PROEMIAL ANNOTATIONS.
conteyning manifest errors, or fained by Heretikes. Neither can a Christian The Holie Ghost declareth by the Church which Bookes are Diuine Scriptures.
Catholique he otherwise assured, Which Bookes are Diuine and Canonical
Scriptures, but by declaration of the Catholique Church, which without interruption Mat. 28. Ioan. 14. 16. Act. 2. 20 1. Tim. 3.
succedeth the Apostles, to whom our Sauiour promised, and sent
the Holie Ghost, to teach al truth. For if in anie thing more then others,
assuredly one chief and most necessarie point is, to know and declare, which
Bookes are Gods holie Word: being of most singular importance.
THE SVMME OF THE OLD TESTAment, as it is distinguished from the new.
Not withstanding the subiect, & general argument of both Testaments The old and new Testament differ in time. In maner of vttering. Varietie of Precepss. Promises. Meanes.
is one & the same in substance, as is already said, yet they differ in
time, in maner of vttering of Mysteries, in varietie of precepts, & promises,
also in meanes to obserue the thinges exacted, & to attayne to the end proposed, Temo. 3. quest. 10 Algasiae.
In regard wherof S. Ierome saith: Lex Moysi & omne vetus
instrumentum elementa mundi intelliguntur, quibus quasi elementis,
& Religionis exordijs Deum discimus. The law of Moyses
and al the old Testament are vnderstood the elements of the
world, by which, as by first rudiments & beginnings, we lerne
to know God. For that in it we haue first the Law of nature: and asterwards
a law written, with promises of temporal rewardes; as long life,
land flowiug with milke & honie, & the like; but it brought nothing Heb. 7. 9. 10. Gal. 4.
to perfection, as S. Paul saith, when giftes & hostes were offered,
which could not according to conscience, make the obseruer
perfect. For the helpes of that time, were but infirma & egena elemēta:
Weake & poore elements. Likewise in general, touching the punishments The old Testament conteyneth figures of the new. A continual visible Church from the beginning of the world to Christ. The same Mystical bodie, but different in state. Diuided into six ages. The first age continued. 1656. yeares.
that sometimes happened to the people of the old Testament, when they
transgressed, the same Apostle affirmeth, that al the same chanced to 1. Cor. 10
them in figure, & are written for our correption, vpon whom
the ends of the world are come. so that the old Testament, or Law was Gal. 3:
but our pedagogue in Christ. Yet it setteth forth to vs the whole course
of Gods Church, for the space of foure thousand yeares, that is, from the beginning
of the world vntil Christ our Redemer. which Diuines diuide into six
ages, wherein was varietie & change of her state, three vnder the Law of
nature, and three others vnder the written Law. The seuenth & last age
being this time of grace (wherin we now are) from Christ, to the day of general
Iudgement: as the world was made in six dayes, and in the seuenth
God is said to haue rested, and therfore sanctified it, in other sort, then the
former six. The eight wil be after the Resurrection, during for al eternitie.
Which six ages of the ancient Church, & old Testament, are thus distributed. Gen. 1.
The first from the Creation to Noes floud, conteyning the space of 1656.
