The Third Age of the World.
Abraham entertaineth three angels, who re-
new the promise to him of having a son. God
revealeth to Abraham the destruction of Sodom,
with whom Abraham intercedes for Lot and his
family. See Gen. xix. 29.

Lot is commanded, for the preservation of
himself and his family, to get out of Sodom, and
to flee to the mountain; but by much entreaty he
obtaineth leave to go into Zoar. Sodom, Go-
morrah, and all the cities in the vale of Siddim,
with all the inhabitants of them, are, for the
most horrible sins, destroyed by fire and brim-
stone from heaven. The Dead Sea remains a
monument thereof unto this day. Lot's wife,
for looking back upon Sodom, contrary to God's
command, is turned into a pillar of salt; and Lot
himself, fearing to continue at Zoar, leaves the
plain country, and betakes himself to the moun-
tain, carrying his two daughters with him.

Isaac born in the 100th year of Abraham's age.
Not long after to Lot are born Moab and Am-
mon, his sons at the same time and his grandsons.
Hagar and Ishmael, at Sarah's request, are
cast forth.

Salah, the fourth from Noah, dieth.

God tempteth Abraham to offer Isaac. Abra-
ham giveth proof of his faith and obedience.

Sarah dieth at Hebron in Canaan, in the 127th
year of her age.

Isaac marrieth Rebekah the daughterof Bethuel,
the son of Nahor, in the 40th year of his age.
Shem, the son of Noah, dieth.

Abraham dieth, aged 175 years.

Jacob and Esau born in the 60th year of their
father Isaac's age.

1706.

Heber, the fifth from Noah, dieth: from him
Abraham and his posterity were called Hebrews,
Gen. xiv. 13.

Esau, aged 40 years, marrieth Judith the
daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath
the daughter of Elon the Hittite.

Ishmael dieth, aged 137 years.

Jacob, by his mother's instruction, obtaineth
the blessing from Isaac his father, which was de-
signed for Esau. Upon which he is forced to flee
into Mesopotamia, to shun his brother's rage.
Upon the way are foretold unto him, in a vision,
the blessings of his posterity. At length he
cometh to his uncle Laban's house, and cove-
nanteth to serve him seven years for his daugh-
ter Rachel, but Laban deceiveth him with
Leah; the marriage week being completed,
Rachel also is given him to wife, upon condi-
tion of serving seven years more.
Of Leah are born,

Rachel, having been long barren, at length
beareth Joseph: Jacob, desiring to depart, is
persuaded by Laban to serve six years more
for some part of his flock.

Jacob, after he had been twenty years in Me-
sopotamia, sets forward on his journey home-
wards, without acquainting his father or his
brothers-in-law. Rachel stealeth her father's
gods, and is pursued by Laban. Jacob by his
prudence is reconciled to his brother Esau. He
wrestleth with an angel at Peniel, and is called
Israel.

About this time Dinah, Jacob's daughter, is 1531.
deflowered by Shechem the son of Hamor. Si-
meon and Levi, Dinah's brethren, revenge their
sister's quarrel, by putting all the males of She-
chem to the sword; for which thing Jacob re-
proveth them.

The Third Age of the World.
Rachel is delivered of Benjamin on the way
betwixt Beth-el, or Beth-lehem, and Ephrath,
and dies in child-bed. Some think that Job
lived about this time.

Judah lieth with Tamar his daughter-in-law
in disguise.

Joseph is hated by his brethren, and is sold to
merchantmen, Ishmaelites and Midianites, who
carry him into Egypt, where he is sold to Poti
phar an officer of Pharaoh, and by him made
overseer of his house.

Joseph resisteth the temptations of his mas
ter's wife; he is falsely accused by her, and
cast into prison. He interpreteth the dream
of Pharaoh's butler and baker, which come t
pass according to his interpretation.

Isaac dieth, aged 180 years, and is buried b
his son's Jacob and Esau.

Joseph interpreteth Pharaoh's two dream
he giveth Pharaoh counsel, and is made gove
nor of the whole land of Egypt.

Here begin the seven years of plenty in
land of Egypt. About this time Manasseh a
Ephraim, Joseph's two sons, are born of Asena
the daughter of Poti-pherah priest of On.

Here begin the seven years of famine.
Jacob sendeth his ten sons to buy corn
Egypt; they are imprisoned by Joseph for spi
but are set at liberty on condition of bring
Benjamin; and Simeon is kept as a pledge

Jacob is with much difficulty persuaded
send Benjamin. Joseph maketh himself kn
to his brethren, and sendeth for his fathe
command from Pharaoh.

Jacob, having offered sacrifice to God for
his son Joseph is yet alive, goes with all his f
ly into Egypt in the third year of famine,
130th year of his age. He is seated in the
of Goshen.

Joseph getteth all the money, lands, and
of the Egyptians for bread; only the land
longing to the priests he buyeth not.

Jacob adopteth Ephraim and Manasseh
blesseth them, and all his sons; prophesiet
descent of the Messiah from Judah, and d
aged 147 years; 17 whereof he lived in E
He is with great pomp carried into Can
and buried in the sepulchre of his father.

Joseph, on his deathbed, prophesieth unt
brethren their return to Canaan; takes an
of them to carry his bones out of Egypt
dieth, aged 110 years.

The book of Genesis endeth in the deat
Joseph, containing the history of 2369 ye
next to which, in order of time, the boo
Job follows, written (as it is generally belie
by Moses.

Levi dieth in Egypt, aged 137 years;
grandfather to Moses and Aaron.

he

Here begins the bondage of the childre
Israel, when a king rose up in Egypt who
not Joseph.

Aaron born three years before his br
Moses, 83 years before the departure of
children of Israel out of Egypt.

Pharaoh, having in vain commanded the
brew midwives to destroy all the males of
Israelites, sets forth an edict, charging that
be all cast into the river.

Moses is born, who, being hid in the flag
the river-side, is found by Pharaoh's daug
and becomes her adopted son.

Moses, in the 40th year of his age, having
an Egyptian, whom he saw contending w
Hebrew, fleeth into Midian, where he man
Zipporah the daughter of Reuel or Jethro
priest, and liveth with him 40 years.

Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, born.

The Year
before

The Third Age of the World.
Whilst Moses keeps his father in-law's sheep CHRIST
at mount Horeb, God appeareth unto him in a
burning bush, and sendeth him to deliver Israel.

Moses and Aaron, having declared to Pharaoh
the message on which they are sent unto him
from God, are charged by him as heads of a
mutiny, and sent away with many bad words;
and more grievous labours are forthwith laid
upon the Israelites.

Moses, being now 80, and Aaron 83 years of
age, urged thereunto by God, return again to
Pharaoh, where the magicians, by their sorcery,
imitating the miracle of Aaron's rod turned into
a serpent, make Pharaoh more obstinate than he
was before. Wherefore God, by the hand of
Moses, lays ten plagues upon the Egyptians.

The Fourth Age of the World.

1. Exod. XII. 11, UPON the fourteenth day of the first month,

29, 41:

Numb.
XXXIII.

Exod. XIV.

XV.

XVI.

XVII. 1,

8, 9, &c.

XX.

XXI.

XXII, &c.
XXIV.

(which was May the 4th, upon Monday
with us,) in the evening, the passover is insti-
tuted.

Upon the fifteenth of the same month, at mid-
night, the first-born of Egypt being all slain,
Pharaoh and his servants make haste to send
away the Israelites; and they, the self-same day
wherein they were let go out of bondage, being
the complete term of 430 years from the first
pilgrimage of their ancestors, reckoning from
Abraham's departure out of Charran, take their
journey, and march away, being 600,000 men,
besides children, and come to Rameses, from
whence, by several encampings, they come
to the Red sea, the Lord conducting them in a
pillar of a cloud by day, and in a pillar of
fire by night. They carry Joseph's bones with
them.

At the Red sea Pharaoh with his host over-
takes them; Moses divides the waters with his
rod, and the children of Israel pass through on
dry ground unto the desert of Etham; whom
when Pharaoh and his army would needs fol-
low, they are all overwhelmed by the waters
coming together at the dawning of the day,
whereby the Israelites are wholly freed from
the bondage of the Egyptians; whose carcases
when they see floating all the sea over, and cast
upon the shore, they sing a song of praise and
thanksgiving unto God.

Upon the fifteenth of the second month, (our
June the 4th, being Thursday,) the Israelites
come to the wilderness of Zin, which lieth be-
tween Elyma and Sinai, where, for want of food,
they murmur against God and their leaders.
About the even-tide God sends them quails, and
the next morning rains upon them manna from
heaven; and upon that kind of bread they lived
afterward by the space of 40 years, even till they
came to the borders of the land of promise. An
omer of it is preserved for a memorial.

At Rephidim, which was the eleventh place of
their encamping, the people murmur for want
of water: Moses gives them water, by striking
the hard rock in Horeb with his rod.

The Amalekites, falling upon the rear of the
Israelites, are discomfited by Joshua, whilst Mo-
ses holds up his hands to God in prayer.

God publisheth his law, contained in the Ten
Commandments, with a terrible voice from
mount Sinai.

The people being in great fear, God gives
them sundry other laws, all which being writ-
ten in the book of the covenant, Moses proposeth
them to the people: which done, rising early in
the morning, he builds an altar at the foot of
the mountain, and sets up twelve statues, accord-
ing to the twelve tribes of Israel, and sends

1491.

1490.

The Fourth Age of the World.
twelve young men of the first-born, (whom the
Lord had consecrated to himself as ministers of
those holy things, before the Levitical priest-
hood was ordained,) which offer sacrifice, first
for sin, and then for thanksgiving, to the Lord:
and, when Moses had read the book of the
covenant, he takes the blood of the calves and
goats so offered, and with water, scarlet wool,
and hyssop, sprinkles the book therewith, and
all the people, or those twelve statues repre-
senting them; and so performs a solemn cove-
nant between God and his people.

Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and
70 men of the elders of Israel, go up into the
mount, and there behold the glory of God: the
rest returning, Moses, with his servant Joshua,
abides there still, and waits six days, and upon
the seventh day God speaks unto him, and there
he continues 40 days and 40 nights, (reckoning
those six days which he waited for the appear-
ance of the Lord,) eating no meat all that while,
nor drinking water, (Deut. ix. 9.) where he
receives God's command touching the frame of
the tabernacle, the priests' garments, their con-
secration, sacrifices, and other things comprised
in this and the six following chapters.

At the end of 40 days God gives Moses the two
tables of the law in stone, made by God's own
hand, and written with his own finger; bidding
him withal quickly to get him down, for that
the people had already made to themselves a
molten calf to worship. Moses, by prayer, pa-
cifieth God, and goes down from the mount, and
seeing the people keeping a festival in honour of
their idol in the camp, he breaks the tables of
the law at the foot of the mount: for which the
Jews keep a solemn fast unto this day.

Moses, having burnt and defaced the idol,
puts 3000 of the idolaters to death by the hands
of the Levites.

God commands Moses to frame new tables of
stone, and to bring them with him into the
mount: Moses brings them the next morn-
ing; and, whilst he stands in the cleft of a rock,
God passeth by, and sheweth him a glimpse of
his glory.

God renews his covenant with his people,
and, upon certain conditions, gives them his
laws again.

In the first six months of this year, the taber-
nacle, the ark of the covenant, the altar, the
table of shew-bread, the priests' garments, the
holy ointments, the candlestick, and other uten-
sils and vessels belonging to the sacrifices, are
finished in the desert at mount Sinai, and are
brought unto Moses.

The tabernacle is set up, and anointed with
holy oil: Aaron and his sons are consecrated for
the priesthood.

Nadab and Abihu, for offering strange fire, are
struck dead in the place by fire from heaven.

The princes of the tribes present their offer-
ings toward the dedication of the tabernacle.
God speaketh to Moses from the mercy-seat.
The second passover is instituted.

Jethro, who is also called Hobab, brings his
daughter Zipporah, with her two sons, Ger
shom and Eliezer, which were left with him,
to his son-in-law Moses; and, having congratu-
lated his and the whole people of Israel's de-
liverance out of bondage, he openly declares
his faith and devotion toward the true God.
By his advice Moses imparts the government
of the people to some others, and ordains ma-
gistrates for the deciding of lesser causes.

Moses complains to God of the over great
burden of his government; God, to ease him of

Numb. XI.

XII.

XIII.

XIV.

31.

1489. Deut. I. 46.

1471.

Numbers
XXXIII.

XVI.

XVII.

1,

2,

The Fourth Age of the World.
his charge, gives him for assistance the court of
seventy elders.

The people lust for flesh: God gives them
quails in wrath; and sends withala most grievous
plague among them.

God rebukes the sedition of Miriam and
Aaron, and maintaineth Moses' right.

From the wilderness of Paran, near Kadesh-
barnea, twelve men are sent (among whom are
Caleb and Joshua) to discover the land of Ca-
naan. Returning, they bring with them a branch
of a vine, with a cluster of grapes upon it; ten
of the twelve so sent speak ill of the country,
declare it barren, and magnify the cities for
their strength, and the giantly stature of the in-
habitants.

The people, terrified with this relation, are
about to return into Egypt, from which Caleb
and Joshua endeavouring to dissuade them, are
like to be stoned. At this God is so provoked
that he threatens to destroy them; but is pre-
vailed upon by Moses' prayers to spare them.
Nevertheless he denounceth that all who are
now twenty years old and upward (except Ca-
leb and Joshua) shall die in the wilderness. The
men who raised the evil report are all destroyed
by sudden death. Some endeavouring to enter
upon the promised land, contrary to the com-
mand of God, are smitten by the Amalekites
and Canaanites.

In this place, viz. Kadesh-barnea, the Israelites
continue many days; but that in some places
they continued many years appeareth; for that
in the space of thirty-seven years there are but
seventeen encampings mentioned.

To their long continuance in Kadesh, and the
encampings from thence, all that we find deli-
vered in the xvth and four next ensuing chap-
ters of Numbers seems to refer; as how Korah,
Dathan, and Abiram, for raising a mutiny
against Moses and Aaron, were swallowed alive
into the earth, and 250 of their associates; and
how the people, murmuring against Moses and
Aaron for the calamity which had befallen their
brethren, were destroyed by God, to the num-
ber of 14,700 men; and how twelve rods being
brought by twelve princes, and laid in the sanc-
tuary, Aaron's rod only budded, and brought
forth almonds, and was laid up before the ark,
for a memorial to those who should afterwards
be given to rebellion.

In these thirty-seven years the Israelites, by
seventeen encampings, having compassed the
hill-country of Seir and Edom, they come to
the wilderness of Zin in the first month of the
fortieth year after their departure out of Egypt.
Here Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron,
dieth.

The people again, for want of water, murmur
against Moses and Aaron, whom when God had
commanded to call water out of the rock only
by speaking to it, Moses, being moved in his
mind through impatience and diffidence of the
thing, speaks something, whatever it was, un-
advisedly with his lips, and strikes the rock
twice with Aaron's rod, and thereby draws
12, water from it, but for transgressing God's
conmand, they are both debarred from enter-
ing into the land of Canaan.

23, 28.

XXI. 5, 9.
John III. 14

In the fifth month of this year Aaron dieth at
Mosera, on the top of mount Hor, at the age of
123 years, leaving his son Eleazar his successor
in the high priesthood.

The people murmuring are plagued with fiery
serpents, whereof many die; upon their repent-
ance God commands that a brazen serpent be

The Fourth Age of the World.
made, and lifted up upon a pole, that as many
as look on it may live.

About the latter end of this year, all those
who at Kadesh-barnea mutinied against God
being wholly extinct and dead, the Israelites
pass over Zared, and come to the borders of
Moab at Ar, and at length they arrive at Ba-
moth, a valley in the country of the Moabites,
and pitch at mount Pisgah.

Sihon king of the Amorites, refusing them
passage through his country, is slain, and the
Israelites possess his land.

Og the king of Bashan, coming out against
Israel, is destroyed with all his people, not one
left alive, and his country possessed by the Is-
raelites.

After these victories the Israelites set forward,
and encamp in the plains of Moab.

Balak king of Moab, considering what the Is
raelites had done to the Amorites, fears, lest,
under pretence of passing through his country,
they should possess themselves of his whole king-
dom, takes counsel with the princes of the Mi-
9. dianites his neighbours, and sends for Balaam,
a soothsayer, out of Mesopotamia, to come and
curse the Israelites, promising him great rewards
for his labour; purposing afterwards to make
war upon them.

Balaam, forewarned of God, refuseth at first
to come; but being sent for a second time, he
importuneth God to let him go, and goes with
a purpose indeed to curse Israel; but God, of
fended thereat, makes the dumb ass of this wi
zard, on which he rode, speaking in a man's
voice, to reprove his folly.

Balaam twice offers sacrifice, and would fain
have cursed Israel, to gratify Balak therein; but
being forced thereto by the Spirit of God, instead
of cursing, he blesseth them altogether; fore
telling what felicity attended them, and what
calamities should befall their enemies.

By his advice the women of Moab and Midia
are set on work to turn the Israelites away
idolatry. Wherefore God commands Moses fint
to take all the ringleaders of this disorder, and
to hang them up before the sun, and then gives
order to the judges to put to death all such as
had joined themselves to Baal-peor. Last of all
God sends a plague upon the people, whereof
die 23,000 men in one day; which, added to
them which were hanged and killed with the
sword, amount in all to 24,000.

Phinehas the son of Eleazar, by killing Zimr,
the chief of his father's family, and Cozbi the
daughter of Zur, a prince of the Midianites, ap
peaseth the wrath of God, and the plague ceaseth
God therefore settleth the high priesthood for
ever upon the house of Phinehas, and commands
that war be made upon the Midianites.

Moses and Eleazar, by God's command, in the
plain of Moab, near unto Jordan, over against
Jericho, number the people from twenty year
old and upwards, and find them to be 601,730
men, besides the Levites, whose number, reckon
ing them from one month old and upwards,
come to 23,000; and then Moses receives com
mand for the parting of the land of promise
among the Israelites.

The daughters of Zelophehad have their fa
ther's land parted among them for want of issue
male; this occasions the law for succession in
heritages to be made.
God signifies to Moses that he shall die; and
Joshua thereupon is declared to be his successor,
upon whom Moses lays his hands, and gives him
instructions. Several laws are made.

An INDEX to the HOLY BIBLE.

The Fourth Age of the World.
Twelve thousand of the Israelites, under the
command of Phinehas, vanquish the Midianites,
and put to the sword all the males among
them, with their five princes, and among them
Zur, the father of Cozbi, and Balaam the
wizard; but they save the women alive; at
which Moses is wroth, and commands that
every male child, and all the women, except
such as were virgins, be killed.

The lands which belonged to Sihon and Og,
namely, all from the river Arnon to mount Her-
mon, Moses divides, and gives to the tribes of
Reuben and Gad, and the half-tribe of Manas-
seh; so that their possessions lay on this side Jor-
dan; nevertheless they assist the rest of the tribes
in all their wars, till they have subdued the Ca-
naanites, and possessed the promised land.

Moses commands the people, that, in their
passage over Jordan, they shall set up great
stones, and engrave the Ten Commandments
on them, with the form of blessing upon mount
Gerizim, and of cursing on mount Ebal; ex-
horting them to observe the law of God, by
setting before their eyes the benefits that would
ensue thereon.

He also renews the covenant made by God
with them and their children on mount Horeb,
and again persuades them to keep that covenant,
by all the blessings and curses which would un-
doubtedly follow the keepers or breakers of it:
yet with a promise of pardon and deliverance,
if at any time, having broken it, they shall re-
pent them of their sin; and tells them further,
that God had therefore thus declared his will
unto them, to the end that none hereafter of-
fending shall pretend ignorance.

Moses, having written this law, delivers it to
the priests, the sons of Levi, and the elders of
the people, to be kept; the same day also he
writes his most excellent song, and teaches the
same to the children of Israel to be sung; and,
having finished the book of the law, he takes
order to have it laid up in the side of the ark.

Moses, now drawing near to his end, blesseth
every tribe in particular, by way of prophecy,
save only the tribe of Simeon.

In the twelfth month of this year he goes up
to mount Nebo, and from thence beholds the
land of promise, and there dieth, aged 120
years; the body of Moses God translates out of
the place where he died into a valley of the
land of Moab, over against Beth-peor, and there
burieth it; nor doth any man know the place
where he laid it unto this day. The Israelites
mourn for him thirty days.

Here ends the Pentateuch, or five books of
Moses, containing the history of 2552 years and
an half from the beginning of the world; and
the book of Joshua begins with the forty-first
year after the departure of the children of Is-
rael out of Egypt.

Joshua, being confirmed in his government by
God, sends forth spies from Shittim to the city
of Jericho, who, being harboured by Rahab, are
privily sent away when search is made for them.

Upon the tenth day of the first month, (April
30.) to wit, the same day that the Paschal lamb
was to be chosen out of the flock, the Israelites,
under the conduct of Joshua, a type of Jesus
Christ, go up out of the river Jordan into the
promised land of Canaan, a type of a more hea-
venly country. They pass through the river on
dry ground, the waters being for that present
divided; for a memorial of which miraculous
passage Joshua sets up twelve stones in the
very channel of Jordan, and taking twelve other

The Fourth Age of the World.
stones out of the midst thereof, sets them up
at Gilgal, the place where they next encamp.

The day following Joshua renews the use of
circumcision, which had been omitted 40 years.
Upon the fourteenth day of the same month,
in the evening, the Israelites celebrate their
first passover in the land of Canaan.

Next day after the passover manna ceaseth.
Our Lord Jesus, Captain of his Father's host,
appears to Joshua, the typical Jesus, before
Jericho, with a drawn sword in his hand, and
promiseth there to defend his people.

Jericho, the ark of the Lord having been car-
ried round about it, is taken the seventh day,
the walls thereof falling down at the sound of
the priests' trumpets; all the inhabitants are put
to the sword except Rahab and her family.

The Israelites besiege Ai, and are smitten by
their enemies, God having abandoned them for
sacrilege committed by Achan. Achan's sin
being discovered by the casting of lots, and
himself found guilty, he is stoned to death, and,
together with his children and cattle, burnt
with fire. God being pacified hereby, Ai is
taken by ambushment, and utterly destroyed.

On mount Ebal, according to the law made,
is an altar erected, and the Ten Command-
ments engraven on it; the blessings and cursings
are repeated on mount Ebal and mount Geri-
zim, and the book of the law read in the ears
of the people.

The kings of Canaan combine against Israel;
only the Gibeonites craftily find a way to save
their own lives, by making a league with them;
but are afterwards deputed to the servile offices
of the house of God.

Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem, with the
kings of Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon,
hearing that Gibeon is fallen off from them,
join their forces together, and besiege it; but
Joshua raiseth the siege, pursueth those five
kings, and smiteth them as far as Azekah, the
Lord in the meanwhile killing more with hail-
stones from heaven, than the Israelites with their
swords. Joshua commands the sun to stand
still over Gibeon, and the moon over the val-
ley of Ajalon, by the space almost of one whole
day, until the Israelites are fully avenged of
their enemies. The five kings hide themselves
in a cave at Makkedah; from whence they are
brought forth, scornfully used, and hanged.

From the autumn of this year, wherein, after
the failing of manna, they began to till the
ground, the rise of the Sabbatical years is to be
taken.

Joshua, now grown old, is commanded by
God to divide all the land on the west of Jor-
dan among the nine tribes remaining, and the
other balf-tribe of Manasseh. The Lord and
his sacrifices are the inheritance of Levi.

The rest of the kings, with whom Joshua
had waged war for six years, resolve to set up-
on him with united forces; but Joshua comes
upon them unawares, slays them, and possess-
eth their countries.

Joshua now roots out those giants the Ana-
kims, with their cities, out of the hill countries,
out of Hebron, Debir, and Anab, and, general-
ly, out of all the mountauis of Judah and all
Israel. And, having gotten the whole land into
his hands, he divides it among the children of
Israel according to their tribes; and the land
rested from war.

The first Sabbatical year, or year of rest;
from hence the year of jubilee, or every 50
years' space, is to be reckoned.