Miscellanies Christian and Judaical, Chapter 46 – Chapter 52
CAP. XLVI. The time and manner of the Creation.
MOSES in the first verse of the Bible refutes three heathen opinions: namely theirs, that thought the world was eternall, for he saith, in the beginning, &c. Secondly, theirs that thought there was no God, for he saith, Elohim created. Thirdly, theirs that thought there were many gods, for he saith, Euen those that hauehave not Hebrew, can tell there is a mystery of the trinity in Elohim, bara ▪ but few mark how sweetly this is answered with the same Phrase in manner, in the Haphtara which is read by the Iewes to this portion of Moses ▪ viz. Esa 42.5. Iehouah bore hashamaiim, venotehē Iehouah being singular, and notehem plurall. which might be rendred, Deus creās coelos, & Deus extendentes eos.Elohim he created heauen and earth. The first word in the beginning may draw our mindes and thoughts to the last thing, the latter end, and this thought must draw our affections from too much louelove of the world, for it must hauehave an end as it had a beginning. I will not stand to comment vponupon the word Bereshith in the beginning, for then I know not when to come to an end. To treat how the diuerse expositors labour about the beginning of the world, is a world of labour. How the Ierus. Targ. translates it, In wisdome, and is followed by Rabbi Tanchum, and many Iewes: How Targ. Ionath. vseth an Arabian word, Min Awwala, a primo; Onkelos, in primis or in principio: Iarchi in principio creationis creauit. How Basil the great, Saint Ambrose, and hundreds others do interpret this, is a worke endlesse to examine. Satisfied am I with this, that the world and all things had their beginning from God, that in the beginning created heauen and earth. Some of the Iewes do inuert the word Bereshith, and make it Betisri that is in the monethmonth Tisri was the world created. This month is about our September, and that the world was created in this monethmonth (to let other reasons alone) this satisfies me, that the feast of Tabernacles which was in this monethmonth, is called the end of the yeare, Exod. 23.16. And this I take to bee the reason, why the Iewes began to reade the Bible in their Synagogues, at the feast of Tabernacles, viz. that they might begin the lecture of the Creation, in Gen. 1. at that time of the yeare that the world was created.
The manner of the Creation shewes the workeman powerfull and wise: The making of the Angells concealed by Moses, lest men should (like those hereticks in Epiph.) thinke they helped God in the Creation. For if their day of their Creation (aRab. Solō. holds they were made the second day. Many Diuines hold for the 4th. which was in most likelihood the first) had beene named, wicked men would hauehave bene ready to hauehave taken them for actors in this worke, which were onelyonly spectators. Therefore as God hides Moses after his death, so Moses hides the Creation of them, least they should be deified, and the honour due to the Creator giuen to the creature. God in framing the world, begins aboue and workes downeward; and in three dayes hee layes the parts of the world, and in the three other dayes, he adornes those parts.
The first day hee makes all the heauens, the matter of the earth, and comes downe so low as the light. The second lower, and makes the firmament or aire. The third lowest of all, and makes distinction of earth and water. Thus in three dayes the parts, or body of the world is laid, in three dayes more, and in the same order they are furnished. For on
The fourth day the Heauens which were made the first day are deckt with starrs. The fifth day the Firmament, which was made the second day, is filled with birds. The sixth day, the Earth, which was laid fit the third day, is replenished with beasts, and lastly man bThe 70. Interpreters on Gen. 2.2. instead of God had finished on the seuenth day, reade he finished on the sixth day.Thus God in the sixe dayes finished all his worke of Creation. cChaldee Paraph. on Num. 22 and Jarch. on Deut. 34. and Pirke Abhoth.For the ten things that the Chaldee Paraphrast saith God, created on the euening of the Sabbath, after the world was finished: I referre them to their Authors to beleeue them.
R. Iarchi on Gen. 2. obserues, that God created one day superior things, and another day inferior: his words are to this purpose. On the first day he created heauē aboue & earth beneath. On the second day, the firmament aboue. On the third, let the dry land appeare beneath. On the fourth day, lights aboue. On the fifth day, let the waters bring foorth beneath. On the sixt, hee must create both Superior and Inferior, as he had done on the first, least there should bee confusion in his worke, therefore he made man of both, his soule from aboue, and his body from beneath.
R. Tancuman shewes how the making of the Tabernacle harmonizeth with the making of the world: The light of the first day answered, by the candlesticke, for light the first worke; and the spreading of the Firmament, like a curtaine, answered by the curtaines the second worke, and so of the rest. EueryEvery one knowes the old conceit of the worlds lasting sixe thousand yeares, because it was made in sixe dayes: and of Elias Prophesie among the Iewes, of the world ending, at the end of sixe thousand: which Prophesie of his is flat against the words of Christ: Many beleeue these opinions, yet few prepare for the end which they thinke is so neere.
God hath taught vsus by the courseAllegory. of the Creation of the old world, what our proceedings must be, that wee may become a new creation, or new heauens, & a new earth, renewed both in soule and bodie. On the first day he made the light, so the first thing in the new man must be light of knowledge, so saith S. Paul, Heb. 11. He that commeth to God must know that he is.
2. On the second day he made the Firmament, so called, because of its *foreign in Hesiod. foreign Hom. Odys 3.surenesse, so the second step in mans new creation must be firmamentum fidei, the sure foundation of faith.
3. On the third day, the seas and trees bearing fruit: So the third step in the new man is that he become waters of repentant teares, and that hee bring foorth fruit worthy of these teares. Bring foorth fruit worthy of repentance, saith the Baptist, Mat. 3.
4. On the fourth day, God created the Sunne: that whereas on the first day there was light but without heat; now on the fourth day, there is light and heate ioyned together. So the fourth step in the new creation of a new man is, that he ioyne the heate of zeale, with the light of his knowledge: as in the sacrifices fire and salt were euer ioyned.
5. The fifth dayes work, was of fishes to play in the seas, and the foules to flie toward heauen: So the fifth step in a new creature is, to liue and reioyce in a sea of troubles, and to flie by prayer and contemplation to heauen.
6. On the sixth day, God makes man: and all these things performed, man is a new creature. To reckō them altogether then, as S. Peter does his golden chaine of vertues. 2. Pet. 1. Adde to your light of knowledge, the firmament of faith, to your faith, seas of repentant teares, to your teares, the fruitfull trees of good workes, to your good workes, the hot Sunshine of zeale, to your Zeale, the winged foules of prayer and contemplation; Et ecce omnia facta sunt noua. Behold you are become a new creature.
As the Bible begins, so it ends with a new creation, of a new heauen and a new earth, and a new paradise, and a new tree of life, Apoc. 21. vntounto all which, O thou whom my soule loueth, say come.
CAP. XLVII. Of the fall of Adam.
THe fall of Adam was the death of himselfe,Cypriano di valer. the death of vsus, and the death of Christ. At his fall were three offenders, three offences, & persons offended. Three offenders, Satan, Adam, Eue: three offences, Ignorance, weakenesse, and malice: three persons offended, Father, Sonne, and holy Ghost, Eue sinned of Ignorance, and so sinned against the Sonne, the God of knowledge, and she was forgiuen; and so S. Paul sinned, and was forgiuen. 1. Tim. 1.13. Adam sinned of weakenesse, and so sinned against the Father, the God of power, and he was pardoned; and so S. Peter sinned, and he was pardoned. Mat. 26. But Satan sinned of set malice, and so sinned against the holy Ghost, the God of louelove, and he was not forgiuen: For he that speaketh against the holy Ghost, shall neuer bee forgiuen, Marke 3.29. And in Gods censuring of these three, Gen. 3. He questioneth Adam & Euah before he sentenceth, because he had merciemercy for them, nay more, he promiseth Christ before hee inflict punishment: but for the Serpent, hee neuer questioned, because hee would shew him no merciemercy. God left Adam to his owne freewil, and suffered him to fall, quia sciebat se, &c. because hee knew how to turne that fall of his, to his saluation When Lazarus died, Christ was not there, that the raysing of Lazarus by Christ might be the more glorious. So when Adam fel (as I may say so) God would not be there (for he left Adam to his owne freewill) that the repairing of Adam through Christ might be the more glorious. Hereupon one sings, O foelix lapsus. Vnhappy was the fall of Adam, since by his fall we all fell, but yet happy was that vnhappy fall, since it must bee recured by Christ. Ioseph suffered his brother Simeon to go into prison for a while, that at last he might bring him out with greater comfort. So God suffered Adam to go into Satans Newgate for a while, that at last he might bring him out with greater comfort. The day thou eatest hereof thou shalt dye, there is the prison, And the man tooke and ate, there Adam goes into prison: the seed of the woman shall breake the head of the Serpent, there Ioseph deliuers Simeon out of prison, God brings man out of hell through Christ. Whereupon a Doctor in admiration questions: vtrum mirabilius, homines iustos creare, an iniustos iustificare: whether is more admirable, that God created man righteous, or that hee iustified man, when he had made himselfe vnrighteous? Whether was more miraculous, for God to make man of nothing, or to repaire him from worse then nothing? Wonderfull he was in both, in his first and his second creation, for Iustificatio est secunda hominis creatio, mans Iustification is his new creation.
CAP. XLVIII. Ophitae Euia.
SOme Heretickes in Epiphanius thinke themselues beholden to the Deuill, for his paines that he tooke to ouerthrow Adam: for they vsed to worship a serpent, because (say they) hee brought knowledge into the world. Clemens Alexandrinus doth partly thinke, this conceit was got among the Heathens: who at their feasts of Bacchus vsed to carrie a serpent, as it were in procession, and to crie Euia Euia. foreign &c. And Euia (saith Clemens) if it be asperated Heuia, it signifies in the Hebrew tongue, a female serpent▪ Where the good man calls the Chaldee tongue, the Hebrew: For in the Hebrew I do not find such a word for a serpent: But all the Chaldee translations of the Bible in the third of Genesis and diuerse other places, doe vse the word foreign Hiuia for a serpent: which I take to bee the word hee meanes.
CAP. XLIX. Of the Greeke Translation of the fifth of Genesis.
HOw the Septuagint does adde hundreds of yeares to mens ages before and after the floud, few schollers but they know. This bred the difference of computation of the times, while some followed the Hebrew, some the Greeke. Hence came two notorious doubts. About Methuselah liuing after the flood, who died a monethmonth or two before. And of Sem his death before Abrahams birth, who liued as long after Abraham came to Canaan, as Abraham was old when he came thither, viz. seuenty fiue yeares. And so might well be Melchizedek. The Greeks had a great deale of stirre where to put Methushelah all the floud-time for feare of drowning: At last some laid him on the top of Noahs Arke, and there hee was all that watry yeare. The Iewes lay Og the giant there also (as the Chaldee Paraphrast vponupon the foureteenth of Genesis ridiculously obserueth:) Whose words (for your fuller sport) I will not spare to set down. The thirteenth verse hee renders thus in Chaldee. And Og came who was left of those that died in the floud: for hee rode vponupon the Arke, and was as a couering vponupon it, and was nourished with Noahs vittailes, but he was not preserued for his owne sake or merit, but that the inhabitants of the world might see the power of the Lord, and say: Did not the Gyants in old time, rebell against the Lord of the world, and he destroyed them from the earth, yet assoone as these Kings make warre, behold Og is with them Og saith with himselfe, I will go and shew Abraham, Lots case, that hee is taken prisoner, that so he may come to rescue him, and may himselfe fall into their hands: He goes and comes to him about the Passeouer day, and finds him making vnleauened cakes, then hee told Abram the Hebrew, &c. Thus far the Chaldee: of whose conceits here, and in one thousand of places more, and so of his nation the Iewes; I know not whether to say, Risum or fletum teneatis amici? But to returne to my purpose. The Greeke Bible makes Methushelah liue fourteene yeares after the floud, their reason of this their addition of yeares, many render, which I omit. But S. Austen saith, some fall short of this mans age.The Chaldee Paraphrase of Ionathan. does also mistake in the age of Mathushel…h, but I thinke it only false Printing. In three Greeke bookes, saith he, and one Latine, and one Syrian booke, all agreeing one with another, Methusalem is found to die sixe yeares before the floud. So Austen in Ciu. dei lib. 15. cap. 13. Such differences may incite men to apply themselues to the Hebrew text, where is no falsifying nor error.
CAP. L. VponUpon the words: The seede of the woman shall breake the Serpents head.
THe new Testament affords a rich Commentarie vponupon these words, in the Gospell of Saint Luke, who in his third Chapter, shewes how through seuentie fiue generations,Ierus: and Babilon: targums do both apply these words to the Messias. Christ is this seed of the woman, and in the fourth Chapter, how through three temptations this seed began to bruise the head of the Serpent: where the Reader may obserue, how the diuell tempts Christ, in the very same manner that he had temped Eue, though not with the same successe. Al the sins of the world, are brought by Saint Iohn to these three heads, Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, 1. Iohn 2.15. By these three Eue falls in the garden: She sees the tree is good for meate, and the lust of the flesh inticeth her; she sees it faire to looke on, and the lust of the eye prouokes her; and she perceiues it will make her wise, and the pride of life perswads her to take it. By these three the deuill tempts Christ; when he is hungrie, he would hauehave him turne stones into bread, and so tries him by the lusts of the flesh: He shewes, and promiseth him all the pompe of the world, and so tries him by the lust of the eyes, and he will hauehave him to flie in the aire, and so tempts him to pride of life. But as, by these three, the Serpent had broken the head of the woman, so against these three the seed of the woman breakes the head of the Serpent. Dauid Prophecied of this conquest, Psal. 91.13. The Dragon thou shalt tread vnderunder thy feet: The verie next verse before this, the deuill vseth to tempt Christ withall, but to this he dare not come, for it is to his sorrow.
CAP. LI. Iewish hypocriticall prayers, reproued by our Sauiour, Mat. 6.5. Because they louelove to stand praying in the Synagogues and corners of the streets.
THis Sermon vponupon the mount, is much in reproofe of the Iewes Talmudicall traditions, by which they made the word of God of none effect. This verse reproueth one of their tenets, for their high-way Oraisons: for which they hauehave this tradition in their *In Sepher Berachoth.Talmud. Rabbi Iosi, saith: On a time I was walking by the way, and I went into one of the deserts of Ierusalem to pray, then came Eliah, aHeb Zacur lattobb Remembred for good.of blessed memorie, and watched me at the gate, and stayed for me, till I had ended my prayer: after that I had ended my prayer,Heb. Mori which in the Chaldee and Syrian …ignifieth a Lord or Master: hence is Maran atha, our Lord cō meth, the great excommunication, 1. Cor. 16.22. he saith vntounto me, Peace be vponupon thee Rabbi; I said vntounto him, peace be vponupon thee Rabbi, and master. Then said he to me, my sonne, wherefore wentest thou into this desert; I said vntounto him, To pray, Hee said to mee, thou mightest hauehave prayed in the way. Then said I, I was afraid, least passengers would interrupt me: He said vntounto me, thou shouldest hauehave prayed a short prayer. At that time I learned of him three things: I learned that wee should not go into the desert: and I learned that we should pray by the way, and learned, thet hee that prayed by the way must pray a short prayer. Thus farre their Talmud maketh them these letters patents for Hypocrisie; fathering this bastard vponupon blessed Elias, who was not a high-way prayer, or one that practised his owne deuotions in publike: for hee was Iohn Baptists type for retirednesse.
CAP. LII. Israels affliction in Aegypt.
OF Israels being in Egypt, many Heathen Authors doe touch, though eueryevery one a seuerall way, and all of them the wrong Iosephus against Appion is angrie at their fables about it. Of the famine that brought them thither (if we take the want of Nilus flowing to bee the naturall cause,Nilus the wonder of Affrick the riuer of Egypt flowes eueryevery yeare once ouer his banks: and if it flow not at all, or not to his right height, it causeth famine, for Egypt hath no raine Frō this riuer, vnderunder God cōes their plentie or famine: and it is remarkable that the fat and leane kine in Pharoah his dreame (which betokened the plentie or scarsitie of the countrie) came out of the Riuer. Of the reason of the flowing of this Riuer, Pigaffetta especially is large. And I wonder that Iordan was not as much wondred at: for it did so also, Iosh. 3.15. Cheon. 1. ch. 12. …. 15. as most like it was) there seemes then to be some remembrance of those seuen yeares in Seneca, in his naturall questions, where he saith: Per nouem annos Nilum non ascendisse superioribus saeculis, Callimachus est Author: that is: Callimachus writes, that in old time Nilus flowed not of nine yeares together: where hee outstrips but two of the number. But of Israels affliction in Egypt, I finde the Heathens silent. God had told Abraham of this their hardship long before, and shewed him a token of it, by the fowles lighting vponupon his carcasses, Gen. 15. A type of Israels being in Egypt, and of Pharoahs being plagued for their sakes, was, when Pharoah suffered, for taking Sarah from her husband, and keeping her in his house: as it is, Gen 12. How long they were in that land, few there bee but know: but how long their affliction lasted, is vncertaine. Probable it is, that it was about an hundred and twenty yeares, the time of the old worlds repentance, and Moses his age: This is to be searched by Leui his age, which within a little one may find certaine. All the generation of Iosephs time die, before they are afflicted: as all the generation of Ioshuahs time die, before they fall to Idolatry, Iudges 2.10. The reasons why God should thus suffer them to suffer: whether it were to fit them for the receiuing of him and his Law, or whether it were to whip them for their Idolatry: or for some other cause, I dare not enter too neare to search: this I see, that when the foundation (as it were) of the visible Church is laid thus in affliction, that that the Church cannot but looke for affliction, whilest it liues in the Egypt of this world. But as Israel increased vnderunder persecution: so does the Church: for euen when sparsum est semen sanguinis Martyrum, surrexit seges Ecclesiae: Nec frustra orauit Ecclesia pro inimicis suis crediderunt, & qui persequebantur: Aust. Ser. de temp. 109. To omit the Iewes fancie, that the Israelitish women bare sixe at a birth, and to omit questioning whether faetifer Nilus, the drinking of the water of Nilus, which (as some say is good for generation) did conduce to the increasing of Israel, I can onelyonly looke at God, and his worke, which did thus multiplie and sustaine them in fornace affliction. Si Deus nobiscum quis contra nos? God had promised this increase to Iacob, as he fled to Haran, Gen. 28. in a dreame from the top of Iacobs ladder. And here he proues faithfull who had promised.