to offer the Barley Sheaf of the first fruits in March and a Cake of Wheat Flower but at the end of Pentecost Consonant unto the practice of the Aegyptians who as Theophrastus delivereth sowed their Barley early in reference to their first Fruits and also the common rural practice recorded by the same Authour Maturè seritur Triticum Hordeum quod etiam maturius seritur Wheat and Barley are sowed early but Barley earlier of the two Flax was also an early Plant as may be illustrated from the neighbour Country of Canaan For the Israelites kept the Passeover in Gilgal in the fourteenth day of the first Month answering unto part of our March having newly passed Jordan And the Spies which were sent from Shittim unto Jericho not many days before were hid by Rahab under the stalks of Flax which lay drying on the top of her House which sheweth that the Flax was already and newly gathered For this was the first preparation of Flax and before fluviation or rotting which after Pliny's account was after Wheat Harvest But the Wheat and the Rye were not smitten for they were not grown up The Original signifies that it was hidden or dark the Vulgar and Septuagint that it was serotinous or late and our old Translation that it was late sown And so the expression and interposition of Moses who well understood the Husbandry of Aegypt might Emphatically declare the state of Wheat and Rye in that particular year and if so the same is solvable from the time of the floud of Nilus and the measure of its inundation For if it were very high and over-drenching the ground they were forced to later Seed-time and so the Wheat and the Rye escaped for they were more slowly growing Grains and by reason of the greater inundation of the River were sown later than ordinary that year especially in the Plains near the River where the ground drieth latest Some think the plagues of Aegypt were acted in one Month others but in the compass of twelve In the delivery of Scripture there is no account of what time of the year or particular Month they fell out but the account of these Grains which were either smitten or escaped make the plague of Hail to have probably hapned in February This may be collected from the new and old account of the Seed time and Harvest in Aegypt For according to the account of Radzevil the River rising in June and the Banks being cut in September they sow about S. Andrews when the Floud is retired and the moderate driness of the ground permitteth So that the Barley anticipating the Wheat either in time of sowing or growing might be in Ear in February The account of Pliny is little different They cast the Seed upon the Slime and Mudd when the River is down which commonly happeneth in the beginning of November They begin to reap and cut down a little before the Calends of April about the middle of March and in the Month of May their Harvest is in So that Barley anticipating Wheat it might be in Ear in February and Wheat not yet grown up at least to the Spindle or Ear to be destroyed by the Hail For they cut down about the middle of March at least their forward Corns and in the Month of May all sorts of Corns were in The turning of the River into Bloud shews in what Month this happened not That is not when the River had overflown for it is said the Aegyptians digged round about the River for Water to drink which they could not have done if the River had been out and the Fields under Water In the same Text you cannot without some hesitation pass over the translation of Rye which the Original nameth Cassumeth the Greek rendreth Olyra the French and Dutch Spelta the Latin Zea and not Secale the known word for Rye But this common Rye so well understood at present was not distinctly described or not well known from early Antiquity And therefore in this uncertainty some have thought it to have been the Typha of the Ancients Cordus will have it to be Olyra and Ruellius some kind of Oryza But having no vulgar and well known name for those Grains we warily embrace an appellation of near affinity and tolerably render it Rye While Flax Barley Wheat and Rye are named some may wonder why no mention is made of Ryce wherewith at present Aegypt so much aboundeth But whether that Plant grew so early in that Country some doubt may be made for Ryce is originally a Grain of India and might not then be transplanted into Aegypt 36. Let them become as the Grass growing upon the House top which withereth before it be plucked up whereof the mower filleth not his hand nor he that bindeth Sheaves his bosome Though the filling of the hand and mention of Sheaves of Hay may seem strange unto us who use neither handfulls nor Sheaves in that kind of Husbandry yet may it be properly taken and you are not like to doubt thereof who may find the like expressions in the Authours de Re rustica concerning the old way of this Husbandry Columella delivering what Works were not to be permitted upon the Roman Feriae or Festivals among others sets down that upon such days it was not lawfull to carry or bind up Hay nec foenum vincire nec vehere per religiones Pontificum licet Marcus Varro is more particular Primum de pratis herbarum cum crescere desiit subsecari falcibus debet quoad peracescat furcillis versari cum peracuit de his manipulos fieri vehi in villam And their course of mowing seems somewhat different from ours For they cut not down clear at once but used an after section which they peculiarly called Sicilitium according as the word is expounded by Georgius Alexandrinus and Beroaldus after Pliny Sicilire est falcibus consectari quae foenisecae praeterierunt aut ea secare quae foenisecae praeterierunt 37. When 't is said that Elias lay and slept under a Juniper Tree some may wonder how that Tree which in our parts groweth but low and shrubby should afford him shade and covering But others know that there is a lesser and a larger kind of that Vegetable that it makes a Tree in its proper soil and region And may find in Pliny that in the Temple of Diana Saguntina in Spain the Rafters were made of Juniper In that expression of David Sharp Arrows of the mighty with Coals of Juniper Though Juniper be left out in the last Translation yet may there be an Emphatical sense from that word since Juniper abounds with a piercing Oil and makes a smart Fire And the rather if that quality be half true which Pliny affirmeth that the Coals of Juniper raked up will keep a glowing Fire for the space of a year For so the expression will Emphatically imply not onely the smart burning but the lasting fire of
savour may be allowed denotable from several humane expressions and the practice of the Ancients in putting the dried Flowers of the Vine into new Wine to give it a pure and flosculous race or spirit which Wine was therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 allowing unto every Cadus two pounds of dried Flowers And therefore the Vine flowering but in the Spring it cannot but seem an impertinent objection of the Jews that the Apostles were full of new Wine at Pentecost when it was not to be found Wherefore we may rather conceive that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that place implied not new Wine or Must but some generous strong and sweet Wine wherein more especially lay the power of inebriation But if it be to be taken for some kind of Must it might be some kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or long-lasting Must which might be had at any time of the year and which as Pliny delivereth they made by hindring and keeping the Must from fermentation or working and so it kept soft and sweet for no small time after 22. When the Dove sent out of the Ark return'd with a green Olive Leaf according to the Original how the Leaf after ten Months and under water should still maintain a verdure or greenness need not much amuse the Reader if we consider that the Olive Tree is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or continually green that the Leaves are of a bitter taste and of a fast and lasting substance Since we also find fresh and green Leaves among the Olives which we receive from remote Countries and since the Plants at the bottom of the Sea and on the sides of Rocks maintain a deep and fresh verdure How the Tree should stand so long in the Deluge under Water may partly be allowed from the uncertain determination of the Flows and Currents of that time and the qualification of the saltness of the Sea by the admixture of fresh Water when the whole watery Element was together And it may be signally illustrated from the like examples in Theophrastus and Pliny in words to this effect Even the Sea affordeth Shrubs and Trees In the red Sea whole Woods do live namely of Bays and Olives bearing Fruit. The Souldiers of Alexander who sailed into India made report that the Tides were so high in some Islands that they overflowed and covered the Woods as high as Plane and Poplar Trees The lower sort wholly the greater all but the tops whereto the Mariners fastned their Vessels at high Waters and at the root in the Ebb That the Leaves of these Sea Trees while under water looked green but taken out presently dried with the heat of the Sun The like is delivered by Theophrastus that some Oaks do grow and bear Acrons under the Sea 23. The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a grain of Mustard-seed which a Man took and sowed in his Field which indeed is the least of all Seeds but when 't is grown is the greatest among Herbs and becometh a Tree so that the Birds of the Air come and lodge in the Branches thereof Luke 13. 19. It is like a grain of Mustard-seed which a Man took and cast it into his Garden and it waxed a great Tree and the Fowls of the Air lodged in the Branches thereof This expression by a grain of Mustard-seed will not seem so strange unto you who well consider it That it is simply the least of Seeds you cannot apprehend if you have beheld the Seeds of Rapunculus Marjorane Tobacco and the smallest Seed of Lunaria But you may well understand it to be the smallest Seed among Herbs which produce so big a Plant or the least of herbal Plants which arise unto such a proportion implied in the expression the smallest of Seeds and becometh the greatest of Herbs And you may also grant that it is the smallest of Seeds of Plants apt to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 arborescere fruticescere or to grow unto a ligneous substance and from an herby and oleraceous Vegetable to become a kind of Tree and to be accounted among the Dendrolachana or Arboroleracea as upon strong Seed Culture and good Ground is observable in some Cabbages Mallows and many more and therefore expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it becometh a Tree or arborescit as Beza rendreth it Nor if warily considered doth the expression contain such difficulty For the Parable may not ground it self upon generals or imply any or every grain of Mustard but point at such a grain as from its fertile spirit and other concurrent advantages hath the success to become arboreous shoot into such a magnitude and acquire the like tallness And unto such a Grain the Kingdom of Heaven is likened which from such slender beginnings shall find such increase and grandeur The expression also that it might grow into such dimensions that Birds might lodge in the Branches thereof may be literally conceived if we allow the luxuriancy of Plants in Judaea above our Northern Regions If we accept of but half the Story taken notice of by Tremellius from the Jerusalem Talmud of a Mustard Tree that was to be climbed like a Figg Tree and of another under whose shade a Potter daily wrought and it may somewhat abate our doubts if we take in the advertisement of Herodotus concerning lesser Plants of Milium and Sesamum in the Babylonian Soil Milium ac Sesamum in proceritatem instar arborum crescere etsi mihi compertum tamen memorare supersedeo probè sciens eis qui nunquam Babyloniam regionem adierunt perquam incredibile visum iri We may likewise consider that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not necessarily signifie making a Nest but rather sitting roosting covering and resting in the Boughs according as the same word is used by the Septuagint in other places as the Vulgar rendreth it in this inhabitant as our Translation lodgeth and the Rhemish resteth in the Branches 24. And it came to pass that on the morrow Moses went into the Tabernacle of witness and behold the Rod of Aaron for the House of Levi was budded and brought forth Buds and bloomed Blossomes and yielded Almonds In the contention of the Tribes and decision of priority and primogeniture of Aaron declared by the Rod which in a night budded flowred and brought forth Almonds you cannot but apprehend a propriety in the Miracle from that species of Tree which leadeth in the Vernal germination of the year unto all the Classes of Trees and so apprehend how properly in a night and short space of time the Miracle arose and somewhat answerable unto its nature the Flowers and Fruit appeared in this precocious Tree and whose original Name implies such speedy efflorescence as in its proper nature flowering in February and shewing its Fruit in March This consideration of that Tree maketh the expression in Jeremy more Emphatical when 't is said What seest
thou and he said A Rod of an Almond Tree Then said the Lord unto me Thou hast well seen for I will hasten the Word to perform it I will be quick and forward like the Almond Tree to produce the effects of my word and hasten to display my judgments upon them And we may hereby more easily apprehend the expression in Ecclesiastes When the Almond Tree shall flourish That is when the Head which is the prime part and first sheweth it self in the world shall grow white like the Flowers of the Almond Tree whose Fruit as Athenaeus delivereth was first called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Head from some resemblance and covering parts of it How properly the priority was confirmed by a Rod or Staff and why the Rods and Staffs of the Princes were chosen for this decision Philologists will consider For these were the badges signs and cognisances of their places and were a kind of Sceptre in their hands denoting their supereminencies The Staff of Divinity is ordinarily described in the hands of Gods and Goddesses in old draughts Trojan and Grecian Princes were not without the like whereof the Shoulders of Thersites felt from the hands of Ulysses Achilles in Homer as by a desperate Oath swears by his wooden Sceptre which should never bud nor bear Leaves again which seeming the greatest impossibility to him advanceth the Miracle of Aaron's Rod And if it could be well made out that Homer had seen the Books of Moses in that expression of Achilles he might allude unto this Miracle That power which proposed the experiment by Blossomes in the Rod added also the Fruit of Almonds the Text not strictly making out the Leaves and so omitting the middle germination the Leaves properly coming after the Flowers and before the Almonds And therefore if you have well perused Medals you cannot but observe how in the impress of many Shekels which pass among us by the name of the Jerusalem Shekels the Rod of Aaron is improperly laden with many Leaves whereas that which is shewn under the name of the Samaritan Shekel seems most conformable unto the Text which describeth the Fruit without Leaves 25. Binding his Foal unto the Vine and his Asses Colt unto the choice Vine That Vines which are commonly supported should grow so large and bulky as to be fit to fasten their Juments and Beasts of labour unto them may seem a hard expression unto many which notwithstanding may easily be admitted if we consider the account of Pliny that in many places out of Italy Vines do grow without any stay or support nor will it be otherwise conceived of lusty Vines if we call to mind how the same Authour delivereth that the Statua of Jupiter was made out of a Vine and that out of one single Cyprian Vine a Scale or Ladder was made that reached unto the Roof of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus 26. I was exalted as a Palm Tree in Engaddi and as a Rose Plant in Jericho That the Rose of Jericho or that Plant which passeth among us under that denomination was signified in this Text you are not like to apprehend with some who also name it the Rose of S. Mary and deliver that it openeth the Branches and Flowers upon the Eve of our Saviour's Nativity But rather conceive it some proper kind of Rose which thrived and prospered in Jericho more than in the neighbour Countries For our Rose of Jericho is a very low and hard Plant a few inches above the ground one whereof brought from Judaea I have kept by me many years nothing resembling a Rose Tree either in Flowers Branches Leaves or Gorwth and so improper to answer the Emphatical word of exaltation in the Text growing not onely about Jericho but other parts of Judaea and Arabia as Bellonius hath observed which being a drie and ligneous Plant is preserved many years and though crumpled and furdled up yet if infused in Water will swell and display its parts 27. Quasi Terebinthus extendi ramos when it is said in the same Chapter as a Turpentine Tree have I stretched out my Branches it will not seem strange unto such as have either seen that Tree or examined its description For it is a Plant that widely displayeth its Branches And though in some European Countries it be but of a low and fruticeous growth yet Pliny observeth that it is great in Syria and so allowably or at least not improperly mentioned in the expression of Hosea according to the Vulgar Translation Super capita montium sacrificant c. sub quercu populo terebintho quoniam bona est umbra ejus And this diffusion and spreading of its Branches hath afforded the Proverb of Terebintho stultior appliable unto arrogant or boasting persons who spread and display their own acts as Erasmus hath observed 28. It is said in our Translation Saul tarried in the uppermost parts of Gibeah under a Pomegranate Tree which is in Migron and the people which were with him were about six hundred men And when it is said in some Latin Translations Saul morabatur fixo tentorio sub Malogranato you will not be ready to take it in the common literal sense who know that a Pomegranate Tree is but low of growth and very unfit to pitch a Tent under it and may rather apprehend it as the name of a place or the Rock of Rimmon or Pomegranate so named from Pomegranates which grew there and which many think to have been the same place mentioned in Judges 29. It is said in the Book of Wisedom Where water stood before drie land appeared and out of the red Sea a way appeared without impediment and out of the violent streams a green Field or as the Latin renders it Campus germinans de profundo whereby it seems implied that the Israelites passed over a green Field at the bottom of the Sea and though most would have this but a Metaphorical expression yet may it be literally tolerable and so may be safely apprehended by those that sensibly know what great number of Vegetables as the several varieties of Alga's Sea Lettuce Phasganium Conferua Caulis Marina Abies Erica Tamarice divers sorts of Muscus Fucus Quercus Marina and Corallins are found at the bottom of the Sea Since it is also now well known that the Western Ocean for many degrees is covered with Sargasso or Lenticula Marina and found to arise from the bottom of that Sea since upon the coast of Provence by the Isles of Ere 's there is a part of the Mediterranean Sea called la Prery or the Meadowy Sea from the bottom thereof so plentifully covered with Plants since vast heaps of Weeds are found in the Bellies of some Whales taken in the Northern Ocean and at a great distance from the Shore And since the providence of Nature hath provided this shelter for minor Fishes both for their spawn and safety of their young ones
English Occidit heu tandem multos quae occidit amantes Et cinis est hodie quae fuit ignis heri My occasions make me to take off my Pen. I am c. TRACT VIII OF LANGUAGES And particularly of the SAXON TONGUE SIR THE last Discourse we had of the Saxon Tongue recalled to my mind some forgotten considerations Though the Earth were widely peopled before the Flood as many learned men conceive yet whether after a large dispersion and the space of sixteen hundred years men maintained so uniform a Language in all parts as to be strictly of one Tongue and readily to understand each other may very well be doubted For though the World preserved in the Family of Noah before the confusion of Tongues might be said to be of one Lip yet even permitted to themselves their humours inventions necessities and new objects without the miracle of Confusion at first in so long a tract of time there had probably been a Babel For whether America were first peopled by one or several Nations yet cannot that number of different planting Nations answer the multiplicity of their present different Languages of no affinity unto each other and even in their Northern Nations and incommunicating Angles their Languages are widely differing A native Interpreter brought from Califormia proved of no use unto the Spaniards upon the neighbour Shore From Chiapa to Guatemala S. Salvador Honduras there are at least eighteen several Languages and so numerous are they both in the Peruvian and Mexican Regions that the great Princes are fain to have one common Language which besides their vernaculous and Mother Tongues may serve for commerce between them And since the confusion of Tongues at first fell onely upon those which were present in Sinaar at the work of Babel whether the primitive Language from Noah were onely preserved in the Family of Heber and not also in divers others which might be absent at the same whether all came away and many might not be left behind in their first Plantations about the foot of the Hills whereabout the Ark rested and Noah became an Husbandman is not absurdly doubted For so the primitive Tongue might in time branch out into several parts of Europe and Asia and thereby the first or Hebrew Tongue which seems to be ingredient into so many Languages might have larger originals and grounds of its communication and traduction than from the Family of Abraham the Country of Canaan and words contained in the Bible which come short of the full of that Language And this would become more probable from the Septuagint or Greek Chronology strenuously asserted by Vossius for making five hundred years between the Deluge and the days of Peleg there ariseth a large latitude of multiplication and dispersion of People into several parts before the descent of that Body which followed Nimrod unto Sinaar from the East They who derive the bulk of European Tongues from the Scythian and the Greek though they may speak probably in many points yet must needs allow vast difference or corruptions from so few originals which however might be tolerably made out in the old Saxon yet hath time much confounded the clearer derivations And as the knowledge thereof now stands in reference unto our selves I find many words totally lost divers of harsh sound disused or refined in the pronunciation and many words we have also in common use not to be found in that Tongue or venially derivable from any other from whence we have largely borrowed and yet so much still remaineth with us that it maketh the gross of our Language The religious obligation unto the Hebrew Language hath so notably continued the same that it might still be understood by Abraham whereas by the Mazorite Points and Chaldee Character the old Letter stands so transformed that if Moses were alive again he must be taught to reade his own Law The Chinoys who live at the bounds of the Earth who have admitted little communication and suffered successive incursions from one Nation may possibly give account of a very ancient Language but consisting of many Nations and Tongues confusion admixtion and corruption in length of time might probably so have crept in as without the virtue of a common Character and lasting Letter of things they could never probably make out those strange memorials which they pretend while they still make use of the Works of their great Confutius many hundred years before Christ and in a series ascend as high as Poncuus who is conceived our Noah The present Welch and remnant of the old Britanes hold so much of that ancient Language that they make a shift to understand the Poems of Merlin Enerin Telesin a thousand years ago whereas the Herulian Pater Noster set down by Wolfgangus Lazius is not without much criticism made out and but in some words and the present Parisians can hardly hack out those few lines of the League between Charles and Lewis the Sons of Ludovicus Pius yet remaining in old French The Spaniards in their corruptive traduction and Romance have so happily retained the terminations from the Latin that notwithstanding the Gothick and Moorish intrusion of words they are able to make a Discourse completely consisting of Grammatical Latin and Spanish wherein the Italians and French will be very much to seek The learned Casaubon conceiveth that a Dialogue might be composed in Saxon onely of such words as are derivable from the Greek which surely might be effected and so as the learned might not uneasily find it out Verstegan made no doubt that he could contrive a Letter which might be understood by the English Dutch and East Frislander which as the present confusion standeth might have proved no very clear Piece and hardly to be hammer'd out yet so much of the Saxon still remaineth in our English as may admit an orderly discourse and series of good sense such as not onely the present English but Aelfric Bede and Alured might understand after so many hundred years Nations that live promiscuously under the Power and Laws of Conquest do seldom escape the loss of their Language with their Liberties wherein the Romans were so strict that the Grecians were fain to conform in their judicial Processes which made the Jews loose more in seventy years dispersion in the Provinces of Babylon than in many hundred in their distinct habitation in Aegypt and the English which dwelt dispersedly to loose their Language in Ireland whereas more tolerable reliques there are thereof in Fingall where they were closely and almost solely planted and the Moors which were most huddled together and united about Granada have yet left their Arvirage among the Granadian Spaniards But shut up in Angles and inaccessible corners divided by Laws and Manners they often continue long with little mixture which hath afforded that lasting life unto the Cantabrian and British Tongue wherein the Britanes are remarkable who having lived four hundred years together with the Romans retained