeres after the first entrance and liuing to beare a sonne but eighty yeers before the departure the time betwixt the death of her father and the birth of her sonne must be the age of her owne life for had shee beene borne the day of her fathers death which is not likely and had died the day of her sonnes birth which wee know is contrary yet must shee haue beene two hundred fifty and sixe yeeres old when shee bare Moses A time by much too long for weomen to conceiue and her age farre vnfit to giue sucke or to bee chosen a fit nurse for a Kings daughters sonne And therefore it is certenly gathered by these holy Genealogies that the peregrinations of the Patriarks Abraham Isaac and Iacob for the space of two hundred and fifteene yeeres must be accounted with the time of the continuance in Egypt both which together make the sum of foure hundred and thirty What lights therefore Genealogies are for history let these here alleaged stand for witnesses wherein I appeale to the gaine-sayers themselues whether any text bee forced contrary to the true meaning CHAP. IIII. That the Scriptures Genealogies doe limit Daniels Seuens not to exceede 490 yeeres THE like vse and vtility shall we find in the succeeding times of the sacred Records and most especially in that which concerneth vs most namely â—…he time mentioned in Daniel which â—…oreshewed the death of the true Lambe Christ vnto whom all the sacrifices of the Law pointed and in whom all the Leuiticall rites ended â—…e being our high Priest farre aboue Aarons order Now among many other maleâ—…ictions threatned for the breach of â—…he Law this was one that the Land should lie waste to pay her Sabbaths of rest Which time of waste â—…he Prophet Ieremy affirmeth to haue beene seuenty yeeres and doth begin their account in the first yeere of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babel from whence all nations should serue him his sonne and sonnes sonne the space of seuenty yeeres which expired in the third of Belshazzar and first yeere of King Cyrus when the raigne of the Kingdome of Persia beganne as it is in 2. Chron. 36. 20. 22. Vpon which Text of Ieremie Daniel tooke his occasion of Prayer for their deliuerance and the Lord was as ready to accomplish his promise who sending his Angell euen in the same moment certified him that whilest his supplications were in making the Decree of deliuerance was in determining and that not onely from Babels seuenty yeeres captiuity but also thence after seuenty times seuen should bee a full deliuerance from spiritual thraldome by the doctrine and death of the Messiah These seuenty seuens Gabriel diuideth into 3. parts as followeth 1. To the rebuilding of the City and building the second Temple seuen seuens Secondly Sixty two seuens wherein a silence for Prophesie the want of fier from heauen the Vrim and Thummim should be had And thirdly one seuen in the halfe whereof Christ should confirme the Couenant for many and in the end thereof should seale vp mans redemption by his death and passion Notwithstanding this tripple account and plainnesse of Chronologie which the Angell aimeth at as to the true period of times fulnesse hath beene troubled with the vncertaine computations both of Iewes and Christians who haue both shrunke and tentered them from the iust number of foure hundred and ninety yeeres which seuenty seuens make in their owne propriety For some will haue them to containe no fixed certaine time at all but rather thinke they were spoken vnto Daniel as Christ spake vnto Peter in forgiuing his brothers offences I say not vnto thee vnto seauen times but vnto seuenty times
the affections of the people or both and therefore Saint Mathew spareth to record them among the Catalogue of Salomons other successors that so the title of Iesus to the Kingdome might stand firme without any debarre or exceptions howsoeuer First then of Ahaziah the first it is said that he was the youngest sonne of his father for the Philistines and Arabians that were neighbours to the Ethiopians had carried away King Iorams wiues and his other sonnes so that there was not a sonne left him sauing Ahaziah the youngest 2 Chro. 21. 17. And albeit in the next Chapter it be said that the Philistines with the Arabians had slayne all the eldest sonnes yet before their slaughter which was in Ethiopia for thither they were brought the Inhabitants of Ierusalem had made Ahaziah the youngest sonne King contrary to the Law ordained in Deuteronomy which giueth the royalty alwayes to the eldest And Ahaziah himselfe being as wicked as any walked in the wayes of the house of Ahab for his mother Athalia counselled him to doe wickedly for which and his other defects hee was lastly slaine by Iehu King of Israel when hee executed Gods threats vpon the House of Ahab Ioash the second in Saint Mathews omission after the slaughter of Ahaziah his father and of other his kinsmen the Princes of Iudah of himselfe was vnable saith the Text to retaine the Kingdome and for six yeers space was neither acknowledged King nor vulgarly knowne to be aliue For in the rage and vsurpation of Athaliah he was hid in the Temple by his Aunt Iehoshabeath and lastly preferred to the Throne by Iehoiada her Husband which kindnesse he requited with the slaughter of Zechariah their sonne slaine at his commandement in the Court of the Lords house for which and for the bloud he had spilt his seruants conspired against him in his house at Millo and slew him his body not permitted to haue the honour of buriall in the Sepulchers of the Kings and therefore vnworthy of name or of future remembrance Amaziah the third was not a preseruer of the Commonwealths state as Kings ought to be but rather the destroyer of state Kingdome as by his raigne is seene For besides his Idolatry to the Idols of Edom and the prouoking thereby of Gods wrath in his head-strong rashnesse hee prouoked Ioash King of Israel to fight against Iudah wherein himselfe was taken the treasures of the Temple and of the Kings house carried away and the wall of Ierusalem broken downe in length foure hundred cubits and afterwards he liued in dislike without loue in so much as his people pursued him from Ierusalem vnto Lachish there slew him his death not reuenged but his murtherers escaping all condigne punishments And after his death for the hatred the people bare him his Crowne for an eleuen yeeres space was helde from Vzziah his sonne and an interregnum in Iudah betwixt the death of the father and the raigne of the sonne so long for by the parerellizing raignes of the Kings of Iudah and Israel Amaziahs death fell in the fifteenth of Ieroboam King of Israel and Uzziah beganne not to raigne til the twenty seuen yeere of the same King These things considered might wel moue an omission of his name by Saint Mathew And in Iehoiakim the last some disliked defects were knowne for that the people of the Land reiected him for their King and annointed Iehoahaz his yonger brother by two yeeres in his stead contrary to the vsuall custome of succession And Iehoiakim himselfe being made King by Necho King of Egypt his title standeth litigious for the Law commanded by Moses thus speaketh From among thy brethren shalt thou make a King ouer thee thou shalt not set a stranger ouer thee which is not thy brother If then a stranger must not be permitted a King to raigne ouer Gods people then by the same Law a stranger could not impose his substitute ouer them as Iehoiakim was And Iehoiakims title it selfe seemeth to stand in a double defect The one is that he did assume the title and authority of King his brother aliue annoynted and established whereas Dauid though chosen of God and annoynted by Samuel acknowledged Saul for his Soueraigne neither seeking to shorten his life nor disquiet his raigne And the other is the vnlawfull meanes hee had to the Crowne which was by the strong hand of Necho of the cursed Egyptians the ancient enemies to Israel Gods people And Iehoiakims life as wicked as any in cutting of Ieremiahs Role was cut off by Nebuchadnezzar King of Babel and his carkasse cast out of the gate of Ierusalem to the heate of the day and frost of the night was lastly vnlamented buried as an Asse is buried so contemptible was his life death and buriall These I assume were the causes of these foure Kings omissions that is to say the first and last not lawfully succeeding in the Throne were omitted and the other the one of them not able to attaine the Crown for the space of sixe yeeres after his fathers death did not raigne King and the sonne of the other for the space of eleuen yeeres after his fathers death was not admitted to be King so vnwilling were the people that his issue should raigne It is Augustines obseruation that Salomon was reckoned for Dauid his fathers sake and that Rehoboam was recorded for Assa his sonnes sake If so in them such respect was had for the goodnesse of the father and the son then in these such contempt was had for the badnesse both of father and sonne as they are omitted and vnnamed and themselues slaine by their seruants and subiects doth confirme the cause of their omissions more strongly And albeit that bad Ammon and good Iosiah were likewise slaine the one by his seruants and the other by Necho King of Egypt and that Zedekiah by Nebuchadnezzar a stranger was likewise made King and all of them notwithstanding recorded by Saint Mathew yet are not their estates alike For Ammons death was reuenged by the people of the Land and Iosiahs death lamented both by the people and the Prophet neither of which the other were And Nebuchadnezzar made the great Monarch of the World euen by God himselfe had thereby a lawfull power both to set vp and to depose Kings which Necho had not and therefore Zedekiah his title is not to be called in question as Iehoiakims is Whereupon wee conclude that the Euangelist Saint Mathew to shew the right that Iesus had vnto Iudahs Crowne recordeth his title onely from those Kings that were without all exceptions estated vnto Iudahs Throne and omitteth those against whom any exceptions are found that so Christ who came to fulfill all Lawes might haue a lawfull succession vnto that Kingdome whereunto he was borne for other materiall reason of omission we find none And
omission of the three former in the former diuision of three Kings in a direct line and all to shew as is said the lawfull succession that Iesus had vnto Iudahs Crown This last collection I see not how to be excepted against it hauing so sure a warrant by the holy Scripture it selfe for heauen and earth shall passe ere the word perish Salathiel his Sonne Pedaiah and the sonne of Pedaiah Zorobabel But why Pedaiah is not recorded for a naturall father of Christ in the Catalogue of his naturall fathers by the Euangelist Saint Luke where all vnto Adam are nominated is hid from me and therefore with Nazianzen will I say Where I vnderstand I will thankefully praise thee and where I vnderstand not I will fall downe and admire thee And with Dauid pray that thy word may be a lanterne vnto our feete And with Paul that our darknes may be made light in Christ. Another meditation ariseth in other families of Iudahs tribe so deep and doubtfull that Hugo de Saint Victor thinketh it a question vndissoluable and without further search so leaueth it which is how Caleb of Hezron at forty yeeres old could be either great Grand-father vnto Bezaleel the skilfull workmen in the Tabernacle or the searcher of the Land at the same yeere and time He being the fifth in an equall equipage pararellising Bezaleel and both of them borne in Aegypt from Hezron of Iudah and actiue men together in the wildernesse the one in ordering the curious workes from the patterne shewed by God himselfe vnto Moses and the other a Captaine that descried the riches of Canaan by his owne trauaile whose dissents for more plainnesse I haue here set downe to sight The Descents of Caleb and Bezaleel How Caleb and Bezaleel were actiue men together though differing in their descents The Sercher of the Land of Canaan Both actiue men in one age The skilful workman in the Tabernacle In this descent then whether the first Caleb the sonne of Hezron and great Grand-father vnto Bezaleel or the last Caleb paralelising Bezaleel through so many degrees were the Lands-searcher both of them come from the same Hezron and actiue men together at one time in the wildernesse hath been much controuersed and many opinions maintained with variable iudgements That the Lands-searcher was the great Grandfather vnto Bezaleel Rabbi Salom a great Doctor of the Iews bringeth a strange vnexemplified descent vnto Bezaleel for saith hee Caleb at eight yeres old married his first wife Azuba who died the first yere of her mariage in his ninth he took Ephrath otherwise called Miriam the sister of Moses for his second wife of whom in his tenth yeere was borne Hur and Hur in the tenth yeere of his owne life begot Vri when Caleb was twenty one yeeres old and Vri in his ninth begat Bezaleel Caleb then being thirty and Bezaleelten when hee began to frame the Tabernacle at which time Caleb was forty yeeres old But how many ouersights are in these his sayings is soone perceiued first that Caleb should haue not a child but children as hee is said to haue by Azuba 1. Chron. 2. 18. he being but eight yeeres old is vncredible secondly that Azuba should be a mother of children she dying the first yeere of her marriage vnlesse they were twinnes which is not apparant is vnpossible thirdly that Caleb aged but nine should take to wife Miriam the sister of Moses she being about nintie is not agreeable for shee was elder then Moses and of discretion to call her mother for his nurse when the daughter of Pharaoh found him in the Arke of Bull-rushes since when we know fourescore and one yeeres to bee fully expired To make her then a mother at ninty and to beare a Sonne in that age of her life is so vnlikely that Iosephus will haue her not to be the mother of Hur but the wife of Hur and mother vnto Vri his son which is far more probable their yeres agreeable fit for marriage For Hur was in the same degree from Hezron of Iudah who went with Iacob into Egypt as Miriam was from Kohath of Leui one of the seuenty that descended also for Kohath begot Amram and Amram Miriam so Hezron begot Caleb and Caleb Hur. Fourthly that Hur and Vri should bee either of them Fathers at tenne yeeres of age is vnexemplified in Scripture though Genebrard allow that Haran might bee father vnto Sara at eight And lastly that Bezaleel should haue the aduantage of Christ by two yeeres to be as skilfull at ten in the worke of the Tabernacle as Christ was at twelue to build the true Temple when with admiration hee opposed the Doctors and expounded the Law These impossibilities therefore our ancient Lyra well perceiued but in seeking to redresse them hee fell into as great an error himselfe in saying that these men Hur Vri and Bezaleel mentioned in the first of Chronicles chap. 2. 20. were not the same that were spoken of in Exod. chap. 31. but were other men of the same name of the same tribe But so to expound the text is dangerous lest a liking liberty loose thereby the ioynts of the holy scriptures frame and to giue the water that passage the breach will bee great Vatablus in his annotations and Cumanus Flinspach in his Arca Dei doe take Hezron to be Iephunneh so consequently the first Caleb the sonne of Hezron to be the same Caleb the sonne of Iephunneh and the great Grand-father vnto Bezaleel But therein then must bee followed all Rabbi Solomoh his errours for Calebs forty yeres age wil inforce it so But that Hezron could bee either Iephunneh or the Father of Caleb the Lands-surueyour is by the text manifestly contradicted for Hezron was borne vnto Phares before that Iacob went downe into Egypt and in Egypt Hezron begot his sonne the first Caleb when he was threescore yeers of age as 1. Chron. 2. 21. by which account that Caleb must needes haue been an hundred fiftie fiue yeeres old in the first yeere of the wildernesse for in Egypt the abode was two hundred and fifteene as before we haue shewed But Caleb the sonne of Iephunneh the lands-searcher was then but forty yeeres old wherby it is euident these Calebs could not be one and the same but two seuerall men Now as it is impossible for the first Caleb the great Grand-father vnto Bezaleel to be the lands-searcher so the last Caleb being the seuenth in descent from him and the fifth in degree after Bezaleel ministreth matter of much seeming difficultie for that both of them at one time were imployed in most serious affaires As touching Calebs successors I know there are many doubts made some making but two Calebs some three and some foure and the first and last hauing either of them a daughter called Aâ—…hsah doth no whit lessen the doubt Again whether Ezer mentioned in