the building of the Tabernacle peoples bounty was refrained with a flat prohibition to bring in no more why no such restraint appears at the building of the Temple where far greater masses of metall were presented for the erection thereof But it is answered that moderate or competent state best became the Tabernacle resembling the kingdome of grace whilest the Temple was not capable of excess in magnificence representing the kingdome of glory No hands could contribute too much to the Type where no heart can conceive enough of the truth the things which God hath prepared for them that love him not entering into humane imagination § 9. Besides these materialls David prescribed the modell which he gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch and of the houses thereof and of the treasures thereof and of the upper chambers thereof and of the inner parlours thereof and of the palace of the Mercy-seat and the pattern of all that he had by the Spirit And it followeth not far after All this said David the Lord made mee to understand in writing by his hand upon me even all the works of this pattern Here David for the more certainty had a double direction one by the Spirit the other by writing to stand on record in perpetuam rei memoriam These two did not contradict but confirm each other because he who hath learned his lesson most perfectly by heart may notwithstanding sometimes have need to have recourse unto and make use of his notes § 10. However herein the note of the Geneva translation is very considerable thus glossing on the text For all this was left in writing in the book of the Law Exod. 15. 40. which book the King was bound to put in execution Deut. 17. 19. Thus making David not by propheticall revelation but prudentiall collection to arrive at the knowledge of the Prototype of the Temple by a writing being no new or immediate manuscript from heaven but the ancient Scripture delivering the modell and dimensions of the Tabernacle to Moses Yet so that the dead letter in the word was quickened and enlivened in Davids heart by Gods Spirit teaching him to observe a generall conformity betwixt the Tabernacle and Temple yet with those due and necessary alterations as were requisite betwixt the one a small and moveable fabrick and the other a large and standing structure An interpretation easier cavilled at then confuted because such the Analogy betwixt these two edifices Facies non una duabus Nec diversa tamen qualis decet esse sororum Their faces neither diverse nor the same But such as sisters very well became The latter being none other then the imitation of the former with proportionable addition as indeed what is the Tabernacle of Grace but the Temple of Glory contracted or the Temple of Glory but the Tabernacle of Grace dilated § 11. This * pattern was imparted to David who had the holier though Solomon the larger heart and no doubt his son exactly observed the same Yet can I not beleeve that Solomon was altogether so pattern-bound as Moses who was so confined to his instruction that his hand might not write a letter yea not make a flourish more then was in his Copy And a knop or flower in the Candlestick under or over was a mortall transgression More probable it is that Hirams fancy Solomons Architect was not pressed in all particulars but was left a volunteire for some descants of Art whilest for the main he kept himself to the ground-work prescribed unto him § 12. Besides materialls and modell David purchased the floor whereon the Temple was erected a floor paved with mysteries Here on mount Moriah an Angell stayed the stretched-out hand of Abraham from killing Isaac and in the same place God stayed the sword of the destroying Angell from slaying the Israelites with the pestilence No place therefore more precious more cordiall or soveraign to build a Temple in then this which was twice confirmed with Probatum est stamped with a double impression of Gods favour upon it This floor David bought of Araunah the Iebusite from whom he would not take it of gift that hereafter it might not be said that the Temple had no better title to the ground whereon it was built then the meer gratuity of such a man whom most conceive to be but a Pagan Indeed a main matter to make a structure stand firme is to found it on ground lawfully purchased and honestly payed for otherwise that floor which for substance is a rock will in point of right be found but a sandy foundation § 13. On this place David built an Altar giving it this large character This is the house of the Lord God and this is the Altar of the burnt-offering for Israel Now as the heart is the Primum vivens in a creature so this Altar was the first thing erected in the Temple though for the present made of such mean matter as that hasty occasion would give leave Here it stood many years after even untill the brazen Altar of a firmer Fabrick was substituted in the room thereof Either to this did Ioab fly and caught hold in vain of the horns thereof three years before the Temple was built or else to some other Altar near the Tabernacle in Sion For seeing those passages betwixt him and Solomon were transacted in the City of Ierusalem certain it is he fled not to the Altar as yet at Gibeon distanced some miles from this place § 14. If it be demanded why David thus diligent to provide for the Temple was forbidden to build it a double reason is rendered thereof First because he had been a man of war and his martiall reign incumbred with constant battells afforded not a peaceable conveniency sutable to such a design Secondly because he had shed much bloud upon the earth in Gods sight which principally related to his killing of Uriah Say not that Solomon also was a man of bloud having ordered the executions of Ioab Shimei and Adoniah doing it in a judiciall way not violent and murdering manner as David had done And although his serious repentance had cured the wound in his conscience yet God suffered the scare in his credit so far to remain as to render him uncanonicall or irregular for such an imployment However in some sense David may be said to have built the Temple Namely in Gods gracious acception of the readiness of his will for the performance thereof CHAP. II. An army of workmen imployed by Solomon in the building of the Temple § 1. NOw Solomon his son being a peaceable Prince as his name imports in his quiet reign began the building of the Temple Thus as Cryers make an Oyes to silence all noise that men may the better attend to the Judge when beginning his Charge so by a generall peace the rage of all people was stilled before God
latter been if as zealous for the substance as for the shadow losing their own lives to maintain the type and taking away his life who was the truth thereof Then balsame intended by nature for the curing was the causing of many wounds such deadly blows passed betwixt them § 29. Ioshua took this City with the sound of Rams horns whereat the wall fell down to the ground It troubleth me not to conceive how the rest of the wall falling flat Rahabs house built thereon should stand upright seeing divine power which miraculously gave the Rule might accordingly make the Exception A solemn curse was by Ioshua imposed on those who should rebuild the walls of Iericho so to obliterate the monument of divine power and justice § 30. But Iericho thus dismantled maintained the reputation of a City and though not walled with stone for defence was shaded with trees for pleasure It is called the City of Palmes where Ehud killed Eglon the corpulent King of Moab growing so plentifully round about it These Palmes or Date-trees had scaly barks and the boughs were generally used in all combates of manhood to crown the conquerour For as Erasmus observeth though severall countries on sundry occasions had distinct garlands of victory made of Laurell Olive Myrtle Oake c. yet the Palme-tree carried away the palme from them all and was universally entertained as the Embleme of triumph The worst I wish these trees is that they may never want store of weight seeing Naturalists observe the more they are depressed the more they flourish § 31. But to return to Iericho it is ill hollowing in the eares of a sleeping Lion and worse awaking that dust which God would have dormant in eternall obscurity See this in the walls of Iericho which Hiel the Bethelite affronting heaven built again and according to Ioshua's execration laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his first borne and set up the gates thereof in Segub his youngest son that is both the one and the other were then destroied by untimely deaths Strange that seeing his first son drop away he desisted not from that design but such the precipice of bad projects once step in and seldome stop in the way of wickedness Nor can Hiels presumption herein be excused whatsoever is pretended in his behalf being led to this act of contempt by one of these considerations 1 Hâ— mistook Ioshua's curse rather for a patheticall expression then propheticall prediction 2 He conceived the virtue thereof worn out and antiquated after five hundred years continuance 3 He chose rather to bottome his memory on so famous a structure then to build it on his posterity as sooner likely to decay However Hiel got a curse and Iericho walls thereby which afterwards grew to be a potent and populous City § 32. When the twelve Tribes were divided into two kingdomes Iericho probably pertained to Israel as may appâ—ar 1 By the frequent conversing of Eliah and Elisha in this City sufficiently known to have been subjects of the crown of Israel 2 Because Hiel the Bethelite Beth-el belonging to Israel built the walls thereof 3 Because that building bears date in the days of Ahab and is not accounted according to the reign of Iehoshaphat the contemporary King of Iudah Afterwards it was in the possession of the Kings of Iudah because in the reign of Ahaz the captives of Iudah are said to be brought back to Iericho unto their brethren When carried into Babylon no more then three hundred fourty five of this City returned home whose zeale was very forward in repairing the walls of Ierusalem § 33. Here Christ cured blind Bartimeus and Zacheus the Publican one of more state then stature dwelt in this City Long had he wished for a sight of Christ and curiosity in this kinde may sometimes open the door for devotion to enter in But alass he was so low more likely in the crowd to loss himself then finde his Saviour till on a suddain he grows a proper man by getting up into a Sycamore tree Who dares say Sycamores are always barren See one here loaden with good fruit Christ seeing him invites himself to his house and down he comes with more speed no doubt then he gat up to welcome his guest with good cheer though the last-course he brought in was the best protesting a fourfold restitution of what he had wrongfully gotten and giving the half of his remaining estate unto the poor § 34. Iericho was surrounded with plains on every side Hither King Zedekiah fled and here was taken by the forces of Babylon The high-way betwixt Iericho and Ierusalem is infamous for theeving because of the covert the neighbouring wilderness affords and great roads are the best rivers for robbers to fish in Wonder not that so short a way betwixt two such eminent Cities was no better secured seeing some hundred years since little safer was the road betwixt London and Saint Albans till an Abbot of that place cut down the woods that afforded them shelter Reader if thy occasion should call thee to goe from Iericho to Ierusalem I wish thee well guarded but if it be thy hard hap with the man in the Gospell be it history or parable to be robbed and wounded with theeves mayst thou meet with some good Samaritan to convey thee to the Inne and provide necessaries for thee § 35. West of the waters of Iericho stood Ai a small City but great enough to give a check to the full speed of Israels victories Their losse here was inconsiderable in it self no more then thirty six men but dangerous in the consequence thereof Such a flaw in their orient success made them cheap in the worlds valuation and the Canaanites who hitherto had charactred them invincible in their apprehension began hence to collect and conclude a possibility of conquering them Yet not valour too little in such as fought but sin too much in some who staid at home caused this defeat Achan was the man who in fine proved no whit richer for the gold or warmer for the garment he had stolen Detected by lot accused by his conscience convicted by his own confession condemned by Ioshua he with his children and cattle is stoned by the Israelites The place of his execution was called the vale of Achor or the vale of trouble both because Achan actively had troubled Israel with his sin and because here he was justly troubled by them in his punishment As for the promise of the Prophet in after ages that the vale of Achor should be a door of hope understand it mystically that the most deplorable and seemingly desperate estate of the Church is capable of comfort and may in Gods due time be changed into a prosperous condition Achan thus punished how active are the Armes of the Israelites when freed from the fetters of Sacriledge Ai is quickly conquered the
opened his eyes that they could stop his mouth from the acknowledging thereof His constancy herein cost him an excommunication and a casting out of the Synagogue The best was the power of the Keys when abused doth not shut the door of Heaven but in such cases onely shoot the bolt besides the lock not debarring the innocent person entrance thereat § 15. The supernaturall pool of Bethesda by the Sheep-market remains whose waters when at a certain season moved by an Angel were medicinall to cure the first commer thereinto whatsoâ—ver disease he had A learned man conceiveth that when Eliashib the high Priest after their return from Babylon with his brethren first began hereabouts to build the sheep-gate and sanctifie it to divine service as leading to the Temple God then and there in approbation of his Act indued the Pool hard by with this soveraign sanative quality but this we leave with the Author § 16. By this Pool an Infirmary was built for maimed folk to lodge in and attend the troubling of the waters How well was Gods bounty and mans charity here met together Commendable it was that rich men did not engross this Spaw to themselves but permitted poor people not able to use Physick and Surgery the benefit thereof This Hospitall for building consisted of five Porches not that the defective in the five senses lame blinde deaf c. were here severally disposed of by themselves but no doubt all promiscuously put together In this Colledge of Cripples he for his seniority might have been the Master thereof who had been longer lame then most men live and now past the fift climactericall of his disease where with he had been afflicted full thirty eight years Indeed so impossible was the conditions of his recovery that being lame He must run before he could goe for seeing the first commer was only served he must hast with speed into the pool after the moving thereof whilst he alas wanted strength to help himself wanted money to hire others and others wanted mercy freely to give him their assistance But because he could not goe to health Health was graciously pleased to come to him and he was cured miraculously by our Saviour § 17. And thus much of the Walls Gates Towers and Waters about Ierusalem come we now into the City it self which anciently consisted of two principall parts therefore dual in the Hebrew Sion on the southwest and Ierusalem properly so called on the north thereof which we proceed in order to describe with the places of principall note therein contained CHAP. VII Of Davids Palace the High-priests houses the Coenaculum and other memorable places in mount Sion § 1. WE begin with mount Sion making that first which God most favoured who loved the Gates of Sion more then all the tabernacles of Iacob Here first our eyes are entertained with the stately Palace of David Hiram King of Tyre sending him timber and workmen for the building thereof Flat was the roof of this palace whereon David sate and from whence he beheld Bathsheba hard by is her house bathing her self I cannot excuse her action herein If policy be jealous that hedges may have eares modesty may suspect lest the motes in the aire have eyes But see here divine justice As this roof was the place whereon Davids lust did burn first so thereon Absaloms incest did blaze farthest lying here with his Fathers Concubines This he easily did at the perswasion of Achitophel those spurres needing no rowels which are to prick forward graceless youth into wantonness But that hellish Politician did this to set such a distance betwixt Sire and Son that the affection of the one might never meet with the submission of the other the breach hereafter being made so deep and wide that no bridge of reconciliation might be built betwixt them § 2. Under the Romans this Palace was turned into a Castle where a Garrison was kept to over-awe the City Once the honour now the terrour once the beauty now the bridle of Ierusalem Upon the fair stairs leading thereto stood Saint Paul when he made his speech to the people hearing him with great silence because he spake in the Hebrew tongue untill he came to that passage of preaching to the Gentiles which though spoken in Hebrew was no good Hebrew to his auditours but false construction breach of Jewish priviledg when they turned their attentive eares into railing tongues away with such a fellow from off the earth § 3. And now to shew the frailty of humane happiness pass we from the palace of these Kings to their burying place seeing Sion in a double respect may be called the Westminster of Ierusalem because the Kings thereof resided there while living and rested when dead The reader shall pay nothing but his pains in following me whilest I shew him these royall remains We may observe four gradations of honour in these interments 1 Wicked Amon was buried in his own house not under the roof but within the verge of the wall thereof and so was Manasseh whose true but late repentance was effectuall to save his soul but not his kingdome from destruction 2 Cruell Ioram who had no compassion whilest living therefore no bowels wheÌ„ dying was buried by himself in the city of David neither fire nor water neither burning nor mourning made for him 3 Godly but leprous Uzziah being ceremoniously unclean was interred in the field of the buriall which belonged to the Kings understand it within the suburbs but without the walls of their solemn sepultures 4 All the rest were intombed in a stately place set apart for that purpose namely David the holy the man after Gods own heart Solomon the wise when old befooled by his wives Rehoboam the simple whose rigour rent ten Tribes from his kingdome Abiah the wicked but valiant and fortunate in fight Asa the upright whose heart was perfect all his days Iehosaphat the just whose heart was lift up in the ways of the Lord Ahaziah the Idolater whose onely coÌ„mendation was that he raigned but one year Ioash the backslider the lease of whose goodness determined with his uncles life Amaziah the rash worsted in a needless war against the King of Israel Iotham the peaceable who built the highest gate to the house of the Lord Ahaz the profane who in the time of his distress yet trespassed more against the Lord Hezekiah the pious who destroied the high places Iosiah the tender-hearted who melted at Gods threatnings denounced against the people of the Iews § 4. Amongst these still I miss Iehojakim and long seeking for his tombe light at last on the Prophets threatning he shall be buried with the buriall of an Asse drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Ierusalem § 5. Now as it were in exchange of Iehojakim excluded we finde Ieâ—ojada admitted among
corresponcie with the Israelites Saul when sent against the Amalekites was very civill to these southern Kenites both warning and wishing them seasonably to depart at which time I conceive they hitched their Habitations a little more Northward and nearer to Iuduh These Kenites though Gentiles and strangers were kinder to David then the Keilites Iews of his own Tribe who though engaged to David for delivering them from their enemies yet ungratefully intended to betray him to Saul Whereas the Kenites though bound to Saul for a late favour received from him yet protected Davids innocence from Sauls persecution their Cities being one of Davids Topicks or place where he haunted and whither he sent part of the spoile he had taken from the Amalekites § 54. Here let Balaams prophecy be well heeded when looking on the Kenites Strong saith he is thy dwelling place and thou puttest thy nest in A ROCK nevertheless the Kenites shall be wasted untill or rather whilst Ashur shall carry thee away captive By Rock besides the locall position of their dwelling we understand their confederacy and association with the Iews in the true Religion being accounted Proselytes and sharing with them in the same success as carried away by the Assyrian to Babylon and returning again when the rest of the Iews were restored seeing we finde some Kenites mentioned after the captivity and are as the text intimates conceived to be the same with abstemious Familie of the Rechabites Here the draught of the Tabernacle is to be inserted Icon TABERNACVLI ex Aria Montano desumpta GENERALL OBSERVATIONS ON THE TABERNACLE CHAP. IV. § 1. IN all peaceable times even from the infancy of mankinde certain places were set apart for Gods publick service Thus the ancient Patriarchs no sooner pitched down their tents but they reared up an Altar for divine worship Indeed this laudable custome had been intermitted discontinued and suspended during the Israelites affliction in Egypt making hard shift to serve God with safety and secrecy in their own houses when publick places of adoration were prohibited as always in time of persecution any place which hath the properties of Capacity and Privacy to hold and hide the people assembled therein may serve for that purpose But no sooner were the Israelites restored to their liberty though as yet but in a barren wilderness but that God issued out order for the erection of his Tabernacle to place his Name and fix his peoples devotion therein § 2. The materials of this Tabernacle were taken from the Egyptians when the Israelites at their departure borrowed of them jewels of silver and jewels of gold The text saith according to the old Translation that they robbed the Egyptians as indeed to borrow with an intent never to pay is no better then flat felony But although this act of the Israelites was robbery quoad effectum leaving the Egyptians spoiled and naked yet it was none quoad reatum having not onely a Commission but Command from God for the same And albeit the Egyptians are in some sense then said to lend to the Israelites yet in very deed they did but pay back their due unto them § 3. See what it is to detain the wages of the hireling Many a year had these Israelites and their Fathers toiled and moiled in Egypt and had nothing for their pains but their labour But now both the Principall and Consideration for their forbearance thereof was laid them down in a lump all together Indeed they are said to have builded Treasure Cities for Pharaoh whereas in fine Pharaoh proved but the Treasurer and Storer for them carefully keeping their money for them till it amounted to a mass for their greater benefit which if formerly payed them by inconsiderable parcels might possibly have been spent as fast as received § 4. Amongst the materials offered for the building of the Tahernacle all Persons presented things proportionable to their own professions and conditions The Princes brought Precious stones rich people Gold and Silver the middle sort fine Linneu and Brass not an ounce of iron being used in all the Fabrick and the meanest Goates haire and Badgers skins And as men sent their purses so the women lent their pains the wise hearted amongst them spinning with their hands blue soarlet and fine linnen for the Tabernacle § 5. Behold here how all advanced Gods work yet every one continued in his own vocation Blame worthy their Pride who will be nothing if they may not all be Bezaleels at the building of the Tabernacle How shall they preach except they be sent De jure How can they preach lawfully and comfortably though de facto they presume to doe it although but to the small profit of others and great danger of themselves § 6. But that which most commended the offering of the Isrâ—elites in the sight of God was their readiness and willingness therein None were rated or taxed to this work but all flowed freely from them This purified poor peoples Brass into refined gold and changed their Goats-hair into silk in Gods acceptance thereof Otherwise many may be the Item's in mens Account and yet all of them amount to just nothing in divine acceptation onely for the want of a good Imprimis For if there be FIRST a willing minde it is accepted according to that a man hath and not that he hath not § 7. One main motive which made them more bountifull was to expiate the late guilt that they had contracted by making the Calfe when off went the ear-rings of the women and their children to that Idolatrous use They were therefore engaged to drown that stain with a more plentifull stream of gifts to Gods service Thus the consideration how prodigall we have formerly been to sin and Satan ought to make us hereafter more liberall in the performance of divine duties For as yee have yeelded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity even so now yeeld your members servants to righteousness unto holiness § 8. Yea such was the spring-tyde of the Israelites bounty herein that to prevent the danger of a deluge bounds were set thereunto Hither shalt thou come and no further They brought much more then enough for the sâ—rvice of the work which the Lord had commanded to make Insomuch that Moses issued out a Proclamation of restraint that no more should be brought to that purpose Oh the shame that peoples liberality under the Law should need a bridle which needs a spur under the Gospell § 9. Here we may take notice of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and contented minde of Moses Had he been possesâ—ed with the humour of the Horse-leach Give give yea had he been but pleased to have been the Cistern whilest the children of Israel were glad to be the fountain what a mass of money might he have
No that was situate among the rivers that had the waters round about it whose rampart was the sea and her wall was from the sea Ethiopia and Egypt was her strength and it was Infinite Put and Lubim were thy helpers Yet was she carried away she went into captivity her young men also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets and they cast lots for honorable men and all her great men were bound in chains It will hardly appear elsewhere in Scripture that Infiniteness is attributed to any created greatness and here we see what became of it so that the ruines of No may have this Epitaph written upon them Hîc jacet finis infiniti § 24. The estern stream of Nilus from the east receiveth the river Trajanus on the south side whereof stood the City On Onii in Ptolemaeus whereof Potipherah was Prince or Priest whose daughter Asenath Ioseph took to wife Aven is hard by a City against which Ezekiel prophesied and by some is made the same with Heliopolis This Heliopolis or Bethshemesh is generally conceived the place though not named in Scripture where our Saviour before he could go forced to fly from the fury of Herod being a babe abode with his parents What he did here besides sucking of his mothers breast is not recorded in the Gospell though one presumes to tell us how the Egyptian Idols at his entring into the land felt a shaking ague and fell down in homage to him as once Dagon to the Ark. Another relates how this infant sate under a great tree which out of dutifulness bowed down to him because his short armes could not reach the branches thereof A third reports of a fountain betwixt Heliopolis and Babylon purified to a medicinall virtue from the foulness of the Babes clothes washed by his mother therein All which Non credimus quia non legimus Thus Authors conceiving it not to stand with the state of Christ to live obscurely in Egypt furnish him with faigned miracles to make him more illustrious and therein mark not the main intent of Divine Providence For in this clandestine flight of his Son God intended not to present him in a glorious appearance but to lessen humble empty him so that his poverty in it self considered was a rich miracle especially seeing we are stayed by his flight and brought home by his banishment Besides the Scripture expresly termeth his turning of water into wine at Cana in Galilee the beginning of his miracles § 25. The precise time of Christs residence in Egypt is not set down but surely his stay here was not so long as to tanne the Virgin Mary and dye her complexion into a Black-more as she is presented in her Chapell of Lauretta I deny not but the purest beauties are soonest subject to sunburning but such a face better became Christs Spouse then his mother I am black but comely ô yee daughters of Ierusalem Nor should I much wonder at the colour in her face if onely the fancy of a libertine Painter had not so many learned men made her picture the object of their adoration Yet the darkness of her face here is as avouchable as the brightness of her clothes elsewhere glistering with gold and rich stuffe some pretended reliques whereof at Paris the finer they are the falser they are better beseeming her ancient royall extraction then her husbands present poor and painfull condition Yet such gorgeous apparell was not so much above her means as such garish attire wherewith some Painters doe dress her was against the modesty of that ever blessed Virgin But pardon our digression and we return to oâ—r matter § 26. Just at the confluence of Trajanus and Nilus stood the once famous City of Babylon though in antiquity greatness and strength far inferiour to a City of the same name in Chaldea It is not yet decided which of these two Saint Peter intended when writing The Church which is at Babylon elected together with you saluteth you and so doth Marcus my Son Protestant Divines generally interpret this of the great Chaldean Babylon where moe Iews dwelt then in any one place which was without the land of Palestine and therefore probable that Saint Peter being the Apostle of the Circumcision might sometimes reside there yet seeing Marcus is mentioned in the same verse who is notoriously known to have lived in this land and once to have been Patriarch of Alexandria why might not this our Egyptian Babylon be here meant by the Apostle But Popish writers are so fond to have Saint Peter at Rome that here they will have Rome mystically to be termed Babylon Good luck have she with her honour always provided that if Rome will be Babylon in this Epistle to gain Peters presence she shall be Babylon in the Revelation on whom those plagues and punishments are denounced But such as plead her heir-apparent to the former endevour to cut off the entail that the latter may not descend upon her § 27. To return to the eastern stream of Nilus which runneth through the land of Pathros Into which the remnant of the Israâ—lites left by the King of Babylon returned under the conduct of Iohanan the son of Kareah contrary to Gods flat command by the mouth of Ieremiah They took also him and Baruch the scribe pity to part them but that the mouth and â—and should go together no doubt against their consents and brought them down hither into the land of Egypt partly out of policy though they would cast away their counsell to weare their forced company to countenance their design and part out of despight that if according to their prediction any evill betided them they also might be joint-sufferers therein Both of them nothing appearing to the contrary dyed here not finding their corpes like Iosephs carried back in a Coffin into their own countrey It matters not though our bodies be bestowed in the earthly Egypt so our souls be translated to the heavenly Canaan § 28. Many were the prophecies of Ieremy during his abode in this land Amongst others that when he solemnly denounced the ruine of Egypt For he was commanded to take stones and hide them in the clay in the brick-kill which is at the entry of Pharaohs â—ouse in Tahpanhes understand it some competent distance thence otherwise such a shop of smoak was but a bad Preface to a Kings Palace and did foretell that Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon should in process of time set his throne and spread his royall pavillion on those very stones when he should conquer Egypt which no doubt came to pass accordingly A little more northernly this western stream of Nile parts it self into two chanels One falling into the Mediterranean at Zoan a City built seven years after Hebron in the land of Canaan Anciently a chief City in Egypt the whole land by Synecdoche being termed
into the Syrian or Mediteâ—ranean-sea Aleth His error therein is confuted both by ancient and modern writers Strabo speaking thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which Chrysorrhoâ—s beginning from the City and Countrey of Damascus in a manner is wholly spent in drains thence derived for it watereth much ground and that very deep Some thing more may be collected from Ptolemies expression not terming the fall of Chrysorrhoas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his ordinary word the Out-lets or Ejections thereof into the sea but onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the End or determination thereof Where by the degrees by him assigned Beâ—tius in his Maps presenteth this River swallowed up wholly in the sands and the same is confessed by Bellonius an eye-witness thereof and other modern Geographers that it never cometh unto any sea Philol. You have omitted the Vale of Salt in your Map near Aramâ— Zobaâ— neither mentioning in your description that most memorable defeat which David gave the Syrians therein Your modern Merchants of Aleppo will inform you thereof who have been on the very place where the battell was fought as tradition reporteth Aleth I have heard so much from the mouths of my judicious friends which have lived in those parts and have formerly read the same in effect How within halfe a days-journey of Aleppo there is a very great plain without grass growing on it the sand whereof is naturally good salt and after rain being dried again with the Sun the people gather it However I cannot be perswaded that this Salt Vale was the place whereon David gave his enemies that notable overthrow as on the perusall of the following Scriptures will appear 2 Sam. 8. 13 And David gat him a name when he returned from smiting the Syrians in the valley of Salt being eighteen thousand men And he put garrisons in Edom throughout all Edom put he garrisons 1 Chr. 18. 12. Moreover Abishai the sonne of Zerviah slew of the Edomites in the valley of Salt eighteen thousand Inscription of Psal. 60. To the chief Musician upon Sushan-Eduth Michtam of David to teach When he strove with Aram Maharaim and with Aram Zobah when Ioab returned and smote of Edom in the valley of Salt twelve thousand Here under favour I conceive these severall Scriptures intend one and the same victory because fought in the same place the Valley of Salt whilest the seeming contradictions in the names of the Conquerors different numbers and nations of the persons conquered are easiely reconciled 1. Ioab as Generall might give the Command and Abishai Lieutenant Generall do the execution whilest David as Soveraign received the honour of the Action 2. Twelve thousand might be slain on the place and six more kild in the pursuit so making up eighteen thousand in the totall number 3. This slaughter fell on the Edomites who are called Syrians not by their Countrey though Syria taken in a large sense is comprehensive of many nations but cause and confederacy as ingaging themselves to their cost auxiliaries in the same quarrell of the Syrians against King David This battell thus stated with most probability in my opinion it seems fought rather in the land of Edom where there is another Valley of Salt eminent in Scripture and not near Aleppo or Aram Zobah However because Tradition is a Tyrant on the contrary I dare resolve nothing positively but suspend my own and attend the judgments of others herein Philol. You make Marra the next modern stage south of Aleppo whereas there be many moe miles and intermediate lodging-places namely Cane-Toman and Saracoop betwixt them Aleth I confess no less but am sorry your memory is so short that I must so often incultate the same rule unto you That places situate on the Um-stroke such the location of Aleppo in our Map are not in their exact position whilest we onely make a long arme to reach them confusedly into our description though otherwise they be at greater distance then the scale of miles will admit Philol. I wonder you make the Mediterranean from Tripoli to Antioch to run with such a crooked flexure in form of an Hook which certainly will not catch the beleefe of any judicious beholder thereof The rather because no Geographers take cognizance of it and such a bending is disavowed by all modern Maps Aleth Consult Ptolemies Maps as drawn by learned Bertius and they present the fashion thereof accordingly though such an Elbow appears not in the late Cardes of this Countrey No news now adays for Sea to gain Land to lose or reciprocally both to alter their ancient and accept new forms seeing our Cornish-men will tell us that a good piece of their horn is blunted and broken off by the sea whose land formerly stretched out more westward and was called as they say Lioness before the waters devoured both the paws and whole body thereof CHAP. XXI Objections answered against the eastern confines of Palestine Philol. YOu have left the eastern part of this Map altogether empty which you ought to have furnished with moe towns and Cities therein Aleth Whose image and superscription doth this Map bear Is it not of Arabia the desert a wild barren Countrey To make a desert full is as absurd as to paint a Black-more faire Besides whence should the Geographer fetch the names of these Cities except from his own groundless fancy And then as King Edgar is said to have founded in England as many Monasteries as there be weeks in the year a Map-maker might build moe Cities then there be hours therein whilest the Reader must have as much simplicity as the Author dishonesty that gives credit thereunto Philol. You have false pointed to use your own expression the Iewish peregrinations seeing those four intermediate stages Comma's as you term them be Ar Mattanah Nahaliel and Bamoth being named after the stream of Arnon seem on the other side of the River and therefore rather to be placed in the Tribe of Reuben Aleth I have consulted the text and best Comments upon it and cannot yet be convinced but that the same is rightly situate Arnon I conceive divided into many streams therefore plurally termed the brooks of Arnon probably tributary brooks running into that main River and though the places aforesaid lay north of these rivolets they were south of the main Arnon and in the land of Moab However because of their so ambiguous posture being more willing to learn then to teach I am ready to alter them on any better information Philol. You make Iobs sons tent in your Map blown down on his children therein whereas Scripture calleth it expresly an house and otherwise it is unlikely they should be slain with such slight curtains falling upon them Aleth I will not plead that a tent is also termed an house in Scripture phrase that tent-dwelling was most fashionable in the eastern Countries especially in that ancient age that statory or long standing tents were
And now he that shall cast his eye over the Plain on the east of Iordan shall finde it well stockt with multitudes of goodly sheep which caused Deborah's expostulation Why abodest thou Reuben amongst the sheepfolds to heare the bleating of the flockes And yet no wonder if he preferred such musick before the clashing of swords and sounding of trumpets in the battail against the Canaanites seeing naturally men chuse profitable ease before honourable danger The tails of those sheep both for fat and wooll were incredibly great some of them a Cubit long So that nature who hath tyed the tails to other creatures may seem to have tyed the Syrian sheep to their tails which with great difficulty they drag after them This is the reason why it is expresly commanded in the law that when a sheep is sacrificed for a Peace-offering the fat thereof and the whole tail not observed in Kine or Goats taken off hard by the backbone was to be offered that part being for bulk and value considerable in their sheep which is contemptible in other creatures § 15. To goe back to the River having left that place behind us where the Ferry-boat passed over to carry David and his houshold after his conquest of Absalom We are now arrived at that memorable place where God magnified Ioshua heartened his own people and shrivelled up the hearts of their enemies by drying up the waters of Iordan whilest the Israelites passed over in this admirable Equipage 1 The Priests went into the river bearing the Ark in homage whereunto Iordan reverently retreated very farre from the river Adam which is besides Zaretan and they stood on firm ground in the midst thereof till all the Israelites were passed over 2 Reuben Gad and half Manasseh led the Van about forty thousand men of Armes the residue of them in all about an hundred thousand remaining at home to husband their ground guard their houses govern their families 3 After them the other Tribes followed and it is observed that they hasted not with a distrustfull haste as suspicious that the returning waters might drown the hindmost of them but an industrious speed and mannerly quickness as not willing to make God wait upon them in continuing a Miracle longer then necessity did require 4 When all were over the Priests with the Ark who first entred last left the water all dangerous designes are begun and finished by Gods assistance and then Iordan whose streams hitherto suspended returned into his channell 5 A duplicate or double monument was erected to perpetuate the memory hereof being a Grand Iury of great stones Of these twelve were solemnely set up on the land in the Tribe of Benjamin at Gilgal and the other twelve the counterpart of this deed were left in the midst of the river Some perchance may admire that Ioshua should set this latter invisible monument in a place where it is drowned both in water and obscurity But this River-mark was such as possibly the tops of the stones might appear at low water or if wholly hidden and dangerous for boats to approach the â—ailers constant care to avoid them in their passage called the occasion of placing them there to their daily remembrance § 16. We must not dissemble the difference betwixt Authors about the situation of the aforesaid City of Adam but once mentioned in Scripture and therefore as the Hebrews have a Proverb of words but once named that they have no kindred and alliance more difficult to know the true posture thereof The best is this Adam though having no kindred hath some company to notifie it Adam besides Zaretan and one Zaretan is sufficiently known to have been in the half Tribe of Manasseh west of Iordan not far from the sea of Galilee Hence learned Masius concludes that the waters of Iordan were cut off full seventy miles together north of the peoples passage over it To which opinion under favour we can in no wise consent Conceiving rather that just against Iericho the river was dried up for whereas the station of Iordan was most wonderfull the Israelites had lost all the sight of this wonder on their right side if done out of distance so many miles from their view Place we therefore on these reasons and the example of others both Adam and Zaretan in the Tribe of Reuben § 17. Some difference also there is betwixt Divines concerning the latitude of their passage over the river Some conceiving it onely to amount to the proportion of a fair alley lane or path of such receit alone as admitted the Israelites in a full and free march a competent number a brest and that the waters as in the Red sea standing still on both sides were a wall to them on the right hand and on the left as the Graver in our Map hath designed it Others doe not onely make a gap through Iordan but pluck down the whole hedge thereof maintaining that all the water of that river on the left hand betwixt their passage over and the Dead sea failed and were cut off or dried up Which latter opinion is most agreeable to Scripture and reason for seeing the stream of Iordan south of their going over was not supplied with any reciprocall or refluous tide out of the Dead sea the stopping of the waters above must necessarily command their defection beneath and that the channell by consequence for the time being was dried up § 18. Iordan having now closed his streams together runs by Livias a City which Herod built and so named in honour of Livia the Mother of Tiberius Caesar. For to enfavour themselves with the Emperour the Jewish Kings called many Cities by their names Augusta Tiberias two Cesarea's Iulias Livias as if Palestine had been a Register book of the Imperiall Roman family § 19. Let us now take an account of the inland Parts of this Tribe and return to the place where the Israelites passed over Arnon Betwixt Egypt and Arnon they had forty severall stations and then entred into the Promised land In comemoration whereof probably God did order that an offender should receive but forty stripes what Judge soever counts them too few would think thirty too many if he felt them himself and then be freed from further punishment Coming into Canaan their one and forty and first fixing there was at the foot of mount Abarim and edge of the wilderness of Kedâ—moth Hence they removed to Abelshittim where Deuteronomie was made the second Edition of the Law revised and enlarged by God the Author thereof Here the people of Israel were numbred the second time And although some particular Tribes were encreased amongst whom those three that pitched on the east side of the Tabernacle Iudah Issachar and Zebulun God and the rising Sun make any thing fruitfull yet in the whole they were diminished one thousand eight hundred and twenty Let such as admire hereat that people being
should be thus dismembred Was it not enough that Ioseph was separated from his brethren but Manasseh his Son must also be parted from himself How came that wisdome who pronounceth it good and pleasant for brethren to live together in unity to cleave this Tribe asunder But let such know that unity in affection may consist with locall separation Besides divine Providence might seem to have a designe herein that this Tribe of Manasseh having a joint interest on both sides of Iordan might claspe these Countries together and the Manassites being as I may say Amphibii on both sides of the River might by visits amongst their kindred continue a correspondency and civill communion one with another § 3. Manasseh had mount Hermon and Gilead on the east parting it from the Ammonites and Ismaelites Iordan on the west Gad on the south Syria and particularly the kingdomes of Geshur and Maachah on the north In which compass of ground threescore Cities with high walls gates and bars besides unwalled towns were contained Many will be amazed at this number the wonder will seem the greater when they shall reckon but two and twenty Cities in Asher nineteen in Naphtali seventeen in Simeon sixteen in Issachar but twelve in Zebulun unproportionable that half a Tribe should have treble the number of Cities to those that were bigger All we can say herein is this that being a frontier Countrey and being exposed on the north and east to heathen enemies it must have more fenced Cities then the Tribes on the other side Iordan which were better secured by their situation Thus the hem is turned in and sowed double to prevent the ravelling out thereof And if I reck on right there be more Castles in our marches betwixt Scotland and Wales then in all England besides However our eye shall not be evill at Manasseh because Gods was good unto it who are so far from repining at that we rejoyce for the plenty of strong places therein onely grieving that we cannot give the Reader an exact account of their names though we will endevour our best in the following description § 4. Mount Hermon is the north-east bound of this Tribe called by the Sidonians Syrion by the Amorites Shenir by humane writers Hippus and Trachones being a branch of Lebanon bended south-ward A stately strong mountain fixed on firm foundations and yet the voice of the Lord understand the thunder with an earthquake maketh Syrion to skip as an Unicorne and well may mountains dance when God himself shall pipe unto them The dew of Hermon is highly commended by David and brotherly love is compared thereunto because whilest heat of hatred like a drought parcheth all to nothing fraternall kindness dew-like gives refreshment and increase But how this dew of Hermon fell upon the hill of Sion mountains an hundred miles asunder so troubled Saint Augustine that at last leaving the literall sense he is fain to fly to a mysticall meaning Others interpret that the dew of Hermon fell upon the hill of Sion because the fruitfull flocks fatted on that mountain came afterwards to be sacrificed at Ierusalem which is but a harsh construction as if one should say The fruitfulness of Linconcolne-shire which falls on London because the fatted cattel thereof are sold and eaten in the City But whilest sundry Interpreters have severall wit-engines to draw these two mountains together our last translation saves their needless paines rendring it As the dew of Hermon as as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion Indeed it is the same specificall though not individuall dew which lighteth on both mountains flowing from heaven the same fountain though falling on earth in severall channels § 5. Now as Hermon is a chain of continued hills so a principall link thereof is the mountain Amana Christ courting his Spouse inviteth her to look from the top of Amana Some conceive thereby Amanus a mountain in Cilicia is meant but seeing Solomon clean through that Poem maketh use of onely native similitudes whereof a self-sufficiency in his own land it is improbable that herein he did borrow a forein and exotick expression Know also that the region hereabouts is called Trachonitis or Sharpâ—land in English from the steepness of many pointed hills in shape not unlike the Rocks called Needles near the Isle of Wight wherewith this countrey abounded and it was a moity of the Tetrarch-ship of Philip the brother of Herod § 6. South of Hermon lay mount Gilead famous for the interview of Laban and Iacob the former keen with anger save that God in a vision took off his edge overtaking Iacob charged him with a double action of felony for stealing himself and his Gods away without his privity The first Iacob confessed yet pleaded not guilty to the second but traversed his innocency Hue and Cry is made in vain after the thief and felons goods or Gods if you please for she whose conscience would permit her to carry away cunning did perswade her to conceal them Iacob thus cleared as it were by Proclamation of Defendant turns Plaintiffe accusing the Accuser for his false accusation At last all winds off in a good agreement and an Instrument is drawn up betwixt them not in paper but in stone interchangeably sealed with solemn oaths The Condition whereof was to this effect That if either of them should passe that place to doe any act of hostility to other he should forfeit his fidelity and be liable to divine justice for his perjury § 7. This Pillar and heap of stones had a threefold name imposed on it called 1 By Laban Iegar Sahadutha that is in the Aramite tongue A heap of witnesse 2 By Iacob Galeed the same in effect in Hebrew 3 By both Mizpah that is a Watch-tower Iacob giving the name and Laban the occasion thereof by that his expression The Lord watch betwixt thee and me Here was abundant caution three names and two languages and yet nothing too much For Iacob having formerly been sensible of Labans notorious shuffling with him knew the best way to finde sure was to binde sure and Laban being guilty and therefore jealous thought no security sufficient And therefore in their mutuall suspicions a Triplicate was used in naming the places that a threefold cable might not be broken § 8. Gilead was at first onely appropriated to that heap and pillar whence the name may seem to be translated to the adjacent mountains and thence transmitted to the valley in the east of those mountains and thence imparted to some eminent persons born in that valley For as Gilead Son of Machir grand-child of Manasseh being born in Egypt so called by a Propheticall Prolepsis foretelling that his posterity should possess the Countrey of Gilead so Gilead the Father of Iephthah Gilead of Gilead seems to take his denomination from the Countrey possessed Thus as the Psalmist observes
to sing as an harlot Siren songs to allure Merchants to be her lovers as before counting trade and profit t◠be her richest pleasure And so she did flourish againe as much or more then ever during the Persian Monarchy about two hundred six years till Alexander the great made her change her tune alter her notes and turn her merry love songs into mournfull Elegies on her selfe For being denied by the Tyrians in their City to sacrifice to Hercules the Tutelar God of that place Alexander not so superstitious as ambitious with vast pains and expence as one whom no perill could affright nor labour weary sacked the City putting such to the sword as resisted and causing two thousand moe to be hung up in rank on the sea shore At which time he built a Castle of his own name now corruptly called Sandalium two miles south of the City § 19. Yet Tyre afterwards recovered it self to considerable greatness like a cunning Broaker though often proving quite bankrupt she set up again though having nothing to give her credit but the conveniency of her situation as indeed an harlot needs no other wares then her self to set up her trading Insomuch that the Poets fiction of the Phoenix springing again out of his own ashes being disclaimed by naturall History for a falshood may mythologically finde a truth in and probably fetch its ground from this Phoenix or Phoenician City of Tyre always arising fresh and fair out of his own ruines In our Saviours time it was a stately place and yet though with Dives it was clothed in purple Tyre could not with him fare deliciously every day unless beholding to Herods land of Galilee to afford it constant provision because its countrey was nourished by the Kings Countrey Sensible hereof when Herod was highly displeased with these of Tyre and Sidon they politickly compounded the breach knowing that to fight with him who fed them was the ready way to be famished and opening the breast of Blastus the Kings Chamberlain with a golden key through that passage they made their access to pacifie King Herod § 20. Tyre at this day is reduced almost to nothing Here it is seasonably remembred that Ethbaal Father of Iezebel was the King as Tyre was the chief City of the Sidonians and I finde a great conformity betwixt the fortunes of his daughter and this place In their 1 Outward happiness She a crowned Queen and Tyre a Crowning City whose Merchants were Princes 2 Inward wickedness both of them styled Harlots in Scripture 3 Finall wofulness she eaten up by the dogs to the short reversion of her skull feet and palmes and Tyre so consumed by all-devouring time that now no other then an heap of Ruines yet have they a reverent respect and doe instruct the pensive beholders with their exemplary frailty Enough of Tyre if not too much fearing that long since the Reader hath sadly sympathized with the sufferings of Nebuchadnezzar and Alexander guessing their pains to be great in the long siege of this place by the proportion of their own patience in reading our tedious description thereof All I will adde is this that though Tyre was a sink of sin yet is this recorded in excuse of her profaneness and mitigation of her punishment that if the miracles done in Chorazin and Bethsaida had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have long since repented in sackcloth and ashes § 21. Two bowes shoot from the east gate of Tyre the place is showen where the woman made that spirituall-carnall exclamation Blessed is the wombe that bare thee and the paps that gave thee suck when Christ not disproving her words diverted his Auditours from this and directed them to a more necessary trut◠Yea rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it A little mile south of old Tyre are four fair pits the least twenty five cubits square commonly called Solomons Cisterns Surely the water of them is more clear then is the place alledged out of the Canticles to prove Solomon the Authour thereof where but obscure and oblite mention is made of those water-works More probable some King of Tyre made these and the neighbouring Aqueducts for the use of the City § 22. Seventeen miles north of Tyre lay the City of Sidon so named from the eldest son of Canaan A city of great antiquity seeing Tyre is termed by the Prophet the daughter of Sidon Sure here the Hebrew proverb held true As is the mother so is the daughter both of these Cities being of great wealth and wickedness Insomuch that to live carelesse quiet and secure is in Scripture phrase to live after the manner of the Zidonians § 23. It was also a place of very great extent therefore termed in holy writ Zidon Rabbah or great Zidon Not that there was ever a lesser Zidon though there be one grand Cairo it followeth not there is also a pety Cairo but it is emphatically so named in comparison of other Cities Yea Diodorus Siculus and Pomponius Mela make Sidon the greatest city of all Phenicia understand then anciently whilest as yet she suckled Tyre her little infant which afterwards outgrew her mother in greatness This haply is the reason why Homer so often making honorable mention of Sidon is so silent of Tyre because reputing this latter a parcell of the former § 24. Many and great were the fortifications of Sidon but in vain was the arme of flesh with it when God himself saith Behold I am against thee O Zidon whereupon in generall it felt the same destruction with Tyre which here we forbear to repeate Onely we will adde that as bad a place as Sidon was after Christs resurection a Church was quickly converted therein and Saint Paul sailing to Rome touched here and was courteously refreshed by his friends § 25. Near the east-gate of Sidon they shew the place where the Syrophenician woman begged so importunately for the cure of her daughter not disheartned though likened to a dog by our Saviour In deed she shewed one of the best qualities of a dog in keeping her hold where once she had well fastened not giving over or letting goe untill she had gotten what she desired § 26. So much for the City of Sidon The Countrey of Sidon was larger adequate almost to Phenicia and full of many fair harbours Amongst these Zarephah or Zarepta styled both in the old and new Testament a City of Sidon The land round about it was fruitfull of the best Wine as we have formerly observed During the three years drought in Israel here dwelt that widow whose thrift had so evenly ordered her bread and oile that a little of both were left till she got a spring in her cruse by entertaining the Prophet Elijah As for her son restored to life by Elijah that he was Ionah that eminent
Israel A tree then the Westminster Hall of the whole Land made the seat of justice in an open place partly that all people might have free access with their Petitions thereunto without doors or porters to exclude any partly that so publick a place might minde Judges parties and witnesses of fair and clear proceeding without secret or sinister reservations having heaven Gods Throne in view and before their eyes This Palme was preferred for this purpose before other trees because far and fair spreading it afforded much people a shady conveniency under the branches thereof not to insist on a text rather for fancy to descant then judgement to comment on the resemblances betwixt the growth of Palmes and judiciall proceedings Which as that plant improves it self by pressures ought in fine to flourish in defiance of all opposition § 24. But the most observable place in the north of this Tribe is the City of Samaria built by Omri because the royall Palace was burnt at Tirzah as is aforesaid on an hill bought by him for two talents of silver and called by him Samaria from Shemer the former owner of that place Strange it should take the denomination rather from him that sold it then him that bought it except this was part of the bargain which appears not in Scripture Sure we are though the name of Omri was not preserved in the place the Statutes of Omri were observed by the people according to the Prophets complaint and his impious injunctions obliged men to the practise thereof Samaria proved afterwards a beautifull City was the principal place of the residence burial of the Kings of Israel § 25. Stately was the Kings Palace therein Hence King Ahaziah Ahabs son had a mortall fall through a lattice in his upper chamber possible this mischance had been prevented had the house or chamber been built according to Gods direction with batlements that men might not fall from thence But likely it is the Fabrick thereof was fashioned according to the Mode of the Sidonian architecture Hard by Ahab built an Ivory-house Conceive it chequered inlaid and adorned therewith otherwise all the Elephants in India and Affrick would not afford materialls for such a structure not to say the crookedness and smalness of their teeth made them useless for beames in that building A frequent Synecdoche to denominate the house from the principall materialls therein like Leaden-hall in London not because wholly built but onely covered with that metall But alass what good would an Ivory-house do Ahab whilest he had an Ebony soul in the midst thereof blacked over with impieties Baals temple built by Ahab and turned by Iehu into a Iakes was a structure of great State into which Baals Priests were trained by a device and slain The greatest place of receipt in Samaria which might serve them for a market-stead or rather for a seat of Justice was that voide place at the entring of the gate of such a latitude that it was able to receive at once the Kings of Israel and Iudah with their royall retinue § 26. But amongst all the structures in Samaria none more eminent then the streets built therein by the King of Syria A thing scarce to be paralleled that a forein King should be permitted to erect streets in the Metropolitan City of another Kingdome If any alledge that Peter Earl of Savoy built his palace in the Strand known by the name of Savoy at this day and that there is a street betwixt Aldersgate and Smithfield called Britons street from the ancient lodgings of the Duke of Britain therein neither of the instances amount to the matter in hand The former palace being erected as I take it for the Earles abode here when in banishment And as for the latter it appears not that the Dukes of Britain were at any cost in building it whereas the Kings of Syria founded the Fabrickes of those streets in the city of Samaria and never inhabited therein It seems when Omri began the new building of Samaria either he requested the assistance of the King of Syria as a neighbouring Prince in amity with him to help him in the work no shame to beg the first clouts of friends for an infant-city or else the Syrian Kings civilly tendered their service to give it as good handsell to so good a work or as a Royall Largess amongst the inferiour builders thereof For mine own part I conceive that the Kings of Damascus got some conquest of Samaria not mentioned in Scripture and then built these streets as a monument of their victory and bridle to over-awe the city The rather because Benhadad being afterwards overcome by Ahab profered the like favour and freedome unto him if it pleased him to accept thereof And thou shalt make streets for thee in Damascus as my Father made in Samaria § 27. We meet in Scripture with three famous sieges of Samaria Once when Benhadad not content with Ahabs submission profering to hold all he had by homage from him would have all the wealth of the city in specie surrendered unto him vainly vaunting that the dust of Samaria could not suffice for handfulls for all the people that followed him Surely the Scavengers were very diligent in sweeping so populous a place or else it was a most hyperbolicall expression But grant Samaria could not yeeld dust enough to fill the hands the mountains near unto it could afford dirt enough to stop the mouths of most of his army who few days after were thereon miraculously defeated § 28. A second siege was in the reign of King Ioram when the famine was so great that an Asses head and a cab of dung was sold at unconscionable rates the former for food the latter most probably for fewell and surely not to drain peter to make powder thence an invention unknown in that age Nor was the sudden plenty occasioned by the Syrians flight less admirable all provision being brought down in an instant to a very unexpected low price So that he that here knew beforehand what would be cheap or dear needed but a few minutes to make him a rich Merchant But this showre of plenty caused a floud of people to flock to the gates of Samaria where that infidell Prince who despaired of Gods power and Elisha's prophecy was overwhelmed in the multitude living so long to have his eyes confute his tongue but not to have his taste confirme his eyes beholding but not partaking of the plenty § 29. The third and last siege when the city was taken and destroyed by Salmaneser King of Assyria in the reign of Hosea King of Israel a King who was the best or rather the least bad of all that sate on that throne Of whom it is said he was evill in the sight of the Lord but not as the Kings of Israel that were before him It may therefore seem wonderfull that
Leshemites pursie with long peace then to undertake those two warlike nations well breathed daily in military Discipline And sudden surprisals were foretold in this Tribe § 5. But grant the measure in this Tribe but short the ware thereof was very fine the Countrey being passing fruitfull in commodities Herein grew that bunch of Grapes of prodigious greatness in gathering whereof by the hand of the spies sent to search the Land the Israelites took Livery and Seisin of the fruits of the Countrey Besides this Tribe did drive some sea-trade Deborah complains Why did Dan remain in ships though the Iews generally were mean Mariners and Merchants Partly because the fatness of their soile so stuck by their sides it unactived them for forein adventures and natures bounty unto them gave their industry a Writ of ease to sit at home And partly because being divided as an Island from the Continent of the World in Religion from other Countries it cut off their comfortable commerce with other nations though since their wofull Posterity have proved the Capemerchants of the world § 6. First to survey the west side on the sea therein we are accosted with Ioppa a strong City seated on an high rock so that Strabo reports that Ierusalem may thence be discovered which a modern Traveller concludes impossible At the bottome thereof a haven formerly most convenient So ancient a place that some make it first founded and so named from Iapheth before the floud But it is utterly improbable that Noah being himself busied about building an Arke which threatned the worlds destruction would suffer his son to erect a City as promising a fixt habitation Hither all the timber of the Temple cut down and carved in mount Lebanon was brought by the Tyrians in floates and hence by Carts conveyed to Ierusalem Hither Ionah fled and took shipping for Tarshish conceived by some to be the Countrey of Cilicia by others the city Tarsus therein But be it Sea or Land Countrey or City sure it was not Niniveh whither God had sent him Here charitable Dorcas which made coates and garments for the poor widows whilest she was with them the lanthorn of mens good deeds cast the best light when carried before them and done in their life time lived dyed and was revived by Saint Peter Here he lodged in the house of Simon a Tanner by the sea-side water we know is very necessary in that occupation though salt water onely usefull to wash raw hides and therein beheld that vision wherein the Epitome of all creatures were in a sheet represented unto him Of this great City at this day onely two old towers doe survive it being questionable whether the place be more ruinous or the poor Moors more ragged that dwell therein A bad haven much obstructed with sands and exposed to the fury of the north wind The best commendation of this harbour is that Iury had no better scarce another as if God condemned the seacoasts thereof to danger as the Continent to barrenness § 7. Near unto Ioppa is Lydda some six miles North-west where Peter cured Enâ—as truly pious of the palsie which eight years had afflicted him Here Saint George is reported to have been beheaded and his tombe is shewed in this place All I will adde is I hope without offence this ensuing Parallel In Ioppa In Lydda The valour of Perseus is celebrated for freeing Andromeda daughter to King Cepheus tyed with chaines to the rockes from the fury of a sea monster to which she was exposed The puissance of Saint George is remembred for delivering the nameless and onely daughter of a certain King of Libya from a fiery Dragon to whom she was tendered by lot to be devoured It is pity these two stories should be parted asunder which will both in full latitude be believed together Hard to say whether nearer the two places or two reports He that considers the resemblance of their complexions will conclude Fancy the father Credulity the mother of both though we need not presently reject all the story of Saint George for fictitious for some improbable circumstances appendent thereunto Nor have I ought else to observe of Lydda save that in Saint Hieroms time it was called Diospolis § 8. To return to Ioppa the port of Ierusalem And let us a little way accompany the Pilgrims in the road thitherwards Take the character of the Countrey on the credit of a late eye-witness A most pleasant plain yeelding Tyme and Hyssope and other fragrant herbs without tillage or planting growing so high that they came to the knees of our Asses Nor need any wonder at the stature of this ground Hyssope in Iury different from wall-Hyssope or mosse rather the last and lowest step of natures storehouse and Solomons study seeing good Authors have affirmed that haec planta in Iudaeâ arborescit hyssope doth tree it in Iudea And what is called by Matthew and Mark Calamus a reed cane or speare is rendred an Hyssope-stalke by Saint Iohn Because as a learned man concludes Hyssope here sprouted so high that thereof an instrument might be made to lift up the sponge to our Saviours mouth hanging on the Cross. And thus we see that as always one of Iob's messengers escaped to bring the sad tydings of their fellows destruction so even at this day some stragling vallies in Palestine have made hard shift by their own fruitfulness still continuing to informe the world how plentifull this Countrey was before barrenness by Gods appointment seised on the generality thereof § 9. To proceed in the road to Ierusalem as the best guide to direct us in the survey of the north of this Tribe It passeth not far from Shaalâ—im a City of Dan but in the confines of Ephraim Where though the Amorites dwelt in despight of the Danites yet the Tribe of Ephraim made them tributaries A little further this high-way takes its farewell of the Tribe of Dan but with full intent shortly to visite it again For having passed over a corner of Ephraim which baggeth into the south it returns into Dan and goes forward by Modin the City of Mattathias and his sons where the seven sepulchers of the Maccabees each a high Pyramid on a square basis and all mounted on a steep hill are a conspicuous sea-mark to the Mariners many miles distant Charitable monuments which being erected for the honour of the dead are imployed for the safety of the living Few miles hence this high-way finally leaves this Tribe And therefore we leave it onely wishing the passengers therein a prosperous journey to Ierusalem That such as goe thither about business may dispatch the same to their own contentment such as travell out of curiosity may have their expectation so satisfied as to countervaile all their paines and charges and such as goe thither out of superstitious opinion to merit may have their
because by his devotion the Cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel from Ekron even unto Gath. See the difference betwixt Priest and Priest both in service and success Vicious Hophni brings forth the Arke into the field fights falls loseth his own life and part of Israels Land to the Philistines Pious Samuel stays and prays at home the Arke is brought back to him he both saves himself and as a bountifull benefactor regaineth the former loss of his Countrey § 29. Ekron was a stately City and commendable was the discretion of her Inhabitants who learning wit from their neighbours woe would not keep the Arke and Gods anger therein but with the speediest conveniency returned it home to Bethshemes Of these Ekronites David afterward killed two hundred and tendered their Foreskins a Dowry for Michal Sauls daughter For though by the condition of his Espousals he contracted but for an hundred Foreskins yet such was the supererogation of his valour Love and Loyalty never give scant measure that he doubled the number And what injustice was it that he that paid her dowry double should enjoy her but halfe seeing Saul afterwards took her away and gave her to another Beelzebub was the grand Idoll of Ekron whose name importeth a Lord of flies Scaliger conceiving it to be a nick-name which the Iews gave it in derision so that the terming it a God of flies was in effect to say a flie for your God In the new Testament Beelzebub passeth for the Prince of the Devills It seems that Hell it self that place of confusion would wholly be confounded if some superiority were not therein observed § 30. More south we again come to the river Sorek on whose banks grew Grapes of goodly greatness yea the Hebrews report them to have been without any kernels But that hereabouts Lust did not grow without shame and sorrow to attend it Samson will sadly witness For in the house of Dalilah by the brook of Sorek he betrayed his strength to her she his person to the Philistines Thus those that sleep on a harlots lap for their Pillow are overtaken with destruction before they dream thereof Hence they carried Samson to Gaza which is welnigh fourty miles off And why so far Partly to render their triumph more glorious baiting him with all eyes gazing on him and partly the more safely to secure him bringing him far from his friends and beyond the reach of any rescue § 31. But as here was the place where Samsons purity was polluted so hard by was the the fountain or water wherein the Ethiopians pollution was purified This was he who being Treasurer to Candace Queen of Ethiopia rode in his chariot and read Isaias when always some unexpected good surprizeth such as are studious in the Scripture Philip was sent to expound it unto him Can a Blackamore change his skin saith the Prophet But see here the virtue of baptismall water washing away the black hue and vicious habits of his naturall Corruption and making him a true Christian convert § 32. But Philip was found at Azotus and Azotus or Ashdâ—d hardby is easily found for a City seated on a Hill cannot be hid This was the third Satrapie of the Philistines in our definition but first in honour as famous for Dagon an Idol there adored who yet had the manners in homage to the Arke to put off his head and hands and fall flat on the ground And hither first they brought the Arke of God This was allotted to the Tribe of Iudah but left unconquered by Ioshua King Uzziah brake down the wall of it and built Cities in the coast of it And soon after Tartan sent by Sargon King of Assyria took it The Maccabees had divers battells near Azotus Here Iudas overthrows Gorgias And spoiles Azotus And again pursues Bacchides But himself is slain Here Ionathan overcomes Demetrius the younger and burns Azotus and the Temple of Dagon And hereabouts Iudas and Iohn prevaile against Cendebeus As for Dagon here adored some make him Patron of grain and he is translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Philo Biblius others the President of the sea and we may safely beleeve his Power as much over the one as the other His shape save that it was masculine for sexe resembled the Antick laughed at by the Poet. Desinit in piscem mulier formosa supernè Upwards man-like he ascended Downwards like a fish he ended And yet this Fish had also feet under the taile thereof which feet of a fish seem not to stand with any proportion But what shall we say The uglier his shape the handsomer for an Idol and to keep a Decorum it was fit that he should be as mishapen in his form as monstrous in his worship Far handsomer no doubt were the women of Ashdod or else the Israelites would never have been so enamoured with them as after their return from the captivity by marrying with them to beget a mongrell off-spring whose tongues as if divided Parte per Pale spake half Ashdod and half Hebrew But surely God was afterwards better pleased with the Iews solemn submission and fair putting away of their wives then with the cruelty of the Britons if true what reported which marrying French women in Armorica now called little Britain out of a zeale to preserve their native Language they cut out their wives tongues for fear they should infect their children with a mixture of French As for Metheg-Ammah in Philistia because the learned are not resolved whether thereby a place be designed and if so many take it for Gath or else that thereby is signified that David took the Bridle of Power from the hand of the Philistines see it signed with an Asteriske enough to tell the Reader that we doe not shew but seek a certainty therein § 33. So much for the land in this Tribe If we look on the sea bounding it on the west see Ionah in his ship flying as fast as he could from the presence of the Lord that is from the performance of his Propheticall function in Niniveh Otherwise he was better principled then to conceive it probable in any place to avoid Gods presence and if so erroneously opinioned made the worst of choices to goe down into the sea where Divine power most effectually appears Many carnall reasons might cause his flight as fear to he murthered for delivering so unwelcome a message to that bloody City suspicion that his preaching little regarded in Israel would be less in Niniveh zeal to his Countrey as perceiving the conversion of the Gentiles would prove the rejection of the Iews and a Iealousie as himself confesseth his Prophesie should be disproved on the peoples repentance A terrible tempest persuing the ship works wonders in the mariners 1 Out of the bold came
by David in Zion under the cover of a Tent which he had pitched for that purpose 2 The Tabernacle of the Congregation made by Moses in the wilderness wherein the Priests attended about their publick sacrifices This about Solomons time was translated from Shiloh to Gibeon as a place of more eminency and conveniency for divine service because a City of the Levites Herein on the high place in Gibeon Solomon offered to God a thousand burnt offerings and which was most acceptable a zealous prayer requesting wisdome of God who bestowed both it and wealth and honour upon him Thus those who chiefly desire grace receive it the jewell and at least a competency of outward provisions for a cabinet to keep it in Some hundred years after by the great waters which are in Gibeon Iohanan the son of Karcah recovered the remnant of the poor Israelites left in the land after the captivity of Babylon from Ismael a Prince of the bloud royall who had a design to carry them away captive unto the Ammonites § 42. Next Gibeon we take the City of Gibeah into our serious consideration not as nearest in situation but in sound of like name insomuch that some have unwarily confounded them as the same place Gibeah lay in the south-west part of this Tribe whose inhabitants were bad men but good markes-men right shooters at an haires breadth and faile not but unrighteous livers A Levite coming with his concubine and servant from Bethlehem declined to lie at Ierusalem because then an heathen City and though late recovered this Gibeah for his lodging place Alas what was this but from the fire into the furnace so excessive hot was the lust of the people of this City But charity therein was as cold none inviting this Levite to his house untill an old man and he also no inhabitant but a stranger of mount Ephraim coming from his work out of the field at even Industry is the fewel of hospitality kindely entertained him in his house In fine the Levites concubine was by violence and variety of lust of the men of this City abused to death Oh the justice of divine proceedings She had formerly been false to her husband Culpa libido fuit poena libido fuit By lust she sinned and 't was just She should be punished by lust This villany being declared to all Israel a consultation thereon and first in a fair way the offenders are demanded to justice which denied and all the Tribe of Benjamin engaging themselves to defend the damnable deed of those of Gibeah all Israel resolves in a nationall war to revenge so foul a murder § 43. Here let us stand still and wonder that an army united amongst themsâ—lves as one man most in number best in cause wisest in counsell as who had asked and obtained the advice of God himself to goe on in this war should once and again be defeated by those who were weaker and wickeder then themselves I cannot challenge the army of Israel for any eminent sin at this time yet it is very suspicious they were carnally confident of the conquest as accounting the victory eleven to one on their side However the next battel made amends for all wherein all the ravenoâ—s wolves of Benjamin with their dams and whelps at home were utterly destroyed except six hundred and those cooped up in a grate and hid in the rock of Rimmon Thus what once was sadly said of Ioseph was now more true of Benjamin One is not And the whole Tribe had finally been extinguished had not provision been made to supply them with wives as formerly hath been observed § 44. Afterwards this Gibeah got the surname of Saul because he was born lived and buried here In this Gibeah of Saul five of his sons amongst whom a Mephibosheth but not the Mephibosheth were in Davids reign hanged up on the hill before the Lord to expiate Sauls murdering of the Gibeonites How strangely was his zeale transposed turning the back of his sword towards the Amalekites whom God commanded him to destroy and using the edge thereof against the Gibeonites whom by oath he was bound to preserve Here Rizpah Sauls concubine covered the corps of such as were executed with sackcloth to keep birds and beasts from feeding upon them § 45. Her kindness to the dead is told to King David who not onely gave the hearing but the practising of so good an example and thereby is put in minde to shew mercy to the bones of Saul and Ionathan which he fetched from Iabesh-Gilead and buried hard by in Zelah in the sepulcher of Kish his Father Shewing thereby that his former severity to Sauls sons proceeded from a publick desire of his subjects good no private design of revenge upon Saul whose corps he so solemnly interred Corpses which were but wanderers whilest hung up by the Philistines in their City of Bethshan were but sojourners when buried by the Gileadites in the land of Gad but now became house-keepers when brought home to the proper place of the sepulcher of their Fathers § 46. Hard by Gibeah was Migron a small City where Saul for some time abode with his men under a Pomegranate-tree Say not that such a tree was a simple palace for a Prince for in those hot Countreys pleasant was the residence for some short time under the shadow thereof Yea our Countrey-man Bede can tell you how in our cold climate Anno Domini 601. Augustine the Monke held a Synode under an Oake called Augustines Ake in old English which tree our learned Antiquary placeth in the confines of Worcester-shire Nor far from Migron is Ramah a City built by Baasha jealous that Israel would revolt to Iudah on Asa's reformation of Religion to stop all intercourse betwixt the two kingdomes Not that the armes of so small a City could reach seventy miles from the sea to Iordan but because Ramah was greater in command then compass as advantageously seated on some roade or pass of importance But Baasha diverted by the invasion of Benhadad King of Assyria desisted from his building for which he had made so large preparation that Asa afterwards repaired the neighbouring cities of Geba and Mizpah with the stones provided for the fortifying of Ramah § 47. Mizpah now mentioned lay some eight miles hence full north When in the days of Samuel the seat of justice was annuall for the time and tripartite for the place Mizpah had a fair share thereof Samuel went from year to year in circuit to Bethel and Gilgal and Mizpah lying in a kinde of triangle and judged Israel in all those places and his return was to Ramah for there was his house State-affairs made not the good man to forget his family spending three Terms abroad on the publick and the Vacation at home on his private occasions At Mizpah was a generall reformation
adventurous to drink of the waters thereof so stifling and suffocating is the nature of it In a word this sea hath but one good quality namely that it entertains intercourse with no other seas which may be imputed to the providence of nature debarring it from communion with the Ocean lest otherwise it should infect other waters with its malignity Nor doeth any healthfull thing grow thereon save onely this wholesome counsell which may be collected from this pestiferous lake for men to beware how they provoke divine justice by their lustfull and unnaturall enormities § 9. Heathen writers Tacitus and Pliny take notice of this lake with the qualities thereof but especially Solinus whose testimony but with some variations from Scripture we thought fit to insert and translate though the latter will scarcely be done without some abatement of the native elegancy and expressiveness thereof Longo ab Hierosolymis recessu tristis sinus panditur quem de coelo tactum testatur humus nigra in cinerem soluta Duo ibi oppida Sodomum nominatum alterum alterum Gomorrhum Apud quae pomum gignitur quod habeat speciem licèt maturitatis mandi tamen non potest Nam fuliginem intrinsecus favillaceam ambitio tantùm extimae cutis cohibet quae vel levi tactu pressa fumum exhalat fatiscit in vagum pulverem A good way side of Ierusalem lies ope a melancholy Bay which the black soil being also turned into ashes witnesseth to have been blasted from heaven In it are two towns the one called Sodome the other Gomorrah Wherein grows an apple which though it seem fair and ripe yet cannot be eaten For the compass of the outward rinde onely holds within it an ember-like soot which being but lightly pressed evaporates into smoke and becomes flittering dust § 10. But Lot was preserved and God is said therein to have remembred Abraham though he might have seemed to have forgotten him in refusing to grant to spare Sodome at his request Thus though divine providence may denie good mens prayers in the full latitude of their desires he always grants them such a competent proportion thereof as is most for his glory and their good Lot with his wife are enjoined onely not to look back wherein she disobeyed the commandement either out of 1 High contempt Yet seeing for the main she had been a good woman accompanying her husband many miles from his native to a strange Countrey meerly depending on Gods providence our charity believes her fact proceeding rather from 2 Carelesness or incogitancy having for that instant forgotten the command or 3 Curiosity to behold the manner of so strange and suddain a destruction or 4 Infidelity not conceiving it possible so great a City could be so soon overthrown or 5 Covetousness when she thought on the wealth she had left behinde her or 6 Compassion hearing the whining of swine braying of Asses bleating of sheep lowing of kine crying of children shrieking of women roaring of men and some of them of her own flesh and bloud Were they any or all of these back she looked and was turned into a pillar of salt which Saint Hierome saith was extant in his age-Mean time how sad a case was Lot in bearing about him life and death one halfe of him quick lively and active the other halfe his wife both making but one flesh so strangely and suddainly sensless dead and immoveable § 11. Not far off is the City of Zoar Littleton in English so named by Lot whereas formerly it was called Belah I say by Lot who was the best benefactor to this place which otherwise had been sent the same way of destruction with the other four Cities had not his importunity prevailed with God for the sparing thereof Yet I finde not any monument of gratitude made by the men of Zoar to the memory of Lot their preserver yea they would not afford him a quiet and comfortable being amongst them insomuch that he feared to dwell in Zoar. Either suspecting that they would offer violence to his person or infect his soul with their bad example or that he might be involved in their suddain destruction as a wicked place spared not pardoned by God and allowed to himself for his present refuge not constant habitation Their ill usage of so good a man mindes me of Solomons observation There was a little City and few men within it and there came a great King against it and besieged it and built great bulwarks against it Now there was found in it a poor wise man and â—e by his wisedome delivered the City yet no man remembred the same poor man No more then Lot was remembred in Zoar though the tutelar Saint thereof But his clear conscience in free doing this courtesie rewarded it self in doing it whilest mercenary souls working onely for the wages of thanks often lose their labour especially in this ungratefull age § 12. From Zoar Lot removed to a neighbouring mountain and dwelt in a cave therein which is shown to travellers at this day Now an hole in an hil could hold him and all his family whose substance formerly was so great the whole Countrey could not afford room for his flocks and heard-men without striving with those of his uncle Abraham Here made drunken by his daughters practise upon him with them he committed incest It is grace not the place can secure mens souls from sin seeing Lot fasting from lust in wanton and populous Sodome â—urfeited thereof in a solitary cave and whilest he carefully fenced the castle of chastity even to make it impregnable against the battery of forein force he never suspected to be surprised by the treachery of his own family § 13. So much for Pentepolis once a countrey of five cities now all turned into one lake Come we now to survey the particular limits of this Tribe That Maxime Qui bene distinguit bene docet holds most true herein the well distinguishing of bounds conduceth much to the true knowledge of this Countrey especially seeing the Holy Spirit hath been so exact in assigning them Where God is pleased to point for man not to vouchsafe a look sheweth that proud earth valueth his eyes as more worth then the hand of heaven § 14. The borders of Iudah with all their particular flexure are thus described in Ioshua East South North. West The Salt-Sea 1 From the south-side of the salt-sea to the going up of Acrabbin 2 Thence to the wilderness of Zin 3 Thence to the south-side unto Kadesh-Barnea 4 Thence to Hezron 5 Thence it went up to Adar 6 Thence fetched a compass to Karkaa 7 Thence it passed to Azmon 8 Thence unto the river of Egypt 9 Thence went out at the Sea Observe we that these south bounds of Iudah are for the main the same with the south limits of the whole land assigned Numbers 34. 1 From the end of Iordan at
blessing brought the possession of the upper and nether springs along with it Know also in after ages the south part of Iudah was called Caleb probably from the large inheritance Caleb obtained in these parts and puissance of his posterity therein Thus the Egyptian giving an account of the passages of the army of the Amalekites confesseth they had been roving upon the coast that belonged to Iudah and upon the south of Caleb § 29. Libnah is the third in honour of the nine royall Cities in the days of Ioshua assigned afterwards for the Priests habitation Long it continued loyall to the Crown of Iudah untill in the days of Iehoram that ungodly unmercifull unsuccesfull unbeloved unlamented King Edom revolted from under the hand of Iudah unto this day then Libnah revolted at the same time Was it casualty or confederacy by mutuall intelligence that both thir defections bare the same date Surely breach of faith is a catching disease yea infectious from one to another But how could the inhabitants of Libnah being Priests whose best livelyhood depended on their personall officiating in the Temple at Ierusalem subsist being cut off from their service and the salary thereof Yea did they not thereby necessarily apostate from their religion to God desert his Temple and their own profession Except any will say easier spoken then proved that at this present not the Priests but some other persons were possessours of Libnah We finde not this City afterwards reduced to the Kings of Iudah whereupon some conceive that henceforward it stood on its own bottome as an absolute Common-wealth § 30. If any object it impossible that Libnah so small a City should subsist here as a free State against all the powers of the Kings of Iudah let such look on little Lucca in Italy and less Geneva in France defended by their foes from their foes environed with enemies on all sides yet so that rather then any one shall subdue them all the rest will assist them Such probably was the position and politick State-poizing of Libnah seated in the vicinity of the Kings of Iudah Israel and the Philistines not to say Egypt though far off might come in as a protectour thereof that it might make a Cordiall of a self-subsistance from the Antidotes of its enemies Afterwards we finde Sennacherib fighting against Libnah whence he sent a railing message to Hezekiah but read nothing of the taking thereof yea probably here the Angel by night did that memorable excution slaying an hundred fourscore and five thousand of his numerous army § 31. Lachish must not be forgotten whose King was destroyed by Ioshua King Amaziah conspired against by his subjects in Ierusalem fled hither in vain for They sent after him to Lachish and slew him there It was a leading City in Idolatry infected from Israel and infecting of Iudah Micah prophesied in particular against this City warning it to prepare for speedy captivity from its enemies O thou inhabitant of Lachish binde the charet to the swift beast she is the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee And although we finde not Lachish taken by Sennacherib who warred against it yet it escaped not the fury of Nebuchadnezzar though one of the last Cities by him subdued § 32. But Adâ—llam another regall City in Iudah was more ancient where Hirah Iudah's fast friend dwelt though employed by him but as a pandar post factum to carry Tamar the hire of her whoredome In a cave hereabouts repaired to David every one that was in distress and every one that was in debt and every one that was discontented and he became a Captain over them Was this well done of him to be Protector Generall of Out-laws thereby defying justice defrauding creditours defeating Gods command which provided that the debâ—er if not solveable should be sold for satisfaction Alas his need is all that can be alleadged in his excuse Sure I am David promised when in power to make his own choice that his houshold or Court should consist of persons better qualified However these men freely resorting to him were better then those hired by Abimelech vain and light persons and as far to be preferred before them as want is more excusable then wickedness Yea we may charitably believe Davids consorts impoverisht not by their own carelesness but their creditors cruelty § 33. As for Gedar it hath formerly been described in Simeon onely we will adde that Baal-hanan the Gederite was of this place Davids Overseer over the Olive trees and Sycamore trees in the low plain This name of Baal-hanan inverted is the same with Hannibal that great Generall of the Carthaginians See here the affinity of the Hebrew with the Phoenician or Carthaginian tongue Wonder not that Baal-hanan or Hannibal was a fashionable name for potent persons in these parts we finde also a King of Edom so called seeing it signifieth a Lord in grace or favour and our Saviour hath told us such as exercise authority over others are called Gracious Lords As for Iâ—rmuth Eglon and Arad we read nothing of them remarkable since their severall Kings were destroied by Ioshua Of Hepher we shall speak more properly in the close of this Description § And now what a fall must our Description have from the Cities of Kings to the Manor of a clown the fruitfull Carmell not far from the Dead-sea Here folly and wisdome dwelt under the same roof sate at the same table slept in the same bed Nabal and Abigail Are matches made in heaven and was Abigail so ill beloved there to be condemned to such a choice Surely God saw it most for his own glory and her good for the emprovement of her patience This Nabal proved himself a perfect Miser both by his niggardliness to David and prodigality of the King-like dinner he made to his shepheards But both he and his family had been utterly destroyed by David had not the discreet mediation of Abigail been seasonably interposed § 35. After his gluttonous supper Abigail next morning serves Nabal with a thrifty breakfast telling him of the great danger he so narrowly had escaped Hereupon his heart dyed within him Thus some drunkards have been said to have swooned when sober at the serious review of such perils they so neerly escaped in the fits of their distemper Probably feare encreased his sadness suspecting to fall into a relapse of Davids disfavour and that his anger might revert to give him another visite hereafter Thus the wrath of a King though but in reversion is as the roaring of a Lion Yea Nabal became as a stone and no wonder being little better then a stock before such his senseless stupidity But though he was a churl in his miserable living he was bountifull in his seasonable dying freeing Abigail from
kid was of consequence how he came so quickly by it The Quere here is more considerable how came Adonibezek by so many Kings to have them all at one time With what Royall drag-net did he fish to catch so many together Where got he these Kings and where got they their kingdomes Canaan being so small a Countrey In answer hereunto in the acception of the word King we must grind the honour thereof the smaller to make the number thereof the greater communicating it to the Sons and Nephews of Toparchicall Princes as honours in Germany equally descended to all in the family and so the number is quickly made up § 22. North of Bethlehem lay the Vale of Ephraim or Vale of Giants men of vast proportions which the ancient Ages plentifully afforded Yea our English Antiquary tells us that Risingham a village in Northumberland in old Saxon is nothing else then the dwelling place of Giants In this vale of Rephaim the Philistines little less then Giants were twice subdued once at Baal-perazim where God by the hand of David brake forth upon them as the breach of waters and again where God not onely gave the success but laid the design how the battell should be managed namely as soon as he himself had sounded a charge out of the Mulberry trees David was to fetch a compass and fiercely to fall on his enemies Well is God styled a man of war who here ordered the battell himself and well did David confess Thou teachest my hands to war and fingers to fight who here received from God particular instructions how to regulate his Army § 23. Mulberry Trees pardon a digression were plentifull in Palestine A tree which may pass for the emblem of prudence slow in consultation swift in execution for it putteth forth its leaves the last of all trees but then as it is said all in one night as if sensible of and ashamed for its former neglect she endevours to overtake other trees with her double diligence Men feed on the fruit Silkworms on the leaves thereof Creatures contemptible in themselves admirable in their qualities appearing Proteus-like in sundry shapes in the same year eggs wormes flies finishing for the most part yearly their life and work together But we leave these mysteries to be discussed by Naturalists and will onely adde that if the originall of silke were well considered Gallants had small cause to be proud of gay clothes for from wormes it came and to wormes shall the wearers therof return § 24. Store of the best silks were made and used in Palestine amongst other favours bestowed by God on the ungratefull Iews this was one I have girded thee about with fine linen and covered thee with silk King Saul was the first who made bravery frequent and fashionable in Israel little state and gallantry being used under the Iudges when the Court and costly clothes began together according to our Saviours saying They that weare soft clothing are in Kings houses I say in the reign of King Saul rich rayment began generally to be worn by the Iews Yee daughters of Israel weep over Saul who clothed you in Scarlet and other delights yea by the confession of the heathen writers best silks both for fineness and colour were in Palestine Pausaniâ—s writes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The silk saith he of Elis in Greece gives not place in point of fineness to silk of the Hebrews but is not like it in yellowness whereby it appears that the Hebrew silk-wormes were as good spinsters and better Dyers then those in Greece setting a better gloss and lustre on their work So much for the silk in Iudea called Shesh in Hebrew whence haply that fine linen or silk is called Shashes worn at this day about the heads of eastern people § 25. But to return to our description north-west from the vale of Giants lay the City of Emaus afterwards called Nicopolis Hither the two Disciples were a travelling being about sixty furlongs from Ierusalem wheÌ„ Christ after his resurrection unknown joined himself to their coÌ„pany They tax him for not knowing the news in Ierâ—salem he reproves them for being ignorant of the sense of the Scriptures which he began to declare unto them O excellent expositor Christ Commenting on his own prophecies all which he first inspired afterwards fulfilled and now interpreted As he put light into their heads so also heat into their hearts which burned all the while he communed with them onely their eyes were held that they knew him not Day and their journey drew both to an end when Christ makes as if he would goe farther Truth cannot lye but did simulate onely to try how welcome his company was to them They constrain him to stay such civill violences prevaile on heaven it self and in breaking of Bread he brake himself unto them their eyes being opened he left them full of joy and amazement Nor have I ought else to observe of Emaus but that many years before Iudas Maccaâ—eus in that place got an eminent conquest and defeated the voluminous Army of Lysias § 26. Hard by Emaus even at this day are showen the ruines of Zachariah his house where Iohn the Baptist was born being the voice of a cryer begot of a dumb Father This was that Zachariah who would not beleeve God without giving him a sign and was punished that men could not understand him without making of signes To this place then in a City in the Hill-country of Iudea the blessed virgin Mary came with hast to congratulate the pregnancy of Elizabeth her Cousen at the musick of whose salutation the babe danced for â—oy and leaped in the womb of Elizabeth § 27. Hard by is the City Gebah belonging to the Priests afterwards made a garrison of the Philistines who therein were smote by Ionathan King Asa afterwards built that is repaired and enlarged this City as also Mizpah with the remainder of those materials which King Baasha had provided for the fortifying of Ramah Cities so neer in situation that after the captivity their inhabitants are counted together in one sum the men of Ramah and Gebah six hundred twenty and one which returned from Babylon § 28. We have hardly recovered into this map the house of Obed-Edom whence David in a most solemn procession brought the Ark to Ierusalem dancing himself before it in a linen Ephod which was not so white but that Michal found spots therein or rather cast dirt thereon censuring David a fool for his indiscretion But when holy zeal is arraigned at the bar of profaneness and condemned either for folly or madness it may appeal from that sentence and challenge its right to be tried by its Peers carnall eyes being incompetent judges of spirituall actions Yea God himself here took the matter in hand so ordering it that for
exchange for Isaac was caught by the hornes 2 Iebus A name either of the whole or principall part thereof so we read of the Levite that he came over against Iebus which is Ierusalem 3 Ierusalem so called as the Fathers generally affirme as the product of the union of Iebus and Salem B for sounds sake being changed into R which notwithstanding the propriety of the Hebrew tongue will not permit For though chopping of letters be her coÌ„mon practise yet the Iews as they always married within their own Tribe so they exchanged letters of the same Linage same Instrument Labials for Labials Gutturals for Gutturals whereas betwixt Beth Resh in Hebrew no such affinity Besides the turning of a tender melting B. into a surly rigid R. is not to levigate or mollifie but to make the name the harder in pronunciation This drives others to seek out the Etymology thereof as signifying in Hebrew The vision of peace But seeing Abraham called an eminent place whereon it stood Iehovah-Iireh The Lord will be seen perchance from the echo of the name Iireh added to Salem that is peace shall be seen or provided the City might be called Ierusalem where having the essentiall Consonantâ— the most various point-vowels are not so considerable Forget we not that even in Davids time when the name of Ierusalem was in fashion the City was sometimes still called Salem For in Salem is his Tabernacle and his dwelling in Sion Thus it is usuall in England in common discourse to cut off the former part of long-named Cities Wesâ—chester Southhampton Kingstone on Hull whilest the remnant Chester Hampton Hull sufficiently express them to ordinary capacities 4 Hierosolyma which indeed is no new name but the old name in a new language translated into Greek Some Fathers will have it compounded from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Temple and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Solomon that is Solomons Temple as if the mixing of these Languages did promise if not prophesie in after ages a joint interest of Iew and Gentile in the mysteries of Religion But Saint Hierome is zealous against this Fancy impatient that in the name of the principall City of the Iews a Greek word should not onely be mingled with but preferred before the Hebrew It is safer therefore to say that Hierosolyma is nothing else but Ierusalem grecized or made Greek and the conceit of the Temple of Solomon rather a witty allusion thereto then a solid deduction thereof 5 Solyma being onely the half of the former For whereas Hierosolyma being a confluence of six short syllables was unmanagable in ordinary verse Poets served this name as the Ammonites the cloaths of Davids Ambassadours cut it off in the middle An Solymum cinerem Palmetaque capta subibis Wilt thou go under Salems dust forsaken Vnder the palme-trees lately captive taken I conceive the name of Solyma not used by Authors till after our Saviours suffering though Iosephus and probably out of him Tacitus writes that Homer makes mention thereof as indeed we finde it twice in his Poems never for this City in Iudea but for a place and people in Lycia I will not say that the curtling of Ierusalem into Solyma after our Saviours time was a sad prognostick that this spacious City should suddenly in the fire of civill war be boiled away to the half yea afterwards shrink to so unconsiderable a smalness that a monosyllable yea a bare letter were too long a name for it 6 Aelia so named from Aelius Hâ—drianus the Emperour who built some part of it again and made it a Garrison 7 Ierusalem recovering the ancient name again whilest for some hundred of years it was in the possession of the Christians 8 Cuds so called at this day by the Mahometans who are the present owners thereof which signifies Holy in their language Here we omit those many appellations given Ierusalem in Scripture The faithfull City the City of the great King the holy City because these are not proper names but glorious Epithets thereof § 2. Concerning the generall situation of Ierusalem three things herein are remarkable first it was placed as Iosephus reports in the very middle of Iudea But herein criticall exactness is not to be observed the heart it self is not so unpartially in the midst of the body but that if not in position yet in motion it propends to the left side for Ierusalem inclines more to the south of the Countrey As Ierusalem was the navell of Iudea so the Fathers make Iudea the middest of the world whereunto they bring not to say bow those places of Scripture Thou hast wrought salvation in the midst of the earth Indeed seeing the whole world is a round Table and the Gospell the food for mens souls it was fitting that this great dish should be set in the midst of the Board that all the guests round about might equally reach unto it and Ierusalem was the Center whence the lines of salvation went out into all lands Yea Ptolemy dividing the then-known world into seven Climats placed Ierusalem as the Sun in the fourth Climat proportionably to what is said in the Propheâ— I have set it in the midst of the Nations and the Countreys that are round about her § 3. Secondly it had high mountains under it and lower about it which as dutifull servants at distance seemed to attend it Ierusalem had a mountain for her footstool and her floor was higher then the roof of other Cities no doubt the Emblem of the strength stateliness and stability of Gods Church in glory High and hard climbing thither but plain and pleasant dwelling there § 4. Lastly it was distanced from the sea welnigh forty miles having no navigable River near unto it For God intended not Ierusalem for a staple of trade but for a ROYALL EXCHANGE OF RELIGION chiefly holding correspondency with Heaven it self daily receiving blessings thence duly returning praises thither Besides God would not have his virgin people the Iews wooed with much less wedded to outlandish fashions And if Eusebius may be credited for the self same reason Plato in imitation of Ierusalem would have that City wherein the modell of his imaginary Common-wealth should be set up to be seated some miles from the sea lest forein merchandize should by degrees bring in forein manners into it CHAP. II. The particular Situation Circuit Populousness Beauty and strength thereof § 1 IT will be pain-worthy to enquire into the exact situation of Ierusalem in what Tribe it was placed the rather because severall testimonies of Scripture entitle both Iudah and Benjamin unto the possession thereof For IUDAH Josh. 15. 63. And for the Iebusites the inhabitants of Ierusalem the children of Iudah could not drive them out but the Iebusites dwell with the children of Iudah at Ierusalem unto this day Judg. 1. 8. Now the children of Iudah had fought against
Ierusalem and had taken it and smitten it with the edge of the sword and set the City on fire For BENIAMIN Josh. 18. 28. And Zelah Eleph and Iebus which is Ierusalem Gibeah and Kiriath This is the inheritance of the children of Benjamin according to their families Judg. 1. 12. And the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Iebusites that inhabited Ierusalem but the Iebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Ierusalem unto this day FOR BOTH Nehem. 11. 4. And at Ierusalem dwelt certain of the children of Iudah and of the children of Benjamin This fifth and last place is a good Comment on the four former namely that this City though the Iebusites long disturbed their quiet possession jointly belonged to both Tribes neither claiming it totally as his both truly as theirs Nor was this any confused mixture of their inhetances flatly forbidden in the law but methodicall if not mysticall meeting thereof so that Iudah and Benjamin which alone persisted loyall to God and their King had their possessions lovingly shaking hands in Ierusalem the solemn place appointed for Gods publick service § 2. Ierusalem was fifty furlongs in circuit which reduced to our English account amounts to six miles and a quarter In which compass multitudes of People did inhabit and three different degrees of the populousness of this place are very remarkable 1 Ordinary even in vacation-time when there was no spring-tyde or usuall confluence of people more then the proper Citizens thereof and those no fewer then one hundred and fifty thousand 2 Extraordinary at the three annuall Termes as I may call them I mean the three Feasts general of the Iews Passeover Pentecost the feast of Tabernacles when all the able males of Israel appeared with an offering before God 3 Superextraordinary when this City was sacked by the Romans and when all sorts and sexes some drawn with devotion more driven for protection flocked thither insomuch that by fire famine sword civill discord and forein force eleven hundred thousand are said to be slain therein Incredible it seems that so many should be pent in this place except the people therein as when they crouded about Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did throng and press one on another But we must consider that flying thither for shelter they had room enough if they had but room enough not aiming at any convenient much less delightfull habitations but onely a bare lodging in Ierusalem where for the time being every single chamber was made a severall family and every story multiplyed into a street whilest the fiege continued § 3. And therefore it is most justly recounted asone of the ten wonders whereof the Rabbins take especiall notice amongst the Iews that â—â—ver any man did say to his fellow I have not found a bed in Ierusalem to lye in nor did evâ—r any maâ— say to his fellow My lodging is too strait for me in Ierusalem As if â—he place were of a Cheverell nature to extend to the proportion of the People therein Indeed it was part of Gods goodness when he brought his Vine out of Egypt then also to prepare room for it which he performed here accordingly even to admiration § 4. Now amongst the nativâ—s of Ierusalem many no doubt were the eminent Persons born therein especially if the Rabbinicall tradition be true that wheresoever the particular place of any Prophets birth is not set down there it is to be presumed that he was of Ierusalem By this observation Nathan Gad Isaiah Daniel Hosea Ioel Habakkuk c. should be town-born children of Ierusalem But we leave it uncertain whether this place gave the cradles to these being too sure that it gave the coffins to too many worthy messengers of God O Ierusalem Ierusalem thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee § 5. The structure of this City was beautifull and high of hewed free-stone very uniform whether in respect of the houses or streets one toanother Ierusalem 〈◊〉 builded as a City which is at unity in it self Their roofs were flat â—nd fenced with battlements by speciall command from God to prevâ—nt casualties of people falling thence These roofs were the Iews watchâ—owers for prospect galleries for pleasure and which was the worst their â—igh places for Idolatry Which causeth the Prophets complaint more then once That thereon they burnt incense unto all the host of Heaven Surely the weight of this wickedness did break the strongest beams and stiffest rafters in the Palaces of Ierusalem For though Idols be lighter then vanity it self in point of power and efficacy they are heavier then lead to press the place down with divine vengeance § 6. As for the strength of Ierusalem we must in the first place listen to Iuâ—ah his song We have a strong City salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks The Spaniards come off poorly with their brag that they have Madrid a City in Castile walled with fire which at last proves nothing else but that there be many quarries of flint found round about it But most true it is that God promised Ierusalem he would be unto her a wall of fire round about which promise he for his part would most surely have kept and performed had not the sins of the Iews forced him to break it in vindication of his own justice § 7. As for the outward fortifications thereof it was incompassed with a treble wall save where it was begirt with unpassable vallies and there one wall did suffice This wall was fenced with a ditch cut out of a rock saith Iosephus and Strabo sixty foot deep and two hundred and fifty foot broad the former not acquainting us with the authour thereof so prodigious a work may well be conceived a performance of many successive Princes therein It seems it was made the deeper because it was dry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 well watered within and dry without is the character our author gives of the City This I dare say the breadth of this ditch exceeds the proportion of al modern regular fortifications for in Breda it self the platform wherein may be the platform for other places the ditch is no broader then the rampire at the bottome thereof And now what David principally intended mystically comes to our place literally to endevour Walke about Sion and goe round about her tell the towers thereof Mark yee well her bulworks consider her palaces that yee may tell it to the generation following And to follow the motion of the Sun we will begin at the East and so forward CHAP. III. Of the Gates thereof § 1. BE it premised that many difficulties in this subject have been caused by mens unwary confounding of the severall natures of the gates in Ierusalem which for the clearing of the truth must carefully be distinguished into four
sorts in sundry places serving for different employments Gates 1 In the out-wall giving ingâ—ess and egress to passengers the sole subject of our present discourse 2 In the in-walls like Temple-bar opening out of Fleet-street into the Strand being partitions within Ierusalem Such the Iron-gate through which Saint Peter went out of prison to the house of Mary the mother of Iohn Mark. 3 Leading to the Courts of the Temple as Saint Austins-gate into Saint Pauls Church-yard such the beautifull gate c. 4 Of the Kings palace like Bulwark gate and Iron-gate leading to London tower as the gate whereby the horses came into the Kings house Now such as promiscuously make all these to be out-gates of Ierusalem ingage themselves in difficulties and deceivâ— others thereby For prevention whereof we will onely insist on the gates of the first qualification § 2. Begin we with the Sheep-gate on the east of Ierusalem in Nehemiahs time owing the reparation thereof to Eliâ—shib the high Priest and his brethren Through this gate the sheep were driven in and all other cattell designed for sacrifice as the nearest way to the Temple § 3. Next followeth the Golden-gate not mentioned in Scripture but meeâ—ly depending on humane authority so called because gilt all over vulgar beholders who carry no touchstones in their eyes accounting all massie gold which is richly gilded Popish authours adde that when our Saviour in an humble but solemn equipage rode on an Asse colt to the Temple this gate opened unto him of its own accord a prety proportionable fiction For if the Iron-gate opened to Peter a Disciple no less then a Golden-gate could offer entrance to Christ his Master Onely here 's the difference we receive the one as recorded in Scripture and reâ—uâ—e the other as not reported therein especially our Saviour having â—o fair an occasion to make mention thereof For when the Pharisees questioned him for not silencing the Childrens Hosaâ—aâ—s and when he returned thâ—t if they should hold their peace the stones would immediately â—ry out how easie had it been for him to adde that the very walls of the City had already opened their mouthes their gates to receivâ— him § 4. Thirdly the Horse-gate by the Kings palace through which the grooms brought the Kings horâ—â—s to water them in the brook of Kidron yet some erroneously make this the same with the Water-gate The Prophet points at the exact position thereof towards the east and we finde the mention but not the reedifying of this gate in Nehemiah a Presumpâ—ion that it was not so ruinous as the rest and not needing much reparation As for 〈◊〉 who cryed Treason Treason the fox the finder when she was the greatest Traitour herself on the Comparing of Scripture it will appear that the Horse-gate whereat she was killed was not this City gate but another so named leading from the Temple to the the Kings Palace § 5. Fourthly the Water-gate In a fall or declivity of ground full east So called because thereat all the â—ewers channels and water-courses of the City flowed out and ran into the brook Cedron No mention in Nehemiah of the repairing hereof for the reason aforesaid Indeed if in his time the Iews had de no vo from the very ground begun the building of the walls and gates thereof it had been impossible they could have finished that work in two and fifty days Whereby it appears they onely mended those places which were most in dilapidation This was the East-gate emphatically so called by the Prophet and opened into the valley of the children of Hinnom § 6. Thus far the gates on the east of Ierusalem On the south thereof where Sion or the City of David lay we meet with no gates at all the precipice of the rock affording no passable ascent on that side so that men must goe first through Ierusalem and then into Sion I dare not say that herein Ierusalem was a type of the Militant as Sion more mounted of the Triumphant Church although there be no access for those which are without into the happiness of the latter but by taking the holiness of the former in their passage thereunto § 7. Come we now to the west in the southermost part whereof we light on the Fountain-gate near the pool of Shiloah whence it took its name nigh to which on the inside were those stately staires whereby men went up to the City of David This gate was in Nehemiahs time repaired by Shallum the Son of Col-hozeh § 8. Next to this the Dung-gate A gate in greatness though but a postern for the private use thereof through which the offall and excrements of the City were conveyed Appliable to this place is that which the Apostle speaketh of some parts of the body Nay much more thosâ— members of the body which seem to be feeble are necessary This gate though of small honour was of great use and all Ierusalem had been a Dung-City but for the Dung-gate Yea the noisomer soile carried out hereat and conveyed hence into the gardens thereabouts was by natures Chymistry converted into wholesome herbs and fragrant flowers growing there The Dung-gate in the days of Nehemiah was set up with the doors locks and bars thereof by Malchiah the son of Rechab § 9. Next follows the Valley-gate commonly but wrongfully placed on the east side of the City chiefly on this account because the valley of Kidron lyeth on that side thereof As if this valley alone was near Ierusaâ—lem which by the Psalmist is described with the mountains round about it and so by necessary consequence must be surrounded with vallies interposed betwixt it and those mountains This gate stood in the north-west opening into the valley of Carcases lying betwixt it and Mount Calvary Here Nehemiah began and ended his surveying the ruins of the walls going by night because loth to be seen and loth to see so sad a sight This valley-gate was in his time repaired by Hanun and the inhabitants of Zanoah § 10. Having thus surveyed the east south and west come we now to the northern part of the City Where first we finde the Corner-gate whose angular position speaks it to participate of two points being seated in the very flexure of the wall from the east to the north It was distanced from the gate of Ephraim just four hundred cubits all which space of the wall was broken down by Ioash King of Israel when he conquered Amaziah that his Army might march in triumphantly with the greater state Pride we see hath not onely an high neck but also a broad breast especially when setting her armes by her side so large a passage must be cleared for her entrance Afterwards King Uzziah rebuided this gate and adorned it with towers yea fortified all the turning of the wall
For as the elbows of garments ought to be made the strongest as most subject to wearing out so walls being the cloaths of Cities without which they are naked wise Uzziah adjudged it necessary that this Corner-gate and wall bending thereabout should have most cost and care expended in the fortification thereof § 11. No mention of the repairing of this gate in Nehemiah which prompteth us with these conjectures 1 Either that it was then dammed up Ierusalem after the captivity being large in extent and thin in people many uninhabited places being left therein probably in policy they contracted the number of their gates the multiplying whereof did require more money and men to guard them Or rather 2 Being so lately built by Uzziah it might notneed much mending as left standing and undemolished by the Babylonians For in the sacking of a City it often fareth with the gates as with the men thereof it is hard if some doe not escape and survive the destruction Yea sometimes conquerours are pleased to spare some parcell of walls out of pity not to the place but to themselves finding the structure thereof of so firme constitution that it requires more pains then it will return profit in the levelling thereof § 12. Next comes the gate of Ephraim so called not because standing in but opening towards the Tribe of Ephraim I deny not but that some Ephraimites after their return from captivity dwelt in Ierusalem from whose habitations hard by this gate might in probability borrow his name but prefer the former notation as most naturall For usuall it is both for streets and gates to take their denomination from such places though at great distance to which they lead Witness Kentish-street in South-wark for that it is the way saith my authour leading into that County the street it self otherwise being in Surrey and witness Winchester-gate in Sarisbury so named because through it travellers pass to Winchester a City twenty miles off and an instance best known to Scholars Trumpington-street in Cambridge so called from a village some two miles thence This gate was probably destroyed when Ioash King of Israel entring Ierusalem brake down four hundred cubits of the wall from the gate of Ephraim to the Coâ—â—er-gate where I conceive the particle from is to be taken inclusively so that both the gates were cast into that account the rather because Pride and Cruelty always when they make measure give in the advantage § 13. Next the Old-gate so called as Bonsrerius will have it because extant here ever since Melchisedec was the founder thereof If so it was an Old-old-gate indeed But as men having out lived all Registers account themselves so gates having outlasted all memories are accounted by others more ancient then truely they are However no wonder if in Nehemiahs time the decays of so old a fabrick called to the charity of Iehoiada the son of Paseah and Meshullam the son of Besodajah jointly to repair them § 14. Next the Fish-gate By mistake generally placed in the west wal meerly because Ioppa on the Mediterranean sea whence they fancy all fish as if no moe ways to the water then one must come to Ierusalem lay on the west thereof Whereas in Scripture we finde no express of fish for mans eating but one which eat a man Ionab his Whale mentioned from thatplace whilst whole sholes were caught in the Sea of Galilee or lake of Tiberias lying north of Ierusalem Indeed Tyre lying almost full north from this City was the staple place which furnished it with fish as appears in Nehemiah which through this gate was brought to Ierusalem Surely the provisions of any populous place in long time will tire if onely going on feet or flying on wings and not also swimming with fins having fish as well as flesh and fowl for their repast as here in Ierusalem And although no sacrifices of fish were by God appointed to be offered unto him yet hence the less wholesomeness or cleanness of them cannot justly be inferred because they were improper for offerings living in an element wherein men had no conversation This gate was repaired by the sons of Hassenaah § 15. The gate of Benjamin doth onely remain he the least in his fathers family this the last amongst the gates of Ierusalem standing in the north east part thereof Indeed we finde two gates of Benjamin in Ierusalem two of the same name in one City no wonder the double New-gate in London the later new made postern into Moor-fields may be an instance thereof one called the high-gate of Benjamin where Pashur put the Prophet Ieremy in the stocks which was by the house of the Lord and therefore probably a gate of the Temple The other was an out-gate of the City leading into the land of Benjamin whither Ieremy was going to separate himself when the Captain of the guard in this gate seised him in his passage falsly accused him and occasioned his imprisonment § 16. Here I cannot but wonder at many learned men who make this Gate of Benjamin to be the same with the Corner-gate I deny not but that in many Cities it is usuall for one and the same gate to have severall names as I have learnt from my industrious and judicious friend in his description of Canterbury how Burgate and Saint Michaels-gate are the same and so Newin-gate and Saint Georges-gate in that ancient City But the fancy of the foresaid authors is directly oppossite to the words of the Prophet foretelling that Ierusalem should be inhabited from Benjamin gate unto the place of the first gate unto the corner-gate c. where we may behold these two gates Benjamin and the Corner-gate set at terms at great distance and a considerable space interposed This gate was not repaired in Nehemiahs time for the reasons formerly alledged § 17. These are all the gates of Ierusalem whereof express mention in Scripture Some fancy another called the Needles-eye so low and little onely men might enter thereat These conceive our Saviours expression It is easier for a Camel to goe through the eye of a needle then for a rich man trusting in his riches to enter into the kingdome of God intended this small postern where the bunch on the Camels back was the Porter to shut it against him for entering in thereat But we listen hereunto as to a fable and account the threading of Saint Wilfrides needle as a conceit though much later and of a different nature to have as much gravity and truth therein CHAP. IV. Of the Towers on or about Ierusalem § 1. BEsides these gates Ierusalem was beautified and fortified with many towers proportionably interplaced though we finde but few of them recorded by name Amongst these we meet with the tower of Meah that is the hundred tower so called either because so many cubits high or so many distanced
the royall interments Count it not presumption for a Priests body to intrude amongst Princes bones seeing not his pride but the peoples gratitude preferred him to the place because he had done good in Israel towards God and his house Oh if monuments were marshalled according to mens merits what change would it cause in our Churches See we here the care the Iews had of decent burying thâ—ir dead True it is bodies flung in a bog will not stick there at the day of judgement cast into a wood will finde out the way thrown into a dungeon will have free egress left on the highway are still in the ready road to the resurrection Yet seeing they are the Tabernacles of the Soul yea the Temples of the holy Ghost the Iews justly began and Christians commendably continue the custome of their solemn interment § 6. Farther off from the palace we finde the house of the mighty where Davids worthies lived in a Colledge under Ioab their President next the Kings wine-press and his fish-ponds Think not that the Kings of Iudah had onely Crowns Thrones and Scepters the Ensignes of Soveraignty for besides these to maintain their state they had places of profit so thrifty as to make their own wine at the best hand § 7. Next we take notice of the houses of Annas and Caiaphas both alive at once and termed the high-Priests at the same time one by courtesie because lately he had been the other by right because at present possessed of the high-Priesthood Thus that function which ought to have been during life by Gods institution was made alternately annuall by mans innovation Was not the shining of two Suns together in the Jewish Church sadly ominous And was it not high time for God to take away the office when men began wantonly to play at in and out with that holy profession But besides these two high-Priests there was a third that had more right then either to the place our Saviour himself at the present brought a prisoner before them In the house of Annas an officer wrongfully struck him with the palme of his hand and in the house of Caiaphas he was thrice denyed by Peter adjured by the high-Priest adjudged to death spit upon blinded buffeted with other insolencies offered unto him The houses of the high-Priests were far asunder all which distance Christ traced on foot and it is observable that being posted backwards and forwards from Annas to Caiaphas from Caiaphas to Pilate from Pilate to Herod from Herod to Pilate from Gabbatha to Golgotha he traversed all the length and breadth and most of the considerable places in the City Partly to render his passion more publick being made a spectacle to men and Angels partly that his beautifull feet might bring the Gospell of peace into every principall street in Ierusalem § 8. Next followeth the Coenaculum or large upper-room where Christ ended the Passover began the Lords supper and probably afterwards in the same place appeared to his disciples where after his ascension the holy Spirit in fiery cloven tongues fell upon them enabling them to speak all languages for which some senslesly slandered them to be full of new wine For the excess thereof may give men more tongue not moe tongues and is so far from making them speak other that it hinders the pronouncing of their own language As for the house of the Virgin Mary which some make very fair in mouÌ„t Sion I say a better was beneath her desert but a worse was above her estate Sure it is that after hersons sufferings she privately lived in the house of Iohn the Apostle Iohn formerly lay in the boâ—om of Christ Christ once lodged in the womb of Mary and Mary was for ever hid with Christ in God O holy chain ô happy complication § 9. In the last place we come to the prisons those necessary evills in a populous City whereof we finde three severall degrees 1 The dungeon of Malchiah a most nasty place the mud and mire whereof shall not be stirred by my pen lest the ill savour offend the Reader Yet good Ieremiah was forced to lie and like to die therein had not Ebed-melech the blackmore procured his writ of removall 2 The house of Ionathan the Scribe made a prison extraordinary of a private dwelling This little better then the former so that Ieremy counted it a favour at his importunate request to be preferred thence into 3 The court of the prison the best of all bads which was part of the Kings palace where Ieremy remained many days fed with a piece of bread out of the bakers-street a place hard by till Nebuchadnezzar at last gave him a Gaol-delivery § 10. So much of Sion forbearing to enlarge my self in the praises thereof frequent in holy writ As for that expression Gods dwelling is in Sion it seems particularly to relate to that time when the Arke resided there brought in by David and placed by him in the midst of a Tabernacle which he had pitched for it Indeed he designed to make a better casket for that Jewell had not God retrenched his resolution by speciall order intending Solomon for that purpose who many years after removed this Ark into the Temple he erected CHAP. VIII Of Millo AS it is a great grace in a Rhetorician not to have bald and flat but clear and fair Transitions so it is no less beautifull in buildings to have spacious and handsome passages therein For this cause the Kings of Israel counted no cost too much to be bestowed upon this Millo as being the common pass between Sion and Ierusalem It was called Millo that is a filling as some would have it because being naturally a gulfe or concavity it was by great expence levelled to be built upon Others conceive it so named because filled with the confluxe and confluence of people being indeed the largest street in the whole City David began Solomon finished the building thereof But as once Wickam Bishop of Winchester wrote in a wall of Windsor This made Wickam in the same sense it may be said of Millo This made Ieroboam For Solomon taking notice of his activity merit commended men and beauty women to his favour made him surveyour of the works when he built Millo which brought him from a private person into publick notice the first admission is half a degree to honour and gave the occasion of his future greatness In this Millo at the going down to Sillah or to the bulwark King Ioash was cruelly killed by two of his servants CHAP. IX Of the Princely Palaces in this City § 1. PRoceed we now to the Princely palaces in Ierusalem and first we light on the house of the forest of Lebanon built by Solomon So called because an abridgement of that great forest wherein I mean in the groves
and gardens about it wild beasts of all kinds if humane Authors may be beleeved had their habitation Here the bellowing Harts are said to harbour the throating Bucks to lodge the belling Roes to bed the beating Hares to forme the tapping Conies to sit and the barking Foxes to kennell Strange musick to be heard in the midst of a populous place and very pleasant that such a woody retiredness should be afforded in the heart of a City Yet Solomons minde when mounted on these seeming felicities was as far from reaching true contentment as the tired traveller when on the top of the next hill will be from touching the skies which whilest he was in the valley seemed contiguous thereunto § 2. The length of this house was an hundred breadth fifty height thirty cubits whereby it appears both longer and broader then the Temple it self And no wonder for who will deny that White-Hall stands on more ground then Westminster-Abby-Church Besides in measuring the Temple onely the covered part thereof is reckoned on without the Courts wherein the greatest capacity thereof did consist whereas no doubt Courts and all are taken in to make up the aforesaid dimensions in Solomons house But grant the Kings Palace outspread the Temple in greatness the Temple out-topped it in height whose towred porches ascended an hundred and twenty cubites In this house Solomons golden shields and targets wer kept till carried away by Shishak King of Egypt § 3. Besides this Solomon had another house in Ierusalem which was thirteen years in building and a third which he made for his wife the daughter of Pharaoh Say not they needed two houses which had two Religions for we finde not that she ever seduced Solomon to idolatry nor are the Egyptian Idols reckoned up among those severall superstitions which his second brood of wives brought into Ierusalem Enough to perswade some that this match was made by dispensation if not direction of God himself typifying the calling of the Gentiles and that Pharaohs daughter afterwards became a convert following the Psalmists counsell Forget also thine own people and thy fathers house Hereabouts also was the Golden throne of Solomon to which those golden Lions gave a stately ascent It was the prayer of loyall Benaiah make the throne of Solomon greater then the throne of my Lord King David which accordingly came to pass whether taken for this his materiall throne or for the largeness and fulness of his royall authority § 4. Pass we by the Castle of Antiochus built by him as a bridle to the City as also the Palace of the Maccabees wherein for many yeaâ—s they made their residence first built by Simon west of the Temple In Christs time Herod the great had in Ierusalem a most magnificent house wherein his grandchild Herod Antipas Tetrarch of Galilee kept his passeover when Pilate sent Christ unto him to be examined by him Right glad was Herod of this occasion because though formerly much conversing with Iohn the Baptist yet Iohn did no miracle which he now in vain hoped to behold from our Saviour For he that would not work a miracle at his mothers motion would not doe it for his persecutors pleasure Let Herod take this for a sign that Christ was the Son of God because he would shew no sign for the will of man However the silent shew of our Saviour wrought a reconciliation betwixt him and Pilate which before were at enmity betwixt themselves But alass the innocent Lambe is not long liv'd when thus both Wolfe and Fox are agreed against him § 5. Appendant to this Palace was the prison wherein Peter was put and being to dye the next day was found in a dead sleep the night before I question whether Herod who condemned him slept half so soundly He must be smote before he could be waked and his shackles fell off easier then his sleep The Rhemish note tells us that the chains wherewith he was bound are still preserved at Rome in the Church of Petri ad vincula But if those there be the true chains I dare boldly say that others of richer metall and finer making more worth and less weight are daily worn by Peters pretended successour § 6. Pilates Palace must not be forgotten wherein our Saviour was accused by the Iews near whereunto was the Judgement-hall called Gabbatha or the Pavement But how even or smooth soever the stones were laid in the floor thereof most rough harsh and unequall justice was administred in this place when our Saviour therein was condemned This was the place into which the high-Priests prepared for the Passeover would not enter for fear of pollution O my soul enter not into their secrets whose feâ—â— are swift to shed bloud but legs lame to lift themselves over the threshold of a judgement-hall for fear of defilement Now all these Princely Palaces were not extant in this City at the same time but successively and therefore as Poets when they present Persons who lived in severall ages on the same stage lay their scene in the Elysian fields so to put these Palaces together the reader must suppose their dust and ruines did all meet on the floor of this City though made in our map in a flourishing estate the better to adorn our description of Ierusalem CHAP. X. Of the Colledges in Jerusalem § 1. PAss we now from the Court to the Innes-of-Court namely such places wherein youth had liberall education The Iews tell us of four hundred and fourscore Synagogues at Ierusalem for this purpose We will insist onely on such as we finde named in Scripture and begin with Huldah's colledge wherein that Prophetess lived in the days of Iosiah Perchance a female foundation of women alone and she the Presidentress thereof though surely not bound with any monasticall vow of virginity because there also styled the wife of Shallum § 2. Next in the days of the Maccabees we take notice of the Grecian Colledge or Gymnasium erected by Iason the high Priest wherein the Jewish youth were taught to wrestle ride horses and other Grecian accomplishments Indeed archery was an ancient Jewish exercise David taught the children of Israel the use of the how as it is written in the book of Iasher but these were pure heathenish imployments Here also they were taught to wear a garment called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some translate Hats others buskins though head and feet are far asunder which whether it were the generall garbe of the Grecians or onely an Academicall habit to distinguish the Students from common Citizens let others enquire But the worst of all was here they were taught not onely uncircumcision of omission neglecting the observing thereof on infants but also the uncircumcision of commission practising to make themselves uncircumcised studiously deleting the character of that Sacrament out of their
of others waxed cold could warm himself with his own well gotten goods But afterwards Barnabas that Son of consolation comforting the bowels of the Saints as well by his works as words deeds as doctrine sold his possessions and tendered the price thereof at the feet of the Apostles Such practises were sincerely performed in the primitivetimes superstitiously imitated with opinion of merit in after ages and scornfully derided by too many in our days so far from parting with the propriety that they will not appropriate a part of their goods to good uses We finde Saint Paul preaching in two cities in Cyprus Salamis where there was a Synagogue of the Iews and Paphos where Venus was worshipped thence surnamed Paphia and where Elymas the sorcerer was struck blind for opposing Saint Paul We cannot recover Paphos proportionably into this Map behold it therefore peeping in but excommuned the lines thereof § 34. But to return to the Continent where we fall on Syrophoenicia whose mixt name speakes its middle situation betwixt Syria and Phenice so that if those two countrys should fall out no fitter umpire to arbitrate their difference then Syrophoeniâ—ia participating of and therefore presumed impartiall to both Of this Countrey was that bold begger who would have no saying nay but importunate in the behalf of her daughter no whit discouraged with the disadvantage of her person disaffection of the disciples miserable mediatours interceding for her repulse deep silence and afterwards disdainful denial of Christ himself would not desist as if her zeal was heated with the Antiperistasis of the cold comfort she received till the violence of her faith had wrested a grant from our Saviour The bounds of Syrophoenicia are variously assigned the principall cities whereof are Laodicea different from that to which Saint Iohn wrote and whose lukewarm temper made health it self sick thereof § 35. Next we finde on the sea the city of Gebalâ— in Ptolemy and Strabo Gabala and the Inhabitants therein and thereabouts termed Giblites in Scripture These led the Van in the grand conspiracy against Israel Gebal and Ammon and Amalek the Philistims with the inhabitants of Tyre Asher also c. But Solomon taught their hands another lesson not to fight against Gods people but to help to finish his Temple At the Coronation of Tyre the Queen-Mart of the world so largely described by Ezekiel where all neighbouring Cities as in Grand-Sergeantry held their places by some speciall attendance about her the Ancients of Gebal and the wisemen thereof were her calkers to stop the leakes and chinks in her ships so cunning were the Giblites in that imployment Yet all their curiosity in this kind could not keep out the deluge of divine anger from entring their own City which at this day hath drowned Gebal in utter destruction § 36. More south the river Eleutherus arising out of Libanus shaped his course to the sea so being the northern boundary of Phoenicia In this river saith reverend Beza was the Eunuch baptized by Philip therein making an unexcusable mistake For except the Eunuch in his travell went like the Sun on Abaz his dial backwards it was impossible for him going to Gaza and so into Aethiopia his own countrey once to come near this river lying far north quite the contrary way Had Beza in stead of the Eunuch baptized placed the Emperour Barbarossa drowned here it had born better proportion to truth However from this learned mans mistake I collect comfortable confidence of pardon for my faults committed in this our description For seeing so strong legs are prone to stumble surely the falls of my feeble feet will be freely forgiven me by the charitable Reader § 37. Near the running of Eleutherus into the midland sea stood Antaradus so called because opposite to Aradus Arvad in Scripture a city of remarkable antiquity situation and subsistence Well doth Strabo call this an ancient place seeing it retained its name more then two thousand years from Arvad the ninth son of Canaan even till after the time of our Saviour The city is seated in an Island seven furlongs in compass and twenty distant from the Continent being all a main rock industry and ingenuity will make wealth grow on a bare stone watered in peace from the main land in war with an engine consult with our Author for the forme thereof which limbeck-like extracted sweet water out of the brackish Ocean The citizens of this place served Tyre in a double office by land as souldiers The men of Arvad with thine army were upon the walls round about by water as failers The inhabitants of Arvad were thy mariners which sufficiently speaks their dexterity in either Element § 38. Next the men of Arvad the Prophet mentioneth the Gammadims the joint naming them probably insinuates the vicinity of their habitation which were in the Tower of Tyre as a garison to defend them By Gammadims some understand Pygmies of a Cubit-high equall to the standard of Ehuds dagger because Gamad signifies a cubit in the Hebrew tongue But how ill doth this measure agree with martiall men except any will say that as the Iebusites in a proud confidence of the naturall strength of mount Sion placed the lame and blind to man the same so the Tyrians presumed that dwarfes were tall enough to make good their giant fortifications More likely is the conjecture of Tremellius that the Gammadims were a people in Phoenicia inhabiting a part thereof which ran out bowed and bended into the sea And we know that Ancona in Italy and Elbow-lane in London receive names from the same fashion And seeing Cornish-men are so called from the forme of their Countrey dwelling in a land which by degrees is contracted or narrowed into the likeness of an horn why not Gammadims Cubit-men from the similitude of their countrey in the situation thereof Here to fortifie his conjecture Tremellius produceth a place in Pliny of Gamala a city in Phoenicia since swallowed up where he conceiveth the L. to be changed into the D. that the Gammadims were inhabitants thereof However for quietness sake may the Reader be contented to suffer them to remain there in our Map if not as dwellers onely as sojourners untill such time as learned men shall provide a more proper place for them § 39. And now on a suddain we are fallen unawares against our propounded order on Phoenicia of the name and nature of which countrey formerly in the Tribe of Asher The chief havens therein were Tripolis so called say some because it hath been thrice build by others because three Cities Tyre Sidon and Aradus concurred to the building thereof Next is the promontory called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Gods face which no whit afrighted the Pirates and sea-robbers who had a Castle hard by called Castellum praedonum from their mischievous cruelty Botrus succeeds whose name
which had known man What time also they did execution on five Kings of Midian and Balaam the false Prophet their chaplain who fell by the sword of man though he had escaped that of the Angell Some may think strange that the Israelites having conquered this countrey possessed not themselves and their heirs thereof Let such know first that this sandy land was barren it self whose best fruitfulness consisted onely in the largeness thereof Secondly God intended an entire territory to his own people whereas this stragling Countrey was hardly kept though easily conquered Thirdly the Midianites were of the halfe bloud with the Israelites descended from Abraham and therefore God would not have them disinherit their kinsmen of their possessions §6 If we goe out of their cities to take free aire in their countrey see how thick their tents are spread over the face of the earth Whereof though their coverings might seem course their courtains mentioned by the Prophet being both the side walls and roof of their inward rooms were most costly and curious As the Midianites were called the children of the east so none more orient in their apparell and gorgeous accoutrements For if their Camels wore Collers of gold about their necks how rich may their riders be presumed to be in pearles and precious stone § 7. Another great part of their wealth consisted in their cattell amongst which we must take speciall notice of their Dromedaries seeing the most or best of this kind were bredhereabouts A Dromedary is a dwarfcamell nature recompensing his smalness in his swiftness so that he will travellan hundred miles a day and continue at that rate with sparing diet a week together He hath but one bunch on his back the Camell having more the naturall saddle for his Rider to mount upon generally more used for travell then bearing of burdens and of as much more refined service above Camells as Hacknies are above Packhorses In a word as in one respect this beast is the commendable character of perseverance not fleet by fits at the first but holding out a constant and equall tenour in travelling so in another regard it may pass for the emblem of hypocrisie pretending to both symptomes of a clean beast really chewing the cud and seemingly cleaving the hoof but onely on the out side whereas within it is wholly fleshly and entirely round like a platter § 8. Yet all their speed could not save their Masters from the pursuit of Gideon when such a fatall blow was given to the Midianites that the Text saith They lift up their heads no more Yea which is memorable scarce any part of their body appears afterwards in Scripture or any mention of Midianites save with relation to the former defeate which leads us to this conjecture that the remains of that nation which escaped that dismall overthrow shrowded themselves under the names of some neighbouring people probably of the Ishmaelites of whom but a word or two and so to Moab § 9. Nor need the Reader be afraid to adventure amongst them suspecting the Ishmaelites like Ishmael their Father to be wild men Whose hands were against every man and every mans hand against them seeing their fierceness and fury had been well tamed by the Reubenites Gadites and half Tribe of Manasseh in that memorable victory wherein no fewer then an hundred thousand of them were taken captives and those Tribes dwelt in their tents even unto the river Euphrates Conceive it in a cursory condition onely grazing their cattell during the season which amounted not to a constant and settled habitation § 10. The Ishmaelites were descended from Ishmael otherwhiles called Hagarens wherein the difference not great their former name being fetched from their Father the latter but one degree further from Hagar their grandmother Of this Ishmael it was foretold first that he should dwell as also he did die in the presence of all his brethren that is he should not hide his head in holes or creep into corners as afraid of the force of his neighbours but should justifie and avouch his Right in open habitations daring and defying all pretenders to his possessions Secondly it is said he should be Onager homo or a wild-ass-man in which similitude the holy Spirit not using casuall but choice comparisons surely very much is folded up of the Physiognomy both of him and his posterity Wild asses are said to carry a bow in their heels and to finde arrows in the sandy ground where they goe wherein if hunted they doe bestirre themselves with flinging the gravell behind them that therewith they pierce the breasts yea sometimes split the heads of such as pursue them as the Ishmaelites excellent archers laid about them with their arrows to kill and slay such as opposed them § 11. Large were the bounds alotted to Ishmael and divine providence which staked them down within certain limits allowed them a very long teddar They dwelt from Havilah unto Shur that is from before Egypt till as thou goest towards Assyria a spong of ground somewhat nigh a thousand miles perchance not so entire but interrupted with other nations and not bearing a proportionable breadth consisting generally of the Sandy and stony Arabia so that a span of Isaacs was worth a stride of Ishmaels possession However in relation to Ishmaels posterity that Prophecy he shall dwell in the presence of his brethren admits also of this interpretation that the land alotted him ranged out so far that the bounds and borders thereof abutted on all his kindred Edomites and Israelites his nephews or brothers sons Moabites and Ammonites his cousins once removed Midianites descended of his half brother by Keturah and Egyptians his near kinsmen both by his wife and mother § 12. In this large countrey did dwell the twelve sons of Ishmael which I may call the twelve tribes of the Ishmaelites 1 Nebaioth 2 Kedar 3 Adbeel 4 Mibsam 5 Mishma 6 Duma 7 Massa. 8 Hadar 9 Temah 10 Ietur 11 Naphish 12 Kedemah A learned man from the allusion of letters and similtude of sounds hath found out in stony desert and happy Arabia some places symbolizing with these names and I commend his industry not daring altogether to concur with his judgment conceiving the subject in hand to want a bottome for any to build with certainty thereupon Sooner shall Chymists fixe quick-silver then Geographers place these people in a setled habitation Indeed mention is made of some Townes and Castles no cities they had perchance some strength to retire to but generally Saint Hierome tells us they had neither doors nor bolts but lived in tents in desert places Wherefore as foreiners for matter of clothes paint an Englishman with a pair of sheares in his hand taxing therein his levity in following fashions continuing constant to no kind of apparell so we may present the Ishmaelites besides a bow at
count them in specie but for more safety or expedition computed the people by their Paschall Lambes proportioning such a number of men to a Lambe Others read it He numbred them as Lambes that is now grown meek and quiet whereas at the first there were some animosities of the people against him Shall Saul reign over us contentedly submitting themselves to his command But I take Telaim for a true City and the same with Telem Iosh. 15. 24. which you may finde in our description CHAP. XV. Objections against the Land of Moriah answered Philol. I Perceive the imperfection of your description by the omitting of a memorable valley therein namely the vale of Baca mentioned by the Psalmist pronouncing him blessed who passing through the vale of Baca maketh it a Well You in stead of passing through pass by this vale unmentioned Aleth I reserved my observations on this vale for this place Some render it appellatively The vale of weeping meaning thereby the militant condition of a Christian in this life incumbred with constant afflictions If so this vale of Baca is too big to come under my description all the mountains in the world being but part of this valley the extent whereof is adequate to the whole earth But if you be pleased to take this vale for a proper place I embrace the opinion of learned Ainsworth on the text that this vale of Baca or Mulberry trees for so also it signifieth was near to Ierusalem out of the tops of which trees God sounded the Alarum to David when he conquered the Philistines CHAP. XVI Objections against the City of Jerusalem answered Philol. VVHat is charged unjustly on Saint Paul and his companions that they had turned the world upside down may truly be laid to your charge you have in your description of Ierusalem tumbled all things topsie turvy in the position of the gates thereof yea the foundations of the City as presented by you are out of course and contrary to the rules of other writers Aleth Let God be true and every man a liar In this particular I profess my self a pure Leveller desiring that all humane conceits though built on most specious bottomes may be laid flat and prostrated if opposing the written Word In conformity whereunto we are bound to dissent from such Authors otherwise honouring them for their severall deserts to accommodate the Description of the Gates and Towers of Ierusalem according to a threefold eminent Directory which we finde in Nehemiah Philol. Give us I pray you an account of them in order Aleth The first main Scripture direction we are to observe is the night survey which Nehemiah took of the walls or rather ruines of Ierusalem described in this manner NEHEM 2. 13 14 15. And I went out by night by the gate of the valley even before the Dragon Well to the Dung port and viewed the walls of Ierusalem which were broken down and the gates thereof were consumed with fire Then went I out to the gate of the fountain and to the Kings pool but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass Then went I up in the night by the brook and viewed the wall and turned back and entred by the gate of the valley and so returned The second is the severall reparations where the same were required done on the Gates and walls of the City by severall persons in a circular form from the Sheep-gate surrounding the whole City till they returned to the same place where they began Whose names we have carefully inscribed on those portions of buildings upon which their cost and pains were expended The third but most materiall because most declaratory of the method of the Gates is the solemn Processions which the people divided into two Quires made round about the walls each of them measuring a Semi-circle both of them incompassing the whole circumference of Ierusalem and at last joining together in the best meeting place the Temple of God First Quire Nehem. 12. 31. One great company went on the right hand upon the wall towards the Dung-gate consisting of half the Princes of Iudah and Ezra the Scribe before them And at the fountain-gate which is over against them they went up by the staires of the City of David at the going up of the wall above the house of David even unto the water-gate eastward Second Quire Nehem. 12. 38 39. And the other company of them that gave thanks went over against them and I after them and the half of the people upon the wall from beyond the Tower of the furnaces even unto the broad wall And from above the gate of Ephraim and above the old-gate and above the fish-gate and the tower of Hananeel and the tower of Meah even unto the sheep-gate and they stood still in the prison-gate So stood the two companies of them that gave thanks in the house of God Now I request the Reader with his eye to examine whether the walls of Ierusalem as designed in our draught agree not with these directions of Scripture To purchase the favour whereof I pass not for the frowns of any Authors Omne excelsum cadet down with whatever dare oppose our embracing of the Text. This we hope for the main will satisfie any indifferent Reader otherwise if being as impossible for me in this short discourse to meet with the severall exceptions of private fancies as for a Geographer in the Map-generall of a Countrey to set down the house of every particular person Philol. You set Sion south of Ierusalem clean contrary to the description of the Psalmist Beautifull for situation the joy of the whole earth is mount Sion on the Sides of the North the City of the great King Aleth The place by you alleadged is difficult much canvassed by Comments who fasten upon it two principall interpretations 1 Sense Some make this verse a description of Sion alone the latter clause by Apposition so referring unto it that Sion it self is solely charactered to be the City on the side of the North. 2 Sense Others make this verse the full description of all Ierusalem consisting of two principall parts by the figure of Asyndeton coupled together 1. Sion Beautiful for situation the â—oy of the whole earth is Mount Sion 2. Properly Jerusalem On the sides of the North the City of the great King That the latter is the truer interpretation we send the Reader to the voluminous labours of Villalpandus proving the same out of Scripture Iosephus and other Authors Besides though time and casualty hath made many alterations on Ierusalem yet what Peter in his time said of Davids sepulcher even in our age true of mount Sion it is with us unto this day standing still full south of Ierusalem as Travellers doe affirme no doubt in the ancient place and posture thereof For although Ioseph could remove the Egyptians from one end of the borders of the land
unto the other end thereof yet mountains are too firmly fastned to be transplanted from their naturall location Philol. You doe commit what you condemn in Adrichomius taxing him for fashioning the streets of Ierusalem after his own fancy assuming the same liberty to your self in conjecturall ranging them without warrant from Gods word Aleth Reason dictates what we have done herein For Gates being made for entrance probably the streets from them stretched forth-right as we have deâ—igned them Those Insulae or Quadrants of buildings are nothing else but the necessary product of the decussation and thwarting of such direct streets where they cross one another It is impossible that in describing Ierusalem we should doe what Saul in another case desired of the Ziphites See therefore and take notice of all the lurking places and come yee again with the certainty onely such generalls in likelyhood may be presumed and the rest is left to every mans free conception Philol. You have forgotten the Porta fictilis or Potters-gate which Villalpandus solemnly sets up on the east of the City building on a place alleadged out of the Prophet Ieremy Aleth His Porta fictilis is rather fictitia and so brittle a gate that it is broken with perusing the text by him cited for the proof thereof Thus saith the Lord goe and get a potters earthen bottle and take of the ancients of the people and of the ancients of the Priests and goe forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom which is by the entry of the east gate and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee See here whatever may be in the vulgar Latine no sherd of a Potters-gate though we confess a Potters field nigh the City but thence it cannot be collected that there was also a gate of that name no more then if followes because of Smithfield there must be Smith-gate in London Philol. You affirm that we meet with no gate at all in Sion flatly contrary to the words of David The Lord loveth the gates of Sion more then all the dwellings of Icoab Aleth I say again that because of the precipice of the place Sion had no out-gates but had those which led into Ierusalem which might be meant by the Psalmist But to speake plainly Gates of Sion are not there to be taken literally being put for the assemblies of the people at Gods publick worship especially whilest the Ark was in Davids time fixed in Zion CHAP. XVIII Objections against the Courts of Solomons Temple answered Philol. IN your description of the Courts of Solomons Temple I finde onely four gates to the cardinall windes but neither Parbar nor Asuppim Gate though both of them eminently mentioned in the Bible Aleth I must confess my self utterly unsatisfied in the position of these places whether or no they were in the first two Courts as built by Solomon or added in after ages when the new or third Court was added to Solomons foundation which latter I am most inclined to beleeve For perusing the date of the first book of Chronicles I finde it written long after the Iews return from the captivity of Babylon as appears by reckoning up the grand-children of Zorobabel and therefore I suspend the describing of them till further information Philol. At the entrance of the House of the Lord you make horses but omit the Chariots of the Sun both equally mentioned in Scripture and destroyed by Iosiah Besides you make them artificiall statues which no doubt were naturall horses sent out with riders every morning in a superstitious frolick to give a welcome or visit to the dawning-day and to salute the Sun in the first arising thereof Aleth Chariots must be supposed there though not expressed for lack of room Sure they were no reall horses which the idolatrous Kings of Israel had given to the Sun For except thereby be meant a successive breed or race such horses must be extremely old at this reformation after the eighteenth year of Iosiaâ— probably set up by Ahaz sixty years since Besides it is improbable that living horses were kept so close to the Temple and that noisome stables should be so near Gods house generally set at some distance from mens dwellings However I had rather subscribe then ingage in a controversie not worth the contending for Philol. You mention onely one Table of shew-bread whereas David made preparation for the Tables thereof And lest so plain a place of Scripture should be avoided by the frequent figure of Enallage Solomon is expresly said to have made ten Tables and placed them in the Temple and it is added not long after whereon the shew-bread was set Aleth I am confident there was but one principall Table for the presentation of shew-bread whereon by Gods appointment the twelve Cakes were set in two rowes according to the number of the twelve Tribes of Israel Now if there were ten Tables provided for that purpose the twelve Cakes could not be equally set upon them without a fraction I conceive therefore the other nine onely as side-cupboards or Livery tables ministeriall to that principall one as whereupon the shew-bread elect was set before the consecration thereof and whereon the old shew-bread removed for some time might be placed when new was substituted in the room thereof Philol. To proceed to the Altar I approve your answer taken from the Celestiall fire thereupon as satisfactory in relation to the Tabernacle and Solomons Temple that so many sacrifices were so suddenly consumed without any noisomeness But the difficulty still remains as touching the second Temple where by generall confession in default of heavenly the Priests were fain to make use of common and ordinary fire Aleth Although I beleeve not in full latitude what the Iewish Rabbins doe affirme That the Pillar of smoak which ascended from the sacrifice curled onely upwards in direct wreaths to heaven without any scattering or shedding if self abroad yet for the main we may be confident it was no whit offensive to the Priests or people thereabouts This we impute to the providence of God passing an Act of indemnity that none should be impaired either in health or wealth by the performance of any service according to his appointment And as the land of the Iews was secured from forein invasion during the appearing of all the males thrice a year at Ierusalem so the same goodness of God ordered that his people should sustain no damage or detriment either in their purses or persons whilest busied in his worship the main reason that no infection did arise no smoak nor ill savor sented from the fat offall and excrements of so many sacrifices offered in so short a time and small a compass Philol. You say something for the avoiding of noisomeness but nothing in answer that that common fire should so quickly devour so many sacrifices though I confess the offerings