the idea and power of the whole; so parents deprived of hands, beget manual issues, and the defect of those parts is supplied by the idea of others. So in one grain of corn appearing similarly and insufficient for a plural germination, there lieth dormant the virtuality of many other; and from thence sometimes proceed above an hundred ears. And thus may be made out the cause of multiparous productions; for though the seminal materials disperse and separate in the matrix, the formative operator will not delineate a part, but endeavour the formation of the whole; effecting the same as far as the matter will permit, and from dividing materials attempt entire formations. And therefore, though wondrous strange, it may not be impossible what is confirmed at Lausdun concerning the Countess of Holland; nor what Albertus reports of the birth of an hundred and fifty. And if we consider the magnalities of generation in some things, we shall not controvert its possibilities in others: nor easily question that great work, whose wonders are only second unto those of the creation, and a close apprehension of the one, might perhaps afford a glimmering light, and crepusculous glance of the other.

CHAPTER III.

Of Methuselah.

WHAT hath been every where opinioned by all men, and in all times, is more than paradoxical to dispute; and so, that Methuselah was the longest liver of all the posterity of Adam, we quietly believe: but that he must needs be so, is perhaps

? And if we consider, &c.] "Many things are useful and convenient, which are not necessary: and if God had seen man might not want it, how easy had it been for him which made the woman of that bone, to turn the flesh into another bone? But he saw man could not complain of

the want of that bone, which he had so multiplied, so animated. O God, we can never be losers by thy changes, we have nothing but what is thine, take from us thine own when thou wilt; we are sure thou canst not but give us better!"Bp. Hall's Contemp. bk. 1, ch. 2.

below paralogy to deny.1 For hereof there is no determination from the text; wherein it is only particularised he was the longest liver of all the patriarchs whose age is there expressed ; but that he out-lived all others, we cannot well conclude. For of those nine whose death is mentioned before the flood, the text expresseth that Enoch was the shortest liver; who saw but three hundred sixty-five years. But to affirm from hence, none of the rest, whose age is not expressed, did die before that time, is surely an illation whereto we cannot assent.

Again many persons there were in those days of longevity, of whose age notwithstanding there is no account in Scripture; as of the race of Cain, the wives of the nine patriarchs, with all the sons and daughters that every one begat: whereof perhaps some persons might out-live Methuselah; the text intending only the masculine line of Seth, conduciable unto the genealogy of our Saviour, and the antediluvian chronology. And therefore we must not contract the lives of those which are left in silence by Moses; for neither is the age of Abel expressed in the Scripture, yet is he conceived far elder than commonly opinioned; and if we allow the conclusion of his epitaph as made by Adam, and so set down by Salian, Posuit mærens pater, cui à filio justius positum foret, Anno ab ortu rerum 130; Ab Abele nato 129, we shall not need to doubt. Which notwithstanding Cajetan and others confirm; nor is it improbable, if we conceive that Abel was born in the second year of Adam,3 and Seth a year after the death of Abel; for so it being said, that Adam was an hun

1 is perhaps below parology to deny.] "To deny it is not hastily to be condemned as false reasoning."

2 we cannot, &c.] If the learned author had looked into the text, Gen. v, hee woulde have dasht this unnecessary and frivolous discourse, for in that the Holy Ghost does particularly mention all the 9 patriarchs' ages, as of men to whom God gave such long life for the peopling of the world and tooke away all the rest of the world, not only in Caine's race, but in all the other patriarchal familyes, men, women, and children, that they might not live to propagate that wickedness which had overspread the world by

the marriage of Seth's posterityes with Caine's female issue. Itt is fit to beleeve that God would never grant to any of Caine's posterity longer life then to the longest liver among the patriarchs, when he intended to cutt off even that life of theirs which hee permitted them to prolong till their sinns were fulfild: and therefore tooke away Mathuselah also the yeare that hee sent the flood to take away all (universally) then living, save Noah and his immediate family.-Wr.

3 second year, &c.] Abel's birth is not deducible necessarily from Scripture: his death is more probable.—Wr.

dred and thirty years old when he begat Seth, Abel must perish the year before, which was one hundred and twenty-nine.

And if the account of Cain extend unto the deluge, it may not be improbable that some thereof exceeded any of Seth. Nor is it unlikely in life, riches, power, and temporal blessings, they might surpass them in this world, whose lives related unto the next. For so when the seed of Jacob was under affliction and captivity, that of Ishmael and Esau flourished and grew mighty, there proceeding from the one twelve princes, from the other no less than fourteen dukes and eight kings. And whereas the age of Cain and his posterity is not delivered in the text, some do salve it from the secret method of Scripture, which sometimes wholly omits, but seldom or never delivers the entire duration of wicked and faithless persons, as is observable in the history of Esau, and the kings of Israel and Judah. And therefore when mention is made that Ishmael lived 127 years, some conceive he adhered unto the faith of Abraham, for so did others who were not descended from Jacob, for Job is thought to be an Idumean, and of the seed of Esau.

Lastly, although we rely not thereon, we will not omit that conceit urged by learned men, that Adam was elder than Methuselah; inasmuch as he was created in the perfect age of man, which was in those days 50 or 60 years, for about that time we read that they begat children; so that if unto 930 we add 60 years, he will exceed Methuselah; and therefore if not in length of days, at least in old age he surpassed others; he was older than all, who was never so young as any. For though he knew old age, he was never acquainted with puberty, youth or infancy, and so in a strict account he begat children at one year old. And if the usual compute will hold, that men are of the same age which are born within

Cain.] Betweene the creation and the flood were 1656 yeares, to which, though Cain's owne accompt did not reach, yet his posteritye did. For upon them was the flood sent, yet not on them onlye, for all the posterityes of the patriarchal familyes, which doubtless were innumerable, did all perish in the

flood, excepting only eight persons.Wr.

5 Adam was elder.] This phrase, as itt is commonly used, signifies elder in time, and then itt sayes nothing, for who denyes itt? But in lengthe of dayes from the birthe Adam was not soe old as Mathuselah by 20 yeares.-Wr.

compass of the same year, Eve was as old as her husband and parent Adam, and Cain, their son, coetaneous unto both.

Now that conception, that no man 6 did ever attain unto a thousand years, because none should ever be one day old in the sight of the Lord, unto whom, according to that of David, "A thousand years are but one day," doth not advantage Methuselah. And being deduced from a popular expression, which will not stand a metaphysical and strict examination, is not of force to divert a serious enquirer. For unto God a thousand years are no more than one moment, and in his sight Methuselah lived no nearer one day than Abel, for all parts of time are alike unto him, unto whom none are referrible, and all things present unto whom nothing is past or to come; and therefore, although we be measured by the zone of time, and the flowing and continued instants thereof do weave at last a line and circle about the eldest, yet can we not thus commensurate the sphere of Trismegistus, or sum up the unsuccessive and stable duration of God.

CHAPTER IV.

That there was no Rainbow before the Flood.

THAT there shall no rainbow appear forty years before the end of the world, and that the preceding drought unto that great shame shall exhaust the materials of this meteor, was an assertion grounded upon no solid reason; but that there was not any in sixteen hundred years, that is, before the

6 that no man, &c.] This is most true de facto, though the reason bee but symbolical, and concludes nothing necessarilye. For granting that Adam was created in the perfect age of man, as then itt was, which was rather 100 then 60, yet he lived noe more then 930 in all, viz. solar, sydereal, tropick years. To which if you add those hypothecall 60 yeares (for they are not reall but

imaginary only), yet soe Adam would not reach to 1000 by 10 yeares, and therfore the saying is most true.-Wr.

Trisme

7 sphere of Trismegistus.] gistus sayd God was a circle, whose center, that is, his presentiall and immutable essence, from whence all things have their beinge, is every where, but his circumference, that is, his incomprehensible infinity, is noe where.-Wr.

flood, seems deducible from Holy Scripture, Gen. ix, "I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth." From whence notwithstanding we cannot conclude the non-existence of the rainbow, nor is that chronology naturally established, which computeth the antiquity of effects arising from physical and settled causes, by additional impositions from voluntary determinators. Now by the decree of reason and philosophy, the rainbow hath its ground in nature, as caused by the rays of the sun, falling upon a rorid and opposite cloud, whereof some reflected, others refracted, beget that semi-circular variety we generally call the rainbow, which must succeed upon concurrence of causes and subjects aptly predisposed. And therefore to conceive there was no rainbow before, because God chose this out as a token of the covenant, is to conclude the existence of things from their signalities, or of what is objected unto the sense, a coexistence with that which is internally presented unto the understanding. With equal reason we may infer there was no water before the institution of baptism, nor bread and wine before the Holy Eucharist.

Again, while men deny the antiquity of one rainbow, they anciently concede another. For beside the solary iris which God shewed unto Noah, there is a lunary, whose efficient is the moon, visible only in the night, most commonly called at full moon, and some degrees above the horizon. Now the existence hereof men do not controvert, although effected by a different luminary in the same way with the other. And probably it appeared later, as being of rare appearance and rarer observation, and many there are which think there is no such thing in nature; and therefore by casual spectators they are looked upon like prodigies, and significations made, not signified by their natures.

Lastly, we shall not need to conceive God made the rainbow at this time, if we consider that in its created and predisposed nature, it was more proper for this signification, than any other meteor or celestial appearancy whatsoever. Thunder and lightning had too much terror to have been tokens of mercy. Comets or blazing stars appear too seldom to put us in mind of a covenant to be remembered often, and

VOL. III.

X