THough many ordinary Heads run The Intro­duction. smoothly over the Scripture, yet I must acknowledge, it is one of the hardest Books I have met with: and therefore well deserveth those numerous Comments, Expositions and Annotations [Page 2] which make up a good part of our Libra­ries.

However so affected I am therewith, that I wish there had been more of it: and a larger Volume of that Divine Piece which leaveth such welcome impressions, and somewhat more, in the Readers, than the words and sense after it. At least, who would not be glad that many things bare­ly hinted were at large delivered in it? The particulars of the Dispute between the Doctours and our Saviour could not but be welcome to them, who have every word in honour which proceeded from his mouth, or was otherwise delivered by him: and so would be glad to be assured, what he wrote with his Finger on the ground: But especially to have a particu­lar of that instructing Narration or Dis­course which he made unto the Disciples after his resurrection, where 'tis said: And Luke 24 27. beginning at Moses, and all the Prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

But to omit Theological obscurities, you must needs observe that most Scien­ces do seem to have something more near­ly to consider in the expressions of the Scripture.

Astronomers find therein the Names but of few Stars, scarce so many as in Achilles [Page 3] his Buckler in Homer, and almost the very same. But in some passages of the Old Testament they think they discover the Zodiacal course of the Sun: and they, al­so, conceive an Astronomical sense in that elegant expression of S. James concerning the father of lights, with whom there is no Jam. 1. 17. variableness, neither shadow of turning: and therein an allowable allusion unto the tropical conversion of the Sun, whereby ensueth a variation of heat, light, and al­so of shadows from it. But whether the Stellae erraticae, or wandring Stars in S. Jude, may be referr'd to the celestial Planets, or some metereological wandring Stars, Ignes fatui, Stellae cadentes & er­raticae, or had any allusion unto the Im­postour Barchochebas, or Stellae Filius, who afterward appeared, and wandred about in the time of Adrianus, they leave unto conjecture.

Chirurgions may find their whole Art in that one passage, concerning the Rib which God took out of Adam, that is their [...] in opening the Flesh, [...] in taking out the Rib, and [...] in closing and healing the part a­gain.

Rhetoricians and Oratours take singu­lar notice of very many excellent passages, stately metaphors, noble tropes and ele­gant [Page 4] expressions, not to be found or paral­lel'd in any other Authour.

Mineralists look earnestly into the twenty eighth of Job, take special notice of the early artifice in Brass and Iron un­der Tubal-Cain: And find also mention of Gold, Silver, Brass, Tin, Lead, Iron; be­side Refining, So [...]ering, Dross, Nitre, Salt­pits, and in some manner also of Depinxit oculos stibio. 2 King. 9. 30. Jerem. 4. 30. Ezek. 23. 40. Anti­mony.

Gemmarie Naturalists reade diligently the pretious Stones in the holy City of the Apocalypse: examine the Breast-plate of A­aron, and various Gemms upon it, and think the second Row the nobler of the four: they wonder to find the Art of In­gravery so ancient upon pretious Stones and Signets; together with the ancient use of Ear-rings and Bracelets. And are pleased to find Pearl, Coral, Amber and Crystal in those sacred Leaves, according to our Translation. And when they of­ten meet with Flints and Marbles, cannot but take notice that there is no mention of the Magnet or Loadstone, which in so many similitudes, comparisons, and allusi­ons, could hardly have been omitted in the Works of Solomon; if it were true that he knew either the attractive or directive power thereof, as some have believed.

[Page 5] Navigatours consider the Ark, which was pitched without and within, and could endure the Ocean without Mast or Sails: They take special notice of the twenty seventh of Ezekiel; the mighty Traffick and great Navigation of Tyre, with particular mention of their Sails, their Masts of Cedar, Oars of Oak, their skilfull Pilots, Mariners and Calkers; as also of the long Voyages of the Fleets of Solomon; of Jehosaphat's Ships broken at Ezion-Geber; of the notable Voyage and Shipwreck of S. Paul, so accurately deli­vered in the Acts.

Oneirocritical Diviners apprehend some hints of their knowledge, even from Divine Dreams; while they take notice of the Dreams of Joseph, Pharaoh, Nebuchadnez­zar, and the Angels on Jacob's Ladder; and find, in Artemidorus and Achmetes, that Ladders signifie Travels, and the Scales thereof Preferment; and that Oxen Lean and Fat naturally denote Scarcity or Plenty, and the successes of Agricul­ture.

Physiognomists will largely put in from very many passages of Scripture. And when they find in Aristotle, quibus frons quadrangula, commensurata, fortes, referun­tur ad leones, cannot but take special no­tice of that expression concerning the Ga­dites; [Page 6] mighty men of war, fit for battel, whose faces were as the faces of lyons.

Geometrical and Architectonical Artists look narrowly upon the description of the Ark, the fabrick of the Temple, and the holy City in the Apocalypse.

But the Botanical Artist meets every where with Vegetables, and from the Figg Leaf in Genesis to the Star Wormwood in the Apocalypse, are variously intersper­sed expressions from Plants, elegantly ad­vantaging the significancy of the Text: Whereof many being delivered in a Lan­guage proper unto Judaea and neighbour Countries are imperfectly apprehended by the common Reader, and now doubt­fully made out, even by the Jewish Ex­positour.

And even in those which are confessed­ly known, the elegancy is often lost in the apprehension of the Reader, unac­quainted with such Vegetables, or but nakedly knowing their natures: whereof holding a pertinent apprehension, you cannot pass over such expressions without some doubt or want of satisfaction in your judgment. Hereof we shall onely hint or discourse some few which I could not but take notice of in the reading of holy Scrip­ture.

[Page 7] Many Plants are mention'd in Scripture which are not distinctly known in our Countries, or under such Names in the Original, as they are fain to be rendred by analogy, or by the name of Vegetables of good affinity unto them, and so main­tain the textual sense, though in some va­riation from identity.

1. That Plant which afforded a shade The Obser­vations. Kikaion. unto Jona 4. 6. a Gourd. Jonah, mention'd by the name of Kikaion, and still retained at least margi­nally in some Translations, to avoid ob­scurity Jerome rendred Hedera or Ivy; which notwithstanding (except in its scan­dent nature) agreed not fully with the o­ther, that is, to grow up in a night, or be consumed with a Worm; Ivy being of no swift growth, little subject unto Worms, and a scarce Plant about Babylon.

2. That Hyssope is taken for that Plant Hyssope. which cleansed the Leper, being a well scented, and very abstersive Simple, may well be admitted; so we be not too con­fident, that it is strictly the same with our common Hyssope: The Hyssope of those parts differing from that of ours; as Bel­lonius hath observed in the Hyssope which grows in Judaea, and the Hyssope of the Wall mention'd in the Works of Solomon, no kind of our Hyssope; and may tole­rably [Page 8] be taken for some kind of minor Capillary, which best makes out the An­tithesis with the Cedar. Nor when we meet with Libanotis, is it to be conceived our common Rosemary, which is rather the first kind thereof among several others, used by the Ancients.

3 That it must be taken for Hemlock, Hemlock. Hosea. 10. 4. Amos. 6. 2 which is twice so rendred in our Transla­tion, will hardly be made out, otherwise than in the intended sense, and implying some [...]ant, wherein bitterness or a poi­sonous quality is considerable.

4. What Tremelius rendreth Spina, and Paliurus. the Vulgar Translation Paliurus, and o­thers make some kind of Rhamnus, is allow­able in the sense; and we contend not a­bout the species, since they are known Thorns in those Countries, and in our Fields or Gardens among us: and so com­mon in Judaea, that men conclude the thorny Crown of our Saviour was made either of Paliurus or Rhamnus.

5. Whether the Bush which burnt and Rubus. consumed not, were properly a Rubus or Bramble, was somewhat doubtfull from the Original and some Translations, had not the Evangelist, and S. Paul express'd the same by the Greek word [...], which from the description of Dioscorides, Her­barists accept for Rubus; although the [Page 9] same word [...] expresseth not onely the Rubus or kinds of Bramble, but other Thorn-bushes, and the Hipp-briar is also named [...], or the Dog-briar or Bramble.

6. That Myrica is rendred, Heath, Myrica. Cant. 1. 14. sounds instructively enough to our ears, who behold that Plant so common in bar­ren Plains among us: But you cannot but take notice that Erica, or our Heath is not the same Plant with Myrica or Tam­marice, described by Theophrastus and Dioscorides, and which Bellonius declareth to grow so plentifully in the Desarts of Judaea and Arabia.

7. That the [...], botrus Cypri, or Clusters of Cypress, should have Cypress. Cant. 1. 14. any reference to the Cypress Tree, accor­ding to the original Copher, or Clusters of the noble Vine of Cyprus, which might be planted into Judaea, may seem to others allowable in some latitude. But there seeming some noble Odour to be implied in this place, you may probably conceive that the expression drives at the [...] of Dioscorides, some oriental kind of Ligu­strum or Alcharma, which Dioscorides and Pliny mention under the name of [...] and Cyprus, and to grow about Aegypt and Ascalon, producing a sweet and odo­rate bush of Flowers, and out of which [Page 10] was made the famous Oleum Cyprinum.

But why it should be rendred Cam­phyre your judgment cannot but doubt, who know that our Camphyre was un­known unto the Ancients, and no ingre­dient into any composition of great Anti­quity: that learned men long conceived it a bituminous and fossile Body, and our latest experience discovereth it to be the resinous substance of a Tree, in Borneo and China; and that the Camphyre that we use is a neat preparation of the same.

8. When 'tis said in Isaiah 41. I will Shittah Tree, &c. Isa. 41. 19. Plant in the wilderness the Cedar, the Shit­tah Tree, and the Myrtle and the Oil Tree, I will set in the Desart, the Firre Tree, and the Pine, and the Box Tree: Though some doubt may be made of the Shittah Tree, yet all these Trees here mentioned being such as are ever green, you will more emphatically apprehend the merci­full meaning of God in this mention of no fading, but always verdant Trees in dry and desart places.

9. And they cut down a Branch with one Grapes of Eshcol. Num. 13. 23. cluster of Grapes, and they bare it between two upon a Staff, and they brought Pome­granates and Figgs. This cluster of Grapes brought upon a Staff by the Spies, was an incredible sight, in [...]. Philo. Philo Judaeus, seem'd notable in the eyes of the Israelites, but [Page 11] more wonderfull in our own, who look onely upon Northern Vines. But herein you are like to consider, that the Cluster was thus carefully carried to represent it entire, without bruising or breaking; that this was not one Bunch but an extraordi­nary Cluster, made up of many depen­ding upon one gross stalk. And however, might be parallel'd with the Eastern Clu­sters of Margiana and Caramania, if we allow but half the expressions of Pliny and Strabo, whereof one would lade a Curry or small Cart; and may be made out by the clusters of the Grapes of Rhodes pre­sented unto Duke Radzivil in his Tra­vels. Radzivil, each con­taining three parts of an Ell in compass, and the Grapes as big as Prunes.

10. Some things may be doubted in Ingred. of holy Per­fume. Stacte, &c. Exod. 30. 34, 35. the species of the holy Ointment and Per­fume. With Amber, Musk and Civet we meet not in the Scripture, nor any Odours from Animals; except we take the Ony­cha of that Perfume for the Covercle of a Shell-fish called Unguis Odoratus, or Blatta Byzantina, which Dioscorides affirmeth to be taken from a Shell-fish of the Indian Lakes, which seeding upon the Aromati­cal Plants is gathered when the Lakes are drie. But whether that which we now call Blatta Byzantina, or Unguis Odoratus, be the same with that odorate one of An­tiquity, [Page 12] great doubt may be made; since Dioscorides saith it smelled like Castoreum, and that which we now have is of an un­gratefull odour.

No little doubt may be also made of Galbanum prescribed in the same Perfume, if we take it for Galbanum which is of common use among us, approaching the evil scent of Assa Foetida; and not rather for Galbanum of good odour, as the ad­joining words declare, and the original Chelbena will bear; which implies a fat or resinous substance, that which is common­ly known among us being properly a gum­mous body and dissoluble also in Water.

The holy Ointment of Stacte or pure Myrrh, distilling from the Plant without expression or firing, of Cinnamon, Cassia and Calamus, containeth less questionable species, if the Cinnamon of the Ancients were the same with ours, or managed af­ter the same manner. For thereof Diosco­rides made his noble Unguent. And Cin­namon was so highly valued by Princes, that Cleopatra carried it unto her Sepulchre with her Jewels; which was also kept in wooden Boxes among the rarities of Kings: and was of such a lasting nature, that at his composing of Treacle for the Emperour Severus, Galen made use of some which had been laid up by Adrianus.

[Page 13] 11. That the Prodigal Son desired to Husks eaten by the Pro­digal. Luke 15. 16. eat of Husks given unto Swine, will hard­ly pass in your apprehension for the Husks of Pease, Beans, or such edulious Pulses; as well understanding that the textual word [...] or Ceration, properly in­tendeth the Fruit of the Siliqua Tree so common in Syria, and fed upon by Men and Beasts; called also by some the Fruit of the Locust Tree, and Panis Sancti Jo­hannis, as conceiving it to have been part of the Diet of the Baptist in the Desart. The Tree and Fruit is not onely common in Syria and the Eastern parts, but also well known in Apuglia, and the Kingdom of Naples, growing along the Via Appia, from Fundi unto Mola; the hard Cods or Husks making a rattling noise in windy weather, by beating against one another: called by the Italians Carobbe or Carobbole, and by the French Carouges. With the sweet Pulp hereof some conceive that the Indians preserve Ginger, Mirabo­lans and Nutmegs. Of the same (as Pli­ny delivers) the Ancients made one kind of Wine, strongly expressing the Juice thereof; and so they might after give the expressed and less usefull part of the Cods, and remaining Pulp unto their Swine: which being no gustless or unsatisfying Of­fal, might be well desired by the Prodigal in his hunger.

[Page 14] 12. No marvel it is that the Israelites Cucum­bers, &c. of Aegypt. having lived long in a well watred Coun­try, and been acquainted with the noble Water of Nilus, should complain for Wa­ter in the dry and barren Wilderness. More remarkable it seems that they should extoll and linger after the Cucumbers and Leeks, Onions and Garlick in Aegypt: wherein notwithstanding lies a pertinent expression of the Diet of that Country in ancient times, even as high as the building of the Pyramids, when Herodotus delive­reth, that so many Talents were spent in Onions and Garlick, for the Food of La­bourers and Artificers; and is also answe­rable unto their present plentifull Diet in Cucumbers, and the great varieties there­of, as testified by Prosper Alpinus, who spent many years in Aegypt.

13. What Fruit that was which our first Forbidden Fruit. Gen. 2. 17, &c. Parents tasted in Paradise, from the dis­putes of learned men seems yet indetermi­nable. More clear it is that they cover'd their nakedness or secret parts with Figg Leaves; which when I reade, I cannot but call to mind the several considerations which Antiquity had of the Figg Tree, in reference unto those parts, particularly how Figg Leaves by sundry Authours are described to have some resemblance unto the Genitals, and so were aptly formed [Page 15] for such contection of those parts; how also in that famous Statua of Praxiteles, concerning Alexander and Bucephalus, the Secret Parts are veil'd with Figg Leaves; how this Tree was sacred unto Priapus, and how the Diseases of the Secret Parts have derived their Name from Figgs.

14. That the good Samaritan coming Balsam. Oil. Luke 10. 34. from Jericho used any of the Judean Bal­sam upon the wounded Traveller, is not to be made out, and we are unwilling to disparage his charitable Surgery in pou­ring Oil into a green Wound; and there­fore when 'tis said he used Oil and Wine, may rather conceive that he made an Oi­nelaeum or medicine of Oil and Wine bea­ten up and mixed together, which was no improper Medicine, and is an Art now lately studied by some so to incorporate Wine and Oil that they may lastingly hold together, which some pretend to have, and call it Oleum Samaritanum, or Samaritans Oil.

15. When Daniel would not pollute Pulse of Daniel. Dan. 1. 12. himself with the Diet of the Babylonians, he probably declined Pagan commensati­on, or to eat of Meats forbidden to the Jews, though common at their Tables, or so much as to taste of their Gentile Immo­lations, and Sacrifices abominable unto his Palate.

[Page 16] But when 'tis said that he made choice of the Diet of Pulse and Water, whether he strictly confined unto a leguminous Food, according to the Vulgar Translati­on, some doubt may be raised, from the original word Zeragnim, which signifies Seminalia, and is so set down in the Mar­gin of Arias Montanus; and the Greek word Spermata, generally expressing Seeds, may signifie any edulious or cerealious Grains besides [...] or leguminous Seeds.

Yet if he strictly made choice of a legu­minous Food, and Water instead of his por­tion from the King's Table, he handsomely declined the Diet which might have been put upon him, and particularly that which was called the Potibasis of the King, which as Athenoeus informeth implied the Bread of the King, made of Barley, and Wheat, and the Wine of Cyprus, which he drank in an oval Cup. And therefore distinctly from that he chose plain Fare of Water, and the gross Diet of Pulse, and that per­haps not made into Bread, but parched, and tempered with Water.

Now that herein (beside the special be­nediction of God) he made choice of no improper Diet to keep himself fair and plump and so to excuse the Eunuch his Keeper, Physicians will not deny, who [Page 17] acknowledge a very nutritive and impin­guating faculty in Pulses, in leguminous Food, and in several sorts of Grains and Corns, is not like to be doubted by such who consider that this was probably a great part of the Food of our Forefathers before the Floud, the Diet also of Jacob: and that the Romans (called therefore Pultifagi) fed much on Pulse for six hun­dred years; that they had no Bakers for that time: and their Pistours were such as, before the use of Mills, beat out and cleansed their Corn. As also that the Ath­letick Diet was of Pulse, Alphiton, Maza, Barley and Water; whereby they were ad­vantaged sometimes to an exquisite state of health, and such as was not without dan­ger. And therefore (though Daniel were no Eunuch, and of a more fatning and thriving temper, as some have phancied, yet) was he by this kind of Diet, suffici­ently maintained in a fair and carnous state of Body, and accordingly his Picture not improperly drawn, that is, not mea­gre and lean, like Jeremy's, but plump and fair, answerable to the most authentick draught of the Vatican, and the late Ger­man Luther's Bible.

The Cynicks in Athenoeus make itera­ted Courses of Lentils, and prefer that Diet before the luxury of Seleucus. The [Page 18] present Aegyptians, who are observed by Alpinus to be the fattest Nation, and Men to have Breasts like Women, owe much, as he conceiveth, unto the Water of Nile, and their Diet of Rice, Pease, Lentils and white Cicers. The Pulse-eating Cynicks and Stoicks, are all very long livers in La­ertius. And Daniel must not be accounted of few years, who, being carried away Captive in the Reign of Joachim, by King Nebuchadnezzar, lived, by Scripture ac­count, unto the first year of Cyrus.

16. And Jacob took Rods of green Pop­lar, Jacob's Rods. Gen. 30. 31. and of the Hazel and the Chesnut Tree, and pilled white streaks in them, and made the white appear which was in the Rods, &c. Men multiply the Philosophy of Jacob, who, beside the benediction of God, and the powerfull effects of imagination, rai­sed in the Goats and Sheep from pilled and party-coloured objects, conceive that he chose out these particular Plants above any other, because he understood they had a particular virtue unto the intended effects, according unto the conception of G. Venetus Problem. 200. Georgius Venetus.

Whereto you will hardly assent, at least till you be better satisfied and assu­red concerning the true species of the Plants intended in the Text, or find a clearer consent and uniformity in the [Page 19] Translation: For what we render Poplar, Hazel and Chesnut, the Greek translateth Virgam styracinam, nucinam, plataninam, which some also render a Pomegranate: and so observing this variety of interpre­tations concerning common and known Plants among us, you may more reasona­bly doubt, with what propriety or assu­rance others less known be sometimes ren­dred unto us.

17. Whether in the Sermon of the Lilies of the Field. Matt. 6. 28. Mount, the Lilies of the Field did point at the proper Lilies, or whether those Flowers grew wild in the place where our Saviour preached, some doubt may be made: because [...] the word in that place is accounted of the same signi­fication with [...], and that in Homer is taken for all manner of specious Flowers: so received by Eustachius, Hesychius, and the Scholiast upon Apollonius Rhodius. [...]. And [...] is also received in the same latitude, not signifying onely Lilies, but applied unto Daffodils, Hyacinths, Iris's, and the Flow­ers of Colocynthis.

Under the like latitude of acception, are many expressions in the Canticles to be received. And when it is said he fee­deth among the Lilies, therein may be al­so implied other specious Flowers, not ex­cluding [Page 20] the proper Lilies. But in that ex­pression, the Lilies drop forth Myrrhe, nei­ther proper Lilies nor proper Myrrhe can be apprehended, the one not proceeding from the other, but may be received in a Meta­phorical sense: and in some latitude may be also made out from the roscid and ho­ney drops observable in the Flowers of Martagon, and inverted flowred Lilies, and, 'tis like, is the standing sweet Dew on the white eyes of the Crown Imperial, now common among us.

And the proper Lily may be intended in that expression of 1 Kings 7. that the brazen Sea was of the thickness of a hand breadth, and the brim like a Lily. For the figure of that Flower being round at the bottom, and somewhat repandous, or inverted at the top, doth handsomely il­lustrate the comparison.

But that the Lily of the Valley, men­tion'd Cant 2. in the Canticles, I am the Rose of Sharon, and the Lily of the Valleys, is that Vegetable which passeth under the same name with us, that is Lilium convallium, or the May Lily, you will more hardly believe, who know with what insatisfac­tion the most learned Botanists, reduce that Plant unto any described by the Ancients; that Anguillara will have it to be the Oe­nanthe of Athenaeus, Cordus the Pothos of [Page 21] Theophrastus; and Lobelius that the Greeks had not described it; who find not six Leaves in the Flower agreeably to all Lilies, but onely six small divisions in the Flower, who find it also to have a single, and no bulbous Root, nor Leaves shooting about the bottom, nor the Stalk round, but an­gular. And that the learned Bauhinus hath not placed it in the Classis of Lilies, but nervifolious Plants.

18. Doth he not cast abroad the Fitches, Fitches, Cummin, &c. in Isa. 28 25. and scatter the Cummin Seed, and cast in the principal Wheat, and the appointed Barley, and the Rye in their place: Here­in though the sense may hold under the names assigned, yet is it not so easie to de­termine the particular Seeds and Grains, where the obscure original causeth such differing Translations. For in the Vulgar we meet with Milium and Gith, which our Translation declineth, placing Fitches for Gith, and Rye for Milium or Millet, which notwithstanding is retained by the Dutch.

That it might be Melanthium, Nigella, or Gith, may be allowably apprehended, from the frequent use of the Seed thereof among the Jews and other Nations, as al­so from the Translation of Tremellius; and the Original implying a black Seed, which is less than Cummin, as, out of [Page 22] Aben Ezra, Buxtorfius hath expounded it.

But whereas Milium or [...] of the Septuagint is by ours rendred Rye, there is little similitude or affinity between those Grains; For Milium is more agreeable un­to Spelta or Espaut, as the Dutch and others still render it.

That we meet so often with Cummin Seed in many parts of Scripture in refe­rence unto Judaea, a Seed so abominable at present unto our Palates and Nostrils, will not seem strange unto any who con­sider the frequent use thereof among the Ancients, not onely in medical but diete­tical use and practice: For their Dishes were filled therewith, and the noblest fe­stival preparations in Apicius were not without it: And even in the Polenta, and parched Corn, the old Diet of the Romans, (as Pliny recordeth) unto every Measure they mixed a small proportion of Lin-seed and Cummin-seed.

And so Cummin is justly set down a­mong things of vulgar and common use, when it is said in Matthew 23. v. 23. You pay Tithe of Mint, Annise and Cummin: but how to make out the translation of Annise we are still to seek, there being no word in that Text which properly signifi­eth Annise: the Original being [...], which the Latins call Anethum, and is properly englished Dill.

[Page 23] That among many expressions, allusions and illustrations made in Scripture from Corns, there is no mention made of Oats, so usefull a Grain among us, will not seem very strange unto you, till you can clearly discover that it was a Grain of ordinary use in those parts; who may also find that Theophrastus, who is large about other Grains, delivers very little of it. That Dioscorides is also very short therein. And Galen delivers that it was of some use in Asia minor, especially in Mysia, and that rather for Beasts than Men: And Pliny affirmeth that the Pulticula thereof was most in use among the Germans. Yet that the Jews were not without all use of this Grain seems confirmable from the Rabbinical account, who reckon five Grains liable unto their Offerings, whereof the Cake presented might be made; that is, Wheat, Oats, Rye, and two sorts of Barley.

19. Why the Disciples being hungry Ears of Corn. Matt. 12. 1. pluck'd the Ears of Corn, it seems strange to us, who observe that men half starved betake not themselves to such supply; except we consider the ancient Diet of Alphiton and Polenta, the Meal of dried and parched Corn, or that which was [...], or Meal of crude and unparched Corn, wherewith they being well acquain­ted, [Page 24] might hope for some satisfaction from the Corn yet in the Husk; that is, from the nourishing pulp or mealy part with­in it.

20. The inhumane oppression of the Stubble of Aegypt. Exod. 5. 7, &c. Aegyptian Task-masters, who, not con­tent with the common tale of Brick, took also from the Children of Israel their al­lowance of Straw, and forced them to gather Stubble where they could find it, will be more nearly apprehended, if we consider how hard it was to acquire any quantity of Stubble in Aegypt, where the Stalk of Corn was so short, that to acquire an ordinary measure, it required more than ordinary labour; as is discoverable from that account, which Lib. 18. Nat. Hist. Pliny hath happily left unto us. In the Corn gather'd in Aegypt the Straw is never a Cubit long: because the Seed lieth very shallow, and hath no other nourishment than from the Mudd and Slime left by the River; For under it is nothing but Sand and Gravel.

So that the expression of Scripture is more Emphatical than is commonly ap­prehended, when 'tis said, The people were scattered abroad through all the Land of Aegypt to gather Stubble instead of Straw. For the Stubble being very short, the ac­quist was difficult; a few Fields afforded it not, and they were fain to wander [Page 25] far to obtain a sufficient quantity of it.

21. It is said in the Song of Solomon, that Flowers of the Vine. Cant. 2. 13. the Vines with the tender Grape give a good smell. That the Flowers of the Vine should be Emphatically noted to give a pleasant smell, seems hard unto our Northern Nostrils, which discover not such Odours, and smell them not in full Vineyards; whereas in hot Regions, and more spread and digested Flowers, a sweet savour may be allowed, denotable from several hu­mane expressions, and the practice of the Ancients, in putting the dried Flowers of the Vine into new Wine to give it a pure and flosculous race or spirit, which Wine was therefore called [...], allowing unto every Cadus two pounds of dried Flowers.

And, therefore, the Vine flowering but in the Spring, it cannot but seem an im­pertinent objection of the Jews, that the Apostles were full of new Wine at Pente­cost when it was not to be found. Where­fore we may rather conceive that the word Acts 2. 13. [...] in that place implied not new Wine or Must, but some generous strong and sweet Wine, wherein more especially lay the power of inebriation.

But if it be to be taken for some kind of Must, it might be some kind of [...], or long-lasting Must, which might be [Page 26] had at any time of the year, and which, as Pliny delivereth, they made by hin­dring, and keeping the Must from fermen­tation or working, and so it kept soft and sweet for no small time after.

22. When the Dove, sent out of the The Olive Leaf in Gen. 8. 11. Ark, return'd with a green Olive Leaf, according to the Original: how the Leaf, after ten Months, and under water, should still maintain a verdure or greenness, need not much amuse the Reader, if we consi­der that the Olive Tree is [...], or continually green; that the Leaves are of a bitter taste, and of a fast and lasting sub­stance. Since we also find fresh and green Leaves among the Olives which we re­ceive from remote Countries; and since the Plants at the bottom of the Sea, and on the sides of Rocks, maintain a deep and fresh verdure.

How the Tree should stand so long in the Deluge under Water, may partly be allowed from the uncertain determination of the Flows and Currents of that time, and the qualification of the saltness of the Sea, by the admixture of fresh Water, when the whole watery Element was to­gether.

And it may be signally illustrated from the like examples in Theo­phrast Hist. Lib. 4. Cap. 7, 8. Theophrastus and † Plin. lib. 13. cap. ultimo. Pliny in words to this effect: Even the [Page 27] Sea affordeth Shrubs and Trees; In the red Sea whole Woods do live, namely of Bays and Olives bearing Fruit. The Soul­diers of Alexander, who sailed into India, made report, that the Tides were so high in some Islands, that they overflowed, and covered the Woods, as high as Plane and Poplar Trees. The lower sort wholly, the greater all but the tops, whereto the Mariners fastned their Vessels at high Wa­ters, and at the root in the Ebb; That the Leaves of these Sea Trees while under water looked green, but taken out pre­sently dried with the heat of the Sun. The like is delivered by Theophrastus, that some Oaks do grow and bear Acrons un­der the Sea.

23. The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a Grain of Mustard-seed in S. Matt. 13. 31, 32. grain of Mustard-seed, which a Man took and sowed in his Field, which indeed is the least of all Seeds; but when 'tis grown is the greatest among Herbs, and becometh a Tree, so that the Birds of the Air come and lodge in the Branches thereof.

Luke 13. 19. It is like a grain of Mu­stard-seed, which a Man took and cast it into his Garden, and it waxed a great Tree, and the Fowls of the Air lodged in the Branches thereof.

This expression by a grain of Mustard-seed, will not seem so strange unto you, [Page 28] who well consider it. That it is simply the least of Seeds, you cannot apprehend, if you have beheld the Seeds of Rapuncu­lus, Marjorane, Tobacco, and the smallest Seed of Lunaria.

But you may well understand it to be the smallest Seed among Herbs which pro­duce so big a Plant, or the least of her­bal Plants, which arise unto such a pro­portion, implied in the expression; the smallest of Seeds, and becometh the greatest of Herbs.

And you may also grant that it is the smallest of Seeds of Plants apt to [...], arborescere, fruticescere, or to grow unto a ligneous substance, and from an herby and oleraceous Vegetable, to be­come a kind of Tree, and to be accoun­ted among the Dendrolachana, or Arboro­leracea; as upon strong Seed, Culture and good Ground, is observable in some Cab­bages, Mallows, and many more, and therefore expressed by [...], and [...], it becometh a Tree, or arborescit, as Beza rendreth it.

Nor if warily considered doth the ex­pression contain such difficulty. For the Parable may not ground it self upon gene­rals, or imply any or every grain of Mu­stard, but point at such a grain as from its fertile spirit, and other concurrent ad­vantages, [Page 29] hath the success to become ar­boreous, shoot into such a magnitude, and acquire the like tallness. And unto such a Grain the Kingdom of Heaven is like­ned which from such slender beginnings shall find such increase and grandeur.

The expression also that it might grow into such dimensions that Birds might lodge in the Branches thereof, may be li­terally conceived; if we allow the luxuri­ancy of Plants in Judaea, above our Nor­thern Regions; If we accept of but half the Story taken notice of by Tremellius, from the Jerusalem Talmud, of a Mustard Tree that was to be climbed like a Figg Tree; and of another, under whose shade a Potter daily wrought: and it may some­what abate our doubts, if we take in the advertisement of Herodotus concerning lesser Plants of Milium and Sesamum in the Babylonian Soil: Milium ac Sesamum in proceritatem instar arborum crescere, etsi mihi compertum, tamen memorare superse­deo, probè sciens eis qui nunquam Babyloni­am regionem adierunt perquam incredibile visum iri. We may likewise consider that the word [...] doth not necessarily signifie making a Nest, but rather sitting, roosting, covering and resting in the Boughs, according as the same word is used by the Septuagint in other places Dan. 4. 9. Ps. 1. 14. 12. as [Page 30] the Vulgar rendreth it in this, inhabitant, as our Translation, lodgeth, and the Rhe­mish, resteth in the Branches.

24. And it came to pass that on the mor­row The Rod of Aaron. Numb. 17. 8. Moses went into the Tabernacle of wit­ness, and behold the Rod of Aaron for the House of Levi was budded, and brought forth Buds, and bloomed Blossomes, and yielded Almonds. In the contention of the Tribes and decision of priority and primogeniture of Aaron, declared by the Rod, which in a night budded, flowred and brought forth Almonds, you cannot but apprehend a propriety in the Miracle from that species of Tree which leadeth in the Vernal germination of the year, unto all the Classes of Trees; and so ap­prehend how properly in a night and short space of time the Miracle arose, and some­what answerable unto its nature the Flow­ers and Fruit appeared in this precocious Tree, and whose original Name Shacher from Sha­char festi­nus fuit or maturuit. implies such speedy efflorescence, as in its proper nature flowering in February, and shewing its Fruit in March.

This consideration of that Tree maketh the expression in Jeremy more Emphatical, when 'tis said, What seest thou? and he Jer. 1. 11. said, A Rod of an Almond Tree. Then said the Lord unto me, Thou hast well seen, for I will hasten the Word to perform it. [Page 31] I will be quick and forward like the Al­mond Tree, to produce the effects of my word, and hasten to display my judgments upon them.

And we may hereby more easily appre­hend the expression in Ecclesiastes; When Eccles. 12. 5. the Almond Tree shall flourish. That is when the Head, which is the prime part, and first sheweth it self in the world, shall grow white, like the Flowers of the Al­mond Tree, whose Fruit, as Athenaeus de­livereth, was first called [...], or the Head, from some resemblance and cove­ring parts of it.

How properly the priority was confir­med by a Rod or Staff, and why the Rods and Staffs of the Princes were chosen for this decision, Philologists will consider. For these were the badges, signs and cog­nisances of their places, and were a kind of Sceptre in their hands, denoting their su­pereminencies. The Staff of Divinity is ordinarily described in the hands of Gods and Goddesses in old draughts. Trojan and Grecian Princes were not without the like, whereof the Shoulders of Thersites felt from the hands of Ulysses. Achilles in Homer, as by a desperate Oath, swears by his wooden Sceptre, which should ne­ver bud nor bear Leaves again; which seeming the greatest impossibility to him, [Page 32] advanceth the Miracle of Aaron's Rod: And if it could be well made out that Ho­mer had seen the Books of Moses, in that expression of Achilles, he might allude un­to this Miracle.

That power which proposed the expe­riment by Blossomes in the Rod, added also the Fruit of Almonds; the Text not strictly making out the Leaves, and so omitting the middle germination: the Leaves properly coming after the Flowers, and before the Almonds. And therefore if you have well perused Medals, you cannot but observe how in the impress of many Shekels, which pass among us by the name of the Jerusalem Shekels, the Rod of Aaron is improperly laden with many Leaves, whereas that which is shewn under the name of the Samaritan Shekel seems most conformable unto the Text, which descri­beth the Fruit without Leaves.

25. Binding his Foal unto the Vine, and The Vine in Gen. 49. 11. his Asses Colt unto the choice Vine.

That Vines, which are commonly sup­ported, should grow so large and bulky, as to be fit to fasten their Juments, and Beasts of labour unto them, may seem a hard expression unto many: which not­withstanding may easily be admitted, if we consider the account of Pliny, that in many places out of Italy Vines do grow [Page 33] without any stay or support: nor will it be otherwise conceived of lusty Vines, if we call to mind how the same Plin. lib. 14. Authour delivereth, that the Statua of Jupiter was made out of a Vine; and that out of one single Cyprian Vine a Scale or Ladder was made that reached unto the Roof of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus.

26. I was exalted as a Palm Tree in En­gaddi, Rose of Je­richo. Ecclus. 24. 14. and as a Rose Plant in Jericho. That the Rose of Jericho, or that Plant which passeth among us under that deno­mination, was signified in this Text, you are not like to apprehend with some, who also name it the Rose of S. Mary, and deliver, that it openeth the Branches, and Flowers upon the Eve of our Saviour's Nativity: But rather conceive it some pro­per kind of Rose, which thrived and pro­spered in Jericho more than in the neigh­bour Countries. For our Rose of Jericho is a very low and hard Plant, a few in­ches above the ground; one whereof brought from Judaea I have kept by me many years, nothing resembling a Rose Tree, either in Flowers, Branches, Leaves or Gorwth; and so, improper to answer the Emphatical word of exaltation in the Text: growing not onely about Jericho, but other parts of Judaea and Arabia, as Bellonius hath observed: which being a [Page 34] drie and ligneous Plant, is preserved ma­ny years, and though crumpled and furd­led up, yet, if infused in Water, will swell and display its parts.

27. Quasi Terebinthus extendi ramos, Turpentine Tree in Ec­clus. 24. 16. when it is said in the same Chapter, as a Turpentine Tree have I stretched out my Branches: it will not seem strange unto such as have either seen that Tree, or exa­mined its description: For it is a Plant that widely displayeth its Branches: And though in some European Countries it be but of a low and fruticeous growth, yet Pliny Terebin­thus in Ma­cedonia fru­ticat, in Sy­ria, magna est. Lib. 13. Plin. observeth that it is great in Syria, and so allowably, or at least not impro­perly mentioned in the expression of Hosea. 4. 13. Ho­sea according to the Vulgar Translation. Super capita montium sacrificant, &c. sub quercu, populo & terebintho, quoniam bona est umbra ejus. And this diffusion and spreading of its Branches, hath afforded the Proverb of Terebintho stultior, appli­able unto arrogant or boasting persons, who spread and display their own acts, as Erasmus hath observed.

28. It is said in our Translation. Saul Pomegranate in 1 Sam. 14. 2. tarried in the uppermost parts of Gibeah, under a Pomegranate Tree which is in Mi­gron: and the people which were with him were about six hundred men. And when it is said in some Latin Translations, Saul [Page 35] morabatur fixo tentorio sub Malogranato, you will not be ready to take it in the com­mon literal sense, who know that a Pome­granate Tree is but low of growth, and very unfit to pitch a Tent under it; and may rather apprehend it as the name of a place, or the Rock of Rimmon, or Pome­granate; so named from Pomegranates which grew there, and which many think to have been the same place mentioned in Judges 20. 45, 47. Ch. 21. 13. Judges.

29. It is said in the Book of Wisedom, A Green Field in Wisd. 19. 7. Where water stood before, drie land appea­red, and out of the red Sea a way appeared without impediment, and out of the violent streams a green Field; or as the Latin ren­ders it, Campus germinans de profundo: whereby it seems implied that the Israe­lites passed over a green Field at the bot­tom of the Sea: and though most would have this but a Metaphorical expression, yet may it be literally tolerable; and so may be safely apprehended by those that sensibly know what great number of Ve­getables (as the several varieties of Alga's, Sea Lettuce, Phasganium, Conferua, Caulis Marina, Abies, Erica, Tamarice, divers sorts of Muscus, Fucus, Quercus Marina and Corallins) are found at the bottom of the Sea. Since it is also now well known, that the Western Ocean, for many degrees, [Page 36] is covered with Sargasso or Lenticula Ma­rina, and found to arise from the bottom of that Sea; since, upon the coast of Pro­vence by the Isles of Eres, there is a part of the Mediterranean Sea, called la Prery, or the Meadowy Sea, from the bottom thereof so plentifully covered with Plants: since vast heaps of Weeds are found in the Bellies of some Whales taken in the Nor­thern Ocean, and at a great distance from the Shore: And since the providence of Nature hath provided this shelter for mi­nor Fishes; both for their spawn, and safe­ty of their young ones. And this might be more peculiarly allowed to be spoken of the Red Sea, since the Hebrews named it Suph, or the Weedy Sea: and, also, see­ing Theophrastus and Pliny, observing the growth of Vegetables under water, have made their chief illustrations from those in the Red Sea.

30. You will readily discover how Sycamore. widely they are mistaken, who accept the Sycamore mention'd in several parts of Scripture for the Sycamore, or Tree of that denomination, with us: which is pro­perly but one kind or difference of Acer, and bears no Fruit with any resemblance unto a Figg.

But you will rather, thereby, appre­hend the true and genuine Sycamore, or [Page 37] Sycaminus, which is a stranger in our parts. A Tree (according to the description of Theophrastus, Dioscorides and Galen) re­sembling a Mulberry Tree in the Leaf, but in the Fruit a Figg; which it produceth not in the Twiggs but in the Trunck or greater Branches, answerable to the Syca­more of Aegypt, the Aegyptian Figg or Giamez of the Arabians, described by Prosper Alpinus, with a Leaf somewhat broader than a Mulberry, and in its Fruit like a Figg. Insomuch that some have fancied it to have had its first production from a Figg Tree grafted on a Mulber­ry.

It is a Tree common in Judaea, where­of they made frequent use in Buildings; and so understood, it explaineth that ex­pression in Isa. 9. 10. Isaiah: Sycamori excisi sunt, Cedros' substituemus. The Bricks are fallen down, we will build with hewen Stones: The Sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into Cedars.

It is a broad spreading Tree, not onely fit for Walks, Groves and Shade, but al­so affording profit. And therefore it is said that King 1 Chron. 27. 28. David appointed Baalha­nan to be over his Olive Trees and Syca­mores, which were in great plenty; and it is accordingly delivered, 1 King. 10. 27. that Solomon made Cedars to be as the Sycamore Trees [Page 38] that are in the Vale for abundance. That is, he planted many, though they did not come to perfection in his days.

And as it grew plentifully about the Plains, so was the Fruit good for Food; and, as Bellonius and late accounts de­liver, very refreshing unto Travellers in those hot and drie Countries: whereby the expression of Amos 7. 14. Amos becomes more in­telligible, when he said he was an Herds­man, and a gatherer of Sycamore Fruit. And the expression of Psal. [...]8. 47. David also be­comes more Emphatical; He destroyed their Vines with Hail, and their Sycamore Trees with Frost. That is, their Sicmoth in the Original, a word in the sound not far from the Sycamore.

Thus when it is said, Luk. 17. 6. If ye had Faith as a grain of Mustard-seed, ye might say un­to this Sycamine Tree, Be thou plucked up by the roots, and be thou placed in the Sea, and it should obey you: it might be more significantly spoken of this Sycamore; this being, described to be Arbor vasta, a large and well rooted Tree, whose remo­val was more difficult than many others. And so the instance in that Text, is very properly made in the Sycamore Tree, one of the largest and less removable Trees a­mong them. A Tree so lasting and well rooted, that the Sycamore which Zacheus [Page 39] ascended, is still shewn in Judaea unto Travellers; as also the hollow Sycamore at Maturaea in Aegypt, where the blessed Virgin is said to have remained: which though it relisheth of the Legend, yet it plainly declareth what opinion they had of the lasting condition of that Tree, to countenance the Tradition; for which they might not be without some experi­ence, since the learned describer of the D Greaves. Pyramides observeth, that the old Aegyp­tians made Coffins of this Wood, which he found yet fresh and undecayed among di­vers of their Mummies.

And thus, also, when Zacheus climbed up into a Sycamore above any other Tree, this being a large and fair one, it can­not be denied that he made choice of a proper and advantageous Tree to look down upon our Saviour.

31. Whether the expression of our Sa­viour Increase of Seed 100. fold in Matt. 13. 23. in the Parable of the Sower, and the increase of the Seed unto thirty, sixty and a hundred fold, had any reference unto the ages of Believers, and measures of their Faith, as Children, Young and Old Per­sons, as to beginners, well advanced and strongly confirmed Christians, as learned men have hinted; or whether in this pro­gressional assent there were any latent Mysteries, as the mystical Interpreters of [Page 40] Numbers may apprehend, I pretend not to determine.

But, how this multiplication may well be conceived, and in what way apprehen­ded, and that this centessimal increase is not naturally strange, you that are no stranger in Agriculture, old and new, are not like to make great doubt.

That every Grain should produce an Ear affording an hundred Grains, is not like to be their conjecture who behold the growth of Corn in our Fields, wherein a common Grain doth produce far less in number. For Barley consisting but of two Versus or Rows, seldom exceedeth twenty Grains, that is, ten upon each [...], or Row; Rye, of a square figure, is very fruitfull at forty: Wheat, besides the Frit and Uruncus, or imperfect Grains of the small Husks at the top and bottom of the Ear, is fruitfull at ten treble Glumoe or Husks in a Row, each containing but three Grains in breadth, if the middle Grain arriveth at all to perfection; and so maketh up threescore Grains in both sides.

Yet even this centessimal fructification may be admitted in some sorts of Cerea­lia, and Grains from one Ear: if we take in the Triticum centigranum, or fertilissi­mum Plinii, Indian Wheat, and Panicum; [Page 41] which, in every Ear, containeth hundreds of Grains.

But this increase may easily be concei­ved of Grains in their total multiplication, in good and fertile ground, since, if every Grain of Wheat produceth but three Ears, the increase will arise above that number. Nor are we without examples of some grounds which have produced many more Ears, and above this centessimal increase: As Pliny hath left recorded of the Byza­cian Field in Africa. Misit ex eo loco Pro­curator ex uno quadraginta minus germina. Misit & Neroni pariter tercentum quadra­ginta stipulos, ex uno grano. Cum centes­simos quidem Leontini Sicilioe campi fundunt, aliique, & tota Boetica, & imprimis Ae­gyptus. And even in our own Country, from one Grain of Wheat sowed in a Gar­den, I have numbred many more than an hundred.

And though many Grains are common­ly lost which come not to sprouting or earing, yet the same is also verified in measure; as that one Bushel should pro­duce a hundred, as is exemplified by the Corn in Gerar; Gen. 26. 12. Then Isaac sowed in that Land, and received in that year an hundred fold. That is, as the Chaldee explaineth it, a hundred for one, when he measured it. And this Pliny seems to intend, when he [Page 42] saith of the fertile Byzacian Territory be­fore mentioned, Ex uno centeni quinqua­ginta modii redduntur. And may be fa­vourably apprehended of the fertility of some grounds in Poland; wherein, after the account of Gaguinus, from Rye sowed in August, come thirty or forty Ears, and a Man on Horseback can scarce look over it. In the Sabbatical Crop of Judoea, there must be admitted a large increase, and probably not short of this centessimal mul­tiplication: For it supplied part of the sixth year, the whole seventh, and eighth untill the Harvest of that year.

The seven years of plenty in Aegypt must be of high increase; when, by sto­ring up but the fifth part, they supplied the whole Land, and many of their neigh­bours after: for it is said, Gen. 41. 56. the Famine was in all the Land about them. And therefore though the causes of the Dearth in Aegypt be made out from the defect of the overflow of Nilus, according to the Dream of Pharaoh; yet was that no cause of the scarcity in the Land of Canaan, which may rather be ascribed to the want of the former and latter rains, for some succeeding years, if their Famine held time and duration with that of Aegypt; as may be probably gather'd from that expression of Joseph, Gen. 45. 9, 11. Come down unto me [Page 43] [into Aegypt] and tarry not, and there will I nourish you: (for yet there are five years of Famine) lest thou and thy Houshold, and all that thou hast come to poverty.

How they preserved their Corn so long in Aegypt may seem hard unto Northern and moist Climates, except we consider the many ways of preservation practised by antiquity, and also take in that handsome account of Pliny; What Corn soever is laid up in the Ear, it taketh no harm keep it as long as you will; although the best and most assured way to keep Corn is in Caves and Vaults under ground, accor­ding to the practice of Cappadocia and Thracia.

In Aegypt and Mauritania above all things they look to this, that their Gra­naries stand on high ground; and how drie so ever their Floor be, they lay a course of Chaff betwixt it and the ground. Besides, they put up their Corn in Gra­naries and Binns together with the Ear. And Varro delivereth that Wheat laid up in that manner will last fifty years; Mil­let an hundred; and Beans so conserved in a Cave of Ambracia, were known to last an hundred and twenty years; that is, from the time of King Pyrrhus, unto the Pyratick War under the conduct of Pom­pey.

[Page 44] More strange it may seem how, after seven years, the Grains conserved should be fruitfull for a new production. For it is said that Joseph delivered Seed unto the Aegyptians, to sow their Land for the eighth year: and Corn after seven years is like to afford little or no production, accor­ding to Theophrastus; Theoph. Hist. l. 8. Ad Sementem se­men anniculum optimum putatur, binum deterius & trinum; ultra sterile fermè est, quanquam ad usum cibarium idoneum.

Yet since, from former exemplificati­ons, Corn may be made to last so long, the fructifying power may well be con­ceived to last in some good proportion, according to the region and place of its conservation, as the same Theophrastus hath observed, and left a notable example from Cappadocia, where Corn might be kept sixty years, and remain fertile at forty; according to his expression thus translated; In Cappadociae loco quodam petra dicto, tri­ticum ad quadraginta annos foecundum est, & ad sementem percommodum durare proditum est, sexagenos aut septuagenos ad usum ciba­rium servari posse idoneum. The situation of that Conservatory, was, as he delivereth, [...], high, airy and ex­posed to several favourable winds. And upon such consideration of winds and ven­tilation, some conceive the Aegyptian Gra­naries [Page 45] were made open, the Country be­ing free from rain. Howsoever it was, that contrivance could not be without some hazard: Aegypt [...]. Vid. Theo­phrastum. for the great Mists and Dews of that Country might dispose the Corn unto corruption.

More plainly may they mistake, who from some analogy of name (as if Pyramid were derived from [...], Triticum,) con­ceive the Aegyptian Pyramids to have been built for Granaries; or look for any settled Monuments about the Desarts erected for that intention; since their Store-houses were made in the great Towns, according to Scripture expression, Gen. 41. 48. He gathered up all the Food of seven years, which was in the Land of Aegypt, and laid up the Food in the Cities: the Food of the Field which was round about every City, laid he up in the same.

32. For if thou wert cut out of the Olive Olive Tree in Rom. 11. 24. Tree, which is wild by nature, and wert grafted, contrary to nature, into a good O­live Tree, how much more shall these, which be the natural Branches, be grafted into their own Olive Tree? In which place, how answerable to the Doctrine of Hus­bandry this expression of S. Paul is, you will readily apprehend who understand the rules of insition or grafting, and that way of vegetable propagation; wherein that is contrary to nature, or natural rules [Page 46] which Art observeth: viz. to make use of a Cyons more ignoble than the Stock, or to graft wild upon domestick and good Plants, according as De causis Plant. Lib. 1. Cap. 7. Theop [...] [...]ath anciently observed, and, mak [...]g [...]ce in the Olive, hath lest this Do [...] [...]nto us; Urbanum Sylvestribus ut sat [...] [...]tris inserere. Nam si è contrario Sylve [...] in Urbanos severis, ctsi differentia quaedam [...], tamen [...]. bonae frugis Arbor nunquam profe [...] reddetur: which is also agreeable unto our present practice, who graft Pears on Thorns, and Apples upon Crabb Stocks, not using the contrary insition. And when it is said, How much more shall these, which are the natural Branches, be grasted into their own natural Olive Tree? this is also agreeable unto the rule of the same Authour; [...], Insitio melior est similium in similibus: For the nearer consanguinity there is be­tween the Cyons and the Stock, the rea­dier comprehension is made, and the no­bler fructification. According also unto the later caution of Laurenbergius; De horti­cultura. Arbo­res domesticae insitioni destinatae, semper anteponendae Sylvestribus. And though the success be good, and may suffice upon Stocks of the same denomination; yet, to be grafted upon their own and Mother Stock, is the nearest insition: which way, [Page 47] though less practised of old, is now much imbraced, and found a notable way for melioration of the Fruit; and much the rather, if the Tree to be grafted on be a good and generous Plant, a good and fair Olive, as the Apostle seems to imply by a peculiar [...]. Rom 11. 24. word scarce to be found else­where.

It must be also considered, that the Ole­aster, or wild Olive, by cutting, trans­planting and the best managery of Art, can be made but to produce such Olives as (Theophrastus saith) were particularly named Phaulia, that is, but bad Olives; and that it was reckon'd among Prodi­gies, for the Oleaster to become an Olive Tree.

And when insition and grafting, in the Text, is applied unto the Olive Tree, it hath an Emphatical sense, very agreeable unto that Tree which is best propagated this way; not at all by surculation, as Theophrastus observeth, nor well by Seed, as hath been observed. Omne semen simile genus perficit, praeter oleam, Oleastrum enim generat, hoc est sylvestrem oleam, & non oleam veram.

‘If, therefore, thou Roman and Gen­tile Branch, which wert cut from the wild Olive, art now, by the signal mer­cy of God, beyond the ordinary and [Page 48] commonly expected way, grafted into the true Olive, the Church of God; if thou, which neither naturally nor by humane art canst be made to produce any good Fruit, and, next to a Miracle, to be made a true Olive, art now by the benignity of God grafted into the proper Olive; how much more shall the Jew, and natural Branch, be grafted in­to its genuine and mother Tree, where­in propinquity of nature is like, so rea­dily and prosperously, to effect a coali­tion? And this more especially by the expressed way of insition or implantati­on, the Olive being not successfully pro­pagable by Seed, nor at all by surcula­tion.’

33. As for the Stork, the Firre Trees Stork nesting on Firre Trees in Psal. 104. 17. are her House. This expression, in our Translation, which keeps close to the Ori­ginal Chasidah, is somewhat different from the Greek and Latin Translation; nor a­greeable unto common observation, where­by they are known commonly to build upon Chimneys, or the tops of Houses, and high Buildings, which notwithstanding, the common Translation may clearly consist with observation, if we consider that this is commonly affirmed of the black Stork, and take notice of the de­scription of Ornithologus in Aldrovandus, [Page 49] that such Storks are often found in divers parts, and that they do in Arboribus nidu­lari, proesertim in abietibus; Make their Nests on Trees, especially upon Firre Trees. Nor wholly disagreeing unto the practice of the common white Stork, according unto Varro, nidulantur in agris: and the concession of Aldrovandus that sometimes they build on Trees: and the assertion of Bellonius de Avibus. Bellonius, that men dress them Nests, and place Cradles upon high Trees, in Ma­rish regions, that Storks may breed upon them: which course some observe for Herns and Cormorants with us. And this building of Storks upon Trees, may be also answerable unto the original and natural way of building of Storks be­fore the political habitations of men, and the raising of Houses and high Buildings; before they were invited by such conveni­ences and prepared Nests, to relinquish their natural places of nidulation. I say, before or where such advantages are not ready; when Swallows found other places than Chimneys, and Daws found other places than holes in high Fabricks to build in.

34. And, therefore, Israel said carry Balm in Gen▪ 43. 11. down the man a present, a little Balm, a little Honey, and Myrrhe, Nuts and Almonds. Now whether this, which [Page 50] Jacob sent, were the proper Balsam ex­tolled by humane Writers, you cannot but make some doubt, who find the Greek Translation to be [...], that is, Resina, and so may have some suspicion that it might be some pure distillation from the Turpentine Tree, which grows prospe­rously and plentifully in Judaea, and seems so understood by the Arabick; and was indeed esteemed by Theophrastus and Dios­corides, the chiefest of resinous Bodies, and the word Resina Emphatically used for it.

That the Balsam Plant hath grown and prospered in Judaea we believe with­out dispute. For the same is attested by Theophrastus, Pliny, Justinus, and many more; from the commendation that Galen affordeth of the Balsam of Syria, and the story of Cleopatra, that she obtain'd some Plants of Balsam from Herod the Great to transplant into Aegypt. But whether it was so anciently in Judaea as the time of Jacob; nay, whether this Plant was here before the time of Solomon, that great collectour of Vegetable rarities, some doubt may be made from the account of Jose­phus, that the Queen of Sheba, a part of Arabia, among presents unto Solomon, brought some Plants of the Balsam Tree, as one of the peculiar estimables of her Country.

[Page 51] Whether this ever had its natural growth, or were an original native Plant of Judaea, much more that it was peculiar unto that Country, a greater doubt may arise: while we reade in Pausanias, Strabo and Diodorus, that it grows also in Arabia, and find in Theo­phrast. l. 9. c. 6. Theophrastus, that it grew in two Gardens about Jericho in Judaea. And more especially whiles we seriously consider that notable discourse between Abdella, Abdachim and Alpinus, conclu­ding the natural and original place of this singular Plant to be in Arabia, about Me­cha and Medina, where it still plentifully groweth, and Mountains abound therein. From whence it hath been carefully trans­planted by the Basha's of Grand Cairo, into the Garden of Matarea; where, when it dies, it is repaired again from those parts of Arabia, from whence the Grand Signi­or yearly receiveth a present of Balsam from the Xeriff of Mecha, still called by the Arabians Balessan; whence they be­lieve arose the Greek appellation Balsam. And since these Balsam-plants are not now to be found in Judaea, and though purposely cultivated, are often lost in Ju­daea, but everlastingly live, and naturally renew in Arabia; They probably conclu­ded, that those of Judaea were foreign and transplanted from these parts.

[Page 52] All which notwithstanding, since the same Plant may grow naturally and spon­taneously in several Countries, and either from inward or outward causes be lost in one Region, while it continueth and sub­sisteth in another, the Balsam Tree might possibly be a native of Judaea as well as of Arabia; which because de facto it cannot be clearly made out, the ancient expressi­ons of Scripture become doubtfull in this point. But since this Plant hath not, for a long time, grown in Judaea, and still plentifully prospers in Arabia, that which now comes in pretious parcels to us, and still is called the Balsam of Judaea, may now surrender its name, and more properly be called the Balsam of Arabia.

35. And the Flax and the Barley was Barley, Flax, &c. in Exod. 9. 31. smitten; for the Barley was in the Ear, and the Flax was bolled, but the Wheat and the Rye was not smitten, for they were not grown up. Linum sol­liculos ger­minavit, [...], Septuag. Serotina, Lat. [...], Gr. How the Barley and the Flax should be smitten in the plague of Hail in Aegypt, and the Wheat and Rye escape, be­cause they were not yet grown up, may seem strange unto English observers, who call Barley Summer Corn sown so many months after Wheat, and, beside hordeum Polystichon, or big Barley, sowe not Barley in the Winter, to anticipate the growth of Wheat.

[Page 53] And the same may also seem a prepo­sterous expression unto all who do not consider the various Agriculture, and dif­ferent Husbandry of Nations, and such as was practised in Aegypt, and fairly proved to have been also used in Judaea, wherein their Barley Harvest was before that of Wheat; as is confirmable from that ex­pression in Ruth, that she came into Beth­lehem at the beginning of Barley Harvest, and staid unto the end of Wheat Harvest; from the death of Manasses the Father of Judith, Emphatically expressed to have happened in the Wheat Harvest, and more advanced heat of the Sun; and from the custom of the Jews, to offer the Barley Sheaf of the first fruits in March, and a Cake of Wheat Flower but at the end of Pentecost. Consonant unto the practice of the Aegyptians, who (as Theophrastus delivereth) sowed their Barley early in reference to their first Fruits; and also the common rural practice, recorded by the same Authour, Maturè seritur Triticum, Hordeum, quod etiam maturius seritur; Wheat and Barley are sowed early, but Barley earlier of the two.

Flax was also an early Plant, as may be illustrated from the neighbour Country of Canaan. For the Israelites kept the Passe­over in Gilgal in the fourteenth day of the [Page 54] first Month, answering unto part of our March, having newly passed Jordan: And the Spies which were sent from Shittim unto Jericho, not many days before, were hid by Rahab under the stalks of Flax, which lay drying on the top of her House; which sheweth that the Flax was alrea­dy and newly gathered. For this was the first preparation of Flax, and before fluvi­ation or rotting, which, after Pliny's ac­count, was after Wheat Harvest.

But the Wheat and the Rye were not smitten, for they were not grown up. The Original signifies that it was hidden, or dark, the Vulgar and Septuagint that it was serotinous or late, and our old Trans­lation that it was late sown. And so the expression and interposition of Moses, who well understood the Husbandry of Aegypt, might Emphatically declare the state of Wheat and Rye in that particular year; and if so, the same is solvable from the time of the floud of Nilus, and the mea­sure of its inundation. For if it were very high, and over-drenching the ground, they were forced to later Seed-time; and so the Wheat and the Rye escaped; for they were more slowly growing Grains, and, by rea­son of the greater inundation of the Ri­ver, were sown later than ordinary that year, especially in the Plains near the [Page 55] River, where the ground drieth latest.

Some think the plagues of Aegypt were acted in one Month, others but in the compass of twelve. In the delivery of Scripture there is no account, of what time of the year or particular Month they fell out; but the account of these Grains, which were either smitten or escaped, make the plague of Hail to have probably hapned in February: This may be col­lected from the new and old account of the Seed time and Harvest in Aegypt. For, according to the account of Radzevil's Travels. Radzevil, the River rising in June, and the Banks being cut in September, they sow about S. Andrews, when the Floud is retired, and the moderate driness of the ground per­mitteth. So that the Barley anticipating the Wheat, either in time of sowing or growing, might be in Ear in February.

The account of Plin. lib. 18. cap. 18. Pliny is little diffe­rent. They cast the Seed upon the Slime and Mudd when the River is down, which commonly happeneth in the begin­ning of November. They begin to reap and cut down a little before the Calends of April, about the middle of March, and in the Month of May their Harvest is in. So that Barley anticipating Wheat, it might be in Ear in February, and Wheat not yet grown up, at least to the Spindle [Page 56] or Ear, to be destroyed by the Hail. For they cut down about the middle of March, at least their forward Corns, and in the Month of May all sorts of Corns were in.

The turning of the River into Bloud shews in what Month this happened not. That is, not when the River had over­flown; for it is said, the Aegyptians dig­ged round about the River for Water to drink, which they could not have done, if the River had been out, and the Fields under Water.

In the same Text you cannot, without some hesitation, pass over the translation of Rye, which the Original nameth Cas­sumeth, the Greek rendreth Olyra, the French and Dutch Spelta, the Latin Zea, and not Secale the known word for Rye. But this common Rye so well understood at present, was not distinctly described, or not well known from early Antiquity. And therefore, in this uncertainty, some have thought it to have been the Typha of the Ancients. Cordus will have it to be Olyra, and Ruellius some kind of Oryza. But having no vulgar and well known name for those Grains, we warily embrace an appellation of near affinity, and tolera­bly render it Rye.

While Flax, Barley, Wheat and Rye are named, some may wonder why no men­tion [Page 57] is made of Ryce, wherewith, at pre­sent, Aegypt so much aboundeth. But whether that Plant grew so early in that Country, some doubt may be made: for Ryce is originally a Grain of India, and might not then be transplanted into Ae­gypt.

36. Let them become as the Grass grow­ing Sheaves of Grass, in Psal. 12. 6, 7. upon the House top, which withereth before it be plucked up, whereof the mow­er filleth not his hand, nor he that bindeth Sheaves his bosome. Though the filling of the hand, and mention of Sheaves of Hay, may seem strange unto us, who use neither handfulls nor Sheaves in that kind of Hus­bandry, yet may it be properly taken, and you are not like to doubt thereof, who may find the like expressions in the Authours de Re rustica, concerning the old way of this Husbandry.

Columella lib. 2. cap. 22. Columella, delivering what Works were not to be permitted upon the Ro­man Feriae, or Festivals, among others sets down, that upon such days, it was not lawfull to carry or bind up Hay, nec foenum vincire nec vehere, per religiones Pontificum licet.

Marcus Varro lib. 1. cap. 49. Varro is more particular; Primum de pratis herbarum cum crescere desiit, subsecari falcibus debet, & quoad peracescat furcillis versari, cum peracuit, [Page 58] de his manipulos fieri & vehi in villam.

And their course of mowing seems somewhat different from ours. For they cut not down clear at once, but used an after section, which they peculiarly called Sicilitium, according as the word is ex­pounded by Georgius Alexandrinus, and Beroaldus after Pliny; Sicilire est falcibus consectari quae foenisecae praeterierunt, aut ea secare quae foenisecae praeterierunt.

37. When 'tis said that Elias lay and Juniper Tree, in 1 King. 19. 5, &c. slept under a Juniper Tree, some may wonder how that Tree, which in our parts groweth but low and shrubby, should af­ford him shade and covering. But others know that there is a lesser and a larger kind of that Vegetable; that it makes a Tree in its proper soil and region. And may find in Pliny that in the Temple of Diana Saguntina in Spain, the Rafters were made of Juniper.

In that expression of Psal. 120. 4. David, Sharp Arrows of the mighty, with Coals of Ju­niper; Though Juniper be left out in the last Translation, yet may there be an Em­phatical sense from that word; since Ju­niper abounds with a piercing Oil, and makes a smart Fire. And the rather, if that quality be half true, which Pliny af­firmeth, that the Coals of Juniper raked up will keep a glowing Fire for the space [Page 59] of a year. For so the expression will Em­phatically imply, not onely the smart bur­ning, but the lasting fire of their malice.

That passage of Job 30. 3, 4. Job, wherein he com­plains that poor and half famished fellows despised him, is of greater difficulty; For want and famine they were solitary, they cut up Mallows by the Bushes, and Juniper roots for meat. Wherein we might at first doubt the Translation, not onely from the Greek Text but the assertion of Dioscori­des, who affirmeth that the roots of Ju­niper are of a venomous quality. But Scaliger hath disproved the same from the practice of the African Physicians, who use the decoction of Juniper roots against the Venereal Disease. The Chaldee reads it Genista, or some kind of Broom, which will be also unusual and hard Diet, ex­cept thereby we understand the Orobanche, or Broom Rape, which groweth from the roots of Broom; and which, according to Dioscorides, men used to eat raw or boi­led in the manner of Asparagus.

And, therefore, this expression doth high­ly declare the misery, poverty and extre­mity of the persons who were now moc­kers of him; they being so contemptible and necessitous, that they were fain to be content, not with a mean Diet, but such as was no Diet at all, the roots of Trees, [Page 60] the roots of Juniper, which none would make use of for Food, but in the lowest necessity, and some degree of samishing.

38. While some have disputed whether Scarlet Tinc­ture, in Gen. 38. 28. Exod. 25. 4, &c. Theophrastus knew the Scarlet Berry, o­thers may doubt whether that noble tinc­ture were known unto the Hebrews, which notwithstanding seems clear from the early and iterated expressions of Scrip­ture concerning the Scarlet Tincture, and is the less to be doubted because the Scar­let Berry grew plentifully in the Land of Canaan, and so they were furnished with the Materials of that Colour. For though Dioscorides saith it groweth in Armenia and Cappadocia, yet that it also grew in Judaea, seems more than probable from the account of Bellonius, who observed it to be so plentifull in that Country, that it afforded a profitable Commodity, and great quantity thereof was transported by the Venetian Merchants.

How this should be fitly expressed by the word Tolagnoth, Vermis, or Worm, may be made out from Pliny, who calls it Coccus Scolecius, or the Wormy Berry; as also from the name of that Colour cal­led Vermilion; or the Worm Colour; and which is also answerable unto the true nature of it. For this is no proper Berry containing the fructifying part, but a kind [Page 61] of Vessicular excrescence, adhering com­monly to the Leaf of the Ilex Coccigera, or dwarf and small kind of Oak, whose Leaves are always green, and its proper seminal parts Acrons. This little Bagg containeth a red Pulp, which, if not time­ly gathered, or left to it self, produceth small red Flies, and partly a red powder, both serviceable unto the tincture. And therefore, to prevent the generation of Flies, when it is first gathered, they sprinkle it over with Vinegar, especially such as make use of the fresh Pulp for the confection of Alkermes; which still retai­neth the Arabick name, from the Kermes­berry; which is agreeable unto the de­scription of Bellonius and Quinqueranus. And the same we have beheld in Provence and Languedock, where it is plentifully gathered, and called Manna Rusticorum, from the considerable profit which the Peasants make by gathering of it.

39. Mention is made of Oaks in divers Oaks, in Gen. 35. 4, 8. Josh. 24. 26. Isa. 1. 29. Ezek. 27. 6. Hosea. 4. 13, &c. parts of Scripture, which though the La­tin sometimes renders a Turpentine Tree, yet surely some kind of Oak may be un­derstood thereby; but whether our com­mon Oak as is commonly apprehended, you may well doubt; for the common Oak, which prospereth so well with us, deligh­teth not in hot regions. And that diligent [Page 62] Botanist Bellonius, who took such parti­cular notice of the Plants of Syria and Judaea, observed not the vulgar Oak in those parts. But he found the Ilex, Che­sue Verde, or Ever-green Oak, in many places; as also that kind of Oak which is properly named Esculus: and he makes mention thereof in places about Jerusalem, and in his Journey from thence unto Da­mascus, where he found Montes Ilice, & Esculo virentes; which, in his Discourse of Lemnos, he saith are always green. And therefore when it is said 2 Sam. 18. 9, 14. of Absalom, that his Mule went under the thick Boughs of a great Oak, and his Head caught hold of the Oak, and he was taken up between the Heaven and the Earth, that Oak might be some Ilex, or rather Esculus. For that is a thick and busshy kind, in Orbem co­mosa, as Dale-champius; ramis in orbem dispositis comans, as Renealmus describeth it. And when it is said 2 King. 18. 4. that Ezechias broke down the Images, and cut down the Groves, they might much consist of Oaks, which were sacred unto Pagan Deities, as this more particularly, according to that of Virgil,

[Page 63] And, in Judaea, where no Hogs were ea­ten by the Jews, and few kept by others, 'tis not unlikely that they most cheri­shed the Esculus, which might serve for Food of men. For the Acrons thereof are the sweetest of any Oak, and taste like Chesnuts; and so, producing an edulious or esculent Fruit, is properly named Esculus.

They which know the Ilex, or Ever-green Oak, with somewhat prickled Leaves, named [...], will better under­stand the irreconcileable answer of the two Elders, when the one accused Susan­na of incontinency under a [...], or E­ver-green Oak, the other under a [...], Lentiscus, or Mastick Tree, which are so different in Bigness, Boughs, Leaves and Fruit, the one bearing Acrons, the other Berries: And, without the knowledge hereof, will not Emphatically or distinctly understand that of the Poet,

40. When we often meet with the Ce­dars Cedars of Libanus. of Libanus, that expression may be used not onely because they grew in a known and neighbour Country, but also because they were of the noblest and lar­gest kind of that Vegetable; And we find the Phoenician Cedar magnified by the [Page 64] Ancients. The Cedar of Libanus is a co­niferous Tree, bearing Cones or Cloggs; (not Berries) of such a vastness, that Mel­chior Lussy, a great Traveller, found one upon Libanus as big as seven men could compass. Some are now so curious as to keep the Branches and Cones thereof among their rare Collections. And, though much Cedar Wood be now brought from Ameri­ca, yet 'tis time to take notice of the true Cedar of Libanus, imployed in the Tem­ple of Solomon; for they have been much destroyed and neglected, and become at last but thin. Bellonius could reckon but twenty eight, Rowolfius and Radzevil but twenty four, and Bidulphus the same number. And a later account of A Journey to Jerusalem, 1672. some English Travellers saith, that they are now but in one place, and in a small compass, in Libanus.

Quando ingressi fueritis terram, & Plan­taveritis Uncircumci sed Fruit, in Levit. 19. 23. in illa ligna Pomifera, auferetis praeputia eorum. Poma quae germinant im­munda erunt vobis, nec edetis ex eis. Quar­to autem anno, omnis fructus eorum sanctifi­cabitur, laudabilis Domino. Quinto autem anno comedetis fructus. By this Law they were injoyned not to eat of the Fruits of the Trees which they planted for the first three years: and, as the Vulgar expresseth it, to take away the Prepuces, from such [Page 65] Trees, during that time; the Fruits of the fourth year being holy unto the Lord, and those of the fifth allowable unto others. Now if auferre praeputia be taken, as ma­ny learned men have thought, to pluck away the bearing Buds, before they pro­ceed unto Flowers or Fruit, you will rea­dily apprehend the Metaphor, from the analogy and similitude of those Sprouts and Buds, which, shutting up the fruitfull particle, resembleth the preputial part.

And you may also find herein a piece of Husbandry not mentioned in Theophra­stus, or Columella. For by taking away of the Buds, and hindering fructification, the Trees become more vigorous, both in growth and future production. By such a way King Pyrrhus got into a lusty race of Beeves, and such as were desired over all Greece, by keeping them from Gene­ration untill the ninth year.

And you may also discover a physical advantage of the goodness of the Fruit, which becometh less crude and more wholsome, upon the fourth or fifth years production.

41. While you reade in Theophrastus, Partition of Plants into Herb and Tree, in Gen. 1. 11. or modern Herbalists, a strict division of Plants, into Arbor, Frutex, Suffrutex & Herba, you cannot but take notice of the Scriptural division at the Creation, into [Page 66] Tree and Herb: and this may seem too narrow to comprehend the Classis of Ve­getables; which, notwithstanding, may be sufficient, and a plain and intelligible division thereof. And therefore in this difficulty concerning the division of Plants, the learned Botanist, Caesalpinus, thus con­cludeth, Clarius agemus si alterâ divisione neglectâ, duo tantùm Plantarum genera sub­stituamus, Arborem scilicet, & Herbam, conjungentes cum Arboribus Frutices, & cum Herba Suffrutices; Frutices being the lesser Trees, and Suffrutices the larger, har­der and more solid Herbs.

And this division into Herb and Tree, may also suffice, if we take in that natu­ral ground of the division of perfect Plants, and such as grow from Seeds. For Plants, in their first production, do send forth two Leaves adjoining to the Seed; and then afterwards, do either produce two other Leaves, and so successively before any Stalk; and such go under the name of [...], or Herb; or else, after the first Leaves succeeding to the Seed Leaves, they send forth a Stalk, or rudiment of a Stalk before any other Leaves, and such fall under the Classis of [...], or Tree. So that, in this natural division, there are but two grand differences, that is, Tree and Herb. The Frutex and Suffrutex have [Page 67] the way of production from the Seed, and in other respects the Suffrutices, or Cremia, have a middle and participating nature, and referable unto Herbs.

42. I have seen the ungodly in great The Bay Tree, in Psal. 37. 35. power, and flourishing like a green Bay Tree. Both Scripture and humane Writers draw frequent illustrations from Plants. Scribo­nius Largus illustrates the old Cymbals from the Cotyledon Palustris, or Umbeli­cus Veneris. Who would expect to find Aaron's Mitre in any Plant? yet Josephus hath taken some pains to make out the same in the seminal knop of Hyoscyamus, or Henbane. The Scripture compares the Figure of Manna unto the Seed of Corian­der. In Jer. 10. 5. Jeremy we find the expression, Streight as a Palm Tree: And here the wicked in their flourishing state are like­ned unto a Bay Tree. Which, sufficient­ly answering the sense of the Text, we are unwilling to exclude that noble Plant from the honour of having its name in Scripture. Yet we cannot but observe, that the Septuagint renders it Cedars, and the Vulgar accordingly, Vidi impium su­perexaltatum, & elevatum sicut Cedros Li­bani; and the Translation of Tremelius mentions neither Bay nor Cedar; Sese ex­plicantem tanquam Arbor indigena virens; which seems to have been followed by the [Page 68] last Low Dutch Translation. A private Translation renders it like a green self­growing Ainsworth. Laurel. The High Dutch of Luther's Bible, retains the word Laurel; and so doth the old Saxon and Island Translation; so also the French, Spanish; and Italian of Diodati: yet his Notes ac­knowledge that some think it rather a Cedar, and others any large Tree in a prospering and natural Soil.

But however these Translations differ, the sense is allowable and obvious unto ap­prehension: when no particular Plant is named, any proper to the sense may be supposed; where either Cedar or Laurel is mentioned, if the preceding words [exalted and elevated] be used, they are more appliable unto the Cedar; where the word [flourishing] is used, it is more agreeable unto the Laurel, which, in its prosperity, abounds with pleasant Flowers, whereas those of the Cedar are very little, and scarce perceptible, answerable to the Firre, Pine and other coniferous Trees.

43. And in the morning, when they were The Figg Tree, in S. Mark. 11. 13, &c. come from Bethany, he was hungry; and seeing a Figg Tree afar off having Leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon; and when he came to it, he found nothing but Leaves: for the time of Figgs was not yet. Singular conceptions have [Page 69] passed from learned men to make out this passage of S. Mark, which Matt. 21. 19. S. Matthew so plainly delivereth; most men doubting why our Saviour should curse the Tree for bearing no Fruit, when the time of Fruit was not yet come; or why it is said that the time of Figgs was not yet, when, notwithstanding, Figgs might be found at that season.

Heinsius in Nonnum. Heinsius, who thinks that Elias must salve the doubt, according to the received Reading of the Text, undertaketh to vary the same, reading [...], that is, for where he was, it was the season or time for Figgs.

A learned D. Ham­mond. Interpreter of our own, without alteration of accents or words, endeavours to salve all, by another inter­pretation of the same, [...], For it was not a good or seasonable year for Figgs.

But, because men part not easily with old beliefs, or the received construction of words, we shall briefly set down what may be alledged for it.

And, first, for the better comprehensi­on of all deductions hereupon, we may consider the several differences and distinc­tions both of Figg Trees and their Fruits. Suidas upon the word [...] makes four divisions of Figgs, [...] [Page 70] and [...]. But because [...] makes no considerable distinction, learned men do chiefly insist upon the three others; that is, [...], or Grossus, which are the Buttons, or small sort of Figgs, either not ripe, or not ordinarily proceeding to ripe­ness, but fall away at least in the greatest part, and especially in sharp Winters; which are also named [...], and distin­guished from the Fruit of the wild Figg, or Caprificus, which is named [...], and never cometh unto ripeness. The second is called [...], or Ficus, which common­ly proceedeth unto ripeness in its due sea­son. A third the ripe Figg dried, which maketh the [...], or Carrier.

Of Figg Trees there are also many divi­sions; For some are prodromi, or precoci­ous, which bear Fruit very early, whether they bear once, or oftner in the year; some are protericae, which are the most early of the precocious Trees, and bear soonest of any; some are aestivae, which bear in the common season of the Sum­mer, and some serotinae which bear very late.

Some are biferous and triferous, which bear twice or thrice in the year, and some are of the ordinary standing course, which make up the expected season of Figgs.

[Page 71] Again some Figg Trees, either in their proper kind, or fertility in some single ones, do bear Fruit or rudiments of Fruit all the year long; as is annually observa­ble in some kind of Figg Trees in hot and proper regions; and may also be observed in some Figg Trees of more temperate Countries, in years of no great disadvan­tage, wherein, when the Summer-ripe Figg is past, others begin to appear, and so, standing in Buttons all the Winter, do either fall away before the Spring, or else proceed to ripeness.

Now, according to these distinctions, we may measure the intent of the Text, and endeavour to make out the expression. For, considering the diversity of these Trees, and their several fructifications, probable or possible it is, that some there­of were implied, and may literally afford a solution.

And first, though it was not the season for Figgs, yet some Fruit might have been expected, even in ordinary bearing Trees. For the Grossi or Buttons appear before the Leaves, especially before the Leaves are well grown. Some might have stood du­ring the Winter, and by this time been of some growth: Though many fall off, yet some might remain on, and proceed to­wards maturity. And we find that good [Page 72] Husbands had an art to make them hold on, as is delivered by Theophrastus.

The [...] or common Summer Figg was not expected; for that is placed by Galen among the Fructus Horarii, or Horaei, which ripen in that part of Summer, cal­led [...], and stands commended by him above other Fruits of that season. And of this kind might be the Figgs which were brought unto Cleopatra in a Basket toge­ther with an Asp, according to the time of her death on the nineteenth of August. And that our Saviour expected not such Figgs, but some other kind, seems to be implied in the indefinite expression, if hap­ly he might find any thing thereon; which in that Country, and the variety of such Trees, might not be despaired of, at this season, and very probably hoped for in the first precocious and early bearing Trees. And that there were precocious and early bearing Trees in Judaea, may be illustra­ted from some expressions in Scripture concerning precocious Figgs; Jer. 24. 2. Calathus unus habebat Ficus bonas nimis, sicut solent esse Ficus primi temporis; One Basket had very good Figgs, even like the Figgs that are first ripe. And the like might be more especially expected in this place, if this remarkable Tree be rightly placed in some Mapps of Jerusalem; for it is placed, by [Page 73] Adrichomius, in or near Bethphage, which some conjectures will have to be the House of Figgs: and at this place Figg Trees are still to be found, if we consult the Tra­vels of Bidulphus.

Again, in this great variety of Figg Trees, as precocious, proterical, biferous, triferous, and always bearing Trees, some­thing might have been expected, though the time of common Figgs was not yet. For some Trees bear in a manner all the year; as may be illustrated from the Epi­stle of the Emperour Julian, concerning his Present of Damascus Figgs, which he commendeth from their successive and con­tinued growing and bearing, after the man­ner of the Fruits which Homer describeth in the Garden of Alcinous. And though it were then but about the eleventh of March, yet, in the Latitude of Jerusalem, the Sun at that time hath a good power in the day, and might advance the matu­rity of precocious often-bearing or ever­bearing Figgs. And therefore when it is said S. Mark 14. 67. S. Luke 22. 55, 56. that S. Peter stood and warmed him­self by the Fire in the Judgment Hall, and the reason is added [S. John 18. 18. for it was cold] that expression might be interposed either to denote the coolness in the Morning, according to hot Countries, or some ex­traordinary and unusual coldness, which [Page 74] happened at that time. For the same Bi­dulphus, who was at that time of the year at Jerusalem, saith, that it was then as hot as at Midsummer in England: and we find in Scripture, that the first Sheaf of Barley was offer'd in March.

Our Saviour therefore, seeing a Figg Tree with Leaves well spread, and so as to be distinguished a far off, went unto it, and when he came, found nothing but Leaves; he found it to be no precocious, or always-bearing Tree: And though it were not the time for Summer Figgs, yet he found no rudiments thereof; and though he expected not common Figgs, yet something might happily have been expected of some other kind, according to different fertility, and variety of pro­duction; but, discovering nothing, he found a Tree answering the State of the Jewish Rulers, barren unto all expecta­tion.

And this is consonant unto the mystery of the Story, wherein the Figg Tree de­noteth the Synagogue and Rulers of the Jews, whom God having peculiarly cul­tivated, singularly blessed and cherished, he expected from them no ordinary, slow, or customary fructification, but an earli­ness in good Works, a precocious or con­tinued fructification, and was not content [Page 75] with common after-bearing; and might justly have expostulated with the Jews, as God by the Prophet Micah 7. 1. Micah did with their Forefathers; Praecoquas Ficus desideravit Anima mea, My Soul longed for, (or desi­red) early ripe Fruits, but ye are become as a Vine already gathered, and there is no cluster upon you.

Lastly, In this account of the Figg Tree, the mystery and symbolical sense is chief­ly to be looked upon. Our Saviour, there­fore, taking a hint from his hunger to go unto this specious Tree, and intending, by this Tree, to declare a Judgment upon the Synagogue and people of the Jews, he came unto the Tree, and, after the usual manner, inquired, and looked about for some kind of Fruit, as he had done before in the Jews, but found nothing but Leaves and specious outsides, as he had also found in them; and when it bore no Fruit like them, when he expected it, and came to look for it, though it were not the time of ordinary Fruit, yet failing when he re­quired it, in the mysterious sense, 'twas fruitless longer to expect it. For he had come unto them, and they were nothing fructified by it, his departure approached, and his time of preaching was now at an end.

[Page 76] Now, in this account, besides the Mi­racle, some things are naturally conside­rable. For it may be question'd how the Figg Tree, naturally a fruitfull Plant, be­came barren, for it had no shew or so much as rudiment of Fruit: And it was, in old time, a signal Judgment of God, that the Figg Tree should bear no Fruit: and therefore this Tree may naturally be conceived to have been under some Dis­ease indisposing it to such fructification. And this, in the Pathology of Plants, may be the Disease of [...], or superfoliation mention'd by Theophra­stus; whereby the fructifying Juice is star­ved by the excess of Leaves; which in this Tree were already so full spread, that it might be known and distinguished a far off. And this was, also, a sharp resem­blance of the hypocrisie of the Rulers, made up of specious outsides, and fruitless ostentation, contrary to the Fruit of the Figg Tree, which, filled with a sweet and pleasant pulp, makes no shew without, not so much as of any Flower.

Some naturals are also considerable from the propriety of this punishment settled upon a Figg Tree: For infertility and bar­renness seems more intolerable in this Tree than any, as being a Vegetable sin­gularly constituted for production; so far [Page 77] from bearing no Fruit that it may be made to bear almost any. And therefore the Ancients singled out this as the fittest Tree whereon to graft and propagate other Fruits, as containing a plentifull and live­ly Sap, whereby other Cyons would pro­sper: And, therefore, this Tree was also sacred unto the Deity of Fertility: and the Statua of Priapus was made of the Figg Tree.

It hath also a peculiar advantage to pro­duce and maintain its Fruit above all other Plants, as not subject to miscarry in Flow­ers and Blossomes, from accidents of Wind and Weather. For it beareth no Flowers outwardly, and such as it hath, are within the Coat, as the later examination of Na­turalists hath discovered.

Lastly, It was a Tree wholly constitu­ted for Fruit, wherein if it faileth, it is in a manner useless, the Wood thereof being of so little use, that it affordeth proverbial expressions,

for things of no validity.

[Page 78] 44. I said I will go up into the Palm The Palm Tree, in Cant. 7. 8. Tree, and take hold of the Boughs thereof. This expression is more agreeable unto the Palm than is commonly apprehended, for that it is a tall bare Tree bearing its Boughs but at the top and upper part; so that it must be ascended before its Boughs or Fruit can be attained: And the going, get­ting or climbing up, may be Emphatical in this Tree; for the Trunk or Body there­of is naturally contrived for ascension, and made with advantage for getting up, as having many welts and eminencies, and so as it were a natural Ladder, and Staves, by which it may be climbed, as Plin. 13. cap. 4. Pliny ob­serveth, Palmae teretes atque proceres, den­sis quadratisque pollicibus faciles se ad scan­dendum praebent, by this way men are able to get up into it. And the Figures of Indians thus climbing the same are gra­phically described in the Travels of Lin­schoten. This Tree is often mentioned in Scripture, and was so remarkable in Ju­daea, that in after-times it became the Emblem of that Country, as may be seen in that Medal of the Emperour Titus, with a Captive Woman sitting under a Palm, and the Inscription of Judaea Capta. And Pliny confirmeth the same when he saith, Judaea Palmis inclyta.

[Page 79] 45. Many things are mention'd in Scrip­ture, Lilies, in Cant. 2. 1, 2, 16. which have an Emphasis from this or the neighbour Countries: For besides the Cedars, the Syrian Lilies are taken notice of by Writers. That expression in the Canticles, Cant. 4. 1. Thou art fair, thou art fair, thou hast Doves eyes, receives a particular character, if we look not upon our com­mon Pigeons, but the beauteous and fine ey'd Doves of Syria.

When the Rump is so strictly taken notice of in the Sacrifice of the Peace Offering, in these words, Levit. 3. 9. The whole Rump, it shall be taken off hard by the Back-bone, it becomes the more conside­rable in reference to this Country, where Sheep had so large Tails; which, accor­ding to Aristot. Hist. Animal. lib. 8. Aristotle, were a Cubit broad; and so they are still, as Bellonius hath de­livered.

When 'tis said in the Canticles, Cant. 4. 2. Thy Teeth are as a Flock of Sheep, which go up from the washing, whereof every one beareth Twins, and there is not one barren among them; it may seem hard unto us of these parts to find whole Flocks bearing Twins, and not one barren among them; yet may this be better conceived in the fertile Flocks of those Countries, where Sheep have so often two, sometimes three, and sometimes four, and which is so frequent­ly [Page 80] observed by Writers of the neighbour Country of Aegypt. And this secundity, and fruitsulness of their Flocks, is answe­rable unto the expression of the Psalmist, Psal. 144. 13. That our Sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our Streets. And hereby, besides what was spent at their Tables, a good supply was made for the great consumption of Sheep in their seve­ral kinds of Sacrifices; and of so ma­ny thousand Male unblemished yearling Lambs, which were required at their Passeovers.

Nor need we wonder to find so frequent mention both of Garden and Field Plants; since Syria was notable of old for this cu­riosity and variety, according to Pliny, Sy­ria hortis operosissima; and since Bellonius hath so lately observed of Jerusalem, that its hilly parts did so abound with Plants, that they might be compared unto Mount Ida in Crete or Candia; which is the most noted place for noble Simples yet known.

46. Though so many Plants have their Trees and Herbs not expresly nam'd in Scripture. express Names in Scripture, yet others are implied in some Texts which are not explicitly mention'd. In the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths, the Law was this, Levit. 23. 40. Thou shalt take unto thee Boughs of good­ly Trees, Branches of the Palm, and the [Page 81] Boughs of thick Trees, and Willows of the Brook. Now though the Text descendeth not unto particulars of the goodly Trees, and thick Trees; yet Maimonides will tell us that for a goodly Tree they made use of the Citron Tree, which is fair and goodly to the eye, and well prospering in that Coun­try: And that for the thick Trees they used the Myrtle, which was no rare or in­frequent Plant among them. And though it groweth but low in our Gardens, was not a little Tree in those parts; in which Plant also the Leaves grew thick, and al­most covered the Stalk. And Curtius Curtius de Hortis. Symphorianus in his description of the Exotick Myrtle, makes it, Folio densissimo senis in ordinem versibus. The Paschal Lamb was to be eaten with bitterness or bitter Herbs, not particularly set down in Scripture: but the Jewish Writers declare, that they made use of Succory, and wild Lettuce, which Herbs while some con­ceive they could not get down, as being very bitter, rough and prickly, they may consider that the time of the Passeover was in the Spring, when these Herbs are young and tender, and consequently less unplea­sant: besides, according to the Jewish cu­stom, these Herbs were dipped in the Cha­roseth or Sawce made of Raisins stamped with Vinegar, and were also eaten with [Page 82] Bread; and they had four Cups of Wine allowed unto them; and it was sufficient to take but a pittance of Herbs, or the quantity of an Olive.

47. Though the famous paper Reed of Reeds in Scripture. Aegypt, be onely particularly named in Scripture; yet when Reeds are so often mention'd, without special name or di­stinction, we may conceive their differen­ces may be comprehended, and that they were not all of one kind, or that the com­mon Reed was onely implied. For men­tion is made in Ezek 40. 5. Ezekiel of a measuring Reed of six Cubits: we find that they smote our Saviour on the Head with a S. Matt. 27. 30, 48. Reed, and put a Sponge with Vinegar on a Reed, which was long enough to reach to his mouth, while he was upon the Cross; And with such differences of Reeds, Val­latory, Sagittary, Scriptory, and others, they might be furnished in Judaea: For we find in the portion of Josh. 16. 17. Ephraim, Vallis arundineti; and so set down in the Mapps of Adricomius, and in our Translation the River Kana, or Brook of Canes. And Bel­lonius tells us that the River Jordan affor­deth plenty and variety of Reeds; out of some whereof the Arabs make Darts, and light Lances, and out of others, Ar­rows; and withall that there plentifully groweth the fine Calamus, arundo Scrip­toria, [Page 83] or writing Reed, which they gather with the greatest care, as being of singu­lar use and commodity at home and a­broad; a hard Reed about the compass of a Goose or Swans Quill, whereof I have seen some polished and cut with a Webb; which is in common use for writing throughout the Turkish Dominions, they using not the Quills of Birds.

And whereas the same Authour with other describers of these parts affirmeth, that the River Jordan, not far from Jeri­co, is but such a Stream as a youth may throw a Stone over it, or about eight fa­thoms broad, it doth not diminish the ac­count and solemnity of the miraculous passage of the Israelites under Joshua; For it must be considered, that they passed it in the time of Harvest, when the River was high, and the Grounds about it under Water, according to that pertinent paren­thesis, As the Feet of the Priests, which carried the Ark, were dipped in the brim of the Water, (for Josh. 3. 19. Jordan oversloweth all its Banks at the time of Harvest.) In this consideration it was well joined with the great River Euphrates, in that expression in Ecclus. 24. 26. Ecclesiasticus, God maketh the under­standing to abound like Euphrates, and as Jordan in the time of Harvest.

[Page 84] 48. The Kingdom of Heaven is likened Zizania, in S. Matt. 13. 24, 25, &c. unto a man which sowed good Seed in his Field, but while men slept, his Enemy came and sowed Tares (or, as the Greek, Zizania) among the Wheat.

Now, how to render Zizania, and to what species of Plants to confine it, there is no slender doubt; for the word is not mention'd in other parts of Scripture, nor in any ancient Greek Writer: it is not to be found in Aristotle, Theophrastus, or Dioscorides. Some Greek and Latin Fa­thers have made use of the same, as also Suidas and Phavorinus; but probably they have all derived it from this Text.

And therefore this obscurity might ea­sily occasion such variety in Translations and Expositions. For some retain the word Zizania, as the Vulgar, that of Be­za, of Junius, and also the Italian and Spa­nish. The Low Dutch renders it Oncruidt, the German Oncraut, or Herba Mala, the French Yuroye or Lolium, and the English Tares.

Besides, this being conceived to be a Syriack word, it may still add unto the uncertainty of the sense. For though this Gospel were first written in Hebrew, or Syriack, yet it is not unquestionable whe­ther the true Original be any where ex­tant: And that Syriack Copy which we [Page 85] now have, is conceived to be of far later time than S. Matthew.

Expositours and Annotatours are also various. Hugo Grotius hath passed the word Zizania without a Note. Diodati, retaining the word Zizania, conceives that it was some peculiar Herb growing among the Corn of those Countries, and not known in our Fields. But Emanuel de Sa interprets it, Plantas semini noxias, and so accordingly some others.

Buxtorfius, in his Rabbinical Lexicon, gives divers interpretations, sometimes for degenerated Corn, sometimes for the black Seeds in Wheat, but withall concludes, an hoec sit eadem vox aut species, cum Ziza­niâ apud Evangelistam, quoerant alii. But Lexicons and Dictionaries by Zizania do almost generally understand Lolium, which we call Darnel, and commonly confine the signification to that Plant: Notwithstan­ding, since Lolium had a known and recei­ved Name in Greek, some may be apt to doubt, why, if that Plant were particu­larly intended, the proper Greek word was not used in the Text. For [...]. Theophrast. Hist. Plant. l. 8. Theophrastus named Lolium [...], and hath often men­tioned that Plant; and in one place saith that Corn doth sometimes Loliescere or degenerate into Darnel. Dioscorides, who travelled over Judoea, gives it the same [Page 86] name, which is also to be found in Galen, Aetius and Aegineta; and Pliny hath some­times latinized that word into Aera.

Besides, Lolium or Darnel shews it self in the Winter, growing up with the Wheat; and Theophrastus observed that it was no Vernal Plant, but came up in the Winter; which will not well answer the expression of the Text, And when the Blade came up, and brought forth Fruit, or gave evidence of its Fruit, the Zizania appeared. And if the Husbandry of the Ancients were agreeable unto ours, they would not have been so earnest to weed away the Darnel; for our Husbandmen do not commonly weed it in the Field, but separate the Seeds after Thrashing. And therefore Galen de­livereth, that in an unseasonable year, and great scarcity of Corn, when they neglec­ted to separate the Darnel, the Bread pro­ved generally unwholsome, and had evil effects on the Head.

Our old and later Translation render Zizania, Tares, which name our English Botanists give unto Aracus, Cracca, Vicia sylvestris, calling them Tares, and stran­gling Tares. And our Husbandmen by Tares understand some sorts of wild Fit­ches, which grow amongst Corn, and clasp upon it, according to the Latin Ety­mology, Vicia à Vinciendo. Now in this [Page 87] uncertainty of the Original, Tares as well as some others, may make out the sense, and be also more agreeable unto the cir­cumstances of the Parable. For they come up and appear what they are, when the Blade of the Corn is come up, and also the Stalk and Fruit discoverable. They have likewise little spreading Roots, which may intangle or rob the good Roots, and they have also tendrils and claspers, which lay hold of what grows near them, and so can hardly be weeded without endange­ring the neighbour Corn.

However, if by Zizania we understand Herbas segeti noxias, or vitia segetum, as some Expositours have done, and take the word in a more general sense, comprehen­ding several Weeds and Vegetables offen­sive unto Corn, according as the Greek word in the plural Number may imply, and as the learned De Horti cultura. Laurenbergius hath expressed, Runcare quod apud nostrates We­den dicitur, Zizanias inutiles est evellere. If, I say, it be thus taken, we shall not need to be definitive, or confine unto one particular Plant, from a word which may comprehend divers: And this may also prove a safer sense, in such obscurity of the Original.

And therefore since in this Parable the sower of the Zizania is the Devil, and the [Page 88] Zizania wicked persons; if any from this larger acception, will take in Thistles, Darnel, Cockle, wild strangling Fitches, Bindweed, Tribulus, Restharrow and o­ther Vitia Segetum; he may, both from the natural and symbolical qualities of those Vegetables, have plenty of matter to illu­strate the variety of his mischiefs, and of the wicked of this world.

49. When 'tis said in Job, Let Thistles Cockle, in Job 31. 40. grow up instead of Wheat, and Cockle in­stead of Barley, the words are intelligible, the sense allowable and significant to this purpose: but whether the word Cockle doth strictly conform unto the Original, some doubt may be made from the diffe­rent Translations of it; For the Vulgar renders it Spina, Tremelius Vitia Frugum, and the Geneva Turoye or Darnel. Besides, whether Cockle were common in the an­cient Agriculture of those parts, or what word they used for it, is of great uncer­tainty. For the Elder Botanical Writers have made no mention thereof, and the Moderns have given it the Name of Pseu­domelanthium, Nigellastrum, Lychnoeides Segetum, names not known unto Antiqui­ty: And therefore our Translation hath warily set down [noisome Weeds] in the Margin.

THE use of flowry Crowns and Gar­lands is of no slender Antiquity, and higher than I conceive you apprehend it. For, besides the old Greeks and Romans, the Aegyptians made use hereof; who, beside the bravery of their Garlands, had little Birds upon them to peck their Heads and Brows, and so to keep them sleeping at their Festival com­potations. This practice also extended as far as India: for at the Feast with the In­dian [Page 90] King, it is peculiarly observed by Philostratus that their custom was to wear Garlands, and come crowned with them unto their Feast.

The Crowns and Garlands of the Anci­ents were either Gestatory, such as they wore about their Heads or Necks; Porta­tory, such as they carried at solemn Festi­vals; Pensile or Suspensory, such as they hanged about the Posts of their Houses in honour of their Gods, as of Jupiter Thy­roeus or Limeneus; or else they were De­pository, such as they laid upon the Graves and Monuments of the dead. And these were made up after all ways of Art, Com­pactile, Sutile, Plectile; for which Work there were [...], or expert Persons to contrive them after the best grace and property.

Though we yield not unto them in the beauty of flowry Garlands, yet some of those of Antiquity were larger than any we lately meet with: for we find in Athe­noeus that a Myrtle Crown of one and twenty foot in compass was solemnly car­ried about at the Hellotian Feast in Co­rinth, together with the Bones of Eu­ropa.

And Garlands were surely of frequent use among them; for we reade in De Theria­ca ad Piso­nem. Galen that when Hippocrates cured the great [Page 91] Plague of Athens by Fires kindled in and about the City; the fuel thereof consisted much of their Garlands. And they must needs be very frequent and of common use, the ends thereof being many. For they were convivial, festival, sacrificial, nuptial, honorary, funebrial. We who propose unto our selves the pleasure of two Senses, and onely single out such as are of Beauty and good Odour, cannot strictly confine our selves unto imitation of them.

For, in their convivial Garlands, they had respect unto Plants preventing drun­kenness, or discussing the exhalations from Wine; wherein, beside Roses, taking in Ivy, Vervain, Melilote, &c. they made use of divers of small Beauty or good O­dour. The solemn festival Garlands were made properly unto their Gods, and ac­cordingly contrived from Plants sacred unto such Deities; and their sacrificial ones were selected under such considera­tions. Their honorary Crowns trium­phal, ovary, civical, obsidional, had little of Flowers in them: and their funebri­al Garlands had little of beauty in them beside Roses, while they made them of Myrtle, Rosemary, Apium, &c. under symbolical intimations: but our florid and purely ornamental Garlands, delight­full [Page 92] unto sight and smell, nor framed ac­cording to mystical and symbolical consi­derations, are of more free election, and so may be made to excell those of the An­cients; we having China, India, and a new world to supply us, beside the great distinction of Flowers unknown unto An­tiquity, and the varieties thereof arising from Art and Nature.

But, beside Vernal, Aestival and Autum­nal made of Flowers, the Ancients had al­so Hyemal Garlands; contenting them­selves at first with such as were made of Horn died into several Colours, and sha­ped into the Figures of Flowers, and also of Aes Coronarium or Clincquant or Brass thinly wrought out into Leaves common­ly known among us. But the curiosity of some Emperours for such intents had Roses brought from Aegypt untill they had found the art to produce late Roses in Rome, and to make them grow in the Winter, as is delivered in that handsome Epigramme of Martial,

Some American Nations, who do much excell in Garlands, content not themselves onely with Flowers, but make elegant [Page 93] Crowns of Feathers, whereof they have some of greater radiancy and lustre than their Flowers: and since there is an Art to set into shapes, and curiously to work in choicest Feathers, there could nothing answer the Crowns made of the choicest Feathers of some Tomineios and Sun Birds.

The Catalogue of Coronary Plants is not large in Theophrastus, Pliny, Pollux, or Athenaeus: but we may find a good enlargement in the accounts of Modern Botanists; and additions may still be made by successive acquists of fair and specious Plants, not yet translated from foreign Re­gions or little known unto our Gardens; he that would be complete may take no­tice of these following,

• Flos Tigridis.
• Flos Lyncis.
• Pinea Indica Recchi, Talama Ouiedi.
• Herba Paradisea.
• Volubilis Mexicanus.
• Narcissus Indicus Serpentarius.
• Helichrysum Mexicanum.
• Xicama.
• Aquilegia novae Hispaniae Cacoxochitli Rec­chi.
• Aristochaea Mexicana.
• Camaratinga sive Caragunta quarta Pisonis.
• [Page 94] Maracuia Granadilla.
• Cambay sive Myrtus Americana.
• Flos Auriculoe Flor de la Oreia.
• Floripendio novae Hispaniae.
• Rosa Indica.
• Zilium Indicum.
• Fula Magori Garciae.
• Champe Garciae Champacca Bontii.
• Daullontas frutex odoratus seu Chamaeme­lum arborescens Bontii.
• Beidelsar Alpini.
• Sambuc.
• Amberboi Turcarum.
• Nuphar Aegyptium.
• Lilionarcissus Indicus.
• Bamma Aegyptiacum.
• Hiucca Canadensis horti Farnesiani.
• Bupthalmum novae Hispaniae Alepocapath.
• Valeriana seu Chrysanthemum Americanum Acocotlis.
• Flos Corvinus Coronarius Americanus.
• Capolin Cerasus dulcis Indicus Floribus ra­cemosis.
• Asphodelus Americanus.
• Syringa Lutea Americana.
• Bulbus unifolius.
• Moly latifolium Flore luteo.
• Conyza Americana purpurea.
• Salvia Cretica pomifera Bellonii.
• Lausus Serrata Odora.
• Ornithogalus Promontorii Bonae Spei.
• [Page 95] Fritallaria crassa Soldanica Promontorii Bo­nae Spei.
• Sigillum Solomonis Indicum.
• Tulipa Promontorii Bonae Spei.
• Iris Uvaria.
• Nopolxoch sedum elegans novae Hispaniae.

More might be added unto this List; and I have onely taken the pains to give you a short Specimen of those many more which you may find in respective Authours, and which time and future industry may make no great strangers in England. The Inhabitants of Nova Hispania, and a great part of America, Mahometans, Indians, Chineses, are eminent promoters of these coronary and specious Plants: and the an­nual Tribute of the King of Bisnaguer in India, arising out of Odours and Flowers, amounts unto many thousands of Crowns.

Thus, in brief, of this matter. I am, &c.

I Have thought, a little, upon the Que­stion proposed by you [viz. What kind of Fishes those were of which our Savi­our ate with his Disciples after his S. Joh. 21. 9, 10, 11, 13. Resur­rection?] and I return you such an Answer, [Page 98] as, in so short a time for study, and in the midst of my occasions, occurs to me.

The Books of Scripture (as also those which are Apocryphal) are often silent, or very sparing, in the particular Names of Fishes; or in setting them down in such manner as to leave the kinds of them with­out all doubt and reason for farther inqui­ry. For, when it declareth what Fishes were allowed the Israelites for their Food, they are onely set down in general which have Finns and Scales; whereas, in the account of Quadrupeds and Birds, there is particular mention made of divers of them. In the Book of Tobit that Fish which he took out of the River is onely named a great Fish, and so there remains much un­certainty to determine the Species thereof. And even the Fish which swallowed Jonah, and is called a great Fish, and commonly thought to be a great Whale, is not recei­ved without all doubt; while some lear­ned men conceive it to have been none of our Whales, but a large kind of Lamia.

And, in this narration of S. John, the Fishes are onely expressed by their Bigness and Number, not their Names, and there­fore it may seem undeterminable what they were: notwithstanding, these Fishes being taken in the great Lake or Sea of Tiberias, something may be probably sta­ted [Page 99] therein. For since Bellonius, that di­ligent and learned Traveller, informeth us, that the Fishes of this Lake were Trouts, Pikes, Chevins and Tenches; it may well be conceived that either all or some there­of are to be understood in this Scripture. And these kind of Fishes become large and of great growth, answerable unto the ex­pression of Scripture, One hundred and three great Fishes; that is, large in their own kinds, and the largest kinds in this Lake and fresh Water, wherein no great varie­ty, and of the larger sort of Fishes, could be expected. For the River Jordan, run­ning through this Lake, falls into the Lake of Asphaltus, and hath no mouth into the Sea, which might admit of great Fishes or greater variety to come up into it.

And out of the mouth of some of these forementioned Fishes might the Tribute money be taken, when our Saviour, at Ca­pernaum, seated upon the same Lake, said unto Peter, Go thou to the Sea, and cast an Hook, and take up the Fish that first co­meth; and when thou hast opened his mouth thou shalt find a piece of money; that take and give them for thee and me.

And this makes void that common con­ceit and tradition of the Fish called Faber­marinus, by some, a Peter or Penny Fish; which having two remarkable round spots [Page 100] upon either side, these are conceived to be the marks of S. Peter's Fingers or signa­tures of the Money: for though it hath these marks, yet is there no probability that such a kind of Fish was to be found in the Lake of Tiberias, Geneserah or Ga­lilee, which is but sixteen miles long and six broad, and hath no communication with the Sea; for this is a mere Fish of the Sea and salt Water, and (though we meet with some thereof on our Coast) is not to be found in many Seas.

Thus having returned no improbable Answer unto your Question, I shall crave leave to ask another of your self concer­ning that Fish mention'd by De Bello Gothico, lib. 1. Procopius, which brought the famous King Theodo­rick to his end: his words are to this ef­fect: ‘The manner of his Death was this, Symmachus and his Son-in-law Boëthius, just men and great relievers of the poor, Senatours and Consuls, had many ene­mies, by whose false accusations Theo­dorick being perswaded that they plot­ted against him, put them to death and confiscated their Estates. Not long after his Waiters set before him at Supper a great Head of a Fish, which seemed to him to be the Head of Symmachus lately mur­thered; and with his Teeth sticking out, and fierce glaring eyes to threaten him: [Page 101] being frighted, he grew chill, went to Bed, lamenting what he had done to Symmachus and Boëthius; and soon after died.’ What Fish do you apprehend this to have been? I would learn of you; give me your thoughts about it.

I Return the following Answers to your Queries which were these,

• [1. What Fishes are meant by the Names, Halec and Mugil?
• 2. What is the Bird which you will receive from the Bearer? and what [Page 104] Birds are meant by the Names Hal­cyon, Nysus, Ciris, Nycticorax?
• 3. What Insect is meant by the word Cicada?]

The word Halec we are taught to ren­der Answer to Query 1. an Herring, which, being an ancient word, is not strictly appropriable unto a Fish not known or not described by the Ancients; and which the modern Natu­ralists are fain to name Harengus; the word Halecula being applied unto such little Fish out of which they were fain to make Pickle; and Halec or Alec, taken for the Liquamen or Liquor it self, accor­ding to that of the Poet,

And was a conditure and Sawce much af­fected by Antiquity, as was also Muria and Garum.

In common constructions, Mugil is ren­dred a Mullet, which, notwithstanding, is a different Fish from the Mugil described by Authours; wherein, if we mistake, we cannot so closely apprehend the expression of Juvenal,

And misconceive the Fish, whereby For­nicatours were so opprobriously and irk­somely punished; for the Mugil being somewhat rough and hard skinned, did more exasperate the gutts of such offen­ders: whereas the Mullet was a smooth Fish, and of too high esteem to be imploy­ed in such offices.

I cannot but wonder that this Bird you Answer to Query 2. sent should be a stranger unto you, and unto those who had a sight thereof: for, though it be not seen every day, yet we often meet with it in this Country. It is an elegant Bird, which he that once be­holdeth can hardly mistake any other for it. From the proper Note it is called an Hoopebird with us; in Greek Epops, in Latin Upupa. We are little obliged unto our School instruction, wherein we are taught to render Upupa a Lapwing, which Bird our natural Writers name Vannellus; for thereby we mistake this remarkable Bird, and apprehend not rightly what is delivered of it.

We apprehend not the Hieroglyphical considerations which the old Aegyptians made of this observable Bird; who consi­dering [Page 106] dering therein the order and variety of Colours, the twenty six or twenty eight Feathers in its Crest, his latitancy, and mewing this handsome outside in the Winter; they made it an Emblem of the varieties of the World, the succession of Times and Seasons, and signal mutati­ons in them. And therefore Orus, the Hieroglyphick of the World, had the Head of an Hoopebird upon the top of his Staff.

Hereby we may also mistake the Du­chiphath, or Bird forbidden for Food in Le­viticus; Levit. 11. 19. and, not knowing the Bird, may the less apprehend some reasons of that prohibition; that is, the magical virtues ascribed unto it by the Aegyptians, and the superstitious apprehensions which that Nation held of it, whilst they precisely numbred the Feathers and Colours there­of, while they placed it on the Heads of their Gods, and near their Mercurial Cros­ses, and so highly magnified this Bird in their sacred Symbols.

Again, not knowing or mistaking this Bird, we may misapprehend, or not close­ly apprehend, that handsome expression of Ovid, when Tereus was turned into an Upupa, or Hoopebird.

For, in this military shape, he is aptly phancied even still revengefully to pursue his hated Wife Progne: in the propriety of his Note crying out, Pou, pou, ubi, ubi, or Where are you?

Nor are we singly deceived in the no­minal translation of this Bird: in many other Animals we commit the like mistake. So Gracculus is rendred a Jay, which Bird notwithstanding must be of a dark colour according to that of Martial,

See Vulg. Err. B. 3. c. 10. Halcyon is rendred a King-fisher, a Bird commonly known among us, and by Zoographers and Naturals the same is named Ispida, a well coloured Bird fre­quenting Streams and Rivers, building in holes of Pits, like some Martins, about the end of the Spring; in whose Nests we have found little else than innumerable small Fish Bones, and white round Eggs of [Page 108] a smooth and polished surface, whereas the true Alcyon is a Sea Bird, makes an hand­some Nest floating upon the Water, and breedeth in the Winter.

That Nysus should be rendred either an Hobby or a Sparrow Hawk, in the Fable of Nysus and Scylla in Ovid, because we are much to seek in the distinction of Hawks according to their old denomina­tions, we shall not much contend, and may allow a favourable latitude therein: but that the Ciris or Bird into which Scyl­la was turned should be translated a Lark, it can hardly be made out agreeable unto the description of Virgil in his Poem of that name,

But seems more agreeable unto some kind of Hoemantopus or Redshank; and so the Nysus to have been some kind of Hawk, which delighteth about the Sea and Ma­rishes, where such prey most aboundeth, which sort of Hawk while Scaliger deter­mineth to be a Merlin, the French Trans­latour warily expoundeth it to be some kind of Hawk.

Nycticorax we may leave unto the com­mon and verbal translation of a Night Ra­ven, [Page 109] but we know no proper kind of Ra­ven unto which to confine the same, and therefore some take the liberty to ascribe it unto some sort of Owls, and others unto the Bittern; which Bird in its common Note, which he useth out of the time of coupling and upon the Wing, so well re­sembleth the croaking of a Raven that I have been deceived by it.

While Cicada is rendred a Grashopper, Answer to Query 3. we commonly think that which is so cal­led among us to be the true Cicada; wherein, as we have elsewhere Vulg. Err. B. 5. c. 3. declared, there is a great mistake: for we have not the Cicada in England, and indeed no pro­per word for that Animal, which the French nameth Cigale. That which we commonly call a Grashopper, and the French Saulterelle being one kind of Lo­cust, so rendred in the Plague of Aegypt, and, in old Saxon named Gersthop.

I have been the less accurate in these Answers, because the Queries are not of difficult Resolution, or of great moment: however, I would not wholly neglect them or your satisfaction, as being, Sir,

IN vain you expect much informati­on, de Re Accipitraria, of Falconry, Hawks or Hawking, from very anci­ent Greek or Latin Authours; that Art being either unknown or so little advan­ced among them, that it seems to have proceeded no higher than the daring of Birds: which makes so little thereof to be found in Aristotle, who onely mentions [Page 112] some rude practice thereof in Thracia; as also in Aelian, who speaks something of Hawks and Crows among the Indians; little or nothing of true Falconry being mention'd before Julius Firmicus, in the days of Constantius, Son to Constantine the Great.

Yet if you consult the accounts of la­ter Antiquity left by Demetrius the Greek, by Symmachus and Theodosius, and by Al­bertus Magnus, about five hundred years ago, you, who have been so long acquain­ted with this noble Recreation, may bet­ter compare the ancient and modern prac­tice, and rightly observe how many things in that Art are added, varied, disused or retained in the practice of these days.

In the Diet of Hawks, they allowed of divers Meats which we should hardly commend. For beside the Flesh of Beef, they admitted of Goat, Hog, Deer, Whelp and Bear. And how you will approve the quantity and measure thereof, I make some doubt; while by weight they allowed half a pound of Beef, seven ounces of Swines Flesh, five of Hare, eight ounces of Whelp, as much of Deer, and ten ounces of He-Goats Flesh.

In the time of Demetrius they were not without the practice of Phlebotomy or Bleeding, which they used in the Thigh and [Page 113] Pounces; they plucked away the Feathers on the Thigh, and rubbed the part, but if the Vein appeared not in that part, they opened the Vein of the fore Talon.

In the days of Albertus, they made use of Cauteries in divers places: to advantage their sight they seared them under the in­ward angle of the eye; above the eye in distillations and diseases of the Head; in upward pains they seared above the Joint of the Wing, and at the bottom of the Foot, against the Gout; and the chief time for these cauteries they made to be the month of March.

In great coldness of Hawks they made use of Fomentations, some of the steam or vapour of artificial and natural Baths, some wrapt them up in hot Blankets, giving them Nettle Seeds and Butter.

No Clysters are mention'd, nor can they be so profitably used; but they made use of many purging Medicines. They pur­ged with Aloe, which, unto larger Hawks, they gave in the bigness of a Greek Bean; unto less, in the quantity of a Cicer, which notwithstanding I should rather give wa­shed, and with a few drops of Oil of Al­monds: for the Guts of flying Fowls are tender and easily scratched by it; and up­on the use of Aloe both in Hawks and Cor­morants I have sometimes observed bloody excretions.

[Page 114] In phlegmatick causes they seldom o­mitted Stavesaker, but they purged some­times with a Mouse, and the Food of boi­led Chickens, sometimes with good Oil and Honey.

They used also the Ink of Cuttle Fishes, with Smallage, Betony, Wine and Honey. They made use of stronger Medicines than present practice doth allow. For they were not afraid to give Coccus Baphicus; beating up eleven of its Grains unto a Lentor, which they made up into five Pills wrapt up with Honey and Pepper: and, in some of their old Medicines, we meet with Scammony and Euphorbium. Whether, in the tender Bowels of Birds, infusions of Rhubarb, Agaric and Mecho­achan be not of safer use, as to take of A­gary two Drachms, of Cinnamon half a Drachm, of Liquorish a Scruple, and, in­fusing them in Wine, to express a part in­to the mouth of the Hawk, may be consi­dered by present practice.

Few Mineral Medicines were of inward use among them: yet sometimes we ob­serve they gave filings of Iron in the strait­ness of the Chest, as also Lime in some of their pectoral Medicines.

But they commended Unguents of Quick-silver against the Scab: and I have safely given six or eight Grains of Mercu­rius [Page 115] Dulcis unto Kestrils and Owls, as also crude and current Quick-silver, giving the next day small Pellets of Silver or Lead till they came away uncoloured: and this, if any, may probably destroy that obstinate Disease of the Filander or Back-worm.

A peculiar remedy they had against the Consumption of Hawks. For, filling a Chicken with Vinegar, they closed up the Bill, and hanging it up untill the Flesh grew tender, they fed the Hawk there­with: and to restore and well Flesh them, they commonly gave them Hogs Flesh, with Oil, Butter and Honey; and a de­coction of Cumfory to bouze.

They disallowed of salt Meats and Fat; but highly esteemed of Mice in most in­dispositions; and in the falling Sickness had great esteem of boiled Batts: and in many Diseases, of the Flesh of Owls which feed upon those Animals. In Epilepsies they also gave the Brain of a Kid drawn thorough a gold Ring; and, in Convulsi­ons, made use of a mixture of Musk and Stercus humanum aridum.

For the better preservation of their Health they strowed Mint and Sage a­bout them; and for the speedier mew­ing of their Feathers, they gave them the Slough of a Snake, or a Tortoise out of [Page 116] the Shell, or a green Lizard cut in pieces.

If a Hawk were unquiet, they hooded him, and placed him in a Smith's Shop for some time, where, accustomed to the continual noise of hammering, he became more gentle and tractable.

They used few terms of Art, plainly and intelligibly expressing the Parts affec­ted, their Diseases and Remedies. This heap of artificial terms first entring with the French Artists: who seem to have been the first and noblest Falconers in the We­stern part of Europe; although, in their Language, they have no word which in general expresseth an Hawk.

They carried their Hawks in the left hand, and let them flie from the right. They used a Bell, and took great care that their Jesses should not be red, lest Eagles should flie at them. Though they used Hoods, we have no clear description of them, and little account of their Lures.

The ancient Writers lest no account of the swiftness of Hawks or measure of their flight: but De Re Ru­stica. Heresbachius delivers that William Duke of Cleve had an Hawk which, in one day, made a flight out of Westphalia into Prussia. And, upon good account, an Hawk in this Country of Nor­folk, made a flight at a Woodcock near thirty miles in one hour. How far the [Page 117] Hawks, Merlins and wild Fowl which come unto us with a North-west wind in the Autumn, flie in a day, there is no clear account; but coming over Sea their flight hath been long, or very speedy. For I have known them to light so weary on the coast, that many have been taken with Dogs, and some knock'd down with Staves and Stones.

Their Perches seem not so large as ours; for they made them of such a bigness that their Talons might almost meet: and they chose to make them of Sallow, Poplar or Lime Tree.

They used great clamours and hollow­ing in their flight, which they made by these words, ou loi, la, la, la; and to raise the Fowls, made use of the found of a Cymbal.

Their recreation seemed more sober and solemn than ours at present, so im­properly attended with Oaths and Impre­cations. For they called on God at their setting out, according to the account of Demetrius, [...], in the first place calling upon God.

The learned Rigaltius thinketh, that if the Romans had well known this airy Chase, they would have left or less regar­ded their Circensial Recreations. The Greeks understood Hunting early, but [Page 118] little or nothing of our Falconry. If A­lexander had known it, we might have found something of it and more of Hawks in Aristotle; who was so unacquainted with that way, that he thought that Hawks would not feed upon the Heart of Birds. Though he hath mention'd di­vers Hawks, yet Julius Scaliger, an ex­pert Falconer, despaired to reconcile them unto ours. And 'tis well if, among them, you can clearly make out a Lanner, a Sparrow Hawk and a Kestril, but must not hope to find your Gier Falcon there, which is the noble Hawk; and I wish you one no worse than that of Henry King of Navarre; which, Scaliger saith, he saw strike down a Buzzard, two wild Geese, divers Kites, a Crane and a Swan.

Nor must you expect from high Anti­quity the distinctions of Eyess and Ra­mage Hawks, of Sores and Entermewers, of Hawks of the Lure and the Fist; nor that material distinction into short and long winged Hawks; from whence arife such differences in their taking down of Stones; in their flight, their striking down or seizing of their Prey, in the strength of their Talons, either in the Heel and fore-Talon, or the middle and the Heel: nor yet what Eggs produce the different Hawks, or when they lay three Eggs, [Page 119] that the first produceth a Female and large Hawk, the second of a midler sort, and the third a smaller Bird Tercellene or Tassel of the Masle Sex; which Hawks being onely observed abroad by the Ancients, were looked upon as Hawks of different kinds and not of the same Eyrie or Nest. As for what Aristotle affirmeth that Hawks and Birds of prey drink not; although you know that it will not strictly hold, yet I kept an Eagle two years, which fed upon Kats, Kittlings, Whelps and Ratts, without one drop of Water.

If any thing may add unto your know­ledge in this noble Art, you must pick it out of later Writers than those you en­quire of. You may peruse the two Books of Falconry writ by that renowned Empe­rour Frederick the Second; as also the Works of the noble Duke Belisarius, of Tardiffe, Francherius, of Francisco Sforzi­no of Vicensa; and may not a little in­form or recreate your self with that ele­gant Poem of De Re Ac­cipitraria, in 3 Books. Thuanus. I leave you to divert your self by the perusal of it, ha­ving, at present, no more to say but that I am, &c.

WITH what difficulty, if not possi­bility, you may expect satisfac­tion concerning the Musick, or Musical Instruments of the Hebrews, you will ea­sily discover if you consult the attempts of learned men upon that Subject: but for Cymbals, of whose Figure you enquire, you may find some described in Bayfius, in the Comment of Rhodius upon Scribo­nius Largus, and others.

As for [...] mentioned by S. 1 Cor. 13. 1. Paul, and rendred a Tinckling Cym­bal, whether the translation be not too soft and diminutive some question may be [Page 122] made: for the word [...] implieth no small sound, but a strained and lofty vociferation, or some kind of hollowing sound, according to the Exposition of He­sychius, [...]. A word drawn from the lusty shout of Souldiers, crying [...] at the first charge upon their Enemies, according to the cu­stom of Eastern Nations, and used by Tro­jans in Homer; and is also the Note of the Chorus in Aristophanes [...]. In other parts of Scripture we reade of loud and high sounding Cymbals; and in Clemens Alexandrinus that the Arabians made use of Cymbals in their Wars instead of other military Musick; and Polyaenus in his Stratagemes affirmeth that Bacchus gave the signal of Battel unto his nume­rous Army not with Trumpets but with Tympans and Cymbals.

And now I take the opportunity to thank you for the new Book sent me con­taining the Anthems sung in our Cathe­dral and Collegiate Churches: 'tis probable there will be additions, the Masters of Musick being now active in that affair. Beside my naked thanks I have yet no­thing to return you but this enclosed, which may be somewhat rare unto you, and that is a Turkish Hymn trans­lated into French out of the Turkish [Page 123] Metre, which I thus render unto you.

After the Sermon ended which was made upon a Verse in the Alcoran con­taining much Morality, the Deruices in a Gallery apart sung this Hymn, accom­panied with Instrumental Musick, which so affected the Ears of Monsieur du Loyr, that he would not omit to set it down, together with the Musical Notes, to be found in his first Letter unto Monsieur Bouliau, Prior of Magny.

Excuse my brevity: I can say but little where I understand but little.

THough I may justly allow a good intention in this Poem presented unto you, yet I must needs con­fess, I have no affection for it; as being utterly averse from all affectation in Poe­try, which either restrains the phancy, or fetters the invention to any strict dispo­sure of words. A Poem of this nature is to be found in Ausonius beginning thus,

These are Verses Ropalici or Clavales, arising gradually like the Knots in a [...] or Clubb; named also Fistulares by Priscianus, as Elias El. Vinet. in Auson. Vinetus hath noted. They consist properly of five words, each thereof encreasing by one syllable. They admit not of a Spondee in the fifth place, nor can a Golden or Silver Verse be made this way. They run smoothly both in Latin and Greek, and some are scattering­ly to be found in Homer; as,

Liberè dicam sed in aurem, ego versibus hujusmodi Ropalicis, longo syrmate protrac­tis, Ceraunium affigo.

He that affecteth such restrained Poetry, may peruse the Long Poem of Hugbaldus the Monk, wherein every word beginneth with a C penned in the praise of Calvities or Baldness, to the honour of Carolus Cal­vus King of France,

[Page 127] The rest may be seen at large in the ad­versaria of Barthius: or if he delighteth in odd contrived phancies may he please him­self with Antistrophes, Counterpetories, Re­trogrades, Rebusses, Leonine Verses, &c. to be found in Sieur des Accords. But these and the like are to be look'd upon, not pursued, odd works might be made by such ways; and for your recreation I pro­pose these few lines unto you,

Not to put you unto endless amuse­ment, the Key hereof is the homonomy of the Greek made use of in the Latin words, which rendreth all plain. More aenigmatical and dark expressions might be made if any one would speak or com­pose them out of the numerical Characters or characteristical Numbers set down by Tract 2. Part lib. 1. Robertus de Fluctibus.

[Page 128] As for your question concerning the contrary expressions of the Italian and Spaniards in their common affirmative answers, the Spaniard answering cy Sennor, the Italian Signior cy, you must be content with this Distich,

Why saith the Italian Signior cy, the Spa­niard cy Sennor?

Because the one puts that behind, the other puts before.

And because you are so happy in some Translations, I pray return me these two Verses in English,

Occidit heu tandem multos quae occidit amantes,

Et cinis est hodie quae fuit ignis heri.

My occasions make me to take off my Pen. I am, &c.

THE last Discourse we had of the Saxon Tongue recalled to my mind some forgotten considerati­ons. Though the Earth were widely peo­pled before the Flood, (as many learned men conceive) yet whether after a large dispersion, and the space of sixteen hun­dred years, men maintained so uniform a Language in all parts, as to be strictly of one Tongue, and readily to understand each other, may very well be doubted. [Page 130] For though the World preserved in the Family of Noah before the confusion of Tongues might be said to be of one Lip, yet even permitted to themselves their hu­mours, inventions, necessities, and new ob­jects, without the miracle of Confusion at first, in so long a tract of time, there had probably been a Babel. For whether A­merica were first peopled by one or seve­ral Nations, yet cannot that number of different planting Nations, answer the mul­tiplicity of their present different Langua­ges, of no affinity unto each other; and even in their Northern Nations and in­communicating Angles, their Languages are widely differing. A native Interpre­ter brought from Califormia proved of no use unto the Spaniards upon the neigh­bour Shore. From Chiapa, to Guatemala, S. Salvador, Honduras, there are at least eighteen several Languages; and so nume­rous are they both in the Peruvian and Mexican Regions, that the great Princes are fain to have one common Language, which besides their vernaculous and Mo­ther Tongues, may serve for commerce between them.

And since the confusion of Tongues at first fell onely upon those which were pre­sent in Sinaar at the work of Babel, whe­ther the primitive Language from Noah [Page 131] were onely preserved in the Family of He­ber, and not also in divers others, which might be absent at the same, whether all came away and many might not be left behind in their first Plantations about the foot of the Hills, whereabout the Ark re­sted and Noah became an Husbandman, is not absurdly doubted.

For so the primitive Tongue might in time branch out into several parts of Eu­rope and Asia, and thereby the first or He­brew Tongue which seems to be ingredi­ent into so many Languages, might have larger originals and grounds of its com­munication and traduction than from the Family of Abraham, the Country of Ca­naan and words contained in the Bible which come short of the full of that Lan­guage. And this would become more probable from the Septuagint or Greek Chronology strenuously asserted by Vos­sius; for making five hundred years be­tween the Deluge and the days of Peleg, there ariseth a large latitude of multiplica­tion and dispersion of People into several parts, before the descent of that Body which followed Nimrod unto Sinaar from the East.

They who derive the bulk of European Tongues from the Scythian and the Greek, though they may speak probably in many [Page 132] points, yet must needs allow vast diffe­rence or corruptions from so few origi­nals, which however might be tolerably made out in the old Saxon, yet hath time much confounded the clearer derivations. And as the knowledge thereof now stands in reference unto our selves, I find many words totally lost, divers of harsh sound disused or refined in the pronunciation, and many words we have also in common use not to be found in that Tongue, or ve­nially derivable from any other from whence we have largely borrowed, and yet so much still remaineth with us that it maketh the gross of our Language.

The religious obligation unto the He­brew Language hath so notably continued the same, that it might still be understood by Abraham, whereas by the Mazorite Points and Chaldee Character the old Let­ter stands so transformed, that if Moses were alive again, he must be taught to reade his own Law.

The Chinoys, who live at the bounds of the Earth, who have admitted little communication, and suffered successive in­cursions from one Nation, may possibly give account of a very ancient Language; but consisting of many Nations and Tongues; confusion, admixtion and cor­ruption in length of time might probably [Page 133] so have crept in as without the virtue of a common Character, and lasting Letter of things, they could never probably make out those strange memorials which they pretend, while they still make use of the Works of their great Confutius many hun­dred years before Christ, and in a series ascend as high as Poncuus, who is con­ceived our Noah.

The present Welch, and remnant of the old Britanes, hold so much of that ancient Language, that they make a shift to un­derstand the Poems of Merlin, Enerin, Telesin, a thousand years ago, whereas the Herulian Pater Noster, set down by Wolf­gangus Lazius, is not without much criti­cism made out, and but in some words; and the present Parisians can hardly hack out those few lines of the League between Charles and Lewis, the Sons of Ludovicus Pius, yet remaining in old French.

The Spaniards, in their corruptive tra­duction and Romance, have so happily re­tained the terminations from the Latin, that notwithstanding the Gothick and Moorish intrusion of words, they are able to make a Discourse completely consisting of Grammatical Latin and Spanish, where­in the Italians and French will be very much to seek.

[Page 134] The learned Casaubon conceiveth that a Dialogue might be composed in Saxon onely of such words as are derivable from the Greek, which surely might be effec­ted, and so as the learned might not un­easily find it out. Verstegan made no doubt that he could contrive a Letter which might be understood by the En­glish, Dutch and East Frislander, which, as the present confusion standeth, might have proved no very clear Piece, and hardly to be hammer'd out: yet so much of the Saxon still remaineth in our English, as may admit an orderly discourse and series of good sense, such as not onely the pre­sent English, but Aelfric, Bede and Alu­red might understand after so many hun­dred years.

Nations that live promiscuously, under the Power and Laws of Conquest, do sel­dom escape the loss of their Language with their Liberties, wherein the Romans were so strict that the Grecians were fain to conform in their judicial Processes; which made the Jews loose more in seven­ty years dispersion in the Provinces of Ba­bylon, than in many hundred in their di­stinct habitation in Aegypt; and the En­glish which dwelt dispersedly to loose their Language in Ireland, whereas more tole­rable reliques there are thereof in Fingall, [Page 135] where they were closely and almost solely planted; and the Moors which were most huddled together and united about Grana­da, have yet left their Arvirage among the Granadian Spaniards.

But shut up in Angles and inaccessible corners, divided by Laws and Manners, they often continue long with little mix­ture, which hath afforded that lasting life unto the Cantabrian and British Tongue, wherein the Britanes are remarkable, who, having lived four hundred years together with the Romans, retained so much of the British as it may be esteemed a Language; which either they resolutely maintained in their cohabitation with them in Britane, or retiring after in the time of the Saxons in­to Countries and parts less civiliz'd and conversant with the Romans, they found the People distinct, the Language more intire, and so fell into it again.

But surely no Languages have been so straitly lock'd up as not to admit of commixture. The Irish, although they retain a kind of a Saxon Character, yet have admitted many words of Latin and English. In the Welch are found many words from Latin, some from Greek and Saxon. In what parity and incommixture the Language of that People stood which were casually discovered in the heart of [Page 136] Spain, between the Mountains of Castile, no longer ago than in the time of Duke D' Alva, we have not met with a good account any farther than that their words were Basquish or Cantabrian: but the pre­sent Basquensa one of the minor Mother Tongues of Europe, is not without com­mixture of Latin and Castilian, while we meet with Santifiea, tentationeten, Glaria, puissanea, and four more in the short Form of the Lord's Prayer, set down by Paulus Merula: but although in this brief Form we may find such commixture, yet the bulk of their Language seems more di­stinct, consisting of words of no affinity unto others, of numerals totally different, of differing Grammatical Rule, as may be observed in the Dictionary and short Bas­quensa Grammar, composed by Raphael Nicoleta, a Priest of Bilboa.

And if they use the auxiliary Verbs of Equin and Ysan, answerable unto Hazer and Ser, to Have, and Be, in the Spanish, which Forms came in with the Northern Nations into the Italian, Spanish and French, and if that Form were used by them before, and crept not in from imitation of their neighbours, it may shew some ancienter traduction from Northern Nations, or else must seem very strange; since the Sou­thern Nations had it not of old, and I [Page 137] know not whether any such mode be found in the Languages of any part of A­merica.

The Romans, who made the great com­mixture and alteration of Languages in the World, effected the same, not onely by their proper Language, but those also of their military Forces, employed in several Provinces, as holding a standing Militia in all Countries, and commonly of strange Nations; so while the cohorts and Forces of the Britanes were quartered in Aegypt, Armenia, Spain, Illyria, &c. the Stablae­sians and Dalmatians here, the Gauls, Spa­niards and Germans in other Countries, and other Nations in theirs, they could not but leave many words behind them, and carry away many with them, which might make that in many words of very distinct Nations some may still remain of very unknown and doubtfull Genea­logy.

And if, as the learned Buxhornius con­tendeth, the Scythian Language as the Mother Tongue runs through the Nations of Europe, and even as far as Persia, the community in many words between so many Nations, hath a more reasonable o­riginal traduction, and were rather deri­vable from the common Tongue diffused through them all, than from any particu­lar [Page 138] Nation, which hath also borrowed and holdeth but at second hand.

The Saxons settling over all England, maintained an uniform Language, onely diversified in Dialect, Idioms, and minor differences, according to their different Nations which came in to the common Conquest, which may yet be a cause of the variation in the speech and words of several parts of England, where different Nations most abode or settled, and having expelled the Britanes, their Wars were chiefly among themselves, with little ac­tion with foreign Nations untill the union of the Heptarchy under Egbert; after which time although the Danes infested this Land and scarce left any part free, yet their incursions made more havock in Buildings, Churches and Cities, than the Language of the Country, because their Language was in effect the same, and such as whereby they might easily understand one another.

And if the Normans, which came into Neustria or Normandy with Rollo the Dane, had preserved their Language in their new acquists, the succeeding Conquest of Eng­land, by Duke William of his race, had not begot among us such notable alterati­ons; but having lost their Language in their abode in Normandy before they ad­ventured [Page 139] upon England, they confounded the English with their French, and made the grand mutation, which was succes­sively encreased by our possessions in Nor­mandy, Guien and Aquitain, by our long Wars in France, by frequent resort of the French, who to the number of some thou­sands came over with Isabel Queen to Ed­ward the Second, and the several Matches of England with the Daughters of France before and since that time.

But this commixture, though sufficient to confuse, proved not of ability to abolish the Saxon words; for from the French we have borrowed many Substantives, Adjec­tives and some Verbs, but the great Body of Numerals, auxiliary Verbs, Articles, Pronouns, Adverbs, Conjunctions and Prepositions, which are the distinguishing and lasting part of a Language, remain with us from the Saxon, which, having suffered no great alteration for many hun­dred years, may probably still remain, though the English swell with the in­mates of Italian, French and Latin. An Example whereof may be observ'd in this following,

Thus have you seen in few words how near the Saxon and English meet.

Now of this account the French will be able to make nothing; the modern Danes and Germans, though from several words they may conjecture at the mea­ning, yet will they be much to seek in the orderly sense and continued construc­tion [Page 146] thereof, whether the Danes can con­tinue such a series of sense out of their pre­sent Language and the old Runick, as to be intelligible unto present and ancient times, some doubt may well be made; and if the present French would attempt a Discourse in words common unto their present Tongue and the old Romana Ru­stica spoken in Elder times, or in the old Language of the Francks, which came to be in use some successions after Pharamond, it might prove a Work of some trouble to effect.

It were not impossible to make an Ori­ginal reduction of many words of no ge­neral reception in England but of common use in Norfolk, or peculiar to the East Angle Countries; as, Bawnd, Bunny, Thurck, Enemmis, Sammodithee, Mawther, Kedge, Seele, Straft, Clever, Matchly, Dere, Nicked, Stingy, Noneare, Feft, Thepes, Gos­good, Kamp, Sibrit, Fangast, Sap, Cothish, Thokish, Bide owe, Paxwax: of these and some others of no easie originals, when time will permit, the resolution may be attempted; which to effect, the Danish Language new and more ancient may prove of good advantage: which Nation remained here fifty years upon agreement, and have left many Families in it, and the Language of these parts had surely been [Page 147] more commixed and perplex, if the Fleet of Hugo de Bones had not been cast away, wherein threescore thousand Souldiers out of Britany and Flanders were to be waf­ted over, and were by King John's appoint­ment to have a settled habitation in the Counties of Norfolk and Suffolk.

But beside your laudable endeavours in the Saxon, you are not like to repent you of your studies in the other European and Western Languages, for therein are delive­red many excellent Historical, Moral and Philosophical Discourses, wherein men merely versed in the learned Languages are often at a loss: but although you are so well accomplished in the French, you will not surely conceive that you are ma­ster of all the Languages in France, for to omit the Briton, Britonant or old British, yet retained in some part of Britany, I shall onely propose this unto your con­struction.

Chavalisco d' aquestes Boemes chems an freitado lou cap cun taules Jargonades, ero necy chi voluiget bouta sin tens embè aquel­les. Anin à lous occells, che dizen tat prou ben en ein voz L' ome nosap comochodochi yen ay jes de plazer, d' ausir la mitat de paraulles en el mon.

[Page 148] This is a part of that Language which Scaliger nameth Idiotismus Tectosagicus, or Langue d' oc, counterdistinguishing it unto the Idiotismus Francicus, or Langue d' ouy, not understood in a petty corner or between a few Mountains, but in parts of early civility, in Languedoc, Provence and Catalonia, which put together will make little less than England.

Without some knowledge herein you cannot exactly understand the Works of Rablais: by this the French themselves are fain to make out that preserved relique of old French, containing the League between Charles and Lewis the Sons of Ludovicus Pius. Hereby may tolerably be understood the several Tracts written in the Catalo­nian Tongue; and in this is published the Tract of Falconry written by Theodosius and Symmachus: in this is yet conserved the Poem Vilhuardine concerning the French expedition in the Holy War, and the taking of Constantinople, among the Works of Marius Aequicola an Italian Po­et. You may find, in this Language, a pleasant Dialogue of Love: this, about an hundred years ago, was in high esteem, when many Italian Wits flocked into Pro­vence; and the famous Petrarcha wrote many of his Poems in Vaucluse in that Country.

[Page 149] For the word [Dread] in the Royal Title [Dread Sovereign] of which you desire to know the meaning, I return an­swer unto your question briefly thus.

Most men do vulgarly understand this word Dread after the common and En­glish acception, as implying Fear, Awe or Dread.

Others may think to expound it from the French word Droit or Droyt. For, whereas in elder times, the Presidents and Supremes of Courts were termed Sove­reigns, men might conceive this a distinc­tive Title and proper unto the King as e­minently and by right the Sovereign.

A third exposition may be made from some Saxon Original, particularly from Driht, Domine, or Drihten, Dominus, in the Saxon Language, the word for Domi­nus throughout the Saxon Psalms, and u­sed in the expression of the year of our Lord in the Decretal Epistle of Pope Aga­tho unto Athelred King of the Mercians, Anno, 680.

Verstegan would have this term Drihten appropriate unto God. Yet, in the Con­stitutions of V. Cl. Spelman [...] Concil. Withred King of Kent, we find the same word used for a Lord or Master, Si in vesperâ proecedente solem [Page 150] servus ex mandato Domini aliquod opus servile egerit, Dominus (Drihten) 80 so­lidis luito. However therefore, though Driht, Domine, might be most eminently applied unto the Lord of Heaven, yet might it be also transferred unto Poten­tates and Gods on Earth, unto whom fealty is given or due, according unto the Feudist term Ligeus à Ligando unto whom they were bound in fealty. And therefore from Driht, Domine, Dread Sovereign, may, probably, owe its Original.

I have not time to enlarge upon this Subject: 'Pray let this pass, as it is, for a Letter and not for a Treatise. I am

IN sundry passages of the new Testa­ment, in the Acts of the Apostles, and Epistles of S. Paul, we meet with the word Troas; how he went from Troas to Philippi in Macedonia, from thence unto [Page 158] Troas again: how he remained seven days in that place; from thence on foot to As­sos, whither the Disciples had sailed from Troas, and there, taking him in, made their Voyage unto Caesarea.

Now, whether this Troas be the name of a City or a certain Region seems no groundless doubt of yours: for that 'twas sometimes taken in the signification of some Country, is acknowledged by Orte­lius, Stephanus and Grotius; and it is plain­ly set down by Strabo, that a Region of Phrygia in Asia minor was so taken in an­cient times; and that, at the Trojan War, all the Territory which comprehended the nine Principalities subject unto the King of Ilium, [...], was called by the name of Troja. And this might seem sufficiently to salve the intention of the description, when he came or went from Troas, that is, some part of that Region; and will otherwise seem strange unto ma­ny how he should be said to go or come from that City which all Writers had laid in the Ashes about a thousand years be­fore.

All which notwithstanding, since we reade in the Text a particular abode of se­ven days, and such particulars as leaving of his Cloak, Books and Parchments at Troas: And that S. Luke seems to have [Page 159] been taken in to the Travels of S. Paul in this place, where he begins in the Acts to write in the first person, this may rather seem to have been some City or special Habitation, than any Province or Region without such limitation.

Now that such a City there was, and that of no mean note, is easily verified from historical observation. For though old Ilium was anciently destroyed, yet was there another raised by the relicts of that people, not in the same place, but about thirty Furlongs westward, as is to be learned from Strabo.

Of this place Alexander in his Expedi­tion against Darius took especial notice, endowing it with sundry Immunities, with promise of greater matters at his re­turn from Persia; inclined hereunto from the honour he bore unto Homer, whose earnest Reader he was, and upon whose Poems, by the help of Anaxarchus and Callisthenes, he made some observations. As also much moved hereto upon the ac­count of his cognation with the Aeacides and Kings of Molossus, whereof Androma­che the Wife of Hector was Queen. After the death of Alexander, Lysimachus sur­rounded it with a Wall, and brought the inhabitants of the neighbour Towns unto it, and so it bore the name of Alexandria; [Page 160] which, from Antigonus, was also called Antigonia, according to the inscription of that famous Medal in Goltsius, Colonia Troas Antigonia Alexandrea, Legio vice­sima prima.

When the Romans first went into Asia against Antiochus 'twas but a [...] and no great City; but, upon the Peace concluded, the Romans much advanced the same. Fimbria, the rebellious Roman, spoiled it in the Mithridatick War, boasting that he had subdued Troy in eleven days which the Grecians could not take in al­most as many years. But it was again re-built and countenanced by the Romans, and became a Roman Colony, with great Immunities conferred on it; and accor­dingly it is so set down by Ptolomy. For the Romans, deriving themselves from the Trojans, thought no favour too great for it; especially Julius Caesar, who, both in imitation of Alexander, and for his own descent from Julus, of the posterity of Ae­neas, with much passion affected it, and, in a discontented humour, Sueton. was once in mind to translate the Roman wealth un­to it; so that it became a very remarkable place, and was, in Strabo's time, [...], one of the noble Cities of Asia.

[Page 161] And, if they understood the prediction of Homer in reference unto the Romans, as some expound it in Strabo, it might much promote their affection unto that place; which being a remarkable pro­phecy, and scarce to be parallel'd in Pagan story, made before Rome was built, and concerning the lasting Reign of the pro­geny of Aeneas, they could not but take especial notice of it. For thus is Neptune made to speak, when he saved Aeneas from the fury of Achilles.

The Roman favours were also continu­ed unto S. Paul's days; for Sueton. Claudius, producing an ancient Letter of the Ro­mans unto King Seleucus concerning the Trojan Privileges, made a Release of their Tributes; and Nero elegantly pleaded for Tacit. l. 13. [Page 162] their Immunities, and remitted all Tributes unto them.

And, therefore, there being so remar­kable a City in this Territory, it may seem too hard to loose the same in the general name of the Country; and since it was so eminently favoured by Emperours, enjoying so many Immunities, and full of Roman Privileges, it was probably very populous, and a fit abode for S. Paul, who being a Roman Citizen, might live more quietly himself, and have no small num­ber of faithfull well-wishers in it.

Yet must we not conceive that this was the old Troy, or re-built in the same place with it: for Troas was placed about thirty Furlongs West, and upon the Sea shore; so that, to hold a clearer apprehension hereof than is commonly delivered in the Discourses of the Ruines of Troy, we may consider one Inland Troy or old Ilium, which was built farther within the Land, and so was removed from the Port where the Grecian Fleet lay in Homer; and ano­ther Maritime Troy, which was upon the Sea Coast placed in the Maps of Ptolomy, between Lectum and Sigaeum or Port Ja­nizam, Southwest from the old City, which was this of S. Paul, and whereunto are ap­pliable the particular accounts of Bellonius, when, not an hundred years ago, he de­scribed [Page 163] the Ruines of Troy with their Baths, Aqueducts, Walls and Towers, to be seen from the Sea as he sailed between it and Tenedos; and where, upon nearer view, he observed some signs and im­pressions of his conversion in the ruines of Churches, Crosses, and Inscriptions upon Stones.

Nor was this onely a famous City in the days of S. Paul, but considerable long af­ter. For, upon the Letter of Adrianus, Philostrat. in Vita Herodis Attici. Herodes Atticus, at a great charge, repai­red their Baths, contrived Aqueducts and noble Water-courses in it. As is also col­lectible from the Medals of Caracalla, of Severus, and Crispina; with Inscriptions, Colonia Alexandria Troas, bearing on the Reverse either an Horse, a Temple, or a Woman; denoting their destruction by an Horse, their prayers for the Empe­rour's safety, and, as some conjecture, the memory of Sibylla, Phrygia or Hellespon­tica.

Nor wanted this City the favour of Christian Princes, but was made a Bishop's See under the Archbishop of Cyzicum; but in succeeding discords was destroyed and ruined, and the nobler Stones translated to Constantinople by the Turks to beautifie their Mosques and other Buildings.

AMong the See Vulg. Err. l. 7. c. 12. Oracles of Apollo there are none more celebrated than those which he delivered unto Croesus King of Herod. l. 1. 46, 47, &c. 90, 91. Lydia, who seems of all Princes to have held the greatest depen­dence on them. But most considerable are his plain and intelligible replies which he made unto the same King, when he [Page 168] sent his Chains of Captivity unto Delphos, after his overthrow by Cyrus, with sad expostulations why he encouraged him unto that fatal War by his Oracle, saying, Herod. Ibid. 54. [...], Croesus, if he Wars against the Persians, shall dissolve a great Empire. Why, at least, he prevented not that sad infelicity of his devoted and bountifull Servant, and whether it were fair or honourable for the Gods of Greece to be ingratefull: which being a plain and open delivery of Delphos, and scarce to be parallel'd in any ancient story, it may well deserve your farther consideration.

1. His first reply was, That Croesus suffered not for himself; but paid the trans­gression of his fifth predecessour, who kill'd his Master and usurp'd the dignity unto which he held no title.

Now whether Croesus suffered upon this account or not, hereby he plainly betray­ed his insufficiency to protect him; and also obliquely discovered he had a know­ledge of his misfortune; for knowing that wicked act lay yet unpunished, he might well divine some of his successours might smart for it: and also understanding he was like to be the last of that race, he [Page 169] might justly fear and conclude this infeli­city upon him.

Hereby he also acknowledged the ine­vitable justice of God; that though Re­venge lay dormant, it would not always sleep; and consequently confessed the just hand of God punishing unto the third and fourth generation, nor suffering such ini­quities to pass for ever unrevenged.

Hereby he flatteringly encouraged him in the opinion of his own merits, and that he onely suffered for other mens transgres­sions: mean while he concealed Croesus his pride, elation of mind and secure con­ceit of his own unparallel'd felicity, toge­ther with the vanity, pride and height of luxury of the Lydian Nation, which the Spirit of Delphos knew well to be ripe and ready for destruction.

2. A Second excuse was, That it is not in the power of God to hinder the Decree of Fate. A general evasion for any falsifi­ed prediction founded upon the common opinion of Fate, which impiously subjec­teth the power of Heaven unto it; wide­ly discovering the folly of such as repair unto him concerning future events: which, according unto this rule, must go on as the Fates have ordered, beyond his power to prevent or theirs to avoid; and conse­quently [Page 170] teaching that his Oracles had one­ly this use to render men more miserable by foreknowing their misfortunes; where­of Croesus himself held a sensible experi­ence in that Daemoniacal Dream concer­ning his eldest Son, That he should be kil­led by a Spear, which, after all care and caution, he found inevitably to befall him.

3. In his Third Apology he assured him that he endeavoured to transfer the evil Fate and to pass it upon his Children; and did however procrastinate his infeli­city, and deferred the destruction of Sar­dis and his own Captivity three years lon­ger than was fatally decreed upon it.

Wherein while he wipes off the stain of Ingratitude, he leaves no small doubt whe­ther, it being out of his power to contra­dict or transfer the Fates of his Servants, it be not also beyond it to defer such sig­nal events, and whereon the Fates of whole Nations do depend.

As also, whether he intended or endea­voured to bring to pass what he pretended, some question might be made. For that he should attempt or think he could trans­late his infelicity upon his Sons, it could not consist with his judgment, which at­tempts not impossibles or things beyond his power; nor with his knowledge of [Page 171] future things, and the Fates of succeeding Generations: for he understood that Mo­narchy was to expire in himself, and could particularly foretell the infelicity of his Sons, and hath also made remote predic­tions unto others concerning the fortunes of many succeeding descents; as appears in that answer unto Attalus,

As also unto Cypselus King of Corinth.

Now, being able to have so large a pro­spect of future things, and of the fate of many Generations, it might well be gran­ted he was not ignorant of the Fate of Croe­sus his Sons, and well understood it was in vain to think to translate his misery upon them.

4. In the Fourth part of his reply, he clears himself of Ingratitude which Hell it self cannot hear of; alledging that he had saved his life when he was ready to [Page 172] be burnt, by sending a mighty Showre, in a fair and cloudless day, to quench the Fire already kindled, which all the Ser­vants of Cyrus could not doe. Though this Shower might well be granted, as much concerning his honour, and not be­yond his power; yet whether this merci­full Showre fell not out contingently or were not contrived by an higher power, which hath often pity upon Pagans, and rewardeth their vertues sometimes with extraordinary temporal favours; also, in no unlike case, who was the authour of those few fair minutes, which, in a show­ry day, gave onely time enough for the burning of Sylla's Body, some question might be made.

5. The last excuse devolveth the errour and miscarriage of the business upon Croe­sus, and that he deceived himself by an inconsiderate misconstruction of his Oracle, that if he had doubted, he should not have passed it over in silence, but consulted a­gain for an exposition of it. Besides, he had neither discussed, nor well perpended his Oracle concerning Cyrus, whereby he might have understood not to engage a­gainst him.

Wherein, to speak indifferently, the de­ception and miscarriage seems chiefly to [Page 173] lie at Croesus his door, who, if not infatua­ted with confidence and security, might justly have doubted the construction: be­sides, he had received two Oracles before, which clearly hinted an unhappy time un­to him: the first concerning Cyrus.

Herein though he understood not the Me­dian Mule of Cyrus, that is, of his mixed descent, and from Assyrian and Median Parents, yet he could not but apprehend some misfortune from that quarter.

Though this prediction seemed a no­table piece of Divination, yet did it not so highly magnifie his natural sagacity or knowledge of future events as was by ma­ny esteemed; he having no small assistance herein from the Prophecy of Daniel con­cerning the Persian Monarchy, and the Prophecy of Jeremiah and Isaiah, wherein he might reade the name of Cyrus who should restore the Captivity of the Jews, and must, therefore, be the great Monarch and Lord of all those Nations.

The same misfortune was also foretold when he demanded of Apollo if ever he should hear his dumb Son speak.

This, if he contrived not the time and the means of his recovery, was no ordi­nary divination: yet how to make out the verity of the story some doubt may yet remain. For though the causes of deafness and dumbness were removed, yet since words are attained by hearing, and men speak not without instruction, how he should be able immediately to utter such apt and significant words, as Herod. l. 1. 85. [...], O Man slay not Croesus, it cannot escape some doubt, since the Story also delivers, that he was deaf and dumb, that he then first began to speak, and spake all his life after.

Now, if Croesus had consulted again for a clearer exposition of what was doubt­fully delivered, whether the Oracle would have spake out the second time or affor­ded a clearer answer, some question might be made from the examples of his practice upon the like demands.

So when the Spartans had often fought with ill success against the Tegeates, they [Page 175] consulted the Oracle what God they should appease, to become victorious o­ver them. The answer was, that they should remove the Bones of Orestes. Though the words were plain, yet the thing was obscure, and like finding out the Body of Moses. And therefore they once more demanded in what place they should find the same; unto whom he returned this an­swer,

Which obscure reply the wisest of Sparta could not make out, and was casually un­riddled by one talking with a Smith who had found large Bones of a Man buried about his House; the Oracle importing no more than a Smith's Forge, expressed by a double Bellows, the Hammer and Anvil therein.

Now, why the Oracle should place such consideration upon the Bones of Orestes the Son of Agamemnon, a mad man and a mur­therer, [Page 176] if not to promote the idolatry of the Heathens, and maintain a superstitious veneration of things of no activity, it may leave no small obscurity.

Or why, in a business so clear in his knowledge, he should affect so obscure ex­pressions it may also be wondred; if it were not to maintain the wary and eva­sive method in his answers: for, speaking obscurely in things beyond doubt within his knowledge, he might be more tole­rably dark in matters beyond his presci­ence.

Though EI were inscribed over the Gate of Delphos, yet was there no unifor­mity in his deliveries. Sometimes with that obscurity as argued a fearfull prophe­cy; sometimes so plainly as might confirm a spirit of divinity; sometimes morally, de­terring from vice and villany; another time vitiously, and in the spirit of bloud and cruelty: observably modest in his civil enigma and periphrasis of that part which old Numa would plainly Plut. in Thes. name, and Medea would not understand, when he advised Aegeus not to draw out his foot before, untill he arriv'd upon the Atheni­an ground; whereas another time he see­med too literal in that unseemly epithet unto Cyanus King of * Cyprus, and put a † V. Herod. beastly trouble upon all Aegypt to find out [Page 177] the Urine of a true Virgin. Sometimes, more beholding unto memory than inven­tion, he delighted to express himself in the bare Verses of Homer. But that he principally affected Poetry, and that the Priest not onely or always composed his prosal raptures into Verse, seems plain from his necromantical Prophecies, whilst the dead Head in Phlegon delivers a long Prediction in Verse; and at the raising of the Ghost of Commodus unto Caracalla, when none of his Ancestours would speak, the divining Spirit versified his infelicities; corresponding herein to the apprehensions of elder times, who conceived not onely a Majesty but something of Divinity in Poetry, and as in ancient times the old Theologians delivered their inventions.

Some critical Readers might expect in his oraculous Poems a more than ordinary strain and true spirit of Apollo; not con­tented to find that Spirits make Verses like Men, beating upon the filling Epithet, and taking the licence of dialects and lower helps, common to humane Poetry; wherein, since Scaliger, who hath spa­red none of the Greeks, hath thought it wisedom to be silent, we shall make no excursion.

Others may wonder how the curiosity of elder times, having this opportunity of [Page 178] his Answers, omitted Natural Questions; or how the old Magicians discovered no more Philosophy; and if they had the as­sistance of Spirits, could rest content with the bare assertions of things, without the knowledge of their causes; whereby they had made their Acts iterable by sober hands, and a standing part of Philosophy. Many wise Divines hold a reality in the wonders of the Aegyptian Magicians, and that those magnalia which they performed before Pharaoh were not mere delusions of Sense. Rightly to understand how they made Serpents out of Rods; Froggs and Bloud of Water, were worth half Porta's Magick.

Hermolaus Barbarus was scarce in his wits, when, upon conference with a Spi­rit, he would demand no other question than the explication of Aristotle's Entele­cheia. Appion the Grammarian, that would raise the Ghost of Homer to decide the Controversie of his Country, made a fri­volous and pedantick use of Necromancy. Philostratus did as little, that call'd up the Ghost of Achilles for a particular of the Story of Troy. Smarter curiosities would have been at the great Elixir, the Flux and Reflux of the Sea, with other noble ob­scurities in Nature; but probably all in vain: in matters cognoscible and framed [Page 179] for our disquisition, our Industry must be our Oracle, and Reason our Apollo.

Not to know things without the Arch of our intellectuals, or what Spirits appre­hend, is the imperfection of our nature not our knowledge, and rather inscience than ignorance in man. Revelation might render a great part of the Creation easie which now seems beyond the stretch of humane indagation, and welcome no doubt from good hands might be a true Alma­gest, and great celestial construction: a clear Systeme of the planetical Bodies of the invisible and seeming useless Stars un­to us, of the many Suns in the eighth Sphere, what they are, what they con­tain and to what more immediately those stupendious Bodies are serviceable. But being not hinted in the authentick Reve­lation of God, nor known how far their discoveries are stinted; if they should come unto us from the mouth of evil Spirits, the belief thereof might be as unsafe as the enquiry.

This is a copious Subject; but, having exceeded the bounds of a Letter, I will not, now, pursue it farther. I am

I Take no pleasure in Prophecies so hard­ly intelligible, and pointing at future things from a pretended spirit of Divi­nation; of which sort this seems to be which came unto your hand, and you were pleased to send unto me. And there­fore, for your easier apprehension, diver­tisement [Page 182] and consideration, I present you with a very different kind of prediction: not positively or peremptorily telling you what shall come to pass; yet pointing at things not without all reason or probabili­ty of their events; not built upon fatal decrees, or inevitable designations, but up­on conjectural foundations, whereby things wished may be promoted, and such as are feared, may more probably be prevented.

WITH many thanks I return that noble Catalogue of Books, Rari­ties and Singularities of Art and Nature, which you were pleased to communicate unto me. There are many Collections of this kind in Europe. And, besides the prin­ted accounts of the Musaeum Aldrovandi, [Page 194] Calceolarianum, Moscardi, Wormianum; the Casa Abbellita at Loretto, and Threasor of S. Dennis, the Repository of the Duke of Tuscany, that of the Duke of Saxony, and that noble one of the Emperour at Vienna, and many more are of singular note. Of what in this kind I have by me I shall make no repetition, and you having al­ready had a view thereof, I am bold to present you with the List of a Collection, which I may justly say you have not seen before.

The Title is, as above,

Musaeum Clausum, or Bibliotheca Abscon­dita: containing some remarkable Books, Antiquities, Pictures and Rarities of seve­ral kinds, scarce or never seen by any man now living.