Order of the World, Title page – To the reader
A SEDER OLAM, that is: Order of the worlde: or yeeres from the fall to the reſtoring.
A ſeconde Apologie for the Angel Gabriels proprietie of trueth, in his holy and healthy meſſage, of the cleerenes and certainty for our redemption: And a further anſwere to ſome, litle thinking that all humane Libraries may by them ſelues, and muſt by Scripture be controlde: VVith a long Preface touching the humanity of the Gentry of Cambridge, and higher, in fauour of ancient Learning.
Iob. 24, 25.
Yf it be not ſo now, who will diſproue me, and make my wordes nothing.
1594.
To the right honorable Henrie Earle of Huntingdon, Lorde Haſtinges, Hungerford, Botreux, Molins and Moiles, Knight of the moſt noble order of the Garter, Lord Preſident of her Maieſties counſell eſtabliſhed in the North partes.
THe regiſter of time (right Honorable) which the Greekes cal Chronicon, the Doctors of the Hebrew kinde tearme Seder Olam: that is, the Order of the worlde. They hauehave many phraſes from ancient holy men doubtleſſe, which the Apoſtles do confirme: as, the Worlde to come, Paradiſe, the ſeconde death, and ſuch. In lyke ſort Seder Olam, ſeemeth to be a phraſe vſed from the Prophetes tyme. It conteyneth deepe matter in it. For who woulde not be aſtoniſhed, conſideryng that God ſendeth all men to learne the age …f the worlde from the recorde of the Fathers, vntounto Terah? vnleſſe he knew the purpoſe, to declare the fathers of whom Chriſt commeth. Now it is more ſtrange, that thence it is not continued by Abraham, Iſaak, and Iacob, three ſo rare men. But the courſe is broken of at Terahs death: and ſoone after a new order is taken: how many dayes or monethes after I dare not diſcuſſe. But preſently thence in the narration, from the promiſe of Chriſt the Epoche goeth: and Abrahams age is tolde what it was then: which can not be exactly gathered, how from his fathers age it dependeth: as the Learned caſt all from Adam to Charans byrth, at Terahs ſeuentyeth yeere exactly. From the perigrination vponupon the promiſe of Chriſt, vntounto the Lambe, the yeeres are to the very day: and lykewyſe thence to the Temple: what day of what yeere from the Lambe it was buylt: in what yeere of the king the buylder, and how long he reigned: and how long after the diuiſion, euen to what day of what monethmonth it was brent, for idolatry. Then the exact accompt for day and monethmonth is not layde downe, though the whole Captiuity be recorded for the iuſt yeeres: VVhen it is ended, thence a new, vponupon a rare occaſion, to a rare man, by an Angel, the *Ieruſalemy in Roſh haſhana.onelyonly of any created that hath a proper name of Angel, the tyme is pared out in a rare phraſe of ſpeach, vntounto the death of Chriſt, our ſauiour, vntounto the very tyme of the euenyng offeryng, when he offered vp him ſelfe. The ſpeach and the matter is ſo heauenly and precious, that as of olde tyme that prophecy was openly read of all the Iewes, and knowen of all the Eaſt: (it doubtles Ioſephus meant. bell. Iud. 7, 12.) So all the worlde from their Childhood ſhould read it, and all the learned ſhoulde ſtyll reduce the new Teſtament vntounto it, and expounde the olde Teſtament by it. For it is the abridgement of the New, and the key of the Olde. The ſtate after our Lordes death, is called A new Heauen: And his death ended the laſt Olam, or Iubilee, or yet the later part of the olde worlde: as that part before the flood is tearmed of S. Peter. Thus Seder Olam ſhalbe a goodly title for the Ebrew accompt, from ſince the firſt Adam ſtoode on the earth, vntyll the ſeconde Adam aroſe from the duſt, and went into the heauens. Certaine obſeruations I hauehave writted for this ſpace, regiſtred by the wyſedome of God: to keepe the holy text in his natiue cleareneſſe, agaynst entanglementes of Iewes and Gentiles. I coulde wyſh the dexterity of Daniels wit. For the matter is worthy. And that which my paynes coulde breede, I was deſirous to commende to your Lordſhyp. Some remembrance I woulde leaue, how much I am beholdyng to your Honour: though none writes in a Calender all good thinges done to him. Of your Lordſhyp I may ſay out of‡Odyſſ. 1. Homer, that you hauehave been vntounto me, as a father to the ſonne: and I wyll neuer forget that tenderyng. I founde many honourable Patrons, but your Lordſhyps charges were the greatest. The Archbyſhop of Canterburies grace was the meanes, ſone after my comming to Cambridge in my young yeeres, to procure me a continuall profesſion of Homers tongue: Whervpon with al ſpeede, the rest of my ſucceſſe proceeded, vntyll Sir VValter Mildmayes Lecture in Greeke, with the gyft of ſix Scholerſhyps as I woulde, and his fatherlike fauour, better encoraged my paynes. And I ſhoulde iniury all the Gouernoures of Cambridge, yf I woulde not acknowledge continuall ſinguler cheriſhing: and one poynt in offering, whether Lecture I woulde of Iapheth and Sems chiefe tongues. But there to me your Lordſhyps charges was fiue and twentie times more then the priuate Greeke profesſion, and about ten tymes the Value of a Felowſhyp by yeere. The greateſt alowance that any Noble man graunted any Scholer. So great a deſire you had that my paineful and chargeful race of ſtudy, which you iudged by your experience able to go through the pikes agaynſt common errours, ſhoulde there hauehave practiſe and tryall. And when good deſart, and the beſt then, taken in hand vponupon graue requeſt, and orderly vſed, was leaſt regarded, and worſt recompenced in all mens ſight, by a good mans errour, not of yll wyl, yet ſo that you heard, and hundreths more ſaw an iniury: the ſame alowance you continued to my priuate labour: VVhereby my Greeke tranſlation of the Hebrew Prophetes was wrought. That diligence calling all East and VVest forces of study togeather, Hebrew, Babylonian, Chaldean, Syrian, Arabian, & al together mixt in the Cabala: Greekes of all ſortes, Latines of all ſortes, all (vſed ſkilfully) ſeruantes to the Temple: That diligence made me enterpriſe the Herculean labour of the Harmony. I thinke you remember D. Penyes cenſure vttered to your Lordſhyp, of the Table, entituled, A Sinay ſight, how by conference in thoſe poyntes, he thought that he learned the whole frame of the Bible, better then by all his Englyſh and foraine paynes, and conference: and that one yeere vponupon ſuch tryed groundes, woulde doe more then ten from the common courſe. The learned D. tolde me what he told your Lordſhyp, to harten me, agaynst the buſy: but hartened already enough by rare olde tendering. I muſt heere craue leaue of a further digresſion, to leaue a memoriall of tenderyng ſhewed to my young studies. For as ſone as I coulde be Graduate, vponupon ſodayne diſputations in the Greke tongue, wherin the readieſt of the ancient Maiſters came to reply, & many were encoraged to the tongue: worde was ſent me, that I ſhould chooſe where I woulde be Felow. I chooſe to be, where firſt an election was: euen foure dayes after I was eligible, and to that Colledge I was choſen: a Colledge which regarded learnyng as much as any coulde. Some partes of a reuerent man, the maiſter Maiſter Shepheard I can not omit. He, when I ſtoode to be Felow: At the election, tolde, that he woulde hauehave no ſtranger but one: and eyther him, or no election, and ſoone had a generall conſent. And thence ſoone I was allured to Chriſtes Coledge, to be Sir Walter Mildmaydes profeſſour. M. Shepheard perceauing that, to ſtay me, founde meanes to doble the alowance for all the Felowes. This I did not know vntyll I departed thence: and the nyght before the election, ſent for all the Seniores, and me, to ſupper, and mooued them to promiſe out of their alowance, and doble from his, all, doble to my Felowſhyp. I promiſed not to goe from them. On the morow I went to thanke the other Colledge for their good wyll. They taking in griefe that I ſhoulde refuſe their ſuch willing fauour, requeſted me one thing: onelyonly to be admitted with them, and after to choſe. I not knowyng how admisſion to one houſe, did cut off the right of an other, was content: but with theſe wordes: I proteſt it is agaynſt my wyl, onelyonly to ſatisfie your requeſt. The admisſion being done, the learned man D. Still (now reuerent Byſhop) ſayd, S. Iohns is loſt. M. Shepheard hearing of it, was ſicke for griefe, as many did report, and tolde for whom he toke all the paynes to amende the Felowſhyps: yet hearing how I proteſted, and was deceaued, ſent to the Viſitor the Byſhop of Ely to expound the Law, whether it were an admiſſion, when the admitted ſayth, it is agaynſt his wyl. He reſolued the admisſion lawful, and my place loſt with them. Then they offered to choſe me anew. That I refuſed: But promiſed to eſteeme of their good wyl, as much as yf I came to vſe their fauour. I aſked them, why they ſhould ſo much regarde my young ſtudy, of foure yeres? They ſaid: ſuch a courſe of making Ebrew and Greeke as natiue in yeres ſo young (at 20. of age) wyll twelue yeeres hence doe that with eaſe, which all our paynes can not come by. And yf publike cheriſhyng encorage: I muſt teſtifie, that my actes there were ſo accepted of the Ancient, that none euer could take more delight in paſtime, then their acceptation myght make delyght in ſtudying. Of mine owne ſucceſſe, will let others iudge: friendes deſartes, I may write into a Calender: which alſo ſtirred yours. For, to returne to your Lordſhyps fauour: My labour was bred vp by your Lordſhips charges: I meane the laſt tyme of it: and vponupon it, the trauell in the Concent of Scripture: which I thought to be more then Hannibals, making a way with pickaxes ouer the Alpes. But I know that I hauehave not lost my labour: but hauehave ſoone ſeene ſome fruite of it. For ſince, men of trade, quiet and thriftie, hauehave ſhewed vntounto the worlde greater ſkill in the holy story then any, as they, euer hauehave done in our nation. So that few wyl beleeue their workes to be theirs, but ſuch as do talke with the men, and ſee their dexterity. They may thinke, and thanke your Lordſhyp, the paymaister, for their ſkill. Some Scholers ſayd, that yf all tradeſmen were ſo cunning, preaching woulde not be regarded. They forgate the prouerbe: Knowledge hath not an enemy, but the ignorant. I am ſure that yf all Scholers in the Realme did ſo far paſſe them, as by profesſion they are bounde, and all the common people match them: it would be farre better with them. Your Lordſhyp, hath had this ten yeeres a wonderful deſire, to ſee the Prophets ſpeake to our eares, their owne meaning: and expounded in the margent with their owne notes. No man vnlearned coulde thinke vponupon ſo celestial a paynes, to regarde it: But would rather folow custome, to let vsus styll confute our ſelues, not knowing how the mistaking of a fewe places in Scripture, in ſome poyntes hinder much: and many yeeres may well be ſpent vponupon ſome one lyne, which is more. This my lytle paynes wyll tell them of that: How the not marking why Moſes telleth that, Terah dyeth (two dry wordes) hath made vsus, and many nations tranſlate, with flat vntruethes, in ſo weighty thinges as any can be, of collaterall articles. I am reſolued, that the men of great light & ſight into Diuinity, moſt eſteeme of a Diuine: and I for my part, more honour one ſuch, then all companies of all other. And thinke my ſelfe more beholding to your Lordſhyp, for your bountifulnes in the due tyme of my ſtudy, for the benefite of the Church, then I coulde be to any for an Earledome, when yeeres to ſet foorth Religion can not ſerue. And not I onelyonly, but all Diuines muſt honour you, for this your opinion knowen to many: That you thought a learned Diuine equall to an Earle. Diuines be Carls, yf they wyll not requite that reuerence. As, of my former Patrones in my Homerique dayes, when Homer was my profesſion, I ſpake in particularity after the Poets maner, for ſome ſpeciall occaſions, which men acquainted with thoſe dayes affayres, wyll ſoone ſee. So for your Lordſhyp, my Patron, in my ſtudy for the hardeſt and principall Diuinity poyntes, hitherty not fully cleared ſince the Apoſtles time, I was deſirous to leaue this worke, litle in quantitie, but not of lytle ſtudy, to be a memoriall of my duety, to your Lordſhyp: whom I commende moſt humbly and hartely to the ſpirite of grace and trueth.
Your Lordſhyps to commaunde, Hugh Broughton.
To the Reader.
THe vſe of this paynes Chriſtian Reader, is to ſhew the honour of Chriſt: vntounto whoſe ſeruice the holy Prophetes contriue in recorde all the Sunnes iourneys vntounto his death, and no further: In ſtory be from Adam to Nebuchad. the yeeres, when they are paſt: Thence in prophecie & ſtory the yeres of captiuity: thence the time to the houre of redemption afore hand. This one poynt, the Chronicle, might lighten all the glory of the Goſpel, to ſkatter all Antichriſtian clouds. The matter is ſo plaine, that the ſimple can not be deceiued. For if, as Moſes placeth Terahs death preſently before the promiſe to Abraham, ſo we wyll vnderſtand him, and beleeue S. Stephen Act. 7. for that, and alſo the Greeke Iew Philo, and not wound Moſes by ſtudentes curioſitie, begun from malicious Iewes, folowed by vnheedy Heathen: That text of Moſes being kept in due plainnes, there is no other colour of doubt for Iew nor Gentile: but both hauehave then cleeredal vntounto Ieroboam. And vntounto the burning of the Temple 390. yeres after Iſrael fell away vnderunder Ieroboam, there Ezekiel hath one ſum: and no plaine reader woulde thinke of doubt. Likewiſe for Nebuchadnezar, Ieremy afore telleth of 70. yeeres ſuperiority: wherby all ſimple Iewes helde the trueth: and later recorde it. And at the ende of them, the Angel afore telleth of 490. yeeres for ſaluation: who ſo wyll not make the Angel a deceauer: but begin from the time of ſpeaking, and ende, at the performaunce of the thyng ſpoken, can not miſſe. Againſt curioſity from our weakenes, I write the poſitions folowing, to make that cleere, which if men would not reſist their owne iudgement, had neuer ben thought obſcure: but by vsus hath been perniciouſly encombred.