Popular errors, in generall poynts concerning the knowledge of religion having relation to their causes, and reduced into divers observations / by Jean D'Espaigne.

CHAP. 2. The matters of the Scripture made verball by the ignorant, the solidity of its stile, mysteries turned into Retoricall figures.

TO say the same thing in divers tearmes, and in a multitude of words is a repetition which may serve to refresh the memory, or to move the affections, but brings no new thing to the intellect. The ignorant deceive them∣selves, if they believe that the repetitions which are in the Scripture are of no other quality but Grammaticall or Retoricall; when the Scripture repeats any point, this repetition declares something else more then it had said the first time. In one and the same passage the repetition of the same word is not alwayes a Pleonasme, for to give an Emphasis to the discourse, or to inculcate that which had already been spoken, to the end that it should be the bet∣ter remembred. The repetitions of the Scripture alwayes bring some addition, and termes which seem Synonimies have

sometimes different significations. The twelve Patriarks are called to the Testa∣ment of their father in these termes, Come together ye children of Jacob, hearken to Isra∣el your father. These words contain in ap∣pearance a superfluous tautologie. For it seemes it was enough to have called them children of Jacob without adding that Is∣rael was their father, seeing that Jacob and Israel was one and the same person. But as one of these two names was a majestick title that God had conferred upon his per∣son, and the other was rather a mark of re∣proach. The Patriarks are called children of Jacob to the end they should remember their low extraction, and to take notice that their father spak to them in quality of Israel, A Prince with God, whose words were nothing but oracles. These two names having been transmitted to the in∣tire body of his posterity are very often joyned together for to denoate on, and the same people. They shall teach (said Moses) thy judgements to Jacob and thy law to Is∣raell, that is they shall teach the peo∣ple

weak in faith, comprehended under the name of Jacob and the most eminent represented under the title of Israel, in the same sort as Christ recommended unto Peter, the feeding not onely of his lambs, but also of his sheep. The vulgar people know no difference between Lawes, Ordinances, and Judgements, betwixt Commandements and Statutes, tearmes which are oft times joyned in one and the same passage, but are very different in their signification which the ignorant ordinarily confound; the two dreames of Pharaoh were but one and the same, and it seems as if the second were superflous, seeing that it said nothing in substance which had not been spoken in the first. But besides the diversity of fi∣gures produced in these two dreams which teacheth diversity of circumstances under this differency of shapes, he who was the interpreter marks this repetition, as devo∣ting something more, then as if the dream had come but once. It imports much to know how often one thing hath been re∣peated in the same place of the Scripture

without disputing if these words of Hie∣remy, Say not the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord ad∣vertised the Jewes not to hope for a third temple. It is certain that the number of reiterations is oft entimes misterious. If S. Peter had remembred that he had denied his Master, thrice he would have wondred why our Lord said unto him thrice lovest thou me. In Ezekiel 28. God said to the King of Tire. All the precious stones covered thee, The Carbuncle, the Topaz, the Diamond the Berill, the Sardonix, the Jasper, the Sap∣phir, the Chrisolite, and the Emeraud thou walkest amongst the precious stones: Many do not see in this discourse any thing but a re∣thoricall description, enlarged by the am∣plification of magnificent words, w^he one word seemingly means nothing else but that this Prince was rich, and opulent. But whosoever will remember that all these precious stones had place in the breastplate of the High Priest, that each one of them carried the name of a Tribe, that one of the Predecessors of this King of Tire had

had part in the glory of these Tribes, by the honour that God did him to accept his materialls, and his workmen for the fa∣brick of the Temple. Whosoever say, I will fixedly regard these precious stones, will find that they contain farre greater lights then the Lustre of a verball ampli∣fication, and some reason may be given, why that two or three, of these tribes are omitted in this description of Ezechiel. If this sence be obscure in this passage cer∣tainly it is evident in the foundations of the celestiall Jerusalem, painted out in the 21 of the Apocalips, which being repre∣sented in divers sorts of precious stones, differing in their species distinguished by their names, placed each one in his proper rank and reduced to a certain number which neither suffers Addition, nor sub∣traction cannot be taken onely for a heap∣ing together of words of amplification, the allusion of them to the twelve stones in the pectorall is altogether manifest, and the ranging of them altogether different from the order which Moses gave them

produces a mysticall reflection of many high mysteries, both in the one, and the other Testament; we might make an infi∣nite of passages to this purpose. But al∣though in many of them we find not al∣wayes the true substance of the fruit the Scripture hides under this abundance of flowers, it is there notwithstanding and testifies the sottish vanity of so many commentators which think they have di∣ved to the bottome of the Ark; when af∣ter a curious search they find there an Em∣phasis of the Grammar or an Epistrophe, as if a figure of Rethorick were a mystery of Theologie.