the salt-sea to Beth-hoglah 2 Thence by the north of Beth-araba 3 Thence it went up to the stone of Bohan the son of Reuben 4 Thence towards Debir from the valley of Achor 5 So northwards looking to Gilgal before the going up to Adummin on the south side of the river 6 Thence towards the water of Enshemesh 7 Thence to Enrogel Thence by the vally of Benhinnom unto the south of IerusaleÌ„ 8 Thence to the top of the mountain at the end of the vally of Rephaim 9 Thence to the fountain of Nephtoah 10 Thence to the cities of mount Ephron 11 Thence to Kiriath-jearim 1 From Kiriath-jearim westward it compasseth unto mount Seir. 2 Thence it passeth along to the side of mount Iearim or Chesalon 3 Thence went down to Bethshemesh 4 Thence passed on to Timnah 5 Thence unto the side of Ekron northward 6 Thence was drawn to Shichron 7 Thence passed along to mount Baalah 8 Thence went out unto Iabneel 9 Thence the west border ended at the Great Sea These west bounds of Iudah were afterwards altered falling into the middest of the Tribe of Dan. Now as in the body of a man if an inspection might be made into it whilest he is alive every nerve and artery therein then flushed up with the spirits is easily to be discerned which after death shrink almost invisible past discovering so each small angle and turning of Iudah's bounds in Ioshua's time was then plainly to be perceived which now adays the land long since being in a manner dead and desolate are not at all conspicuous nor fall they under any accurate observation § 15. Amongst all these limitary places Kadesh-Barnea is onely of eminency whither the children of Israel came and where they stayed some time after their coming out of Egypt in the very edge and entrance of the land of Canaan Thus that land was like a rich robe whose utmost hem the Iews were permitted to touch onely that their fingers might feel the fineness thereof but were denied to wear it and remanded to wander another way many years for the punishment of their infidelity And thus many come to the Kadesh-Barnea of common illumination who never attain to the true Canaan of holiness here or happiness hereafter § 16. In describing this spacious Tribe we will begin with the eleven royall Cities therein whose Kings were destroyed by Ioshua These according to their dignities may thus be reckoned up 1 Ierusalem whereof largely hereafter 2 Hebron 3 Debir 4 Libnah 5 Lachish 6 Adullam 7 Geder 8 Iarmuth 9 Eglon. 10 Arad 11 Hepher These royall Cities though scattered here and there in this Tribe need no other Herauld in our map to proclaime them to the Readers notice being quickly found out by their coronets graven upon them From these we shall proceed to other towns of eminency reserving the rivolets and wildernesses to close this our description § 17. Hebron was the principall royall city belonging to Iudah seven years senior in its building to Zoan a City in Egypt more anciently it was called Kiriath-Arba that is say some the City of four men because of four Patriarchs as they reckon them up Adam Abraham Isaac and Iacob buried therein But I wonder any should delight in their own wild conjectures when the text tendereth us a certainty herein assuring us that this Arba from whom Kiriath-Arba or Hebron was named was a great man among the Anakims This City stood in the vale of Mamre so called from Mamre a person of quality in this place who with Aner and Eshcol were Abrahams loving associates and valiant assistants in conquering Cheder-laomer and rescuing the captive Sodomites Abraham Isaac and Iacob lived here successively and from the vale of Hebron Ioseph was sent on a loving visit to his brethren when for his good will they sold him to the Ishmaelites § 18. Hereabouts was that great entertainment made wherein the covert of a tree was the dining-room the ground probably the board Abraham the Caterer Sarah the Cook veal and welcome their cheer Angels in the shape of men Christ in the notion of an Angel the guests and the last promise of Isaac the free-offering they gave for their entertainment Yea in Hebron Isaac was born suckled weaned persecuted by Ishmael till at last he mocked both himself and his mother Haâ—gar quite out of his Fathers family § 19. Near Hebron was the cave of Machpelah purchased by Abraham of Ephron the Hittite with the field about it and all the trees therein at the price of four hundred shekells of silver for the burying of Sarah himself and his family For here Isaac Ishmael though formerly the one perscuted the other lovingly agreed to bury Abraham their Father Iacob Esau though formerly the one designed the others death lovingly agreed to bury Isaac their Father Ioseph and his brethren though formerly they envied and sold him lovingly agreed to bury Iacob their Father And thus though branglings and brawlings may happen betwixt brethren when young all animosities ought to be buried in the grave of their Fathers § 20. In the time of Ioshua Hebron had a King whom he conquered and subdued and afterwards this place was made a City of Refuge and assigned with twelve moe in this Tribe and Benjamin unto the Priests the sons of Aaron who were above common Levites as employed in ordinary attendance about the Tabernacle Herein God provided not onely for their conveniency accommodating them with habitations near Ierusalem as the place hereafter intended for his publick service but chiefly for their conscience placing them in these two Tribes whom he foresaw would alone persevere in when the others would apostate from the true Religion Yea the Priests had the best and biggest places in Iudah as Hebron Debir Libnah formerly Royall afterwards Sacerdotall Cities God allowing his Ministers large maintenance and indeed a beggerly Clergy is the forerunner of a bankrupt Religion § 21. But although the City of Hebron pertained to the Priests the suburbs thereof by Gods appointment belonged to Caleb and his posterity This Caleb was that young-old man whose strength contradicted his years so able and active at fourscore and five either for advice or execution But here he eate not the bread of idleness being first to clear and conquer Hebron before he could possess it from the Giant-Amorite-Anakims dwelling therein These Amorites though as the Prophet describes them high as the Cedars and strong as the Oakes had notwithstanding to follow this Metaphor much wastfull sap in their mighty big bodies whilst Caleb all heart as his name imports though less and lower by Gods assistance easily overcame them If any demand How came Anakims hither seeing Hebron so lately was smitten by Ioshua A learned author answers that it is probable whilest Ioshua afterwards was employed in the north in conquering the
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
authors avouch that malignant Spirits haunt the places where these metals are found As if the Devill did there sit abrood to hatch them cunningly pretending an unwillingnesse to part with them whereas indeed he gains more by one mine minted out into money then by a thousand concealed in the earth 3 Because it stands not with the State of a Prince to be his own purse-bearer God would not have this Lordly land of Canaan to be incumbred with carrying such a burden Let Ophir and Tarshish and Havilah have the place of Iudas to beare the bagge for Iudea 4 Because there might be left unto the Gentiles an opportunity to gratifie the Iews and to testifie their duty and service to God and his Temple The Kings of Tarshish and of the Isles shall bring presents the Kings of Sheba and Seba shall bring gifts Now these natitions would have been wholly disheartened if they could have brought Iudea no novelty and onely presented her with such things whereof she had plenty before And yet whosoever shall observe the abundance of gold and silver in Solomons time in the city of Ierusalem will conclude this Country not to be the cistern but fountain of those metals As if divine providence had so divided it that other lands should be at the care cost to bear dig out and refine and Iudea have the honour and credit to use expend yea neglect such glittering need-nots to humane happinesse More minerals no doubt were in the land of Iudea and let not either our ignorance or the Iews idlenesse be interpreted the lands barrennesse the upper fruitfulnesse of whose soil made them the more negligent in digging into the bowels thereof as those need not to play beneath board who have all the visible game in their own hands CHAP. 4. Of the wealth accruing to Judea from the vegetables therein § 1. AMongst the native and proper commodities of Iudea Balm or Balsam most justly challengeth the principall place For when Iacob advised his sonnes to provide a present for Ioseph Take saith he of the best fruits of the land in your vessels a little balme and a little honey spices c. Hereby appears the improbable error of such as report how amongst other rich presents the Queen of Sheba brought to Solomon the first plants of Balsam which afterwards grew in Iudea Whereas indeed her bringing of those into that Countrey had been no better then carring of water to the fountain § 2. Heare the judgment of Pagan writers altogether unconcerned in this businesse Pliny saith Balsamum uni terrarum Iudaeae concessum understanding that Iudea alone was the Primitive place where it grew though afterwards colonies thereof were transplanted into Egypt and other countries With him agreeth Theophrastus Dioscorides and Galen who professeth that he went on purpose to Iudea to observe the distilling thereof and carried a small portion of balm about him by comparing thereof to discover and confute the frequent impostures of such as counterfeit the same This Balsame was principally twofold 1 Xulo-balsamum being the parent namely the shrub or in complement call it the tree out of which it proceeded 2 Opo-balsamum being the daughter which trickled like teares from the former usefull for men Sound making a most odoriferous and pleasant perfume Sick being a soveraign salve for their wounds Dead being an admirable preservative against corruption So that their embalmed bodies seem'd in some sort to typifie the eternity of their soule § 3. But this Balm was not so fixed to Gilead or any other part of Iudea but that it was moveable thence upon the sinnes of the people For after some flittings of this plant to Iericho whereof afterwards it was first by Pompey and finally by Vespasian carried captive to Rome Where it thrived so well that it was never saith Pliny fairer or fruitfuller Which passage may serve as a parable whereof our Saviour himself is the sense Who being formerly confined to Palestine alone did afterwards effectually extend himself for the good of all nations But enough hereof if not too much Yet seeing the reader if being to fill his viall with this precious liquor would not complain of overmuch measure I trust he will not be displeased with our larger description thereof § 4. Oil-olive so called to difference it both from seed and train-oile Hereof three kindes or rather degrees The coursest imploied for lamps a finer sort used for meat and the most refined of all compounded with various spices whereof ointment was made wherewith great Persons on solemn festivals used to anoint themselves and upon other occasions many others § 5. Honey This was the Sugar as Salt was the Pepper of the ancients And although Sugar canes grew in Iudea whereof some considerable store at this day yet the use thereof was either unknown to or neglected by the Iews in Scripture preferring honey in their daily diet And it may seem strange that honey being so deliciâ—us in taste and a staple commodity in Canaan was forbidden to be used in any sacrifice Learned men trouble themselves about the reason of this prohibition Some conceive voluptuousnesse thereby is forbidden others lip-lusciousnesse and hypocrisie in divine service others pride and ambition because honey turnes into choler others that it is forbidden in opposition to the Persian sacrifices wherein honey was principally offered And whereas the varieties of fancies herein are infinite some soberly rest themselves on no other reason but divine pleasure As for Wax the cask of honey it was used the lesse for lights because lamps were so much in fashion § 6. Wheat They are called the Kidneys of wheat because the grains therein were so plump and swelling as if all out of Pharaohs seven full eares Yea our modern Merchants will tell you provided they be first out of the Turkish dominions otherwise it is death to be caught in the manner that even at this day they carry much wheat out of Palestine into Italy it self Say not wheat was not so plentifull in this Countrey because our Saviours constant fare was on barly loaves this argues the humility of Christ not the barrenness of the Countrey otherwise by the same consequence it might be inferred that there were no houses in Iudea because he wanted where to lay his head These four aforesaid were the elementall Commodities of Canaan whereof that Countrey had not onely a self-sufficiency but also sent plenty thereof to Tyre thence to the whole world Iudah and the land of Israel they were thy Merchants they traded in the market wheat of Minnith and Pannag and Honey and Oil and Balm § 7. Wine may follow in the next place whereof such plenty that Iacob prophecyed of Iudah that he should binde his foal unto the vine and his asses colt unto the choice vine c. That is having occasion to dismount his Asse and tye him for a
distract us Some place them near the mountain of Sinai But that barren desert affords no more livelyhood then the Law there delivered could give life unto men Others seat them neare Sin by Ptolomy Simyra in the northern bound of the land And a third sort whom we will follow in the very south point thereof at the entrance of Egypt near Pelusium called Sin in the Scriptures whence the desert of Sin hath its name 15. 4 Arvadites These lived north of the Zidonians whereof largely in the description of mount Libanus 16. 5 Zemarites More uncertain for situation then the former because no more mention of them Had the land whereon they lived like the floor of Bels Temple been strowed with ashes some print of their footsteps would have remained whereas now no marks to discover them Learned men thus groping in the dark some seek for lack of other light to light a candle from a glow-worm their conceit being no better who from the vicinity of the sound make these Zemarites inhabit mount Shemir afterwards Samaria which is confuted by the Hebrew Orthography More probably they may be placed at Zemaraim a City afterwards of Benjamin 17. 6 Hamathites As formerly we had too little here we have too much direction finding two eminent places equâ—lly probable for their habitation Hamath on the north of Nepthali and another many miles off called Hamah the great and afterwards Antiochia And perchance they might remove from the one to the other So much of the nations descended from Canaan amongst whom the Philistims are not reckoned whose five Satrapies possessed the South-west part of the land because they came not from Canaan but from Mizraim his elder Brother of whom God willing largely hereafter in the descriptions of the tribes of Dan and Simeon To conclude Let the reader beware lest deceived with the similitude of sounds he condemne the generation of the righteous and mistake true Israelites by birth to be Canaanites by descent as namely 1 Caleh the Kenite undoubtedly of the tribe of Iudah onely his grandfathers name was Kenaz 2 Vriah the Hittite 3 Ornan the Iebusite so loyal so liberal to David The first might be a Proselyte Hittite but more likely an Israelite whose Father was called Heth and the latter of the tribe of Iudah or Benjamin who lived promiscuously with the Iebusites in the City of Iebus or Ierusalem 4 Hushi the Archite who out-achitophelled Achitophell in his policy was probably an Ephraimite of the borders of Archi otherwise unlikely that David would have chosen a stranger to have been his Cabinet counsellour 5 Simon the Cananite Christs Disciple certainly a Iew otherwise our Saviour would not have entertained him in so near a relation born it seems in Cana of Galile So much for caution lest Demetrius who was well reported of all men suffer for Demetrius Diana's silver-smith and these reall Iews be misrepresented under the notion of heathen extraction CHAP. 8. The second solemn division of the land of Canaan into thirty one Kingdomes § 1. NExt to the distinguishing of this land into seven nations we must observe the division thereof amongst one and thirty Kings Strange that their scepters except very short did not justle one another in so narrow a Countrey But we must know that the Genius of that age delighted not so much in scraping much together as in having absolute authority in that little which was their own Pride is commonly the sinne of young men covetousness of old folk The world in the youth thereof more affected honour then wealth high titles then large treasure And these Royolets contented themselves that their crowns though not so big were as bright their scepters though not so great were as glistering as those of the mightiest Monarchs being as absolute Soveraignes in their own small territories § 2. Let us consider how these one and thirty kingdomes were afterwards disposed of and how they were shared amongst the severall Tribes In reckoning up their names we observe the method in Ioshua as he marshalls them upon order following Kingdomes of 1. Iericho 2. Ali. 3. Ierusalem 4. Hebâ—oâ— 5. Iarmuth 6. Laâ—hish 7. Eglon. 8. Gezer 9. Dâ—ber 10. Gâ—der 11. Hormah 12. Arad 13. Libnath 14. Adullaâ—â— 15. Makkedaâ— 16. Bethel 17. Tappuah 18. Hepher 19. Aphek 20. Lasharon 21. Madâ—n 22. Haâ—or 23. Shimrâ—n-Mâ—ron 24. Achshaph 25. Taâ—â—aâ—h 26. Megiddo 27. Kedesh 28. Iâ—â—â—eam of Caâ—mel 29. Dor in the coasts of Dor. 30. The nations of Gilgal 31. Tirza allotted to 1. Benjamin 2. Benjamin 3. Benâ—amin Iudah 4. Iudaâ— 5. Iudah 6. Iudah 7. Iudah 8. â—phraim 9. Iudah 10. Iudah Simâ—on 11. Simeon 12. Iudah 13. Iudah 14. Iudah 15. Beâ—jamin 16. Benjamin 17. Manasseh cis Iâ—r 18. Mâ—nasâ—cis Iâ—r 19. Asâ—er 20. Zebulon 21. Nephâ—hali 22. Nephthali 23. Zebulon 24. Asher 25. Manas. cis Iâ—r 26. 〈◊〉 cisâ—or 27. Nephthali 28. Zebulon 29. Manasseb Issachar 30. Bâ—njaâ—in 31. Ephraim By the King of the nations of Gilgal understand a Soveraign over a miscellaneous company of people the master-bee of a swarm not yet fixed in an hive having a sufficient territory for his men but no considerable Metropolis of his kingdome In this Catalogue Sihon and Og are not reckoned whose dominions lay â—ast of Iordan and they make up thirty three Kings in all So much of these Cities for the present whereof largely hereafter in those respective Tribes to which they belong § 3. Amongst these Kings one may visibly discover two distinct combinations 1 In the southern circuit of Canaan Adoni-bezek King of Ierusalem seems to be chief of this knot at whose sending the Kings of Hebron Iarmuth Lachish Eglon c. assembled themselves against Ioshua and were destroyed by him 2 In the northern Association There Iâ—bin the King had the precedency with whom the Kings of Madon Shimron and Achshaph c. confederated themselves against Ioshua with the same success Had all at once ingaged against Ioshua the task had been hard had he fought them all severally the work had been long to subdue them For these thirty and one Kings who made up a full moneth in their number how many years would they have made up in their resistance Whereas now divine providence fitting the strength of Ioshua's arm parcelled his foes into two bundles that he might the more easily at two blows strike through both of them § 4. And here we present the Reader with a draught of the land as it was in the days of Abraham and continued till the time of Ioshua not well satisfied whether more properly to term it old or new Canaan If we count from the beginning of the world downwards it was young or new Canaan because nearest the creation if we reckon backwards from our time the old Canaan If the Reader discover any difference betwixt this and the next Map of the same land as it was constituted
after the days of Ioshua let him consider 1 How the same face is disguised by different dressing Palestine afterwards when divided betwixt the twelve Tribes being tricked and trimmed with many new Cities had the favour thereof quite altered 2 How the pictures drawn by the same exact Artist of the same person first when a youth afterwards when an old man must have much difference betwixt them and the distance of some hundreds of years causeth a necessary variation in the descriptions of the same Countreys It will be objected that though age and accidents may alter the old and induce new lineaments in mens faces yet the Simile holds not in the description of Countreys where the same chanels of sea courses of rivers falls of vales flats of plains ridges of hills must remain As for mountains time for want of carriage must be forced to leave such luggage behind her and therefore that such land and water-marks must always continue without any considerable alteration But it is answered that even these seeming Standards of nature are moveable with time and casualty inundations tempests and earthquakes in the last being the earths violent cough sometimes she spits up her own lungs casting up great hills where never were any before What the Apostle speaks in an higher sense is true of the materiall world and the severall countreys therein The fashion of this world passeth away so that to the very view of the eye the shape form and garb thereof is metamorphosed Besides other Anagrams hapning in the land of Canaan lands afterwards transposed for water and water for land one is most remarkable namely when the pleasant vale of Siddim nigh the banks of Iordan was turned into the salt-sea or noisome Asphaltite-lake This was the work of the Lord and it may justly seem marvellous in our eyes But of the cause time and manner of this alteration largely God willing hereafter Here the Map of old Canaan it to be inserted CHAP. 9. The third division of the land into twelve Tribes some of all which Tribes remained untill at and after the time of our Saviour § 1. THe third solemn division of Palestine was made by Ioshua into twelve Tribes of whose severall bounds largely in our ensuing discourse This partition remained untill Shalmaneser carried ten Tribes away captive and in exchange brought in his own colonies to possess their conquered Countrey However although the main body of the ten Tribes were thus transplanted without any hope to return to their native soil yet some competent representation of every Tribe remained behind in their own countrey even untill at and after the time of Christ and his Apostles § 2. Alledge not to the contrary that it is said after Shalmaneser's carrying them away captive there was none left but the Tribe of Iudah onely Understand it that Iudah onely remained in the flourishing condition of a kingdome That onely was the visible standing-corn amongst which others of Israel like loose eares were scattered But to the point that some gleanings of these ten Tribes remained in their countrey after the Assyrian captivity may be proved 1 From the very nature of a generall calamity which lighting on a populous nation cannot so particularly apply it self to every individuall person but that some will escape The hired rasor made not such clean work as to shave every hair but that some small down might creep under the edge thereof That Besome of destruction swept not so clean but that some dust may be presumed left behind in the small crevices of the countrey Some no doubt by timely flight casuall absence especiall favour secret concealment might escape and others through age and sickness unable to travell might be permitted to remain behind 2 Mention is made of a remnant which escaped out of the hands of the King of Assyria And when â—iezekiah kept his solemn passover he sent messengers to Ephraim Manasseh Issachar Zebulun Asher some of whom made a mock at his courtesie and others thankfully embraced his gracious invitation 3 Iosiah in his passover celebrated in the eighteenth year of his reign ninety and odde years after the banishment of the twelve Tribes assembled there all Iudah and Israel that were present or found § 3. Such remnants of the ten Tribes being afterwards carried captive with Iudah to Babylon returned thence with the rest of their brethren as probably is insinuated 1 By the sacrifice at the dedication of the second Temple A sin offering for all Israel twelve hee-goats according to the number of the Tribes of Israel In expression no doubt of gladness of some of every Tribe present thereat 2 By the number of such as returned amounting to forty two thousand three hundred and threescore Now whosoever shall be pleased to cast up the particular sums of the severall families of Iudah and Benjamin set down there will find them fall short twelve thousand of the foresaid number Where therefore shall we supply the account Hear how the great Jewish-Chronicle set forth not long after our Saviours time resolves this question Surely they were made up of those who came up from Babylon to Ierusalem of other Tribes 3 The Scripture saith after the captivity of Babylon that there dwelt in Ierusalem besides those of Iudah and Benjamin of the children of Ephraim and Manasseh Nor is the testimony of Iosephus to be slighted herein though Ios. Scaliger causlesly condemns it affirming that the King of Egypt employed seventy two Iews to translate the Bible into Greek taking six out of every Tribe which compleat that number § 4. That such fragments of the ten Tribes returning from Babylon were reestated in their ancient possessions I dare not affirm but rather believe the contrary For there was no inducting them into their former inheritances because no vacancy or avoidance therein terra plena the land was still full with the plantation of Medes and others brought in by Shalmaneser So that this remnant of the ten Tribes were for the main fain promiscuously to make their habitations where they might whilst Iudah and Benjamin were restored to their ancient intire and distinct possessions Yet there is some probability that some of Zebulun and Nephthali in our Saviours time had recovered part of their ancient patrimony Otherwise the force of Isaiahs prophecy and Matthews application is much impaired The land of Zebulun and the land of Nephthali c. The people that sate in darkness saw great light That is in a genuine and unstrained sense their posterity had the day of deliverance first dawning unto them whose ancestors were first overtaken with the night of affliction § 5. That in the time of Christ and his Apostles some pious people of all Tribes were extant in Iudea plainly appears 1 By Anna the Prophetess which was of the Tribe of Asher 2 By Saint Pauls expression Unto which promise our twelve Tribes instantly serving God
the lesser Canaan possessed by the Iews yet it was within the bounds of the larger Canaan that Countrey once belonging to the Archites and Arvadites the sons of Canaan § 4. Now whosoever shall with a Compasse in his hand survey the extent of these Tetrarchies will finde them to fall out very uneven in their dimensions some much larger then others Indeed they were measured with no other scale then the favour and friendship of the Emperour so that the best befriended at Rome got most dominion in Palestine Yet were these Tetrarchies as justly divided as our English Hundreds and those perchance equall in their primitive institution for number of men seeing we count threescore and eight hundreds in Kent and but six in Lancashire accounted little less in the compass thereof Nor was the Revenues of these Tetrarchies less unequall then their extent the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or yearly income of Trachonitis with the appurtenances belonging to Philip amounting as Iosephus computeth it but to an hundred talents whilest Galilee with its appendents returned two hundred and Iudea advantaged with the friendly City of Ierusalem yeelded four hundred talents yearly to the Governour § 5. Indeed exactness in observing the bounds of these Tetrarchies is not to be expected which in process of time passed under all parts of numeration Multiplied Subtracted Added to new Divided made moe made fewer made other then in their primitive establishment Let not therefore the Reader be moved if sometimes he find moe Tetrarchies sometimes fewer then four mentioned by good Authours in Palestine seeing as Salmasius informs us the word Tetrarchy in after-ages was negligently taken for a part or parcell of dominion without relating to the exact proportion of a fourth part Thus it is usuall for barbarous tongues to seduce words as I may say from their native purity custome corrupting them to signifie things contrary to their genuine and grammaticall notation Who knows not but that the word Moity both in law and true language importeth the just midst and true half of a thing though small moity in ordinary discourse is taken for any Canton or small portion And in a more proper instance though the Cinque Ports are notoriously known to be five as the name signifieth yet reckoned up with their members they make seven as I doubt not but six yea moe Tetrarchies may sometimes be told in Palestine § 6. And now to take our farewell of the severall divisions of this land mentioned in Scripture for on such onely we insist it will not be amiss to minde the Reader that besides the foresaid partitions we finde some other territories in Iudea having proper names and bounds to themselves but the latter so excentricall that they fall out neither even with any one Tribe nor adequate to any of the Provinces or territories formerly described Such are 1 Idumea sometimes taken more strictly for the south part of Iudea sometimes more largely as always in the old Testament for the land of Edom and the adjacent Dominion 2 Perea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to cross the water is frequent in the travels of our Saviour being a countrey containing all the land once belonging to Reuben Gad and Manasseh on the east of Iordan 3 Decapolis that is a land with ten Cities therein the just proportion of command given to the good servant who improved his five to ten pounds Take thou authority over ten Cities However such is the variety even betwixt good authors that amongst them the ten Cities of Decapolis are almost ten severall ways reckoned up We will onely set down two the most authentick computations of them Pliny his account 1 Damascus 2 Opoton 3 Philadelphia once Rabba 4 Raphana 5 Seythopolis once Bethsan 6 Gaddara 7 Hippon 8 Pella 9 Galasa for Gerasa 10 Canatha Brochard his account 1 Tiberias 2 Sephet 3 Kedesh-nepthali 4 Hazor 5 Capernaum 6 Caesarea Philippi 7 Iotopata 8 Bethsaida 9 Chorazin 10 Scythopolis The reason of their great difference may be this that in continuance of time some of these ancient Cities fell into decay or disfavour to forfeit their franchises whilst later places might succeed to their lost immunities § 7. Here we pass over in silence the division of Iudea into the Hill-countrey and the Low-countrey because this distinction is not appropriate to Palestine but usuall and obvious in all other kingdomes I remember whilest I lived in the West of England and confines of Summerset-shire hearing a labourer speak much of his long living in the low-countreys I demanded of him whether he had ever been at Amsterdam He answered that he had never been there but often at Taunton Whereby I plainly perceived what low-countreys he meant namely the flat and levell of Summerset-shire under Quantock-hills according to the language of the people in those parts Thus when the Tribe of Iudah is said to conquer the Canâ—anites in the low-countrey we understand the champion and plain-field in Iudea which lay at the foot of the mountains § 8. We meet in Scripture with many other petite tracts of ground honoured with names of lands as the land of Hepher the land of Dor the land of Zuph the land of Shual c. and in the new Testament the land of Gennesareth with many other These may be compared to our Gilsland in Cumberland Cleveland in York-shire Marishland in Norfolk Lovingland in Suffolk Portland in Dorset-shire places which sound so big that if measured by the ear and length of syllables they would be accounted Kingdomes or Counties at least whereas surveyed by the sight and scale of miles they appeare like the aforesaid lands in Palestine very small and little parcells of ground whereof largely as we light on them hereafter in our severall descriptions CHAP. 13. How the Hebrews measured places Of their cubits furlongs miles and Sabbath-days-journeys § 1. THe Hebrews distanced their places by severall measures some arbitrary casuall and uncertain others certain as reduced to a constant standard Of the former was their measuring of land by paces for we read when David solemnly brought the Ark into Ierusalem when he had gone six paces he offered oxen and fallings But here we are left at a loss in point of certainty taking it rather for an ambulatory then a Geometricall pace and then how vast the difference herein For Saul being higher from the shoulders upward then the rest of Israel by the symmetry of parts his pace must be presumed proportionably longer then other men Nor more certain was the Hebrews measuring their land by a bow-shoot as Hagar is said to set her son Iâ—hmael a good way off as it were a bow-shoot which if at rovers or randome admits of variation according to the strength of the bow might or sleight of the archer weight or fashion of the arrow § 2. As little certainty is
testimony who appears most credible unto them such power we have assumed to our selves in these differences to follow those who we conceive have the best authority Herein having a speciall regard to those that lived upon the place and preferring their judgments above others though otherwise of greater learning because in matters of fact done in his presence the eyes of a child are to be beleeved before the eares of a man § 5. Where both authours appear of equall authority in themselves and number of followers we have umpired the difference by pitching on a middle number betwixt both For instance Seiglerus makes it fourteen thousand paces or fourteen miles betwixt Zidon and Tyre eminent Marts and therefore the distance betwixt them might be notoriously known whilst Vadianus makes it two hundred furlongs or twenty miles Here to part the difference equall we have insisted on 17 miles § 6. However when this and much more caution is used by us our Scale of miles is so farre from pretending to the exactness of those left-handed Gibeonites to hit the mark at an haires-breadth and not misse that a large and charitable latitude must still be allowed us in a subject so hard and full of uncertainty Yea the holy Spirit it self speaks not positively of distances of places but with words of qualification About threescore furlongs from Ierusalem to Emmaus About five and twenty or thirty furlongs they had rowed on the Sea as if five in thirty made no considerable difference If the same favour may be but allowed our scale of miles I doubt not but it will acquit it self against all just exception § 7. Now for the further managing of our Scale of miles we request the Reader not to extend it therewith to measure all the properties or History-pictures in our Map for then some men would appear Giants yea monsters many miles long expecting him rather to carry a scale in his own eyes for surveying such portraitures Yea in generall I undertake nothing in defence or excuse of those pictures to be done according to the rule of Art as none of my work ornamentall not essentiall to the Maps onely this I will say that eminency in English Gravers is not to be expected till their Art be more countenanced and encouraged Nor would I have the Scale applied to Cities drawn in Prospective as to Rabbah in the Tribe of Gad c. which then will fall out bigger then indeed they were desiring the Reader onely to understand them to be fair and populous Cities and therefore made more large and conspicuous then the rest § 8. Such Towns as stand as one may say on tiptoes on the very umstroke or on any part of the utmost line of any Map unresolved in a manner to stay out or come in are not to be presum'd placed according to exactness but onely signifie them there or thereabouts Nor is this without precedents in the best Geographers so in their maps to make the generall continuation of neighbouring countreys clearer thereby § 9. If any difference on accurate comparing arise in the distances betwixt the same places presented in severall Maps some such will escape in defiance of all diligence we hope the same will appear inconsiderable such moats not being before the sight but in the corner of the eye will little if at all hinder the light of a Geographical truth Surely as in the strictest laws of Horse-racers some wast of weight is allowed to the Riders so me thinks some favour ought to be afforded an Author in measuring and making many Maps were it but for the shaking of his weary hand in so tedious a work But if such differences appear somewhat great let those be relied on as the truest where such places are set down datâ operâ of set purpose so that it is the very work of that Map to describe them let those I say be credited before the distances in other Maps where such places come in onely of complement or are brought in by the by to fashion and fill up the otherwise empty borders thereof CHAP. 15. How the different qualities of places in our Maps are distinguished by their severall Characters § 1. MAy the Reader be pleased to learn the language of the severall Characters of the places used in our Map which speak much in little and are very usefull for the clearing of the history 1 All Cities markt with Coronets were anciently the Royall seats of the thirty one Kings of Canaan at and before the time of Ioshua 2 All Cities surrounded with double circles the reason whereof hereafter belong to the Tribe of Levi. 3 All Cities having banners or flags placed upon them shew the conjecturall position thereof when we have no assurance of their exact situation One side of which flags humbly confesseth our want of certainty the other as earnestly craveth better information 4 When places are noted with Asterisks it imports difference of Divines some making them proper names others meerly appellative 5 Places which have both flags and Asterisks upon them are as I may say doublehatcht with uncertainty not onely their position being doubtfull but it is questionable whether they be proper names or no. 6 Places mentioned onely in the Apocrypha are signed with a Crescent or half-moon inverted in some allusion to the difference of Armes of younger brethren such books being accounted of the Fathers but of a second rank and reputed but Deutero-canonicall by learned Romanists Say not that a Barre of bastardy better befitted them being taken out of Apocrypha writings For what though those writings were never penned by Prophets of whom none betwixt Malachi and Iohn the Baptist never written in Hebrew never owned by the Iews Gods people for Canonicall to whom the oracles of God were committed and which is mainly materiall Christ reproved them not for this neglect never prophesied of Christ to whom all the Prophets beare witness never solemnly quoted by Christ and his Apostles yet because ancient and because it may be said of them as of Abijah the sonne of Ieroboam in them there is found sone good thing toward the Lord they deserve from unprejudic'd judgments a reverent respect 7 Places noted with ◠cross in a circle are such whereof no mention in Scripture but onely in humane writers Iosephus Pliny and the like 8 Such as have on them an half-moon with the points upward are modern places in the possession of the Turk Of these very few and those either of high note in themselves or because seated on high rodes We confess these no essentiall part but conceive them a fit copartment for our subject in hand And thus among the flock of cities in our Map by looking on their brand their owner and nature are quickly known § 2. Some will conceive these had better been thrown together without any distinction seeing the learned doe not need and the unlearned will not
enlarged their coast though we read of no such addition either in Davids or Solomons time The Cities were so conveniently distanced by Gods appointment that in half a day men for their lives will take wide and thick strides some one of them might be recovered from the remotest corner of the land Let Historians relate the Laws of such Sanctuaries whereof these most fundamentall 1t. Strangers and sojourners in Israel were capable of the priviledge thereof as well as native Iews 2ly Any murderer that could might fly thither without any hindrance or interruption Thou shalt prepare thee a way Otherwise such obstructions would have frustrated and defeated the main intent of such priviledged places 3ly If the murderer could but reach the border of such cities of refuge the very hemme of Christs garment had soveraign vertue in it distant as is aforesaid from the City it self it was a sufficient protection for him till his cause was examined before the Judges 4ly Upon examination those were denied the benefit of refuge and delivered up to Justice who had committed murder out of malice prepense or had killed one as we may say with a malicious weapon namely if the bigness or sharpness thereof be it iron wood or stone was mortall in view carried death in the sight thereof as probable enforced with ones hand to kill a man 5ly Others who casually had killed their neighbour might live safely in the City till the death of the High-priest typifying the suffering of our Saviour whose execution is our gaol-delivery 6ly If the murderer wandring out of the suburbs was found by the avenger of bloud he forfeited his protection and might be killed with indemnity 7ly After the High-priests death say the Rabbines without Express from Scripture the party was remitted to his innocence not honour restored to his liberty not lustre clouded the remnant of his life because of the scandall that came by his hand Forget we not here that besides these six Cities the Altar in the Tabernacle or Temple was reputed the seventh and paramount place of murderers protection § 9. The brook from the west begins at Machaerus one of the strongest inland Forts in the world nature having prevented Art therein so impregnable is the City and Castle upon the top of a steep hill with a deep valley round about Hither Iosephus saith Herod the Tetrarch sent Iohn the Baptist to be beheaded For which fact his great army was afâ—terwards overthrown by Aretas King of Arabia Hereabout two springs arise of contrary natures One hot and sweet the other cold and bitter Both which meeting together make a most excellent Bath cordiall for severall diseases As if nature thereby would lesson us that moderation wherein extremities agree is the best cure for all distempers These waters are approved excellent for the contraction of the nerves either inwardly taken or outwarldly applied Herod the King being sick newly come out of a Bath of bloud of the innocent Bethlehem-babes was hither directed in vain by his Physitians the water refusing to be guilty of such a Tyrants recovery On this stream stood Lasha mentioned Genesis 10. 19. afterwards called Callirrhoe or the Fair stream And now what pity is it that such percious water should presently be spilt into the the Dead Sea But what remedy Fair and foul faces must meet together in the grave § 10. As for the Dead sea which onely peeps into a corner of this Tribe but stedfastly faceth a whole side of Iudah more properly thereof hereafter And as for Iosephus his valley of Baaras with the strange growing gathering working of the famous root therein we mention it not to seem wholly ignorant thereof and but mention it not to seem over credulous therein Hereabouts is plenty of Alum and Brimstone the latter probably some stragling drops of that direfull shower which was rained on Sodome and Gomorrah leaving some tincture in the adjacent Countrey as a remembrancer of so great a Judgment § 11. It is now high time that we survey the west of this Tribe which Iordan as we have said divideth from Ephraim and Benjamin This is the true meaning of Deborah's complaint uttered and repeated for the divisions of Reuben were great thoughts of heart namely because that Tribe separated by Iordan from the western continent of Canaan could not come seasonably to the succour of Barak and subduing of Sisera This River used to overflow all his banks in the first moneth 1 Chron. 12. 15. parallel to the end of our March and beginning of Aprill or as it is said Iosh. 3. 15. at the time of harvest Which vast distance in our English Climate as much as betwixt Spring and Autumn is easily reconciled and made to meet in Iudea where the Harvest â—t large is dated from the first fruits and those ripe in Aprill in that hot countrey Let Naturalists discuss the cause whence this inundation of Iordan proceeds whether from the violence of winds then blowing on its stream and angring it beyond his banks or from the influence of the Moon Commandress over moist bodies and their motions or from the confluence of Snow dissolved from the mountains But my discourse like Iordan overflowes it shall return within its banks § 12. In the northwest corner of this Tribe Iordan first entring into it is fordeable at Bethbara or Bethabara that is the house of passage For Gideon having the Midianites in chace sent messengers to all in mount Ephraim a service most proper for them cause in their confines to take before them the water unto Bethbara and Iordan which there with good guides and high Camels might be waded over but more southward the river is fenced by its own breadth and depth against all Passengers And here afterward did Iohn baptize our Saviour As for Aphek hard by we place it here rather in conformity to others then convinced in our own judgment of the true situation thereof § 13. The altar Ed or witnesse was hereabouts erected by the Reubenites Gadites and half Tribe of Manasseh returning from the conquest of Canaan This Altar was a bridge in effect to conjoin these divided Tribes with the rest severed by water the same in worship on the other side Iordan in position on the same side with the other Tribes in Religion But though there was a noon-day of Innocence in their intentions yet because though not a night of guiltiness a twilight of suspicion obscured their actions it occasioned jealousies in their brethren as if they had hatched some idolatrous designe But when the matter came to be disputed in a military way the controversie was ended by the right stating of the question and a seasonable distinction well applied that it was an Altar onely of memoriall and not for any burnt meat or Peace-offering O that all differences between brethren might winde off in so welcome a conclusion § 14.
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
in slavery should multiply more then when they were at liberty consider 1 Some Plants Palme trees and Camomile the more deprest the further they expand themselves 2 Infant Nations like infants grow more discernibly at the first then when they approach their full stature 3 God purposely to defeat the designe of Pharaoh to destroy the Israelites blessed them with transcendent fruitfulness 4 The breeders in the wilderness were visited with many casualties bringing them to untimely ends whereas all those in Egypt though painfull in their livings were healthfull in their lives But the most memorable Accident in this place was the Idolatry of the Israelites to Baal-peor an Idoll conceived by most learned men to be Priapus And who could worship him with piety whom none with modesty can describe It seems that Moab and Midian perceiving Sâ—hon King of the Amorites overthrown in battell counterfeited amity with them and pretending to shew them being strangers the courtesie of the countrey made them an entertainment which could not be courtlike and compleat without the company of their women The Israelites beholding the Midianitish women first liking their faces then tasting their feasts stepped from their Boards to their Beds thence to their Altars adding spirituall to corporall fornication This was done by the advice of Balaam whose counsell did more hurt then his curse All his charmes could have done them no harm had he not raised these female spirits to improve them which cost the lives of twenty four thousand Israelites dying of the Plague till the Javelin of Phinehas executing of judgment stopped Gods fiery sword amongst them § 20. Let us now request the Reader to climbe up the hills of Abarim Nebo and Pisgah These are a ledge of mountains rising by degrees from east to west So that some have compared Abarim to the Chancell Nebo to the Church and Pisgah to the steeple In mount Nebo the Authour of the Maccabees speaks of a Cave wherein Ieremy laid the Tabernacle and the Arke and the Altar of Incense and so stopped the door But the same Authour in the conclusion of his book confesseth that his work is like wine tempered with water and we take this story to be no genuine juice of the grape and value it accordingly On Pisgah Moses surveyed the whole land of Canaan and although he was advantaged by the height of the place and clearness of his eyes no whit abated in their sight at an hundred and twenty years of age yet much of miracle must needs be admitted in so plain and far discovery Here Moses was buried being priviledged above other servants of God whose souls Angels convey to heaven that an Angel was his Sexton to cover his body in earth Here he concealed Moses his grave lest the Israelites should goe a whoring after it Destroying Idolatry is a pious but preventing it a more provident Act crushing it in the occasions thereof Let none condemn this for a needless caution as if no fear that they who sometimes would stone Moses while living should adore him when dead For the crooked nature of the Iews was bowed to Extremes and had no mean betwixt hating and adoring Besides when the memories of eminent men hated or envied when living have passed the purgation of death it is usuall for their former enemies to fall in love with them § 21. May the reader now conceive himself standing on the top of mount Pisgah Where though content with a narrower compass then what Moses discerned he descrieth a fair Prospect round about him Not to repeat the places of the west because mentioned before looking south ward behold the City of Nebo at the foot of its namesake mountain and both of them so called from Nebo and Idoll God hereabouts worshipped We read indeed how Reuben changed the names of the Cities of Nebo and Baalmeon because their old names taken from false Gods resented of Idolatry But so hard it is to unhabit mens mouths from old ill customes that it seems their ancient names still prevailed in common discourse Criticks start many controversies concerning this Idoll of Nebo as First whether not originally a Babylonish Deity Secondly whether under it the Moon as the Sun under Bell was not mystically adored Thirdly whether the same with Chemosh and Baal-Peor which is the opinion of Saint Ierome and if not wherein lay the difference But it shall never trouble me whether the fictitious Serpents of Iannes and Iambres the Egyptian enchanters were made alike or did differ in some particulars seeing the reall serpents of Moses devoured them all up And seeing long since the service of the true God hath confuted and confounded all worship of false Idols I list not to trade in the curiosities of distinctions betwixt them § 22. Eastward behold Kiriathaim or the two-towns like Bridge-North in Shropshire two lesser Cities being modelled into one Here lived the Emims shrowdly smote by Chederlaomer which probably did facilitate the Moabites in their victory over them Iahaza a City of the Levites where the Israelites in battell vanquished Sibon King of the Amorites A little further see the City of Medeba before the walls whereof a double battell was fought and won at once by Ioab against the Aramites and Abishai against the Ammonites And it seems that the latter of these had at this time the City in their possession whither they retreated after their overthrow For what else doe those words import The children of Ammon likewise fled before Abishai his Brother and entred into the City except any conceiving it inconsistent with the present potency of David to have any of his enemies nestled in his dominion will by the City understand Rabbah the Metropolis of Ammon next year besieged and sacked by Ioab As for Medeba there needs no other evidence to speak her ancient greatness then that Ptolemy by name takes notice thereof though placing it in Arabia which name it retained in the days of Saint Ierome § 23. But northward is the most pleasant Prospect over the fair and fruitfull Plains of Moab Nor need any wonder why the Plain is so called seeing Moab had nothing on the north of Arnon after the time of Moses when they recollect how lately all this land was possessed by the Moabites before Sihon forcibly expulsed them Now to prove that places sometimes are termed by their ancient Inhabitants though some hundred years after we that live in London need not goe no further then the Old Iury so called from the Iews once dwelling there now banished thence three hundred years agoe But we keep the Reader too long upon the top of this bleak and cold mountain 'T is time to come down when we have told him that though Pisgah here be taken for a proper name yet it is often used as an appellative for any eminent ridge of a hill which aspires above his fellowes Know also that all the Countrey hereabouts
to Aben Ezra who allots to the banner of Reuben a man or male child others a mandrake others put mandrakes in his hand relating to Leahs words at his birth calling him Reuben that is See a Son causing her to forget her pain for joy that a man child was borne into the world § 31. The proper place for the standard of this Tribe was to be the first of the three Tribes which pitched on the south of the Tabernacle Thus though Reuben lost the Primacy of power over all he still kept the precedency of place before one quarter of his brethren Whence parents may be taught that though on just ground they disinherit yet not so wholly to dishearten their eldest sons but still suffer some remembrances of a birthright ever to remain unto them FINIS Here the Map of Gad is to be inserted The third Book THE TRIBE OF GAD § 1. GAd eldest Son of Iacob by Zilpah so increased in Egypt that forty five thousand six hundred and fifty males of twenty years old and upward of this Tribe were numbred at Mount Sinai all which falling in the wilderness for their tempting of God with this disobedience a new generation of forty thousand and five hundred entred the Land of Canaan This Tribe affordeth very martiall men For such of them as repaired to David in Ziglag are described Men of war fit for the battell that could handle shield and buckler whose faces were like to the faces of Lyons and were as swift as the Roes upon the mountaines Yet I meet not with any publick Magistrate extracted from Gad though the Genealogists rank Iehu with four of his Posterity successive Kings of Israel amongst the Gadites but on no other ground then because at the first time he is found mentioned in Scripture he was imployed a Commander at the siege of Ramoth Gilead a City in this Tribe It seems that as the English-law makes a charitable provision for children left by their parents that the Parish wherein they are first taken up must maintain them so Genealogists the better to methodize the pedegrees of the Iews in Scripture reduce Persons of unknown Parentage to those respective Tribes in whose grounds they first light on the mention of them But let Iehu pass for a Gadite the rather because so puisant a Prince will prove a credit rather then a charge to that Tribe to which he is related § 2. The land of this Tribe was of a double nature For what lay north of the river Iabbok was anciently the possession of Og King of Basan But what lay south of the river had its property more intricate and incumbred with often exchange of her owners and on the right understanding thereof depends no less then the asserting of the innocence of the Israelites the confuting of the cavill of the Ammonites and the reconciling of a seeming contradiction in Scripture Take it thus briefly 1t. It was the Land of certain Giants called Zamzummims 2ly It was possessed by the Ammonites who destroied those Giants and this Countrey was accounted a moity or one half of their dominion 3ly It was subdued by Sihon King of the Amorites who cast out the Ammonites when also he destroied the Moabites such as were south of Iabbok and dwelt in their stead Lastly after the overthrow of Sihon Moses gave it to the Tribe of Gad for their inheritance Thus God by ringing the Changes of successive Lords in this Land made musick to his own glory Behold we here what the Psalmist saith Thou hast brought a Vine out of Egypt thou preparest room before it the method and manner of which preparation is most remarkable First God in his providence foresaw that the Countrey of the Canaanites was without other addition too narrow to receive the numerous people of Israel Secondly God in his goodness resolved out of love to righteous Lot that his posterity should not totally lose their possession nor would he suffer the Israelites their kinsmen to deprive them of any parcell thereof giving them a flat command to the contrary Lastly God in his justice permitted Sihon King of the Amorites should win part of the Countrey from Moab and Ammon and suddenly sends the Israelites to conquer the conquerour and now lawfully to inherit what the other had wrongfully taken away And thus he prepared room for his Vine § 3. By this time we plainly perceive that in the Ammonites demand to Iephtha there was some truth blinded with more falshood that the countenance of the former might pass the latter unsuspected Israel took away saith the King my Land when they came out of Egypt from Arnon even unto Iabbok and unto Iordan now therefore restore these Lands again peaceably True it was that this Land was once theirs and so it is plainly called Ioshua 13. 25. but most false that ever the Israelites took Inch of ground from them save onely mediately and at the second hand taking it from Sihon who took it from the Ammonites We report the rest to Iephtha's answer who first with a fair ambassie and then with a famous victory confuted the Ammonites antiquated title to this territory pleading that the Israelites had three hundred years peaceably possessed the same Now if upon a strict account some years fall short of that sum the matter is not much because souldiers love to fill their mouths with a round number and too hundred fifty and odde with a good sword may well be counted three hundred years currant though not compleate § 4. The Tribe of Gad had the kingdome of Ammon on the east the half Tribe of Manasseh on the north Reuben on the south and the river Iordan on the west The length thereof from Aroer to Iordan may be computed thirty five miles and the breadth thereof from Mahanaim to Dibon falls out a little less A Tribe inferiour to none for fair rivers fruitfull Pastures shady woods superiour to most for populous Cities and memorable actions atchieved therein As for Balme or Balsame it was a peculiar commodity of this Countrey Thus the Prophet betwixt grief anger and pity demands Is there no balme in Gilead and again Goe up into Gilead and take balm O virgin In describing this Countrey we will follow the streams of Arnon Iabbok and Iordan which with some little help lent us besides will afford us the conveniency to behold all remarkable mounts in this Countrey § 5. In the eastern part of this Tribe the rivers of Arnon and Iabbok though running contrary ways arise not far asunder according to the exact observation of Iosephus who saith that the land of Sihon King of the Amorites lay in nature and fashion like an Island betwixt the three rivers of Iordan Arnon and Iabbok so near are the fountains of the latter together The heads of their springs are found in a mountainous and rocky soil affording great plenty of Iackalls
some called their lands after their own names and some it seems were called after the name of their lands § 9. A fruitfull Countrey Gilead was till the people thereof were infected with Idolatry growen so frequent therein that the Prophet complains Their Altars were as heaps in the furrows of the field Thus falling into Gods displeasure they quickly fell under their enemies disposall The Syrians of Damascus threshing them with instruments of Iron and the Ammonites ripping up their women with child that they might enlarge their border This latter cruelty seems done in revenge of Davids usage of the Ammonites in taking of Rabbah putting them under saws and harrows c. And although some hundreds of years were betwixt that action of David and this of the Ammonites yet we know malice hath a strong memory long to retain and at last to return injuries offered unto it § 10. Under the hills of Gilead famous for flocks of goats to which for thickness and whiteness the hair of the Spouse is compared lay Rogelim a Manor of Barzillai the Gileadite This was he who so bountifully victualled David at Mahanaim so civilly waited on him to Iordan so equally requested and so easily obtained a Writ of ease from Court attendance being now fourscore years of age having first bequeathed his Court-pleasures to Chimham his Son neither covetous to keep them himself nor envious that another should enjoy them because such excusable vanities might become his green youth which would be burdensome to the withered winter of his Father Pella seems to be hereabouts whither many Christians warned by many prodigies fled for shelter from Ierusalem before the Romans besieged it As we congratulate their thus preventing persecution according to Christs precept so we cannot but condole that the same persons were afterwards poisoned with hereticall opinions contrary to the express word of God and became Apostate Nazarites Somewhat more north is Lodebar the possession of Machir a bountifull benefactor to David during his distress and Guardian to Mephibosheth in his minority and Thisbe the birth-place of Eliah the Prophet the Iohn Baptist of the old Testament Great was the resemblance betwixt their persons and preaching all similitudes run like Pharaoh's Charets in the red-sea wanting some wheeles especially because both were born in bad times when the world was generally infected with wickedness both contented with plain clothes and course fare undaunted in reproving the faults of Princes and implacably persecuted for the same § 11. But the principall City in Gilead was Mizpah the place of Iephthah's habitation This is he whom his brethren banished for a Bastard but the elders of Gilead oppressed by the Ammonites brought back for their Generall When they felt their own woe they began to see Iephthah's worth formerly exiled for his Fathers fault but now restored for his own abilities Vertue once in an age will work her own advancement and when such as hate it shall chance to need it they will be forced to prefer it To Mizpah Iephthah returned though a conquerour yet a captive and a prisoner to his own rash vow to sacrifice whatsoever came first forth of the doors of his house it so happening that his onely daughter met him with a virgin-quire and musick which was sad in the close Here Divines both for number and learning are almost equally divided some avouching her really sacrificed according to the letter of the text whereof some footsteps in the Fable of Agamemnon sacrificing Iphigenia haply corrupted for Iephthagenia or Iephtha's daughter others maintaining that she was onely sequestred to perpetuall virginity If any demand my judgment in this difference I seasonably remember how one being asked in the Massacre of Paris whether he was a Catholick or an Hugonite answered he was a Physician My return must be in this work I am onely a Chorographer and the controversie in hand concerns matter of fact not of place proper onely to us for this present § 12. East of Mizpah lay the plain of Mizpah Ioshua having conquered the Kings of Canaan at the waters of Merom in the next Tribe pursued them hither on the east and to Mizrepothâ—maim near Sidon westward A chace with a vengeance all the latitude of the land the Canaanites flying as far as sea or mountains would give them leave so that their flight may pass for a Scale of miles for the breadth of this Countrey so smitten untill they left them none remaining understand it not in a considerable body to make any resistance § 13. So much of Gilead We come now to Bashan for these two provinces did the Tribe of Manasseh contain though it is impossible accurately to distinguish their bounds Bashan was a grazing countrey as indeed all Canaan east of Iordan was fitter for Abel then Cain for pasturage then tillage antiently called the Land of Giants which though now extirpated Og being the last of that race yet retained some footsteps thereof in the strength and greatness of her 1 Oakes whereof oares were made for the gallies of Tyre 2 Rams of the breed of Bashan being the fattest and fairest of their kinde 3 Bulls so often mentioned in Scripture But by Davids metaphoricall bulls of Bashan strong sturdy curst cruell men are understood This Province was subdivided into severall petty lands as first the Laâ—d of Argob on the north next Syria Secondly Bashan-avoth-Iair where taking the first word for the Genus and the two latter for the Difference we have the exact definition of the Countrey § 14. Iair was a fortunate name in the family of Manasseh and we must be carefull not to confound two eminent men of that name 1 Iair the elder contemporary with Moses who when the field-forces of Og were utterly destroied smote the small towns thereof being threescore in number as Ioshua counted them and called them Bashan-Avoth-Iair that is the Cities of Iair in Bashan 2 Iair the younger a peaceable Judge in Israel immediately before Iephthah who as he came many years in age short of the former so the number of his Cities were but half so many viz. thirty which he left to his thirty sons calling them also Avoth-Iair It is further recorded of his thirty sons that they rode on thirty Asse-colts i. e. they were itinerant Judges say some in their respective places it being improper that they in their severall circuits should 1 Goe on foot Authority would be contemned if not somewhat heightned above the comon people 2 Or ride on prancing steeds Marshall law may be so mounted where the heels of the horses are as terrible to poor people as the face of the rider 3 Or ride on swift Coursers seeing no such hast to execute suspected innocence 4 Or be housed in covered chariots which is a kinde of engrossing of justice shutting that up to which all ought to have
some to be the primitive fountain of Iordan Yet Iosephus tells us of Phiala a spring above two hundred furlongs off and therefore out of the bounds of this Tribe into which Philip the Tetrarch cast chaâ—â—e to try the experiment and it was rendred up again in the streame of Iordan Whence he concluded that this river entertained an underground intelligence with that fountain But we are not to take notice where rivers are secretly conceived but where they are visibly born and therefore date the originall thereof from the apparent heads of Ior and Dan which keeping themselves sole and single for a short time are soon wedded together And from the confluence of their names and streams Iordan is begotten § 8. To pass by Scripture commendations it is called by â—olinus eximiae suavitatis amnis a river of excellent sweetness But as if Rivers as well as Men were too prone to be proud of their good properties it is very subject to overswell the banks in which notion perhaps it is also called by the aforesaid Solinus Ambitiosus amnis an haughty and ambitious river But what saith the Prophet The pride of Iordan is spoiled namely in some extraordinary drought and thence dearth which he there foretelleth To keep the golden mean As Iordan sometimes must be acknowledged to mount too high so Naaman depressed it too low in his valuation whose ignorance and passion preferred Abana and Pharphar the rivers of Damascus before it § 9. At the aforesaid confluence stands the famous city of Laish which at first it seems was a free State living in subjection to none and yet in slavery to their own intemperance They were far from the Zidonians that is as one measureth it about thirty miles half that distance being too much to receive thence seasonable succour in their suddain surprize by the Danites In taking which town the prophecy of Moses was fulfilled Dan is a Lions whelp he shall leape from Bashan It seems that the Danites came on the east-side of the City and might for a time secretly repose themselves in Bashan Whence on a suddain Lion-like saliant in his Posture when he seizeth on his prey they leaped on the city and were felt being on them before seen coming towards them The City was afterwards called Dan and the Danites possessed a tract or territory of ground which otherwise seems to lie within the Tribe of Naphtali but was not possessed by them § 10. But as we must praise the prowesse and policy so we detest the Idolatry of these Danites who hither brought and here erected the graven Image stoln from Micah worshiping it untill the day of the captivity of the land that is as Tremellius well expoundeth it till the Ark was taken captive and restored when there followed a generall reformation in the days of Samuel This place then purged was not long after defiled again with the same sin For here Ieroboam set up one of his golden Calves making Priests of the meanest of the people And although where a Calfe is the God a wispe of Hay is good enough to be the Priest yet hainous was the offence because done by Ieroboam in the disgrace of Religion The erection of these Calves was pretended for the ease of the people of Israel to spare their tedious travell thrice a year to Ierusalem but in effect occasioned that they were sent a longer journey on a worse errant even into irrecoverable captivity Thus to spare a step in the path of piety is to spend many in the ready road to misery § 11. In the time of our Saviour this Dan was called Cesarea-Philippi built in honour of Tiberius Cesar by Philip the Tetrarch Who in so nameing it as wise to remember himself was also mannerly to prefer the Emperour This Philip being Tetrarch of Iturea and Trachonitis made this Cesarea as conveniently seated betwixt both the place of his principall residence Neare this place Peter gave Christ that excellent testimony of his being the Son of God As for the two statues of melted brasse which here are said to be set up by that woman whose Fluxe of bloud Christ cured the one resembling our Saviour the other her self in humble posture touching the hem of his garment I had rather the Reader receive it from the Authours themselves then my relation Chiefly because it seems improbable that she who so lately had sepent all her substance upon Physicians should so quickly recrute her self as to be able to goe to the cost of such a Monument § 12. Leaving now the territory of Dan we enter on Naphtali and Iordan running hence after some miles expatiateth it self into the waters of Merom or the Samocâ—onite-lake This was a Sea in winter and in Sommer a thicket of reeds affording shelter to Lions and Wolves and which now a days are more dangerous to travellers then either wild Arabians Behold saith the Prophet He shall come up like a Lion from the swelling of Iordan that is most fierce and furious who having lodged there quietly all sommer in the shade is vexed to be rouzed by the rising of the waters in winter and therefore is ready to revenge this wrong on the next object he meets Near these waters Ioshua gave that famous overthrow to Iabin senior King of the Canaanites pursuing the chace as far as Zidon On the west of this lake where Daphnis a rivolet falleth into it they place Riblah accounted a terrestriall Paradise for the sweet situation thereof But grant it pleasant in it self it was a sad place to King Zedâ—kiah who having first beheld the slaughter of his Sons had here his own eyes bored out Thus mans tyranny accomplisheth Gods justice whilest Zedekiah had now leasure enough to bethink himself how he deserved this punishment who indevored to put out the eyes of Israel by persecuting the Prophets and imprisoning the Seers thereof Afterwards Iordan recovering it self out of the lake and contented with a competent stream is passable at the ford of Iacob so called because tradition reports that Patriarch there to have gone over this river with the company of God and his staffe At this day there is a beautifull bridge built over retaining the name of Iacobs bridge kept in excellent repaire as being the high-way betwixt Damascus and Ierusalem And well may tâ—e Turkes afford it seeing the unconscionable toll which they extort of Christian passengers for Caphar or custome will serve almost to build all the arches thereof with silver § 13. Here let us hold a while and desiring to please all palats let us temper the harshness of old matters with the mixture of a modern passage If the Reader should ever travell this way from Damascus to Ierusalem and so into Egypt he may repose himself for a night in the Cave east of this bridge on the other side Iordan A Cave is a publick building
erected by some devout Turk in nature of an Inne for the benefit of travellers of more or less receipt conveniency according to the bounty or fancy of the founder But here the guest must be his own host to entertain himself seeing generally nothing but a bare lodging and water is provided for him And though we pity the Readers bad lodging this night where if not bringing better accommodations with him he and his Camell must be bedfellowes in straw yet we promise him next day a pleasant way and handsome entertainment For about seven miles off he shall pass by Cave Ioseph where a Well will be shewed him full of water and adorned with marble Pillars which common tradition avoucheth to be the pit wherein Ioseph was put and a learned Frier very zealously stickleth for the truth thereof though indeed the story is confuted both by the distance and nature of the place For it is sixty miles from Dothan near Sechem where Iosephs brethren kept their sheep Besides that pit had no moisture in it save what fell from the eyes of Ioseph whereas this is full of water so that Iosephs dreams had been but dreams if put therein But it is as good as a bait to tired travellers whose credulity is swifter then the Camels they ride on to be refreshed in the way with such relations Some twelve miles off the reader may lodge in a convenient Cave called Minium by the Moors but by the Turkes Missia and if early up next morning may going south-westward before noon enter the Tribe of Zebulun Where we may in due time overtake him and hereafter give him larger direction for his travell § 14. From Iacobs bridge the river Iordan sees nothing memorable besides rich meddows and pleasant pastures untill he falleth into the sea of Cinnereth so called say some because in form not unlike a harp as indeed an active fancy in point of resemblance will fashion any thing to any thing How well the similitude suits the Reader will best judge when hereafter he shall behold the entire proportion of this Sea in the Tribe of Zebulâ—â— where he may feed his fill on the dimensions and severall names thereof till which time to stay his stomach we here present him with such a parcell of this sea-lake as falls to the share of Naphtali At the influxe of Iordan into this Sea stood the once famous City of Capernaum called Christs own City Note by the way Christ had three Cities which may be called his own if seven contended for Homer well may three be allowed to Christ Bethlehem where he was born Nazareth where conceived and bred and Capernaum where he dwelt more then probably in the house of Simon Peter though born in Bethlehem § 15. This Capernaum was the Magazine of Christs Miracles Here was healed the servant of that good Centurion who though a Gentile outfaithed Israel it self concluding from his own authority over his Souldiers that Christ by a more absolute power as Lord high Marshall of all maladies without his personall presence could by his bare word of command order any disease to march or retreat at his pleasure Here Simon Peters wives mother was cured of a Fever and here such as brought the man sick of the Palsie not finding a door on the floor made one on the Roof Love will creep but Faith will climb where it cannot goe let him down with cords his bed bringing him in which presently he carried out being perfectly cured Here also Christ restored the daughter of Iairus to life and in the way as he went each Parenthesis of our Saviours motion is full of heavenly matter and his obiter more to the purpose then our iter he cured the Woman of her fluxe of bloud with the touch of his garment But amongst all these and more wonders the greatest was the ingratitude of the people of Capernaum justly occasioning our Saviours sad prediction And thou Capernaum which art exalted to heaven shalt be brought down to hell for if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Tyre and Sâ—don they would have repented long â—goe in sackecloth and ashes O sad strapado of the soul to be hoised up so high and then cast down suddenly so low enough to disjoint all the powers thereof in peeces Capernaum at this day is a poor village scarce consisting of seven fishermens Cottages § 16. Some furlongs west-ward from this City stood the Receipt of custome whence Matthew was called from a Publican to be an Apostle In Capernaum afterwards the Toll-gatherers did civilly demand of Peter Doth not your Master pay tribute It being questionable in point of law whether Christ were legally liable to such payments And lâ—t us inquire whence the doubt did arise Was it because he 1 Being a Physician such persons of publick imployment for generall good were often exempted from taxes who gave his paines gratis to others it was but equall he should be priviledged from such pecuniary burdens 2 Being poor was under value in the Excise-book And where nothing is to be had the Emperour must lose his right Yea generally Almes folk who live on the charity of others such the condition of our Saviour are not to be rated 3 Being an inmate or under-tenant in the house of Peter the question was whether Peter or Christ was to pay the taxation This last is most probable For our Saviour taking order for the discharging of the debt Give the money saith he to St. Peter unto them for me and thee As rates in London are divided betwixt Land-lord and Tenant Hence Peter was sent to sea where a fish which probably had plundered a peece of money out of the Pocket of some shipwracked fisherman lost his life for the fact and the felons goods found in him were justly forfeited to Christ Lord Paramount both of sea and soil § 17. Going forward along the shoare some will be so positive as to point at the place where after his resurrection Christ took his repast with his Disciples on bread and broiled fish yet we finde no express mention of his drinking after he rose from the grave and that as some will have it either in reference to his promise to his Disciples I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the Vine untill that day when I drink it new with you in my Fathers kingdome Or because though accepting of meat out of voluntary conformity yet he refrained from moisture to manifest himself though no less then a true yet much more then a meer man but this we leave with the Authors § 18. Some miles hence towards the north is a mountain of a moderate ascent and pleasant prospect generally known by the name of Christs mountain Here our Saviour made that excellent Sermon in the mount which was the key of the Old Law And here he chose his twelve
Disciples frequently repairing hither when he affected retiredness Here also learned men on good likelyhood Scripture being silent of the particular place conceive the miracle of loaves multiplied wrought by our Saviour And to avoid confusion we must carefully observe that this was twice wrought Place Guests Meate Fragments Gospels A desert nigh Tiberias 5000 men 5 loaves two fishes 12 baskets ful Mat. 14. 20 Mar. 6. 43. Lu. 9. 16. 10. 6. 23 Christs mountaiâ—â— 4000 men 7 loaves a few litle fishes 7 baskets ful Mat. 17. 37. Mark 8. 1. Behold in the latter though the meat was the more the mouths fewer yet fewer fragments did remain And good reason that our Saviour in working of miracles should observe no other proportion then his own pleasure § 19. Following still the Sea shore and going westward we light on the City Cinnereth which some conceive gave the name to the lake adjoining and also to the land thereabouts For when Benhadad in favour to King Asa to remove Baasha from besieging Ramah inroded Israel he smote all Cinneroth with all the land of Naphtali Some five miles westward we meet with Bethsaida of Galilee in English a hunting house Nor is it unlikely that at first it was a Mansion meerly made for recreation the neighbouring Desert frequently visited by our Saviour when desiring privacy affording the pleasure of the Game From a house it grew to be a village so called by Saint Marke and thence proceeded to be a City so graced in other Gospells Nor need learned men so trouble themselves about the difference seeing in a short time Hague in Holland may be an instance a great town with addition of walls may at pleasure commence a small City It was the native place of Peter Andrew Philip and another staple City of Christs miracles whose ingratitude forced our Saviours expression Woe unto thee Chorazin woe unto thee Bethsaida c. § 20. In the confines of Bethsaida Christ by the hand led forth a blind man out of the town spat on his eyes so restoring him to a confused and imperfect sight to see men walking as trees well might his spittle give half sight whose breath gave man whole life at the Creation and then putting his hands upon his eyes compleatly cured him But how came it to pass that he who other whiles healed at distance by the Proxie of his word Subveniens priùs quà m veniens curing before coming to his Patients should here be so long not to say tedious in working a miracle Even so Saviour because it pleased thee Let us not raise cavills where we should rather return thanks seeing Christ that our dull meditations might keep pace with his actions did not onely goe slowly on set purpose but even stayed in the mid way of a miracle doing it first by halves that our conceptions might the better overtake him § 21. To clear this Corner before we goe hence north-east of Bethsaida on a tridented mountain standeth Saphetta two parts whereof are inhabited by the Turks and one by the Iews and is at this day a very considerable Place Here the Iews live in the greatest liberty or rather in the least slavery of any place under heaven having some tolerable Priviledges allowed them by the Turk So that they who get wealth enough elsewhere here seem to have some shew of a common-wealth Yea here there is a University of Iews And though commonly that Nation count their children to have learning enough if able to cheat Christians in their bargains here they give them studious education and the pure Hebrew tongue as also at Thessalonica now Salonichi in Greece is here usually spoken but industriously acquired the Iews being neitheâ— born to foot of land nor word of language then what they purchase by their paines What shall we say if this little place be left still to keep possession as an earnest that God in due time upon their conversion may possibly restore the whole countrey unto them § 22. Three Cities follow southwest Naphtali a city properly so called Thisbe different from the native place of Eliah and Naasson all their credits depending on the two first verses of the book of Tobit Now as Comoedians though often they adorn their interludes with fancies and fictions yet are very carefull always to lay their scene right in a true place which is eminently and notoriously known so grant the book of Tobit guilty of improbabilities and untruths surely the author thereof would be punctuall in describing the place past possibility of confutation Yet since the same book presents us with the pedegree of the Angell Raphael with Ananias the great his Father and Sammajas his grandfather contrary to our Saviours character that they neither marry nor are given in marriage and so by consequence can neither get nor can be begotten we may as justly suspect his Geography as Genealogy and conceive him false in the position of towns who is fabulous in the extraction of Angels And if Naphtali and Thisbe pass for reall places yet not onely doubtfull but desperate is the case of the City Naasson not being founded on the rock of the Greek text where no such town appears but on the quick-sand of the erroneous Vulgar Latine translation § 23. Having thus surveyed the east and south parts of this Tribe lest the other coasts thereof should justly complain of neglect we return to mount Libanus to give an account of the remainder In this Map though not in this Tribe no trespass I hope to look over the hedge behold Heliopolis in English the City of the Sun But how well it brooks the name they can best tell who of certain report that the height of the mountains adjoining shadow it from the Sun the better half of the day Was it therefore by the same figure that the mountains are so called from moving that Heliopolis got this name Or because the Sun as all other Blessings are valued is most worshipped where it is most wanted Not far hence the river Fons hortorum Libani or the fountain of the gardens of Libanus with which the banks thereof on either side are enamelled fetcheth his originall running thence by Hamah afterwards called Epiphania often mentioned in Scripture Thus far came the twelve spies sent to search the land and this place passeth in Scripture from the entring of Hamah for the northern Boundary of the land of Israel not onely before the expression of Dan came into request but also long after the mention thereof in holy Writ was disused We shall in due place speake as of Hamah the great so named by the Prophet since called Antiochia in Coelosyria and by vulgar unskilfulness often confounded with this Hamah in Naphtali so also of Ashimah the topicall or peculiar Idoll of this place § 24. Hence that river runneth by Hazor anciently the Metropolis of the Canaanites
where very many of their Kings met together against Ioshua to his great advantage Had he sought them in their severall Cities to what expence of time and paines would it have amounted Whereas now their malice did his work all of them meeting together having but one neck in effect which here they tendred to the Axe of divine justice Hazor by Ioshua was burnt and more then an hundred years after was probably reedified by Iabin the Second into whose hand God is said to have sold his people Not far off this river of Gardens leaveth Naphtali and visâ—teth the Tribe of Asher § 25. But before we leave the river let this memorandum be entred that some hold this is the same with the Sabbatariam river mentioned in Pliny which is said to run six days and lie still the seventh whence it gained the name Were this true as Solomon sent the sluggard to the Pismire to learn industry well might profane persons be remitted to this river thereby to be instructed in the Sabbaths due observation But most listen to it as to a fable and the Hurlers in Cornwall men metamorphosed into stones as tradition reports for playing on the Lords day may fitly serve to build a bridge over this river It much shakes the credit of this report because Iosephus relates it clean contrary namely that this river lies still sixe days and onely runs the seventh adding how Titus the Emperour going from Iury to Antioch took a journey by the way to behold the same But indeed learned Casaubon not onely observeth herein the Copies of Iosephus to be corrupted but also giveth his advice for the amendment of the same So that by right pointing his words and some other small alteration Iosephus and Pliny may be made to agree However modern travellers bring us no intelligence of such alternation or intermitting course of any river hereabouts and some perchance will be ready to say that since the Jewish Sabbath hath been swallowed up in the Christians Lords day this river hath discontinued his former custome lest what anciently was ceremonious be now adays censured for superstitious § 26. Let us now traverse this tribe southeast where we câ—not miss Abel a City sometimes single sometimes double represented unto us namely 1t. Abel of Bethmaacah as if the former were but parcell of the latter 2ly Abel and Bethmaacah as if different but bordering Cities 3ly Abel-Bethmaacah as if both made up one and the same place In this City Sheba the rebell pursued by Ioab and his own guiltiness took covert so that the storme of a furious assault was ready to fall upon it when the breath of a wise woman blew it cleare away who so ordered it that Sheba's head was cast over the wall See how his head which thought to turn all Israel upside down when whirled in the aire was tossed and tumbled about And pity it is any bullets should be shot into that city which would cast such fireballs out of it We know the wicked mans not the wise womans name and yet when his vertueless name shall rot her nameless vertue shall remain But Abel wanted such another wise woman to protect it when furiously taken by Beâ—â—hadad and at last finally destroied by Tiglath-Pilesar § 27. But in the very midst of this Tribe the oake-trees of Zahanaim fair and far spread themselves For Tremellius reads it Quercetum Zahanaim The oake-tree place of Zahanaim where our translations render it the plain of Zahanaim A difference not so great but that our age can accommodate which being wastfull in woods hath expounded into plains many places which formerly were dark with the thickest oake-trees Here Iael the wife of Heber the Kenite dwelt in her tent whither Sisera who went forth with nine hundred charets but was glad to come home on two legs fled for security having quitted his chariot Not that he thought himself swifter but safer without it seeing his chariot which in fight was the strength to cover in flight was the mark to discover him And here Iael w th a hammer nail dispatched him for which she was blessed by Deborah § 28. The mention of her blessing minds us of the curse of Meroz and consequently to inquire where the same was seated Well may we look for it in any Tribe which we finde in no Tribe Yea learned men doe so differ in their verdict that some will have Meroz to be 1 The Devill himself as Nicholas Lyra whose opinion is rejected and refuted by all that mention it 2 A potent Person in these parts having many Tenants and Reteiners 3 A Countrey full of populous inhabitants 4 A City near the place where the battell against Sisera was fought Grant the last as most probable new Quaere's are ingendred whether a City of Caananites or Israelites and where to be placed For the exact position whereof we refer the reader to those our learned Divines which in these unhappy dissensions have made that Text so often the subject of their Sermons We have placed it in this tribe not far from Kedesh whence Barak first went forth with his men in the place where Mercators Maps have a city called Meroth a rush-candle is better then no light our onely motive for the situation thereof Mean time consider that as the Disciples observed that the figtree cursed by our Saviour was in their return withered away so this city after Deborah's execration so dwindled by degrees that nothing is left of Meroz but Meroz nothing surviving of the thing but the name Which name let the reader behold in our Map as the mast of that ship whose keel is swallowed up in the quicksands A Sea-mark to all posterity to beware and not to be negligent when they are called to be auxiliaries to Gods cause in distress § 29. And now our hand is in about conjecturall places we must not forget Madon once a roiall city certainly hereabouts because Iobab the King thereof was conquered by Ioshua at the waters of Merom though all our industry cannot discover the particular position thereof Happy our condition that in things concerning salvation we have Christs gracious promise Seek and ye shall finde though in these meaner maters our search often wanteth success We are bold to place it near Dan one of the fountains of Iordan the rather because Brocard findes a place thereabouts called Medan by the Turks at this day Where I pray let it stand till better information for rather then with Adrichomius we should leave it out of our Maps it is better to put it under any penthouse then quite shut it out of doors Let Dan-javan the third station where Ioab pitched his tent when he numbred the people be joined unto it § 30. To return to the place where Meroz is set with far more certainty we place Harrosheth of the Gentiles the native
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
them from a small spark to a fire to a flame but sunlike arising in perfect lustre gaines the greatest reputation amongst people Because in some respect he is like Melchisedek without Father without Mother without descent whilst the admiring vulgar transported with his preaching and ignorant of his extraction on earth will charitably presume his Pedegree from heaven and his breeding as calling to be divine § 16. The cruell Nazarites brought Christ to the brow of the hill with full intent to cast him down headlong All in vaine For Christs death was to come a clean contrary way not by throwing him down but by lifting him up And he passing thorow the midst of them went his way Not that as the Rhemists interpret it to make way for their transubstantiation he penetrated contrary to the nature of a body thorow the very breasts of the people but that either he smote them with blindness that they did not see or else struck them with fear that they dared not to stay him the power of his Person wedge-like cleaving its way and forcing a lane for his passage in the midst of the people § 17. Expect not here â—hat I should write any thing of the opinions of the hereticall Nazarenes taking their name from this City of Nazareth and are commonly but corruptly called Nostranes at this day Much less will I trouble my self and the reader with the severall stages of the Chappel of the Angelical-salutation A Chappell which well may pity the pains and perils of such pilgrims as repair thereunto having it self had an experimentall knowledge how tedious travail is in its own often removealls flitting first from Nazareth to Flumen a City in Illyrium thence for the unworthiness of the inhabitants translated to a wood in the Picene field and thence again because the wood was infected with theeves carried by Angels into the ground of two brethren who falling out about parting the profit thereof was the fourth and last time conveyed into the high way where ever since not because weary but welcome it is pleased to make its abode But I remember the precept of the Apostle nor give heed to fables and therefore proceed to more profitable matter § 18. To returne to Nazareth the nameless rivolet arising near thereunto runneth north betwixt Dothan on the east and Sephoris on the west At the former Ioseph was conspired against by his brethren The cause of their hating of him besides his Fathers loving him was the reporting what he saw in his sleep dreames of his future preferment and what he saw waking no dreames of his brethrens present debauchedness who resolved to murther him O how they saw the anguish of his soul made visible in his bended knees held up hands weeping eyes wailing words and all to no purpose Into the pit he is put whilst his brethren fall a feasting oh with what heart could they say grace either before or after meat whilst it was so sad with Ioseph Stars they say are seen the clearest even in day time by those that are in deep pits Surely divine providence appeared brightest to Ioseph in that condition Indeed Reuben endevoured his restitution to his Father Iudah his preservation from death but neither being privy to others designe unwittingly countermined one another had not God wrought all for the best Ishmaelitish Merchants and Midianites in their company pass by bearing Spices and Balm and myrrh to carry down into Egypt To them Ioseph is sold of whom we take our leave for the present not doubting in due time and place to meet him again Mean time may those merchants be carefull to carry him safe for among all the spices they were laden with none more fragrant and precious then the perfume of this captives innocence So much for Dothan onely I will adde that I have placed it here out of a peaceable compliance with the judgements of learned men otherwise I shall not spare to manifest my private opinion on just occasion § 19. On the west of this rivolet was Sephoris afterwards called Dio-caesarea not to be omitted though not mentioned in Scripture because accounted by Iosephus the greatest City in Galilee where the Jewish Sanhedrin for some time had its residence Let the same Authour inform you how this City was burned by Varus how molested by the seditious how basely it deserted Iosephus was bravely recovered by him plundred by his souldiers and the spoile thereof restored again with severall passages of high concernment in the Jewish history A little more northward this brook falls into Iordan the less which afterwards payes its tribute to the sea of Galilee § 20. Which sea runneth Southward by Gittah-hepher or Gath-hepher as most place it the birth-place of Ionah the Prophet His name in Hebrew a Dove to which he answered rather in his speedy flight from Gods service then in any want of Gall whereof he manifested too much in his anger without cause or measure Ionaâ— therefore being born here in the heart of neather Galilee no less untrue then uncharitable was that assertion of the high Priests and Pharisees Search and look for out of Galilee cometh no Prophet Except their words herein referred to the future not to what was passed and that also onely in relation to the Prophet Paramount the Messiah of Israel More south the sea ran by Magdala a turreted town as the name thereof imports and common tradition is all the argument we have that Mary surnamed Magdalen that eminent penitent was so called from this place because living others say richly landed therein Into the coasts of Magdala Christ came from sea when the Pharisees tempted him to shew them a signe from heaven In the parallel place in the Gospell of Saint Mark the same Countrey is called Dalmanutha different names it seems for the same territory § 21. Going forward on the sea side still southward we meet with the influx of a riyolet thereunto fetching his fountain from the heart of the Countrey near the City of Bethulia nigh unto which was acted the atchievments of Iudith against Holofernes § 22. Form Bethulia the rivolet running full east is swallowed up in the Galilean Sea beholding the high seated City of Iotopata some two miles distant from the inlet thereof The stout defending of this place against the Romans with no less wisdome then valour was the master-piece of Flavius Iosephus in the behalfe of his Countrey-men And now having made necessary mention of his name pardon a digression in giving a free Character of his writings whereof next holy writ we have made most use in this book § 23. It must be confessed that he was guilty of some unexcusable faults namely of Boasting immoderately of his own birth valour learning piety Levity inserting frivolous fables of the root Boras c. And yet we will not confine natures
returnes were obliged in conscience to be more liberall to the maintenance of Gods Ministers Or are two of the Levites cities left out in Chronicles omission in such cases for reasons to us unknown is no contradiction and the other two the same though unlike in sound with the two last mentioned in Ioshua Indeed I deny not but the towns at the same time may have two names nothing alike Medena alià s Newport in the Isle of Wight may be an instance thereof But for all I can finde still I languish in expectation of a better solution Yet let not his good will be slighted who though unable to cure the wound whilest Commentatours on the place suffer it to lie festering in silence desires to wash it and keep it clean till a more skilfull hand apply an effectuall plaister thereunto § 36. In Solomons division of the land into twelve purveyour-ships Zebulun had no distinct officer over him but belonged to the territory of Baanah the Son of Ahilud who besides many places he had in Manasseh extended his Jurisdiction even beyond Iokneam The Armes of Zebulun confirmed unto him by custome and Rabbinicall tradition were Argent a ship with Maste and tackling sable An honourable Bearing the same with the Coate armour of Albertus free Baron of Alasco in Poland â—ave that his ship is without sailes with this Motto Deus dabit vela God will send sailes and Zebuluns accomplished with all the accoutrements thereof Here the Map of Issachar is to be inserted THE TRIBE OF ISSACHAR CHAP. 7. § 1. ISsachar the fift Son which Iacob begat on Leah his wife had his posterity so increased in Egypt that from thence came forth of this Tribe fifty four thousand and four hundred All which falling in the wilderness for their frequent tempting of God their Sons grew Iudah and Dan excepted more numerous then any other Tribe insomuch that sixty four thousand and three hundred of twenty years old and upward appeared at their second solemn muster in the plaines of Moab Tolah the Judge was of this Tribe Baasha and Elah Kings of Israel fair Abishag the Shunamite wife or rather bed-fellow to aged David with another Lady if in beauty not in goodness her inferiour of the same city who so kindly entertained the Prophet Elisha § 2. Issachar had the sea on the west Iordan on the east Zebulun on the north Manasseh on the south A fair fruitfull countrey for as all Canaan is called the pleasant land so it is particularly observed of Issachars portion he saw the land that it was pleasant and bowed his shoulder to bear and became a servant unto tribute This Tribe better acquitted it self in the Subsidie then in the Muster-book they were the best Yeomantry of Israel towards the advancing of raâ—es and taxes They loved rest and a sedentary life Blame them not if sensible of the goodness of their soile they were loath to leave home because certain to remove to their loss and are compared to an Asse couching between two burthens § 3. Yet were not the men of Issachar of such servile natures but that they could be valiant when just occasion was offered them They were as willing and resolute as any other in helping Barak in the battell against Sisera Yet even then we may observe they marched not far from their own habitations the field being fought in the bowells of their countrey And well might his Asse finde both heels and teeth to kick and bite such as offer to take his Hay from his rack and Provender a way from his manger § 4. Nor let the resembling of Issachar to an Asse depress this Tribe too low in our estimation The strength of his back not stupidity of his head gave the occasion thereunto 〈◊〉 in one point of excellent skill this Tribe surpassed all others being men that had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to doe Now seeing time Ianus-like hath two faces one looking backward Chronology the other forward Prognostication the question will be in which of these lay the learning of the Issacharites A learned man conceives them onely like husbandmen weather-wise by their own rurall observations Sure more is imported in that expression and not onely Almanack but Chronicle-skill contained therein so that from deductions from former they could make directions for the future times Oh for a little of Issachars art in our age to make us understand these intricate and perplexed times and to teach us to know what we ought to doe to be safe with a good conscience So much of the persons in this Tribe come we now to survay the eminent places contained therein § 5. In the south confines thereof stood the regal city of Iezreel For though the valley of Iezreel belonged to Manasseh the city it self must pertain to Issachar otherwise the sixteen cities assigned him Iosh. 19. will fall short of that number In Iezreel Ahab had a Princely Palace haply the joynter-house of Iezebel besides a garden-house adjoining and here in the city lived Naboth as hard by lay his vineyard which Ahab could not obtain from him either by purchase or exchange § 6. Some will finde more equity in Ahabs offers then discretion in Naboths refusall But blame him not if loth to offend his God to accommodate his King Being no doubt in his conscience perswaded that his earthly possession was the earnest of his heavenly inheritance and that his parting with the former voided his title to the latter Besides his vineyard six hundred years since the partition of the land by lot had pertained to his ancestours probably moe ages then Ahabs new erected palace had belonged years to his family § 7. On the denyall Ahab falls sullen-sick No meat will down with him for lack of a salad because wanting Naboths vineyard for a garden of herbes till Iezebel undertook the business A letter is made up of her braines her husbands hand and seal to the Elders of Iezreel enjoining them to set up two men of Belial to accuse Naboth of blasphemy against God and the King She took it for granted plenty of such persons were to be found in so populous and vicious a place Oh the ancient order of Knight of the poste for money to depose any falshood Hereupon Naboth is stoned to death and his Sons also flatly contrary to Gods command which in this case had provided The children shall not be put to death for their fathers but every man shall be put to death for his own sin But this was donâ— to clear all claimes and prevent all pretenders of tiâ—les unto the inheritance § 8. Thuâ— Naboths vineyard was for Ahabs use turned into a garden of â—erbes Surely the bitter wormwood of Divine revenge grew plentiâ—â—lly thereâ—n Foâ— in the same place his Son Ioram and gran-child
erroneous judgements better rectified and informed § 10. Nor doth ought else observable offer it self in this corner of the Tribe save Aijalon where Ioshua's prayer arrested the Moon to stand still assigned by God to the Levites But the Amorites took the boldness to keep possession thereof Hear the words of the Scripture And the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountaines for they would not suffer them to come down into the valley but the Amorites would dwell in mount Herez in Aijalon and in Shaalbim The genuine sense is that though the Amorites generally pent the Danites up in the mountains yet in these three places though mountainous in their situation they crossed their common custome not out of necessity but designe as sensible of their own profit that these transcended the vallies in fertility and therefore placed themselves therein Let others dispute how it came to pass that the Priests whom God intended men of peace by their profession had a controversiall City appointed them incumbred with enemies so that they must win it before they could wear it As also how the Levites could live when the Land allotted them was sequestred in the hand of a forein foe It will be for enough us to observe that in all ages the Church being imbarked in the same bottome with the State ran an equall hazard therein according to her proportion And when the whole Tribe of Dan like the Parish in generall was straitned in its processions well might the Priests maintenance be abated accordingly § 11. We goe back now to Ioppa where standing on the rocks an indifferent fight may easily discern those ships into which the heathen people of Ioppa with much courtesie but more craft invited the Iews with their wives and their children to goe aboard for they made them pay their lives the fraight for their voyage wilfully drowning two hundred of them Whose bloud Maccabeus revenged with a contrary but as cruell an Element burning all their ships in their harbour with such as were found therein Hard by is Iamnia a little haven which may be rendred Seaton in English whose mischievous intention against the Iews Maccabeus punished by burning their towne by night Which bone-fire was beheld two hundred and fourty furlongs off as far as Ierusalem A thing not incredible that fire it self should be seen so far by the light whereof other things in darkness are discovered especially when mounted high on its throne with the advantage of pitch cordage and other navall and combustible matter Some doe conceive that this Iamnia is the same with Iabneh the wall whereof was broken down by Uzziah the puissant King of Iudah § 12. Hence the sea running southward provides it self to entertain a nameless brook which Mercator cals Naphtoah and others making signes as unable to speak the true name thereof the brook of the land of the Philistines because otherwhiles the northern boundary of their dominion We had rather give it no name then a nick-name And because the course thereof affords us conveniency to visite the middle parts of this Tribe we will accept of his courtesie and follow the guidance thereof § 13. This brook hath its birth and infancy in the Tribe of Iudah whence flowing into Dan he runneth through the desert of Modin which is full of rocks and those of holes and those once of men flying out of the neighbouring Cities from the persecution of the Pagans Herein a thousand of them were slain by the fury of their enemies or rather by the fondness of their own superstition refusing to make resistance on the Sabbath day A sad accident But the parent of a good event because putting the surviving Iews in a posture of defence and teaching them more wise and valiant resolutions Yea not long after hereabouts they obtained a victory over the numerous army of Cendebaeus Nor will any slight this brook as inconsiderable when they read how it ran in the midst betwixt the armies of the Iews and Pagans and was so deep that the hardiest of the former durst not adventure to wade it before first incouraged by the example of their Generall Except any will say they did not so much fear the depth of the river as the height of the banks of the other side to wit the puissant army of their enemies § 14. Going further on the river we come into the Countrey of Makats that is as learned Tremelius well observeth the border or boundary if you please the Marches betwixt this Tribe and their professed enemies the Philistines It is impossible to define the limits thereof seeing the Countrey was the constant Cock-pit of war and the ground thereof sometimes marched forward sometimes retreated backward according to the variety of martiall success Great is the difference betwixt the same sea at high and low water mark and so this Countrey must needs be much disproportioned to it self when extended in a full tyde and when contracted in a low ebbe of success § 15. In this Countrey of Makats Bethshemesh was a principall City belonging to the Levites and reputed part of Iudah but except some Labell of land tacked to Iudah surrounded about with the Tribe of Dan. A case obvious in the dividing of Countreys Who knows not how Worcester-shire hath speckled all the adjacent Counties with snips and shreds belonging unto it though environed with other shires and that at considerable distance Hither the kine drawing the Cart and lowing as they went to their Calves at home nature in them was not rooted out but overruled brought the Arke and rested it near a great stone in the field of Ioshua a Bethshemite At what time the Bethshemites were reaping their harvest in the valley Instantly at so good news their Sicles lost their edges and could cut no more corn that day The Arke-home is to be preferred before Harvest-home But oh how hard is it to keep hungry eyes from feeding on forbidden objects All the Bethshemites were Levites but not Priests much less high-Priests to whom alone and that onely anniversary the survey of those mysteries did belong Besides at this time Bethshemesh from a City was enlarged to be a Countrey such the confluence of Israelites from all places Otherwise no back of one City might seem broad enough for so great a rode whereby fifty thousand and threescore and ten men were destroyed by the Plague for their Curiosity in prying into the Arke § 16. Gibbethon is another prime place in Makats allotted by God to the Levites of Kohath and no doubt by them peaceably possessed for many years seeing nothing to the contrary doth appear But after the days of Ieroboam it is said to belong to the Philistines Probably when the Levites loyall both to God and their King upon the idolatrous defection of Israel willingly deserted their own Cities the Philistines taking advantage thereof when much good bloud is let
ran with the swiftest and held out with the longest Having aâ— King in the days of Abraham and continuing themselves in a considerable condition till after the captivity Returning almost as many forcible impressions as they received from the Israelites What though Shâ—â—gar smote Samson 〈◊〉 and Samuel humbled them yet they grew so great in the reigne of Saul that they left all the Israelites swordlesâ— though afterwards there was one sword too many in Saulâ— hand wherewith he slew himself when overcome by the Philistines Indeed David brought them and Solomon kept them under But in the days of Ioram they so recovered themselves that they plundered Iudah rifled the Kings palace killed and carried captive the seed royall Uzziah after ordered them into obedience but under Ahaz they regnined their lost cities and wan more unto them In a word of the heathen people left for thornes in the sides of the Iewes none had sharper prickles or pierced nearer to their hearts then the Philistines Yea such their puissance that from them the Greeks and Latinos called all this land Palestinaâ— because the Philistines lived on the sea-coast most obvious to the notice of foreiners As in deed a small Port makes a greater report in the eares of strangers far off then a land-locked place though far greater in proportion § 24. The bounds of Philistia are not precisely to be set down For whilest tame cattell are kept in pastures beasts of prey such this warlike people are onely bounded by their own ravenous appetite The best way to measure the borders of the Philistines is to behold the sins of the Israelites For when they were encreased then the Countrey of the Philistines was accordingly enlarged Thus in the days of King Saul they roved and ranged as far as Dor and Bethshean in the half Tribe of Manasseh and had Garisons in the heart of most Tribes of Israel But their constant habitation their den as I may terme it was atract of ground from Gath in the north to Gaza in the south Some fifty miles in length and about halfe as broad in the lands allotted to Iudah Dan and Simeon Their government was a mixture of Monarchy and Aristocracy For as their chiefe Cities had Kings over them which seem absolute in their own dominions so these kingdomes were but Cantons in relation to the whole as members making up one entire Common-wealth § 25. There need no other evidence be produced to prove the fruitfulness of their Countrey then the vastness of their bodies whereof the rankness of their ground must be allowed a partiall cause Our English Proverb saith shew me not the meate but shew me the man The well batling of the Giants bred in Philistia chiefly in Gath their Seminary being Heteroclites redundants from the rules of nature sufficiently attests the fertility of their soil Some of these Giants had their hands branching out into six fingers though they who had one fewer had enough to kill them Let Naturalists curiously inquire whether or no this stock of Giants be wholly spent in our age And if so what the true causes thereof Whether intemperance of diet or over early marriage seeing every one that is raw to work count themselves ripe to wed Let them consult whether nature hath not some other way recompensed in our age that want of strength by giving them quicker wits wheras in voluminous men commonly there is much empty margent However mens lesser strength and stature amounts not to a proof of an universall decay in nature as a most learned pen hath unanswerably demonstrated § 26. One thing more we must observe of the Philistines that they are also called Cherethims or Cherethites in Scripture Know also that the Cherethites were a kind of lifegard to King David Now because it is improbable that so wise a Prince would intrust his Person in the protection of the Philistines his conquered enemies therefore learned Tremellius by Cherethites understands such Israelites as afterwards possessed the Countrey of the Philistines expulsed by David Which seems to some but a forced interpretation For what unlikelyhood was it that David might entertain Proselyte Philistines converts to the Iewish religion if there were such to be attendants about his body Not to instance in the French Kings double gard of Scots and Switzars as improper to this purpose because though forein yet free and friendly nations David out of policy might retain such to wait upon him both for their present encouragement and future engagements of the fidelity of the Philistines Whose service might not onely be free from danger but full of advantage especially when they were under the conduct of so wise and valiant an Israelite as Benajah the son of Iehojada placed governour over them To render this still more probable Consider how Ittai the Gittite with six hundred men of Gath was no native of Israel as appears by Davids words thou art a stranger and an exile and yet was intrusted with the Command of a Terce of the army in the battell against Absolom Wherein he excellently acquitted himself according to his loyall resolution to attend the Kings fortunes whether in life or death § 27. Come we now to describe the Countrey Philistia where in the north part thereof we finde Gath a regall City before Achish the son of Maoch the King whereof David to save his life counterfeited himself mad But whether guilty or no in so doing Divines have not yet determined It would incline me to the more charitable side that he had good warrant for what he did because at the same time understand it immediately before or after he composed two Psalmes Which shew his soul not out of tune solemnly to serve God But David went to Achish a second time with sixe hundred men it seems upon better assurance before-hand then formerly and was with great kindness entertained by him dwelt with him in Gath and after obtained Ziklag from him and by Achish his minde should have been the keeper of his head Achish the son of Maachah tributary no doubt to Solomon was King of Gath. For Shimei confined to Hierusalem by Solomons command and his own consent did fetch from him his fugitive servants Time was when Shimei's tongue ran too fast in railing on David his Master and now his feet moved too far in running after his servants so that breaking the Tedder of his Commission of the pieces thereof a Halter was justly made for his execution This City of Gath was afterwards fortified by Rehoboam and many years after taken by Hazael King of Syria and in the next age had the wall thereof broken down by Uzziah King of Israel § 28. Betwixt Gath and Ekron lying thence south west we are as certain there were Cities as ignorant how to call them For the present let them pass by the name of Samuels Cities
her most modest behaviour For at the sight of him though at some distance she lighted from her Camel counting it ill manners to ride when her husband and master went a foot as also to give an earnest of her future good housewifery that she would prefer industry before ease honest pain before pleasure The she vailed her self partly to shew that the beams of her beauty were hereafter to be appropriated to Isaac alone partly in confession of subjection being now under covert-baron the command and protection of a husband Well I dare compare yea prefer this vailed wives chastity before the virginity of many vailed votaries § 18. More south is the river of Egypt the utmost limit not onely of this Tribe but of all Israel Indeed by the river of Egypt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 often mentioned in Exodus onely Nilus is intended But this stream which some conceive is particularly called Shichos is termed the River of Egypt not because it is in but is in the high way to Egypt Otherwise the traveller who sits down on the banks thereof shall never come thither In the Septuagint Rhinocolura is put for this river of Egypt being a long named city of short note seated on the influxe thereof into the sea Only this Rhinocolura is famous in heathen History because hither as into an Hospitall all those malefactors were sent whose noses were cut off for their offences a punishment inflicted on the Egyptians by an Ethiopian King who conquered them Hence had it the name of Rhinocolura or the place of nose-maimed people But ô how great must that city be which in our age should contain all those whose faces are nose-less not by others cruelty but their own luxury § 19. As for other cities in this Tribe of Simeon they were many but obscure It is observable that most of them are written with an Aliàs first as they are named Iosh. 19. secondly as they are called 1 Chron. 2. None need to wonder at their different denominations Here I interpose nothing of the severall writing of the same places 1 According to exact Criticks in spelling them 2 According to vulgar tongues in pronouncing them Onely we commend to the Readers notice that the book of Chronicles was written after the return from Captivity and about eighteen generations after the days of Ioshua And therefore some difference of letters after so large a time is no strange thing For seeing here we have no continuing city it cannot be expected that any city should have a continuing name And yet great places longest retain their names unaltered as London from Taeitus to our times whereas small cities like these in Simeon are as often alterable as passed into the possession of severall owners Yea seeing it was the custome of the Iews to call their lands after their own names this haply might change Beth-lebaoth in this Tribe into Beth-birei when it came into the possession of a new landlord § 20. So much of this small Tribe whose portion was too little for his people and therefore they made two happy expeditions to enlarge their quarters one in the reign of Hezekiah to the entrance of Gedor even unto the east side of the valley a place of good and fat pasture for they of Ham Canaanites had dwelt there of old Mice sometimes may be mens tasters to teach them which is best for their palate and those heathen were wise enough to settle themselves in the richest soile whence now the Simeonites expelled them This Gedor was in the division of the land allotted to the Tribe of Iudah Now if any demand by what right the Simeonites might invade this which was assigned to Iudah they may know that in case a strong hold could not be reduced into subjection by that Tribe to which it belonged it was not an act of injustice but valour for the next Tribe to undertake the conquest thereof As by their judiciall law if one dyed not having issue by his wife the next of kin might 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and was heire as I may say to marry his brothers wife so when Iudah through some defect or debility was unable to improve his Patrimony in Gedor to profit by casting out the heathen who violently detained it Simeon his next neighbour in situation suecceding to the right of his brother attempted and effected the conquest thereof Herein onely it holds not proportion because the seed so raised up was accounted to his dead brother whereas here Simeon made bold himself quietly to possess what victoriously he had acquired Wonder not that this petty Tribe in overcoming Gedor did more then puissant Iudah could performe for always the battell is not to the strong and weaker means watching advantages may perfect what more powerfull have left uneffected This Gedor grudge not reader to sally with thine eye a little out of this Tribe being still in this map lay on the north of the river Sorek and was one of the 31. regall cities of the Canaanites As for the Simeonites second voiage against the Amalekites in mount Seir more proper thereof hereafter in the description of Edom. § 21. Now that which straightned the portion of Simeon was the multitude of Philistines inhabiting the sea coasts allotted to but never possessed by this Tribe Askelon was a prime city in those parts once won by Iudah assisting Simeon but after recovered by the Philistines Samson being cast to give his companions thirty change of raiment went neither to the Merchant for the stuffe nor Taylor for making of them but knowing the Philistines garments would best fit Philistines bodies he marched directly to Askelon where finding thirty Philistines he bestowed their corps on the earth and their cases on their fellow-countrey men This caused that active antipathy betwixt Askelon and Israel Tell it not in Gath nor publish it in Askelon Near to this city there was a lake by which Semiramis is said to be born there fed and relieved by Doves Hence the Poet Tibullus Alba Palaestino sancta columba Syro The milke-white Dove esteem'd divine By Syrians of Palestine But because no mention of this in Scriptures we forbear further prosecution thereof § 22. Going along south by the sea side here styled the sea of the Philistines we come at last to Azzah or Gaza the fifth satrapy of the Philistines once conquered by Iudah but soon after returning to the former owners Samson who carried the gates thereof away could not bring himself hither again without the guidance of another Pain here was added to his blindness when set to grinde in a mill scorn to his pain when sent for at a solemn feast to be the musician to make sport or rather the Instrument ready tuned for every wanton eye tongue and hand to play upon But such as mock at other mens miseries sometimes laugh so long till their own hearts
inhabitants thereof being trained by a dissembled flight of their foes into their own destruction Now although such ambushes are now adays unambushed by the generall suspicion all have of them yet in the infancy of the world when battells were meerly managed by main might and downright blowes men bringing all their forces above board such lying in wait was an unusuall stratagem and perchance may justly be referred to Ioshua as the first inventor thereof § 36. West of Ai betwixt Bethel and Ai was the mountain where Abraham and Lot long lived lovingly together until the contest betwixt their heardsmen when the land was grown too little for their substance Poverty preserveth amity when riches oft-times make rents among friends Hard by was the City and wilderness of Beth-aven which signifies the house of vanity Strange that any should impose on a place except in derision so ill and unlucky a name Yet hath not Solomon in effect set the same on the whole world Vanity of vanities all is vanity But Beth-aven seems emphatically so called for some eminent Idolatry committed therein Neer this place was the wood wherein when it rained honey from heaven the Israelites being in pursuit of the Philistines wanted hands to receive it having them bound up by Sauls adjuration not to eat before night I see neither piety nor policy but humour and headiness in Sauls resolution the way to encrease their stomach and not their valour Might not a cursory meal been allowed them in a running march a snatch and away Here Ionathans eyes were opened with tasting a little honey and presently his eyes were opened again in a sadder sense seeing himself liable to death for breaking his Fathers command Nor was it his own innocence and invincible ignorance of the law but the peoples interposing which preserved him alive Yet will not this one good act of popular violence make amends for those many mischiefs which their impetuous exorbitances in other cases have produced § 37. Still westward of Beth-aven stood Gibeon termed a royall City in Scripture that is a fair and princely place otherwise in all the transactions betwixt this City and the Israelites we meet with no King thereof which may almost perswade us to believe it a popular State The inhabitants thereof with clouted old shooes mouldy bread and a lie farther fetched then their journey pretending their dwellings at great distance deceived the congregation of Israel then camped at Gilgal For the smoke of those ovens wherein their bread was baked might almost be perceived from Gibeon to Gilgal which space Ioshua marched over with his foot-army in one night However hereby they saved their lives onely for their cheat were condemned to be Nethinims or Deodands that is people given to God to hew wood draw water and doe the drudgery of the Tabâ—rnacle and Temple a condition which they gladly accepted of so sweet is life in it self though sawced with servitude § 38. Afterwards Ioshua with a miraculous victory here conquered the five Kings of Canaan which assembled themselves to besiege Gibeon in revenge of their defection to the Israelites Never had battell more of God therein for he himself brought up or rather let down the train of Artillery killing the Canaanites with hail-stones from heaven as they fled in the going down to Bethoron unto Azekah Here Ioshua by his faithfull prayer stopt a Giant in his full career as he was running his race staying the Sun in Gibeon to attend his execution on his enemies This was as I may say the Barnady day of the whole world the very longest which that climate ever did or shal behold when time was delivered of twins two days joined together without any night interposed How the heavens this extraordinary accident notwithstanding were afterwards reconciled to their regular motions and how the expence of so much delay was repaired by future thrift I mean this staying of the Sun made up in the years account by his swifter moving afterwards I leave to be audited and cast up even by Astronomers Mean time the foresaid five Kings were first hid then stopt in the cave of Makkâ—dah till Ioshua commanded them to be brought forth and his souldiers to set their feet on their necks and David in his expression many years after reflecteth hereon Thou hast given me the necks of mine enemies c. Then were those five Kings hanged by Makkedah a regall City of the Canaanites which at that time was taken and the King thereof destroyed by Ioshua § 39. To return to Gibeon it was afterwards one of the four Cities in this Tribe which were allotted to the Levites and yet we finde it the Theater chiefly of martial atchievements for by the great pool in Gibeon in Helkath-hazzurim or thâ— field of strong men was Abner with the host of Israel worsted by Ioab Generall for David when Asahel like a wild Roe wild for his rashness Roe for his swiftness would not be perswaded from pursuing of Abner untill nigh the hill Amnah which lieth before Giah he taught Asahel the great difference between a nimble leg a and vigorous arme smiting him with his spear under the fifth rib § 40. Under the same rib at the great stone which is in Gibeon Ioab jealous of Amasa his cousin-german Ambition owns no alliance and is onely of kin to it self basâ—ly murdered him in this manner Ioab had a sword hanging on his loines and as he went it used to fall out as if it sought for another sheath bâ—sides what it had already Surely he had put his sword in this careless posture thus to play at in and out to cover his intended murder under some pretence of casualty as if in his embraces his weapon had hurt Amasa by unhappy accident Vain excuse for certainly his sword could not of its own accord have gone so quickly and so deeply to Amasa's fifth rib had not Ioab's steddy aime both dispatched it on that errand and directed it to that place Amasa thus slain all the people passing by make an halt at his corps and every one that came by him stood still untill his body was removed Where amongst so many gazing on his corps it is hard if the active thoughts of some did not light on this observation of divine justice that he now was treacherously slain who so lately had been the Generall to a Traitor § 41. In the beginning of the reign of King Solomon Gibeon was a publick place of divine worship where part of the Tabernacle resided Here two things are carefully to be observed 1 The Arke it self This being taken out of the Tabernacle at Shiloh by Hophni and Phinehas never returned thither again But from the land of the Philistines was brought back first to Bethshemesh thence to Kiriath-jearim thence to the house of Obed-Edom and at last fixed and setled
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
Canaanites some remnant of the Anakims which escaped his hand did in his absence return possess Hebron and put Caleb to a new task of a second subduing them § 22. David afterwards made Hebron the Metropolis of this kingdome as being the most eminent City of his own Tribe of Iudah and reigned almost seven years therein In the third year of his reign Abner repaired hither with full intent to reduce all Israel to his obedience had not Ioabs sudden murdering him frustrated his design Probably some mixture of jealousie might put Ioab on this foul action fearing to be outed of his office that if Abner made David King David would make Abner Generall over all Israel Certainly revenge of his brother Asahels bloud prompted him thereunto Ioab sending messengers to fetch Abner back from the well of Siriah slew him treacherously as he was entering the gates of Hebron § 23. Forget we not that Hebron in the gate whereof Ioab so basely and barbarously murdered him was a City of Refuge appointed by God for the saving of such as had killed one unawares Did not Ioab therefore in such a place acting wilfull murder in an high hand relie on his own greatness to beare him out in so bloudy a deed as if he neither feared the justice of man nor needed the mercy of God No wonder then if many years after he flying to the horns of the Altar was denyed the protection of that place who formerly so cruelly despightfully and presumptuously had defiled the City of Refuge with innocent bloud § 24. Thus died Abner very loyall to Saul whilest Saul was living and too loving to his concubine when he was dead Never man was killed more cowardly or buried more honourably David himself following the bâ—ere weeping as chiefe mourner at his funerall In the same sepulcher the head of Ishbosheth was afterwards interred Though some jars were betwixt them whilest living their dust well agreed in the same grave Nor durst the ashes of Ishbosheth cross the others who when alive though checked and chidden by him could not answer Abner a word again because he feared him As for the bodies of Baanah and Rechab the murderers of Ishbosheth they had by order from David their hands and feet cut off and they hanged up over the pool in Hebron § 25. After the death of Ishbosheth all Israel repaired to Hebron to make David their King whose severall numbers deserve our observation 1 Out of Iudah six thousand and eight hundred 2 Simeon seven thousand one hundred 3 Levi eight thousand three hundred twenty two 4 Benjamin three thousand 5 Ephraim twenty thousand and eight hundred 6 Half Tribe of Manasseh on this side Iordan eighteen thousand 7 Issachar two hundred officers and all their brethren at ther coÌ„mandment 8 Zebulun fifty thousand 9 Naphtali thirty seven â—housand besides a thousand Captains 10 Dan twenty eight thousand and six hundred 11 〈◊〉 fourty thousand 12 Reuben Gâ—d and Manassâ—h beyond Iordan an hundred and twenty thousand Behold here those Tribes which lived farthest from Hebron appearing in the highest equipage as if they endevouring to be revenged on the distance of their habitation purposely advanced with the greatest number Here it will be enquired why Iudah largest in dominion next in position nearest in relation as Davids native Tribe made here the slenderest appearance of all the rest Benjamin alone excepted the thinness of whose numbers are excused in the text because hitherto the greatest part of them kept the ward of the house of Saul What! doth it fare with Princes as with Prophets that they are not without honour save in their own Countrey and in their own house that David found fewest attendants from his own Tribe Oh no he was abundantly loved and honoured therein But Tostatus answers 1 Davids daily attendance both civill in his Court and military in his camp and garrison hitherto chiefly consisted of the Tribe of Iudah 2 The rest of Iudah remained at home to make provision and give entertainment to this confluence of people from all parts Adde hereunto 1 Six thousand eight hundred were a sufficient representation of Iudah and moe not onely needless but burdensome for the present to pester Hebron too populous already The rest keeping home and living hard by were ready no doubt on competent warning to come quickly if need required or David commanded their attendance 2 Iudahs main work was done two years before when David was solemnly made their King And they now rather spectators then actors at his second Coronation over all Israel Now no less politick then thrifty were the other Tribes in bringing their victualls along with them lest otherwise they should be held as occasioners of scarcity in Iudah and enhauncers of the prices of provisions § 26. Afterwards Absalom when he intended a rebellion against his Father chose Hebron as the fittest City from whence he meant to mount into the Throne Hither he came under pretence to doe sacrifice with his chariots and horses and fifty men running before him but which was most to be pitied he brought with him from Ierusalem two hundred men which were as one may say Loyall traitors coming in the simplicity of their hearts and meerly drawn-in to treasonable practises But Hebron proved not a place so succesfull to Absalom the son as formerly fortunate to David his father This Traitours soveraignty soon expired when forsaken of God Man and Beast his own Mule going away from him he was slain of Ioab as formerly related § 27. Some ten miles south of Hebron lay Debir anciently called Kiriah-Sepher the City of a book conceived a Canaanitish University And although the Giant Anakims dwelling hereabouts may be presumed but little bookish yet civilized Countreys in all ages have allowed such places for the education of youth who are better unborn then unbred Caleb proffered Acsah his daughter in marriage to any one that should conquer this City which was accordingly performed by Othniel his younger brothers son and first Judge of Israel What were not the glory of God and good of his Countrey enough to set an edge on his valour but the promise of a wife needed also to whet his resolution No doubt the scales of his resolution went down formerly on the right side before this match was cast in as overweight It is no unlawfull Bigamy of the soul when wedded to Gods glory in the first place to embrace also therewith the recompense of reward and grand is the difference betwixt an hireling whose minde is meerly mercenary and him that works for his hire with Othniel taking it not as the main motive much less as the end but onely as a welcome encouragement of his undertakings § 28. Thus all parties were pleased Israel recovered Debir Othniel got Acsah to wife she gained a blessing from her Father that
hundred and fourteen So that the Tribe of Iudah alone had more Cities then all the Island of Crete which had but just an hundred and therefore called Hecatompolis But many of these Cities were small and a good share of them was given to the Tribes of Dan and Simeon as formerly hath been observed But amongst such as remained to Iudah let not Maresha be forgotten in the north-west part of this Tribe both because thereby in the valley of Zephathah Asa conquered Zerah the Ethiopian whose army consisted of more then a million of men and because the Prophet Micah was born therein § 52. In Saint Hieromes time somewhere in Iudah flourished a fair City called Eleutheropolis from which that Father measureth the distance of most southern places in Palestine as he computeth the northern from Legion a City in Galilee But the more the pity that Father hath not acquainted us with the exact location of either of these two places Whilest Adrichomius and others condemn Saint Hieromes carelesness herein it better befits us to condole our own unhappiness who cannot read the accurate distance of places in his book of that subject because though he have lent us his Characters he hath not left us the true Key thereof § 53. The Tribe of Iudah had no great river therein saving a little piece of gasping Iordan now ready to expire in the dead-sea but with rivolets it was sufficiently stored lending the brooks of Sorek and Bezâ—r to Dan and Simeon borrowing Kedron from Benjamin whence it fetcheth its fountain and keeping the brook before the wilderness of Ieruel wholly for its own use as rising running and falling entirely in this Tribe Nor must that brook be forgotten which I may call the brook of David because being to encounter Goliah he took thence five smooth stones store is no sore especially not being sure but his first might faile and furnished his scrip therewith § 54. This was that Goliah whose strength was equall to his stature his armes sutable to his strength but his Pride above all Betwixt him and David first passed a tongue-combate The one discharging ostentation and presumption which the other as quickly returned with faith and confidence in Gods promises Come they then to encounter see the lower man had the longer arme who with his sling could reach death at distance to his adversary The beaver of Goliahs helmet was open not that he thought his brazen brow sufficiently armed with its own impudence but either that he might see breath and boast the more freely or because he disdained to buckle himself against so unequall a match The stone from Davids sling flies directly to his forehead whereby the Giant is mortally wounded and notwithstanding his speare was as great as a weavers beame his life was swifter then a weavers shuttle so soon passed it away and he was gone David cutting off his head with his own sword § 55. Many were the wildernesses in this Tribe as those of Zin Ziph Maon Engedi Ieruel Tekoa and Iudah lying south of Arad Now as once it was the question of the Disciples to our Saviour From whence can a man satisfie these men with bread here in the wilderness So here it may materially be demanded Where did the men of Iudah finde food to sustain themselves whose countrey seems a heap of wildernesses cast together Here we must know that the whole land of Palestine was drest and kept like a garden plot and inclosed into Olive-yards Vine-yards and arable fields save some extravagant places which lay common where wild beasts did harbour in the woods commonly called Wildernesses Such notwithstanding were full of fruitfull pastures and had fair towns though more thinly inhabited then other parts of the Countrey so that this Tribe was more frighted then hurt with the multitude of Wildernesses therein § 56. Paramount over them all was The wilderness having six Cities therein and was part of the wilderness of Iudea extending also into Benjamin wherein Iohn the Baptist preached feeding here on Locusts flying insects whereof four kindes were clean and permitted the Iews to eate and wilde honey Either such as fell down in dews from heaven or was made by wild Bees not civilized in hives but nesting on the ground or in hollow trees In a word he was content with such course fare as the Countrey afforded his rough clothes being suited to his homely diet and both to his hard doctrine of Repentance Hereupon scandalous tongues condemned him for having a Devill as afterwards they belyed our Saviour using a more liberal diet to be a Winebibber so impossible it is to please affected frowardness either full or fasting § 57. Some make Iohn Baptist the first founder of Eremites But how little his precedent befriendeth their practise who not out of any impulsion but meer election delight to dwell in deserts will appear by the ensuing Parallel Hee 1 By immediate command from God to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah 2 Went into a wilderness a place more thinly peopled then the rest of the land 3 Where he daily busied himself with preaching to multitudes of people repairing unto him 4 And at last did end his life in a place of greater concourse even the Court of King Herod himself They 1 By dictates of their own fancy following the principles of will-worship 2 Goe into a wilderness indeed conversing with solitariness and shunning all society 3 Where they bury themselves alive in laziness with the talents God hath bestowed on them 4 And binde themselves with a vow to live and dye in that solitary condition Behold here the large difference betwixt him and monking Eremites Who if men of parts ought to help others with their society if of no parts need to be helped by the society of others Yea whatsoever their endowments were this running into the wilderness was but a Bank-rupt trick to defraud the Church and Common-wealth their Creditours to both which they stood bound by specialty of Gods command to discharge all Civill and Christian relations to the utmost proportions of their abilities In a word though we stedfastly beleeve that Iabal was the father of all such as dwell in tents because the Scripture affirmeth the same yet for the reasons aforesaid we utterly deny Iohn Baptist the founder and Author of all those which live wilfully in hills and holes an eremiticall life § 58. The Son of Heseâ— was Solomons Purveyor in Aruboth to him belonged Sochoth and all the land of Hepher A land which lay as we gather by other proportions in the north-west part of this Tribe And indeed we finde a King of Hepher amongst those which Ioshua destroyed but dare not confidently averre him to have been of the Tribe of Iudah However it appears that for the main the whole body of the
the future Michal's daughter should never mock her husband on the like occasion punishing her with perpetuall barrenness § 29. Look on the prospect of this map especially the eastern parts thereof and behold it overspread with trees of all sorts Olive Pine Mulberry Firre c. Of the last saith the Psalmist and the fir-trees are a refuge for the Storkes breeding here in the greater abundance because forbidden by the Leviticall law to be fed upon A speckled bird therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 niger 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 albus black and white and is remarkable for their love to their parents feeding them in their old age Hence called Chesida in Hebrew that is the mercifull bird and in Dutch Oudevaer that is the carrier of the old one because every Stork is an Aeneas bearing his Anchises on his back carrying his Parent when for age it cannot fly of it self Some have confidently reported that Storks will not live save in a Republick who may with as much truth affirm that an Eagle the Soveraign of birds will not breed in a Common-wealth Not to say that Storks were named in the Monarchy of Adam preserved in the Arke in the Monarchy of Noah Ieremy who lived in the kingdome of Iudah upbraided the ignorance of the people therein Yea the Stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times Which birds had they known their times and the Iews not known the birds as frequent and familiar with them both the Prophets illustration had beed obscure and exprobration improper for his present purpose Finis Libri secundi To the Right Honourable JOHN LORD ROSSE Son to the Right Honourable JOHN EARL OF RVTLAND MY LORD IT hath been charged by Foreiners on our English Gentry that many of them very knowing beyond the seas have been strangers in their native Countrey as able to give a better account of the Spaw then our own Bath the diving of the Spanish Anas under ground then of our own Rivers Diverill in Wiltshire and Mole in Surrey wherein the same wonders of Nature are set forth in a lesser Edition How just this accusation is for the present I have no leasure to enquire but am afraid that too many of our nation are guilty of a greater Ignorance That being quic◠sighted in other kingdomes and Countreys they are altogether blinde as touching Judea and the land of Palestine the Home for their meditations who are conversant in all the historicall passages of Scripture Yet I would not have any wilfully to expose themselves as Saint Paul was against his will to perils of waters perils of Robbers perils by the Heathen c. personally to pace and trace the land of Canaan who rather conceive that precept to Abraham Arise walk through the land in the breadth thereof and in the length thereof may be performed by us even whilest we also follow the counsell of Joash to Amaziah Abide now at home This may be done by daily and diligent perusing of the Scriptures and comparing the same with it self Diamonds onely cut Diamonds as also by consulting with such as have written the description of that Countrey Amongst whom give me leave though the unworthiest of thousands to tender these my endevours to your Honours serious perusall and patronage hoping my pains herein may conduce to the better understanding of the History of the Bible I confess the doctrinall part of the Scripture is in it self most instructive to salvation But as the rare relation of the woman of Samaria first drew her neighbours to the sight of our Saviour which afterwards believed on him not for her words but his own worth so the delightfull stories in the Bible have allured many youth especially to the reading thereof the light the historicall part first inviting their eyes whose hearts were afterwards inflamed with the heat the holy fire in the doctrine of Gods word Give me leave therefore my Lord humbly to commend to your Honour the constant reading of that which eminently is termed The Scripture and the Bible or Book all other being but scribling and Pamphlets in comparison thereof They contain what will make you wise unto salvation and the study thereof will render your Lordship more truely honourable then your outward extraction Great indeed was the priviledge of Ruth for whom purposely some handfuls were let fall for her to gather up But greater the honour done to your Ancestors by our English Kings above an hundred years since who scattered some flowers and other ornaments out of their own Armes therewith to deck and adorn those of your family Yet know my Lord that the Bereans are pronounced more noble then those of Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness of minde searching the Scriptures daily whether those things were so And by the same proportion your exact skill industriously attained in Gods word shall make your soul increase with the increase of God far more honourable then that Augmentation in Heraldry which was conferred on your Ancestours Remember I pray what David writes I have seen an end of all perfection but thy commandement is exceeding broad Oh imperfect perfection which hath an end And indeed David lived in an Age wherein he saw Goliah the strongest overcome Asahel the swiftest overtaken Achitophel the wisest befooled and Absalom the fairest deformed with a violent death Yet still the immortall word out-lived all casualties and triumphed in defiance of opposition Wherefore as the Jews were to provide a chest by the side of the Ark wherein the Law was to be placed and kept so I wish your Honour a large heart to be a repository for this Broad commandement of God that therein you may carefully lay up and treasure the same which when all earthly perfections prove false and fading will furnish your soul with holiness here and happiness hereafter which is the daily prayer of Your Honours most humble servant THO. FULLER Here followeth the description of Jerusalem THE DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY OF IERVSALEM The third Book CHAP. I. Of the severall names and generall situation of Jerusalem § 1 WHen a woman often altereth her surname it is a signe she hath been many times married denominating of his wife from him being parcell of the maritall priviledge But when a City in diverse Ages hath different names this speaks her successive subjection to severall Lords new owners imposing on her new appellations as in our present subject plainly appears For the City which we are to describe was called 1 Salem in the days of Abraham when Melchisedec was King and probably first founder thereof Then it was but a small place the greatest Giant had once the cradle of his infancy when mount Moriah afterwards in the midst of the City and a forest of houses was as yet but a thicket of thornes wherein the Ram the
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
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
from some other tower or because a just Century of towers was at it begun or finished It was built after the captivity by Eliashib and his brethren the Priests § 2. The Tower of furnaces standing in the West north of the Valley gate jointly repaired by Malchiah and Hashub So called thinks Adrichomius from fire kept there as a signall to seafaring men But oh woefull those Mariners who in a dark night had no better direction then what they received thence above forty miles from the sea and many mountains interposed rather it might serve for some Beacon or land-mark or might take its name from some fire in the corpse du gard constantly preserved therein § 3. The tower of Hananeel in the east part So called no doubt from the first builder thereof It was in Nehemiahs time repaired by Eliashib the high Priest and his brethren § 4. The Tower that lyeth out from the Kings high house nigh unto which Palal the son of Uzai repaired in Nehemiahs time Not that the prominency of this extravagant Tower hindred the uniformity of the walls but the fencing of the City required such situation thereof § 5. The Great tower that lyeth out different from the former else the builders of the wall in Nehemiahs time made no progress in the work in the east of the City over against which the Tekoites did repair § 6. The Tower of David furnished with an armory at the southwest turning of the wall over against which Ezer the son of Ioshua repaired Christ compareth the neck of his spouse to this Tower for the whiteness and proportionable length thereof § 7. But among all these most remarkable was the Tower of Siloe near unto the water of Siloe whence it fetcht its name on the west side of the City which killed eighteen men with the fall thereof Yet the stones of this tower fell not more heavy on their bodies then the censure of uncharitable Iews did on their memories condemning them for the greatest sinners in all Ierusalem as whose offences were mounted so high that nothing less or lower then the fall of a tower could depress their Persons and impieties to the pit of perdition False position to maintain that those have wrought the most sin who are brought to most shame and confuted by our Saviour assuring the Iews if they did not repent they should likewise perish likewise certitudine non similitudine poenae Yea in a mysticall meaning those incredulous Iews who rejected our Saviour did not onely fall on a stone and so were broken but also the stone fell on them by reason of their infidelity and ground them to powder § 8. We will conclude with the Tower of Ophel so named from darkness as some would have it because always cloudy and misty at the high top thereof But though the Etymology of Ophel be obscure the situation and use thereof is clear in Scripture over against the Water-gate where the Nethinims had their habitation Understand not all of them at once but so many of their society as for the time being were in ordinary attendance about the Temple whilest the rest lived in other Cities assigned unto them § 9. These Nethinims were descended from those Gibeonites who for their fallacy put on Ioshua and the people of Israel were condemned to the drudgery of Gods service Thus the fathers lying tongues cost their children many aking armes and weary backs with hewing of wood and drawing of water Saul was a great persecutour David a grand preserver of them who first made them a Corporation He and his Princes appointing them for the service of the Levites when first we finde them called Nethinims to bury the odious name of Gibeonites that is persons given to to pious uses These for many generations approving their industry in Gods service washed out the staines of their Fathers falshood with the sweat of their fidelity and in proces of time though Hivites by extraction attained to some honour above the natives of Israel For whereas the sons of Barzillai were put by their places in the Priesthood because they could not clear their pedegree the Nethinims continued in their place whose genealogies were exactly derived Yea whereas other Israelites were subject to heavy taxes after their captivity the Nethinims were exempted from all tribute pity their purses and persons should both bear burdens by the bounty of the Kings of Persia. Whose liberality though a Pagan to Gods worship like the precious ointment on Aâ—rons head which ran down to his beard even to the skirts of his garment flowed from the Priests and Levites by the singers and porters to the Netâ—inims the very verge and utmost hem of Temple officers by his especiall grace taking order that it should not be lawfull to impose toll tribute or custome upon them § 10. Many moe towers not mentioned in Scripture were about Ierusalem as the Tower of women remarkablâ— in Iosephus But why iâ— was so called what have women to doe with war I will give him a satisfactory answer who first resolves me why the Roman Fortification of twelve acres of ground neer Dorchester is called Maidens-castle But we refer all the towers of Iosephus his reporting not appearing in Scripture to our particular Map of Ierusalem as by him described Come we now to make some observations on such as were the builders of the City walls in the days of Nehemiah because it was built on the same Area or floor with that in Solomons time and we meet with many remarkables in the history thereof CHAP. V. Observations on the repairers of the walls of Jerusalem in the days of Nehemiah § 1. MInisters ought to leade the Van and be the first and forwardest in all pious projects Behold here Eliashib the high Priest with the Priests his brethren begin the work and built the Sheep-gate A gate ministeriall unto the Temple through which the sheep were brought intended for sacrifices and therefore as it was fit it should have the preheminence to be first repaired so the Priests were the most proper persons to be imployed therein Of this gate it is solely and singularly said that they sanctified it which dedication speaks it set apart to holy service as introductory of the offerings into the house of God § 2. Great is the influence of the Pastours example on the peoples practise Many hands make light work behold a troop of builders cometh of all Professions private persons publick officers whole families of all jointly Levites Merchants Gold-smiths Apothecaries c. of all Places from Iericho Tekoa Gibeon Mizpah Zanoah c. Sexes both men and women Next repaired Shallion the son of Halloesh the ruler of the half of Ierusalem he and his daughters What had their tender hands any skill to carve stones or weak shoulders any
strength to carry morter Or was it sutable with the modesty of their sex to clime ladders clamber scaffolds seeing there is no acting for any builders but upon such stages Surely they refused no pains proportionable with decency to their power and what was wanting in their persons supplied with their purse expending it perchancâ— out of their own portions And if orphans money put into the Chamber of London be accounted so sure God no doubt did repay what they laid out on the walls of Ierusalem § 3. Now whereas Shallum their Father is styled ruler of the half part of Ierusalem rather subtile then solid is the note of Tremellius thereupon For saith he Ierusalem being in two Tribes Iudah and Benjamin had therefore two rulers thereof Not considering how in the same Chapter other smaller Cities and those undoubtedly whole and entire in one Tribe had notwithstanding two governours over them and those benefactours to the building of Ierusalem As Malchiah the son of Rechab the ruler of part of Beth-haccarem Shallum the son of Col-hozeh the ruler of part of Mizpah Nehemiah the son of Azbuk the ruler of the half part of Beth-zur Hashabiah the ruler of the half part of Keilah Banai the son of Henadad the ruler of the half part of Keilah Now the dividing of the command of the City betwixt two Governours so usuall at this very time and noâ— notably extant in Scripture before or after the days of Nehâ—miah leads us to this probable opinion that immediately upon the Iews return from Babylon the Persian Emperour from whom all Commissions were derived would not entrust any Iew with the sole rule of a strong City but for the better security parted it betwixt two who had joint but distinct dominion therein That whilst they with mutuall jealousie observed the actions each of other both might preserve the interest of their Master § 4. In building the Old gate two co-founders were joined together namely 1 Iehoiada the son of Paseah 2 Meshullam the son of Besodaiah I will not say that as York Minster was built by Percy and Vavasour the one giving stone the other timber to that structure so the building of this gate was in like manner advanced betwixt them but hence observe that it is no shame for one to admit a partner in that weighty work which he caunot weild by himself Blame worthy their pride or peevishness who will not have that good design done at all which can not all be done by themselves § 5. Whereas Malchiah the son of Rechah is recorded builder of the Dung-gate no needless port in that City seeing in populous places Perfumers may be spared with less loss to the publick then Scavangers some conceive this Malchiah to have been a Rechabite by descent and a ceremonious observer of their Ancestours instructions not to drink wine nor build house but to live in tents with other Canonicall obediences Nor was this building of the wall of Ierusalem any breach of their vow partly because a publick no private edifice and partly because those their ceremonious observances probably terminated at the Babylonish captivity This Malchiah they make heir of the family of the Rechâ—bites according to the Propheticall promise that one of that house should not fail to stand before God for ever But whether herein Interpreters doe not take more then the text tenders unto them be it reported to others § 6. It is signally observed that Hanun the sixth son of Zalaph repaired a piece of the wall But where were his five elder brethren Were they dead or absent or idle or impotent The Scripture giveth no account of them onely the sixth son is recorded for his forwardness herein In matters of piety there is no standing on useless yea on dangerous modesty No breach of good manners to goe before our betters in goodness or for the younger brother in nature to gain the birth-right in grace § 7. It is said of Baruch the son of Zabbai verse 20. and of him alone it is said that he earnestly repaired the other piece What did the others work but in jest because this Accent earnestly is onely put over the piece he repaired Is not this mark of honour on him a brand of infamy on the rest No surely though probably his zeal was paramount in the employment and what if the word earnestly set there almost in the very midst amongst all the builders be to be taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 relating to all the rest before and behind it § 8. It is observed that many men repaired onely against their own houses This though at the first sight it may seem the fruit but of a narrow soul and private spirit yet effectually advanced the work Yea it is particularly recorded of Meshullam the son of Berechiah who likely was but a lodger and no house-keeper that he repaired over against his Chamber Oh if order were observed for every one to mend his own heart or house how would personall amendment by degrees quickly produce family-city-countrey-kingdome-reformation How soon are those streets made clean where every one sweeps against his own door § 9. Some doubled their files as Merimoth the son of Urijah the son of Coz who having formerly been a repairer verse 4. comes again the second time to build verse 21. out of doubt the same person as having the same name father and grand-father Let him have double praise for his double pains who not being weary of well doing dealt with the wall of Ierusalem as the Philippians with Saint Paul once and again relieving the necessity thereof § 10. The nobles of Tekoah are taxed for not putting their necks to the work of their Lord. Strange that now they should discover such unseasonable pride Had they not lately returned from Babylon Could not seventy years banishment from their own and captivity in a forein land humble them to purpose Me thinks so long suffering should have broken though not their hearts their stomacks But oh the difference betwixt being low and being lowly No affictions except seasoned and sanctified are sufficient to bring down mens naturall corruption This negligence of the Tekoite nobility in Gods cause was so much the more conspicuous because of the double diligence of the Tekoite commoners therein for they had two shares in this adventure building Nehem. 3. v. 5. and again they had verse 27. another bout in the same service Except any will say that by the Tekoites in the second mention of them their nobility are intended who sensible of their own dishonour for their former backwardness played an after-game to repair their credit which is affirmed without any proof and with little probability § 11. Some here will demand What did Nehemiah himselfe all the while did he onely look on work with his eyes and command others to labour Or was
he like the Scribes and Pharisees who bind heavy burthens and grievous to be born and lay them on mens shoulders but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers § 12. It is answered his zeal was active and exemplary in Gods work and therein expressed it self 1 Privatively in forbearing the salary of the Governour which his predecessours did and he might justly receive In this respect one may truly say that each gate tower and piece of wall in Ierusalem was in part repaired with Nehemiah's money because the builders thereof were the better enabled for that work by his remitting unto them the taxe due to him as Governour 2 Positively not onely forbearing his own right but also bearing a large proportion in the work He kept a daily Ordinary thanks being the onely shot his guests were to pay for an hundred and fifty Iews and Rulers besides strangers of the Heathen How many attendants then dined on the reversion at the waiters table and how many poor feasted on the fragments at the Porters lodge It may be presumed many laborers at the wall had gone supperless to bed had they not repaired to Nehemiah's house for their refection As for the opinion of Tremellius that Nehemiah built the Kings palace at his own charge grounding the same on his own translation of the text because I finde no other Authours to follow him therein it is enough barely to mention his opinion § 13. At the Sheep-gate they began to repaire and thereat also they ended The Gold-smiths and Merchants brought up the Rere of the work betwixt the going up of the corner unto the sheep-gate § 14. Within the circumference of the walls lay much ground uninhabited people being loth to live therein except by lot compelled thereunto and all blessed such as willingly offered themselves to dwell therein Strange that the chiefe City should run so low in generall reputation the Gallants of our age being otherwise minded all posting unto the principall place of the kingdome as the fountain of fashions and all delights I read indeed of Histria a province under the Venetian Common-wealth that they are fain to hire people to inhabit there But the reason thereof is visible because of the unwholsomeness of the aire whereas no such pretence for any to decline the City of Ierusalem whose elevated situation conduced much to the purity and wholsomeness thereof § 15. But mens unwillingness to dwell therein took the rise from other reasons as namely 1 The common enemy beheld it with most envious eyes as the proper object of his malice 2 The vast circuit of the City put them to hard duty to guard it 3 Trading was dead therein and little wealth to be gotten at the new erection thereof 4 All coveted the countrey for the privacy pleasure and profit thereof However in after ages Ierusalem grew exceeding populous and had all the vacuities thereof filled yea crowded with inhabitants Thus as it is most easie and thrifty to make childrens garments too big for their bodies because they will quickly grow up to their clothes so providence advised Nehemiah to make the circumference of Infant Ierusalem the larger as which in process of time would soon spread it self to the replenishing thereof CHAP. VI. Of the waters in and about the City § 1. PAss we now from the walls to the water of Ierusalem a most necessary commodity for the well being of mankind True it is Ierusalem was so far from boasting of any navigable river that it had no stream near or about it to drive any water-mils If it be demanded how without such mils so populous a place could subsist and not be famished for want of grinders as a chap-fallen man for lack of use of his teeth Know this was principally supplyed by hand-mils here ordinarily used where multitudes of slaves were in every family As for other waters both for necessity and pleasure Ieâ—â—salem had though no superâ—tuity a self suffiâ—iâ—ncy thereof § 2. The waters in and about Ierusalem are reducible unto three several kinds 1 Partly artificiall as Pools and Conduits 2 Partly naturall as the brook Kidron whereof formerly and the fountain of Siâ—â—am 3 Partly supernaturall as the miracle-working Pool of Bethesda Of the former sort were the Kings fishponds on the south-west not far from the fountain gaâ—â— and near thereunto the pool which was made no doubt with greâ—â— care and cost betwixt the sepulchers of David and house of the mighty men Also the conduit of the upper or old pool in the path â—o the fullers field and probably another of the lower pool all referred by learned mâ—n to Solomon as principall Author thereof § 3. For in the Inventory of his vanities he confesseth of himself I made me pools of water to â—aâ—â—r thâ—reâ—ith the wood that bringeth forth trees Thus he sought for felicity in the aire climbing up with his lofty buildings in the earth diâ—ing low in his deep minigs in the water wading therein through costly aquaducts but found at last that happiness wâ—s super-elementall and not to be found but in heaven § 4. Some may conceive that King Uzziah had a hand in promoting the water-fabricks near Ierusalem finding him a very active Engineer and of whom it is expresly recorded that he digged many wellâ— But what followeth for he had much cattell both in the low Countrey and in the plain The scene therefore of his watry discoveries was laid at greater distance where his cattell were kept and where he was more commendably imployed in his husbandry then afterwards in Gods house any instrument better befitting his hand then a Censer § 5. Not long after probably in the reign of King Ahaz as may partly be collected from the time of Isaiah's Prophecy and plaâ—ing of this passage therein when the siege of Ierusalem was suspected from Rezin King of Syria and Pekah King of Israel the Iews fell to the fortifying of their City both with wall and water-works Hereupon the Prophet when the new line about Ierusalem was finished complaineth thereof as followeth Yee have seen also the breaches of the City of David that they are many and yee have gathered together the waters of the lower pool And yee have numbered the houses in Ierusalem and the houses yee have broken down to fortifie the wall Yee made also a ditch betwixt the two walls for the water of the old pool but yee have not looked unto the maker thereof nâ—ither had respect unto him that fashioned it long agoe And in that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping and mourning c. § 6. Not that the Prophet herein reproved the people for provident preventing of danger or politick endevouâ—ing of safety or moderate delighting in pleasure but justly taxed them for 1 Too much confidence in the arme of flesh 2 Unseasonable
rejoycing in carnall comforts when drains and for ditches down their own cheeks had been more proper water-works for the present sad occasion 3 Admiring their own handy-works without thankful relating for to God the principall as if they had created those pools and springs of their own industry and ingenuity Whereas all Grottoeâ— conduits and Aquaducts though allowed the lawfull issue of art and off-spring of humane invention are but stiâ—born babes at the best except God quicken and enliven them mediately or immedately with moisture from above He onely is the Father of the rain and is by consequâ—nce the Graâ—d-father of all pools and conduits whatsoever Justly therefore were the Iews reproved for having their stegâ—atick Souls dabling too much in water without once looking up to God according to Davids divâ—â—â—ty freely confessing All my fresh springs are even in thee § 7. But how well soever the ponds pools and conduits were perfected at this time soon after all their curiosities were discomposed when Seâ—â—â—â—heriâ— sent the railing message and letter though words whether spoken or written storme no Cities to King Hâ—zekiah in Ierusalem Who fearing a siege by the assistance of his Princes and people in a short time stopt all the fountains and the brook which ran through the midst of the land saying Why should the Kings of Assyria come and finde much water Hezekiah knew that Sâ—nnacheribs blasphemous tongue would be sooner silenced and his roaring throat easier stopt with Thirst then with any other answer And although Sennacherib out of the plentifull Magazeen of his malice shot his arrows even bitter â—ords â—gainst Hezekiah yet according to Gods promise he came not into Iâ—â—usalem nor did he shoâ—t an arrow there having all his Army soon after confounded from heaven and he himself reprieved from the Angels was executed by his own Sons sword in his own Countrey § 8. Here if any demand what is meant by stopping the brook which ran through the midst of the Land we understand not Cedron thereby which to save them the pains in summer stops it self as onely the cistern to receive the land-flouds from mount Olivet but rather conceive the constant waters of Gihon or Siloam therein intended running through the midst of the Land of Moriah wherein Ierusalem is seated § 9. After Sennacheribs departure Hezekiah fell a fresh on opening those springs hee had formerly obstructed yea to make them reparation he improved them to an higher perfection then at first he found in them for 1 He made a pool and a conduit 2 He stopped up the upper water-course of Gihon and brought it straight to the west side of the City of David 3 He brought water IN TO THE CITY of Ierusalem Hereby no doubt Hezekiah got many a blessing and hearty prayer from the poor servants in the City whose weary shoulders had formerly fetched their water so far off for the use of their masters family § 10. Here some will object that such an altering of the course of this river from the ancient channel thereof and the enticing of it by Art into a new passage was a violence and a trespass offered to Nature Yea did not man herein pretend to more wisdome then his maker as if by such variation he could direct the veines in the body of the earth to a fitter posture then that wherein God himself had disposed them But let such know that when God gave the earth with the water therein as making up one Globe to the Sons of men in the same charter he derived a right unto them to mold it as might be most convenient and advantageous for their habitation And although it belongs to God alone to put a sandy girdle about the loins of the Ocean because otherwise a giant too great for men to manage Hither shalt thou come and no farther yet lesser brooks fall under the jurisdiction of humane industry to order them for mans most commodity § 11. Others will admire that this new river was brought no sooner to Ierusalem and that a project so honourable profitable necessary and feasable lay so long unperformed How came this design to escape the searching eyes of Solomon especially seeing as he confesseth himself he dealt much in that moist Element See we here Solomon himself saw not all things and Hezekiah coming many years after him might supply his omissions And to speak plainly many of Solomons projects were but voluptuous essays for his own personall not to say carnall contentment whereas holy Hezekiah in his undertakings might have a more publick spirit for the generall good of his kingdome § 12. The well or fountain of the Dragon near the Valley gate might be made at the same time probably taking its denomination from some artificiall resemblance of a Dragon about it A conduit in a Dragon-fashion though such Anticks are more commonly presented spitting of fire then venting of water is made here by Adrichomius Tremellius conceiveth it called Dragon or Serpent well because the waters thereof which contrary to other Authors he maketh the same with Siloam glide snake-like soft and gentle yea crooked and winding with many intricate flexures thereof But it is impossible to assign the certain cause of such names as are meerly ad placitum finding a Well and Gate in the Cose of the City of Sarisbury of the same name yet hitherto could never hear any probable reason thereof § 13. Amongst the waters meerly naturall the fountain or pool of Siloah with the stream flowing thence into the brook of Kidron justly claimeth the preheminence Fountain which both in the name and nature thereof was the lively embleme if not the reeall type of our Saviour Name which is by interpretation SENT and we know When the fulness of time was come God SENT forth his Son made of a woman made under the law Nature for the waters thereof as the Prophet observed ran softly 1 To the eye sine impetu moving slowly and not rushing with a rapid stream like an impetuous torrent 2 To the eare sine strepitu stil quiet not offensive to the neighbours with the noise threof So Christ 1 Was leasurable and treatable in his going on foot but if mounted onely on a slow paced Ass and doing not rashly precipitate in his proceedings 2 Not querulous or clamorous in his discourse He shall not strive nor cry neither shall any hear his voice in the streets but meek and quiet Now as God was eminently in the still voice so also was he effectually once in this still water when our Saviour sent the blind-born man hither to wash and thereby he recovered his sight § 14. This was he who afterwards proved so constant a confessor of Christ avouching him a Prophet and his cure by him really effected notwithstanding the Pharisees menacing to the contray Hoping in vain though Christ had
bodies § 3. After Christs ascension we finde five Colledges or Synagogues mentioned in one verse all disputing against Saint Steven Out of Asia those of Cilicia and proper Asia Out of Africa those of the Cyrenians and Alexandrians in Egypt Out of Europe those of the Libertines of Rome Behold here an admirable Act hept wherein Saint Steven was the Answerer against whom Opponents were fetched from all the parts of the then known world and all too few to resist the wisedome and Spirit by which he spake What this Synagogue of Libertines was is much controverted by learned men Surely Libertines here are not taken in the modern notion of the word for such as used their liberty for an occasion to the flesh or a cloak of maliciousness though we confess in after ages such grew into a numerous society whereof Satans subtilty and mans corruption the Founders the negligence and conivence of Magistrates the daily Benefactours A Colledge whose gates like those of hell stand always open having no other Statutes then the Students pleasure where the diet is so dear that their Commons cost the souls of such as feed on them without their finall repentance Most probable it is that by Libertines were intended such Romans as were manumised or made free by their Masters whereof Tacitus counts no fewer then four thousand in the City of Rome which professed the Jewish Religion some whereof with most likelyhood had their Synagogues in Ierusalâ—m wherein they were more perfectly instructed in matters both of doctrine and discipline The Gazith or Common-councell must not be omitted coming near to the nature of a Colledge wherein the Sanhedrin or seventy Elders had their judicatory before whom the Disciples were summoned and straitly threatned not to preach and afterwards for disobeying their Order were put into the common Prison In the same place Saint Steven was accused and passed his purgation in that excellent speech that he was no enemy to the Law of Moses if rightly understood CHAP. XI The remainder of private houses and streets in Jerusalem § 1. AMongst the private dwelling in this City we take speciall notice of the house of Mary the mother of Iohn-Mark wherein the Saints were assembled to pray for Peters enlargement Hither he came and knocked at the door when Rhoda portress thereof opened not the gate for gladness whether because loth to lose so much time as the opening thereof did necessarily require conceiving that Peter might better stand without the door then the people stay without the news or because her soul surprized with suddain joy was not at leasure to actuate her hands to open the door yet it informed her feet to run into the house because that motion was not as the other against the stream but went along with the tyde of her affection so desirous to tell the news unto others Sure I am Peter got less harm by this maidens keeping him out for a time out of this godly house then he did by another Damosels letting him into the high-Priests Palace § 2. Adde to this the house of Ananias the high-Priest which stood not far off If therein there was any rotten wall well whitâ—d over it may pass for an embleme of him the hypocriticall owner thereof As this was the house of a false man so we take Veronica's to be a false house yea meer fiction shewn to pilgrimes at this day in the corner of a street Here she is said that meeting our Saviour when carrying his Cross she tâ—ndred unto him her vaiâ—â— therewith wiping off his sweat which vail thereby presently received the lively impression and portraicture of his face and complexion with more probability they might affirme that the picture of his seeâ— remained in the haire of Mary Magdalen § 3. So much for particular houses Now that Ierusalem was digested and methodized into severall streets is most certain whereof such frequent mention in Scripture as sure it is also that many fair market places were found therein where children played with their mates Merchants met with their Chapmen Labourers waited for Masters to hire them and Pharisees bartered their outside sanctity for the greetings and salutations of the people But the order and fashion of their severall streets are to us unknown Scripture affording no certainty therein And though Adrichomius seem so accurate in this point that no London-beadle can be better acquainted with the lanes allies courts corners of the Precinct belonging unto him yet herein he proceeds on his own fancy and meer conjecture Onely we meet with the names of two streets Water-gate-street and Ephraim-gate-street which may justly be concluded more spacious and roomthy then the rest because preferred before all other places in the City to build booths therein at that solemn festivall in the days of Nehemiah In the former of these Ezra assembled the people and read the law before the Congregation § 4. Give me leave to supply out of Iosephus three eminent places though not mentioned in Scripture First the Amphitheatre erected by Herod so capable that it could contain fourscore thousand people if the readers beliefe be so large as to give credit thereunto Here Herod after the fashion of the Romans exposed condemned persons to encounter with Lions Bears Boars c. But whether Saint Paul when after the manner of men he fought with beasts at Ephesus intended such combates with cattell or onely his contesting with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 evill beasts such as the Cretians are described to be is not decided by Divines Secondly Castle Antony built by the same Herod in the honour of Antonius to be the keeper yea the Gaoler of the Temple to which he had an underground passage which would hold six hundred men wherein he observed the motions of the Iews lest they should hatch mutinies under the covert of Religion Time was when God himself watched over the Temple to protect it till for the sins of the people he gave it over to be guarded by the jealous eyes of their inveterate enemies Lastly the Hippodrome or place for horse-races where the Chivalry of the City met on severall occasions Sick Herod the great perceiving his end to approach and knowing the same would bring a great joy to the Iews a Tyrants death-day is a solemn festivall in the Calendar of Nature it self in this Hippodrome imprisoned a principall person of every City of Iudea enjoining Salome his sister to kill them at the instant of his expiring that so there might be a generall grief though not for yet at his death whilest no place could laugh heartily being pinched with their particular loss However after his death she discharged those prisoners and we may easily beleeve that these Legatees were not offended with her the Executrix of Herods Will for not disposing the Legacies bequeathed to them according to the minde of the
to the south-east part of the City where without the walls we light on the Potters-field where men of that trade made brittle plate in abundance For although in Solomons time such earthen ware was worthless in this City when silver it self was nothing accounted of and made to be as stones in Ierusalem yet poor people in after ages found such cheap furniture usefull for their estates Here one might have seen those Potters absolutely lording it over their clay purely passive to receive any impression from them and according to their own power and pleasure making of the same lump one vessell unto honour and another unto dishonour Others conceive this Potters-field was onely an inconsiderable wast place where sherds and pieces of broken pots were cast out in a by-corner § 2. Surely it was neither great in extent or value seeing thirty pieces of silver the restored reward of Iudas his treason could purchase the fee-simple thereof except any will say it came at a cheaper rate because intended for a publick and pious use the buriall of strangers Here their dead corps had an Hospitall wherein their lodging and cloathing was freely bestowed upon them and thus our Saviour though himself a Stranger in a borrowed grave by the price of his bloud conferred graves on many Strangers As for the confident report that the earth in this field will in forty eight houres consume the flesh that is laid therein yea retaining that quality though transported into forein Countreys the grave which every where hath a voracious appetite having here as quick a digestion my faith is neither all wax nor all iron herein To speak plainly after long fighting against an Army of Authors affirming the same my beliefe at last is taken captive by their gravity and number to give credit thereunto § 3. It was afterwards called Aceldama or the field of bloud because purchased with the price of Christs bloud and not as some may erroneously conceive because handselled with the bloud of Iudas therein when his bowells gushed out The place of whose self-execution is shewen to pilgrimes some distance hence on the south-west of the City where he who had lived a thiefe to his Master dyed a felon of himself hanged say some on an Elder say others on a Sycomore tree a matter of no concernment § 4. More are we troubled not for Iudas his sake for whom two deaths were not too many but in behalf of the Truth which can be but one to reconcile a seeming difference betwixt two places of Scripture about the manner of his death MATTH 27. 5. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the Temple and departed and went and hanged himself ACTS 1. 18. And falling headlong he burst asunder in the midst and all his bowells gushed out We understand it thus not that the rope breaking Iudas falling down thence some steep place was paunched on some sharp pile but that the very weight of his body and violence of his headlong motion having no hopes upward in heaven and therefore hasting downward to the center of despair brake his belly in so precipitate a fall Thus as Traitors when hanged are by our law to have their bowells drawn out by the executioner so Iudas served himself so â—o spare others the pains to punish him § 5. Fullers-field must not be forgotten where they stretched and dryed their clothes which they they had washed in the brook of Cedron But all the sope used here by men of that trade could not scoure the indelible stain of impiety out of the credit and conscience of King Ahaz who in the high-way of the Fullers-field peevishly refused a sign which God graciously proffered unto him And mens severall behaviours in matters of this nature deserved to be marked For it was 1 Commendable in Gideon and Hezekiah humbly requesting a sign for farther strengthening of their weak Faith 2 Pardonable in Zacharias craving one out of a mixture of infidelity therefore granted him in loving anger his dumbeness serving as well to correct as confirm him 3 Damnable in the Iews who out of pride and presumption in a daring way demanded and in Herod who out of curiosity expected a signe from Christ and therefore denyed them But most of all in Ahaz in whose nostrills the very perfumes of Heaven sented ill because proffered unto him refusing to accept a sign so freely tendered unto him § 6. East of Aceldama in the valley of the Sons of Hinnon lay Tophet that is Breadth as Saint Hierome expoundeth it because there the Citizens of Ierusalem pent within the walls of their City used to dilate expatiate and recreate their spirits in the walks thereof Pity it was that so pleasant a place should afterwards be poisoned with Idolatry where children were offered to Moloch searing them to death with his burning imbracements of the manner whereof largely herefter For the present let it suffice us to observe that Iosiah is said to defile this place what was it capable of more pollution then what it had before Understand it by burning of dead bones therein he made it as offensive to the nostrils of men as formerly it had been odious in the eyes of God Now as the stinking lake of Avernus in Italy passeth in Pagan Poets for Hell it self so this valley of Ben-hinnon Gehenna in Greek is used in the same sense by our Saviour either because of the abominable impieties here committed by the parents or exquisite torments here endured by the children § 7. We conclude with the place wherein Saint Steven was stoned being on the east of the City some distance from what at this day is termed Saint Stevens-gate nigh which they shew the place where Saul sate when he kept the clothes of those that stoned him Now seeing by Davids law made by the brook Besor he that tarrieth by the stuffe is to be equall sharer in the spoile with those that goe forth to the battell the equity of this ordinance arraigneth Saul guilty alike of the bloud of Saint Steven with those whose wardrobe he kept during the time of the execution But whatsoever Sauls share was in the murther great was his part in the prayer of Saint Steven whose petition Lord lay it not to their charge is justly accounted by Divines a promoting means of his speedier conversion Herâ— the draught of Solomons Temple is to be inserted THE DESCRIPTION OF SOLOMONS TEMPLE CHAP. I. Davids threefold preparation for the Temple § 1. IT will not I hope be censured superstition if at the Threshold of this Temple we fall flat in veneration of the God thereof to guide us in the ensuing discourse The subject whereon we enter is holy ground may both writer and reader put off their shoos and devesting themselves as much as may be of carnall corruption come with simplicity and
CHAP. V. That Solomon made no moe then two Courts on the east of the Temple § 1. ALthough many learned authours make four and some moe Courts about Solomons Temple yet the following reasons perswade me that these two Courts formerly described by us were all which were of Solomons originall foundation Because 1 Mention is made of no moe in Scripture either in the book of Kings or Chronicles where his buildings are particularly described 2 Manasseh is said to have built Altars for the host of Heaven in the two Courts of the house of the Lord. Probably had there been any moe his profaneness would have found them out no place being priviledged from his Idolatry 3 The narrowness of the place as it was in Solomons time admitted of no moe Courts such was the precipice thereof on all sides This last is confessed by Iosephus whose words deserve our heeding to clear the matter in hand The Temple was built upon an hard mountain and at the first the plain on the top thereof was scarce sufficient to contain the Temple and the Altar the circumference thereof being steep and shelving But when King Solomon who built the Temple had compassed the east part thereof with a wall he also placed a Porch upon the rampire and so many ages after it lay unfenced on the other parts untill the people every day bringing earth thither at last made it plain and large enough Insomuch that the Temple extant in the days of Iosephus had a threefold wall about it and other courts built on that forced ground which industry had added thereunto See here the small compass of the Temples floor at the first founding thereof So that those who in Solomons time make moe Courts about it must build them in the aire seeing the earth such then the scantness and steepness thereof afforded no bottome for the building of such imaginary fabricks § 2. But shrewd objections are brought to the contrary by such who in Solomons time make moe then two Courts by us described No doubt say they he observed Davids instructions who by the Spirit gave him the pattern of all the Courts of the house of the Lord which he meant to make These therefore at the least must needs be three seeing All as Aristotle observes can not in proper language be predicated of a lower number § 3. Answ. I confess the words so read in the vulgar Latine omnium quae cogitaverat atriorum though no such thing appears in our translation founded on the originall where David is said to deliver to Solomon the pattern of all that he had by the Spirit of the house of the Lord of all the chambers round about c. This third Court therefore in Solomons time was but a groundless fancy § 4. Object Another Court must of necessity be allowed on the west of the Temple or else which is altogether improbable the Holy of Holies lay open unfenced and common to the City § 5. Answ. The same was sufficiently fenced and severed from the City with the precipice of the place barring all access and the Temple on that side surrounded with ambient aire in the concavity of the vally If besides this any artificiall wall encompassed the Temple on the west the distance between it and the Temple may be counted a passage but amounted not to the spaciousness of a Court. § 6. Object Good authours Bede Cassidore Comestor and Tostatus confidently adde Atrium Foeminarum or the Womens Court where their sex severally by themselves attended their devotions Nor is it probable they were mingled with men seeing the Prophet speaking of a solemn humiliation They shall waile saith he the family of the house of David apart and their wives apart the family of the house of Nathan apart and their wives apart § 7. Answ. This place cited out of Zachary was spoken after Solomons Temple was demolished and Zerubbabels erected Such separation of sexes in severall Courts in the first Temple hath no foundation in Scripture but rather thence the contrary may be collected that all sexes and ages promiscuously met together for Iehosaphat is said to have stood in the house of the Lord with their little ones their l wives and their children However it may be that there was anciently a partition of the outward Court per clathros cancellos with bar or lattise-work into two parts and so the women though in the same Court might be severally by themselves § 8. Object There were moe Courts three at least in Ezekiels Temple which as Villalpandus will have it in all particulars was the same with Solomons § 9. Answ. Confessing some generall conformities we deny not onely the identity but exact similitude betwixt them It is against the nature of a Prophecy to have a retrograde motion to bring things backward and raise the ghosts of buildings departed which rather looks forward presenting things to come Ezekiels Temple had not the same body with Solomons but greater and moe were the parts and members thereof as in due time God willing we shall make it to appear § 10. Object Iosephus a learned Iew living in Ierusalem seems to adde another Atrium Gentium the Court of Gentiles or unclean persons § 11. Answ. The place quoted out of him to this purpose will scarce bear the collection of a new Court from it However Iosephus was none of those aged men who remembring the magnificence of Solomons wept when the foundation of the second Temple was laid before their eyes I mean he was no eye-witness of the first and old Temple being born five hundred years and more after the dissolution thereof and onely spake of it either by tradition or conjecture and therefore his authority of no such strength as to command our beliefe Besides he seems to have forgotten what formerly we cited out of him for the narrowness of the place not admitting moe Courts in Solomons time However his eyes were so dazeled with long looking on the second Temple extant in his age that he conformeth thereto and confoundeth therewith Solomons Temple if making any moe Courts then two therein § 12. However I dare not deny but even this first Temple after the death of Solomon might by succeeding Kings have another Court added thereunto namely when by art industry and great expense they had raised up the valley and gained more ground to the mountain of the house which was so small at the first Hereof we finde a double insinuation in Scripture 1 One when Iehosaphat is said to stand in the house of the Lord before the new Court which probably about his reign was added to the ancient fabrick 2 Another when at the coronation of Ioash Iehoiada gave order that the Priests alone should come into the house of the Lord meaning the inner-court thereby whilest the people should be in the Courts
of Solomon it was possessed by Rezin a fugitive Syrian who being made a King thereof was a professed enemy to Israel 4 It was won by Ieroboam the second King of Israel who is said to have restored Damascus 5 It was recovered again by the Syrians and Rezin in the days of Ahaz was King thereof 6 It was taken by Tiglath-Peleser King of Assyria who carried all the inhabitants thereof away captive In the new Testament we finde it in subjection to the Roman Emperour under whom Aretas was King a persecuter of Saint Paul § 17. Wonder not that the Roman Emperours ruling over the world should suffer some Kings to reign under them which was their constant practise and whereby they received no small benefit For first hereby they kept their people in more willing obedience when they saw their former government not wholly altered but some shadow thereof still remaining in their Kings continued amongst them Secondly when any distastfull project was set on foot the Emperours used these Kings to promote it so casting the odium upon them which themselves declined while such Kings usually by their immediate dependence durst not displease but doe whatsoever the Emperours enjoined them Thirdly it conduced to the state of their Empire to have Kings homagers thereunto It is but a Farme though of never so great revenues and not reputed a Manor which hath not some free-holders holding of it and owing suit and service unto it Semblably it was part of the Imperiall glory amongst the Romans to have even Kings to hold their Scepters and Crowns by deputation under it as Herod in Iudea Deiotarus in Galatia our Lucius in Britain and this Aretas King of Damascus § 18. Under him Saint Paul had a miraculous deliverance though both Prince and people plotted his destruction and watched the gates day and night that they might kill him But what saith the Psalmist Except the Lord keep the city the watchman waketh but in vain either to keep out those whom he will have in or to keep in those whom he will have out All the wall shall be one open gate to those whom divine providence will have to escape as here to Saint Paul being let down over the wall by a rope in a basket § 19. Amongst the publick buildings of Damascus the house of Rimmon was most remarkable It troubled the tender Conscience of converted Naaman when his Master went up to worship there that he had so often bowed to that Idoll so an excellent Critick proves the words to be read relating not to his future but former actions Wherefore the Prophets answer Goe in peace is not a toleration of his Idolatry for the time to come but an absolution from his former faults upon Naamans free confession and serious sorrow for the same They shew also in this city the house or rather hole wherein Ananias Saint Pauls ghostly father dwelt or lurked being a Cellar under ground to which pilgrimes descend by many staires who have so filled the walls thereof by writing their names therein that Reader there is no room left to register thy name if going thither § 20. Modern Damascus is a beautifull city The first Damask-rose had its root here and name hence So all Damask silk Linen poulder and plumbes called Damascens Two things at this day are most remarkeable amongst the inhabitants There are no Lawyers amongst them no Advocates or Sollicitors of causes no compacts being made for future performance but Weigh and Pay all bargains being driven with ready money Secondly Physicians here are paid no fee except the patient recover his health And now I perceive that Mahomet was a politick man who entered but once into Damascus and perceiving the pleasures thereof would never return again for fear forsooth lest he should be bewitched with the delightfulness thereof and hindred from the great work he had in hand I indeed perceive that so pleasant a subject hath too long retarded my pen almost forgetfull to goe forward in our description we therefore leave it and proceed § 21. Aram-Zobah lay north-east of Aram-Damascus Hadadezar or Hadarezar was King thereof so glorious a Prince that his servants wore shields of gold in war as if they intended to dazle their enemies eyes with the splendor of their armes but all in vain For the best swords of steel will command the bravest shield of gold and David at Elam got an absolute conquest of him killing Shobach his Captain as formerly he had defeated him and stript him of much rich spoile As for those golden shields they fell not to the shares of any private persons but were treasured up by David for the building of the Temple where this glorious Plate shined in its proper sphear and where Riot and Luxury abused by man was converted into well grounded bounty as bestowed on Gods service Here David houghed the horses of Hadadezar and onely reserved an hundred chariots of them as a Trophee of triumph to be used for state at publick solemnities § 22. Some will censure this as an improvident and unpolitick act and character David as more happy to get then able to use a victory not casually letting slip but wilfully casting such a power of horse out of his hand which managed with a proportionable infantry might have given Law to all the east Countrey Surely it was not done out of a cowardly suspicion lest the Syrians should recover those horses again much less out of consciousness of want of horsemanship in the 〈◊〉 to set riders upon them Rather it was that David being privy to the deceitfulness of mans heart how hard it was to have much humane strength and not to have confidence in it did it to wean his subjects from the arme of flesh that they might more rely on divine protection And he did it to encourage in them what properly is called Manhood that they might not expect victories of equivocall generation begotten betwixt men and horses but such atchieved onely by mans prowess instrumentall to get and Gods providence the principall to give them Yea David might seem to have houghed all the horses in the world with that his short but sharp sentence A horse is but a vaine thing to save a man § 23. It will further be objected that grant these horses not to be used in the wars of Israel yet what needs this wast to spoile Gods good creatures Might they not have been sold for many talents and given to the poor It is answered that David did it in an holy Brave to shew that the Pagans pride was Israels scorn and that he as much disdained to gain wealth by the sale as to get strength by the service of those horses Besides David herein did follow the precept given to and pressed and practised by Ioshua in the like case And indeed multiplying of horses was forbidden the Kings of Israel But after
Councell in Ierusalem which in fine concluded that this legall Yoke was not to be laid on the neck of Christians Here Peter being guilty it is the expression of Erasmus of superstitious dissimulation with his example oh the impulsive power of great mens Precedents brought Barnabas into the same fault for which Saint Paul presently and publickly reproved him But we will not widen the wounds in good mens memories rather commending to posterity the holy zeale of Saint Paul in seasonable giving the humble piety of Saint Peter in patient taking so sharp a reproof § 29. But the greatest contention happening here was that Paroxysme betwixt Paul and Barnabas the one as earnestly refusing as the other desiring the company of Iohn Mark to goe along with them In which contest Paul is generally conceived to have most reason Baâ—nabas most passion on his side because 1 He saw clearly without carnall relation whilest Barnabas beheld Mark his sisters son through the spectacles of naturall affection 2 A reason is rendred by Paul why Markes company should be declined namely because he departed from them at Pamphilia and deserted the work none alledged by Barnabas why the same should be accepted 3 Paul immediately departing after this contention is said to be recommended by the brethren to the grace of God which seems to amount to a generall approbation of his carriage herein No such passage appears of Barnabas 4 After this time Saint Paul and his acts are celebrated in every Chapter whereas Barnabas sinks here in silence and his name mentioned no more in the history of the Scripture But we must admire Gods wisdome in mans weakness sanctifying this discord to his glory For whilest Paul and Barnabas were newly converted and their company needfull for mutuall assistance each to other their persons and affections were united together but now grown strong in grace and able singly to subsist God suffered this unhappy difference to sever them Whereby the Gospell encreased the one sailing to Cyprus the other staying in Syria So whereas formerly one place at the same time did jointly enjoy them now there became two Flockes two shepheards two vines two vinedressers and the division of Preachers proved the multiplication of preaching § 30. We must not forget how one Nicolas a Proselyte of this city of Antioch was the last of the seven Deacons and the first founder of an heresie which God professeth himself to hate from him called the Nicolaitans For this Nicolas is reported to have had a beautifull woman to his wife and being taxed for being causlesly jealous of her to vindicate his innocence he prostituted her to the embraces of any that would lie with her with some other strange opinions he maintained Those therefore who so undiscreetly express their detestation of one sin that they fall foul on the committing of the contrary may by a spirituall proportion be accounted mysticall Nicolaitans § 31. There was also belonging to Antioch pardon a little digression a delicious suburb called Daphne where Apollo Daphneus was adored Now some three hundred sixty years after Christ Iulian the Apostate the professed enemy to piety sacrificed hereto this Devill-God who used to be very talkative in giving of Oracles but lately was grown very mute And being demanded the reason of his suddain silence answered forsooth it was because the body of Babylas martyred under Decius the Emperour was buried near his Temple the vertue whereof stopped his wind-pipe Hereupon a conceit was taken that other Martyrs bones might be found upon triall as terrible to the devill which gave the first occasion to the enshrining worshipping and circumgestation of the Reliques of Saints See how Satan much delighted in his apish Parallels of divine service was ambitious that a dominative point of Antichristianisme should have its originall in the same place where the name of Christianity first began But long since Antioch hath smarted for this superstition and her other sins reduced at this day to a petty village standing in the rode betwixt Scanderoon and Aleppo and Orontes the river thereof once navigable Saint Paul is said to have sailed to Antioch much obstructed with sand and more profitable for good Eeles there taken then any other commodity and the few buildings remaining miserably ruinous But seeing silkes though ragged may be worn with the less discredit the torn and tattered edifices in Antioch seem no disgrace because most of them are made of rich stuffe even costly marble curiously polished § 32. Leaving Antioch we come to Seleucia seated on the sea side a Port once graced with Saint Pauls presence whence they sailed into Cyprus lying over against it This Island is so called from Cypress trees growing there in abundance which a great Critick conceives to be that Gopher wood whereof the Arke of Noah was made and boldly affirmes that setting aside the adventitious termination CUPAR and GOPHER are effectually the same in Hebrew Frequent the use of Cypress-boughs in Funeralls whereof the reason is rendred because that tree cut down sprouts no more as no naturall hope of a dead corps reviving Coffins also were generally made of Cypress even amongst the heathen in memoriall as one will have it of the deluge and mankinde buried quick many moneths in the Cypress ark The distance of Cyprus from the continent cannot be great if it be true what Pliny reports that whole heards of Deer used to swim over thither senting though not seeing land the formost like an adventurous Captain valiantly conducting them and then in order one so lying on another that the leaders hanch was the followers pillow to rest his head upon Most fruitfull was this Island affording all things both for pleasure and luxury and therefore Venus worshipped for chief Deity therein The women of this countrey anciently were very wanton or as they counted it very religious for having a whore for their Goddess no wonder if adultery was their devotion § 33. Amongst the eminent persons bred in Cyprus whilest Statesmen take speciall notice of Solon the lawgiver Philosophers of Zeno the Stoick Poets of Asâ—tepiades first authour of those verses from him so called it will be fittest for us to observe Mnason an old Disciple hoste to Saint Paul Sergius Paulus deputy of this Island a prudent man Saint Pauls Convert and Barnabas here born a Iew-Levit-Cypriot the first by nation the next by family the last by place of his nativity and had therein possessions of considerable value If any say it was covetousness and distrust of divine providence in Barnabas to be a landed Levite because that Tribe had no inheritance given them The Lord of Israel was their inheritance Let such know that constitution was onely temporary and locall to last no longer then whilest the Iews continued at home in a settled Commonwealth after whose banishment abroad happy that Leâ—ite who when charity
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
their backs with a staffe in their hands to intimate their ambulatory and ever-moving condition Here we may remember how Hagar being with child with Ishmael was found by the Angell wandering in the wilderness and as if the pregnant mothers condition had made an impression on her child and his posterity we find their home to be in a constant roving and wandering in a desert Countrey Leave we these Ishmaelites and come to men of a milder temper and more fixed habitations I mean the Moabites § 13. MOab Son and Gran-child of Lot was incestuously begotten on his edest daughter in his drunkenness after which act no more mention of Lot or what befel him in the history of the Bible drunkenness makes men to forget and to be forgotten drowning their memories in neglect and obscurity onely after this the new Testament epithets him Righteous Lot That Spirit of meekness naming good men not from the obliquity of some acts but habituall integrity of their hearts Yea for love to Lot God granted many great favours to the Moabites assisting them to conquer the Giants Emims and peaceably possessing them of their Countrey with speciall command to the Israelites not to disturb or molest them in this enjoiment thereof § 14. Yet the Moabites ill requited Israels kindness unto them That falling out which was first begun betwixt the servants and heardsmen was afterwards continued and increased betwixt the Sons and posterity of Lot and Abraham Yea upon all occasions the Moabites were backfriends to Israel witness Balak who barked at and Eglon who bit them whom Israel served eighteen years Note by the way that under the Judges all the heathen which bordered on Israel Edom almost onely excepted the cause whereof hereafter Aramites Ammonites Midianites Philistines c. did all successively â—yrannize over Israel No shrub growing about on the banks of Canaan was so little but it was big enough for God thence to gather a Rod to whip his wanton children Now if it be any ease to the sickâ—man to have his bed not disease often altered Israel had the favour of exchange of tyrants and variety of oppressors amongst whom I dare say the Moabites were none of the mildest More might be said of their malice to the Iews but I spare them for good Ruth their Countreywomans sake who when all her sister Orpha's complementall Religion came off with a kiss persevered to wait on Marah her mother-in-law for so she desired to be called into the land of Canaan § 15. But because the Moabites could not be perswaded to love David was the first who forced them to fear the Kings of Israel Moab is my washpot that is one condemned to servile imployments yea such was Davids absolute command over this countrey that he measured the Moabites with a line casting them down to the ground even with two lines measured he to put to death and with one full line to keep alive At the first sight he may seem to have killed two and saved one A merciless proportion But on better consideration it may possibly be that the preservative might equal both the destructivelines though not in number in measure as one overflowing cup may contain as much as two sparingly filled What caused this severity in David against the Moabites the Scripture is silent and I had rather be so too then affirm with the presumptuous Rabbins without warrant that it was because the King of Moab had slain Davids Father and Mother whom he had left there for protection whilst Saul persecuted him § 16. If any object this Act of David was a breach of Gods command Distresse not the Moabites neither contend with them in battell it is answered 1 This prohibition was temporary to Moses conducting the Israelites that they should not molest Moab in their passage by his countrey out of Egypt 2 Israel might not begin with offensive war to provoke them but being stricken might strike again and follow their blow as David did 3 Moab might be distressed to subjection not to ejection might be brought into obedience not dispossessed of their countrey After the defection of the ten Tribes from the house of David Moab remained tributary to the Kings of Israel till the death of wicked but valiant Ahab After which time Moab rebelled and though attempted was never reduced into obedience by the Kings of Israel § 17. Moab had the river Arnon on the north the Dead-sea on the west Edom on the south and Arabia on the east It contained about a square of an hundred miles fit for grazing and the peoples industry following Natures guidance to their own profit principally imployed it to that use Yea Mesha their King is tearmed a sheep-master Husbandry doth no more eclipse the resplendent beams of Majesty then the oile in the Lamp hindreth the bright shining thereof Guess the greatness of the Grist by the Toll the multitude of Moabs flocks from the Tribute he rendered to the Kings of Israel a hundred thousand Lambs and a hundred thousand Rams with the wooll § 18. To come now to the particulardescription of Moab let it not be censured for a needless Tautology in this Map that therein all the cities of Reuben are again represented being done deliberately on a double consideration 1 Formerly that land belonged to Moab before Sihon King of the Amorites had forcibly wrested it away from them 2 After the Reubenites were carried away captive by Tiglath-Pileser the Moabites reassumed their ancient possessions as appears by the Prophets As for the particular description of those cities we remit the Reader to what formerly hath been written in the Tribe of Reuben § 19. In the north-east bound of Moab towards Midian in the border of Arnon which is in the utmost coasts stood a nameless city where Balak met Balaam standing as it were on his tiptoes on the very last labell of his land to reach forth welcome to that false Prophet who hither rode in state with his two men to attend him whilst many Ministers of the Truth are forced to be slaves to others and servants to themselves But that these two men of Balaam were Iannes and Iambres the â—gyptian enchanters the Chaldee Paraphrase shall never perswade me whilst the distance of time and place protest against the possibility thereof Not to say that it is likely that the sorcerers so frequent in the presence of Pharaoh had long before waited on their Master through the red sea to another world Hence Balak conducted Balaam to Kiriath-huzoth or the city of streets which at that time seems to be the Metropolis of Moab § 20. Mizpah of Moab followeth where the Father and Mother of David reposed themselves whilst their Son was persecuted by Saul Ar of Moab and Rabbah of Moab were also places of great note in this land and besides these many other cities of inferiour note But
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
beleeve that ever our English some four hundred years since wore shooes sâ—outed and piked more then a finger long crooking upwards called Crackowes resembling the Devils claws which were fastened to the knees with chains of gold and silver Or that about the reign of King Henry the fifth men grew so excessive in that kind that it was fain to be ordered by Proclamation that none should weare their shooes broader at the toes then six inches § 4. Secondly of these ornaments some were necessary as fine-linen others modest as Vailes moe though costly comely as ear-rings and bracelets which Rebekah her self and the best of women did weare most of them some few excepted though magnificent lawfull if not exceeding the wearers estate Some therefore will demand why the Prophet reproved them and why God was offended therewith But we must know the things were not so faulty in their own nature as for the superfluous variety fantasticall fashion and over costly matter thereof But which is the main the mindes of the wearers did the mischiefe whose fingers as I may say infected their Rings and mouthes marred their Mufflers being used with pride and abused to wantonnefs The text saith The daughters of Sion were haughty and walked with stretched out necks and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to boast is by Criticks deduced from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the neck pride being most visible in the erected posture thereof and wanton eies walking and mincing as they goe and making a tinkling with their feet carrying it seems bells at their heels whose musick did jar with modesty and gave the watchword to wantons at what Signe mercenary embraces were to be sold unto them § 5. Thirdly of such as were meer superfluities none appear more ridiculous and strange then the nose-jewels in Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 leaving us at a loss how they were fastned Surely the Iewish women were not ringed swine-like nor had they like the Salvages in America their noses bored through to hang jewels therein For although some may plead Pride never feels pain as also that the absurdest fashions when made common seem comely yet such holes in their noses moe nostrils then ever nature made must of necessity hinder both their speech and plainer pronunciation except as some conceive they were fastned with gold or silver-hoops about thier noses For mine own part I suppose these nose-jewels the same with frontlets frequent among the Iews or else some pendants fastened thereunto 1 First because frontlets otherwise ordinary ornaments are omitted in this catalogue 2 Secondly because frontlets were worn betwixt their eies between which and the nose no great distance hanging down on a peak from their foreheads However 't is probable these nose-jewels were frontlets of a larger size more prominent then ordinary as pride in process of time improveth it self to a greater proportion And most certain it is God was highly displeased with this their luxury witness his heavy commination And it shall come to pass that in stead of sweet smell there shall be stinke and in stead of a girdle a rent and in stead of well-set haire baldness and in stead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth and burning in stead of beauty Which last curse is omitted by the Septuagint § 6. Now whereas baldness is threatned to the Iewish women iâ— prompts unto me a passage in Hippocrates who as Seneca cites him affirmes that women in his time were neither bald nor subject to the gout and yet Seneca confesseth that the weaker sex in his days were subject to both these infirmities Non quâ—a mutata foeminarum natura sed vita nam cum virorum licentiam aequaverint corporum quoque virilium vitia aequaâ— verunt Though a supernaturall cause must be allowed immediately to inflict the same on the Iewish women about the time of the Prophets prediction § 7. Whereas it is said in stead of beauty burning I question whether it relateth to the Babylonians sacking of the City when they burnt the house of God and brake down the wall of Ierusalem and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof Rather I beleeve it referred to some personall and corporall malady which afterwards God inflicted on the bodies of these lascivious women As Fevers or the disease Erysipelas A swelling full of heat and redness with pain about it called by us Saint Anthonies fire or some other pestilent inflammation Except any will understand burning in the Apostles sense for inward lust that these women when ugly and deformed should still ardently affect their lovers by whom they were entertained with neglect and contempt § 8. The mention of turning a sweet smell into a stink mindes me of a common tradition that an offensive savour attends the bodies of modern Iews who notwithstanding their frequent washing may be sented in their company from those which are Christians Indeed the flout of a fleering Pagan Poet herein workes nothing on my beliefe Quod jejunia Sabbatariorum Malles quà m quod oles olere Bassa More am I moved with the testimony of many credible Merchants in our age adding hereunto that the Iewish mothers use to buy the bloud of Christians from Barber-surgeons who preserve it on purpose therein to bath the bodies of their new born babes so to mitigate the rank smell of their children However we leave this as doubtfull having formerly found their report false who literally interpreting that commination And ever bow down their backs affirme all Iews to be crooked or bunch-backed experience presenting many of that nation for their stature as proper persons and as streight as any other people § 9. I shall deceive their expectations who conceive I will soile my book with presenting the exact habits of common Harlots therein Onely in generall we learn from Scripture that with Thamar the daughter-in-law of Iudah they used to sit covered and wrapt in a vaile in an open place by the way Impudent modesty shameless shamefacednessâ— What a contradiction was there betwixt her gesture and posture Why face covered if intending to be dishonest Why in the high-way if disposed to be otherwise Hereby she professed a private-publickness the twilight is the Harlots season As free to commit sin so carefull not to be openly known her self and by consequence not to reveal him who committed it with her § 10. Adde hereunto that painting was practised by Harlots adulterated complexions well agreeing with adulterous conditions Especially they used to to paint their eyes understand their eye-browes and eye-lids with Stibium to make them look black conceited by them an extraordinary comeliness Hereupon was Solomons caution Neither let her take thee with her eye-lids as one of her principall nets to catch wantons therewith When aged they used in vain to make themselves fair by renting
superstition these principally present themselves First the multiformity of error in its own nature If truth be once casually lost but especially if wilfully left numberless are the by-paths of falshood Nothing under an Infinite can expleat and satiate the immortall minde of man Who having once forsaken God infinite in power thought to fill it self with Idols infinite in number leaving still a blank and reserving their souls for unknown Gods when they should be added thereunto § 3. Secondly the mistaking the attribute of divine Providence Men did conceive the whole world and all therein too large a compass for one God to actuate and inform And therefore as Pliny observeth that the old Eagles determinant spatia assign severall and certain circuits to their young ones to flye and feed in without interfering each on others dominions so the heathen confined topicall Gods to particular places Their Gods say the Syrians of the Israelites are Gods of the hills perchance collecting the same from the Iews usuall sacrificing in high places we will fight against them in the plain and surely we shall be stronger then they This mindes me of the speech of a Persian in England attendant on the Embassador Anno 1626. who perceiving wealthy people in London in the time of the Plague tumultuously posting to their Countrey houses What saith he have the Englishmen two Gods the one for the City and the other for the Countrey A mistake in the heathen which gave the occasion of multiplying of Deities some shadow of whose superstition still remains in Popish Saint-worship For whereas Christ gave his Disciples power to heale all manner of sicknesses and all manner of diseases not consigning the Ague to Peter Palsie to Andrew c. they appoint the severall maladies to the cure of severall Saints Tooth-ach to Apollonia Sore-eyes to Saint Blaze c. § 4. Thirdly the improving of Heroicall into Divine worship Anciently every nation had men of renown famous in their generations meriting much of their Countrey Whose memories after their death was honoured with monuments statues Anniversaries of mourning some fooâ—steps whereof are seen in the daughters of Israel yearly lamenting the daughter of Iephthah In process of time popular indiscretion hightened this civill into divine honour translating such famous Heroes from the front of the mightiest men into the rear of the meanest Gods as appears by the propensity of the people of Israel to adore Moses when dead had not God prevented it § 5. Fourthly the assigning severall sexes to their Gods as Ashtaroth the Goddess of the Zidonians Hereupon the fancy of the Poets were the spokesmen to make love betwixt them the Priests to marry or rather the Pandars to couple and upon the present impregnation of the female Deities the same luxurious fancies were the midwives to deliver them the nurses to suckle their children These when brought up to maturity were also disposed in matches thus filling the world with families of full grown and nurseries of infant Deities § 6. Lastly the suggestion of Satan who was the Master of the ceremonies in all these superstitions who as he is a generall gainer by all sins of men so he did drive a secret trade and particularly received unknown profit by Idolatry seeing as the Apostle observeth what they saerificed they sacrifittced to Devills § 7. In the progress of Idolatry we may observe first they began to worship glorious creatures The Sun with all the host of heaven mentioned by holy Iob an ancient writer But all the stars in heaven were too few for them to adore Hence they proceed to worship usefull creatures sheep oxen c. stepping thence to the adoration of things hurtfull Dragons Serpents Crocodiles probably in fear for a Ne noceant that they should doe them no harm Lastly they gave divine honour to all creatures in generall Changing the glory of the incorruptible God into an Image made like to corruptible man and to birds and fourfooted beasts and creeping things their children not making more babies then their parents did Idols But of all the Egyptian superstition rather then it would sit out plaid at the smallest game they worshipping besides Oxen and Sheep Onions and Leeks in their gardens So that one may justly admire that their superstition did not starve them For this being granted that they would not eat what they did adore which is laid to the charge of the Papists how truly I have now no leasure to examine it is hard to conceive where they found food to satisfie their hunger besides the objects of their Idolatry § 8. If now in the next place we descend to enquire what should make men so much to dote on the visible representations of their Deities contrary to the nature of a spirit we shall finde it proceed from thier infidelity not able to apprehend God under the notion of an incorporeal Being And therefore to contract the species of their devotion they fixed it in a materiall object lest otherwise with them their God should be out of sight out of minde Saint Lewes of France loved much to hear Sermons whilest our King Henry the third his contemporary was more for being at Mass saying he had rather see his God then hear another speake eloquently of him This humour of seeing a Deity though venting it self otherways possessed the hearts of people in all ages who being unable to raise up their minds to conceive God every where loved to look on him bodily represented in some materiall Image § 9. Infidelity thus premised as the main cause two other occasions no ways given by God but ignorantly taken by men much advanced such visible representations First Gods frequent appearing to the Patriarchs in a bodily shape Which being but then assumed voluntary occasionall and for the present purpose was misinterpreted by men for naturall necessary constant and an essentiall part of his Being and thence they concluded him a corporeall substance § 10. Secondly Image-making was much advantaged by some expressions in Scripture that God used after the manner of men allaying the purity of his nature with humane Phrases so to work himself the better down to our capacities Should God speake of himself as he is his expressions would be as incomprehensible as his Essence Hereupon men in stead of thinking higher of Gods Goodness thought lower of his Greatness and not able to conceive his Providence by his Eye cleare demonstration of his Power by his Arme clearer by his Hand clearest by his Finger attention by his Eares gracious presence by his Face c. fell first in their brains to fancy and then with their hands to form him a bodily Image or Idol Idols which though as the Psalmist observeth they have mouths and speake not yet are termed by the Prophet teachers of lies misinforming men with most false apprehensions § 11. But their impieties stopped not
surrounded on all sides with Iudah whereas in your Map the northern side thereof is all along fairly flanked with the Tribe of Don. Aleth You may remember what we so lately proved that Dan's portion primitively pertained to Iudah and was a canton cut out thereof In which sense according to Scripture Simeons inheritance was within the children of Iudah's and originally encompassed therewith Philol. Why call you this Tribe a jagged remnant being as whole a cloth as the rest and though not so great as entire as the other Tribes I am not sensible by this your Map of any notorious dispersedness of the Simeonites habitations Aleth Undoubtedly Iudah his portion made many incisures and larcinations into the Tribe of Simeon hindering the entireness thereof Particularly Askelon and Gaza first given to once possessed by Iudah though regained by the Philistines were continued and tyed by some narrow labell of land to the main of Iudah at leastwise had a Church-path as I may terme it a passage to the Temple without going through any part of Simeon But wanting certain instructions how to contrive and carry on such indented conveyances and not willing to confine the Reader to our conjecturall fancies we have left him to his liberty presenting Simeon entire wherein he may frame such incursions of Iudah as comply best with his own opinion Philol. You make this Tribe to range some miles south of Beer-sheba whereas that place passeth currant for the utmost border of the Countrey What more common in Scripture then from Dan to Beer-sheba that is from the north to the south of the land of Canaan Aleth It was the utmost eminent City but not absolutely the farthest place in Palestine as neither mentioned amongst the southern boundaries of the land in generall Numb 34. nor with the utmost limits of the Tribe of Iudah Iosh. 15. In ordinary discourse we measure England east and west from Dover to the Mount as the farthest western place of note though Cornwall stretches seven miles beyond it unto the lands end So Beer-sheba was the remotest remarkable City of Canaan where the cloth as I may say ended though the list thereof reached beyond it to the River of Egypt CHAP. XIII Objections against Benjamin answered Philol. VVHy make you Nob a Levite City in Benjamin within the suburbs of Anathoth Seeing Nob is neither named amongst the four Cities bestowed on the Levites in this Tribe Iosh. 21. 17. nor is it any of the eight and forty belonging unto them throughout the whole Countrey of Canaan Aleth That Nob was in this Tribe appears by that caâ—alogue of Cities presented us in Nehemiah which the Benjamites repossessed after their return from Babylon That it was a Levites yea a Priests City appears too plainly by the Massacre therein on them committed We confess it none of the eight and forty originally assigned to the Levites Yet how they in after-ages were capable of supernumerary Cities more then in their first Charter and how the Mortâ—main of the Levites as I may term it was enlarged with new foundations we have lately answered in the objections of Ephraim whither we refer you for further satisfaction Philol. You make the sons of Saul executed on an hill nigh Gibeah of Saul which your judicious friend will have hung up before the Tabernacle in Gibeon observing therein an exemplary piece of divine justice that whereas Saul had ruined the Tabernacle at Nob his sons were hung up before the same in Gibeon Aleth Not to be a Plaintise against him but a Defendant of my self I conceive him mistaken in confounding Gibeah of Saul with Gibeon distinct Cities as may appear by their severall owners and actions therein performed GIBEON GIBEAH An ancient City of the Hivites whose inhabitants deceived the Israelites given to the Levites in the Tribe of Benjamin where the Tabernacle was set up in the time of Solomon A City in Benjamin hard by Iâ—rusalem distinct from the former whose inhabitants were meer Benjamites and by their lust abused the Levites Concubine to death for which their Tribe was almost extirpated it was afterwards called Gibeah of Saul from his birth and frequent residence therein Now the text expresly saith that the Gibeonites did hang them up unto the Lord in Gibeah of Saul that is in Sauls native place and Court where he had issued out his cruell edicts for the slaughter of the Gibeonites Philol. But that expression they hanged them in the hill before the Lord imports the same performed in some religious place probably in the prospect or view of the Tabernacle Aleth Before the Lord implies no more then what in the foregoing verse was termed unto the Lord that is in a sacred manner not out of private revenge but in an holy zeal tendering the parties executed an oblation to divine justice and so is interpreted by the Expositors thereon Philol. In your particular Map of Benjamin Iordan runs almost directly south the whole course of whose channell visibly bendeth eastward in your Map generall of Palestine Aleth That generall Map though first placed was last perfected wherein we have amended three mistakes as escaped in our particular descriptions One that wherein you instance another 〈◊〉 Reâ—â—en formerly forgottâ—n to be confessed making that Tribe a little longer from north to south then it is represented in our particular description thereof My care shall be God willing in the second edition to conforme those particular Maps according to these rectisiâ—ations in the generall description CHAP. XIV Objections against Judah answered Philol. WOuld not it affright one to see a dead man walk And will not he in like manner be amazed to see the Dead-sea moving Why have you made the surface of the waters thereof waving as if like other seas it were acted with any tyâ—e which all Authors avouch and your self confesseth to be a standing stinking lake Thinkâ— not to plead that such waving is the impression of the winde thereupon seeing Tacitus affirmes of this sea Neque vento impellitur it is such a drone it will neither goe of it self nor yet be driven of the winde Aleth I will not score it on the account of the Graver that it is onely lascivia or ludicrum coeli the over-activity of his hand And in such cases the flourishings of the Scrivener are no essentiall part of the Bond but behold Mercators and other Authors Maps and you shall finde more motion therein then is here by us expressed The most melancholy body of moisture especially of so great extent is necessarily subject to such simpering in windy weather as inseparable from the liquidity thereof Philol. Why set you Zeboim most northernly of all the five Cities in the Dead-sea in the place where Sodome is situated in all other descriptions Aleth The placing of them is not much materiall whether longwise all in a File as Mr. More sets them
walls of any City but always pitched in the open desert This premised when they are said to be in Kadesh-Barnea we understand thereby a Countrey not City so named which began southwardly about Rithmah the fifteenth station of the Israelities whence they sent their spies and extended northwardly to Kadesh-Barnea properly so called probably a City certainly a limitary place belonging afterwards to the Tribe of Iudah Philol. You term their provocation of God in this place as yet the last and greatest temptation which seems to me not of so hainous a nature Aleth So many and great were their Rebellions it is hard to define which was their highest offence Their carriage for forty years is styled by God a day of temptation whose transgressions were so frequent and came so fast that they all compleated but one intire constant and continued temptation But to the point that this their despising of the pleasant land was a paramount impietie appears not onely by the exclusion of that whole generation from entering the same but by the confession of modern Iews Manasseh Ben Israel the Hebrew Divine at this day in Amsterdam observes the ninth day of the moneth Ab whereon saith he Exploratores flebant sinecauâ—a The spies sent to discover the land and all the congregation occasioned by their false reports wept without cause hath ever since been unfortunate to their nation their first and second Temple being burnt on the same day and many dysasters have since befallen them thereon Thus the Iews travell far off in their inquiries fetching the cause of their misfortunes from their forefathers in the wilderness more then three thousand years agoe which with more ease might take up their lodging nearer hand and finde the same in their crucifying of Christ as their highest sin and the cause of their deepest suffering Philol. Think you that Rithmah the fifteenth stage of the Israelites was the particular place whither the spies returned bringing the report of Canaan Aleth Though many conceive so under favour I take it more probable that the next mansion Rimmon-parez by name was the proper scene of that action For it signifieth in Hebrew the Division of Pomegranates so called as I conceive not from any growing there too barren a place for such beautifull fruit but brought thither by the Spies Pomegranates being specified amongst the fruits of the land which here were divided and shared among the people of Israel to show them a sample of the fruitfullness of Canaan Philol. What a blank and vacuity have you left betwixt Ezion-Gaber the thirty second and Kadesh-Zin the thirty third station of the Israelites sixty miles at least without any stage interposed It is not probable that they travelled so far without resting themselves betwixt them Aleth Surely they had intermediate Mansions where they took their nightly repose though not named by Moses because not making any considerable abode therein I conceive that after their departure from Ezion-Gaber God quickned the Israelites who truanted before in their slow and snail-like proceedings making them mend their pace probably travelling every day will they came to Kadesh which their young men might the better endure the old generation being almost worn out Philol. How comes Aaron to be buried in mount Hor whom elsewhere the Scripture affirmeth to be interred in Mosera Aleth It is no news to have severall names for the same place The forest of Black-more and the forest of White-Hart though black and white be contrary colours signifie the self same tract of ground in Dorset-shire Hor was the east part and Mosera the west part of this mountain This Mosera had formerly been the twenty seventh Mansion of the Israelites in their passage to Ezion-Gaber near which afterwards they made their thirty fourth station when Aaron was buried there which sufficiently argues the crookedness of their journying crossing those parts again where they had been before Philol. I commend your cunning that hath slipt over in silence four of the hardest names contained all in one verse Deut. 1. 1. These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Iordan in the wilderness in the plain over against the Red-sea between Paran and Tophel and Luban and Hazerâ—th and Dizahab Direct us to the position of these places Aleth Some conceive the plains of Moab wherein Moses wrote the book of Deuteronomy described thereby with the eminent bounds though at some distance round about it in manner following Others refuse this interpretation as an obscure and far fetch'd bounding of those plains preferring our English translation reading it Red-sea in stead of Zuph or Sedgie-land and so making these severall places the signall stages of the children of Israel in their passage out of Egypt Whereof the Red-sea and Paran are sufficiently known Laban the same with Libnaâ— their seventeenth station Hazeroth the place where Miriam was punished with leprosie Dizahab which the Greek renders golden mines and the Chaldee refers to the place where the golden Calfe was made and stamped to powder whilest Tophel not mentioned again in Scripture is conceived some station in Paran Thus Deuteronomy is a repetition of the law and of the memorable actions which occurred at these severall places Philol. I object nothing against the draught of the Tabernacle because the authority of Arias Montanus whence you confess it taken will pass it without exception But I question the exactness of severall places in your Map of Egypt Aleth You minde me of a Gentlemans finding a Picture in the shop of a Country-Painter whom he mistook for the maker thereof and thereupon fell a finding many faults therein But being informed that the same was drawn by one of the rarest Masters in Italy he instantly turned his cavilling at into commending thereof Such a convent your judgment will quickly be when I shall tell you that the Map of Egypt is of Ortelius his making save onely that the southern part thereof uselesse for our history is cut off and such places onely inserted herein as appears in Scripture The same I plead for the Habits and Idols of the Iews the former taken all out of Scripture the latter out of such Authors as are severally cited in our description Onely I could wish that in the Picture of Moloch out of Benjamins Itinerarie the three statues had been presented â—itting according to our directions And by the Altar to the unknown God we mean not that erected in Athens to a Grecian no Iewish Deity but onely we intend the same for a reserve for those many Iewish Idols whose names and severall worships are unknown unto us But it is time to break off lest one grand objection be made against all our Objections and Answers that they swell the volume into tediousness EZEKIEL his VISIONARY LAND OF CANAAN CHAP. I. Ezekiels visionary Land City and Temple uncapable of a literall meaning § 1.
PErusing the nine last Chapters of Ezekiels prophesie invited thereunto with the mention of many places in Palestine whilest I hoped to find and feel a Solid body I onely grasped the flitting aire or rather a meer spirit I mean in stead of a literall sense I found the Canaan by him described no Geography but Ouranography no earthly truth but mysticall prediction Now his Description will appear irreconcileable with a literall interpretation no Topicall but a bare Typicall relation if the particular location of the Tribes therein be seriously considered § 3. Adde hereunto the miraculous fruit unfading and new every moneth which this land produced one leafe whereof was more worth then all the great Grapes Pomegranates and Figs the Spies brought from Canaan as being unfading and soveraign for medicines Now surely such as understand this literally have need of some of those Leaves to cure their distempers therein § 4. It will be objected that this Propheticall Palestine makes frequent mention of Seas Great Sea and East Sea River Ioâ—dan Mountain Gilead besides the land is bounded North South and East with severall places of name and note as Hethlon Zedad Hâ—math c. Now what saith our Saviour A spirit hath not flesh and bones meer visions are of a more rarified and attenuated nature not consisting of such gross and drossie parts and therefore the Prophet seems rather to be taken at his word and his literall relation to be embraced without farther search for a mysticall meaning therein § 5. It is answered Omnis visio fundatur in historia the most refined vision hath some mixture of and analogie with an historicall truth As in a Web the stamen or Warp it fast fixed through which the Woofe is cast or woven â—o there re certain standards in all visions being the materiall and corporall ground-work for a spirituall flourish or descant to improve it self thereupon More particularly because so many places of Palestine are named in this vision yea seeing the body thereof is confoâ—med to an unlike likeliness as I may terme it of the earthly Canaan it intimaâ—es that the Iewish nation shall have more then a single share in the accomplishment of this Prophesie and have their happiness highly concerned in the performaâ—ce thereof § 6. As the Land so the City described by the Prophet is not appliable to the earthly Ierusalem It is said of Christ Thou art fairer then the children of men sure I am this City as presented by the Prophet was fairer finer slicker smoother more exact more uniforme then any fabrick the earth afforded This Triumphant Ierusalem as I may term it was a compleate square of four thousand five hundred reeds with a just Iury of gates three of each side according to the names of the twelve Tribes with most regular suburbs reaching two hundred and fifty reeds every way so terse so trim that not an house started out of its due proportion Whereas the literall Ierusalem built by parcels at severall times on abrupt precipices ranged about with the wals rather for strength then beauty being on the East and South suburbless and without such correspondency either in the number or position of the gates thereof In a word that so exact structure in the Prophet never sprang by art out of earth but was let down by a miracle from heaven to which Saint Iohn alludes in his celestiall Ierusalem § 7. Lastly the Temple as framed by the Prophet is not suitable with Solomons and the very waters rising from under the threshold thereof encreasing by degrees unto an unpassable river doe drown all possibility of a literall sense therein Expect not here I should intermeddle with a particular description of the foresaid Land City and Temple both because they being meerly mysticall are alien from our subject and because I am deterred from so difficult an undertaking by the ensuing computation 1 Moses saith the days of our years are threescore years and ten 2 The Iews made an ordinance that none should read this vision till thirty years old 3 Villalpandus confesseth he studied this Prophesie twenty three years yet understood not the difficulties thereof If life be so short and we must begin so late and study so long on this Prophesie alone without attaining the full understanding thereof high time at the end of those studying years to leave the measuring of this vision and survey the dimensions of our own Graves § 8. To conclude as once our Saviour told Pilate My kingdome is not of this world so the sense of Ezekiels Land City and Temple is not carnall and corporall but mysticall and spirituall Yea God may seem of set purpose to have troubled and perplexed the text imbittering the Nibbles thereof with inextricable difficulties meerly to wean us from the milke of the letter and make us with more appetite seek for stronger meat therein For the main therefore it is generally conceived this vision imports the great inlargement and dilatation of the Church under the Gospell when the Gentiles shall be called to the knowledge of Christ and the Iews also as mainly concerned though not solely intended in this vision brought home to their true Messiah not excluding even those of the ten Tribes from having each one his Childs-portion in the performance of this Prophesie A word or two of whose condition since their captivity CHAP. II. What became of the ten Tribes since their captivity and where probably extant at this day § 1. POlitick was the practice of the Kings of Assyria when conquering a Countrey neither to kill the natives thereof nor to continue them any longer in their own land but to transport them into a far distant Countrey and in exchange planting other colonies in their room For first to kill them besides the cruelty thereof in cold bloud had been an improvident act men amongst them being precious to people their vast dominions which otherwise if empty had been more exposed to the invasion of enemies To continue them in their own land had not been safe who best knowing the advantages thereof would on all occasions practice the recovery of their lost liberty and therefore to prevent farther disputes the subject of the question was taken away and they advisedly disposed of in far distant places Lastly the removing them into other parts and substituting others in their land taught both these plantations an immediate dependence on their Prince having no other plea but his bare pleasure for their present possessions which made them like the Turkish Timarioâ—s more dutifull at home and daring abroad in their undertakings § 2. These reasons moved the Kings of Assyria to transport the Israelites from their native soil Indeed they if any people might term the land their own having a threefold tiâ—â—e thereunto by Donation from God the supreme Proprietary by conquest of the Canaanites the ancient owners by prescription
of more then seven hundred years peaceable possession thereof But this threefold cable was broken with the weight of their sins and so was Israel carried away from their own land to Assyria unto this day Even Lands as well as Goods are moveables though not from their Center from their Owners at leastwise the owners are moveable from their lands § 3. Yet God did not all at once begin and end the captivity of the ten Tribes but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at sundry times and in diverse manners For 1 Pâ—l King of Assyria in the reign of Menahem carried the Reubenites Gadites and half Tribe of Manasseh away to the Cities of the Medes 2 Tiglath-Piâ—â—eser in the days of Pekah transported besides Gilead and the remains of the aforesaid Tribes Galilee namely so much thereof as was in the land of Naphtali unto Assyria 3 Shalmaneser cleared all the rest in the ninth year of Hoshea carrying them away to Halath and Habor by the River Gozan in the Cities of the Medes Probably the second or middle captivity of the Naphtalites afterwards removed themselves into Tartary where Ortelius findes their very name and a City called Tabor Asnoth-Tabor we know was a place in the border of Naphtali imposed no doubt to perpetuate the memory of their native Countrey § 4. Scripture gives us no account what afterwards became of these ten Tribes Onely in Esdras â— book accounted by some as the Apâ—â—rypha of the Apocrypha because never owned for Canonicall either by the Iews Romish Church in generall or Protestant writers we finde them travelling over Euphrates miraculously dried up in their passage towards Arsareth or Tartary a great way namely a journey of a year and an half A long stride indeed and yet might be but little if mending their pace no more then their ancestors did in their passage between Egypt and Canaan But waving Esdras his single testimony these ten Tribes appeare not since in any authenticall relation strange that the posterity of the two Tribes Iudah and Benjamin should be found almost every where whilest the off-spring of the ten Tribes are found no where Thuâ— God hath on them 〈◊〉 that curse which he formerly threatned To scatter them into corners and make the remembrance of them to cease Not that he hath utterly extinguished the being an opinion as unreasonable as uncharitable but hath hitherto concealed the known bâ—ing of so numerous a nation whom we may call the lost-loâ—t sheep of Israel both in respect of their spirituall condition and corporall habitation § 5. Some conceive the modern Amâ—ricans of the Jewish race collecting the same from some resemblances in rites community of customes conformity of clothes fragments of letters foot-steps of knowledge ruines of language though by a casuall coincidence some straggling words of the Athenians may meet in the mouths of the veriest Barbarians and many other Iudaismes amongst the Indians And lately a Jewish Rabbin of Amsterdam tels us that beyond the Cordiller hills and river Maragnon a fair people are found with long beards and rich in clothes living by themselves different in religion from the rest of the Indians whom he will have to be the ten Tribes there remaining in a body together His arguments so prevaile on some formerly contrarily minded as to turn the tyde of their judgment to concur with his with others they make it dead water not to oppose his opinion whilest a third sort listen to his relation as onely priviledged from confutation by the remoteness thereof § 6. For mine own part I behold his report as the Twilight but whether it will prove the morning twilight which will improve it self into full light or that of the evening darkening by degrees into silence and utter obscurity time will discover When the eleven Tribes so virtually may I term them brought news that one lost Tribe Ioseph was found Iacobs heart fainted for he beleeved them not till afterwards he was convinced on clearer evidence How much more then may I be permitted to suspend my judgment when one man brings tydings of ten lost Tribes all found in an instant untill farther proof be made thereof Surely we who now secretly smile at some probable insinuations in his report shall on better assurance have our mouthes filled with laughter not Sarahs laughter of distrust but Abrahams of desire delight and beliefe when his relation shall be confirmed to us from other hands And indeed the messenger deserves to be well paid for his pains who brings clear proof thereof the discovery of the posterity of these ten Tribes being an happy Forerunner and Furtherer of their future conversion CHAP. III. Of the Jews their repossessing their native Countrey § 1. IT is a conceit of the modern Iews that one day they shall return under the conduct of their Messias to the Countrey of Canaan and City of Ierusalem and be re-estated in the full possession thereof If any object that their land now base and barren is not worth the regaining They answer when they shall recover their Countrey the Countrey shall recover its former fruitfulness as if God would effect miracles as fast as man can fancy them With them concur some Protestant Divines maintaining that the Iews shall be restored to a flourishing Common-wealth with the affluence of all outward pomp and pleasure so that they shall fight and conquer Gog and Magog the Turke with many other miraculous achievements One Author so enlargeth the future amplitude of the Jewish State that thereby he occasioned a confining to himself His expressions indiscreetly uttered or uncharitably construed importing that all Christian Princes should surrender their power as homagers to the temporall supreme Empire of the Jewish nation § 2. For the proof of this their position never did the servants of Benhadad more diligently observe or more hastily catch any thing of comfort coming from the mouth of Ahab then the Iews search out and snatch at every gracious promise made to them in the old Testament Such principally as Deut. 30. 3. Then on their repentance the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity and have compassion upon thee and will return and gather thee from all nations whiter the Lord thy God hath scattered thee Isaiah 11. 12. And he shall set up an Ensigne for the nations and shall assemble the out-casts of Israel and gather together the dispersed of Iudah from the four corners of the earth Levit. 26. 44. And yet for all that when they be in the land of their enemies I will not cast them away neither will I abhor them to destroy them utterly and to break my covenant with them for I am the Lord their God § 3. This last place the Iews highly price and such of them as live in Germany call it Simiam auream or the Golden Ape And why so Because forsooth in the
of them Especially whilest that merciless law stands in force that on their conversion they must renounce all their goods as ill gotten If the resolutions of the promise-forward Disciple quickly recoyled at our Saviours tentative command to sell all and give to the poor I say if he went away sorrowfull for he had great possessions no wonder if the rich and covetous Iews distast our Religion when before they can embrace it they must take a finall farewell of their large estates Rather should those Princes imitate the pious example of our Henry the third who between the new and old Temple erected an house of Converts afterwards appointed by Edward the third for Records to be kept therein now called the Rowles endowing it for the maintenance of poor Iews converted to Christianity and baptized allowing two pence a day unto each of them during their lives § 3. Thirdly the constant offence given them by the Papists their worshipping of images the present Iews hating Idolatry with a perfect hatred whose knees may sooner be broken then bended to such superstitious postures And to speak out the plain truth the Romanists are but back-friends to the Iews conversion chiefly on this account because the Rabbins generally interpret Dumah or Edom to be Rome and Edomites Romans in their expositions on the old Testament And therefore all those passages have by order no doubt from Superiours been lately purged our and expunged the Venetiâ—n edition of the Rabbins Yea there is a constant tradition currant time out of minde amongst the modern Iews that after the destruction of the City of Rome their nation shall be put into a glorious condition No wonder then if cold and dull the endevours of the Romanists for the conversion of the Iews who leave that taske of be performed by Moses and Elias whom the Papists fondly fancy shall towards the end of the world personally appear and by their powerfull preaching perswade the Jewish nation unto the Christian Religion § 4. Lastly the difference in judgments distance in affections dissoluteness in lives among the Christians themselves In vain do we hollow to the Iews to come over to us whilest our voyces are hoarse with railing one at another and becken with our hands to them to be on our side whilest our hands are imbrued in the bloud of those of our own religion § 5. But far greater then all these is that internall obstacle that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that blindness which is happened unto them inflicted on their ancestours continued and increasing on their posterity How Bedlam-like was their behaviour at Saint Pauls but mentioning of preaching to the Gentiles They cryed out and cast off their clothes and threw dust into the aire as endevouring to thicken and condensate the same that no audible sound might penetrate unto them And as then they threw the dust into the aire God hath since thrown their land after it so that no Iew can take up one crum of dust from any intire Countrey upon the face of the earth that he can call his own Great is Gods providence in ordering it that a fog and a tempest never can be together at sea the fog vanishing so soon as the tempest ariseth otherwise smaller vessels would be cast away which want the direction of the Compass to guide them but woefull is the present condition of the Iews having a fog of ignorance and a tempest of violence both together in them in the highest degree most bold when most blind stumbling at what should stay them slighting the Chirurgeon when sorest scorning the Physician when sickest miserable if they knew their condition and more miserable because ignorant thereof § 6. But though these obstacles and obstructions were moe and mightier then they are should God but give the word they are instantly removed Long was the service of the true God disused in Iudah during the idolatrous reign of Ahaz so that great was the difficulty to bring the whole nation to the solemn observation thereof Yet Hezekiah quickly effected it because as the text observes God had prepared the people and the thing was done suddenly So when He shall be pleased to set his hand to the Iews conversion all impediments notwithstanding in the twinckling of an eye their eies shall be opened and their hearts turned in the turning of an hand Chap. VI. How Christians ought to behave themselves in order to the Jews conversion § 1. MEan time it is the bounden duty of Christians to their utmost to endevour both by their pious examples and faithfull prayers the conversion of the Iews having many motives to invite them thereunto First because the more knowing and pious in the Iewâ—sh Church did anciently desire the vocation of the Gentiles witness the solicitous care she took and the great cost she would expend for the welâ—aâ—e thereof We have a little sister and she hath no breasts what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for If she be a wall we will build upon her a palace of silver c. For although the common Iâ—â—s accounted the calling of the Gentiles blasphemy against their own nation having some carnall reason thereof as not without cause suspicious that the Gentiles admission would prove their expulsion as indeed it came to pass yet the intelligent Prophets no doubt were earnest petitioners for the same § 2. Secondly because such was the transcendent joy of the godly Iews managed with silence their hearts thereat being too big for their mouths at the conversion of Cornelius and his family When they heard these things they held their peace and glorified God saying Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life § 3. Lastly because so great glory shall by the conversion of the Iews redound to God and clearing to the Scriptures Many places in the old Testamenâ— the meaning whereof the Iews hitherto were too envious to teach us or we too proud to learn of them will then most plainly be expounded Oh! what a feast of knowledge will it make when both Iew and Gentile shall jointly bring in their disâ—â—es thereunto The former furnishing forth the first course with many Hebrew Criticismes and Rabbinicall Traditions some of them gold amongst more dross on the old Testament the latter supplying the second course on the whole Scripture with solid interpretations out of Fathers Schoolâ—men and Modern Divines Oh happy day for such as shall behold it and we all ought to pray for the speedy dawning thereof § 4. It will be objected many men cannot heartily pray for the future conversion of the Iews being unsatisfied in their judgments of the certainty thereof For whatsoever is not of faith is sin and because they cannot aske according to the Apostles precept 〈…〉 prayers are better omitted as which may prove prejudiciall to themselves and nothing
k Psal. 68. 19. Ioseph defended for want of affection Syâ—â—on lake and Casian Mountain The most ancâ—ent Inne l Gen. 42. 11. m Num. 13. 2. n Gen. 52. 28. Moses his Inne o Eccles. 12. 5. p Exod. 4. 24. q Exod. 4. 25. People living in this Wilderness r 1 Sam. 24. 8. The Kenites s Gen. 15. 19. See our firâ—t book pag. 19. t Judg 4 11. u Ibidem w 1 Sam. 15. 6. x 1 Sam. 2â— 12. y 1 Sam. 30. 29. Balaam his prophâ—cy of the Kenites z Num. 24. 21. a See Ainsworth in locum b 1 Chr. 12. 55. Always some publick places for Gods service a Gen. 12. 7 8. Gen. 13. 3. c. Egyptians justly spoiled b Exod. 12. 35. c Exod. 12. 36. d Exod. 12. 12. e Exod. 12. 36. Wages long detained paid with a witness f Exod. 1. 11. All persons promote Gods Tabernacle g Exod. 35. 27. h Exod. 35. 25. But still keep their callings i Rom. 10. 15. k 2 Cor. 8. 12. A main motive of their bounty l Exod. 32. 3. m Rom. 6. 19. Their bounty restrained by Proclamaâ—ion n Exod. 36. 5. o Ibid. ver 6. Moses his contented minde p Prov. 30. 15. q Gen. 14. 23. Why so bountifull to this building and afterwards backward in goodness r Heb. 9. 1. s Tiâ—us 2. 12. t Num. 16. Moses receives the pattern Bâ—zaleel and Aholiab Artizans a Exod. 31. 4 5. b Exod. 31. 6. c Fine twined linnen mentioned about sixteen times in making the Tabernacle Two principall parts of the Tabernacle d Exod. 27. 9. e Ibid. ver 13. f Exod. 26. 18. g Ibid. ver 15. h Ibid. ver 16. The breadth gilding sockets and bars of the boards i Exod. 26. 29. k Exod 26. 29. l Ibid. ver 29. The inside and roof thereof * Exod. 26. 14. Three properties of Shittim-wood m Exod. 35. 24. * Act. 3. 21. Shittim-wood within the Altar why never fiâ—ed n Exod. 27. 1. o Ignis tartareus The Laver made of womens Looking-glasses p Exod. 38. 8. Female devotion a Largely reckoned up Exod. 28. and methodically ranked Levir 8. 7 8 9. Aavonsâ—ight â—ight ornaments Four principall ingredients of Sacerdotall â—â—vestments b Exod. 28. 5. 8. 15. c Devest Sacâ—r lib. 3. â— 5. d Isa. 53. 6. e Isa. 1. 18. Vrim and Thummim f Ezra 2. 63. g 1 Chr. 14. 14 15. h Rivet in Exod. ca. 28. v. 13. The speedy finishing of the Tabernacle m Exod. 19. 1. n Num. 10. 11. o 1 King 6. 38. n See Psa. 80. 2. p Num. 16. 1. The Tabernacle Templizing q 1 Sam. 22. r 2 Chr. 5. 5. s Namely 1 Sam. 1. 9. 2 Sam. 22. 7. Psal. 19. 3. t Anti. Iud lib. 3. cap. 4. u Exod. 36. 6. w Deut. 16. 16. The names and bounds of Egypt a Gen. 10. 6. b Lib. de Iâ—ide Osyride c Psal. 105. 23. d Act. 8. 27. e Iob 38. 11. f Pro. 22. 28. The complexions and conditions of the Egyptians g Gen. 12. 11. h 1 King 4. 20. Act. 7. 22. i 2 Tim. 3. 8. k Iosh. 9. 6. The pleasure and profit of Egypt l Gen. 13. 10. Egyptian Flaxe m Prov. 7. 10. Egyptian horses excellent n Deut. 17. 16. Paper first grew in Egypt o Isa. 197. Mummy how made * Gen. 50. 3. p Gen. 3. 19. q 2 King 6. 28. r Psal. 14. 4. The inconveniences of Egypt s Isa. â—0 6. t Tobit 8. 3. Rain rare in Egypt u Deut. 11. 10. * Sir william Paston of Oxbint in Nâ—rfolk w Vâ—ssius de Idololatria lib 2. cap. 74. x Lib. 5. c. 10. y Mat. 13. 26. z G. Sandys Trav. p. 97. a Idem p. 94. b Idem pa. 99. c Windeline de adâ—ira Nili The Egyptians proud of Nilus d Luâ—an l. 8. c Ezek. 29. 3. f Ezek. 29. 9. g Ezek. 29. 10. h Isa. 11. â—5 i Vide Camdens Brit. in Cambr. shâ—re Various numbring of the streams of Nilus k In Euterpe l Isa. 1â— 15. m Trav. pa. 94. n Iohn 20. 24 The Isle of Dogs * See Ortelius and Mercators old Maps o Anti. Iud. li. 2 Kâ—â— â— Vanity in building the Pyramids p Gen. 11. 4. q Nat. hist. li. 36. cap. 12. y Exod. 1. 15. Intended for Sepulchers Their long lasting Not built by the Israelites s Exod. 5. 8. t M. Iohn Greaves in his Pyramidographia The miserable slavery of the Hebrews in Egypt u Four hundred and thirty years if accouâ—ted from Isaac's birth Exod. 12. 41. w Exod. 1. 14. x Exod. 5. 4. y Exod. 5. 14. z Exod. 16. 3. Memphis the ancient Metropolis of Egypt The ten plagues of Egypt a Exod. 7. 21. b Exod. 7. 2â— c Exod. 8. 3. d Revel 16. 13. e Exod. 8. 19. f Exod. 8. 21. g Exod. 9. 6. h Exod. 9. 25. i Exod. 13. 15. k Exod. 9. 11. l Gen. 39. 14. m See the books of Iosephus against him n Instin Hist. lib. p Exod. 9. 32. q Exod. 10. 15. r Wisd. 17. 4. s Exod. 12. 29. t Psal. 93 â— The gradation in Goâ—s judgements u Psal. 78. 47. w Exod. 9. 19. 25. Memphis or Noph threatened in Scripture No or Alexandria x Ier. 46. 29. Ezek. 30. 15. y Nahum 3. 8. z Ionah 3. 3. Beth-shemâ—sh where Christ is said to have lived a Gen. 41. 50. b Ezek. 30. 17. c Mat. 2. 13. d Athanasius lib. de Incarn Verbi e Sozom. Historia lib. 5. ca. 21. f Burchar in descrip Ter. sâ—nc par 2. cap. 4. g Ioh. 2. 11. The time of Christs abode in Egypt h Câ—nt 1. 5. Babylon a City in Egypt i 1 Pet. 5. 13. k Gal. 2. 7. Ieremy forced into Egypt 1 Jer. 42. 14. m Jer. 43. 6. n Exod. 13. 19. Prophecyeth Pharaohs dâ—struction o Jer. 43. 9. * Num. 13. 32. †Psal. 78. 12. * Isa. 19. 11. 13 †Ezek. 30. 15 16. * Gen. 10. 17. Bochart in Geogr Sac. Exod. 1. 11. The land of Goshen The midwives honesty p Exod. 1. 21. q Exod. 1. 19. r St. August Moses born s Act. 7. 20. t Exod. 2. 2. u Deut. 34. 7. w Exod. 2. 3. Taken up by Pharaohs daughter x Exod. 2. 6. y Exod. 2. 10. Refuseth royall relation z Act. 7. 22. a Gen 42. 16. b Heb. 11. 24. c 1 Cor. 13. 11 * Exod. 6. 20. d Heb. 11. 25. e Heb. 11. 26. Killeth an Egyptian f Act. 7. 25. g Exod. 2. 12. Is upbraided with k. h Exod. 2. 14. Flyeth into the land of Madian Returns and brings out the Israelites i Exod. 12. 35. k Iob 2 4. The march forward and backward in Egypt l Exod. 12. 39. m Exod. 12. 27. n Exod. 13. 20. o Exod. 14. 2. The occasion of this discourse Severall matter of Jewish garments a Heb. 11. 37. b 2 King 1. 8. c Mat. 3. 4. d 2 King 6. 30. e Psal. 45. 13. f Deut. 22. 11. g
Ahazâ—ah had a martiall interview with Iehu and were both worsted by him Here Iehu with a shot out of a bow archery fatall both to Ahab and his Son wounded Iehoram to the heart and by speciall order to Bidkarâ— Captain commanded that his corps should be cast into the field of Naboth the Iezrâ—â—lite Oh the exact Topography observed in divine justice so accurate is God not onely in the time but place of his punishment § 9. Greater is the difficulty about the death of King Ahaziah slain about the same time For whereas it is appointed for all men once he seemed twice to die and that in far distant places 2 Kings 9. 27. But when Ahaziah the King of Iudah saw this he fled by the way of the Garden-house and Iehu followed after him and said Smite him also in the charet and they did so at the going up to Gur which is by Ibleam and he fled to Megiddo and died there 2 Chron. 22. 9. And Iehu sought Ahaziah and they caught him for hee was hid in Samaria and brought him to Iehu and when they had slain him they buried him because said they he is the Sonne of Iehosaphat who sought the Lord with all his heart But all is reconciled if we take Samaria not for the city so named but for the whole kingdome of Israel in which notion Ahab is styled King of Samaria that is the ten Tribes whereof Samaria was the Metropolis In this acception Megiddo and all the passage thereunto was in Samaria where Ahaziah hoped in vaine by his flight to hide and conceale himself § 10. All thus agreed concerning the deaâ—h I hope no difference will arise about the buriall of Ahaziah Though in one texâ— his owâ— servants in another Iehu his men are said to buâ—y him The one might doe it by the leave and licence of the other and Iehu his souldiers did deliver Ahaziah's deâ—d corps to his own servants to interre it in Ierusalem § 11. Iezebel survived not long after As Iehu was entering Iezreel she newly painted entertains him with a taunt out of the window to try whether her tongue or his sword were the sharper We meet but with three principall speeches of her in Scripture the first an Idolatrous oath and curse The Gods doe so to me and more also the next a mortall threat and lowd lye If I make not Elijah's like one of their lives by to morrow this time the last an impudent and unseasonable jeer Had Zimri peace that slew his Master Presently she is thrown down headlong and the dogs eat her up to the â—eversion of her skull palmes of her hands and feet What hâ—d the poison of her painting 〈◊〉 deeply pierced into these the naked parts of her body that the dogs were afraid to feed oâ— them However it came to pass Iezebels skull may be worn as a deaths-head in the memories of all wicked persons abusing their power to minde them of their certain ruin without serious repentance The heads also of Ahabs children kill'd in Samaria were laid in two heapes at the entrance of the gates of Iezreel § 12. It may seem strange that seeing Iehu was warranted by commission from heaven in the execution of Ahabs family and friends that God should afterwards threaten by his Prophet I will avenge the bloud of Iezreel upon the house of Iehu But it seems though herein Iehu his chariot went in the path of Gods command yet he did drive it on furiously the pace of his own cruelty vainglory and ambition Thus that officer is a murderer though acting the sentence of the Judge if withall he pleaseth his private malice in executing persons condemned to die The matter of Iehu his act was rewarded the manner revenged by God § 13. The river Kishon runneth through the midst of this Tribe which entring in at Naboths vineyard taketh his course north-ward with a winding channell not far from Shamir in mount Ephraim wherein Tola the Iudge or rather the Iustice of peace in Israel nothing of war being achieved in his government both dwelt and was buried Hence on his western bank Kishon beholds the place where Barak fought that famous battell against Sisera It is recorded to the commendation of such Israelites as assisted him that they took no gain of money Indeed they of Zebulun were by their calling such as handled the pen though now turned sword-men in case of necessity And when men of peaceable professions are on a pinch of extremity for a short time forced to fight they ought not like souldiers of fortune to make a tradeto enrich themselves thereby seeing defence of religion life and liberty are the onely wages they seek for in their service § 14. In this most eminent battell the Stars in their courses fought against Sisera What are the numerous people of Israel meant thereby whom God promised to multiply as the Stars in heaven or are onely the principall officers in their Army intended therein Sure it is safest to embrace the literall sense that those celestiall lights frowning with their malignant aspects caused frights and fears in the hearts of the Canaanites Such as utterly deny all influences of Stars on mens mindes shew therein that the moon hath made too much impression on their crazy judgements and lunatick opinions § 15. But the river of Kishon was not onely a spectatour of this fight but also an actour of a principall part therein For when the Canaanites routed in the battell essayed to wade this river so to recover their countrey on the other side the streame thereof probably lately made more deep and rapid with extraordinary raine the largess of some waâ—ry Planet which fought for Israel swept them away So that what fragments of these Canaanites were left by the Israelites swords glutted with slaughter Kishon was the voider to take them clean away § 16. Hence Kishon runneth on by Kishion the vicinity of the name is argument enough to place it on the banks of this river elsewhere called Kedesh being one of the four cities in this Tribe belonging to the Levites Gershonites More east whereof lay another of the same nature Engannim called Ienine at this day being now a very pleasant place having fine gardens orchards and waters about it as it hath its Hebrew name from a fountain And that we may know that the countrey hereabouts still retaineth more then the ruines of its former fertility a judicious modern traveller tells us that in his whole journey from Damascus to Ierusalem he saw not more fruitfull ground and so much together then he did in two and twenty miles riding betwixt mount Tabor and Engannim § 17. Hence Kishon continuing his course northward leaveth the city Shunem at some distance from his western bank the birth-place of Abishag wife-nurse to King David
to procure heat to his decayed age Time was when he boasted that his youth was renewed as the eagles but eagles notwithstanding the often casting of their bills and years therewith are at last seised on with age and death as it fared then with decrepit David Adonijah David's Son afterwards lost his life for petitioning to have this Abishag for his wife What was his fault Incest or treason Surely neither effected no nor attempted in any clandestine way without leave from the King Let it suffice Solomon saw more then we in this matter his eies also not wanting the magnifying-glass of State-jealousie to improve his discoveries herein But this accident was onely the hilt or handle for Solomon to take hold on Adonijah's former fault was the edge to cut off his life Thus let those who once have been desperately sick of a Princes displeasure and recovered know that the least relapse will prove deadly unto them § 18. In Shunem dwelt that worthy woman who prevailed with her husband to harbour Elisha in his passage this way Gods Prophets are no lumber but the most profitable stuffe wherewith an house can be furnished Landlords prove no losers by such Tenants though sitting rent-free whose dwelling with them pays for their dwelling with them At Elisha's prayer God made this woman barren before the happy mother of an hopefull Son Somes years after this child grown a stripling and going into his Fathers field to see his reapers was there smitten with a deadly sickness So that the corn on the land might pass for the emblem of this childs condition save that that being ripe and ready wooed the cycles to cut it whilst this green grain was mow'n down in the blade thereof At noon the child dyed Had one the same morning beheld the Sun arising out of the east and this child coming forth of his fathers house in perfect health he would not have suspected that the noon of the one would prove the night to the other But by the prayers of Elisha he was restored again unto her § 19. This Shunamite was afterwards seven years absent in the land of the Philistines during which time the profits of her estate as appears by the text x were seised on by the Kings officers Custome it seems intitled the Crown to their revenues which resided not on their lands especially if living as she did in the land of a forein foe She addressed her self by petition to King Ioram for restitution of her meanes Formerly she had no use of the Prophets profer to speake for her to the King or to the Captain of the host who now was fain to prefer her suit in her own person None know what hereafter may befall them Such whose young feet were onely taught to traverse their own ground may in their old age be learnt a harder lesson to trudge abroad in attendance to others Gehazi happily there present attests her the woman whose Son was restored to life and by the Kings command her lands and profits were restored to he Let her under God thank Elisha for this favour for that place in her house where his bed table stool and candlestick stood kept possession for her in her absence of all the rest of her Demesnes and procured the speedy restitution thereof § 20. To return to Kishon which somewhat more northward leaveth this Tribe and entereth into Zebulun having first divided it self into two streames whereof the easternmost being the north-boundary of Issachar runneth by Tabor a city so called from the vicinity of the mountain we formerly described Hereabouts Zeba and Zalmunna made a massacre of many Princelike Israelites for which fact Gideon ordered their execution And here we take notice of two neighbouring mountains lovingly agreeing together 1 Tabor on the north whereof formerly in Zebulun of so eminent note that it passed for a proverbiall expression of any unquestioned certainty As sure as Tabor is among the mountains This place was in after ages much profaned with Idolatry as appears by the Prophet complaining of the priests that they had been a net spred upon Tabor 2 Hermon hard by on the south of this Tribe the top-cliffe whereof is called Hermonium as a modern Traveller doth describe David puts them both together The north and the south thou hast â—reated them Tabor and Hermon shall rejoyce in thy name However others understand the Psalmist of another Hermon that famous mountain formerly described in Manasseh beyond Iordan being the east-border as Tabor was in the heart of the land of Canaan meaning thereby that middle and marches out-side and in-side center and circumference all the whole world must rejoyce in Gods power which made and providence which preserveth them § 21. This east-stream of Kishon in modern Maps called Kedummim runneth to Daberah in the confines of Zebulun but belongeth to this Tribe out of which it was assigned a city for the Levites Then falleth it into the sea of Cinnereth or Tiberias somewhat south of Tarichea a famous city whereof frequent mention in Iosephus but none in Scripture to which we chiefly confine our description § 22. The east part of Issachar is wholly taken up with the mountains of Gilboa where the Armies of the Israâ—lites and the Philistines met having formerly measured most part of this Tribe with their military motions The Philistines marching first from Shunem to Aphek thence to Iezreel backward and forward to finde an advantageous place for fight thence to mount Gilboa where they encountred and conquered the Israelites in battell Saul being here grievously wounded desired his Armour-bearer to slay him who refused it as bearing his Armes for the defence not destruction of his Master Hereupon Saul slew himself and his Armour-bearer followed his example Both which having since cast up their Audit can tell what is gotten by the prodigall thrift of throwing away ones life to prevent the losing thereof Then a fourfold division was made of what remained of Saul His head sent into the land of the Philistines body hung up upon the walls of Bethshean Armour offered in the Temple of Ashtaroth Crown and bracelets brought by the Amalekite to King David For though his tongue spake lies his hands told truth presenting the very regalia of King Saul Wonder not that Saul should weare these ornaments in battell where an helmet had been more proper then a Crown seeing we read in our English Chronicles that in Bosworth-fight King Richards Crown-ornamentall was found among the spoiles in the field and then and there set by the Lord Stanley on the head of King Henry the seventh § 23. David on this dysaster of Sauls death cursed Mount Gilboa Let there be no dew or rain upon you But Brochardus travelling over them Anno Dom. 1283. found and felt both being well wetted in his journey What! were
digged and doe nothing unworthy of that honourable parentage whence you are derived Far be it from your Honour to be listed among those noble men of whom it may be said in a sad sense that they are very highly descended as being come down many degrees from the worth and virtues of their noble Progenitors To conclude then with Theophilus with whom I began It is observable of him that though styled most excellent by Saint Luke in his Gospell yet in the Book of the Acts which was written many years after he calls him onely Theophilus without any honourable addition What Had Saint Luke in process of time less civility or Theophilus with more age less Nobility Surely neither but Saint Luke may be presumed purposely to wave his titles out of compliance to the temper of Theophilus who in his reduced age grew weary of worldly pompe more pleased to have the truth of honour fixed within him then hear the titles thereof fastned upon him according to the Analogie of the Apostles preâ—ept Let him that hath honour be as if he had it not Thus the longer your Lordship shall live the less you will delight in outward state and daily discover the vanity thereof especially in your old age your soul will grow sensible that nothing can satisfie it which is less then Grace or Glory or God himself To whose protection you are committed by the daily prayer of him who is Your Honours most humble servant THO. FULLER Waltham Abbey Iuly 16. 1650. Here followeth the Map of Mount Libanus THE DESCRIPTION OF MOVNT LIBANVS and the adjacent Countreys The fourth Book CHAP. I. § 1. SO much for the Iewel Palestine it self Now for the Case thereof namely the neighbouring Countreys which surrounded it Onely herein the Simile holds not because Cases serve as to compass so to preserve and defend the Jewell whereas these bordering nations were sworn enemies to oppose and destroy the land and people of Palestine The most quiet neighbour Iudea had was the Midland sea on the west side thereof which though sometimes as the Psalmist observes it would rage horribly yet generally it was more peaceable and serviceable then the Pagans which bounded them on all other quarters as namely 1 In Syria on the north Giblites Arvadites Aramites c. 2 In Arabia on the east and south-east Ammonites Moabites Ismaelites Midianites 3 In Egypt and the wilderness of the south Edomites Amalekites Egyptians c. So that the Iews to finde faithfull friends must not look about them but above them even to heaven whence all their safety was derived § 2. For the present we are to describe mount Libanus or Lebanon with the parts of Syria confining thereunto A mountain which some will have so named from Frankincense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek whereof great plenty groweth there Yet seeing it is usuall for Parents to give names to their children not children to their Parents more probable it is that Frankincense is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from this mountain breeding store thereof then that the mountain should be named Libanus from Frankincense growing therein § 3. But whilst humane writers are best pleased with this Greek extraction of Libanus more conformable to Scripture is the Hebrew Etymology thereof from Whiteness because the faithfull snow forsakes not the top of this mountain no not when persecuted by the Sun in the dog-days but remains there all the year long A pleasant sight at the same time to have Winter on the top and Sommer at the bottome of one and the same mountain Excellent the use of this snow in these hot climats the Prophet mentioning it as most welcome and precious Will a man leave the snow in Lebanon wherewith the Tyrians and neighbouring nations used to allay and mixe their wines so making the Torrid and Frozen Zone to meet in the Temperate more healthfull for their Constitutions § 4. Lebanon was a place so pleasant that an Epicure therein might feed all his senses to a surfeit 1 Sight The â—pouse saith of Christ His countenance is as Lebanon where most delightfull is the prospect with high hills humble dales sweet rivers shady groves No wonder then if Ptolemy placeth Paradise a City hereabouts where what Poets can fancy Nature hath performed 2 Smell Such the fragrancy of flowers Gummes and Spices thereon perfuming the aire round about His smell is as the smell of Lebanon 3 Hearing For besides the melody wrabled forth by the sweet Choristers of the wood pleasant it was to listen to the complaints which the Rivers murmuring made against the Rocks for wronging them in obstructing their channels whose complaints therein were so far from finding pity in mens hearts that they onely lulled their heads the sooner and faster asâ—eep 4 Taste Touch. Such the most delicious fruits and liquors this mountain affords Vinum C.O.S. The sent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon Galen also reporteth that yearly in mount Libanus husbandmen used to sing God raineth hony at which time they spread hides on the ground and from the boughs of trees shook into them the hony dropt from heaven called therefore mel roscidum aereum filling pots and pitchers with the same No wonder then that Moses made it his earnest request to take this place in his way to heaven I pray thee let me goe over and see the good land which is beyond Iordan that goodly mountain and Lebanon As if his soul more conveniently might take his rise from the top thereof to eternall blisse and be the better provided to entertain endless happiness when first he had sipt some drops of the same in delightfull Lebanon the temporall type thereof § 5. It will perchance be objected against the fertility of this place that the Prophet foretelleth Is it not yet a very little while and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitfull field Where its future conversion into fruitfulness seemingly implies the present barrenness thereof But here we must distinguish betwixt field and forest fruitfulness The former is composed of the concurrence of art and industry with nature the latter onely takes what nature tenders without any toile to improve the same wherein Libanus already did exceed But now the Prophet foretells besides this wild and native an elaborate and artificiall fertility likely to befall this mountain namely in the speedy and universall alteration of things in Israel when champian fields for fear should be forsaken and husbandmen for their security retire with their tillage to mount Lebanon Thus much for this fair and fruitfull place full of goodly trees wild and tame beasts in abundance and yet when measured by an infinite majesty Lebanon is not sufficient for him to burn nor all the beasts thereof of sufficient for a burnt offering § 6. Having largely praised this place enough to set all the neighbouring Princes at variance about the propriety thereof it is now high time
to inquire to whom the right thereof did belong Here we finde an undoubted evidence that the same by a double title perteined to the land and people of Israel 1 As a fence to the vineyard 2 As a Common to a City As a fence to a vineyard So the Prophet in his Parable And be fenced it and gathered out the stones thereof Now although this fencing principally refers to Gods protection over the Iews yet is it not unappliable to the naturall posture of their countrey hem'd in with mount Libanus on the north Secondly if we conceive all Iudea under the notion of a great city Lebanon was a Common assigned thereunto and ALL LEBANON towards the Sunrising And though probably the neighbouring Tribes Asher Naphtali and Dan did reap the most benefit thereby yet all the rest are presumed to have a right both in the herbage for their profit and wild beasts for their pleasure However either with or without the leave of Israel the Hivites and Archites whose city Archa is by Ptolemy placed hereabouts made bold to share with them in the commodities of this mountain Here grew the goodly Cedars of whose severall kindes some bearing fruit without flowers others bringing flowers without fruit manner of growing having streight and clean bodies to the top and there a tuft of boughs and leaves where should the haire be but on the head naturall qualities or supernaturall rather because said to be free from corruption and therefore used to make the statues of the Gods the Philosopher will give the best account to whose reports we remit the Reader § 7. Forget we not that humane writers make a division of the mountain calling the northern ledge thereof Libanus the southern Anti-Libanus whereas the Scriptures taking no notice of this distinction express both under the generall name of Libanus § 8. And now to climbe this mountain behold it every where scattered with Solomons workmen some bearing of burdens Better to carry the meanest materiall to the Temple of God then carve the most curious pieces for the tower of Babel some hewing of stones all busied either with their hands as labourers or eyes as overseers No hole left for idleness to peep in at but presently she was perceived and punished I hope without offence one may wish them God speed the rather because he that hewed timber afore out of the thick trees was known to bring it to an excellent work but now they break down all the work thereof with axes and hammers § 9. It is now high time that leaving the generall description of Libanus we come to survay the severall places on or near thereunto In the southwest side thereof near Zidon and the sea lay the land of Cabul which Solomon gave to Hiram King of Tyre for the cost and charge he was at in building the Temple Hereby it appears that this territory though lying in Galilee was no part of the Land of Canaan it being above the power of the Kings of Israel to alienate any parcell thereof But though it was unlawfull to take the childrens bread and cast it unto dogs yet the crust and parings thereof might be given them to which this Land of Cabul may well be compared being so course and base a Countrey that it little contented King Hiram who therefore called it Cabul that is dirty or displeasing It may seem strange that Solomon who in other things consulted with his honour and magnificence and to whom God gave a large heart should herein have so narrow a hand as not to give Hiram a friend and forein Prince full consideration who so freely had furnished him with all necessaries for his building But 1 Haply Solomon beheld Hiram as a Homager unto him holding the kingdome of Tyre from the Crown of Israel And if so then all he did was but his duty and fully rewarded in Solomons favourable acceptance thereof 2 Solomon might conceive Hirams expences sufficiently satisfied in allowing his men such a vast proportion of yearly provision so these cities were given him not in compensation of the charge but as an overplus and meer gratuity For which Hiram ought to be thankfull because so good not displeased because no better 3 Most probable it is that absolute need and no other reason made Solomon fall short in satisfying Hirams expectation His treasure being much exhausted excess will begger wealth it self by his sumptuous structures The same necessitous principles which caused his intolerable taxes on his own people might also make him against his own will and generous disposition faile in rewarding the full deserts of Hiram It is some contentment unto us that though we know not the severall names yet the Scripture acquaints us with the exact number of the cities in Cabul-land being twenty in all as in our Map we have reckoned them accordingly § 10. But here some will be very much startled that this land of Cabul should so lately receive this denomination from Hirams displeasure whereas we finde it so called four hundred years before in the book of Ioshua where the borders of the Tribe of Asher are thus assigned they goe out to Cabul on the left hand To satisfie which seeming difficulty we must know that though the book of Ioshua contains matter of far more ancient date yet it was written by holy-men of God after the days of David and probably in the reign of Solomon This appears because in Ioshua mention is made of the book of Iasher wherein the standing still of the Sun and Moon was recorded and that book of Iasher was penned after Davids reign because therein Davids acts were also Chronicled § 11. Mount Libanus is overspread with the buildings of Solomon whereof some may be conceived the fragments made out of the Remnants and Reversions of the stone and timber left of what was provided for the Temple Yea probably some were platformes and modells to heighten and improve the skill and knowledge of his builders True it is in the making of the Tabernacle every Tenon board hook and socket were Iure Divino both by precept and precedent according to the pattern in the Mount but it was not so in the building of the Temple Therein God gave Solomon a large heart and furnished him with Hiram a skilfull workman but as for all particular proportions they were left at large for their wisdomes to contrive It may therefore with much likelyhood be conceived that to better their knowledge in Architecture for the Temple some slight buildings in Libanon were erected which afterwards might serve Solomon for privacy and pleasure retirement and recreation And seeing Solomon took his naturall history from the Cedar that growes in Lebanon to the Moss on the wall haply he might study in some of these buildings where Cedars and other simples were presented unto him being best able to comment on Natures works when he saw the text before his