escape our observation namely Baal-hazor where Absolom sheared his sheep If any demand how he came by any land in this Tribe to feed cattell therein no doubt he held it by gift or grant from David his Father and how David when King became possessed of demesnes in all Tribes hath formerly been largely resolved Nor was it any disgrace to a Kings son to be master of sheep seeing the King himself is maintained by husbandry As commendable the thrift so damnable the cruelty of Absolom in this place causing the murder of his brother Amnon just when his heart was merry with wine as if his wild revenge would imitate divine justice to kill both body and soul together This Amnon was he that feigned himself sick when he was well and now dyed before he was sick § 58. Let Archelais not be forgotten half ashamed to bear the name of wicked Archelaus the builder thereof son and successour of Herod in Iudea whose cruelty frighted Ioseph from returning to Beth-lehem and diverted him to Nazareth As Archelais took its name from a wicked man so Iscariot a village not far from it gave name to a worse that traitour of his Master being born in this place as Adrichomius out of Saint Hierome will have it But other reasons are rendered of Iudas his syrname and the place of his exemplary death is more certainly known then that of his obscure nativity As for Apollonia by the sea side Addida over against the plain with some other petite places in Ephraim they are well known by their severall markes not to be mentioned in Canonicall Scripture § 59. The Son of Hur was Solomons monethly Purveyour in mount Ephraim The standard of Ephraim was pitched first on the west side of the Tabernacle Armes anciently depicted thereon an Oxe sable passant in a field argent founded on Moses his words His beauty shall be like the firstling of a bullock to which we may ad the prophecy of Hosea Ephraim is as an heifer that is taught and loveth to tread out the Corn. Which perchance gave occasion to the postnate armes usually assigned to this Tribe though later by twelve hundred years then their ancient standard erected in the wilderness Here the Map of DAN is to be inserted THE TRIBE OF DAN CHAP. 10. § 1. DAN was eldest Son of Iacob by Bilhah Rahels maide and his concubine Of his body but one Hushim went down into Egypt yet of his Posterity came forth thence no fewer then threescore and two thousand and seven hundred males of twenty years old and upwards all which falling in the wilderness for their faithlesness in Gods promises threescore and four thousand and four hundred entered the land of Canaan § 2. There passeth a generall tradition taken up by some Fathers continued by some middle to modern Popish writers that the Antichrist should descend of the Tribe of Dan. And why conceive or conceit they rather so uncharitably of this Tribe Confess we that Dan hears ill on severall occasions in the Scripture 1 Dan Father of this Tribe had a foul mouth which made Ioseph bring in a complaint thereof to Iacob 2 The first personall blasphemy recorded amongst the Israelites was committed by a Mongrell Danite being the son of Shelomith for which he was stoned 3 The first tribuall defection to idolatry Dan was guilty of publickly setting up and worshipping a graven Image 4 A moity of the nationall apostasie of the Idolatrous Iews was solemnely acted on the theatre of this Tribe one of Ieroboams golden calves being set up at Dan. 5 When twelve thousand of Gods sealed ones are reckoned up out of every Tribe Dan is omitted as consigned to malediction say some as formerly in the first of Chronicles no mention of Dan where the genealogies of all other Tribes are recounted The reader may judge whether these roots be deep enough to bring and beare the branches of so far spread report that therefore the Man of sin must derive his pedegree from this Tribe Little probability of Antichrist coming from Dan literall long since carried captive with the rest of his brethren into Africa but as for Dan mysticall many have sought and many conceive they have found him in another and nearer place But leaving the uncertainties of Antichrist most sure it is that Samson one of the liveliest types of Christ was descended of Dan. And so was Aholiab that excellent artist who was joint master of the fabrick of the Tabernacle as Hiram also in the work of the Temple was a Danite on the mothers side § 3. The land allotted to Dan seems for the most part first to fall to the share of Iudah at the partition of the Countrey And because the bounds of Iudah were too great the surplusage thereof by a new grant was made over to the Danites Some will wonder that God who divided Manna so equally a homer for every man should part the land so unevenly that one Tribe should leave and another lack so that the thirst of Simeon and Dan was quenched with those few drops which overflowed out of the cup of Iudah May such remember Iudah was the Princely Tribe out of which Messiah was to arise and his portion cut out in state leaving the superfluous reversions thereof to others may typifie Christ himself who is anointed with oile of gladness above his fellows of whose fulness not onely of sufficiency and abundance but even of redundance we have all received grace for grace Nor will the reader be moved when he finds some cities ensuing sometimes mentioned as belonging to Iudah other whiles to Dan because to the former by originall assignation and to the latter by actuall possession § 4. This Countrey was bounded with Ephraim on the north Iudah on the east Simeon on the south and the Mid-land-sea on the west From above Lydda to the brook Soreck some thirty miles and litle less east and west from the sea to the edge of Iudah A land at the best but half Iudah's leavings and that not entirely possessed of the Danites For herein the Amorites did both cut and chuse for themselves reserving the fat and flesh thereof all the fruitfull valley for their own use whilest the Danites were glad to pick the bones crowded up into the mountains Besides three of the Satrapies of the Philistines are found in this Tribe A puissant nation and at deadly fewd with the people of Israel This put the Danites on the necessity men over-pent will some way vent themselves of seeking new Quarters in that their memorable expedition whereof formerly in Nephthali If any aske why they did not endevour the enlargement of their bounds at home against the Amorites and Philistines before a far adventure an hundred miles off Let such know the designe was conceived easier suddenly to surprize the secure
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
attendance Coming a little past the top of the hill Ziba meets him with a couple of Asses loaden with bread Raisons summer fruits and wine for the refection of David and his company But ô the Bran in that Bread rottenness in those Raisons dregs in that wine he brought joining with them a false accusation of his Master Mephibosheth to be a Traitour whilest alass all the disloyalty that good man was guilty of was onely his lame legs his lying servant and his over credulous Soveraign David did rashly believe this information § 11. A little farther east-ward was Bahurim where Shimei Lord of that place cursed David casting stones and dust at him What meant the mad man thus to raile being within the reach of Davids Armies except he intended to vent out his venome and life together But causeless curses rebound on their Authors and Ziba's gifts did David more harm then Shimei's curses for those betrayed him to an act of injustice whilest these improved his patience Indeed his railing gave an Alarum to the martiall spirit of Abishai who desired a Commission to take off the head of this dead dog blood so let out in the neck vein is the soonest and speediest cure of such a traiterous Phrensie But David who desired not that Shimei should be killed for his words but rather that his own heart should be mortified by them by heavenly Logick à majore ad minus argued his own soul into humility that seeing his Son had conspired against him the ill words of an open Enemy ought patiently to be indured Well! Let Shimei know though he pass unpaid for the present yet either David himself or his Executors Administrators or Assignes shall one day see this debt duly discharged § 12. To this place of Bahurim Phaltiel the son of Laish followed Michal his or rather Davids wife weeping when David demanded the restitution of her as unjustly detained from him Wherefore all Phaltieâ—â— tears move no pity of mine Caveat raptor let him beware who violently takes another mans wife seeing shame and sorrow are the issue of such ungodly marriages Here in a mans Court at Bahurim Ionathan and Ahimaaz Davids Intelligencers were concealed in this manner an equivocating covering was spread on the ground pretending nothing but ground Corn laid upon it but having under it the reservation of a dry wel into which the messengers were put and by it a woman to manage the fallacy with the less suspicion she tells the pursuers after them that they were gone over the river which nigh Enrogell falls into Kidron ô that I could in the same instant commend her Loyalty and condemn her Lying which being impossible we must be contented successively first to praise her charity and then to protest against her falshood § 13. Come we now to survey the south parts of the Land of Moriah where we meet some seven miles from Ierusalem with the famous City of Bethlehem-Ephrath The first mention of this Place we finde was when Iacob near to it buried his beloved wife Rachel dying in child-bed This was that Rachel who said in her fury Give me children or else I dye as if she would have had them begotten conceived bred and born all in an instant and now she had not onely her fill but a surfet of her own wish had children and dyed It seems dying in child-bed her corps required speedy interment otherwise no doubt Iacob would have conveyed them to the Cave of Macpelah the solemn sepulcher of his family She was buried by the high way the ancient custome both of Iews and Heathen partly to minde passengers of their mortality and partly to preserve the memory of the dead the longer by so making their monument the more publick and visible Heathen used in like manner to interre their dead in high-ways yea their sepulchers served to measure the distances of places Hinc adeò media est nobis via namque sepulchrum Incipit apparere Bianoris Hence ev'n mid way it is for us for near Bianors Tomb beginneth to appear Nor is it amiss to observe that the self same place where Benjamin was born and his mother buried fell afterwards to the lot of the Benjamites as if Rachels body all the while had but kept possession for her posterity § 14. Bethlehem in Hebrew is the house of bread principally so called in reference to Christ the bread of life who in fulness of time was here to be born otherwise time was when in this house of bread little bread was to be had namely when God brake the staffe thereof in Israel by a ten years famine This caused Elimelech with his wife Naomi and her sons to remove into Moab whence after ten years stay she returned home to Bethlehem with Ruth her daughter-in-law who here became an extraordinary Gleaner on the field of Boaz. Here harvest being ended Ruth by the advice of Naomi went afterwards to glean a husband for her self and came in the night to the threshing floor of Boaz to challenge in him the right of the next kinsman some herein will censure her carriage to come at so unseasonable a time to surprize a man for her husband so that se defendendo to vindicate his credit he must be forced to marry her But let these dainty dames which condemn Ruth herein first follow her faithfulness in attending then imitate her industry in maintaining her mother-in-law and this done they will have less wanton thoughts in themselves and more charitable opinions of Ruth Besides in the innocence and simplicity of those days some passages might be harmelesly performed which in our age grown ripe in wit and riâ—e in wickedness carry with them more then the appearances of evill She brought forth here Obed the father of Iesse and grandfather of David § 15. David afterwards was born and keept sheep in Bethlehem therefore called the City of David here he made an experimentall syllogisme and from most practicall propositions Major a Lion Minor a Beare inferred the direct Conclusion that God would give him victory over Goliah Hence he was fetched from following the Ewes big with young to goe before the people of Israel and God intending to raise David high in honourable old age that the building might be the firmer laid the foundation thereof very low in his laborious and religious education Being then better imployed when thirsting after Gods honour then afterwards when not far from this place he fondly longed for the water of the well of Bethlehem which is by the gate the Philistines Army then encamping about it But it shall not be said that David desired what Davids subjects durst not perform three of his Worthies boldly marched through the midst of their enemies quickly draw safely beare back humbly present to their Soveraign this Aqua vitae the procuring whereof cost them the hazard of their lives But
his conversion but desirous of information zeal not being to be wrought but regulated not to be new gotten but right guided in them Lastly and chiefly the Spirit of God invisibly wrought on their souls Thus when the door of utterance or the opened mouth of the Minister meets with the door of Faith or entrance in the opened hearts of the people the Word makes miraculous improvement § 6. And now our Saviour had plentifully performed his promise He that beleeveth on me the works that I doe shall he doe also and greater works then these shall be doe for I goe to my Father as then put into a capacity more effectually to assist them as formerly but with his prayers then authoritatively with his power The Disciple by his Masters permission yea procurement proved above his Master in success Christ all his life long was angling for a few fishes but a hundred and twenty whilest Peter comes with his Drag-net and catcheth about three thousand in one day Amongst the reasons whereof consider 1 Christ was properly not to be the builder but the Foundation it self and therefore others were more happy in edification 2 He was to be humbled as with hunger thirst weariness shame and pain so with the heavy afflictions of long unprofitable preaching because of peoples unbeliefe 3 During his life the kingdome of heaven was but at hand which after his death and Ascension was in hand The broad gates of grace being then opened for multitudes to enter where few by especiall favour got in before by the Wicket We have insisted the longer on Saint Peters Sermon because it is the beginning of Ecclesiasticall History after Christs ascension which in Gods due time we are in some hope to finish by his assistance And that the foresaid Sermon was made in the Temple appears by the passage of their continuing daily with one accord in the Temple Intimating that they were formerly assembled in the same place § 7. Pass we by the other acts of the Apostles in the Temple onely we must not omit Solomons porch where they made their aboad And it is worth our inquiry where the same was placed § 8. First negatively it was not that porch of Solomons nor any other afterwards built of the same dimensions on the same floor mentioned in the Old Testament because 1 That was a part being the entrance of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Covered Temple Into which the disciples being no Priests might not enter 2 That porch had but twenty cubits in length and ten in breadth being so small that it could not contain the disciples and their company being above three thousand persons 3 That by the Septuagint is called UIam retaining always the Hebrew word not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as this Porch is called in the Greek tongue Rather therefore by this Porch we understand one side square or cloister of the great Court about the Temple § 9. Now seeing the same was surrounded with Courts on all sides the question is on which side thereof Solomons Porch was placed Here we had been utterly at a loss but for the seasonable help of Iosephus The people saith he perswaded the King Agrippa the younger to repair the east Porch or Cloister Now this Cloister was of the outward Temple standing over an exceeding deep valley raised upon a wall of four hundred cubits which was made of square white stones of twenty cubits long and six cubits high a piece the work of King Solomon who first built the Temple Whereby it appears that this Porch respected the east and was on each side of the entrance into the Temple § 10. But the greatest difficulty remains How came it to be called Solomons Porch did not he equally build all the first Temple Why therefore did this Porch as his darling beare his name above all the rest And which increaseth the difficulty seeing all that Temple was razed by the Babylonians following no doubt the cruell counsell of the Edomites Down with it down with it even to the ground how came this cloister of the second Temple in Christs time to retain the name of Solomons § 11. Some conceive this part stood undemolished by the Babylonians seeing that curse there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down was denounced against the second Temple not against Solomons some parcell whereof might be left standing But under favour I conceive it was particularly called Solomons-Porch because the very bottome or floor thereof being forced ground was by much expence made by Solomon and gained with great art and industry from the valley beneath so that even when the superstructure thereon was by the Babylonians levelled to the earth the admirable foundation that master-piece of art still remained preserved the memory and imparted the name of Solomon the founder thereof to that Cloister which in the second Temple was erected upon the same § 12. If any demand why the disciples made choice of this Porch above any other to make their residence therein severall considerations might move them thereunto 1 Because formerly handselled with our Saviours heavenly Sermon therein 2 Because of great capacity conveniently to receive them without prejudice to other peoples passage into the Temple 3 Because it was the first place that offered it self unto them at their entrance into the Temple Herein they observed some Analogy of Christs counsell In what place soever yee enter into a house there abide untill yee depart from that place Thus Solomons-porch being as I may say the first house in the house of God into which the disciples entered there they fixed themselves as no starters and fugitives but such as would stand to the doctrine they delivered § 13. So much of Solomons-porch onely let me adde that Capellus herein contrary to other learned men placeth Solomons-porch on the south side of the Temple mistaking it as we believe with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Cloister Royall which out of Iosephus indeed appears to have been largely built and beautified on the south-side of the Temple However we would not innovate or alter any thing in our map from the minde of Capellus though here in our description we presume to â—nter our dissenting from his opinion § 14. Pass we by many other intermediate acts of the Apostles and Disciples in the Temple Amongst all which none might lawfully avouch his entrance so far therein as â—arnabas being a Levite by his extraction and therefore legally priviledged in his approaches to the Altar it self Come we now to the last passage of Saint Paul in the Temple Last indeed it was likely to prove unto him and he lose his life therein on this occasion § 15. At the instance of some godly people he was perswaded to purifie himself thereby partly to
speed forth-right then the swiftest retrograde Cancer § 15. From the Red-sea they advanced to the wilderness of Sin For although the wilderness of Paran passeth for the genericall name of this whole desert yet it was subdivided into many petite wildernesses namely those of Shur Eham Sin Kadesh c. § 16. In the wilderness of Sin the Israelites fell a murmuring for food Here over night God gave them Quailes light supper-meat and easie of digestion being onely exceedings or a feast for a meale and next morning their ordinary or constant fare was delivered out unto them Manna rained from heaven Some conceive it so called from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Chaldee What or rather who from the question made by them at the first sight thereof But how came the Israelites newly come out of Egypt to speake the Chaldee language Egypt and Babylon the one the house of bondage the other the land of captivity though meeting in mischief against the children of God being in time and place far asunder Rather in Hebrew it signifieth a portion being their daily allowance or else food made ready prepared for them without their labour or industry It was no fragments of frankincense called Manna by Dioscorides and Galen no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or honey-dew nor any such mimicall drug being not food but physick called Manna at this day by the Apothecaries but a substance so solid that it would endure grinding and pounding in Mill and Mortar yet so friable that it melted at the rising of the Sun It fell six days and not on the seventh observed and inforced by some for the antiquity and morality of the Sabbath this happening before the giving of the fourth Commandement on mount Sinai § 17. Dim are their eyes who see not Christ typified therein Given freely of Gods goodness without any work or merit of man in a miraculous manner at first unknown what it was or whence it came for who shall declare his generation Equally belonging to all rich and poor sufficient for all white in colour so clear his innocence pleasant like honey so sweet are his benefits O taste and see that the Lord is good beaten and broken before eaten Christ on the Cross given onely in the wilderness ceasing as soon as they came into the land of promise as Sacraments shall expire when we enjoy the substance in heaven § 18. Hence they removed to Rephidim and there fall a murmuring for water Moses at Gods commandement smites the rock and water gushed forth Saint Paul addeth and the Rock followed them that is by a Metonymie the water issuing thence trailed after them in all their removealls In what state did the Israelites march having a pillar of fire before to usher and a stream of water their train-bearer behind them Both bad masters but then their good servants This latter though little observed was one cause of the long lingering of the Israelites in the wilderness the pillar conducting them such by-ways in levels or declivity of vales in that mountainous countrey where the water had a conveniency to be derived after them How many miles doth the artificiall new river make betwixt Ware and London finding out flats to expedite the passage thereof Indeed God could as easily have made this rock-water climbe and clamber mountains as lacquey at the heels of the Israelites though the one was but beside the other quite against nature but he would not causelesly multiply miracle on miracle How the water of this rock was afterwards suspended and another at Cadesh made successour in the room thereof shall in due time God willing be observed Rephidim by this ill accident of the peoples murmuring got no good but two new names Massah and Meribah temptation and chiding § 19. Here the children of Israel were in war incountred by the Amalekites whose countrey lay hereabouts A base barren land yet too good for the owners thereof living not so much on their own as on incursions into their neighbouring countries Descended from Timnah concubine to Eliphaz Esau's eldest son the dregs of whose malice against Iacob and his posterity were setled in this nation Whilest Ioshua in the valley undertook them in a pitched field Moses in the mount of Horeb assaulted and battered the gates of heaven with his importunate prayers With the rising or falling of whose hands rose or fell the courage and success of the Israelites till at last supported by Aaron and Hur they procure a finall conquest This Amalek was the first of the nations that opposed Israel and therefore just it was that on him first opening the matrix of malice as on the eldest son of Satan a curse should be entailed and his heires for ever God enjoining his people a truceless war to the utter extirpation of the Amalekites § 20. Hence forward we never meet an Amalekite in Scripture but ever doing mischief Either stealing as when they plundered Ziglag carrying away the women and children thereof captive or lying as the messenger that told the tidings of the manner of Saul's death or craftily plotting murder as Haman designing the destruction of the Jewish nation or cruelly performing it as Agag the barbarous and bloudy King of the Amalekites Now these Amalekites after this their first defeat by Ioshua were never after able alone to wage war with Israel but listed themselves as Auxiliaries with others Thus under King Eglon they joined with Moab and Ammon united themselves to Sisera against Barak confederated with Midian against Gideon and after the death of Tola combined with the Sidonians against Israel These Adjectives onely appearing in conjunction and composition with the enemies of Gods people Yea it is observable that the Israelites never ingaged against Amalek in set-fight but constantly came off conquerours as if the vigour and virtue of Moses his upheld hands and the rod therein had continued to all posterity Thus besides the victories gotten by Ehud Barak and Gideon Saul smote Amalek when contrary to Gods command he spared the King and choicest spoile thereof David surprised them and regained his captives and the Tribe of Simeon made a succesfull expedition against them to mount Seir in the days of Hezekiah § 21. We must not forget â—hat mount Horeb whereon Moses did pray was the place nigh which formerly he fed the flocks of Iethro his father-in-law It is called in Scripture the mountain of God either because exceeding high and by an Hebraisme all things eminent in their kind are given to God as the Cedars of God that is very tall and lofty Cedars or because God there miraculously manifested himself in the bush that burned and consumed not Some hundred years after Elijah living in a cave of this mountain heard the Lord passing by neither in fire earth-quake or wind but in a
of your wives your sons and your daughters Where by sons we understand little boys therefore hemmed in the text with women on both sides having their sex as yet scarcely discriminated by their habits But whether men amongst them ware ear-rings is doubtfull and the negative most probable seeing the Scripture speaking of the eastern Army conquered by Gideon For they had golden ear-rings because they were Ishmaelites intimates thereby that such were no masculine ornaments usuall amongst the people of the Iews Except any make for there to relate not to the ear-rings themselves but to the extraordinary multitude and massiness thereof Wherefore if any be earnest on the contrary I oppose not being contented the Iews should have rings in their ears so be it they had not Idols in those rings a superstition of their ancestours when first coming out of Padan-Aram § 4. Nothing save chaines was worn about their necks no linen in lieu of our modern bands which otherwise would have intercepted and hindered the beautifull prospect of the Spouse her neck when compared to a tower of Ivory As for bracelets about their wrists rings on their fingers for gloves we finde none signets in those rings herein the Iews nothing differed from other nations § 5. Their legs were generally bare wherefore when we finde the Three children cast into the fiery furnace in their coats their hosen and their Hats by hosen we understand not stockins but breeches which as the Ieâ—ish Priests must wear of linen for modesty other persons might for their own conveniency or warmth as probably these children did as then living in Babylon being somewhat a more northern climate and colder countrey then Iudea § 6. On their feet when at home and in summer time they used to weare Sandales which had soles but no upper-leathers save the ligaments wherewith they were fastned over the instep and cross of the foot Hence came the frequent washing of their feet in the eastern parts not onely to cool them but chiefly to clear them from the gravell and cleanse them from the dirt which those casements of their Sandales had let in In the winter time and when they travelled abroad they wore shooes which they used to put off when coming on holy ground And it seems that in fair weather whilest the Master for more ease might walke in his Sandales the servant used to carry his shooes after him as our Serving-men their Masters hoods on the same occasion in case that rain or foul weather should happen in their journy Hence that humble expression Whose shooes I am not worthy to bear that is unworthy to perform the meanest servile office unto him Their shooes were tyed with a small and slender latchet yet big and strong enough to fasten two eminent Proverbes on posterity 1 From a thread to a shooe-latchet that is nothing at all 2 The latchet of whose shooes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose that is as aforesaid unworthy to have the meanest employment about him Nothing else occurs of the Iewish shooes save that they were often made of Badgers skins which otherwise seeming fitter for gloves then shooes served for the upper-leathers which skins no doubt were of finer grain and dressing in those parts perchance worn with their fur then in our land where the leather thereof is of no considerable value It is suspicious that afterwards some extraordinary cost was luxuriously bestowed on their shooes when the poor was sold for a pair of them Or else their Exchange ran at a strange rate when a piece of a dead beasts skin was accounted a valuable compensation for the flesh whole body and life of a man SECT VI. The habits of Girles Virgins Brides Wives and Widows amongst the Iews § 1. SO much of the Iewish male-apparell come we now to their Feminine-attire sexes amongst them being solemnly distinguished by their clothes according to Gods express command therein The woman shall not weare that which pertaineth to the man neither shall the man put on a womans garment for all that doe so are abomination unto the Lord thy God as in all ages Epicoene Apparell hath been the Baud to much baseness Onely herein we are sorry we cannot satisfie our selves much less the Reader so little appears of their apparell in Scripture though we will diligently take whatsoever it tenders unto us § 2. We begin with the Girles when first we finde the City full of boys and girles playing in the streets thereof Let none condemn them for Rigs because thus hoiting with boys seeing the simplicity of their age was a Patent to priviledge any innocent pastime and few moe years will make them blush themselves into better manners § 3. For being grown virgins of pretty stature they were closely kept under covert-parent Whereupon a virgin in Hebrew hath her name from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to hide or keep secret maidens not being permitted to gad abroad alone but onely in companies on great solemnities then exercising themselves with their own sex in dancing singing and playing on Timbrels accounted maiden melody Hereupon it was that Amnon lusting after his sister Thamar thought it hard for him to doe any thing to her Not that he made it any difficulty or scruple in conscience to commit folly with her but all the hardness was in compassing her company that was kept so close and therefore he was fain with a fetch to betray her into his Chamber We finde nothing particularly of the attire of ordinary virgins in Scripture but onely that the Virgin-royall or Kings daughters were apparelled with garments of divers colours upon them of the severall kindes and makings whereof we shall treat by and by § 4. Now before the Virgin we speake of prove 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 past the prime of her youth her parents have provided an husband for her Indeed generally the Iews married very young as studiously advancing speedy propagation of posterity especially before Christs time accounting virginity after ripe years a petty purgatory and barrenness after marriage a little hell so ambitious all were of children § 5. On her wedding-day how gallantly doth she come forth as a Bride adorned for her husband She needs not any Art of memory to minde her to put on her ornaments for can a Bride forget her attire Hers to use if not to own it being a fashion amongst the Iews even at this very day observed by them that at a marriage a Bride though never so mean a person or silly servant is decked and dressed in all gayitry lent unto her by her neighbours so that that day she appears a moving mine of gold and precious stones Nor matters it though the Brides bravery be borrowed on her wedding-day if so be that the comfort and contentment in her match remain her own
a ridge of high mountains whereon stands Hebron on the left hand the Mediterranean Sea bordered with continued hills beset with variety of fruits The Champion between about twenty miles over full of flowry hills ascending leasurely and not much surmounting their ranker vallies with groves of Olives and other fruits dispersedly adorned Yet is this wealthy Bottome as are all the rest for the most part uninhabited § 13. From the vale of Gerar the brook Berzor runneth by the grove near Beersheba planted by Abraham for the more convenient performance of his devotion Collect we hence that Abraham resided some considerable time in these parts seeing trees grow not up as Ionas his gourd in a night but must have some competent season to come to maturity But what was piety in Abraham in planting this grove was profaneness in his posterity to imitate For after that God had made choice of a fixed place Tabernacle or Temple to put his name there such as elsewhere sacrificed unto him were not onely guilty of Schisme separating themselves from the publick worship but flat Idolatry serving the true God in a false manner namely in a place prohibited And now it is seasonably remembred that many ages after Beersheba was an eminent place of Idolatry The Prophet threatneth finall confusion to such that say in nature of an oath The manner of Beersheba liveth It being probable that as the brazen serpent set up by Moses was afterwards abused to Idolatry so this grove of Abrahams planting near Beersheba was by his posterity perverted to some solemn superstition the manner or way whereof secundum usum Beershebae was a precedent or leading pattern for other places to imitate as Act. 9. 2. 18. 25. 24. 14. § 14. But the City of Beersheba it self stood hard by on the brook Bezor The name imports The well of an oath First so called from Abrahams then from Isaac's ceremonious swearing and covenanting with Abimelech in that place Now if Scarlet keep colour because twice died and therefore called Dibaphon well might Beersheba retain her name twice on the same occasion imposed upon it Here God comforted Iacob in his journey down into Egypt promising him safety and sight of his son Ioseph Many hundred years after Samuel at Beersheba set up his Sons for Judges who degenerated from their Fathers integrity In the division of the land into two kingdomes Beersheba belonged to Iudah where Iehoshaphat set up Judges and whither Eliah persecuted by Iezebel fled for succour Hence he fled into the wilderness leaving his servant at Beersheba Not that he carelesly cast him off but as the case stood with Eliah life was to be preferred before attendance and one alone might shift with more secrecy then two together Besides by the avoidance of this servant probably no person of extraordinary performance divine providence made a way for Elisha one of more desert in this vacancy to be inducted into Eliah's service § 15. Coming still west-ward on the bank of Bezor we finde the place where two hundred of Davids foot being faint stayed with the baggage whilest the rest of their brethren pursued and conquered the Amalekites But these at their return denyed the two hundred staying by the brook any part of their spoile till David ordered it as a leading case that these which attended the baggage should be equall sharers with such who fought in the battell And very good reason 1 It was not laziness but weariness kept them behinde A stout heart sometimes cannot help a fainting body Wherefore to punish sickness in them for a sin had been height of tyranny 2 Grant their tired bodies could not keep pace with their souls yet no doubt in desire they marched along with their brethren and perchance by their prayers facilitated their victory 3 During their staying behind their imployment was as necessary though not so honourable The stuffe could not secure it self and the keeping of it in the others absence was a good piece of defensive service Now from hence it appears that in cases not provided for in the judiciall Law the Princes of Israel were intrusted with power to enact Statutes in a prudentiall proportion to Gods word binding all in their dominions to the observation of them This ordinance of David may from the place be termed the Statute of Bezor Nor is it any news for Laws to be made in open fields by rivers sides our English Laws having had their birth in so plain a place in Ronny-mede near the river of Thames where King Iohn and his Barons first drew them up together Yea no fitter place for such solmn acts then a rivers side where the sight thereof may be the remembrancer that Iudgement may run down as waters and righteousness as a mighty stream Hence Bezor glideth into the Land of the Philistines whither in due time we will follow it § 16. South of this brook lay the wilderness of Beersheba often mentioned in Scripture Herein Hagar and Ishmael wandred when the bottle of water was spent the last Legacy which Abraham bequeathed him Oh how she weeps as if intending to refill the same from her eyes but alass that moisture so brackish would rather increase then allay any thirst And now what should she do It was death to her to see her son die and yet that pity which would not suffer her to tarry by him would not permit her to depart from him In this Dilemma of affection she resolves on the distance of a bow-shoot as a competent mean betwixt presence and absence and disposeth her self under one shrub her son under another Here Ishmael cryes and God heareth The very worst in extreme want are the object of pity and though Ishmael had mockes for Isaac heaven had mercy for Ishmael An Angel sent shews Haga◠a fountain not now newly created but newly discovered to her sight The object was there before but the Organ not rightly disposed to behold it How near may men be to their own happiness and miss it touching it yet not seeing it till God open their eyes More south in this wilderness was the Iuniper-tree under which Elisha sate so highly discontented Coales of Juniper we know are extremely hot but is there any secret quality in the shade of that tree to put Eliah sitting under into such passions as that nothing but death would please him for the present Sorrow bought him asleep and afterwards awaking being refreshed with a cake of bread cruse of water and comfort of an Angel he undertook his journey to Horeb. § 17. Not far off betwixt Kadesh and Bered is Beer-laha-roi that is the well of him that liveth and seeth so named by Hagar because there an Angel catechised comforted and counselled her to return and humble herself to Sarah her mistress By this well Isaac was walking and meditating when Rebekah brought from her Fathers house first met him in
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