sin CHAP. VI. How the sin of Adam was cause of mens salvation not condemnation Since the death of Christ no mans sin is imputed to another but every own bears his own sin THat question which is commonly disputed concerning original sin is intricate dark and difficult upon presupposition that all men were born of Adam Upon my supposition if God give me leave I will make it so plain and open that we shall never have any difficulty There are some that throw hatred upon God according to the first supposition in saying that his Law was too rigid and cruel in that he imputed that which was done by Adam without the knowledge of men before they had a being to all mankind and in that the punishments for that sin were so heavy that the whole nature of man was over-run with punishments and plagues For by no humane Laws was there ever any successors appointed of others crimes Let Children says Plato not suffer for the wickedness of their Parents It seem'd a cruel and pernicious president to the Senate of Rome to destroy Cassius's children when Cassius the Offender himself was destroyed people who did endeavour to settle such ways of punishment seemed to do things worthy the hatred of men and the anger of the Gods But this seems to exceed all kind of cruelty that after a miserable and tormenting life men should be cast into a burning lake and give their enlivened liver again to be gnawn by worms and there in weeping and gnashing of teeth to die and never die for ever and beyond eternity To which inconveniences that from my supposition I may briefly and clearly answer and stop every mouth speaking irreverently of God It is before sufficiently shown that the imputation of Adams sin added nothing to the nature of man given to corruption which is meerly mystical and is only conceived in spirit therefore as to nature that imputation added no new businesse We must here consider what damage men receiv'd in this according to mystery We must first resolve that the Apostle Paul where he says in the 10 to the Romans That Christ is the end of the Law Meant that Christ was the end of all mysteries both which were commanded by the Law and contained in the books of the Prophets In which signification the Law is very frequent and is taken for the whole Bible Let it be so saith the Lord to St. John refusing to baptize him for thus it becoms us to fulfill all-truth Truth in that place is the mysterie For Christ fulfilled all mysteries which he perfected and accomplished the ends of them Besides mystery is called truth because all mysteries ordain'd by God lead to truth Nor is mysterie an empty name and a bare title or fiction without its reallity and species Yea it accomplishes the chiefest thing of all in that it begets truth salvation and immortality to men which shall be cleared in its own place Christ was the chief end of that mysterie by which the sin of Adam was imputed to men that to them the justice of Christ which is the death of Christ might be imputed You must also take notice that Christ is Jesus who is the Saviour to whom the destroyer is oppos'd and that is Antichrist the destroyer of men Jesus came to save men not to destroy them But as Christ was ordained the end to the salvation of man their were mediums appointed to bring them to that end for the accomplishment of the forementioned salvation The imputation then of the sin of Adam which brought us to that end was the cause of our salvation not our destruction Therefore that dispensation of the divine Law was first of meeknesse and bounty not of wrath and crueltie by which men not knowing and being not yet born had the guilt of Adam imputed to them For the sin of Adam was imputed to them without their knowledge that the justice of Christ might be likewise imputed to them without their knowledge which is the salvation of the Lord Sin begat Justification by the same miracle as darknesse is said to have produced light and death raised up life They are much deceiv'd who think that eternal death ensued that condemnation of death which was decreed upon the sin of Adam For I think it is sufficiently clear'd out of the Apostle Paul to the Romans whom to this purpose I cited in the former chapter that the condemnation was not eternal but bounded with some limits That it was born with Adam and ended with Moses Death reign'd from Adam to Moses says the Apostle For that death followed the fate of sin and of the father of it who begat it The sin of Adam began to reign from the transgression of the Law which I therefore call a legal sin Legal sin liv'd as long as the Law liv'd and when the Law was extinct that was likewise extinguished That legal death reign'd as long as the Law reign'd and behoved to die also when the Law died Eternity also is indefinite Legal death had its certain limits Adam and Moses beyond which it could not remain Therefore that death could not confer an eternity upon men which it self had not What then shall we sin because we are not under the Law and because there is now no condemnation remaining by the Law which may hinder our design of sinning Far be it says the Apostle And that this objection may be quite satisfied I think I shall doe very well to discover the whole mystery in order and what I have spoken apart to set down together and represent it altogether to the view Reason and holy Writ witnesses that all things are corruptible and mortal which are composed of mortal and corruptible matter And that men being made of matter mortal and corruptible by virtue of their mortal and corruptible creation could not ascend up to an incorruptible and immortal God to become themselves immortal and incorruptible God is incorruptible but men from their flesh which is their matter reap corruption Galat. 6. God is immortal The flesh savours of death Rom. 8. God is good it self Goodnesse dwels not in the flesh of man but evil is continually with it Rom. 7. Men that are in the flesh cannot please God For the flesh is enmity to God Is not subject to the Law of God nor can be And a thousand such things we read in the Scripture By which it appears the vitiousnesse of the flesh matter and creation of man ought to be redrest and that men ought to be transformed to new creatures that of evil they might become good of corruptible incorruptible of mortal immortal and possesse the Kingdom of God Which flesh and blood which is corruption cannot possesse Cor. 1. Chapter 15. Men that were to be transform'd and new created behov'd to die as we have shown you before And God decreed that they should all die in his Christ who in forming a humane body and dying for them by proxie might alter
Ancestors might presume of their salvation upon the same account as all the Patriarchs of the the Jews could conceive hope in their salvation For neither did those Fathers of the Jews know God the Father as Father nor believed in Christ the Son according to the Apostle in the last Chapter of the Romans The mystery of God the Father and God the Son was hidden from eternity to our times Therefore it was hid and unknown to all those Patriarchs that were betwixt Adam and Christ But if any mention the words of our Saviour saying that Abraham and Isay foresaw the day of Christ and were glad I answer they saw the day of Christs coming but cloath'd in shadows and figures as one Who sees in clouds or thinks he sees the Moon They smil'd upon Christ but knew him not as Infants smile upon their Mothers and whom by laughter they are said to know rather poetically than truly for instinct it is rather in Children than knowledge It is also written in the first Chapter to the Ephesians That God did chuse the Gentiles to the Adoption of his own Sons before the creation of the World God forbid that we should think that election was so unprofitable and to so little purpose which we suppose to be from eternity to the framing of Adam and so to Jesus Christ that none of all the Gentiles was elected and called to the participation of salvation which was in Christ all that time which was betwixt the infancy of the world till the death of Christ Melchisedech was a Gentile for he was not a Jew which he has clearly set down in his Epistle to the Hebrews chap. 7 verse 6. And he was the Priest of the most high God Therefore elected yea a vessel of most choice election who received the tenths from Abraham and to whose eternal Priesthood the eternal Priesthood of Christ is compared Iob is thought to be a Gentile a man single and upright fearing God and departing from evil a servant of God and therefore chosen and to whom as God says himself there was not the like upon earth Cornelius the Centurian of the Italian legion was a Gentile a man pious and fearing God with his whole houshold and given to good works I passe by a great many Proselites as also those Gentiles whom Mothanus Vuyerius the Chiron of our Achilles makes a long Catalogue of in his elegant and and learned Treatise of the vertue of Heathens I say I passe by all those good approved and wisemen whom long before the death of Christ its probable yea we may very well believe were chosen by God and called unto the Lord But in the same account were after Adam to Christ in the same account I say were those Gentiles in the first age from the creation of the world till the framing of Adam For this cause I think that all those Gentiles begotten before and after Adam good and meek men to have been Christs chief because I believe they were the bondmen and servants of Christ For if any had the spirit of Christ he was Christs as says the Apostle Romans 8. I think they had the Spirit of Christ because I think they were touched and inspired by the spirit of Christ which by secret operations and thoughts wrought in them salvation to life eternal The spirit of Christ was in the Gentiles as the soul is in Infants by which they are sensible and which the Infants perceive but are not sensible of it The spirit of Christ was in them as reason is in Children which is in them a power to become reasonable but as yet not brought in to act Therefore is that spirit called the power of God unto salvation Rom. chap. 1. The spirit of Christ was in them as in a grain of Corn there is a vegetative power For that grain of Corn grows and increases in the earth without the knowledge of the Husbandman who sowed it Which is observed in the Gospel according to St. Mark For this cause the spirit of Christ which is the kingdom of God is compared to the grain of Corn For that spirit which is in the elect grows and increases whilst the elect in whom it is know not of it That spirit of Christ was given to the Gentiles not knowing being supine and asleep to whom that of the 127 Psalm agreeed very well When he shall give his beloved sleep Behold the inheritance of the Lord The inheritance of the Lord which is the Kingdom of God the spirit of Christ and life eternal The spirit of Christ was in them but it was hidden and unknown nor revealed it self unto them They felt and worshipped that spirit they felt that which they knew not they worshiped that which they were ignorant of They dedicated Altars which they consecrated to the unknown God which unknown God St. Paul himself by name did expound to the Athenians The spirit of Christ was hidden in them therefore were they elect unknown as St. Paul calls others Jews in secret Romans 3. They were shut up to that faith which was to be revealed Which St. Paul also affirms of those holy Jews who lived under the Law from Adam till Christ and might be also well fitted to those just Gentiles who liv'd under Nature before the Law and Adam Those Gentiles were like wandring sheep who knew not the shepheard that led them but which according to Saint Peter in his second Epistle chapter 2. might be turned to the shepheard of their souls They were hidden in their knowledge and profession and only so far known as they could be discern'd by their workes which was the true and real proof of their Election As the Lord says By their works you shall know them More of this I will speake if it shall please God where I shall speak of purpose concerning the calling of the Gentiles which was in force after the rejection of the Jews I will begin the second Part of this Systeme from the rejection of the Jews Because I have spoken enough of the Election of the Jews and of the Gentiles elected in the Jews and will speak no farther of it The End of the first Part.
complaint of the Elect in the Scripture as it were accusing God that he shews all his power to heap prosperity upon the wicked that all things goe well with them that things which they wish for come to pass beyond their hopes and that no disasters blast their pleasures and their joyes Likewise the most excellent Poet falls out with his gods because his Mistress having sworn by them being perjur'd kept the same face which she had before that she being perjur'd had as long hair as before that she had the same Roses in her cheeks the same neat foot the same fair and clear eyes after she had injur'd the gods as she had before she swore Nay after she had tyed her self by so many execrations she became fairer and fairer And certainly the supposition of the Roman Law granted a great many who were prisoners with the Enemy dead in a civil sense who were notwithstanding in good health Therefore it is apparent that neither suppositions of Law nor intentions of mysterie could any jot indammage nature nor that the imputation of Adams sin which is altogether mystical and spiritual was the cause of Plagues Fevers and other diseases which Nature causes in men but that they happen by reason of vitious matter and the frame of their creation which is subject to corruption CHAP. III. The natural death of men arises from the nature of man which is mortal nor is caus'd by the condemnation of death decreed against Adam which is the legal death and is meant spiritually not naturally ANd it is the fashion of all Inconveniences that one draws another there are not those wanting who affirm That if Adam had not sinn'd men should never have dyed as if immortality which is aeternal life and which onely a new Creation could beget as only having the power of immortality in it could have been bestowed upon men by the force and vertue of the first Creation which by its nature is subject to corruption and death and that men should not have dyed who as the Schools say are naturally corruptible and were created mortal Nay say they God said to Adam Eat not of the tree of good and evil for on that day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death Therefore gather they If death was given as a punnishment to Adam on that day wherein he transgressed the Law of God Adam should have never dyed if he had never sinn'd But that consequence is utterly denied for although they die which kill therefore they which do not kill are not immortal Those that are guilty and not guilty of blood come to a certain end by death This is the difference 'twixt both their deaths that those that are upright 〈◊〉 of good life die simply naturally those that dye by order of Law are said to dye a two-fold death naturally and legally a natural death and that which is can'd legal and civil by the condemnation of the Law Truly whether a man by the sentence of the Judge be strangled or be beheaded or dye upon the rack he is first to be thought dead a natural death as being dead by natural causes as stopping or cutting the passages of his breath Again because to this nature a condemnation by Law is added he is said for the way of his death to have dyed a second and a civil death The same is to be thought to have happened to Adam being condemned by the Law of God which happen'd to other men condemned by the Laws of men Adam should have dyed a natural death and by a cause meerly natural since he was made up of matter corruptible and mortal Adam dyed likewise a legal death by the condemnation of the Law at which time he broke the Law of God The natural death of Adam followed the natural sin of Adam and the infirmity of his corruption springing from the corruptible matter whereof he was made Legal sin made the legal death of Adam There was a mystical cause of that mystical effect which only could be conceiv'd by spirit and reason This shall be evidently prov'd by Adam himself God had said to Adam Whatsoever day then eatest thou shalt die the death Therefore Adam is thought to have died the very same day the very same minute wherein he transgressed the Law of God And yet Adam died neither naturally nor bodily that minute or that day For we know that he liv'd Nine hundred years after he sinned Therefore we shall understand that Adam dyed when he transgressed the Law of God a legal and a spiritual death which only could be conceiv'd in thought Adam dyed a legal spiritual death when he transgressed the Law of God Adam died a natural and a corporeal death when he had liv'd Nine hundred and thirty years and in that set hour where the natural bounds of his life was fixed But we shall more easily understand that Adam dyed the death and that a spiritual death was added to his natural if we review other condemnations decreed by God both against Adam and against Eve and against the Serpent after and for the transgression of Adam This punishment was decreed for Adam after his sin In labour shalt thou eat of the earth all the dayes of thy life But God had plac'd Adam before he sinned in Paradise that he might cultivate it Therefore that he might labour and manure the ground in Paradise before he sinn'd and that by his labour he might eat of it as he did labour and manure it and by his labour did eat of it after his sinne Observe here labour both before and after sin Labours before sin according to the nature of agriculture natural labours after sin by a mystical condemnation which only could be conceived in thought Such is that which the Lord said to Eve I will multiply thy sorrows and thou shalt bring forth with pain and shalt be in the power of thy husband and he shall be Lord over thee The Lord multiplyed the sorrows of the woman when according to the condemnation he added spiritual and mystical griefs to those which were natural by which a woman is naturally torn when she brings forth God multiplyed the subjection of the woman under the power of her husband when he added the condemnation by Law to that natural Law by which the nobler sex hath dominion over the inferiour But chiefly its worth taking notice of what God decreed against the Serpent and what punishment he appointed for him for tempting Eve with eating of the forbidden fruit Because thou hast done this saith the Lord to the Serpent thou shalt goe upon thy belly and shalt eat dust all the dayes of thy life but this was naturally in the Serpent at his creation to creep and crawl that the Serpent should goe upon his belly and eat the dust for God before sin nay the fifth day of the Creation created all manner of creeping things of which sort was the Serpent and chief of them
certainly Therefore we must understand the Serpent to have crept in two senses before sin and after sin that he crept before sin naturally by the nature of his creation that he crept after sin according to the decree of God and by that condemnation which was onely in spirit So may we understand Adam to have dyed two manner of ways Naturally that he dyed naturally according to the first intention of his making before the Law Legally and after a spiritual manner after the Law by that decree and Law of condemnation which is spiritually conceiv'd Therefore we shall think that there is a twofold death in all men as we conceive to be in Adam Natural which happens naturally to all men by their own imbred nature which is corruptible and mortal A Legal one which smote all men that minute mystically when it was decreed against Adam A natural death by which men dyed naturally before the Law a Legal death which passed spiritually upon them after the Law by transgression of the Law A natural death which followed mans natural sin a Legal death caused by the legal sin of men from the sin of Adam A mystical cause of a mystical effect which onely by way of spirit and mystery is conceivable And truly as the Law of creeping ordain'd against Serpents in the Law of Adam did adde nothing to the reptile nature of Serpents but a condemnation meerly spiritual so the Law of death added nothing to the mortal nature of men except that condemnation of death which in thought and mystery is only conceiv'd Remember says David Psal 89. what is my substance And a little after What man is he that liveth and shall not see death which the Kingly Prophet understood of natural death the causes of which he ascrib'd to the substance and matter of men not to the sin of Adam adde to this what St. Paul hath written Rom. 8. Flesh savours of death and in the 6 Chap. of the same Epistle The wages of sin is death In which he meant natural sin and natural death because natural death is incorporate with natural sin being the sauce of which the flesh rellishes which is the nature and matter of sin Moreover by this distinction of natural and legal sin and natural and legal death easily appears the interpretation of that place of Numbers Chap. 27. where the daughters of Zelopheâ—ad speak unto Moses Our Father dyed in the desert and was not in that sedition which was stirred up against the Lord by Core but died in hâ—s sin They say that their father was dead not in that Judgement wherein Core was swallowed up who rebelled against the Lord but by the sin and fault of his nature which is the seed of sin and corruption and by that fate of nature by which death is the last period of all things subject to corruption They doe not say that he was swallowed up in that just Judgement wherein the lowest earth opened to swallow up those Conspirators but that he dyed a single death in the desert by that same natural Law by which all men owe themselves to death and by which simple natural death abides natural sin CHAP. IV. Men were in the beginning created according to the Image of God and very good Of the Image of God in the first creation Of the Image of God in the second creation Men were created upright in the beginning but of vâ—tious matter which could easily return to its own disposition IT seems not to agree with that which is set down in the 1 of Genesis That I said the Creation of man was evill and corrupt For there it 's said that God did create man according to his own Image and that all things which God created were very good whence Interpreters conclude and rightly that man being created according to Gods own Image was created perfect and upright And if all that God created was very good that man then who was the most excellent of the Creatures was exceeding good To this that I may answer I would first have it granted that the impression of Gods Image in the first creation is different from that in the second creation God expressed in the first Creation that first Image and copie of his wonderful art by which he made the World and all that therein is and by excellent wisdom compos'd and ponder'd them In his renewing which is the second creation God express'd the Image of his own nature wherein he communicated his love and bounty to the Wor'd God in his first creation shewed the out-side of his work but in the second he opened the bowels of his love The first creation expressed the Image of God which we may call the exterior the second creation presents us with the internal Image of God There was nothing besides which God did not communicate in the Image of that plat-form and of his admirable art which he exppress'd in all things which he created But he did not make all things partake of that Image of his nature loâ—e and bounty which be most worthily shewin men when he did regenerate or when he went about to regenerate them Furthermore whatsoever material or corporeal things ar created by the law of their own nature they ar created corruptible and mortal but whatsoever out of things corruptible and material are created a new by the Law of that second creation become incorruptible and immortal To say nothing of other material and corporeal things it is certain that men in the beginning were created according to the Image of God that Image of their Creator which we may call the Image of creation yea they were created according to such an Image of creation which above all other Images of creation is the most excellent amongst all the frames of the creatures which more expresly and more highly represented the Creator But we must confess that men were created at first according to the exteriour Image of God which is called nighest to God at a greater distance in comparison to the Image of the second creation It is true that men were created in the beginning perfect right and excellently good in as farr as men by force and vertue of their creation could be created perfect right and excellently good But no man ought to be ignorant that men were created from the beginning of corruptible matter which might easily be turn'd from perfect to imperfect from right to wrong from good to evil which the men which were first created did evidence by a strong and approved example since the nature of their composition and their own negligence carried them being upright made so far aside Therefore so often as I think of this That men being created according to the Image of God the Creator and according to the Image of the first plat-form perfect right and very good by a fault in them ingrafted by nature did degenerare from righteousness to wickedness from good to evil So often I fancy a Watch newly
and many other such things as were able to tyre one who would rehearse them These antient Priests esteemed Man to be best compos'd of all creatures and therefore that he was called the Microcosm as participating of the creation of all things And therefore that some by Saturn become sullen others by Jove are mirthful some are red-colour'd by Sol others Iascivious by Venus some are cheaters by Mercury some imperfect by Luna Nay that some bray like Asses â—ome like Dogs others like Swine others ravenous like Lions some like Doves others like Serpents according to the various dispositions similitudes and sympathies of participation which men have been said to have with all things created But likewise the Scripture hath taught us that Spirits have profess'd the pleasures of men have been given to men to some lying spirits to some sleeping spirits to others spirits of giddiness then that there are cozening seducing and lying spirits it appears because Christ warns his disciples that they should trust no spirit yea and rebuk'd them because they knew not by what spirit they were led And it is likewise witnessed in the Gospel that the mother-in-law of St. Peter was troubled with a feverish spirit Who will wonder then that men being left by God after their creation in their own power and turn'd over to so many Spirits Gods and Lords who set them a work did appoint and worship so many several sorts of Gods under so many divers shapes of things created if he consider the almost innumerable affinities and sympathies which men are found to have with these Spirits Gods and Lords as also with all things created in heaven and in earth God abborr'd those Spirits and Gods fallen off from the uprightness and perfection of their creation to their own changeable condition with such an abomination as the most upright and best must needs hate that which is evil and wicked Therefore you shall hear these Gods in Scripture call'd wicked Spirits wickednesses spirits of error evil spirits and very evil spirits as in that 9th Chapter of the Judges God sent a very evil spirit betwixt Sichem and Abimelech call'd likewise vain and lying spirits curses deceitfull Idols abominations uncleannesses pollutions whorings dung the sleep and the anger of the Lord as is that in Samuel 1. chap. 26. The sleep of the Lord had fallen upon Saul and his people The sleep of the Lord is the same in this place with the evil spirit from the Lord in the 16 Chapter of the same Book where you shall read that the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him Such also is that Sam. 2. Chap. 24. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel which the first Book of the Chronicles speaking of the same thing expresses in these words And Satan rose up against Israel where Satan is the same with the anger of the Lord or anger from the Lord. As also the holy Scriptures are clear witnesses that those Spirits Gods and Lords by the Law of their creation which is changeable and corruptible are mortal and that they are condemned to eternal death where wicked and perverse men are called The sons of Belial Sam. 1. Chap. 2. As also Nabal a perverse man is branded with that name in the same book Chap. 25. As also the same son of Belial is called The sonne of death Sam. 2. Chap. 12. And in the same Book Cha. 23. the flouds of death are called the flouds of Belial where David says in his Song The pangs of death compast me about the flouds of Belial made me afraid In which places Belial is not only called mortal but mortality it self for being Prince of all Spirits which were his ministers both mortal and condâ—mned to a death from whence there is no resurrection Who will not believe that those Spirits are destined to eternal death since God himself hath said that at that latter judgement of all corruptible things they shall be condemned and cast with the Reprobates into eternal fire CHAP. VIII Men being misled by evil spirits fell from their right estate wherein they were created into the wickedness of their own nature Being restor'd by the Spirit of Regeneratinn who only proceeds from God they know God whom flesh and blood knows not They obtain holiness which they could not have in their first creation and recompence their natural death with a supernatural immortality THe Apostle deduces the stain of all sins which overthrew men chiefly from this Chap. 1 Epist to the Romans because they had left God the Creator and had given themselves over to those Gods Lords and unclean Spirits Hence their minds were blinded and given over to their own lusts were set on fire with wicked and unlawful desires contrary to nature and so receiv'd in themselves the rewards of their sin and thence open'd such a wide door to wickedness and filthiness that at last they fell into all manner of sin And as they preferr'd their own lust to the knowledge of God so on the contrary he gave them up to a reprobate sense that being men they should doe things not beseeming men Hence they became evil wicked fornicators avaricious given to lewdness full of envy and blood brawlers deceitfull despightfull whisperers back-biters hatefull to God contumelious proud arrogant inventers of wickedness disobedient to Parents foolish madd without affection truth or compassion Truly men being misled by those Spirits being thrust forward by the violence of their own appetite according to the affection and sympathie which they have with those Spirits I say men oprest with the weight of their own sin and drownd in sticking clay might have despaird of any salvation nor ever have pluckt out their feet for thence if God had not helped them and stretched out his powerful hands from heaven to draw theÌ„ thence But God was not of that mind as most men are who rid an unhappy person from his present calamity and are never sollicitous afterwards to advance their condition God dealt better and more freely with men first he wash'd them drawn out of the puddle with his own living waters then advanc'd them being now clean and white by his own free merit and lastly from their foul wallowings receiv'd them into the glory of heaven and made them partakers of divine knowledge sanctity and immortality which is in his most happy vision And this he did by vertue and force of that Spirit which is of God and who is God himself by a second and new creation out of his own free will largeness of his bounty abundance of his love and meer grace which therefore is call'd the gift of God and his only free grace Therfore let all those who desire to know themselves here make a stand and endeavour to be free in their thanks to God Let them tast and see how sweet the Lord is Let them remember by how great mercies beyond their desert he has
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
which should be the glory of the earth The Lord would have his people encreased to a full and sufficient number of inhabitants which should be able to defend themselves from the beasts of Canaan and secure the people But if God had a double caution in this case for the comliness and security of the Land of Canaan alone although the Jews then abounded in number and were grown to be many hundred thousands What care shall we think God took in the Creation of the World for the comliness not onely of one Land but also of the Lands of the whole World lest they should be made desolate if he had created one man and one Woman from the beginning in the earth And if God would not expose many hundred thousand Jews to the beasts of one Land shall we think that he would expose one single man and woman to the heasts of all Lands Certainly if the beasts of the Land of Canaan had been so much multiplied against so many hundred thousand Jews that dwelt in 't much more should they have been multiplied against Adam and Eve being alone upon the whole earth CHAP. II. Adam was created apart from other men in that creation which is mentioned Gen. 2. Adam was thefirst and father of the Jews not of all men The framing of Adam was altogether different from the creation of the first men Eve could not be created the same day as Adam was made THe author of Genesis having absolâ—'d in the first Chapter the six dayes of the creation begins the second Chapter from the sanctification of the Sabbath which was the seventh day and rehearses what he had said in the first Chapter of the creation of the whole of which there was no more to be related But because the nation of the Jews was separate and set apart from all the Nations of the earth being elected by God That it might be to him a peculiar people of all the nations upon the earth which we prov'd our of the 7 of Deut Therefore the author of the Pentateuch who was himself a Jew whose end it was to write the original the deduction the Laws and Chronologie of his own Nation apart from the creation of the whole world and of all Nations begins the particular framing of the first Jew from whom that peculiar and choice Nation was deriv'd that is of them by whom salvation should be communicated to all Nations in Christ as to all Nations had come perdition from Adam And God fram'd Adam Gen. 2. Man that is Adam But because this Narration begins with and it is ordinarily received as a more special explanation of the creation of that man in his kind of whom Moses spake in the Ch. 1. Let us make man But they heed not that the particle and in the Hebrew is the introduction of a new matter not a continuation of that which was mention'd before such beginnings of Narrations you shall every where meet with in sacred authors yea books beginning with and as Ezechiâ—l And it came to pass in the thirtieth year And Jonas 〈◊〉 the word of the Lord came to Jonas Hence is it chiefly prefum'd that this framing of Adam was not that which is mentioned in the former Chapter of Gen. Because it is granted by all that â—haâ— first creation in the first Chapter which accoring to my supposition was the creation of the first men was compleated mone day the sixth and the last as is set down in the first Chapter But it is impossble that all those things which are set down in the second Chapter could have been transacted in that time which is receiv'd from morning to evening Therefore much lesse in the half of that sixth day in which God first oreated all creatnres then man Let us tell every minute in which God was pleased to declare that all his works were perform'd with time though he could have done them without time We shal find no such thing in the first creation of men nor the action of the creation of male and female interrupted as it is a long space betwixt the forming of Adam and Eve It is first said That God created Adam of the clay of the earth Where observe that God who in the first Chapter created man not simply of the earth but of that first matter of which he made the earth in this second Chapter fram'd Adam of the dust of the earth Observe that God I say who was in the first Chapter the Creator of man was in the second the framer of Adam For which cause God is also the framer of the Jews Isa 45. Thus says the Lord the holy One of Israel his maker The maker of Israel because the maker of Adam the first Father of Israel But of this enough already Secondly it is said That God breath'd upon the face of Adam the breath of life Thirdly He led him into Paradise Take good notice of these words of Genesis God had planted from the beginning a Paâ— adise of pleasure wherein to place man Understand by that beginning not of that time in which God made Adam but of that beginning long before which is spoken from the beginning of the first Chapter of Genesis In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth In which he likewise created men in their kind who from the beginning did inhabite that earth Certainly if this Adam had been he who was created in the beginning three dayes after the earth was created Genesis had not spoken of this Adam whom the Lord carryed into Paradise God had planted Paradise from the beginning Nay rather upon the third day he made Paradise for the third day dry land appeared and Paradise was planted and the sixth day man was created in his kind Fourthly it is written that God gave this Adam laws what he should eat what he should not eat what he should doe what he should shun Observe here narrowly no Law given to the men of the first creation which is related in the first Chapter of Genesis and no tree forbidden them And God said Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed upon earth and all trees which have in them their seed according to their kind that it may be to you for meat The tree of knowledge of good and evil was forbidden Adam the first man of the second creation which is mentioned in the second Chapter Thou mayest eat of every tree in the garden but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat For in the day that thou eatest of it thou shalt dye the death But those being divers ordinances argue different times Fifthly the Scripture stammeringly shews us That God had learn'd as it were by experience in a certain time passed That Adam being without a helper had neither till'd nor conveniently kept the Garden Therefore God said It is not convenient that man should be alone Let us make him a helper like unto himself Sixthly God
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