Antiquitates christianæ, or, The history of the life and death of the holy Jesus as also the lives acts and martyrdoms of his Apostles : in two parts.

SECT. I. Of the PATRIARCHAL Dispensation.

The Tradition of Elias. The three great Periods of the Church. The Patriarchal Age. The Laws then in force natural or positive. Natural Laws what; evinced from the te∣stimony of natural conscience. The 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Precepts of the Sons of Noah. Their respect to the Law of Nature. Positive Laws under that dispensation. Eating Blood why prohibited. The mystery and signification of it. Circumcision when commanded and why. The Laws concerning Religion. Their publick Worship what. Sacrifices in what sence natural, and how far instituted. The manner of God's testifying his acceptance. What the place of their publick Worship. Altars, and Groves whence. Abraham's Oke, its long continuance, and destruction by Constantine. The Original of the Druids. The times of their religious Assemblies. In process of time, Genes. 4. what meant by it. The Seventh Day whether kept from the beginning. The Ministers of Religion, who. The Priesthood of the first-born. In what cases exercised by younger Sons. The state of Reli∣gion successively under the several Patriarchs. The condition of it in Adam's Family. The Sacrifices of Cain and Abel, and their different success, whence. Seth, his great Learning and Piety. The face of the Church in the time of Enosh. What meant by, Then began Men to call upon the Name of the Lord. No Idolatry before the Flood. The Sons of God, who. The great corruption of Religion in the time of Jared. Enoch's Piety, and walking with God. His translation, what. The incomparable sanctity of Noah, and his strictness in an evil Age. The character of the men of that time. His preservation from the Deluge. God's Covenant with him. Sem or 〈◊〉〈◊〉 whether the Elder Brother. The confusion of Languages when, and why. Abraham's Idolatry and conversion. His eminency for Religion noted in the several instances of it. God's Covenant with him concerning the Messiah. The Piety of Isaac and Jacob. Jacob's blessing the twelve Tribes, and foretelling the Messiah. Patriarchs extraordinary under this dispensation. Melchi∣sedeck who: wherein a type of Christ. Job, his Name, Country, Kindred, Quality, Re∣ligion, Sufferings; when he lived. A reflection upon the religion of the old World, and its agreement with Christianity.

GOD who at sundry times, and in divers manners spake in time past to the Fa∣thers* 1.1 by the Prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. For having created Man for the noblest purposes, to love, serve, and enjoy his Maker; he was careful in all Ages by various Revelations of his Will to acquaint him with the notices of his duty; and to shew him what was good, and what the Lord did require of him: till all other Methods proving weak and inef∣fectual for the recovery and the happiness of humane nature, God was pleased to crown

all the former dispensations with the Revelation of his Son. There is among the* 1.2 Jews an ancient Tradition of the House of Elias, that the World should last Six Thousand Years, which they thus compute, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Two Thousand Years empty, (little being recorded of those first Ages of the World) Two Thousand Years the Law, and Two Thousand the Days of the Messiah. A Tradition, which if it minister to no other purposes, does yet afford us a very conveni∣ent division of the several Ages and Periods of the Church, which may be considered under a three-fold Oeconomy, the Patriarchal, Mosaical, and Evangelical dispensation. A short view of the two former will give us great advantage to survey the later, that new and better dispensation which God has made to the World.

2. THE Patriarchal Age, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as the Jews call it, the days of emptiness, com∣menced from the beginning of the World, and lasted till the delivery of the Law upon Mount Sinai. And under this state the Laws which God gave for the exercise of Reli∣gion, and the Government of his Church were either Natural, or Positive. Natural Laws are those innate Notions and Principles, whether speculative or practical, with which every Man is born into the World, those common sentiments of Vertue and Re∣ligion, those Principia justi & decori, Principles of fit and right, that naturally are upon the minds of Men, and are obvious to their reason at first sight, commanding what is just and honest, and forbidding what is evil and uncomely; and that not only in the general, that what is good is to be embraced, and what is evil to be avoided, but in the particular instances of duty according to their conformity or repugnancy to natural light, being conversant about those things, that do not derive their value and autho∣rity from any arbitrary constitutions, but from the moral and intrinsick nature of the things themselves. These Laws, as being the results and dictates of right reason, are, especially as to their first and more immediate emanations, the same in all Men in the World, and in all Times and Places, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 'as the Jewes call them, Precepts that are evident among all Nations, indeed they are interwoven into Mens nature, inserted into the texture and constitution of their minds, and do dis∣cover themselves as soon as ever they arrive to the free use and exercise of their reason. That there are such Laws and Principles naturally planted in Mens breasts, is evident from the consent of Mankind, and the common experience of the World. Whence else comes it to pass, that all wicked Men even among the Heathens themselves, after the commission of gross sins, such as do more sensibly rouze and awaken conscience, are filled with horrours and fears of punishment? but because they are conscious to them∣selves of having violated some Law and Rule of Duty. Now what Law can this be? not the written and revealed Law, for this the Heathens never had: it must be there∣fore the inbred Law of Nature, that's born with them, and fixed in their minds, an∣tecedently to any external revelation. For when the Gentiles which have not the Law,* 1.3 do by nature (by the light and evidence, by the force and tendency of their natural noti∣ons and dictates) the things contained in the Law, these having not a Law, are a Law unto themselves, which shew the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the reasonings of their minds, in the mean while (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, by turns) accusing or else excusing one another; that is, although they had not a written Law, as the Jewes had of old, and we Christians have at this day, yet by the help of their natural Principles they performed the same actions, and dis∣charged the same Duties that are contained in, and commanded by the written and ex∣ternal Law, shewing by their practices that they had a Law (some common notions of good and evil) written in their hearts. And to this their very Consciences bear wit∣ness, for according as they either observe or break these natural Laws, their Consci∣ences do either acquit or condemn them. Hence we find God in the very infancy of the World, appealing to Gain for the truth of this, as a thing sufficiently plain and ob∣vious, Why art thou wroth, and why is thy countenance fallen? if thou doest well, shalt thou* 1.4 not be accepted, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 be lift up? able to walk with a pleased and a chearful countenance the great indication of a mind satisfied in the conscience of its duty: but if thou doest not well, sin lies at the door; the punishments of sin will be ready to follow thee, and con¦science as a Minister of vengeance will perpetually pursue and haunt thee. By these Laws Mankind was principally governed in the first Ages of the World, there being for near Two Thousand Years no other fixed and standing Rule of Duty, than the di∣ctates of this Law of Nature; those Principles of Vice and Vertue, of Justice and Ho∣nesty, that are written in the heart of every Man.

3. THE Jewes very frequently tell us of some particular commands to the number* 1.5 of Seven, which they call 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the Precepts of the Sons of Noah, Six where∣of were given to Adam and his Children, and the Seventh given to Noah, which they thus reckon up. The first was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 concerning strange worship, that they should not give Divine honour to Idols, or the Gods of the Heathens, answerable to the two first commands of the Decalogue, Thou shalt have no other Gods but me; thou shalt not make unto thee any graven Image, nor the likeness of any thing, that is in. Heaven above, or in the Earth beneath, or in the Water under the Earth; thou shalt not bow down thy self to them, or serve them: for, &c. From the violation of this Law it was that Job, one of the Patriarchs that lived under this dispensation, solemnly purges himself, when speaking concerning the worship of the Celestial Lights, the great if not only I∣dolatry of those early Ages, says he, if I beheld the Sun when it shined, or the Moon walk∣ing* 1.6 in her brightness, and my heart hath been secretly inticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand, this also were an iniquity to be punished by the Judge, for I should have denied the God that is above. The second 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 concerning blessing, or worshipping, that they should not blaspheme the Name of God. This Law Job also had respect to, when he was careful to sanctifie his Children, and to propitiate the Divine Majesty for them every Morning, for it may be (said he) that my Sons have sinned, and cursed God in their* 1.7 hearts. The third was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 concerning the shedding of blood, forbid∣ding Man-slaughter; a Law expresly renewed to Noah after the Flood, and which pos∣sibly Job aimed at, when he vindicates himself, that he had not rejoyced at the destruction* 1.8 of him that hated him, or lift up himself when evil found him. Nor was all effusion of hu∣mane blood forbidden by this Law, capital punishments being in some cases necessary for the preservation of humane Society, but only that no Man should shed the blood of an innocent Person, or pursue a private revenge without the warrant of publick Autho∣rity. The fourth was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 concerning the disclosing of uncleanness, against filthiness and adultery, unlawful marriages, and incestuous mixtures: If mine heart* 1.9 (says Job in his Apology) hath been deceived by a Woman, or if I have laid wait at my neigh∣bour's door; then let my Wife grind, &c. for this is an heinous crime, yea it is an iniquity to be punished by the Judges. The fifth was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 concerning theft and rapine, the invading another Man's right and property, the violation of bargains and compacts, the falsifying a Man's word or promise, the deceiving of another by fraud, lying, or any evil arts. From all which Job justifies himself, that he had not walked with vanity, nor* 1.10 had his foot hasted to deceit, that his step had not turned out of the way, nor his heart wal∣ked after his eyes, nor any blot cleaved to his hands. And elsewhere he bewails it as the great iniquity of the Times, that there were some that removed the Land-marks, that* 1.11 violently took away the Flocks, and fed thereof, that drove away the Asse of the Fatherless, and took the Widows Oxe for a pledge, that turned the needy out of the way, and made the poor of the Earth hide themselves together, &c. The sixth was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 concerning judgments, or the administration of Justice, that Judges and Magistrates should be ap∣pointed in every Place for the Order and Government of Civil Societies, the de∣termination of Causes, and executing of Justice between Man and Man. And that such there then were, seems evident from the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which Job twice speaks of in one* 1.12 Chapter, the judged iniquity, which the Jewes expound, and we truly render, an iniquity to be punished by the Judges. The seventh 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 concerning the member of any live-creature, that is, as God expresses it in the Precept to Noah, they might not eat the blood, or the flesh with the life thereof. Whether these Precepts were by any solemn and external promulgation particularly delivered to the Ante-deluvian Patriarchs (as the Jewes seem to contend) I will not say: for my part I cannot but look upon them (the last only excepted) as a considerable part of Nature's Statute-law, as comprizing the greater strokes and lineaments of those natural dictates that are imprin∣ted upon the souls of Men. For what more comely and reasonable, and more agreeable to the first notions of our minds, than that we should worship and adore God alone, as the Authour of our beings, and the Fountain of our happiness, and not derive the lustre of his incommunicable perfections upon any Creature; that we should entertain great and honourable thoughts of God, and such as become the Grandeur and Majesty of his being; that we should abstain from doing any wrong or injury to another, from invading his right, violating his priviledges, and much more from making any at∣tempt upon his life, the dearest blessing in this World; that we should be just and fair in our transactions, and do to all men, as we would they should do to us; that we should live chastely and temperately, and not by wild and extravagant lusts and sensualities offend against the natural modesty of our minds; that Order and Government should

be maintained in the World, Justice advanced, and every Man secured in his just pos∣sessions? And so suitable did these Laws seem to the reason and understandings of Men, that the Jewes though the most zealous People under Heaven of their Legal Instituti∣ons, received those Gentiles who observed them as Proselytes into their Church, though they did not oblige themselves to Circumcision, and the rest of the Mosaic Rites. Nay in the first Age of Christianity, when the great controversie arose between the Jewish and Gentile-Converts about the obligation of the Law of Moses as necessary to salvati∣on, the observation only of these Precepts, at least a great part of them, was imposed upon the Gentile-Converts as the best expedient to end the difference, by the Apostolical Synod at Jerusalem.

4. BUT though the Law of Nature was the common Law by which God then principally governed the World, yet was not he wanting by Methods extraordinary to supply, as occasion was, the exigencies and necessities of his Church, communicating his mind to them by Dreams and Visions, and other ways of Revelation, which we shall more particularly remarque, when we come to the Mosaical Oeconomy. Hence arose those positive Laws which we meet with in this period of the Church, some whereof are more expresly recorded, others more obscurely intimated. Among those that are more plain and obvious two are especially considerable, the prohibition sor not eating blood, and the Precept of Circumcision, the one given to Noah, the other to Abraham. The prohibition concerning blood is thus recorded, every moving thing that liveth shall* 1.13 be meat for you: but flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall you not eat. The blood is the vehiculum to carry the spirits, as the Veins are the channels to convey the blood, now the animal 〈◊〉〈◊〉 give vital heat and activity to every part, and being let out, the blood presently cools, and the Creature dies. Not flesh with the blood, which is the life thereof, that is, not flesh while it is alive, while the blood and the spirits are yet in it. The mystery and signification whereof was no other than this that God would not have Men train'd up to arts of cruelty, or whatever did but carry the colour and aspect of a merciless and a savage temper, lest severity towards Beasts should degenerate into fierceness towards Men. It's good to defend the out-guards, and to stop the remotest ways that lead towards sin, especially considering the violent propensions of humane na∣ture to passion and revenge. Men commence bloody and inhumane by degrees, and little approaches in time render a thing in it self abhorrent not only familiar, but delightful. The Romans who at first entertained the People in the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 only with wild Beasts killing one another, came afterwards wantonly to sport away the Lives of the Gladiators, yea to cast Persons to be devoured by Bears and Lions, for no other end than the divertisement and pleasure of the People. He who can please himself in tearing and eating the Parts of a living Creature, may in short time make* 1.14 no scruple to do violence to the Life of Man. Besides eating blood naturally begets a savage temper, makes the spirits rank and fiery, and apt to be easily inflamed and blown up into cho∣ler and fierceness. And that hereby God did design to bar out ferity, and to secure mercy and gentleness, is evident from what follows after: and surely your blood of your lives will I re∣quire:* 1.15 at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of Man, at the hand of every Man's brother will I require the life of man; whoso sheddeth Man's blood, by Man shall his blood be shed. The life of a Beast might not be wantonly sacrificed to Mens humours, therefore not Man's; the life of Man being so sacred, and dear to God, that if kill'd by a Beast, the Beast it self was to dye for it; if by man, that man's life was to go for retaliation, by man shall his blood be shed; where by man we must necessarily understand the ordinary Judge and Magistrate, or 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 as the Jewes call it, the lower Judicature, with respect to that Divine and Superiour Court, the immediate judgment of God himself. By which means God admirably provided for the safety and security of Man's life, and for the order and welfare of humane society: and it was no more than necessary, the remembrance of the violence and oppression of the Nephilim or Giants before the Flood being yet fresh in memory, and there was no doubt but such mighty Hunters, men of robust bodies, of barbarous and inhumane tempers would afterwards arise. This Law against eating blood was afterwards re∣newed under the Mosaic Institution, but with this peculiar signification, for the life* 1.16 of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the Altar, to make an atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul: that is, the blood might not be eaten, not only for the former reason, but because God had designed it for particular purposes, to be the great Instrument of Expiation, and an eminent type of

the Blood of the Son of God, who was to dye as the great expiatory Sacrifice for the World: Nay it was re-established by the Apostles in the infancy of Christianity, and observed by the Primitive Christians for several Ages, as we have elsewhere ob∣served.

5. THE other Precept was concerning Circumcision, given to Abraham at the time of God's entring into Covenant with him. God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my* 1.17 Covenant, &c. This is my Covenant which ye shall keep between me and you, and thy Seed after thee, every Man-child among you shall be circumcised: and ye shall circumcise the flesh of your fore-skin, and it shall be a token of the Covenant betwixt me and you. God had now made a Covenant with Abraham to take his Posterity for his peculiar People, and that out of them should arise the promised Messiah: and as all foederal compacts have some solemn and external rites of ratification, so God was pleased to add Circumcision as the sign and seal of this Covenant, partly as it had a peculiar fitness in it to denote the promised Seed, partly that it might be a discriminating badge of Abraham's Children (that part whom God had especially chosen out of the rest of Mankind) from all other People. On Abraham's part it was a sufficient argument of his hearty compliance with the terms of this Covenant, that he would so chearfully submit to so unpleasing and 〈◊〉〈◊〉 a sign as was imposed upon him. For Circumcision could not but be both pain∣ful and dangerous in one of his Years, as it was afterwards to be to all new-born In∣fants: whence 〈◊〉〈◊〉 complained of Moses, commanding her to circumcise her Son, that he was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 an husband of bloods, a cruel and inhumane Husband. And this the* 1.18 Jewes tell us was the reason, why circumcision was omitted during their Fourty Years Journy in the Wilderness, it was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 by reason of the trouble and inconvenience of the way, God mercifully dispensing with the want of it, 〈◊〉〈◊〉 it should hinder their travelling, the soarness and weakness of the circumcised Person not comporting with hard and continual Journies. It was to be administred the* 1.19 eighth day, not sooner, the tenderness of the Infant not well till then complying with it, besides that the Mother of a Male-child was reckoned legally impure till the seventh Day; not later, probably because the longer it was deferred, the more unwilling would Parents be to put their Children to pain, of which they would every Day become more sensible, not to say the satisfaction it would be to them, to see their Children solemnly entred into Covenant. Circumcision was afterwards incorporated into the Body of the Jewish Law, and entertained with a mighty Veneration, as their great and standing Priviledge, relied on as the main Basis and Foundation of their 〈◊〉〈◊〉, and hopes of acceptance with Heaven, and accounted in a manner equivalent to all the other Rites of the Mosaic Law.

6. BUT besides these two, we find other positive Precepts, which though not so clearly expressed, are yet sufficiently intimated to us. Thus there seems to have been a Law that none of the Holy Line, none of the Posterity of Seth should marry with Infi∣dels, or those corrupt and idolatrous Nations which God had rejected, as appears in that it's charged as a great part of the sin of the old World, that the Sons of God matched* 1.20 with the Daughters of Men, as also from the great care which Abraham took that his Son Isaac should not take a Wife of the Daughters of the Canaanites among whom he dwelt. There was also 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Jus Levirationis, whereby the next Brother to him who died without Issue was obliged to marry the Widow of the deceased, and to raise up seed unto his Brother, the contempt whereof cost Onan his Life: together with many more particular Laws which the story of those Times might suggest to us. But what is of most use and importance to us, is to observe what Laws God gave for the administration of his Worship, which will be best known by considering what worship generally pre∣vailed in those early Times; wherein we shall especially remarque the nature of their publick Worship, the Places where, the Times when, and the Persons by whom it was administred.

7. IT cannot be doubted but that the Holy Patriarchs of those days were careful to instruct their Children, and all that were under their charge (their Families being then very vast and numerous) in the Duties of Religion, to explain and improve the natural Laws written upon their minds, and acquaint them with those Divine Traditions, and positive Revelations which they themselves had received from God: this being part of that great character which God gave of Abraham, I know him, that he will command his* 1.21 Children, and his Houshold after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment. To this they joyned Prayer and Invocation, than which no duty is more na∣tural and necessary; more natural, because it fitly expresses that great reverence and ve∣neration which we have for the Divine Majesty, and that propensity that is in Mankind

to make known their wants: none more necessary, because our whole dependance be∣ing upon the continuance and constant returns of the Divine power and goodness, 'tis most reasonable that we should make our Daily addresses to him, in whom we live, move, and have our being. Nor were they wanting in returns of praise, and solemn celebrati∣ons of the goodness of Heaven, both by entertaining high and venerable thoughts of God, and by actions suitable to those honourable sentiments which they had of him. In these acts of worship they were careful to use gestures of the greatest reverence and sub∣mission, which commonly was prostration. Abraham bowed himself towards the ground:* 1.22 and when God sent the Israelites the happy news of their deliverance out of Egypt, they* 1.23 bowed their Heads and worshipped. A posture which hath ever been the usual mode of adoration in those Eastern Countries unto this day. But the greatest instance of the Publick Worship of those times was Sacrifices; a very early piece of Devotion, in all probability taking its rise from Adam's fall. They were either Eucharistical, expressions of thankfulness for blessings received, or expiatory, offered for the remission of sin. Whe∣ther these Sacrifices were first taken up at Mens arbitrary pleasure, or positively institu∣ted and commanded by God, might admit of a very large en∣quiry.* 1.24 But to me the case seems plainly this, that as to Eu∣charistical 〈◊〉〈◊〉, such as first-fruits, and the like oblations, Mens own reason might suggest and perswade them, that it was fit to present them as the most natural significations of a thankful mind. And thus far there might be Sacrifices in the state of Innocence: for Man being created under such excel∣lent circumstances as he was in Paradise, could not but know that he owed to God all possible gratitude and subjection; obedience he owed him as his Supreme Lord and Master, gra∣titude, as his great Patron and Benefactor, and was therefore obliged to pay to him some Eucharistical Sacrifices, as a testimony of his grateful acknowledgment, that he had both his being and preservation from him. But when sin had changed the scene, and Man-kind was sunk under a state of guilt, he was then to seek for a way how to paci∣fie God's anger: and this was done by bloody and expiatory sacrifices, which God ac∣cepted in the sinners stead. And as to these, it seems reasonable to suppose that they should be founded upon a positive Institution, because pardon of sin being a matter of pure grace and favour, whatever was a means to signifie and convey that, must be appointed by God himself, first revealed to Adam, and by him communicated to his Children. The Deity propitiated by these atonements was wont to testifie his accep∣tance of them by some external and visible sign; Thus Cain sensibly perceived that God had respect to Abel's sacrifice, and not to his: though what this sign was, it is not easie to determine. Most probably it was fire from Heaven coming down upon the Oblati∣on, and consuming it: For so it frequently was in the Sacrifices of the Mosaic dispensa∣tion,* 1.25 and so we find it was in that famous Sacrifice of Abraham, a Lamp of Fire passed between the parts of the Sacrifice. Thus when 'tis said, God had respect to Abel and to his offering, Theodotion renders it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, he burnt it; and to this custome the Psalmist alludes in that Petition, Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt* 1.26 Sacrifice, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 reduce thy burnt-offering into ashes.

8. WHERE it was that this Publick Worship was performed, is next to be enqui∣red into. That they had fixed and determinate Places for the discharge of their religi∣ous Duties, those especially that were done in common, is greatly probable, Nature and the reason of things would put them upon it. And this most think is intended in that phrase, where it is said of Cain and Abel, that they brought their oblations, that is, (as Aben-Ezra and others expound it) 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to the place set apart* 1.27 for divine worship: And this probably was the reason, why Cain though vexed to the heart to see his Brother preferred before him, did not presently set upon him, the so∣lemnity and religion of the Place, and the sensible appearances of the Divine Majesty having struck an awe into him, but deferred his murdrous intentions till they came into the Field, and there fell upon him. For their Sacrifices they had Altars, whereon they offered them, contemporary no doubt with Sacrifices themselves, though we read not of them till after the Flood, when Noah built an Altar unto the Lord, and offered* 1.28 burnt-offerings upon it: So Abraham immediately after his being called to the worship* 1.29 of the true God, in Sichem built an Altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him, and removing thence, to a Mountain Eastward, he built another Altar, and called on the Name of the Lord, as indeed he did almost in every place where he came. Thus also* 1.30 when he dwelt at Beer-sheba in the Plains of Mamre, he planted a Grove there, and

called on the Name of the Lord the everlasting God. This no doubt was the common Chap∣pel or Oratory; whither Abraham and his numerous Family, and probably those whom he gained to be Proselytes to his Religion were wont to retire for their publick adora∣tions, as a Place infinitely advantageous for such Religious purposes. And indeed the Ancient devotion of the World much delighted in Groves, in Woods and Mountains, partly for the conveniency of such Places, as better composing the thoughts for divine contemplations, and resounding their joynt-praises of God to the best advantage, partly because the silence and retiredness of the Place was apt to beget a kind of sacred dread and horrour in the mind of the Worshipper. Hence we find in Ophrah where Gideon's* 1.31 Father dwelt, an Altar to Baal, and a Grove that was by it; and how common the su∣perstitions and idolatries of the Heathen-world were in Groves and High-places, no Man can be ignorant, that is never so little conversant either in prophane or sacred sto∣ries. For this reason that they were so much abused to idolatry, God commanded the Israelites to destroy their Altars, break down their Images, and cut down their Groves: and* 1.32* 1.33 that they should not plant a Grove of any Trees near unto the Altar of the Lord, lest he should seem to countenance what was so universally prostituted to false worship and idolatry. But to return to Abraham. He planted a Grove, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a Tree, which the Ancients gene∣rally make to have been a large spreading Oake; and some foundation there is for it in the sacred Text; for the place where Abraham planted it is called the Plain of Mamre,* 1.34 or as in the Hebrew, he dwelt 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 among the Oakes of Mamre, and so the Syriac renders it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The House* 1.35 of the Oake: The name whereof* 1.36 Josephus tells us, was Ogy∣ges; and it is not a conjecture to be despised, that Noah might probably inhabit in this place, and either give the name to it, or at least derive his from it, Ogyges being the Name by which he is usually described in forreign Writers. This very Oake S.* 1.37 Hierom assures us, and ‖ 1.38 Eusebius intimates as much, was yet standing till the time of Constantine, and worshipped with great super∣stition. And* 1.39 Sozomen tells us more particularly that there was a famous Mart held there every Summer, and a Feast celebrated by a general confluence of the neighbouring Countries, and Persons of all Religions, both Christians, Jews and Gentiles, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 every one doing honour to this Place accord∣ing to the different Principles of their Religion: but that Constantin being offended that the Place should be prophan'd with the superstitions of the Jews, and the idolatry of the Gentiles, wrote with some severity to Macarius the Bishop of Jerusalem, and the Bishops of Palestin, that they should destroy the Altars and Images, and deface all Monuments of Idolatry, and restore the Place to its ancient Sanctity. Which was accordingly done, and a Church 〈◊〉〈◊〉 in the Place, where God was purely and sincerely worshipped. From this Oake, the ordinary place of Abraham's worship and devotion, the Religion of the Gentiles doubtless derived its Oakes and Groves, and particularly the Druids, the great and almost only Masters and Directors of all Learning and Religion among the Ancient Brittains, hence borrowed their Original; who are so notoriously known to have lived wholly under Oakes and Groves, and there to have delivered their Doctrines and Pre∣cepts, and to have exercised their Religious and mysterious Rites, that hence they fetch∣ed their denomination, either from 〈◊〉〈◊〉 (as the Ancients generally thought) or more probably from the old Cetlic word Deru, both signifying an Oake, and which the Welch, the Descendants of the Ancient Brittains, still call Derw at this day. But of this e∣nough.

9. FROM the place where, we proceed to the times when they usually paid their Devotions. And seeing Order is necessary in all undertakings, and much more in the actions of Religion, we cannot think that Mankind was left at a roving uncertainty in a matter of so great importance, but that they had their stated and solemn times of Wor∣ship: especially when we find among all Nations, even the most rude and unpolished Heathens, times peculiarly set apart for the honour of their gods, and the publick solem∣nities of Religion. And so no question it was in the more early Ages of the World, they had fix'd and appropriate Seasons, when they met together to do homage unto God, and to offer up their joynt-acknowledgments to Heaven. Thus we read of Cain that he brought his oblation in process of time, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 at the end of days, at one of those fix∣ed* 1.40 and periodical returns, when they used to meet in the Religious Assemblies, the word 〈◊〉〈◊〉 denoting not simply an end, but a determinate and an appointed end. I know many with great zeal and eagerness contend, that the Sabbath or Seventh Day from the Crea∣tion was set apart, and universally observed as the time of Publick Worship, and that

from the beginning of the World. But alas the foundation upon which this opinion is built, is very weak and sandy, having nothing to rely on, but one place where it is said, that God resting on the Seventh Day from all his Works, blessed the Seventh Day and san∣ctified* 1.41 it. Which words are reasonably thought to have been set down by Moses by way of Prolepsis, as it was in his time, if they relate at all to the 〈◊〉〈◊〉, and are not rather to be understood of God's blessing and sanctifying the Seventh Day, as having complea∣ted all his Works in the creating of Man and in whom as in the crown and glory of the Creation he would sanctifie himself. For that it should be meant of a Weekly Sabbath, hath as little countenance from this Text, as it hath from the practice of those times, there being no foot-steps or shadow of any such Sabbath kept through all the Patriarchal periods of the Church, till the times of Moses, which besides the evidence of the story, is universally owned by the Ancient Jewes, and very many of the Fathers do expresly assert it.

10. THE last circumstance concerns the Persons by whom the Publick Worship was administred. Impossible it is that any Society should be regularly managed, where there are not some peculiar Persons to 〈◊〉〈◊〉, direct, and govern the affairs of it. And God who in all other things is a God of Order, is much more so in matters of Reli∣gion: and therefore no doubt from the beginning appointed those, whose care and busi∣ness it should be to discharge the publick parts of Piety and Devotion in the name of the rest. Now the Priesthood in those times was vested in the Heads of Tribes, and in the first-born of every Family. To the Patriarch or Head of every Tribe it belonged to bless the Family, to offer Sacrifice, to intercede for them by Prayer, and to minister in other solemn acts of Religion. And this Office hereditarily descended to the first-born, who had power to discharge it during the life of his Father; for it was not necessary, that he who was Priest by vertue of his primogeniture, should be also the eldest of the House, Jacob, who succeeded in his Brother's right, offered Sacrifices in the life of his Father Isaac, and Abraham was a Priest, though Sem the Head of the Family, and ten degrees removed from him in a direct line, was then alive, yea survived Abraham near Forty Years. Every first-born had three great Prerogatives, a double portion of the Paternal inheritance a Lordship and Principality over his Brethren, and a right to the Priesthood, to instruct them in the knowledge of Divine things, and to manage the common Offi∣ces of Religion. So that in those times there was a particular Priesthood in every Fa∣mily, the administration whereof was usually appropriate to the first born. Thus No∣ah, Abraham, and Isaac offered Sacrifices, and Job (who lived about that time, or not long after) both for his Children and his Friends. Thus 〈◊〉〈◊〉 was a Priest by his pri∣mogeniture, and that goodly Raiment of her Son Esau which Rebeccah put upon Jacob, when he went in to his Father, is by many not improbably understood of the Sacerdo∣tal Vestments, wherein as first-born he was wont to execute his Office. Of these Priests we are to understand that Place, Let the Priests which come near to the Lord,* 1.42 sanctifie themselves. This could not be meant of the Levitical Priests, (the Aaronical Order not being yet instituted) and therefore must be understood of the Priesthood of the first-born, and so Solomon farchis gloss expounds it. Thus when Moses had built an Altar at the foot of the Mountain, he sent young men of the children of Israel, which of∣fered* 1.43 burnt-offerings, and sacrificed peace-offerings unto the Lord. Where for young men, the Chaldee Paraphrase and the Hierusalem Targum have 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the first∣born of the children of Israel; so has that of Jonathan, who expresly adds this reason, for unto that very Hour the worship remained among the first-born, the Tabernacle of the Cove∣nant not being yet made, nor the Aaronical Priesthood set up. So when Jacob bequeathed his blessing to Reuben, Reuben thou art my first-born, my might, and the beginning of my* 1.44 strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power, the same Jewish Paraphrasts tell us, that there were three things in this blessing conveyed and confirmed to Reuben, the Birth-right, the Kingdom, and the Priesthood, but that for his enormous and unnatural sin they were transferred to others, the primogeniture to Joseph, the Kingdom to Judah, and the Priesthood to Levi. But though the Sacerdotal function ordinarily belonged to the first-born, yet was it not so wholly invested in them, but that it might in some cases be exercised by younger Brothers, especially when passing into other Families, and them∣selves becoming Heads of Tribes and Families. Abraham we know was not a first-born, and it's highly probable that Sem himself was not Noah's eldest Son, Moses was a Priest, yea 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 as the Jewes call him, the Priest of Priests, and yet was but 〈◊〉〈◊〉 second Son, and Aaron's younger Brother. So that the case in short seemed to lye thus. The Patriarch or surviving Head of every Tribe was a kind of High Priest over all the Families that were descended from him, the first-born in every Family was the or∣dinary

Priest, who might officiate in his Father's stead, and who after his decease succeeded in his room, the younger Brethren, when leaving their Father's house, and themselves becoming heads of Families, and their seats removed too far distant to make use of the ordinary Priesthood, did themselves take the office upon them, and exercise it over all those that were under them, and sprung from them, though the main ho∣nour and dignity was reserved for the Priesthood of the first-born: Thus Abraham, though but a second Son, yet when become the head of a great Family, and removed into another Country, became a Priest, and that not only during the life of his Father, but of Sem himself, the grand surviving Patriarch of that time. I observe no more concerning this, than that this right of the first-born was a prime honour and privi∣ledge, and therefore the reason (〈◊〉〈◊〉 the* 1.45 Jews) why Jacob was so greatly desirous of the birth right, was because in those days the Priesthood was entail'd upon it. And for this chiefly no doubt it was that Esau is called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, a prophane person, for selling* 1.46 his birth-right for a mess of Pottage, because thereby he made so light of the sacred ho∣nour of the Priesthood, the Venerable office of ministring before God.

11. HAVING thus seen what were the Laws, what the Worship of those times, it remains briefly to consider what was the face of the Church, and the state of Religi∣on under the several Patriarchs of this Oeconomy. Not to meddle with the story ei∣ther of the Creation or Apostasie of Adam, no sooner was he fallen from that innocent and happy state wherein God had placed him, but Conscience began to stir, and he was sensible that God was angry, and saw it necessary to propitiate the offended Deity by Prayer and Invocation, by Sorrow and Repentance, and probably by offering Sa∣crifice; a conjecture that hath at least some countenance from those Coats of Skins* 1.47 wherewith God clothed our first Parents, which seem likely to have been the Skins of Beasts slain for Sacrifice; for that they were not killed for food is evident, because flesh was not the ordinary diet (if it was at all) of those first Ages of the World. And God might purposely make choice of this sort of covering, to put our first Parents in mind of their great degeneracy, how deep they were sunk into the animal life, and by gratifying brutish and sensual appetites at so dear a rate, how like they were become to the Beasts that perish. And 〈◊〉〈◊〉 this were so, it possibly might give birth to that Law* 1.48 of Moses, that every Priest that offered any man's burnt-offering, should have to him∣self the skin of the burnt-offering which he had offered. But however this was, tis certain that Adam was careful to instruct his Children in the knowledge of Divine things, and to maintain Religion and the worship of God in his Family. For we find Cain and Abel bringing their oblations, and that at a certain time, though they had a different success. I omit the Traditions of the East, that the cause of the difference between Cain and Abel was about a Wife, and that they sought to decide the case by Sacrifice, and that when Abel's sacrifice was accepted, Cain out of envy and indigna∣tion fell upon his brother, struck his head with a stone, and slew him. The present they brought was according to their different ways and institutions of life: Cain as an* 1.49 Husbandman brought of the fruit of the ground, Abel as a Shepherd brought of the first∣lings of his Flock, and of the fat thereof: But the one was accepted, and the other re∣jected. The cause whereof certainly was not that the one was little and inconsiderable, the other large and noble; the one only a dry oblation, the other a burnt-offering; or that Cain had entertained a conceived prejudice against his Brother; the true cause lay in the different temper and disposition of their minds; Abel had great and honourable thoughts of God, and therefore brought of the best that he had, Cain mean and unworthy* 1.50 apprehensions, and accordingly took what came first to hand; Abel came with a grate∣ful sense of the goodness of Heaven, with a mind piously and heartily devoted to the Divine Majesty, and an humble reliance upon the Divine acceptance; Cain brought his oblation indeed, but looked no further, was not careful to offer up himself a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, as being the most reasonable service, too confidently bearing up himself, as we may suppose, upon the prerogative of his primogeniture. By which means Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he ob∣tained* 1.51 witness, that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts. For he had respect unto* 1.52 Abel, and to his offering: But unto Cain, and to his offering he had not respect. And if in that fire, by which God testified his respect by consuming one oblation, and not the other, there was (as the Jews say) seen the face of a Lion, it doubtless prefigured the late promised Messiah, The Lion of the Tribe of Judah, our great expiatory sacrifice, of whom all other sacrifices were but types and shadows, and in whom all our oblations are rendred grateful unto God, The odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable and well∣pleasing unto God.

12. A. B. E. L being taken away by his envious and enraged Brother, God was plea∣sed to repair the loss by giving his Parents another Son, whom they called Seth, and he accordingly proved a very Vertuous and Religious man. He was (if we may be∣lieve the Ancients) a great Scholar; the first inventor of Letters, and Writing, an accurate Astronomer, and taught his Children the knowledge of the Stars, who having heard from their Grandfather Adam, that the World was to be twice destroyed, once by Fire, and again by Water (if the story be true which Josephus without any great war∣rant* 1.53 reports) wrote their Experiments and the principles of their Art upon two Pillars, one of Brick, the other of Stone, that if the one perished, the other might remain, and convey their notions to posterity, one of which Pillars Josephus adds, was said to be standing in Syria in his time. But that which rendred Seth most renowned, was his piety and devotion; a good man he was, one who asserted and propagated Religion and the true worship of God, as he had received it from his Father Adam, notwith∣standing the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 and degeneracy, and possibly oppositions of his Brother Cain and his party. The Eastern Writers, both Jews and * 1.54 Arabians, confidently assure us, that Seth and his retinue withdrew from Cain, who dwelt in the Valley, where he had killed his brother Abel, into a very high mountain (on the top whereof their Father Adam was buried) so high, if we could believe them, that they could hear the Angels singing Anthems, and did daily joyn in with that Heavenly Quire. Here they whol∣ly devoted themselves to the daily worship of God, and obtained a mighty name and ve∣neration for the holiness and purity of their lives. When Seth came to lie upon his death∣bed, he summoned his Children, their Wives and Families together, blessed them, and as his last Will commanded them to worship God, adjuring them by the bloud of Abel (their usual and solemn oath) that they should not descend from the holy Mount, to hold any correspondence or commerce with Cain or his wicked faction. And then breathed his last. A command, say my Authors, which they observed for seven generations, and then came in the promiscuous mixtures.

13. To Seth succeeded his Son Enos, who kept up the glory and purity of Religion, and the honour of the holy Line. Of his time it is particularly recorded, then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. The ambiguity of the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signifying* 1.55 sometimes to prophane, sometimes to begin, hath begotten various apprehensions among learned men concerning this place, and led them not only into different, but quite con∣trary sences. The words are by some rendred thus, Then men prophaned in calling upon the name of the Lord; which they thus explain, that at that time when Enos was born, the true worship and service of God began to sink and fail, corruption and idolatry mightily prevailing by reason of Cains wicked and apostate Family; and that as a sad me∣morial of this corrupt and degenerate Age, holy Seth called his son's name Enosh, which not only simply signifies a man, but a poor, calamitous, miserable man. And this way go many of the Jews, and some Christian writers of great name and note. Nay Maimonides, one of the wisest and soberest of all the Jewish writers, begins his Tract about* 1.56 Idolatry 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 from the times of Enosh, referring to this very passage; he tells us, that men did then grievously erre, and that the minds of the wise men of those days were grown gross and stupid; yea, that Enos himself was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 among those that erred, and that their Idolatry consisted in this, That they worshipped the Stars and the Host of Heaven. ‖ 1.57 Others there are who expresly assert, that 〈◊〉〈◊〉 was the first that invented Images, to excite the Spirit of the Creatures, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 that by their mediation men might invocate and call upon God. But how in∣firm a foundation this Text is to build all this upon, is evident. For besides, what* 1.58 some have observed, that the Hebrew phrase is not tolerably reconcileable with such a sence, if it were, yet 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 as one of the‖ 1.59 Rabbins has well noted, that there wants a foundation for any such exposition, no mention being made in Moses his story of any such false Gods as were then worshipped, no footsteps of Idolatry appearing in the World till after the Flood. Nor indeed is it reasonable to suppose, that the Crea∣tion of the World being yet fresh in memory, and Divine Traditions so lately received from Adam, and God frequently communicating himself to men, that the case being thus, men could in so short a time be fallen under so great an apostasie, as wholly to forget and renounce the true God, and give Divine honours to senseless and inanimate creatures; I can hardly think that the Cainites themselves should be guilty of this, much less Enosh and his Children. The meaning of the words then is plainly this, That in Enosh his time the holy Line being greatly multiplied, they applied themselves to the worship of God in a more publick and remarkable manner, either by framing themselves into more distinct societies for the exercise of publick worship, or by

meeting at more fixed and stated times, or by invocating God under more solemn and peculiar rites than they had done before. And this probably they did the rather, to ob∣viate that torrent of prophaneness and impiety, which by means of the sons of Cain they saw flowing in upon the World. This will be further confirmed, if we take the words as by some they are rendred, then men began to be called by the name of the Lord, that is, the difference and separation that was between the children of Seth and Cain every day ripening into a wider distance, the posterity of Seth began to take to them∣selves a distinctive title, that the World might the better distinguish between those who kept to the service of God, and those who threw off Religion, and let loose the reins to disorder and impiety. And hereof we meet with clear intimation in the story of those times when we read of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the sons of God (who doubtless were the* 1.60 pious and devout posterity of Seth, calling themselves after the name of the Lord, whom they constantly and sincerely worshipped, notwithstanding the fancy of Jose∣phus, and the Fathers, that they were Angels, or that of the Jewish Paraphrasts, that they were 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the sons of great men and Princes) in opposition to the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the sons of men, the impure and debauched posterity of Cain, who made light of Reli∣gion, and were wholly governed by 〈◊〉〈◊〉 and sensual inclinations. And the match∣ing of these sons of God with the daughters of men, that is, those of the Family of Cain, and the fatal consequences of those unhappy marriages, was that which provoked God to destroy the World. I have no more to add concerning Enosh, than that we are told, that dying he gave the same commands to his Children, which he had received of his Father, that they should make Religion their great care and business, and keep them∣selves pure from society and converse with the Line of Cain.

14. AFTER Enosh was his son Kenan, who, as the Arabian * 1.61 Historian informs us, ruled the people committed to him by a wise and excellent government, and gave the same charge at his death that had been given to him. Next Kenan comes Maha∣lcleel,* 1.62 who carries devotion and piety in his very name, signifying, one that praises God, of whom they say, that he trained up the people in ways of justice and piety, blessed his Children at his death, and having charged them to separate from the Cai∣nites, appointed his son Jared to be his successor; whose name denotes a descent, pro∣bably either because of the notable decrease and declension of piety in his time, or be∣cause in his days some of the Sethites descended from the holy Mountain to mix with the posterity of Cain. For so the* 1.63 Oriental writers inform us, that a great noise and shout coming up from the Valley, an hundred of the holy Mountaineers agreed to go down to the sons of Cain, whom Jared endeavoured to hinder by all the arts of counsel and perswasion. But what can stop a mind bent upon an evil course? down they went, and being ravished with the beauty of the Cainite-women, promiscuously com∣mitted folly and lewdness with them; from whence sprang a race of Giants, men of vast and robust bodies, but of more vicious and ungovernable tempers, who made their Will their Law, and Might the standard and rule of Equity. Attempting to re∣turn back to the holy Mount, Heaven had shut up their way, the stones of the Moun∣tain burning like fire when they came upon them; which whether the Reader will have faith enough to believe, I know not. Jared being near his death, advised his Children to be wise by the folly of their Brethren, and to have nothing to do with that prophane generation. His son Enoch followed in his steps, a man of admirable strict∣ness and piety, and peculiarly exemplary for his innocent and holy conversation, it* 1.64 being particularly noted of him, that he walked with God: He set the Divine Majesty before him, as the guide and pattern, the spectator and rewarder of his actions, in all his ways endeavoured to approve himself to his All-seeing eye, by doing nothing but what was grateful and acceptable to him; he was the great instance of vertue and goodness in an evil Age, and by the even tenor and constancy of a holy and a religious life shewed his firm belief and expectation of a future state, and his hearty dependence upon the Divine goodness for the rewards of a better life. And God, who is never be∣hind-hand with his servants, crowned his extraordinary obedience with an uncommon* 1.65 reward. By faith Enoch was translated, that he should not see death, and was not found, because God had translated him: For before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. And what that faith was, is plain by what follows after, a belief of God's Being and his Bounty, Without faith it is impossible to please him: For he that cometh to God, must believe that he is, and that 〈◊〉〈◊〉 is a 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of them that diligently seek him. What this translation was, and whether it was made, whither into that Terrestrial Paradise out of which Adam was expelled and banished, and whereunto Enoch had de∣sired of God he might be translated, as some fancy, or whether placed among the Stars,

as others, or carried into the highest Heavens, as others will have it, were nice and useless speculations. 'Tis certain he was taken out of these mutable Regions, and set beyond the reach of those miseries and misfortunes, to which a present state of sin and mortality does betray us; translated, probably, both Soul and Body, that he might be a type and specimen of a future Resurrection, and a sensible demonstration to the World that there is a reward for the righteous, and another state after this, wherein good Men shall be happy sor ever. I pass by the fancy of the Jewes as vain and frivolous, that though Enoch was a good Man, yet was he very mutable and inconstant, and apt to be led aside, and that this was the reason, why God translated him so soon, lest he should have been debauched by the charms and allurements of a wicked World. He was an eminent Prophet, and a fragment of his Prophecy is yet extant in S. Jude's Epistle, by which it appears, that wickedness was then grown rampant, and the manners of men very corrupt and vicious, and that he as plainly told them of their faults, and that Di∣vine vengeance that would certainly overtake them. Of Methuselah his Son nothing considerable is upon Record, but his great Age, living full DCCCCLXIX. Years (the longest proportion which any of the Patriarchs arrived to) and died in that very Year wherein the Flood came upon the World.

15. FROM his Son Lamech, concerning whom we find nothing memorable, we proceed to his Grand child Noah, by the very imposition of whose Name his Parents presaged that he would be a refreshment and comfort to the World, and highly in∣strumental to remove that curse which God by an Universal Deluge was bringing upon the Earth, he 〈◊〉〈◊〉 his Name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work* 1.66 and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed; he was one in whom his Parents did acquiesce and rest satisfied, that he would be eminently 〈◊〉〈◊〉 and serviceable to the World. Indeed he proved a person of incomparable sanctity and in∣tegrity, a Preacher of righteousness to others, and who as carefully practised it himself. He was a just man, and perfect in his generation, and he walked with God. He did not warp* 1.67 and decline with the humour of the Age he lived in, but maintained his station, and kept his Line. He was upright in his Generation. 'Tis no thanks to be religious, when it is the humour and fashion of the Times: the great trial is, when we live in the midst of a corrupt generation. It is the crown of vertue to be good, when there are all man∣ner of temptations to the contrary, when the greatest part of Men goe the other way, when vertue and honesty are laughed and drolled on, and censured as an over-wise and affected singularity; when lust and debauchery are accounted the modes of Gallantry, and pride and oppression suffered to ride in prosperous triumphs without controll. Thus it was with Noah, he contended with the Vices of the Age, and dared to own God and Religion, when almost all Mankind besides himself had rejected and thrown them off. For in his time wickedness openly appeared with a brazen Forehead, and violence had covered the face of the Earth, the promiscuous mixtures of the Children of Seth and Cain had produced Giants and mighty Men, men strong to do evil, and who had as much will as power, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉,* 1.68 as Josephus describes them, a race of men insolent and ungovernable, scornful and injurious, and who bearing up themselves in the confidence of their own strength, despised all justice and equity, and made every thing truckle under their 〈◊〉〈◊〉 lusts and appetites. The very same character does Lucian give of the Men of this Age, speaking of the times* 1.69 of Deucalion (their Noah) and the Flood, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (says he) 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, &c. Men exceedingly scorn∣ful and contumelious, and guilty of the most unrighteous and enormous actions, viola∣ting all Oaths and Covenants, throwing off kindness and hospitality, and rejecting all addresses and supplications made to them. For which cause great miseries overtook them: for Heaven and Earth, Seas and Rivers conspired together to pour out mighty Floods upon the World; which swept all away, but Deucalion only, who for his pru∣dence and piety was left to repair Mankind. And so he goes on with the relation con∣sonant to the account of the Sacred story. This infection had spread it self over all parts, and was become so general and Epidemical, that all Flesh had corrupted their ways, and scarce any besides Noah left to keep up the face of a Church, and the profession of Religion. Things being come to this pass quickly alarm'd the Divine Justice, and made the World ripe for vengeance; the patience of God was now tired out, and he re∣solved to make Mankind feel the just effects of his incensed severity. But yet in the midst of judgment he remembers mercy: he tells them, that though he would not suffer his patience to be eternally prostituted to the wanton humours of wicked men, yet that

he would bear with them CXX. Years longer in order to their reformation. So loth is God to take advantage of the sins of men, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come unto repentance. In the mean time righteous Noah found favour with Heaven (a good man hath a peculiar guardianship and protection in the worst of times) and God orders him to prepare an Ark for the saving of his House. An Hundred Years was this Ark in building, not but that it might have been finished in a far less time, but that God was willing to give them so long a space for wise and sober considerations, No∣ah preaching all the while both by his doctrine and his practice, that they would break off their sins by repentance, and prevent their ruine. But they that are filthy, will be filthy still; the hardned World persisted in their impieties, till the wrath of God came upon them to the uttermost; and destroyed the World of the ungodly. God shut up Noah, his Wife, his three Sons and their Wives into the Ark, together with provisions, and so many Creatures of every sort as were sufficient not only for food, but for reparation of the kind (Miracles must not be expected, where ordinary means may be 〈◊〉〈◊〉) and then opened the Windows of Heaven, and broke up the Fountains of the Deep, and brought in the Flood that swept all away. Twelve months Noah and his Family continued in this floating habitation; when the Waters being gone, and the Earth dried, he came forth, and the first thing he did, was to erect an Altar, and offer up an Eucharistical Sacrifice to God for 〈◊〉〈◊〉 remarkable a deliverance (some of the Jews tell us, that coming out of the Ark he was bitten by a Lion, and rendred unfit for Sacrifice, and that therefore Sem did it in his room) he did not concern himself for food, or a present habitation, but imme∣diately betook himself to his devotion. God was infinitely pleased with the pious and grateful sense of the good man, and openly declared that his displeasure was over, and that he would no more bring upon the World such effects of his severity as he had late∣ly done, and that the Ordinances of Nature should duly perform their constant motions, and regularly observe their periodical revolutions. And because Man was the principal Creature in this lower World, he restored to him his Charter of Dominion and Sove∣raignty over the Creatures, and by enacting some Laws against Murder and Cruelty secured the peace and happiness of his life: and then established a 〈◊〉〈◊〉 with Noah and all Mankind, that he would no more drown the World, for the ratification and en∣surance whereof he placed the Rain-bow in the Clouds, as a perpetual sign and memo∣rial of his Promise. Noah after this betook himself to Husbandry, and planting Vine∣yards, and being unwarily overtaken with the fruit of the Vine, became a scorn to Cham one of his own Sons, while the two others piously covered their Fathers shame. A wake∣ing out of his sleep, and knowing what had been done, he prophetically cursed Cham and his Posterity; blessed Sem, and in Japhet foretold the calling of the Gentiles to the worship of God, and the knowledge of the Messiah, that God should enlarge Japhet, and that he should dwell in the Tents of Shem. He died in the DCCCCL. Year of his Age, having seen both Worlds, that before the Flood, and that which came after it.

16. SEM and Japhet were the two good Sons of Noah, in the assigning whose primogeniture, though the Scripture be not positive and decretory, yet do the most probable reasons appear for Japhet, especially if we compute their Age. Sem was an* 1.70 Hundred Years old two Years after the Flood (for 〈◊〉〈◊〉 he begat Arphaxad) now the Flood hapned just in the DC. Year of Noah's Age; whence it follows that Sem was* 1.71 born, when his Father was Five Hundred and Two Years old. But Noah being ex∣presly said to have begotten Sons in the Five Hundredth Year of his Age, plain it is that* 1.72 there must be another Son two Years Elder than Sem, which could be no other than Japhet, Cham being acknowledged by all the Younger Brother. And hence it is that* 1.73 Sem is called, the Brother 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 of Japhet the Greater, or as we render it, the Elder. They were both pious and devout Men, having been brought up under the reli∣gious Institutions, not only of their Father Noah, but their Grand-father 〈◊〉〈◊〉, and their Great-grand-father Methuselah, who had for some Hundreds of Years conversed with Adam. The holy story records nothing concerning the state of Religion in their days, and little heed 〈◊〉〈◊〉 to be given to the Eastern Writers, when they tell us of Sem, that according to the command of his Father he took the Body of Adam, which Noah had secretly hidden in the Ark, and joyning himself to Melchisedec, they went and 〈◊〉〈◊〉 it in the heart of the Earth, an Angel going before, and conducting them to the place∣with a great deal more, with little truth, and to as little purpose. As for the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 born after the Flood, little notice is taken of them besides the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 mention of their names, Arphaxad, Salah, Eber. Of this last they say, that he was a great 〈◊〉〈◊〉, that he instituted Schools and Seminaries for the advancement and propagation of 〈◊〉〈◊〉:* 1.74 and there was great reason for him to bestir himself, if it be true, what the Arabian Hi∣storians

tell us, that now Idolatry began mightily to prevail, and men generally car∣ved to themselves the Images of their Ancestors, to which upon all occasions they ad∣dressed themselves with the most solemn veneration, the Daemons giving answers through the Images wich they worshipped. Heber was the Father of the Jewish Na∣tion,* 1.75 who from him are said to have derived the title of Hebrews, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as Josephus tells us, (though there want not those who assign other reasons of the name) and that the Hebrew Language was preserved in his family, which till his time had been the mother-tongue, and the common Language of the World. To Eber succeeded his son Peleg, a name given him out of a Propheti∣cal foresight of that memorable division that hapned in his time. For now it was that a company of bold daring persons combining themselves under the conduct and command of Nimrod, resolved to erect a vast and stupendous Fabrick, partly to raise themselves a mighty reputation in the World, partly to secure themselves from the Invasion of an after-deluge, and probably as a place of retreat and defence, the better to enable them to put in practice that oppression and tyranny which they designed to exercise over the World. But whatever it was, God was displeased with the attempt, and to shew how easily he can basfle the subtillest Councils, and in a moment subvert the firmest projects, on a sudden he confounded the Language of these foolish Builders, so that they were forced to desist from their vain and ambitious design, as not being able to understand and converse with one another. To Peleg succeeded his son Rehu, to 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Serug, to him 〈◊〉〈◊〉, to Nachor Terah, who dwelt in Ur of the Chaldaeans, where conversing with those Idolatrous Nations, he laps'd himself into the most gross Idola∣try. So apt are men to follow a multitude to do evil, so fatally mischievous is ill compa∣ny, and a bad example. But the best way to avoid the plague, is to remove out of the house of infection. Away goes Terah to Haran, where by repentance he is said to have recovered himself out of the snare of the Devil.

17. ABRAHAM the second son of Terah succeeds in the Patriarchal Line. In his minority he was educated in the Idolatries of his Father's house, who, they say, was a maker of Statues and Images: And the * 1.76 Jews tells us many pleasant stories of Abra∣ham's going into the shop in the absence of his Father, his breaking the Images, and jeer∣ing those that came to buy, or worship them; of his Father's carrying him to Nimrod to be punished, his witty answers, and miraculous escapes. But God who had de∣signed him for higher and nobler purposes, called him at length out of his Father's house, fully discoverd himself to him, and by many solemn promises and federal com∣pacts peculiarly engaged him to himself. He was a man intirely devoted to the honour of God, and had consecrated all his services to the interests of Religion, scarce any duty either towards God or men for which he is not eminent upon record. Towards God, how great was his zeal and care to promote his worship? erecting Altars almost in eve∣ry place, whereon he publickly offered his prayers and sacrifice. His love to God wholly swallowed up the love and regard that he had to his dearest interests, witness his intire resignation of himself, his chearful renouncing all the concernments of his Estate and Family, and especially his readiness to sacrifice his only son, the son of his old age, and which is above all, the son of the promise, when God by way of trial re∣quired it of him. How vigorous and triumpant was his faith, especially in the great promise of a son, which he firmly embraced against all humane probabilities to the contrary? Against hope he believed in hope, and being strong in faith, gave glory to God. How hearty was his dependence upon the Divine Providence, when called to leave his Father's house, and to go into a strange Country, how chearfully did he obey and go out, though he knew not whither he went? How unconquerable was his patience, how even the composure of his mind in all conditions? in fifteen several journeys that he undertook, and ten difficult temptations which he underwent, he never betrayed the least murmuring or hard thought of God. Towards others he shewed the greatest tenderness and respect, the most meek and unpassionate temper, a mind inflamed with a desire of peace and concord: Admirable his justice and equity in all his dealings, his great hospitality and bounty towards strangers, and for that end (say the Jews) he got him an house near the entring into Haran, that he might entertain strangers as they went in, or came out of the City, at his own table; as indeed he seems to have had that most excellent and Divine temper of mind, an universal love and charity towards all men. But his greatest charity appeared in the care that he took of the Souls of men. Maimonides tells us, that he kept a publick School of institution, whither he gather∣ed* 1.77 men together, and instructed them in that truth, which he himself had embraced, and he gives us an account by what methods of reasoning and information he used to

convince and perswade them. But whatever he did towards others, we are sure he did it towards those that were under his own charge. He had a numerous family, and a vast retinue, and he was as careful to inform them in the knowledge of the true God, and to instruct them in all the duties of Religion. 'Tis the character which God him∣self gave of him, I know Abraham, that he will command his children, and his houshold af∣ter him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment. And so he did, his house being a School of piety, wherein Religion was both taught and practised, many reclaimed from the errors and idolatries of the times, and all his domesticks and dependants solemnly dedicated to God by Circumcision. Therefore when 'tis said, that he brought with him all the Souls which they had gotten in Haran, the Paraphrase of* 1.78 Onkelos renders it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the Souls which they had subject∣ed to the Law in Haran; Jonathans Targum, and much at the same rate that of Jerusa∣lem, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the Souls which they had made proselytes in Haran, or as Solomon Jarchi expresses it, a little more after the Hebrew mode, the Souls which they had ga∣thered, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 under the wings of the Divine Majesty; and he further* 1.79 adds, that Abraham proselyted the men, and Sarah the women. So when elsewhere we read of his trained servants, some of the Jewish Masters expound it by 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 those that were initiated and trained up in the knowledge of the Law. Such being the temper of this holy man, God was pleased frequently to converse with him, and to im∣part his mind to him, acquainting him with the secret counsels and purposes of his Pro∣vidence, whence he is stiled the friend of God. But that which shewed him to be most dear to Heaven, was the Covenant which God solemnly made with him, wherein binding Abraham and his seed to a sincere and universal obedience, he obliged himself to become their God, to be his shield and his exceeding great reward, to take his posteri∣ty for his peculiar people, to encrease their number, and to inlarge their power, to settle them in a rich and a pleasant Country (a type of that Heavenly and better Coun∣try that is above) and which was the crown of all, that in his seed all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed, that is, the promised Messiah should proceed out of his loins, who should be a common blessing to mankind, in whom both Jew and Gentile should be justified and saved, and he by that means become (spiritually) the Father of many Nations. This Covenant was ratified and ensured on God's part by a solemn oath, For* 1.80 when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by him∣self, saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. On Abra∣ham's part it was sealed with the Sacrament of Circumcision, which God instituted as a peculiar federal rite, to distinguish Abraham's posterity from all other people. Abra∣ham died in the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 year of his Age, and was buried in the Sepulchre which himself had purchased of the sons of Heth. Contemporary with Abraham was his Ne∣phew* 1.81 Lot, a just man, but vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked; for dwelling in the midst of an impure and debauched generation, In seeing and hearing he vexed his righteous Soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. This endeared him to Heaven, who took a particular care of him, and sent an Angel on purpose to conduct him and his family out of Sodom, before he let loose that fatal vengeance that overturned it.

18. Abraham being dead, Isaac stood up in his stead, the son of his Parents old age, and the fruit of an extraordinary promise. Being delivered from being a sacrifice, he frequented (say the Jews) the School of Sem, wherein he was educated in the know∣ledge of Divine things till his marriage with Rebeccah. But however that was, he was a good man, we read of his going out to meditate or pray in the field at even-tide, and* 1.82 elsewhere we find him publickly sacrificing and calling upon God. In all his distresses God still appeared to him, animated him against his fears, and encouraged him to go on in the steps of his Father, renewing the same promises to him which he had made to Abraham. Nay, so visible and remarkable was the interest which he had in Hea∣ven, that Abimelech King of the Philistines and his Courtiers thought it their wisest course to confederate with him for this very reason, because they saw certainly that the* 1.83 Lord was with him, and that he was the blessed of the Lord. Religion is the truest inte∣rest, and the wisest portion, 'tis the surest protection, and the safest refuge. When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. Isaac dy∣ing in the CLXXX, year of his life, the Patriarchate devolved upon his son Jacob, by vertue of the primogeniture which he had purchased of his brother Esau, and which had been confirmed to him by the grant and blessing of his Father (though subtilly pro∣cured by the artifice and policy of his Mother) who also told him, that God Almighty would bless and multiply him and his seed after him, and that the blessing of Abraham should come upon them. He intirely devoted himself to the fear and service of God, kept up

his Worship, and vindicated it from the incroachments of Idolatry, he erected Altars at every turn, and zealously purged his house from those Teraphim or Idols which Ra∣chel had brought along with her out of Laban's house, either to prevent her Father's enquiring at them which way Jacob had made his escape, or to take away from him the instruments of his Idolatry, or possibly that she might have wherewith to propitiate* 1.84 and 〈◊〉〈◊〉 her Father in case he should pursue and overtake them, as Josephus thinks, though surely then she would have produced them, when she saw her Father so zealous to retrieve them. He had frequent Visions and Divine condescensions, God appear∣ing to him, and ratifying the Covenant that he had made with Abraham, and chang∣ing his name from Jacob to Israel, as a memorial of the mighty prevalency which he had with Heaven. In his later time he removed his family into Egypt, where God had prepared his way by the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of his son Joseph to be Vice-Roy and Lord of that vast and fertile Country, advanced to that place of state and grandeur by many strange and unsearchable methods of the Divine Providence. By his two Wives, the Daughters of his Uncle Laban, and his two Handmaids he had twelve Sons, who afterwards be∣came founders of the Twelve Tribes of the Jewish Nation; to whom upon his death∣bed he bequeathed his blessings, consigning their several portions, and the particular fates of every Tribe, among whom that of 〈◊〉〈◊〉 is most remarkable, to whom it was foretold, that the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 should arise out of that Tribe, that the Regal Power & Political* 1.85 Soveraignty should be annexed to it, and remain in it till the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 came, at whose coming the Scepter should depart, and the Law-giver from between his knees: And thus all their own Paraphrasts, both Onkelos, Jonathan, and he of Jerusalem do expound it, that there should not want Kings or Rulers of the house of Judah, nor Scribes to teach the Law of that race, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 until the time that 〈◊〉〈◊〉 the King shall come, whose the Kingdom is. And so it accordingly came to pass, for at the time of Christ's Birth, Herod, who was a stranger, had usurped the Throne, debased the Authority of their great Sanhedrim, murdered their Senators, devested them of all Judiciary power, and kept them so low, that they had not power 〈◊〉〈◊〉 to put a man to death. And unto him shall the gathering of the people be. A prophecy exactly accomplished, when in the first Ages of Christianity the Nations of the World 〈◊〉〈◊〉 to the standard of Christ at the publication of the Gospel. Jacob died CXLVII. years old, and was buried in Canaan, in the Sepulchre of his Fathers: After whose de∣cease his posterity for some hundreds of years were afflicted under the Egyptian yoke. Till God remembring the Covenant he had made with their Fathers, powerfully re∣scued them from the Iron Furnace; and conducted them through the wilderness into the Land of Promise, where he framed and ordered their Commonwealth, appointed Laws for the government of their Church, and setled them under a more fixed and cer∣tain dispensation.

19. HITHERTO we have surveyed the state of the Church in the constant succession of the Patriarchal Line. But if we step a little further into the History of those times, we shall find that there were some extraordinary persons without the Pale of that holy Tribe, renowned for the worship of God, and the profession of Religion; among whom two are most considerable, Melchisedeck and Job. Melchisedeck was King of Salem in the land of Canaan, and Priest of the most high God. The short account which the Scripture gives of him hath left room for various fancies and conjectures. The opinion that has most generally obtained is, that Melchisedeck was Sem, one of the sons of Noah, who was of a great Age, and lived above LXX. years after Abraham's coming into Canaan, and might therefore well enough meet him in his triumphant re∣turn from his conquest over the Kings of the Plain. But notwithstanding the univer∣sal authority which this opinion assumes to it self, it appears not to me with any tole∣rable probability, partly because Canaan, where Melchisedeck lived, was none of those Countries which were allotted to Sem and to his posterity, and unlikely it is that he should be Prince in a foreign Country: partly, because those things which the Scrip∣ture reports concerning Melchisedeck, do no ways agree to Sem, as that he was without Father and Mother, without genealogie, &c. whenas Moses does most exactly describe and record Sem and his Family, both as to his Ancestors, and as to his posterity. That therefore which seems most probable in the case, is, that he was one of the Reguli, or petty Kings (whereof there were many) in the land of Canaan, but a pious and de∣vout man, and a worshipper of the true God, as there were many others in those days among the Idolatrous Nations; he being extraordinarily raised up by God from among the Canaanites, and brought in without mention of Parents, original or end, without any Predecessor or Successor in his office, that he might be a fitter type of the Royal

and Eternal Priesthood of Christ. And for any more particular account concerning his person, it were folly and rashness over-curiously to enquire after what God seems indu∣striously to have concealed from us. The great character under which the Scripture takes notice of him, is his relation to our blessed Saviour, who is more than once said to be a Priest, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, after the order, in the same way and manner that Melchise∣deck was, or (as the Apostle explains himself) after the similitude of Melchisedeck. Our* 1.86 Lord was such a Priest as Melchisedeck was, there being a nearer similitude and confor∣mity between them, than ever was between any other Priests whatsoever. A subject which S. Paul largely and particularly treats of. Passing by the minuter instances of the parallel, taken from the name of his person, Melchisedeck, that is, King of righte∣ousness, and his title to his Kingdom, King of Salem, that is, of Peace; we shall ob∣serve three things especially wherein he was a type of Christ. First, in the peculiar qualification of his person, something being recorded of him uncommon to the rest of men, and that is, that he was without Father, without Mother, and without descent.* 1.87 Not that Melchisedeck like Adam was immediately created, or in an instant dropt down from Heaven, but that he hath no kindred recorded in the story, which brings him in without any mention of Father or Mother, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as Chrysostom glosses, we know not what Father or Mother he had: He was* 1.88 (says S. Paul) 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, without genealogie, without having any pedigree extant upon record, whence the ancient Syriack Version truly expresses the sence of the whole passage thus, Whose neither Father nor Mother are written, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 among the gene∣rations, that is, the genealogies of the ancient Patriarchs. And thus he eminently typified Christ, of whom this is really true: He is without Father in respect of his hu∣mane nature, begotten only of a pure Virgin; without Mother, in respect of his Di∣vinity, being begotten of his Father before all Worlds, by an eternal and ineffable ge∣neration. Secondly, Melchisedeck typified our Saviour in the duration and continu∣ance of his office; for so 'tis said of him, that he was without descent, having neither be∣ginning of days, nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, abideth a Priest continu∣ally. By which we are not to understand that Melchisedeck never died, for being a man he was subject to the same common Law of mortality with other men: But the mean∣ing is, that as he is said to be without Father and Mother, because the Scripture speak∣ing of him makes no mention of his Parents, his Genealogy and descent: So he is said to abide a Priest for ever, without any beginning of days, or end of life, because we have no account of any that either preceded, or succeeded him in his office, no mention of the time either when he took it up, or laid it down. And herein how lively and emi∣nent a type of Christ, the true Melchisedeck, who as to his Divine nature was without beginning of days from Eternal Ages, and who either in the execution or vertue of his office abides for ever. There is no abolition, no translation of his office, no expecta∣tion of any to arise that shall succeed him in it: He was made a Priest not after the Law of a carnal Commandment, a transient and mutable dispensation, but after the power of an endless life. Thirdly, Melchisedeck was a type of Christ in his excellency above all other Priests. S. Paul's great design is to evince the preheminence and precedency of Mel∣chisedeck above all the Priests of the Mosaick ministration, yea, above Abraham him∣self, the Founder and Father of the Jewish Nation, from whom they reckoned it so great an honour to derive themselves. And this the Apostle proves by a double in∣stance. First, that Abraham, in whose loins the Levitical Priests then were, paid tithes to Melchisedeck, when he gave him the tenth of all his spoils, as due to God and his Ministers, thereby confessing himself and his posterity inferiour to him. Now consider* 1.89 how great this man was, unto whom even the Patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils. Secondly, that Melchisedeck conferred upon Abraham a solemn benediction, it being a standing part of the Priests office to bless the people. And this was an undeniable ar∣gument of his superiority. He whose descent is not counted from them (the legal Priests)* 1.90 received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promises: And without all contra∣diction the less is blessed of the better. Whereby it evidently appears, that Melchisedeck was greater than Abraham, and consequently than all the Levitical Priests that descen∣ded from him. Now herein he admirably prefigured and shadowed out our blessed Sa∣viour, a person peculiarly chosen out by God, sent into the World upon a nobler and a more important errand, owned by more solemn and mighty attestations from Hea∣ven, than ever was any other person; his office incomparably beyond that of the legal Oeconomy, his person greater, his undertaking weightier, his design more sublime and excellent, his oblation more valuable and meritorious, his prayers more prevalent

and successful, his office more durable and lasting, than ever any whose business it was to intercede and mediate between God and man.

20. THE other extraordinary person under this 〈◊〉〈◊〉 is Job, concerning whom two things are to be enquired into, Who he was, and when he lived. For the first, we find him described by his Name, his Country, his Kindred, his Quality, his Religion, and his Sufferings, though in many of them we are left under great uncer∣tainties, and to the satisfaction only of probable conjectures. For his name, among many conjectures two are especially considerable, though founded upon very different reasons, one that it is from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signifying one that grieves or groans, mystically pre∣saging those grievous miseries and sufferings that afterwards came upon him; the other, more probably, from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to love, or to desire, noting him the desire and delight of his Parents, earnestly prayed for, and affectionately embraced with the tenderest en∣dearments. His Country was the land of 〈◊〉〈◊〉, though where that was, is almost as much disputed, as about the source of Nilus: Some will have it Armenia, others Pale∣stine, or the land of Canaan, and some of the Jewish Masters assure us, that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 his School, or place of institution was at Tiberias, and nothing more commonly shewed to Travellers than Job's well in the way between Ramah and Jerusalem; others place it in Syria near Damascus, so called from 〈◊〉〈◊〉, the supposed Founder of that City; others a little more Northward at Apamea, now called Hama, where his house is said to be shewed at this day: Most make it to be part of Idumaea near mount 〈◊〉〈◊〉, or else Arabia the Desart (probably it was in the confines of both) this part of Arabia being nearest to the Sabaeans and Chaldaeans, who invaded him, and most applicable to his dwelling among the Sons of the East, to the situation of his friends who came to visit him, and best corresponding with those frequent Arabisms discernable both in the Language and Discourses of Job and his Friends; not to say that this Country produced persons ex∣ceedingly addicted to Learning and Contemplation, and the studies of natural Philoso∣phy, whence the wise men who came out of the East to worship Christ are thought by many to have been Arabians. For his kindred and his friends, we find four taken no∣tice of, who came to visit him in his distress; Eliphaz the Temanite, the son probably of Teman, and grandchild of Esau by his eldest son Eliphaz, the Country deriving its name Teman from his Father, and was situate in Idumaea in the borders of the Desart Arabia: Bildad the Shuhite, a descendant in all likelihood of Shuah, one of the sons of Abraham by his wife Keturah, whose seat was in this part of Arabia: Zophar the Naa∣mathite, a Country lying near those parts: And Elihu the Buzite, of the off-spring of Buz the son of Nahor, and so nearly related to Job himself. He was the son of Barachel, of the kindred of Ram, who was the head of the Family, and his habitation was in the parts of Arabia the Desart near Euphrates, or at least in the Southern part of 〈◊〉〈◊〉 bordering upon it. As for Job himself, he is made by some a Canaanite, of the posterity of Cham; by others to descend from Sem by his son Amram, whose eldest sons name was 〈◊〉〈◊〉; by most from Esau, the Father of the Idumaean Nations; but most probably either from Nahor, Abraham's brother, whose sons were Huz, Buz, Chesed, &c. or from Abraham himself by some of the sons which he had by his wife Keturah, whereby an account is most probably given, how Job came to be imbued with those seeds of Piety and true Religion, for which he was so eminently remarkable, as deri∣ving them from those Religious principles and instructions which Abraham and Nahor had bequeathed to their posterity. His quality and the circumstances of his External state were very considerable, a man rich and honourable; His substance was seven thou∣sand Sheep, and three thousand Camels, and five hundred yoke of Oxen, and five hundred she-Asses, and a very great houshold, so that he was the greatest of all the men of the East; him∣self largely describes the great honour and prosperity of his fortunes, that he washed his steps in Butter, and the rock poured out rivers of Oil; when he went out to the gate through the City, and prepared his seat in the street, the young men saw him, and hid themselves, the aged arose and stood up, the Princes refrained talking, and laid their hand on their mouth, &c. He delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless and him that had none to help him, the blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon him, &c. He brake the jaws of the wicked, and pluckt the spoil out of their teeth, &c. Indeed so great his state and dignity, that it has led many into a perswasion, that he was King of Idumaea, a power∣ful and mighty Prince; a fancy that has received no small encouragement from the common but groundless confounding of Job with Jobab King of Edom, of the race of Esau. For the story gives no intimation of any such royal dignity, to which Job was advanced, but always speaks of him as a private person, though exceeding wealthy and prosperous, and thereby probably of extraordinary power and estimation in his

Country. Nay that he might not want fit Companions in his Regal capacity, three of his friends are made Kings as well as he, the LXX. Translators themselves stiling Eli∣phaz King of the Temanites, Bildad of the Suchites, and Zophar King of the Minaeans, though with as little, probably less reason than the former.

21. BUT whatever his condition was, we are sure he was no less eminent for Pi∣ety and Religion, he was a man perfect and upright, one that feared God, and eschewed evil. Though living among the Idolatrous Gentiles, he kept up the true and sincere worship of God, daily offered up Sacrifices and Prayers to Heaven, piously instructed his Children and Family, lived in an intire dependence upon the Divine Providence, in all his discourses expressed the highest and most honourable sentiments and thoughts of God, and such as best became the Majesty of an Infinite Being; in all transactions he was just and righteous, compassionate and charitable, modest and humble, indeed by the character of God himself, who knew him best, There was none like him in the Earth, a perfect and an upright man, fearing God, and eschewing evil: his mind was submissive and compliant, his patience generous and unshaken, great even to a Proverb, You have heard of the Patience of Job. And enough he had to try it to the utmost, if we consider what sufferings he underwent; those evils which are wont but singly to seise upon o∣ther men, all centred and met in him. Plundered in his Estate by the Sabaean and Chal∣daean Free-booters (whose standing livelihood were spoils and robberies) and not an Oxe or Asse left of all the Herd, not a Sheep or a Lamb either for Food or Sacrifice: Undone in his Posterity, his Seven Sons, and Three Daughters being all slain at once by the fall of one House: blasted in his credit and good name, and that by his nearest friends, who traduced and challenged him for a dissembler and an hypocrite. Ruined in his health, being smitten with sore boiles from the crown of the Head to the sole of the Foot, till his Body became a very Hospital of Diseases: tormented in his mind with sad and uncomfortable reflections, The arrows of the Almighty being shot within him, the poy∣son whereof drank up his spirit, the terrours of God setting themselves in array against him. All which were aggravated and set home by Satan, the grand Engineer of all those tor∣ments, and all this continuing for at least Twelve Months (say the Jews) probably for a much longer time; and yet endured with great courage and fortitude of mind, till God put a period to this tedious Trial, and crowned his sufferings with an ample restitu∣tion. We have seen who this excellent Person was, we are next to enquire when he lived. And here we meet with almost an infinite variety of Opinions, some making* 1.91 him contemporary with Abraham, others with Jacob, which had he been, we should doubtless have found some mention of him in their story, as well as we do of 〈◊〉〈◊〉: others again refer him to the time of the Law given at Mount Sinai, and the Isra∣elites travels in the Wilderness; others to the times of the Judges after the settlement of the Israelites in the Land of Promise, nay some to the reign of David and Solomon; and I know not whether the Reader will not smile at the fancy of the Turkish Chronologists,* 1.92 who make Job Major-domo to Solomon, as they make Alexander the Great, the General of his Army. Others go further, and place him among those that were carried away in the Pabylonish Captivity, yea in the time of Ahasuerus, and make his fair Daughters to be of the number of those beautiful young Virgins that were sought-for for the King. Follies that need no confutation. 'Tis certain that he was elder than Moses, his Kindred and Family, his way of sacrificing, the Idolatry rise in his time, evidently placing him before that Age; besides that there are not the least foot-steps in all his Book of any of the great things done for the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 deliverance, which we can hardly suppose should have been omitted, being examples so fresh in memory, and so apposite to the design of that Book. Most probable therefore it is, that he lived about the time of the Israelitish Captivity in Egypt, though whether as some Jews will have it, born that very Year that Jacob came down into Egypt, and dying that Year that they went out of Egypt, I dare not peremptorily affirm. And this no question is the reason why we find nothing con∣cerning him in the Writings of Moses, the History of those Times being crowded up into a very little room, little being recorded even of the Israelites themselves for near Two Hundred Years, more than in general that they were heavily oppressed under the Egyptian Yoke. More concerning this great and good Man, and the things relating to him, if the Reader desire to know, he may among others consult the elaborate exercita∣tions of the younger 〈◊〉〈◊〉 in his Historia Jobi, where the largest curiosity may find enough to satisfie it.

22. AND now for a Conclusion to this Occonomy, if we reflect a little upon the state of things under this period of the World, we shall find that the Religion of those 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Ages was plain and simple, unforced and natural, and highly agreeable to the

common dictates and notions of Mens minds. They were not educated under any for∣reign Institutions, nor conducted by a Body of numerous Laws and written Constitu∣tions,* 1.93 but were 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (as Philo calls them) tutor'd and instructed by the dictates of their own minds, and the Principles of that Law that was written in their hearts, following the order of Nature and right Reason, as the safest, and most ancient Rule. By which means (as one of the Ancients observes) 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉* 1.94 they maintained a free and uninterrupted course of Religion, conducting their lives according to the rules of Nature, so that having purged their minds from lust and passion, and attained to the true knowledge of God, they had no need of external and written Laws. Their Creed was short and perspicuous, their notions of God great and venerable, their devotion and piety real and substantial, their worship grave and serious, and such as became the gran∣deur and majesty of the Divine being, their Rites and Ceremonies few and proper, their obedience prompt and sincere, and indeed the whole conduct of their conversation dis∣covering it self in the most essential and important duties of the humane life. Accord∣ing to this standard it was that our blessed Saviour mainly designed to reform Religion in his most excellent Institutions, to retrieve the piety and purity, the innocency and simplicity of those 〈◊〉〈◊〉 and more uncorrupted Ages of the World, to improve the Laws of Nature, and to reduce Mankind from ritual observances to natural and moral duties, as the most vital and essential parts of Religion, and was therefore pleased to charge Christianity with no more than two positive Institutions, Baptism, and the Lord's Supper, that Men might learn, that the main of Religion lies not in such things as these. Hence Eusebius undertakes at large to prove the faith and manners of the Holy Patriarchs, who* 1.95 lived before the times of Moses, and the belief and practice of Christians to be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, one and the same. Which he does not only assert and make good in general, but deduce from particular instances, the examples of Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Melchise∣deck, Job, &c. whom he expresly proves to have believed and lived 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, altogether after the manner of Christians: Nay that they had the name also as well as the thing, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as he shews from that place (which he proves to be meant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Touch not my Christians, mine Anointed, and do my Prophets no harm. And in short, that as they had the same common Religion, so they had the common blessing and reward.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Heb. 1. 1, 2.
• * 1.2

  Talm. Trast. Sanbedr. cap. Halce. & alibi. vid. Menass. Ben Isr. d•• Re∣surrect. lib. 3. c. 3. & Concil. Quast. xxx. in Genes.
• * 1.3

  Rom. 2. 14, 15.
• * 1.4

  Gen. 4. 6, 7.
• * 1.5

  Gem. Babyl. T••. Sanhedr. cap. 7. fol. 56. Mai∣mond. Tr. Me lak. cap. 9. & al •••• passim ap. Judaeos. vid. Sel••en de Jur. N. & G. l. 1. c. 10. & de Sy∣nedr. Vol. 1. c. 2. p. 8.
• * 1.6

  Job 31. 26, 27, 28.
• * 1.7

  Job 1. 6.
• * 1.8

  Job 31. 29
• * 1.9

  Job 31. 9, 10, 11.
• * 1.10

  Vers. 5. 7.
• * 1.11

  Chap. 24. 2, 3, 4, & seq.
• * 1.12

  Chap. 31. 11-28.
• * 1.13

  Gen. 9. 3, 4.
• * 1.14

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Porphyr. de 〈◊〉〈◊〉. lib. 1. Sect. 47. p. 39.
• * 1.15

  〈◊〉〈◊〉. V. 5, 6.
• * 1.16

  〈◊〉〈◊〉. 17. 11.
• * 1.17

  Gen 17. 9, 10, 11.
• * 1.18

  Talm. Tract. Jeban. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. 8.
• * 1.19

  〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉. Mor. 〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉. 3. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. 49. p. 506.
• * 1.20

  Gen. 6. 2, 3.
• * 1.21

  Gen. 18. 19.
• * 1.22

  Gen. 18. 2.
• * 1.23

  Exod, 4. 31.
• * 1.24

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉, XVIII, in 〈◊〉〈◊〉. p. 173. Tom. 2.
• * 1.25

  Gen. 15. 17.
• * 1.26

  Psalm 20. 3.
• * 1.27

  〈◊〉〈◊〉 P. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. in Gen. 4.
• * 1.28

  Gen. 8. 20.
• * 1.29

  Gen. 12. 7, 8. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. chap. 13. 4. 18.
• * 1.30

  Gen. 21. 33.
• * 1.31

  Judg 6. 25.
• * 1.32

  〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉. 13.
• * 1.33

  Deut. 16. 21.
• * 1.34

  〈◊〉〈◊〉. 13. 18.
• * 1.35

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. LXX. Ita 〈◊◊◊〉〈◊◊◊〉 aliter 〈◊〉〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉〈◊〉. 18. 1.
• * 1.36

  Antiquit. Jd. l. 1. c. 11. p. 19.
• * 1.37

  〈◊〉〈◊〉 loc. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. in 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Arboch.
• ‖ 1.38

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉
• * 1.39

  Hist. Ec. l. lit. 2. c. 4. p. 447.
• * 1.40

  Gen. 4. 30 〈◊〉〈◊〉
• * 1.41

  Gen. 2. 3.
• * 1.42

  〈◊〉〈◊〉, 19. 22.
• * 1.43

  Exod. 24. 5.
• * 1.44

  Gen. 49. 3.
• * 1.45

  〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉 fol. 71. col. 1. ap. Selden. de suc∣cess. ad leg. Ebr. c. 5. p. 45.
• * 1.46

  Heb. 12. 16.
• * 1.47

  Gen. 3. 21.
• * 1.48

  Levit. 7. 8.
• * 1.49

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 〈◊〉〈◊〉. Homil.
• * 1.50

  XVIII. in 〈◊〉〈◊〉. p. 174.
• * 1.51

  Heb. 11. 4.
• * 1.52

  Gen. 4. 4, 5.
• * 1.53

  Antiquit. Jud. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. 1. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. 3. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. 8.
• * 1.54

  〈◊◊◊◊◊◊〉〈◊◊◊◊◊◊〉. Smeg. 〈◊◊◊〉〈◊◊◊〉. 8. p. 226. & seqq.
• * 1.55

  Gen. 4. 26.
• * 1.56

  〈◊◊◊〉〈◊◊◊〉. 1. Sect. 1.
• ‖ 1.57

  Vid. ap. 〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉. cit. p. 230.
• * 1.58

  Dionys. Voss. not. in 〈◊〉〈◊〉. p. 4. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. de Hist. Patr. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. 6. p. 223.
• ‖ 1.59

  R. Eliez. Maas. Beres. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. 22. ibid.
• * 1.60

  Gen. 6. 2.
• * 1.61

  Elmacin. ap. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. p. 233.
• * 1.62

  Id. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. p. 234.
• * 1.63

  Elmac. & Patric. apud 〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉 supr. p. 235.
• * 1.64

  Gen. 5. 〈◊〉〈◊〉
• * 1.65

  Heb. 11. 5, 6.
• * 1.66

  Gen. 5. 29.
• * 1.67

  Gen. 6. 9.
• * 1.68

  Antiqu. Jud. lib. 1. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. 4. p. 8.
• * 1.69

  〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉 Syria. p. 882. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. 2.
• * 1.70

  Genes. 11. 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 1.71

  7. 11.
• * 1.72

  5. 32.
• * 1.73

  10. 21.
• * 1.74

  〈◊〉〈◊〉. & 〈◊◊◊〉〈◊◊◊〉 p. 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 1.75

  Antiq. Jud. l. 1. c. 7. p. 15.
• * 1.76

  〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉. p. 8. 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Hotting. 〈◊◊◊〉〈◊◊◊〉. c. 8. p. 291. con∣ser 〈◊◊◊〉〈◊◊◊〉. part. 3. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. 29. p. 421.
• * 1.77

  Mor. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. Part. 2 cap. 39. p. 301.
• * 1.78

  Gen. 12. 5.
• * 1.79

  Gen. 14. 14.
• * 1.80

  Heb. 6. 13, 14.
• * 1.81

  2 Pet. 2. 7, 8.
• * 1.82

  Gen. 24. 63.
• * 1.83

  Gen. 26. 28, 29.
• * 1.84

  Antiq. Jul. lib. 1. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. 19. p. 31.
• * 1.85

  Gen. 49. 10.
• * 1.86

  Heb. 7. 15.
• * 1.87

  Heb. 7 3.
• * 1.88

  〈◊〉〈◊〉. 12. in Hebr. p. 1838.
• * 1.89

  Heb. 7. 4, 5, 6, 〈◊〉〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 1.90

  Ibid. Ver. 6. 7.
• * 1.91

  〈◊◊◊◊〉〈◊◊◊◊〉. Part. 3. cap. 22. p. 395.
• * 1.92

  Anz. 〈◊〉〈◊〉, de 〈◊〉〈◊〉. Tur∣cic. Epist. 1. p. 94.
• * 1.93

  Phil. lib. 〈◊◊◊〉〈◊◊◊〉. 350.
• * 1.94

  〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉. Evangel. lib. 7. c. 6. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. 304.
• * 1.95

  Demonstrat. E∣vangel. lib. 1. cap. 5. & 6. p. 9, 10. &c. & 〈◊〉〈◊〉. supr. 〈◊〉〈◊〉.