measures it to be sixteen miles long and six broad Munster assignes it to be twenty German miles eighty English in compass Bunting contracts it to twelve in length four miles and somewhat more in breadth Biddulph a late English Divine and eye-witness thereof computes it eight leagues in length and five in breadth three miles to all leagues whom for the main we have followed Others assigne it other dimensions all agree it is not very great But what it wants in bigness it hath in variety of names called the Sea of 1 Cinnereth onely in the old Testament from a City of that name in the Tribe Naphtali Others conceive it so named from Kinnor an Harp in Hebrew which it is said in shape to resemble sure the high winds sometimes make but bad musick to the eares of mariners when playing thereupon 2 Gennesareth 3 Tiberias cities of note in our Saviours time flourishing thereon 4 Galilee the countrey which almost on all sides surrounded it Small vessels sometimes termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ships sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Boates or Barges went to and again in this sea Gally-like sailing or rowing or perchance both as they saw their advantage They were little of strength because no Pirates to molest them and not great of burthen not comparable to the ship wherein Saint Paul sailed on the Mediterranean Sea carrying two hundred threescore and sixteen souls which for the greatness thereof might be Admirall of all the Navy in the new Testament The river of Iordan runneth through the midst of this Sea and mingleth not therewith but preserveth his own stream intire which some impute to the swiftness yea rapidness of his course not at leasure to take notice of much less to unite with any water he meets in the way before he come to his journeys end at the dead Sea § 5. This was the onely and all the seas that ever our Saviour sailed upon It is reported of wise Cato that he repented he ever went thither by Sea whither he might have gone by land But see here Wisdome it self who by going about might have passed to any place on the other side of the Sea preferred the use of a ship not to spare his own pains whereof none more liberall but to 1 Shew natures intent of the Sea made as well to be sailed as the ground to be gone upon 2 Take occasion to manifest his Deity in working of miracles thereon 3 Comfort seafaring-men in their distresses praying to such a Saviour as had an exprerimentall knowledge of the danger on both elements And here amongst the many voyages of our Saviour who often crossed the length and breadth of this sea-lake let us take account of some most remarkable And first in generall we may observe that after the working of some extraordinary miracle which might have great influence on peoples affections as the feeding of so many thousands Christ presently put to sea clouding himself in obscurity and shunning popularity so far that it should venture a drowning if offering to follow after him § 6. The first voyage we will insist on was when our Saviour sailed in Simons ship who formerly had fished all night getting nothing save a drowzie head and empty hands untill casting his net at Christs command he caught such store of fish both his and his partners ship began to sink O when will any earthly thing fall out even to our desires We always finde fish either none at all or too many and a surfeit of wealth is as dangerous as a famine thereof The fish were now ready to return into the water from whence they came and not by their wit but weight had caught their fishermen had not Christ by miracle brought all safe to shore § 7. A second when the Disciples put to sea at the command but without the person of their Master Tossed they were on the waves rowing with great pains to little purpose for the wind was contrary till looking at last they see Iesus walking on the water Then were the words of the Psalmist literally true Thy way is in the Sea and thy path in the great waters and thy footsteps are not known The Disciples unable to conceive such a mystery conclude it was a Ghost It is not worth our enquiry what Ghost or whence good or evill of man or devill this wild guess being the effect of their fright then which no more professed foe to a cleare judgment Christ quickly discovering himself Peter requests a commission to meet him which granted he walks for a while on the water till his Faith first then feet failing him he began to answer the name of Cephas proving himself a stone not by the stability but the heaviness thereof and began to sink till Christ saved him Nor was Christ sooner in the ship but the ship was at the land Thus those many strokes at the oares which the Disciples had taken before were not meerly lost but onely laid up and now restored them in their speedy arrivall Yea the sails of the ship were not now on the mast but in the keel thereof Christs person did the deed Thus projects driven on without Gods gracious presence are but driven on whilest such designes fly to their wished end which take God along with them § 8. The third and last voyage we will insist on was when the ship was not upon but under the sea covered with the waves Yea it was now full of water and the Disciples of fear whilest Christ him self was fast asleep having a pillow under his head and a softer under his heart a clear conscience See we here our Saviour a perfect because an imperfect Man his infirmities speake the reality of his humanity Working had made him weary weariness had caused him to sleep much out of a desire to be refreshed more out of a designe to be awaked Here all cry out Master save us we perish Danger will make the profane to pray the wilfull-dumbe to speak who will finde a tongue rather then lose a life No doubt Iudas himselfe who afterwards sold him was now as clamorous as any to be saved by him Christ awakes and rebukes first the Disciples for being too fearfull and despairing then the winds and waves for being too bold and presumptuous Both obey owning their Creatours voice as well may his words who made them at first make them now to be quiet § 9. Many more were the voiages our Saviour made on the Sea as when after the feeding of so many thousands they had but one loafe in the ship and on our Saviours caveat of the leaven of the Pharisees their jealousies grew solicitous for food Had they not besides that one loafe in their Cup-board twelve moe in their memory five at one batch and seven at another on the recollection whereof their mindes might feed to depend
threefold difficulty appeareth in the relation of the story 1 Whilest other Gospells mention but one Saint Matthew makes two men possest with a Devill 2 The same tearmeth them Gergasens whom other Gospells name Gadarens 3 Seeing Swine till killed return their owners no profit and then their flesh was forbidden to the Iews to eate how came the Gadarens being undoubtedly Iews otherwise Christ would not have conversed with them to keep such a company of useless cattell But these difficulties accept of their severall solutions 1 Though two were possest one of them being Paramount in torture and unruliness eclipsed the mention of the other the second not being named in the presence of the principall 2 Gadara and Gerazen though distinct were neighbouring Cities and so might have joint commonage of cattell betwixt them 3 They kept Swine to truck and barter with other nations Though their flesh was unclean in the mouths yet their money was clean in the purses of the Iews But if any conceive they kept Swine not onely ad usum but ad esum such must acknowledge the drowning of them to be the owners just punishment for their breaking Gods commandements But when those Hogs were sunk in the sea a greater herd of them remained in the City swinish people who preferred to wallow on the dunghill of their own wealth rather then to possess the pearl of Christs presence whom they requested to depart out of their coasts So much of the Gadarens and their neighbours the Gergasens onely let me adde that from the affinity of sound some have collected the Girgashites anciently to have inhabited this countrey as we have formerly observed and therefore in the title of every leafe we have divided this Tribe betwixt them and the Amorites as the old possessors thereof § 18. Strabo reports how there is a little Lake near to the City of Gadara infected with such malignant and pestiferous qualities that it scaldeth off the skin of whatsoever is cast into it This may seem an effect of the Devills in the hogs Satan when he departs useth to leave such perfumes behind him and semblably the possessed man stripped himself of all his clothes and went naked But seeing the Scriptures say expresly that the hogs ran into the Sea and not into this petty Lake I dare not assign this as the cause of those mischievous waters § 19. Iordan having got out of the aforesaid Sea of Galilee is presently crossed over with a stately Bridge I conceive it of no great antiquity no stone thereof appearing in the Scripture but Mercators Maps take notice thereof And a moderate Iesuite tells us observe it Reader against the time thou travellest into those parts that the way over this bridge though somewhat further about and less frequented is an easier and safer rode from Damascus to Ierusalem then what is commonly gone over Iacobs bridge in the Tribe of Naphtali whereof God willing hereafter § 20. And now Iordan being enriched with the tributary waters of Iabbok gâ—ows fair and large yet not so deep but that it is fordable especially at that place so fatall to the Ephraimites where fourty two thousand of them were by Iephthah put to the sword Four-sold was the offence of these Ephraimites 1 They neglected on seasonable summons to assist Iephthah against the Ammonites 2 They falsly retorted the fault on Iephthah and being wilfully deaf at his call accused him for dumbe not calling them 3 They gave the Gileadites reproachfull language calling them Runnagates 4 They menaced to burn Iephthah and his house with fire Hereupon Iephthah defended himself and defeated them in a memorable overthrow The Ephraimites being routed fled to these fords of Iordan so hoping to recover their own countrey on the other side But all in vain Iordan indeed might here be waded over but no passage over the swelling Surges of their enemies anger How willingly would those who called others Runnagates have been now Runnaways themselves but could not be permitted The Gileadites pursued yea prevented them and arraigned them all for their lives Shiboleth is their neck-word and as ratling in the throat is generally to sick men so lisping of their tongues was a certain Symptome of their death § 21. Some will accuse Iepâ—thah of cruelty that not contented with the honour of the Conquest he followed the Chace so furiously as to suffer his sword not onely to drink to mirth but to swill to drunkenness in the bloud of his brethren But haply this execution without order from him might be done by the Gileadites in heat of anger Souldiers in the Precipice of their passion being sensible of no other stop but the bottome If done by Iepthah's command surely his own security enforced this severity as a dolefull but needfull a sad but safe way to prevent the growth of another war the seeds whereof Iephthah foresaw in the revengefull disposition of the Ephraimites However some actions in the old Testament as they may not be imitated so they must not be condemned whose Actors might have immediate commission of divine inspiration § 22. From hence Iordan casteth a glancing eye at the fair City of Iabesh-Gilead sweetly seated at the bottome of Balm-bearing mountains The Inhabitants hereof ingaged not with the rest of Israel against the Benjamites for which offence they were all slain save four hundred young Virgins which were given to the Benjamites to wife Thus the Benjamites being Gileadites by the mother side it was not onely protection to his subjects but also love to his kindred which invited Saul to succour this City when Naash the Ammonite besieged it Painfull and shamefull were the conditions of Peace which Naash offered them namely if he might thrust out their right eyes which was to render their Souldiers stark blind in effect For whereas the Iews were wont to wear in war broad shields on their left arme which as it sheltered their body so it hindred their sight on that side when their right eye was put out by their enemies sword and the left blinded by their own shield they were during the fight deprived of the best fence of their body But Saul saved all this harm by a speedy march suddenly surprizing the Ammonites and delivering the City of Iabesh-Gilead § 23. Gratitude to Saul for so great a benefit probably did afterwards put the people of this City on that honourable but dangerous designe to rescue Saul and his sons bodies from the wall of Bethshan where the Philistines had hanged them up It was no pleasant prospect to these men of Iabesh Bethshan being opposite on the other side of Iordan over against them some eight miles off Loialty hath a quick sight and a tender heart at a distance to behold and bemoan affronts to her Soveraign Did Saul preserve their right eyes to this end contentedly to behold his body abused Out march all the valiant men in the City in the night over Iordan
on providence especially whilest the founder of the feast was in their company But we who condemne them are too likely to commit the like distrust if left to our selves upon less occasion To return to our Saviour it is observable that after his resurrection we read not that he sailed any more upon the Seas For such a fluctuating and turbulent condition which necessarily attends sea-voyages was utterly inconsistent with the constancy stability and perpetuity of Christs estate when risen from the grave The firme land therefore better agreeing with his fixed and immoveable happiness thereon he stood and onely gave the word of command to his disciples at Sea on which side they should cast forth their net when they caught so many fishes And so much for the Sea of Tiberias hoping that if the weakly reader be sea-sick by staying so long on the water he will instantly be well upon our arrivall on the main land to which now we proceed § 10. As this Tribe did overflow in sea conveniences so it fell not short in the commodities of the land The countrey thereof was enamelled with pleasant rivers whose bankes were adorned with fair Cities We will follow the chanells of those rivers which will direct us to the most considerable places in Zebulun beginning with little Iordan Indeed so little that there is no mention thereof at all in Scripture and little in other Authors Mercator being one of the first in my observation that takes notice thereof It ariseth in the south part of the vale of Iephtael and running full east is augmented from the south with the tribute of another brook fetching his course by Nazareth an eminent place and famous in the new Testament § 11. Nazareth was seated on the brow of an hill in the very center of this Tribe so called as Saint Hierom will have it from a flower which it signifieth in Hebrew because Christ that Prime Rose and Lily had here his conception For though he saw his first light at Bethlehem he sucked his first breath in Nazareth where his mother lived till very near the time of her delivery Also here he afterwards had his poor and painfull education working on his Fathers trade as it is probable from the words of the Evangelist Is not this the Carpenter though who would not have rather looked for a Scepter then an Axe in his hand who was born King of the Iews § 12. His short and secret abode at Bethlehem long and publique living at Nazareth gave the ground to the then vulgar errour that he was born in this place To foment this popular mistake and disguise the truth of Christs nativity so to leave the Iews at the greater loss concerning their Messiah the devills who knew full well that he was Iesus of Bethlehem by birth publiquely called him Iesus of Nazareth the reputation of that place running so low in common account that no good could thence be expected This nickname of Nazareth first publickly fastened as some conceive by Satan on our Saviour stuck by him all his life yea at his death fixed by Pilate in his title on the Cross yea after his ascension so that such as believed on him and embraced his doctrine were opprobriously termed the sect of the Nazarens § 13. Here also some otherwise good and learned men are guilty of another mistake in making Christ one of the Legall Nazarites whence groweth the length of his hair in most pictures who by vertue of their vow were tied to many ceremonious observances Whereas our Saviour frequently drank wine familiarly touched the dead took them by their hands and probably therefore a Rasor touched his head both the former being expresly forbidden the Mosaicall Nazarites during the days of their separation Yet how our Saviour is tearmed a Nazaren in reference it may seem amongst others to that Prophecy And there shall come out a Rod out of the stem of Iesse and a branch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall grow out of his roots we leave to the learned Commentators on that Text. § 14. During our Saviours living at Nazareth after he entered into the Ministery he bestowed a Sermon on this place of his education and having found out his text Isa. 61. 1. 1 He closed his book Not in any vaine ostentation of his memory but because either his Auditours were so well versed in the letter of the Scripture that they could tell by heart any quotation he should cite therein or rather because out of his fulness of divine knowledge and wisedome himself had no more need of it and he would thereby fasten the more their eares and his tongue to that one text which was of so maine concernment and importance unto them 2 And he gave it againe to the Minister Of him he received to him he restored it and coming in Reader by his leave he would not undermine the Incumbent of the place but honoured him in the presence of his people Hereby also he might haply shew that Ministers are to keep Gods word not as hucksters in gross but as Stewards to dispense it 3 And sat down Professor-like to shew his authority and the steadiness of his doctrine In England the Pastour onely stands whilest the people sit yet we envy not their ease nor begrudge our own paines any posture shall please us which may profit them 4 And the eyes of all were fastened on him advantaged likely thereunto by the round and pillar-less structure of their Synagogue not sleeping there nor gazing about nor reading an action like Achitophel his counsell good but not at that time But thus fixing their eyes to help their attention and express their longing desire to know how he would interpret that famous place of Scripture as also for the fame that they had heard of him who without study and ordinary meanes became so incomparable a Teacher And yet curiosity as much as true devotion may seem to cause this their attention seeing they who out of novelty were ready to eate his words soon after out of cruelty were more ready to devoure the speaker contemning him for the poverty of his parentage person and kindred and hating him for the truth he delivered that a Prophet is not without honour but in his own Countrey § 15. How this comes to pass let others largely dispute We may in briefe conclude it is partly because their cradles can be remembred and those swadling-cloathes once used about them to strengthen them whilest infants are afterwards abused against them to disgrace them when men and all the passages of their childhood repeated to their disparagement Partly because all the faults of their family which must be many in a numerous alliance are charged on the Prophets account Wherefore that Prophet who comes at the first in full growth from a far forein place not improving himselfe amongst
c. Statesmen Caleb Ahitophel and Prophets Natâ—an Amos Micah that in dignity as in strength and number it surmounted all the rest Yea Napthali's fearfull Hinde durst not bellow nor Issachars patient Ass bray nor Ephraims strong Oxe low nor Benjamins cruell Wolfe howle nor Dans cunning Serpent hiss if Iudah's Princely Lion was pleased to roare as Commander of all the beasts of the field and forest § 3. However I dare not with some interpret Iacobs solemn prophecy the Scepter shall not depart from Iudah nor the Law-giver from between his feet untill Shiloh come of a constant Soveraignty immoveably fixed in this Tribe till the birth of our Saviour a Tenet unteinable with truth seeing of the many Judges in Israel but two of this Tribe Saul the first King of Benjamin and the Maccabees of the Tribe of Levi who after the captivity attained to Kingly honour amongst the Iews Rather we understand Iacobs words of the whole nation whom he in the Spirit foresaw should in process of time be called Iews as the land Iudea from Iudah and expound them to be a prediction that the Iews should never totally and finally lose the visible being of a kingdome or common-wealth with a form of government amongst themselves though often changed and altered in the manner obscured and eclipsed in the lustre confined and emparied in the power thereof untill Messiah should be manifested in the flesh Which came to pass accordingly when the Iews at our Saviours birth and more completely at and after his death had lost all shadows of a free State totally inslaved to the Romane Emperour To whom alone bâ—longed 1 The Militia with the Castle giving martial-law to the Temple it self 2 Coine stamped with the image and superscription of Cesar. 3 Customes collected yea extorted by his Publicanes 4 Power in causes capitall by the Priests own confession It is not lawfull for us to put any man to death And the prophecy of Iacob thus expounded is both clear in it self and according to the interpretatioâ— of the Ancients § 4. This Tribe had Dan and Simeon on the west Benjamin on the north the wilderness of Paran oâ— the south and the Dead-sea on the east Extending east and west welnigh fourty miles but from Cadesh-Barnea to Ierusalem was about sixty six Where in this countrey was conteined a mountainous land but fruitfull with all commodities for pleasure and profit We begin with the Dead-sea Iudah's eastern boundary and so shall proceed to â—â—rround it in our description § 5. This was once a fruitâ—ull countrey called the vale of Siddim even as the garden of the Lord Paradi se it self Too like indeed thereto both for the pleasure thereof and Seâ—pent therein the spreading wickedness of the vicious Sodomites Lot chose to live here not because the people were well nurtured but the place well â—vatered though better watered no doubt during his living there with his teares from a soul vexed with their filthy conversation He lost by his dwelling among them for whose sins he was carried captive by Chedorlaomer They gained by their dwelling so near him for whose sake they were rescued by his uncle Abraham Yea afterwards Abraham endevoured to save the whole city of Sodome beating down the price of Gods justice as low as possibly it might consist with his honour to ten righteous men and yet that too high a rate for the piety of Sodome to reach so general was the wickedness therein Hereupon Sodome with three neighbouring Cities Gomorrah Admah and Zeboim was destroyed with fire and brimstone from heaven and thereby the whole Countrey turned into a standing stinking lake § 6. Some will say it was strange that fire should beget water a combustion produce an inundation More proper it had been that such an inflammation should have left and Aetna Hecla or Vesuvius behinde it fuming if not burning always The rather because next morning this place presented it self to the eyes of Abraham as the smoke of a furnace But such must know that when the fire was once out 1 The Countrey by nature was low and levell being a depressed plain and so more subject to drowning 2 Iordan running through this vale and there sinking into the ground had a quality in the first moneth to overflow his banks and so prone to occasion a deluge 3 Probably the river was formerly bridled with artificiall banks which either were then broken down with that tempest or afterwards decayed by degrees when the people were destroyed 4 Iordan in the vacancy of the inhabitants having got violent possession fenced and fortified himself in the slime-pits as in so many castles whereof great plenty in that place and could not afterwards be ejected Thus his title to this plain though at first an unjust usurpation and incroachment is made lawfull by the prescription of three thousand years possession § 7. This sea is known by severall names 1. The Dead-sea either because the Charnel-house of so many dead carcasses then destroyed therein or because it kills all creatures coming into it or lastly because dull and dead not enlivened with a tide or quickned with any visible motion one main cause of the offensive savour thereof laziness disposing men to lewdness and waters to putrefaction 2. The salt-Salt-sea salt indeed from the sulphurous combustions first occasioning it 3. By Greek writers it is termed the Asphaltite-lake from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Bitumen growing plentifully thereabouts This Bitumen we are fain to retain the Latine word our land neither affording the thing nor our language the name to signifie it is a clammy glutinous substance usefull in Physick to astringe in Surgery to consolidate Used by the rich as morter to build as in the tower of Babel by the poor as oile to burn therfore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in hebrew quickly kindled hardly quenched flaming far and long as partaking much of pitch and more of brimstone in the nature thereof And such as could not goe to the cost of richer spices used it for imbalming their dead being a great drier and so preserver from corruption § 8. This Salt-sea was sullen and churlish differing from all other in the conditions thereof David speaking of other seas saith there goe the ships and there is that Leviathan which thou hast made to play therein so instancing in the double use of the sea for ships to saile and fishes to swim in But this is serviceable for neither of these intents no vessels sailing thereon the clammy water being a reall Remora to obstruct their passage and the most sportfull fishes dare not jest with the edged-tools of this dead-Dead-sea which if unwillingly hurried thereinto by the force of the stream of Iordan they presently expire Yea it would kill that Apocrypha-Dragon which Daniel is said to have choaked with lumps of pitch fat and hair if he should be so
For as the elbows of garments ought to be made the strongest as most subject to wearing out so walls being the cloaths of Cities without which they are naked wise Uzziah adjudged it necessary that this Corner-gate and wall bending thereabout should have most cost and care expended in the fortification thereof § 11. No mention of the repairing of this gate in Nehemiah which prompteth us with these conjectures 1 Either that it was then dammed up Ierusalem after the captivity being large in extent and thin in people many uninhabited places being left therein probably in policy they contracted the number of their gates the multiplying whereof did require more money and men to guard them Or rather 2 Being so lately built by Uzziah it might notneed much mending as left standing and undemolished by the Babylonians For in the sacking of a City it often fareth with the gates as with the men thereof it is hard if some doe not escape and survive the destruction Yea sometimes conquerours are pleased to spare some parcell of walls out of pity not to the place but to themselves finding the structure thereof of so firme constitution that it requires more pains then it will return profit in the levelling thereof § 12. Next comes the gate of Ephraim so called not because standing in but opening towards the Tribe of Ephraim I deny not but that some Ephraimites after their return from captivity dwelt in Ierusalem from whose habitations hard by this gate might in probability borrow his name but prefer the former notation as most naturall For usuall it is both for streets and gates to take their denomination from such places though at great distance to which they lead Witness Kentish-street in South-wark for that it is the way saith my authour leading into that County the street it self otherwise being in Surrey and witness Winchester-gate in Sarisbury so named because through it travellers pass to Winchester a City twenty miles off and an instance best known to Scholars Trumpington-street in Cambridge so called from a village some two miles thence This gate was probably destroyed when Ioash King of Israel entring Ierusalem brake down four hundred cubits of the wall from the gate of Ephraim to the Coâ—â—er-gate where I conceive the particle from is to be taken inclusively so that both the gates were cast into that account the rather because Pride and Cruelty always when they make measure give in the advantage § 13. Next the Old-gate so called as Bonsrerius will have it because extant here ever since Melchisedec was the founder thereof If so it was an Old-old-gate indeed But as men having out lived all Registers account themselves so gates having outlasted all memories are accounted by others more ancient then truely they are However no wonder if in Nehemiahs time the decays of so old a fabrick called to the charity of Iehoiada the son of Paseah and Meshullam the son of Besodajah jointly to repair them § 14. Next the Fish-gate By mistake generally placed in the west wal meerly because Ioppa on the Mediterranean sea whence they fancy all fish as if no moe ways to the water then one must come to Ierusalem lay on the west thereof Whereas in Scripture we finde no express of fish for mans eating but one which eat a man Ionab his Whale mentioned from thatplace whilst whole sholes were caught in the Sea of Galilee or lake of Tiberias lying north of Ierusalem Indeed Tyre lying almost full north from this City was the staple place which furnished it with fish as appears in Nehemiah which through this gate was brought to Ierusalem Surely the provisions of any populous place in long time will tire if onely going on feet or flying on wings and not also swimming with fins having fish as well as flesh and fowl for their repast as here in Ierusalem And although no sacrifices of fish were by God appointed to be offered unto him yet hence the less wholesomeness or cleanness of them cannot justly be inferred because they were improper for offerings living in an element wherein men had no conversation This gate was repaired by the sons of Hassenaah § 15. The gate of Benjamin doth onely remain he the least in his fathers family this the last amongst the gates of Ierusalem standing in the north east part thereof Indeed we finde two gates of Benjamin in Ierusalem two of the same name in one City no wonder the double New-gate in London the later new made postern into Moor-fields may be an instance thereof one called the high-gate of Benjamin where Pashur put the Prophet Ieremy in the stocks which was by the house of the Lord and therefore probably a gate of the Temple The other was an out-gate of the City leading into the land of Benjamin whither Ieremy was going to separate himself when the Captain of the guard in this gate seised him in his passage falsly accused him and occasioned his imprisonment § 16. Here I cannot but wonder at many learned men who make this Gate of Benjamin to be the same with the Corner-gate I deny not but that in many Cities it is usuall for one and the same gate to have severall names as I have learnt from my industrious and judicious friend in his description of Canterbury how Burgate and Saint Michaels-gate are the same and so Newin-gate and Saint Georges-gate in that ancient City But the fancy of the foresaid authors is directly oppossite to the words of the Prophet foretelling that Ierusalem should be inhabited from Benjamin gate unto the place of the first gate unto the corner-gate c. where we may behold these two gates Benjamin and the Corner-gate set at terms at great distance and a considerable space interposed This gate was not repaired in Nehemiahs time for the reasons formerly alledged § 17. These are all the gates of Ierusalem whereof express mention in Scripture Some fancy another called the Needles-eye so low and little onely men might enter thereat These conceive our Saviours expression It is easier for a Camel to goe through the eye of a needle then for a rich man trusting in his riches to enter into the kingdome of God intended this small postern where the bunch on the Camels back was the Porter to shut it against him for entering in thereat But we listen hereunto as to a fable and account the threading of Saint Wilfrides needle as a conceit though much later and of a different nature to have as much gravity and truth therein CHAP. IV. Of the Towers on or about Ierusalem § 1. BEsides these gates Ierusalem was beautified and fortified with many towers proportionably interplaced though we finde but few of them recorded by name Amongst these we meet with the tower of Meah that is the hundred tower so called either because so many cubits high or so many distanced
ridiculous is the unequall contest in point of bulk betwixt their severall workmanships that Natures pismires may be said to exceed Arts elephants § 16. Some to excuse the pride of these builders resolve their design on a point of policy onely to busie their people to prevent in them laziness and luxury the mother of mutinies knowing so rich a soile would invite them to riot if out of employment But whatever was their principall project their secundary end intended such structures for sepulchers where the builders bodies lay not interred but immured with all imaginable cost bestowed upon them For the Egyptians fondly conceived Reader pity them and praise God that thou are better informed that the soul even after death like a gratefull guest dwelt in the body so long as the same was kept swept and garnished but finally forsook it and sought out a new body if once the corpse were either carelesly neglected or dispightfully abused and therefore to wooe the soul to constant residence in their bodies at least wise to give it no wilfull distaste or cause of alienation they were so prodigiously expensive both in imbalming their dead and erecting stately places for their monuments § 17. The long lasting of these Pyramids is not the least of admiration belonging unto them They were born the first and doe live the last of all the seven wonders in the world Strange that in three thousand years and upwards no avaritious Prince was found to destroy them to make profit of their Marble and rich materials no humorous or spightfull Prince offered to overthrow them meerly to get a greater name for his peevishness in confounding then their pride in first founding them No Zelote-reformer whilest Egypt was Christian demolished them under the notion of Pagan monuments But surviving such casualties strange that after so long continuance they have not fallen like Copy-holds into the hand of the Grand Signeur as Lord of the Manor for want of repairing Yea at the present they are rather ancient then ruinous and though weather-beaten in their tops have lively looks under a gray head likely to abide these many years in the same condition as being too great for any throat to swallow whole and too hard for any teeth to bite asunder § 18. We have been the longer hereon because Iosephus as is aforesaid makes the Israelites when enslaved in Egypt against their wills the builders of their Pyramids others conceive them Pharaohs magazines so called not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from fire ascending in a narrowing shape but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from wheat as used for granaries or store-houses where corn was deposited both alike improbable for 1 They afford no concavity of considerable receit for such purpose 2 Their form of all least capable is useless for such intents all the spire being to loss 3 The Israelites built with bâ—icks whereas these are made of Marble But for farther satisfaction of the Reader herein I refer him to that learned Traveller who hath made an excellent tract of his own observations herein § 19. However here we may take occasion to mention the miserable condition of the Israelites in Egypt during which time woefull their slavery if we consider the 1 Long continuance thereof two hundred and odde years in the latitude and fourscore from the birth of Moses in the Paroxysme of their bondage 2 Deep misery insomuch that their lives were made bitter unto them 3 Broad extent none exempted no not Moses and Aaron Get you unto your burthens Say not that the officers of Israel who onely oversaw the rest had an easie place of it for they were beaten because others under them did not their impossible taske as if what was wanting in the tale of the peoples bricks must be made up in blows on their backs who were set to oversee them Onely to give the Egyptians their due they gave the Israelites their belly full as of work so of food which proceeded not so much from their pity as their policy Cariers are so mercifull to their horses meat them well to prevent their trying and the plenty of the land affording at cheap prices abundance of provisions § 20. Somewhat north of the aforesaid Pyramids on the same side of Nilus stood the great City of Memphis anciently the Metropolis of Egypt where their Kings kept their Courts and therefore it is probable here Ioseph was bought and beloved by Potiphar here afterwards accused and imprisoned unjustly favoured by the jailer advanced by Pharaoh whose dreams he expounded in a word likely it is that all those eminent passages betwixt him and his brethren were transacted in this City Some hundred years after the frequent addresses of Moses and Aaron to another Pharaoh in the behalf of the Israelites were performed in the same place and here or hereabouts the ten Egyptian plagues were first inflicted in manner and order ensuing 1 All the water formerly the merciless executioner of the Jewish infants was for seven days turned into bloud whereby the fish dyed and the river stank so that the Egyptians could not drink of the water thereof Water which otherwise in it self was most sweet and delicious witness the answer of Pescentius Niger unto his murmuring souldiers What crave you wine and have Nilus to drink of The transubstantiation of this element into bloud extended over all the streams rivers ponds and pooles in Egypt and the sea onely was excepted from whence or from pits newly digged in the ground the Magicians might fetch their water which in imitatition of Moses quoad similitudinem if not veritatem they also turned into bloud 2 Frogs so plentifull that they covered the land and so presumptuous they came into Pharaohs Bed-chamber though never sworn his Grooms in ordinary attendance yea they crept into the very ovens as if Salamanders rather then frogs and no private place was priviledged from their unwelcome company But the Magicians made the like in show if not in substance the Devill much delighting in their monstrous shape for we finde in Scripture Three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the Dragon 3 Lice Insects with so many lineaments in a little compass that the eyes of the Magicians could not see much less imitate them so that they were forced to confess it the finger of God But whether thus beaten out of distance they here left off their race of emulation with Moses or still continued it it is hard to determine 4 Flies properly waspes or hornets armed with stings wherewith they tormented the people Surely they were more then ordinary flies because they brought Pharaoh to proffer to Moses a partiall and conditionall departure of the people 5 A generall Murrain insomuch that all the cattell of Egypt dyed Some will object If this was a totall destruction of all the beasts in the land how came it to pass
but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one well versed in Philosophy and demanded of him the reason of his receipts how the medicine was proper for his malady why this why thus why now why thus much why no more was prescribed unto him In like manner it seemeth unreasonable for Map-makers here to plant a wood there mount a hill here to sink a valley there to run a river in their draughts and then magisterially obtrude all these on the beliefe of an ingenuous Reader without giving a particular account how the same are conformable to Nature and true Geography especially seeing it is vehemently suspected that many maps are full of affected extravagancies And must their fancies draw up the forms for other mens judgments to subscribe But on the other side it seems not onely an ungentile harshness but an unconscionable injustice strictly to exact a reason for every Puntillo in a Map Gally-slaves would be in a more freer condition then Geographers if thus dealt with As the Poets feign Atlas was wearied by bearing the weight of heaven Mercator would be more tired by bearing the burden of his own Atlas if questioned for the crookedness or straightness of every line in so vast a volume A lawfull latitude herein hath been ever allowed For instance it is generally agreed that Meander a River in Phrygia runs wonderfully winding but it breaks not the head of Truth in a Map if a curle of that River be made more or less or be put out of its proper place Let the Stewards of Lords Courts or rather Bailifes of Gentlemens Manors know each nook of a wood corner of a field reach of a River within so small a compass such as describe a Countrey in generall if truly presenting the most materiall things therein without visible disproportion doe what their diligence can exactly perform and what the Readers discretion can rationally expect Desiring therefore to acquit my self in the best manner to all ingenious capacities I have here exposed my self to the strongest objectionâ— which without favour or flattery I could make against the former description And left scattering of them before in the respective Tribes should have interrupted the entireness of our discourse what thred can run smooth if full of so many knots we have reserved them all for a small Treatise by themselves in the conclusion of the work Solemnly promising that if any shall enfavour me so far as to convince me of any error therein I shall in the second Edition God lending me life to set it out return him both my thanks and amendment or else let him conclude my face of the same metall with the Plates of these Maps Whatsoever can be objected against the Generall description of Iudea returns in the particular Tribes and therefore to avoid repetition we shall there more properly meet with it This premised without further delay by Gods blessing we fall on the matter in hand And can we begin higher then at Adam it self CHAP. II. Objections concerning Reuben answered Philogus Alethaeus Philol. I First take exceptions at your placing the City Adam so near unto Iordan For where it is said That the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heape very far from the City Adam which is besides Zartan you make Adam not above three miles from that stoppage of waters which is not very far Aleth Very far is a relative terme and accordingly admits of much alteration Three miles is little in respect of so many leagues but very far in respect of so many furlongs Attend I pray you the main scope of the holy Spirit which was to notifie the place where these upper waters failed in view of the Israelites Which must be acknowledged within the discovery of their sight otherwise the land-mark more obscure then the staying of the waters that were dated from it Where therefore the distance is measured in a plain Countrey by the eye three miles may well pass for very far Philol. Why make you so great a flexure in Iordan just at his influx into the dead-Dead-sea contrary to the nature and custome of great Rivers Indeed small brooks like little children goe wadling on one side their streams are winding and crooked because they must run where they may run and finde soft ground to receive them But great Rivers which doe not finde but make their way flow generally in a straight channell and so it seems should Iordan sliding through a flat low and levell Countrey and not meeting with any effectuall opposition Aleth I have sufficient warrant for this my description Pliny saith of Iordan Invitus Asphaltitâ—n lacum naturâ—d dirum petit unwillingly he goes into that slimy Lake terrible by nature You perchance will say Iordan needs not to follow the motion of Plinies pen as if because he makes a flourish with his phrase the River must fetch a compass with his channell But consider I pray how in the mixture of all liquours of contrary kinds the best liquour which may be said to lose by the bargain incorporates always with a reluctancy and the same Antipathy causeth here this crookedness of Iordan This is precisely taken notice of by learned Sâ—lmasius and is agreeable to the observations of modern Travellers Philol. You place three severall stations of Balak and Balaam with seven altars a piece upon them in this Tribe of Reuben whereas more probably all those passages were transacted south of Arnon in the Kingdome of Moab It is utterly unlikely that King Balak would adventure his person out of his own dominions into a strangers not to say an enemies Countrey Aleth In so short a journey the pains was little the danger none at all For although on Balaks side there might be private heart-burnings there was no open hostility betwixt Israel and Moab Yea we know that then the Israelites had familiarity much with the men too much with the women of that Countrey I confess the places as described in Scripture stand as I may say equivocally betwixt Israel and Moab But herein I have followed the example of Adrichomius and other good authors not to say that if Balak had taken his view in the kingdome of Moab of the people encamping then at Abelshittim he could not at that distance have taken a discovery of them Philol. Mr. More in his Maps bringeth down the waters of Nimâ—im with a stream in breadth corrivall if not bigger then Arnon it self running through the very midst of this Tribe into the dead-Dead-sea whereof no appearance at all in your description It was a very envious part of the Philistines to stop up the wells of Isaac so needfull a commodity in that Countrey but how great a fault in you to deprive Reuben of this river except it was not your envy that stopped but ignorance that omitted it Aleth I am sensible full well of such waters but cannot be convinced that they took their course through this Tribe into the
Libanus is not in respect of his soul a haires breadth nearer to heaven Besides some conceive they heare Palestine saying unto them as Samuel to Saul endevouring to raise him from his grave Why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up Describing this Countrey is but disturbing it it being better to let it sleep quietly intombed in its owne ashes The rather because the New Ierusalem is now daily expected to come down and these corporall not to say carnall studies of this terrestriall Canaan begin to grow out of fashion with the more knowing sort of Christians § 6. It is answered though these studies are not essentiall to salâ—ation yet they are ornamentall to accomplish men with knowledge contributing much to the true understanding of the History of the Bible Remarkable is that passage of the Apostle Acts 17. 26. And hath made of one bloud all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation wherein we may see Divinity the Queen waited on by three of her principall Ladies of honour namely skill in 1 Genealogies concerning the persons of men and their Pedegrees of one bloud all nations 2 Chronology in the exact computation of the times afore appointed 3 Geography measuring out the limits of severall nations and the bounds of their habitations Our work in hand is a parcell of Geography touching a particular description of Iudea without some competent skill wherein as the blind Syrians intending to goe to Dothan went to Samaria so ignorant persons discoursing of the Scripture must needs make many absurd and dangerous mistakes Nor can knowledge herein be more speedily and truly attained then by particular description of the tribes where the eye will learn more in an hour from a Mappe then the eare can learn in a day from discourse § 7. But this last objection being forked hath the sharper point thereof still behinde challenging this our subject to be guilty of superstition A sinne always detestable to God but now adayes grown odious to man And well it were if the edge of their Zeal were equally whetted against Profanenesse Sure if this our work were faulty in this kind I my self would send it the same way with the Ephesian conjuring bookes Not all the water of Kishon of Iordan of the Red of the Dead of the Middle-Land Sea described in these Maps should serve to quench the fire but all should be burnt to ashes But no such haste I hope to condemn this innocent book wherein studiously we have abstained from all such pictures as come within the bounds of danger yea borders of offence and have onely made choice of those which the most precise approve usefull for the illustration of Scripture CHAP. 2. The different names and bounds of Judea § 1. THis Country which we now come to describe was successively called by severall names 1 The Land of Canaan from the sons of Canaan that first possessed it 2 The Land of Promise which name after four hundred and odde years honourably ended and was swallowed up in performance 3 The Land of Iudah and Israel consisting of these two Kingdomes 4 Iudea so called of Iudah the most puissant Tribe of the twelve 5 Palestine from the Philistines Herodotus being the first Author which I find so tearming it and all Greeks and Latins after him 6 The Holy Land because our Saviours Passion was acted thereon But fear makes me refrain from using this word lest whilest I call the Land holy this Age count me superstitious § 2. In bounding this Land a necessary distinction must be premised the neglecting or at least not observing whereof hath engaged many in inextricable difficulties Cannan was twofold 1. The Larger 2. The Lesser The Larger is described Deut. 11. 24. Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours from the wildernesse and Lebanon from the river the river Euphrates even unto the uttermost sea shall your coast be This Land in full latitude was never peaceably possessed by the Iews as proper owners thereof any considerable time Say not God fell short of his promise Oh no the Iews fell short of his precepts who being narrow hearted in piety and straitned in their own bowels contracted their soil by their sinnes and obstructed the bounty of God intended unto them by their ingratitude For the Promise ran onely conditionally If ye shall hearken diligently to my Commandements And had not Gods mercy to them been more then their obedience to him their country had been narrowed to nothing and shrunk to an indivisible punctum or at the best and biggest had been but a prison fit for the punishment of so rebellious a people § 3. And yet in somemanner in a qualifyed sense we may observe the Iews did stretch their dominion to the bounds aforesaid in a double consideration 1 By victorious Salleys and Incursions Thus the Children of Reuben having conquered the Hagarites inhabited east-ward unto the entring in of the wildernesse from the river Euphrates 2 Per Gentes in amicitiam receptas By the nations which by amicable compliance though having absolute command in themselves accepted of the Jewish King to be honourary feodaries unto him Thus where David took some Kings by conquest as his Vassals more took him by composition as their Protectour And it is plainly said of Solomon that he had Dominion over all the region on this side the river from Tipâ—saâ— even to Azzah over all the Kings on this side the river and â—e had peace 〈◊〉 all sides round about See we here an Essay of Gods goodnesse made to the Israelites That froward people worshipped him by fits and girds starting aside like a broken bow and therefore God to admonish them of the unconstancy of their service vouchsafed onely to the 〈◊〉 a cursory and unsetled Tentâ—dwelling to Euphrates Whereas had that people solidly and seriously set themselves constantly to serve God no doubt their Incursions had been turned into fixed Habitations and the whole Nation not onely by the Synecdoche of this one tribe had peaâ—â—ably possessed the large limits allotted unto them And whereas now onely David and Solomon whom I may more fitly style Emperours then Kings of this larger Canaan rather commanded then possessed to Eupbrates God no doubt had extended their full Dominions to the same dimensions § 4. But the lesser Canaan was contented with naâ—rower bounds containing onely those Nations which God had designed for utter destruction and is described Gen. 10. 19. 〈…〉 and Admah and Zebojim even unto 〈◊〉 And whereas in the larger Canaan when the Israelites besieged any City God commanded them to proâ—fer peace before they proclaimed war against it in this lesser Canaan they were finally to root them out And where God commands men to destroy people but first let us
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-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
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
mungrell creatures of equivocall extraction deriving cruelty from the Wolves their sires and craft from the Foxes their dams These Iackalls are meant by our translatours Psalm 63. 10. Let them fall by the edge of the sword that they may be a portion for Foxes not for ordinary Foxes which indeed are so dainty mouthed that they will not feed on any carkasse but what they kill themselves but for these Iackalls which may pass for Foxes because so by the surer side so ravenous that they will not onely feed on carion above ground but even dig holes into the earth fetch forth and feed on dead bodies of men if not deeply interred § 6. The river Arnon running full south passeth by Aroer a fair City whereof frequent mention in Scripture but in no other notion but onely as the eastern boundary of Canaan Here Arnon entertaineth a river from the west called the river of Gad because rising running and falling within the compass of this Tribe § 7. This river of Gad had formerly received into it another stream called the waters of Nimrim threatned by the Prophets to be dried up on the banks whereof Bethnimrah a City was seated At the conflux of these two the Sea of Iazer is found being no other then a Lake about our Whittlesey Meer in Hungtingtonshire for greatness as the Iews call the meetings of all waters whether fresh or salt Seas Nor let their language herein be challenged for impropriety having a warrant from God himself who at the creation called the dry land Earth and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas Conformable hereunto is the expression of the modern Dutch for in Helvetia a Province of Germany yea in Argow as I may say a County of Helvetia I have told above sixteen Seas Zugersee Thuner-see Ober-see Rot-see c. though the biggest of them but lakes in effect Yea the Iews did so far extend or rather so straitly contract the word Sea that that capable vessell of brass used as a Lavatory for the sacrifices in the Temple was tearmed the Molten Sea Iazer which gave name to this Sea was a City of the Levites hard by whereat some sad accident had happened though the particulars thereof are not discovered in Scripture for the weeping of Iazer passeth in the Prophet as the expression of great lamentation § 8. Hence the river of Gad passeth by Civitas interammis or the City in the midst of the river wherewith on all sides it is environed never mentioned in Scripture but with the company of Aroer a clear evidence both of their distinction and vicinity Hereabouts Ioab pitched his tent when sent to number the people Wonder not that having the convenience of three Cities so near to receive him he preferred rather to reside in a tent during that imployment For besides that such movable habitations comply best with military men it was fittest for the work in hand where the people to be reckoned might have full and free accesse in open aire both wholsomer for the persons and speedyer in dispatch then when pent within the streets and walls of a City Nothing else memorable remains in the southeast corner of this Tribe save Dibon a City sometimes assigned to Reuben and sometimes to Gad. To reconcile this some make them different and distant Cities which in my apprehension is rather to set up two marks then to hit the right one For seeing these two Tribes confine together and both lay claim to Dibon like the two mothers challenging the living childe we have onely in stead of a sword made use of pricks setting it equally in the bounds of both Here we advise the Reader not out of distrust of his skill but desire of his good to beware neither to confound this Dibon in Gad with Dibon-Gad the thirty ninth station of the Israelites as they came out of Egypt nor with another Dibon which seems to be in Iudah wherein the Iews dwelt after their captivity § 9. The river of Iabbok arising out of the aforesaid stony countrey first runs directly northward and strengthened with an acceâ—â—ion of waters from the Kingdome of Ammon turns his stream full west In which course ere long he cometh to the ford which Iacob with his family passed over and where we crave the Readers leave for a while to discontinue our discourse of this river and to attend that worthy Patriarch in his travels through this Tribe which in form of a Belt crossed Gad athwart from northeast to southwest Iacob first entring into this Tribe came to Nahanaim that is the two campes because there the Angels digested into two armies probably behind and before him appeared to Iacob Now as Adams naming the Creatures argued his dominion over them so the Patriarchs naming of places in Canaan was an Earnest that their posterity should possesse them Who no doubt as curious to enquire so were carefull to continue those names which their Ancestors had given them Mahanaim was afterwards a City of the Levites and in the reign of Ishbosheth the son of Saul it was made the chief City of his kingdome But with his life within three years expired the Metropolisship of Mahanaim which afterwards afforded refuge and residence to David when flying from Ierusalem for fear of Absolom Hither the news of Absoloms death was brought to King David joyfull to the King but dolefull to David which caused his patheticall lamentation over the gate till the heat of Ioabs anger dryed up Davids teares perswading him with cheerfull looks to countenance the conquerours § 10. From Mahanaim let us goe fairly and softly on with an easie pace in the company of Iacob not overdriving his children and cattell to the above named fords of Iabbok and thence to Peniâ—l where Iacob the youngest warriour fighting before he was born and the strongest Conquerour prevailed with God appearing like an Angell Who in admonition to Iacob that he overcame not with his own striving but his opposites yeelding gave him a gentle touch being pleased where he could have broken the bone onely to shrink the sinew whereupon Iacob carried an upright heart and lame leg to his grave Indeed learned Rivet is of opinion that God presently healed his halting chiefly grounding it because Esau at his meeting took no notice of his lameness but doth not the negative follow with more probability because the Scripture takes no notice of his curing Besides had the cure come so quick the hurt had never left so deep and long lasting impression in the practise of the Israelites abstaining for that cause from eating the sinew in the thigh Yea modern Iews oh that they were as observant of the substantiall as ceremoniall parts of the old Testament not certain which sinew it was so many meeting in the thigh refrain from feeding on all Nerves in the hinder parts of
a beast § 11. From Peniel going southwest Iacob being to meet Esau his brother thus marshalled his company In the forefront his Concubines with their children next Leah with hers Rachel and Ioseph first in his love and last in place because furthest from danger before all like a valiant Commander taking the worst service on himself marched Iacob in person having sent before him his presents to Esau and dispatched before them his prayers to God See what gifts good words a fair tongue and full hand can doe Esau in stead of killing falls a kissing him Behold how they hug being now more twins then in their mothers womb for there they strove but here they embraced From Peniel Iacob travelled to Succoth in English Boothes because there he erected tents for himself and his cattell and so he went over Iordan into the Tribe of Ephraim to the City of Sichem whither God willing hereafter we will follow him And now seeing the way which we have come is both plain and pleasant let me request the Reader not to begrutch his pains to goe some part of it back again onely exchanging the company of plain dealing Iacob for valiant Gideon who in his march traversed this Tribe from the west to the east thereof § 12. Gideon pursuing the flying Midianites with his souldiers as faint as few for want of victualls coming to Succoth desired food from the inhabitants thereof The Succothites were so far from granting him provision they would not give him good words not more niggardly of their victualls then prodigall of their taunts unto him Wherefore Gideon in his return not then at leasure that his wrath should hinder his work with briars and thorns of the wood hard by tare their flesh in pieces The originall saith he taught them with thorns or made them to know namely their own folly and his power Dull Scholars must have sharp â—eachers or rather like unto like churlish crabbed dispositions and prickly crooked thorns well agree together Hence Gideon marched to Peniel whose Citizens neighbours to Succoth both in place and peevishness churlishly entertained him which cost them at his return the breaking down of their tower which was afterwards reedified by King Ieroboam From Peniel Gideon went forward by the way of them that dwelt in tents on the east of Nobah and Iogbehah against the Midianites unto Karkor which being out of the Tribe of Gad we shall hear more of it in our description of Midian § 13. The mention of those that dwell in tents puts me in mind that it is as much my duty here to tender my conjecture to the Reader as it is his liberty to receive or reject it There was a Countrey undoubtedly in this Tribe called the Land of Tahtim-hodshi that is newly inhabited where Ioab made his second station when sent to number the people Now may not this in probability be the very place where the Israelites formerly dwelled in tents and in Davids victorious reign were reduced to more stability and incouraged to turn their tents into houses more certain and solid habitations § 14. To return now to the river Iabbok half impatient for our long deserting it save that running westward it glides cooly and calmly under the shade of the forest of Ephraim so called as learned men conjecture for otherwise Ephraim possessed not any thing on this side Iordan because there Iephtha defeated the Ephraimites for their insolent mutiny against him But afterwards a greater slaughter happened in the same place when Ioab Abishai and Ittai Generalls for David routed Absaloms army and when the wood devoured more then the sword Wonder not that sticks had a mouth more voracious then steel understand it that some were devoured by beasts others famished as lost in the labyrinths of the forest and some staked on sharp piles in the fierceness of their flight Well might such sad fate befall the common souldiers which happened to Absalom himself This was he that boasted how upright he would be when made a Judge whereas now if the length of his hair conduced any thing to his execution it was the best yea onely piece of justice performed by him Yet more probable it is that running in hast not so minding which way to goe as to be gone he was snatched up by the neck in a forked bough How did the officious Oake act three parts being the Gallows Halter and Hangman for a traitour But this accident rather occasioned then caused his death the Oake was rather his Gaolor then his Executioner It was Ioab that dispatched him with three darts through his heart Wherein through a treble orifice were discovered Disobedience to his Parent Treason to his Prince and Hypocrisie to his God pretending a Sacrifice and intending Rebellion § 15. Hard by was Absoloms Tombe consisting of a great pit to hold and a great heap of stones to hide a great Traitour under it May they there lie hard and heavy on his Corpes and withall if possible sink down his rebellious example for ever having a resurrection No methodicall monument but this hurdle of stones was fittest for such a causer of confusion Indeed in his life time he had erected a stately Pillar near Ierusalem intending it no doubt for the place of his buriall But just it was that his dead carkass should be deprived of his own grave who endevoured to dispossess his living Father of his kingdome § 16. And now a little to acquaint the Reader with the adjacent Countrey two severall ways led hence to the City of Mahanaim The one through the mountains shorter but harder which Cushi chose The other by the way of the plain which the furthest about was the nearest way home Ahimaaz took this as the most ready Road who being a messenger volunteer would confess to David no more news then what he knew would be welcome whilest Cushi a prest Post must relate the full of his message And now the river Iabbok who hitherto may seem to run slowly as attending in suspence the issue of the Battell certified of the success thereof hastens with all possible speed to fall into the river Iordan § 17. Iordan had now some distance of miles escaped out of the sea of Kinneroth or Sea of Galilee the edge whereof Iosh. 13. 26. is assigned for the utmost border of this Tribe Through this lake as Tacitus observeth this river kept his ready course preserving his stream intire from incorporating with the waters of the Lake A thing no whit incredible to those Welshmen in Merioneth-shire who have beheld how the river Dee running through Pimble-meer continueth his channell without mixing with the Meer On the east side of this Sea stood the City of Gadara the first syllable whereof is argument enough to place it in this Tribe where the Legion of Devills cast out of the man entred into the herd of Swine where a
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
open access 5 But ride on Asses partly that Petitioners though lame and weak might keep pace with them on the way when relating their grievances and partly by that patient creature to shew the slow but sure proceeding of justice and indeed the Judges foot-pace to the sentence is the accused parties post-speed to his grave We finde among these thirty cities but one of them named which is Camon wherein the body of Iair was buried And it is probable that Ira the Iairite so high in favour about King David was an inhabitant of this countrey § 15. More south lay Ashteroth-karnaim or in English the two horned Ashteroth either so named from some forked building or street therein Horn-church in Essex and Horn-castle in Lincolne-shire so called on the like occasion or because the Idol Ashteroth that is the Moon horned in her waxing or waning was worshipped therein or lastly because a fair and gallant City and all strength mirth and jollity are called horns in the Hebrew Yet may we say to the men of Ashteroth in the words of the Psalmist Set not up your horns so high neither speak presumptuous words Horns which first were well blunted by Chedorlaomer when he smote the Rephaims or Giants in Ashteroth-karnaim and afterwards were broken quite off when Og King of Bashan who reigned in this City was overthrown For hard by is Edrei another City wherein Og resided and neer which he bid battell to the children of Israel when he with all his Giant-like race which peopled this place was extinguished For though the Countrey of Pigmies be a Poets-tale this Land of Giants is a Scripture-truth However no eye can now distinguish betwixt the ashes of Giants and dust of dwarfs death having long since levelled all alike in the grave § 16. Such remarkable places as remain in this Tribe will easily be found out if we follow the stream of Iordan and such rivolets as pay tribute thereunto Iordan having newly recovered himself out of the waters of Merom into a competent channell receiveth from the east Hermon a small brook running by Golan a Levites City of refuge whence the neighbouring countrey in Iosephus called Gaulonitis and after Iordan falleth betwixt Capernaum and Chorazin into the sea of Galilee This Chorazin was the place where Christs miracles and preaching were sowen so thick and where the peoples thankfulness for the one and practise of the other came up so thin that it caused that curse Woe be to thee Chorazin c. A woe which at this day hath wasted it from a populous city to a ruinous village As for their conceit that Antichrist should be born in Chorazin I take it to be a meer Monkish device to divert mens eyes from seeking him in the right place where he is to be found § 17. More south-ward the brook Cherith having viewed at some distance Beeshterah afterwards called Bosrah a city of the Levites called also Ashtaroth And it is questionable whether this or Ashtaroth-Carnaim whereof formerly were the Metropolis of Og King of Bashan runneth into the Sea of Galilee By the banks hereof the Ravens brought Eliah bread and flesh in the morning and evening and he drank of the river It seems Dinners are but innovations whilest break-fasts and suppers are mens most ancient and naturall meales Here Eliah having the subâ—â—ance of sustenance cared not for the ceremony of a Table or complement of a Carpet How little will preserve life but how much must maintain luxury After a while this River dried up Collect not thence that the brook was inconsiderably little but that the drought had been extraordinarily long § 18. As for the cities of Hippus Iulias and Gamala whereof as deep silence in Scripture as frequent mention in Iosephus it is enough to name them In the last of these Iosephus reports Iudas of Galilee to be born that grand impostor who in the days of the taxing pretended himself the Champion of popular liberty to protect them from such unreasonable payments Multitudes of men flocked after him for spare their purses and win the hearts of the Vulgar But Iudas having goâ—ten power fell a pillaging all people taking from them the whole griest of their estate so to save the owners from paying toll unto Cesar. How smooth and tender are the gums of Infant-treason but oh how sharp are the teeth thereof when once grown to full greatness However he and his followers came afterward unto confusion and is the second instance alleadged by Gamaliel to prove that councells which are not of God will come to nought The Son of Geber was Solomons purveyer in this half Tribe of Manasseh § 19. The Armes assigned to Ioseph are a tree proper growing by a Well founded on the words of Iacob Gen. 49. 22. David may seem hence to have borrowed his Simile of a blessed man He shall be like a tree planted by the waters side But Ioseph had more not onely a Well before to refresh but a wall behind to support him and his boughs may Heralds word it in their own language grew over the wall Partly foretelling the fruitfulness of Iosephs posterity and partly pointing at the particular posision of his inheritance For as some think Iordan was the wall on the east of the Land of Canaan properly so called and the children of Ioseph having their root planted and main body growing on the other side of the river spread their branches over this wall half Manasseh having his portion on the east side of Iordan To conclude though those Armes did generally belong to the whole house of Ioseph yet custome hath appropriated them to Manasseh alone other Ensigns being assigned to Ephraim whereof God willing hereafter Here the Map of Naphtali is to be inserted THE TRIBE OF NAPHTALI CHAP. 4. § 1. NAphtali Son of Iacob by Bildah his Concubine was multiplied during the aboad of his posterity in Egypt to fifty and three thousand four hundred All which dying in the desert their Sons being fourty five thousand foure hundred entred the Land of Canaan A Tribe acquitting it self considerable in relation to the rest though we meet but with two or rather but with one and a half Glories thereof The former Barak the son of Abinoham who acted by Deborah did act so valiantly against Sisera The half-one Hiram a Naphtalite though his Father was a man of Tyre that curious Artificer in Solomons Temple Other eminent persons though unknown doubtless were of this Tribe for in their martiall addresses to David in Hebron none appeared in more excellent equipage for number and warlike accoutrements And of Naphtali a thousand Captains and with them with shield and speare thirty and seven thousand § 2. This Tribe bordered plainly intimated though not expressed in the bounding thereof on mount Libanus on the north and reacheth as is plainly expressed to Zebulun
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
plough as elsewhere God threatens the disobedient Iews the earth that is under thee shall be iron but that this land should afford plenty of those metalls according to the testimony of Eumaeus in Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Sidon I â—oast to be born where's brasse in aboundance Besides the great commodities of the sea with the convenient havens thereof Debora complains that when Zebulun and Naphtali most concerned as nearest danger ingaged themselves against Sisera Asher continued on the Seashore and abode in his breaches And no wonder if being Merchants they preferred profit before perill especially being in a safe place where the iron chariots of Iabin King of Canaan could not approach them § 3. The worst mischief in this Tribe was that after the death of Ioshua the Canaanites quartered so hard on the men of Asher that they detained no fewer then seven great cities from them Yea perchance something may be pickt out of the expression of the holy Spirit for whereas the Canaanites are said to dwell amongst those of Zebulun the Asherites the phrase being altered in the following verse are said to dwell among the Canaanites as if those pagans were the principall Land-lords ingrossing all memorable places in this Tribe to themselves whilest the Asherites lived amongst them as Tenants at will by the others leave Nor was this fully remedied untill the victorious reigns of David and Solomon § 4. In the north-west part of this Tribe neer the sea side we first meet with Misrepothmaim that is the boyling of waters though uncertain whether done artificially by fire or naturally by the Sun Here great plenty of salt was made in brine-pits a necessary and gainfull commoditie However Tremellius rendreth Misrepothmaim fornaces vitrarias Glass-furnaces and we know store of the best sort of that brickle ware was made hereabouts Ioshua having foiled the Kings of Canaan at the waters of Merom pursued them thus far to the shore of the Mediterranean where his foes had the free choise whether they would be killed with the sword or drowned in the sea Hard by is Mearah which signifieth a cave and so some translations render it though others retain the Hebrew word being the northern boundary of the land of Canaan and an impregnable underground fortification of the Zidonians Yea many hundred years after in the Holy War when the Christians possessed Palestine they manfully defended it untill the garison therein corrupted with money basely betrayed it unto the Saracens § 5. Observe by the way that the hills in Palestine generally had in their sides plenty of caves and those of such laxity and receit that ours in England are but conny-boroughs if compared to the palaces which those hollow places afforded Neither wonder that the cave of Makkedah could contain five Kings together or that Obadiah could hide an hundred Prophets by fifty fifty in a cave or that about four hundred men abode with David in the cave of Adullam or that six hundred Benjamites lurk't for four moneths in the rock of Rimmon when Strabo hath reported that towards Iturea which beginneth not far off there be sharp mountains having deep deâ—s in them whereof one is able to receive four thousand Men. These caves being only a cellar by nature were by Art contrived into severall rooms and by industry fortified even unto admiration So well man'd they could not be stormed well victualled they could not be starved and not having any combustible matter about them fire-free they could not be burned so thick they could not be battered so high they could not be scaled and so low they could not be undermined But these Inns gave entertainment to any guests and as sometimes they gave shelter to pious people in persecution so often they afforded harbour to theeves and vagabonds The Psalmist glanceth on such places in that his expression Thou art of more honour and might then the hills of the robbers and our Saviour directly pointeth at them when he complaineth that they had turned the house of God into a den of theeves § 6. To proceed hereabouts we can quickly discover an ancient City wrongfully placed by the presumption of Authors namely Enoch built by Cain in the land of Nod which one tells us was at the foot of mount Libanus and that vast foundations thereof are at this day to be seen Surely Cains wandring humour bloudy hands are always attended with roving feet seems to have possessed these Authors brains stragling in the position of this place so far from the truth and the text which describeth it east of Eden But we may seek the City Enoch with more probability to finde it amongst the Henochii a people seated by Pliny neer the Bactrians in the east country § 7. But before we goe farther we will alter our former method hoping such variety will prove the more pleasant and because most memorable Places in Asher are mentioned in Ioshua where the Possessions of this Tribe were first allotted him we will briefly comment on those verses wherein the Bounds of his Inheritance are described Ioshua 19. 24. And the fifth lot came out for the Tribe of the Children of Asher according to their Families To prevent all Quarrels the Land on this side Iordan was divided by lot betwixt the nine Tribes and an half much of providence being couched under the seeming casualty thereof for although their Portions fell not to them in such seniority as they sate down at Pharaoh's Table the first-born according to his Birth-right and the youngest according to his youth yet an excellent method was observed therein For The first Lot fell to Iudah the Tribe Royall of whom the Chief Rulers and Christ himself was to descend The second to the sons of Ioseph Ephraim and Manasses to whom on Reubens forfeiting thereof the Birth-right belonged The third to Benjamin Iacobs youngest but next best beloved son by Rachel his dearest wife The fourth fifth and sixth for Simeon Zebulun and Issachar his sons by Leah so that all Iacobs children by his wives were provided for first before those he had by his Concubines received any Possessions The seventh for Asher Iacobs son by Zilpah handmaid to Leah his first wife and therefore her child in seniority preferred Gad his elder brother being already provided for on the other side Iordan The eight and ninth for Naphtali and Dan born of Bilhah handmaid to Rachel the younger sister and Iacobs second wife We know who said in another case I sleep but my heart awaketh So see here though drowzie Chance in the Lot is commonly challenged to have slept out her eyes and to become stark blind yet is there a concealed vigilancy therein ordered by divine Providence Verse 25. And their border was Helkah and Hali and Beten and Achshaph In expounding these words for the maine we
hundred years after So that herein Breidenâ—ach seemeth to speak as S. Peter did in the same place not knowing what he said More likely it is that there may at this day remain some ruines of Oratories erected many years since seeing there was there a Monastery inhabited by Friers untill they being molested by the Arabians to use my Authors expression took their holinesse away with them and left the mountain behind them § 29. The greatest stream of Kishon runneth northward thorow the midst of this Tribe not far from the City of Naim where Christ meeting the widowes onely Child carried forth to be buried miraculously restored him to life Hereabouts also was the City Aijalon where Elon Judge of Israel was buried of whom nothing else is recorded save his name time of his rule ten years and place of his interment Slight him not because so little is reported of him it tending much to the praise of his Policy in preventing forein invasions and domestick commotions so that the land enjoyed peace as far better then victory as health is to be preferred before a recovery from sickness Yea times of much doing are times of much suffering and many martiall aâ—chievements are rather for the Princes honour then the peoples ease § 30. From Naim the river Kishon glides by the northern skirts of mount Carmel beholding the place where Eliah did execution on Baals Priests on this occasion All Israel met on mount Carmel concluding him the true God who answered by fire unto their sacrifices Baals Priests being vainly clamorous in invoking their Idol whose petitions finde no answer from heaven except the echo in the aire descanting in derision on their importunate bawlings discontented hereat they cut themselves with knives and lancers the ready way to make bloud but not fire to come Then enters Eliah on his work and to prevent all suspicion of fraud he three times caused four barrels of water to be powred on the Altar If any here demand how they came by such plenty of water a precious commodity after three years and six months drought when springs wells and brooks were dried up it is answered it was fetched from the sea hard by whose brackish water though useless to quench the thirsts of men and beasts was proper enough therewithall to trie the present experiment Hereupon at Eliahs prayers fire from heaven licked up the water and consumed the Sacrifice The Prophet taking advantage of this juncture of time whilest the people of Israel were possessed with an high opinion of his power and person King Ahab stood admiring at the miracle Baals Priests stood dispirited with guiltiness and wonder and Iazebel their active Patroness absent at great distance being a single man slew four hundred and fifty of them without any resistance Formerly their flattering hands rather acting and doing did theatrically in superstitious formalities let out some drops of wild bloud in the surface of their flesh whereas now Eliah in true earnest with an unpartial arme gave vent to their heart bloud by the brook Kishon which presently carrieth both their gore and its own water into the Mediterranean Sea § 31. However though Satan then was silent when in credit most concerned to speak in answer to Baals Priests it seems he found his tongue afterwards and here pretended to informe people of their fortune Suetonius tells us that Vespasian in Iudea took counsell from the oracle of the God CARMELUS which foretold his good success in whatsoever he should undertake which God we conceive was some Spirit of delusion thogh then speaking truly having his residence in or nigh this mountain of Carmel § 32. As for Carmel in generall it was so delicious a place that more pleasure was hardly to be fancied then here to be found It consisted of high hills where the wicked thought in vain by hiding themselves in the height thereof to be secured from divine justice a fruitfull vale pleasant river of Kishom and a goodly forrest so that the feet of Sennacherib did itch to enter it as his fingers did long to fell the fair Cedars in Lebanon From this Carmel the platform of pleasure other delightfull places are so named as copies and transcripts of this the originall yea the name is sometimes rendered appellatively for any fruitfull field § 33. From the top hereof we may easily discover two neighbouring townes Cain and Caiaphas the one named from the murderer of Abel the other from the active contriver of his death whose bloud speaketh better things then that of Abel But neither appearing in Scripture it is enough to name them More northerly we behold the valley of Iiphthah-el or river thereof the same word in Hebrew expressing both as indeed it is hard to finde a vale especially in winter without a rivolet therein And if I mistake not the BOURNE in Wilt-shire and the west signifieth both the river and the dale down which it runneth In the vale nigh the river of Iiphthah-el stood the city Zebulun so beautifully built saith Iosephus let him forfeit his fingers when he measures any thing to loss which concerns his own countrey that Cestius the Roman Governour who burnt it admired the houses therein as corrivalls with those of Tyre Zidon and Berytus in magnificence More southward is Cana called commonly the lesse though greatened with Christs first miracle wrought there at a mariage turning water into wine How many matches have been made to which Christ was never invited guest yea the riot and revels thereat would fright his gracious presence from the place Hence the rivolet runneth to Iokneam surnamed of Carmel from the vicinity thereof the King whereof was destroyed by Ioshua and the City afterwards bestowed upon the Levites § 34. Having mentioned the Levite-cities an importunate difficulty whilest I hoped silently to slip by it plucketh me back in my passage It resulteth from the ensuing parallel Joshua 21. 34 35. And unto the families of the children of Mâ—râ—ri the rest of the Levites out of the Tribe of Zebulun Jokneam with her suburbs and Kartah with her suburbs Dimnah with her suburbs Nahalol with her suburbs four cities 1 Chron. 6. 77. Vnto the rest of the children of Merari was given out of the Tribe of Zebulun Rimmon with her suburbs Tabor with her suburbs The difficulty is double first four Cities are mentioned in Ioshua and but two in Chronicles Secondly those two fall out by their different names nothing like the four formerly assigned them § 35. In solution hereof some will say that the Levites might have six cities in Zebulun But why should this tribe being not the biggest be most bountifull unto them Was it because Zebuluns lot advantaged by the sea-situation thereof was larger in worth then in view and so the Merchant adventurers of this tribe making gainfull voyages and profitable
the Israelites long agoe were come into the plentifull Countrey of Canaan all the while they had remained in the land of Reuben ever since they came over the river of Arnon It is answered God hitherto continued his largess of Manna 1 Because formerly they were only come into the skirts of the countrey unsufficient to maintain so numerous an Army whereas now they were entred into the very heart and middle of the land 2 The land of Reuben though very fruitfull was a place for cattell fit for grazing and better for beasts then men to feed upon 3 God to manifest his liberality would not onely have his provisions to meet even but to lap over continuing Manna till his people were otherwise plentifully provided for both with new corn on the ground coming hither in the beginning of harvest and old in their Granary Thus the Iews did not begin house-keeping on â—are walls but were set up with full stock afore-hand victualled in a manner with two years provision that with the good house-keeper they might bring forth out of their treasure things new and old § 11. In the days of Samuel and Saul this was a place of principall credit where Saul was solemnly invested with a crown Come let us goe up unto Gilgal and renew the kingdome there Yet here at the same time to shew Gods displeasure with the people for their tumultuous desiring of a King Thunder in harvest in Iudea Sommers thunder old mens wonder exceedingly afrighted the hearers thereof Afterwards Saul stained this place with a double deed of disobedience 1 When in Samuels absence he presumed to offer sacrifice Once the proverb was Is Saul also amongst the Prophets Now it may be Is Saul also amongst the Priests invading the Sacerdotall function 2 When contrary to Gods command he spared and brought hither the best of spoile of Amalek so that Samuel was fain to supply what justice was wanting in Saul who hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal In after ages here was an Academy or Seminary of the sons of the Prophets brought up here in learning preparatory to their profession Acquired are so far from hindering infused abilities that the stock prepared by industry is fittest to be graffed on by inspiration Eliah and Elisha were successively the Presidents or rather the Visitors of this Colledge the latter being both food and physick for the students therein 1 Food when with twenty small Barly loaves he fed an hundred of the children of the Prophets 2 Physick when his meal was Antidote against the malignity of the wild gourd in their pottage It seems the sons of the Prophets were no expert Herbalists whose learning moved in an higher and holier sphere and they more skilfull to discern betwixt true doctrine and heresie then betwixt pot-herbs and poison § 12. Gilgal was afterwards a sinke of Idolatry and belonged to the Kings of Israel as appears by the Prophets counsell though thou Israel play the harlot yet let not Iudah offend and come yee not into Gilgal c. At Gilgal men multiplied transgression whereupon destruction was denounced against this place and Gilgal was afterwards rolled up in her own ruines To return to the river Iordan which a little south-ward falls into the Salt-sea the south boundary of this Tribe The epithet Salt is not here superfluous but emphaticall partly to distinguish it from the sea of Cinneroth or Galilee which was a fresh-water-sea and partly because the water hereof was salt with a witness fire-salt as I may say Let Philosophers demonstrate the cause of the brackishness of the Ocean though it is to be feared they wil be posed nearer home how rivolets of teares which flow from their own eyes come to be so salt But a peculiar reason may be certainly assigned why the water in this sea was transcendently salt above all others whereof largely hereafter in the description of Iudah § 13. Having done with the channell of Iordan the certain and unmoveable bound of Benjamin on the east come we now in our perambulation to surround the other three sides of this Tribe and at first will onely take notice of the limitary places and so proceed from the rine to the core from the marches to the middle of this countrey The south of Benjamin ranged from Kiriath-jearim by the well of the waters of Nephtoah to the valley of Hinnon and so on the south of Ierusalem descended to Enrogell All which places shall hereafter be presented in a peculiar map and therefore no more for the present § 14. Hence it went forth to Enshemesh i. e. the fountain of the Sun Either so called from the clearness of the waters thereof or because in Idolatrous days when the hoste of heaven was worshipped whereof the Sun the Generall it was dedicated thereunto or because the suns extraordinary influence thereon endued it with soveraign virtue And now it is well remembred that Bath in England is called by Antoninus Aque solis or the waters of the Sun Hence the bounds of Benjamin stretched to Geliloth near Gilgal over against the going up to Adummim and thence descended to the stone of Bohan the son of Reuben so called no doubt from some memorable act by him there atcheived for otherwise the Reubenites had no part of possession on the west side of Iordan Hence this Tribe extended through Arabah to Beth-hoglah i. e. as Saint Hierome interprets it Locus gyri or the place of a circle because as he will have it in this place Ioseph with his brethren set in a round the forme of mourners bewailed the corps of Iacob brought hither out of Egypt § 15. But leaving this as a conjecture most sure it is that hereabouts was the floor of Atad where so solemn a lamentation was made for Iacobs death that the place long after did weare mourning in the name thereof therefore called Abel-mizraim i. e. the sorrowing of the Egyptians Strange that strangers being the Elders of Pharaohs Court and kingdome should so affectionately bemoan the death of a man no whit related unto them Surely the Egyptians did not weep-Irish with faigned and mercenary teares much less was their passion onely State-sympathy and politick compliance sighing and smiling with the sighs and smilings of Ioseph Rather it was because the endearing disposition and obliging goodness of old Iacob living fifteen years with them in Egypt had gained the generall love of the land Besides they lamented his loss as the death of their own grand-father because he was Father to Ioseph the Father founder and preserver of them and theirs in the time of famin If any demand why the Egyptians mourned for Iacob threescore and ten days whilst Ioseph made a mourning for him but for seven days I can tell the common answer that the former ignorant of heavenly happiness lamented him
ingenuity or remorse been legible in their countenances no doubt he would have suspended his sentence 6 He cursed in the name of the Lord not out of spight but with Gods Spirit and the judgement followed accordingly Probably some of them escaped to the City and there might instruct their mothers and nurses never more to fright children with fond tales of Bug-bears but seriously to informe them of the truth of this sorrowfull accident § 23. In this City Beth-el there was also a nursery of the Sons of the Prophets Alas what heart had they to live here Could the Stall of the golden calfe be a convenient place for them to study in The frequent and abominable impieties here committed they could neither behold with silence nor reprove with safety However it seems they were especially desirous of and delighted in this place where God had immediately manifested his gracious presence to Iacob and we may charitably beleeve by the privateness of their lives secured themselves both from pollution and persecution But for the main Beth-el was changed into Beth-aven Scala coeli into Gradus inferni the Devills then dancing for joy where once Angels those holy Agitators went up and down betwixt heaven and earth Yea in after-ages it was penal for any pious Prophet to approach this place such the strictness of the prohibition herein Prophecy no more at Beth-el for it is the Kings Chappell and it is the Kings Court. As if it were against the Law of the Verge for one to draw a sword though of Gods word within the bounds and precincts of the Palace of the idolatrous Kings of Israel § 24. The last memorable mention that we finde of Beth-el was when Iosiah burnt the bones of the idolatrous people on the Altar there Some will say he shewed little wisdome and less valour therein to encounter dead corps Yea the living found more offence by the stinking then the dead felt pain by the burning of these bones Nor was the alteration thereby produced of so great moment seeing otherwise it would have been dust to dust and now was ashes to ashes But we must know that Iosiah herein was not acted with principles of cruelty but moved in obedience to Gods command to fulfill that prophecy some hundred years before foretold of him Whilest here they were ransacking the sepulchers behold one solemn grave the house of the dead with a stone thereupon the door of that house with an Epitaph on that stone the Porter of that door wherein on enquiry appeared that Prophet lay interred who long since forespake these passages now come to pass His corps were spared by special command and with him quietly rested the old Prophet so good is it as we have elsewhere observed to keep good company both in life and after death So much of Beth-el whence the border of Benjamin descended from Ataroth-Adar near the hill which lyeth on the south side of the nether Bethoron § 25. In assigning the west border of this Tribe we meet with a churlish difficulty in the text drawing the bounds thereof so as to compass the corner of the sea southward Here the Quere ariseth how any part of Benjamin could approach the sea the Tribe of Dan being interposed betwixt it and the Mediterranean Rabbi Solomon seeking to salve it by Sea understands some great water in the west of this Tribe and what he affirmeth is proportionable enough to the Hebrew language terming all watry confluences a Sea as we have formerly observed And indeed what is our English word Mere used in the samesense more or less then Mare or a Sea I should be inclined to the opinion that the pool of Gibeon so eminent in Scripture and styled by Ieremiah the great waters which are in Gibeon should be the Sea herein intended Or if the words of the Text calling it the sea without any other addition must be understood of the best and biggest in that kinde and then can be no other then the Mediterranean sea then I shall embrace the judgement of learned Macius interpreting â— jam not the Sea but the west onely which the propriety of the tongue will well endure § 26. From this western compass alià s Sea in other translations the limits of Benjamin range to Kiriath-jearim in the confines of this Tribe where the Arke was Leiger for twenty years and whence David in a new cart intended to convey it to Ierusalem This kinde of carriage was but Philistine divinity and a Pagan precedent not so ordered by Moses in the mount When the Arke was removed from Shilo it was set on the Levites shoulders and I see no reason why they now should be too good to beare it Uzzah and Ahio drive the cart The former with his hand held it from shaking such his store of good intention and shaked it with his holding such his want of due qualification God striketh him with death and David is startled thereat Is this the Arke placed so near the Mercy-seat Oh how terrible then is the throne of divine Justice For a time therefore the Arke is set to sojourne in the house of Obed-Edom where the Land-lord was blessed for go good a guest Diuine ordinances according as their subject receiveth them are either cordials or poysons and the Arke brought â—ither a curse or a blessing whithersoever it came § 27. The place where the former dysastâ—r happened was called by David Perez-Uzzah nigh Nachons threshing-floor We meet with many such places in the Bible distant from Cities where husbandmen housed and beat out their grain with severall inventions namely 1 With the feet of Oxen treading out the corn 2 By the wheel running over them Make them O Lord like c. 3 With flailes which having wooden handles had their ends armed with iron But amongst all their devices the lazy â—rick of the wild Irish never entred into their braines who to save pains burn the straw so to part the grain from it § 28. So much for the borders of Benjamin Come we now into the middle thereof and first we finde the waters of Iericho arising in the confines of Ephraim The naughtiness of this water was mâ—raculously healed by Elisha putting salt into the fountain thereof I say miraculously otherwise that ingredient would rather have made it more brackish then less bitter Hence those waters run south-ward to the City of Iericho whose name as Munster interprets signifies having a good savour Indeed so delicious the situation thereof after the cure aforesaid wrought by Elisha that had Profit and Pleasure been disposed to solace themselves together no fitter place could be found for that purpose Fragrant the flowers sweet the herbs hereabout especially the garden of Balsame which in the days of the Romans occasioned a quarrell betwixt them and the Iews who manfully defended it Happy had the
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 dead- 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
it had been presumption to new modell them whose perfection was uncapeable of any higher improvement § 2. Yet Solomon for the more magnificence added two Cherubims for the matter dimensions position and use thereof distinguished from those of Moses his making 1 Moses made his of pure gold of beaten work whilest Solomon were of Olive-tree within but overlaid with gold 2 Both the former had but two cubits and an half in length as onely adequate to the length of the Mercy-seat whereas each of Solomons Cherubims was ten cubits in height the greatest gallantry of the whole Temple 3 Moses his Cherubims lay on the Mercy-seat both whose wings turned inward met together whilest Solomons were set on the floor whose four wings stretched outwards to the full length extended to the whole breadth of the Holy of Holies 4 Moses his Cherubims with their wings shadowed the Mercy-seat Solomons like a golden arch overshadowed those Cherubims so that in the Holy of Holies there was a little Hierarchy Angels above Angels therein Wonder not that whilest Moses his Cherubims were of Massie gold bearing best proportion to the purity and incorporeity of the Angelicall Nature that Solomons should be but overlaid with gold having Olive-tree within them For so vast were their dimensions ten cubits or thirty foot high that if of solid gold a little land of Ophir might have lain within that compass And being to be made hollow perchance it was necessary that some wood for stiffenting should be put within them These Cherubims were the most gorgeous and costly ornaments in all the Temple and probably were embezeled by the covetous Babylonians at the captivity and never brought back again because onely essentiall vessels and not all the ornaments of State were restored and placed in the second Temple To return to the Mercy-seat under it the Ark of the Covenant was placed and the Tables written with Gods own finger were put therein § 3. But here appeareth some contradiction betwixt the furniture of the Ark of the Covenant as described in the Old and New Testament 1 King 8. 9. 2 Chron 5. 10. There was nothing in the Ark save the two tables of stone which Moses put there at Horeb. Hebrews 9. 4. And the Ark of the Covenant overlaid round about w th gold wherein was the golden pot that had manna Aarons rod that budded the tables of the CovenaÌ„t Behold here the Ark filled not to say crowded by the Apostle with other implements which the Old Testament onely a Repositary for the Tables of the Covenant § 4. Amongst the many answers tendered by learned men in solution to this difficulty none in my opinion so satisfactory as what Ribera first bringeth and Iunius otherwise in judgement much different from him approveth and enlargeth Namely that those words of Saint Paul Wherein was the golden pot c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 relates not to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ark though last named but to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Tabernacle called The holiest of all in the precedent verse it being confessed of all hands that the foresaid pot of Manna and Aarons rod though not within the concavity of the Ark were within the compass of the Oracle or Most holy place Now that the propriety of the tongue will bear it out that the Relative sometime refers not to the next immediatly but more remote Antecedent many instances are alledged for the proof thereof CHAP. IX Of the vessels in the Priests Court § 1. SO much for the Utensils in the covered Temple Proceed we now into the Priests Court and there first finde the brazen Altar having twenty cubits in length as much in breadth and ten in the height thereof Now although Solomon made ten candlesticks ten lavers ten c. yet he confined himself to one Altar of incense one Altar of sacrifice multiplying of Altars hearing ill in Scripture as suspicious of Idolatry but whether therein pointing at Christ our onely Mediatour or at the unity of the Church let others dispute § 2. Now seriously considering this Altar we meet with many wonders therein First that being set sub dio in the open aire it is strange that rain presumed sometimes to fall in great plenty with great violence did not extinguish the fire thereof Secondly seeing continuall fire was kept there it is wonder that the whole Court as the Chimney-generall thereof was not turned Tawny-More if not Black-More with the constant soot smuttiness and smoking thereof Thirdly it is strange that in so short time so many sacrifices could be consumed within the compass of so small a place especially at the dedication of the Temple when sacrificing Sheep and Oxen that could not be told nor numbred for multitude Lastly it is admirable that in a Climate so hot and place so populous no putrefaction did arise from the bloud fat offall and ordure of so many beasts slain there to the infecting of the Priests and people thereabouts We know how noisome and offensive slaughter-houses in Sommer are in great Cities insomuch that Tertio Richardi secundi a motion was made that no Butcher should kill any flesh within London but at Knights-bridge or some such distant place from the walls of the City § 3. But under favour I conceive the true satisfying of these difficulties depends on the right understanding of the nature or rather the supernaturall qualities of the fire on the Altar It was not common or culinary fire but such as came down from heaven which amongst other peculiar properties where with it was endowed was so far from being quenched by rain or water that it would quickly lick it up though a trench containing twelve barrels were filled therewith as in the sacrifice of Elijah fetching fire from the same originall it came to pass Secondly such celestiall flame being of a more clarified and refined substance left not any suffocating smoke or sooty feculency behind it Thirdly being sent from heaven not to dally but dispatch the work God employs no slugs on his errands it made speedy riddance of the matter in hand and consumed the sacrifice of a sudden We know how quickly lightning though not the â—ame much of kin to the fiâ—â— on the Altar will turn any thing that resists it into ashes Hereupon some conceive that by Ariel that is Gods Lion in the Prophet the Altar in the Temple is meant A voracious Lion indeed which with Pharaoh's lean kine devoured many thousands of cattell and was no whit the fatter for the same Lastly such heavenly fire was a great preservative against infection and the purgative nature thereof swept away much putrefaction which otherwise would have proved very noisome § 4. Pass we now from the fire to the Water from the Altar to the Molten sea A worthy vessell this was of solid brass five cubits high and ten over from side to
side being round all about and thirty cubits in compass containing two thousand Baths namely as they filled it but two parts of three for ordinary use leaving a third part for empty Margin in the top Otherwise were it filled brimfull it would in all receive three thousand Baths where the totall capacity thereof is computed Therefore called a Sea from the large containt thereof and not much unlike the Caspian sea for the circular form and entireness thereof having its brim wrought about with lily-work and it stood upon twelve oxen which by four severall Threes respected the quarters of the world § 5. But now the question will be How this vast vessell was furnished with water Solomon speaking of the Ocean All the rivers saith he run into the sea but how this artificiall sea was supplied with any water by peoples industry is a considerable question the Temple of Ierusalem being so highly situated on a mountain Here the Rabbins tell us of a Well Etam some distance hence whence the water was conveyed in pipes so that the Temple had it always in great abundance We confess there was a city and rock of Etam in the Tribe of Simeon near to which a miraculous fountain issued in the days of Samson to quench his thirst out of the jawbone of an Ass. And it seems the Ghost of this fountain did walk in the brains of the Rabbins when first they invented this tradition But this Etam being full forty miles from Ierusalem was likely to afford them little water for the replenishing of this Molten sea Rather we beleeve that the Gibeonites or Nethinims whose office it was to be drawers of water for the Congregation out of the fountain of Siloam or Pool of Bethesda hard by filled this Sea and furnished all other Lavatories and Offices about the Temple with that necessary element Yea probably there were some wells within the verge of the Temple seeing Ierusalem is charactred by Strabo an Heathen writer to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 well watered within it self though without the walls it wanted the conveniency thereof And which is the main in Ezekiels description of the Temple which one may term A visionarie varnish on an historicall ground-work being a literall truth mystically much improved we finde the waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward which swelled to a miraculous proportion Now though the increase and overflowing of such streams was extraordinary and propheticall yet surely the fountain thereof was reall and naturall importing some springs in the Temple whence the Nethinims did fill this Molten sea and all other vessels with water designed for the Priests to wash themselves therein § 6. Having thus dispatched the Molten sea the ten Lavers being as it were but so many little lakes will quickly be described In the Tabernacle none of these were extant as appointed for the washing of sacrifices for that single Laver made by Moses for the Priests service answered onely to the Molten sea whereby it appears that Solomon not onely made in his Temple vessels moe in number and bigger in degree but also other in kind then were in the Tabernacle to fill and furnish the magnificence thereof These Lavers of brass contained forty Baths apiece each set on his basis with wheels for their more convenient removall though generally their station was five on the one side and five on the other in the Court of the Priests and east of the covered Temple § 7. In the outward Court or Court of Israel many no doubt were the Utensils thereof As that brazen scaffold made by Solomon for the King to stand and pray upon the same as Tremellius conceives with the Kings Pillar with the Pulpits and deskes wherein the Priests expounded the law to the people But as for the remainder of the vessels of the Temple with the manyfold traditions concerning them the Reader is referred to the learned paines of my industrious friend Mr. Iohn Lightfoot who as I understand intends an entire Treatise thereof Far be it from me that our pens should fall out like the heardsmen of Lot and Abraham the land being not able to bear them both that they might dwell together No such want of room in this subject being of such latitude and receipt that both we and hundreds moe busied together therein may severally lose our selves in a subject of such capacity The rather because we embrace severall courses in this our Description it being my desire and delight to stick onely to the written word of God whilest my worthy friend takes in the choicest Rabbinicall and Talmudicall relations being so well seen in those studies that it is questionable whether his skill or my ignorance be the greater therein CHAP. X. Of things deposited in the Chambers and outward Courts of the Temple § 1. PRoceed we now to the outward Courts of the Temple whose Chambers were severally imployed for sundry uses as for the laying up of Tithes First-fruits Wood Salt and other Requisites for the sacrifices Of this last a mass was spent in the Temple seeing no offering was acceptable without it The best was Iudea could well afford to spare plenty thereof for Gods service who had bestowed such store thereof upon it that there was a place called the City of Salt in the Tribe of Iudah § 2. Other rooms were employed to contain the many instruments used in the Temple Some of whose names we finde mentioned in the titles of severall Psalmes solemnly set to be sung upon them though so many authours so many mindes in expounding their names and qualities we will onely insist on what we conceive most probable 1 Aijeleth Shahar or The hinde of the morning Probably some early instrument as the going about of the Waites in some places bringing tydings of the morning and giving men notice to rise 2 Alamoth which literally may be rendered Virginales or Maiden-instruments with high and shrill notes acuta symphonia saith Tromellius 3 Gittith A personall instrument appropriated to the posterity of Obed-Edom the Gittite an excellent Master of musick thence taking its denomination 4 Ionath Elem Rechokim By some rendered appellatively The dumbe Dove in far places By others conceived an instrument of sad and dolefull musick I did mourn as a Dove saith dying Hezekiah 5 Mahalath which Ainsworth interpreteth sickness or infirmity and conceiveth it a kind of wind-instrument 6 Mahalah-leannoth The same with the former but with this addition to sing by turnes which is when alternately one part answereth another in singing 7 Mutb-labben The Chaldee interpreteth it for The death of the Son as if it were some cheerfull instrument made by David to comfort himself after the death of his child whilest others conceive it a kind of tune like to that which we call the
suspicious greatness Politicians having found in their theory and Princes perchance felt in their practise the danger thereof § 34. And now we come to the particular description of the Land of Edom called also Mount-Seir Dumah and Idumea in the Scripture Mount Seir is as much as Mons hispidus or hirsutus a rough and rugged mountain So called some conceive from Esau who Satyr-like had a quickset of hair on his body though it seems the place was so named long before he came to possesse it as brisling with bushes and overgrown with wood in the famous wilderness thereof namely of 1 Teman The inhabitants hereof were or were accounted of themselves or others very wise Is wisdome no more in Teman Yet all their carnall policy could not preserve them from utter destruction there threatned unto them Eliphaz one of Iobs friends was of this Countrey 2 Dedan Such as dwelt therein were merchants and did drive a land trade with Tyrus bringing thither precious clothes for chariots or in chariots 3 Edom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herein the three Kings wandered and were distressed for want of water till Elisha relieved them As for the other two names of this Countrey Dumah and Idâ—mea formerly largely thereof § 35. Edom had the dead-Dead-sea and Moab on the north-east Arabia deserta on the east the wilderness of Paran on the north-west and the Red-sea on the south-west A sea not so called from the redness of the water thereof yet I know not how it may appear when beheld with bloud-shot eyes nor from a King Eruthraeus for what makes a Greek name so long since in these eastern parts but from Edom or Rufus the red son of Iacob commanding in this countrey so that Red sea is all one with the Edomite or Idumean Sea In Hebrew it is termed Iam Suph or the flaggy sea because of the plenty of flags reeds and weeds found therein though of the last never so many as when the wicked Egyptians were drowned therein Ezion-gaber is a fair haven of great commerce on this sea Here Solomon had his navy royall which jointly with the ships of Hiram brought four hundred and twenty talents of gold from Ophir This it seems was the sum paid de claro into the Kings Exchequer otherwise thirty talents more are mentioned probably expended in defraying the cost of the voyage Long after Iehosaphat joining with Ahaziah hence set forth ships for the same purpose to the same place but they went not for they were broken Why the seas which smiled on Solomon should frown on godly Iehosaphat I durst not conjecture lest my adventuring in guessing prove as unsuccessefull as his in sailing had not Scripture plainly told me that the winds and the waves forbad the Banes of matching Gods children with Idolaters in the same designe Yea the breath of Eliezer the Prophet may be said to have sunk those ships threatening their destruction Thus those shall never reap good harvest who plow with an Oxe and an Asse contrary to Gods flat command Afterwards wicked King Ahaziah requested again of Iehosaphat Let my servants goe with thy servants in the ships but the other refused having foundas bad success with the son at sea as lately he had had on land with Ahab his Father Besides Iehosaphat being sensible how his infant-designe was strangled in the wombe and his ships broken at Ezion gaber in the very haven would not renew his voyage it being a bold defying of divine power to water that project from earth which one plainly sees blasted from heaven § 36. Other remarkable places in Edom were first Mount Hor haply so called from the Horims ancient inhabitants thereof where Aaron put off his clothes the covering of his body and his body the clothes of his soul and Eleazar his son both buried and succeeded him Thus though for his disobedience forbidden the entrance of the land of Canaan yet he came to the selvedge or out-skirt thereof for hard by the Tribe of Iudah with a narrow spong confined on the kingdome of Edom. 2ly The valley of salt at the south end of the Dead Sea where God twice seasoned the Edomites with two sharp and smart overthrows when Abishai killed eighteen thousand and afterwards when Amaziah killed ten thousand of them in the same place 3ly Zair is not far off where King Ioram of Iudah gave the Edomites a great blow though he could not bring them again into a full subjection 4ly More south Bozrah the metropolis of Edom. The name thereof signifieth a muniment or fortification hence so many of them in these parts and it was a place of great strength and renown The Prophet speaking of Christ returning in triumph from overcoming his enemies Who is this saith he that cometh from Edom with red garments from Bozrah But oh the difference though the colour be the same betwixt the manner of the die when Christ came red a sufferer and red a conquerour the latter from Bozrah but the former from Ierusalem § 37. Yet Bozrah carrieth it not so clear to be chiefe in this Countrey but that Sclah is a stiffe corrivall with it for the same honour This Hebrew name signifies a Rock in which sense it is called Petra in Greek and Latine I say not that Arabia is thence denominated Petraea standing on a steep hill from the precipice whereof Amaziah threw ten thousand Edomites and they all burst to pieces whereof before a cruell act yet admitting of a better excuse then another he committed in this kingdome in adoring the captive Idols of Edom and setting them up to be worshipped in Iudah Did he think that as some trees gain more strength by being transplanted so these Gods would get new vigour by being removed into another countrey Petra was by Amaziah named Ioktheel and is called Crach at this day having lately been used for a place therein to secure the treasure of the Sultan § 38. So much of Edom whose ancient antipathy against Israel continued and increased to the last Witness their standing in the cross ways to cut off them of Iudah which should escape and shut up the remnant in the day of affliction God in conclusion was even with them for as they had cast lots upon Ierusalem so at last they drew such a blank for themselves that notwithstanding their Eagles-nests and starry-dwellings wherein they placed their confidence they were brought to destruction their high habitations being so far from saving them that they onely contributed to make their fall more visible to others and dangerous to themselves § 39. East of Edom lay the Land of Uz where Iob dwelt so renowned for his patience when the devill heaped afflictions upon him allowing him no lucid intervalls Onely the more deliberately to torment him measured unto him so much space betwixt his severall stripes that Iob might be distinctly sensible
retrograde now advancing in a streight line then retraiting in the same Yea surely any man would have concluded them not well in their wits untill satisfied in the true cause thereof namely that God in this their fourty years wandring meant to weare out the whole stock of that faithless generation Caleb and Ioshua onely excepted § 8. See what fourty years can doe lay six hundred thousand men in their graves and substitute a new generation in their room It is observed of Lightning that sometimes it melteth the sword and yet bruiseth not the scabbard and the reason commonly rendered is because the steel maketh opposition against it Thus God miraculously preserved their clothes and consumed their flesh their shooes waxed not old but their feet did their cases were spared and persons spilled because God therein met with so much resistance against his commands Thus the stock of that generation being wholly wasted no decrepit or decaied no impotent or infirme person entered the promised land but all able and active in the prime of their strength fit to fight to the greater terrour of their enemies And in a mysticall sense this was to shew that not the old man born in the house of bondage but onely the new regenerate creature shall enter the heavenly Canaan § 9. Come we now to describe the Israelites through this wilderness and first of their passage over the Red-sea when pursued by the Egyptians Then were they reduced to great extremity Fight they durst not being a multitude of undisciplin'd people of all ages and sexes against a regulated army of their enemies fly they could not having the sea before the Egyptians behinde steep and unpassable hills on either side of them It was well there was nothing above betwixt them and heaven to hinder the access of Moses his prayers to God in their behalf However for the present God so ordered it that the Egyptians overtook not the camp of Israel being parted with the pillar of the cloud the first and perfect pattern of a dark-lantern dark indeed to the Egyptians but a lantern to the Israelites Then Moses by order from heaven gave the signall with his rod a strong east-winde blew and the sea miraculously retraited standing on heaps on each side of the Israelites whilest they passed through it Thus out of danger came safety the sea flanking the Israelites on both sides whose rere was secured by the pillar and front advanced far off out of danger § 10. Here the importunate cavill of Borphyrius presseth for admission alledging that Moses taking advantage of a low water unknown to the Egyptians passed the people over thereat Utterly unlikely that he being a stranger should be better acquainted with the secret ebbings of the red-Red-sea then the Egyptian-natives whose countrey bordered on the shores thereof beside many other improbabilities But malice must carp at the clearest truth and had rather lose her small credit in saying non-sense then great revenge in bringing nothing against it § 11. True it is they went over at the wrist of the sleeve of the sea and crossed it in the shortest place God making use not out of any need but his own meer pleasure of the narrowest cut of the sea for their more compendious passage Thus Christ went into heaven from Mount Olivet taking the advantage of the rising ground for his ascent not out of necessity but state the Lord of nature therein graciously accepting of that service which she dutifully tendred unto him And though small and short the Red-sea in this place it was big and broad enough to doe the deed and drown the Egyptians Oh! if the least joint of the little finger of the sea be so heavy how weighty are the loines of the Ocean if let loose Able in an instant to press all mankind to the pit of destruction § 12. The Egyptians follow the chace of the Israelites Strange that they left not off their pursuit at so miraculous an accident Such a road in the sea out of the road of nature seemed not to be gone in but gazed at with amazement But they thought good for one good for another and all objections to the contrary are answered in three words God hardened them Yea such whom he designeth for destruction shall mistake their funeralls for their nuptialls and dance as merrily to their graves as if they went to their wedding God first sent distraction amongst them their cripple chariots turned into carts when their fore-wheels were taken away halt on very heavily In vain did the wiser Egyptians perswade a retrait whilest the returning waters swallow all up in a moment Mean time the Israelites march fair on and recover the other side and then in a double Quire of men and women sing praises unto God for their miraculous deliverance § 13. But this musick was too good to hold long We meet with a new ditty and worse notes soon after Three days they wander without water probably sustained for food with that unleavened bread and other provision they brought with them out of Egypt See here sudden vicissitudes 1 Water they want Oh great grief 2 Water appears plenty at Marah Oh great joy 3 This water proves no water so bitter it could not be drunk Grief again and murmuring 3 The water is cured Great joy again This cure Moses effected casting by Gods direction a tree into it Thus the infusion of the least piece of Christs cross I mean a true interest in his passion will turn our bitterest afflictions in this world to become sweet and pleasant unto us From this Marah they remove to their next station at Elim famous for twelve wells of water and seventy Palme-trees as if nature had purposely produced a Well for every Tribe to drink of a Palme-tree for every eminent Elder in Israel to lodge under § 14. From Elim they removed red- and incamped by the Red-sea What meant their going back again Was it because in their hearts they turned back again into Egypt And therefore God in his justice would vex their wearied bodies to fetch a flexure thitherwards Or rather was it because God would have them take a second view of that sea that so their deliverance thereat might take the firmer and deeper impression in their memories Thus scholars who have once con'd their lesson by heart are set again at the weeks end to get it for their part Whatsoever was the cause sure I am they were now no nearer to the end of their race then at the first starting and these their last three removealls were but ciphers towards the account of their journey Wonder I no longer at Saint Paul and his companions in their sea-voyage when they had sailed slowly many days the winde not suffering them finding these Israelites in their land-travell after so long time moved not promoted yea going backward and the slowest snaile makes more
Incense representing his intercession as Mediator retaining still his glorified body about him in heaven § 17. Many will wonder that this Shittim-wood in the middest of the Altar for sacrifices though plated over with brass on each side was never fired with the continuall flames thereupon Some know to their sorrow how soon such rafters or joices are set on fire which by the ill contrivance of the Carpenter run under those hearths where constant fires are kept But we must know that on the Altar the fire came down from heaven and onely minded the dispatch of that message on which it was sent and as gun-powder though ill comparing fire of heaven and fire of hell together burnes onely upwards so this celestiall fire as in motion so in operation had its activity upwards towards heaven whence it derived the descent thereof § 18. Expect not here an enumeration much less an exposition of all the Utensils of the Tabernacle most of them being formerly touched in Solomons Temple Onely here a word of the Laver and Aarons solemn Pontificalls because of their rare composition The former was made of the looking-glasses of the women many being much troubled herein how so brickle matter when broken could be made usefull and solidated for this service Indeed we have a tradition of one at Venice who made glass malleable but was for his invention rewarded with death by the State who knew full well that they must break if glasses were not broken though this is listned unto as a fable But to the difficulty in hand it is meerly grounded on a mistake that all Specula must needs be vitrea that what renders the reflexion of a face cannot be but of glasse Whereas many other resplendent though not transparent bodies doe the same as polished touch jet steel and brass the purest of the last most probably being here intended Surely such looking-glasses which severally were so clear lost not their lustre by being many of them melted into the Laver but when polished again retained their returning of resemblances But whether the Priests as some will have it made use thereof to discover all soiliness in them before they washed as also after washing whether the same were sufficiently cleansed we dare not define § 19. However commendable was the devotion of these women in bringing their glasses dear ornaments in their account to Gods service Oh that men would but part with their superfluous yea noxious glasses such as might be spared not onely without any hurt but with much health to their souls bodies and estates to bestow them on pious uses What monuments to Gods glory and the good of others might therewith be erected § 20. We must not forget the eight ornaments of Aaron thus reckoned up 1. Linnen breeches next his flesh 2. A Coat of fine linnen over them 3. Girded with an embroidered girdle 4. Over which coat and girdle a robe all of blew with bells and Pomegranates 5. Upon it the Ephod on the shoulders whereof two goodly Berill stones graven with the names of the Tribes of Israel 6. In the Ephod the Breast-plate and therein the Urim and Thummim 7. On his head a Mitre 8. In the forefront whereof a plate of pure gold two fingers broad wherein was graven Holiness to the Lord. Say not that the High-priest was sweltred being built so many stories high in his garments seeing if pride be never a cold when pleasing its own fancy piety can never be too hot with what it weareth in obedience to Gods commandement The Priests hands and feet when entring into the Holy of Holies were washed and bare to show the purity simplicity and sincerity of his actions and conversation especially in the service of God § 21. In the making of these vestments we frequently meet with four essentiall ingredients blew purple scarlet and fine twined linnen Here Ribera findes the four elements though hardly put to it to make them all out fire in the colour of scarlet aire of blew earth in fine linnen because it coming thence water in the colour of purple because died with the liquour of a fish from the sea as if the High-priest was thus presented as â—upreme Chaplain to the Lord of the Universe Thus though taking in the whole world in my minde he leaves out the most materiall mystery intended therein for we may behold the High-priest when entering the Holy of Holies representing Christ himself under such coloured clothes in a double capacity First as he stood charged with the guilt of mankinde when The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all having our scarlet and crimson sins imputed unto him Secondly as he made satisfaction for the same with his bloud scarlet blew and purple being severall sanguine colours differing onely in degrees and the severall setlings thereof § 22. What Urim and Thummim were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Aquila doctrina veritas in the Vulgar light and perfection according to the interpretation of the Hebrew neither Iew nor Christian can tell though the former the blinder the bolder are as various as confident in their conjectures Some conceive it those very two words others the name Iehovah graven in the breast-plate others nothing else but the twelve stones resplendent with light and compleated to perfection with the Tribes names therein and other some mysterious matter not of mans making but Gods giving to Moses In a word we shall never certainly know what Urim and Thummim were untill as in the case of Brazâ—llaâ—'s children there stand up a Priest with Urim and Thummim to inform us thereof § 23. Nor less is the variance amongst authours how answers thereby were returned to the Priests that consulted it in behalfe of others whether such designes should be undertaken or not Some conceive that at such times the fair fresh and orient lustre of the stones therein amounâ—ed to the aâ—â—irmative whilest their dim dull and dead colour was interpreted negative Others conceive that seeing the Tribes names therein contained all the Hebrew letters and vowels such characters discovered themselves by their sparkling which concurred to the spelling of a grant or deniall as here imitating the Hebrew in our English tongue is described Conceive such letters as we here make Capitaâ—â— appearing extraordinarily radiant on the Priests enquiry And also to avoid confusion that sparkling first in time which was to be read first in place Sardius Reuben Dun. ReUben DaN. Ligâ—re Topaz Sinâ—con Nâ—phtali Sinne On. NaPh Tâ—li Agate Carbuncle Levi. Gad. LEvi Gâ—d Amethyst On a      On a Emraud IUdah Ash Er. Iâ—udah Asher Beryl Saphir Issachar IsePh Issachar â—Oseph Oâ—yx Diamond ZebulOn Benjamin Zebulon Benjamin Iasper GOE UP GOE NOT UP But leaving these difficult trifles beneath the state of the high-priest good onely for Acrostick-mongers and Anagrammatists to pore upon I
doth this overflowing of Nile give onely wealth but also health to Egypt For if five hundred chance to dye in a day in Cairo of the plague a mortality not rare in so populous a place where the sound keep company with the sick holding death fatall and to avoid it irreligion not one doth die the day following 3 Fall For at the influx thereof into the sea the fresh water keeps together and contrary to other rivers changeth the colour of the salt far farther into the sea then the shore from thence can be discerned Nor less wonderfull are the creatures in and about this river the bird Trochilus the Ichneumon or Rat of Nilus the Crocodiles and River-horses though as big as a cow and proportioned as a swine for all which we send the Reader for his better information to that modern learned Philosopher who hath made a just tract thereof Onely we will adde that not moe cures are prescribed for the tooth-ach then causes by severall Authors assigned for the flowing of Nilus nor are the one farther from giving the body ease then the other the minde satisfaction § 11. With the flowing of the River rose also the Pride of the Egyptians exceeding all bounds and banks of modesty and moderation defying Nature it self because as Isocrates saith they had both drought and moisture in their own dispositions And such their land is described by the Poet Terra suis contenta bonis non indiga mercis Aut Iovis in solo tanta est fiducia Nilo A land content with home-bred ware For forein wealth she doth not care Or whether heavens do frown or smile Her confidence is all in Nile Yea so impudent is the Egyptian arrogance herein that whereas Nilus makes Egypt and God made both they falsly boast once and again in the Prophet My river is mine own and I have made it for my self whereupon God to clear his own property and right to the creature threatneth to shew his judgements on that river from the tower of Syen even unto the border of Ethiopia § 12. Nilus venteth it self into the Mediterranean sea with seven mouths nothing being more famous in humane poetry and prose then this septemfluous river The holy spirit takes notice of the same number threatning utterly to destroy the tongue of the Ethiopian Sea when with his mighty wind he shall shake his hands over the river and shall smite it in the seven streams and make men go over dry-shod which words admit of severall interpretations 1 The strength of Egypt is hereby mystically meant whose kingdome was afterwards destroyed and the Countrey thereof conquered and subdued to the Persian Monarchy 2 It probably was literally performed when Nilus by ominous accident failed to overflow as in the tenth and eleventh year of Cleopatra and his streams became low and shallow thereupon 3. The ancient and originall chanels thereof are now in time obstructed new conveyances succeeding in their place An alteration elsewhere obvious In the Isle of Elie Englands Egypt for the flatness moistness and fruitfulness thereof how are the old and once plentifull streams of Nyne and Welland impoverished by artificiall derivations thereof into the Leam the old and new Podick and other by-ditches made to drive mills to drain meadows fence fields bear boats and other private conveniences Rivers having as little certainty to possess their proper chanels as men their houses ancient families being daily outed by other of later extraction § 13. However though the seven streams of Nilus pass current in most mouths yet they are reckoned up both over and under that number by authours of excellent credit Ortelius and Maginus in their Maps of Egypt make them eleven Hondius in his Map of Europe where Nilus is brought in by the by ten Ptolemy this Countreyman in his description thereof nine The foresaid Hondius in his Map of Africa eight Herodotus with whom the Scripture agreeth seven Gulielmus Tyrius and Bellonius four Mr. Sandys but two navigable branches extant in our age This various reckoning exceeding seven ariseth because anciently some onely counted the grand and solemn ostiaries of Nilus and these which they be at this day let such enquire which are of the Commission of Sewers amongst the Egyptians whiles others cast all his chanelets rather cuts then courses into the number Since they fall short either choaked up or commixed yet still maintain in mens talk the reputation of seven For when a naturall or noted number is once up in the market small occasionall variations thereof more or less can never beat it down in common discourse Thus Thomas is termed one of the twelve when there were but eleven after the self-execution of Iudas and before the election of Matthias In a word the chanels of Nilus daily decreased in number because as pinked or slashed clothes have the fewer holes the longer they are worn so his streams fret one into another especially the ground being so soft and tender which lyeth betwixt them § 14. To come now to the particular description of Egypt Nilus flowing out of Ethiopia compassed an Island called the Isle of Dogs but why so named I know as little as why those rich meadows lying betwixt London and Black-wall are called after the same name though better deserving to be termed the Isle of Oxen from the fat cattell feeding therein But seeing no mention of this or the next Island which Nilus makes in Scripture we pass them by confining our ensuing discourse to Gods Word alone save onely that we will take leave to survey the Pyramides because Iosephus though erroneously conceiveth them built by the Israelites when here living in bondage § 15. They stand not far from the western bank of the river and are the younger brethren of the Tower of Babel built but with better success because finished on the same consideration by the Egyptian Kings to make them a name Yet who erected them Greeks agree ill with themselves and worse with the Arabian authours so that Pliny gravely observes it a just punishment on the vanity of these â—ounders that they are forgotten Indeed in the Criticisme of credit the Artisans cunning might cry halfes in honour with the Kings cost in this structure but both the one and the other are equally buried in silence so that the most skilfull Egyptian Antiquary cannot out of these Hieroglyphicks of pompe and pride read the name of either Whilest the poor midwives who contrary to Pharaohs command preserved the Hebrews children are to this day remembred by their names Shiphrah and Puah Thus memories founded on the rock of vertue stand firme and fast when they quickly fall built on the foundered bottome of affected magnificence Indeed these Pyramides are of stupendious vastness and may be termed Arts mountains though mole-hills yea but warts if compared to those which Nature hath produced So
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
sheep of Israel not debased by mixture of Gentilisme in their bloud like the Samaritans whom Christ declined whilest he constantly conversed with these Galileans Philol. You say that the City Naasson depends meerly upon the credit of the vulgar translation Tobit 1. Whereas looking on the Hebrew Map graven at Amsterdam by Abraham Goos but designed and made by another Abraham a great Rabbin skilled in the land and language of his own nation this Naasson appears there in Hebrew characters the Author no doubt having good assurance for the same Whose Map I can tell you is much valued by many Antiquaries as appears by their difficult procuring dear purchasing and carefull preserving thereof And you may finde it solemnly set up at the upper end of Sion Colledge Library Aleth It ill becomes me to detract from the pains of any being also my self a man under authority of the pens and tongues of others and Candidate for the Readers good will in this my description Yet give me leave plainly to profess that the Map by you alleadged answereth not the great price and generall praise thereof being nothing else but Adrichomius his Map translated into Hebrew What once Sir Iohn Old Castle Lord Cobham spoke jeastingly that the Priests made Christ to be boots and spurs and all in the Sacrament may I serously say that Adrichomius with his faults and failings dross dirt and all together without any correction is cast into this Abrahams overvalued description so that the Map you alledge is not gold but mean metall gilded over containing surreptitious names out of the Vulgar Latine therein Hebraized and presenting many spurious places utterly disclaimed in the Originall CHAP. VI. Objections against Asher answered Philol. I Admire you have altogether omitted the River Eleutherus in this Tribe much mentioned in Maccabees and which Adrichomius makes to fall into the Mediterranean in the mid-way betwixt Zidon and Tyre Yea M. George Sandys in his travels going from Sarepta to Tyre crossed a little valley divided by the River Eleutherus called Casmire at this day by the inhabitants thereabouts Aleth By what name or title soever the water he there went over is known at this day sure I am it cannot be the ancient Eleutherus which by Ptolemy Strabo and generall consent of all Authors falls above sixty miles more northward into the Mediterranean And therefore the error of Adrichomius and others herein is briefly taxed by judicious Sir Walter Ralegh Philol. You make Asher to border on Zidon contrary to the description of Wolsegangus Wiseburgius and learned Tostatus who set Zebulun in the same place as the most north-west of all the Tribes and alleadge Iacobs words to avouch the same prophecying that Zebuluns borders shall be unto Zidon Aleth Gods Word the coast of the Countrey and all good authors justifie our description those two onely excepted which you alleadge being both deceived by taking Zidon restrictively in Iacobs prophecy for the City so called whereas the whole Countrey thereby is intended as Sarepta is called a City of Zidon and the name of Zidonians adequate to Phenicians in which sense Zebulun confined on the Countrey though Asher onely on the City of Zidon Philol. You peremptorily place the defeat of Benâ—adad and fall of Apheks wall on his flying Army in this Tribe not remembring the while that there is another Aphek in Issachar nearer to Samaria which puts in with more probability to be the theater whereon that tragical accident was acted Aleth I confess Aphek a place in Issachar but finde it not charactered to be a City such an one as our Aphek in Asher is described and whose walls are therefore more probable to doe the foresaid execution However be it known unto you whensoever two places are with equall likelihood corrivals for actions therein atchieved we adjudge it to that place that falls first under our description Thus the start of half an hour bestows on the elder twin the whole inheritance To avoid confusion and prevent repetition first come first serv'd the place first occurring carries away all history in our describing thereof CHAP. VII Objections against Zebulun answered Philol. YOu very confidently make Iordan continue his unâ—ixit stream clean through the Galilean-sea a course somewhat irregular in nature without alleadging any authority for the proof of so improbable a passage Aleth Excellent Authors avouch the same Tacitus amongst others tells us of this River Unum atque alterum lacum integer perfluit tertio â—etinetur One and another lake viz. the waters of Merom and galilean-Galilean-sea it runneth through entire but is stopped in the third namely in Asphaltite-lake or Dead-sea More full is the testimony of Philostorgius and deserveth our serious perusall thereof Who speaking of this River 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which saith he passeth through the lake of Tiberias cutting it in the middle and flowing clean through it in its own proper channell Which cutting of the lake implies the entire continuance of Iordans water otherwise that knife doth not cut the loaf but is cut by the loaf which is broken in the dividing thereof Philol. I wonder you pass over Shimron-Meron in such silence which appears a place of great note yea a Royall City in the days of Ioshua as the Coronet thereupon doth inform us Aleth I confess it signed with a Coronet and with something more a flag of uncertainty having nothing sure of the location thereof the chiefest cause that I willingly declined the mention of it However we will scrue our selves into as much certainty of this place as may be extracted out of Scripture and observe the four first wreaths of my scrue are undoubtedly the fifth and last more then probably true as followeth 1 Shimron-Meron was one of the Royall Cities whose King Ioshua destroyed 2 The same City is elsewhere called plainly Shimron without any addition 3 It lay on the northern part of the land because the King thereof associated in the northern and second combination of the Canaanites against Ioshua 4 A City named Shimron was alloted to the Tribe of Zebulun 5 Most probably this is the same Shimron whose King was destroyed by Ioshua This is all which my best industry could collect out of Scripture or good Authors concerning the situation of this place Philol. What mean you by that third smooty circle which as the Meteor Halo about the Sun surroundeth the Levites City of Iockneam Aleth It signifieth nothing being a meer aberration of the Graver which now but obscure will in process of Printing wholly disappear And I could hartily wish no other faults in our Maps would be of longer continuance Philol. You make the Galilean-sea all along the east boundary of this Tribe Whereas I am altogether of the minde of Masius that no part of Zebulun touched on that sea with him principally grounding my opinion on the Scriptures silence which mentioneth not any conterminating of this Tribe
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
or in two Rankes two and two as they are ordered by Mercator Skuls in a charnel-house never justle for the upper place and as sensless is the contention betwixt these dead Cities which shall stand first whose foundations long since were doubly destroyed with fire and water But the sole motive of my placing Zeboim most northern of these four Cities is because I finde the valley of Zeboim in the Tribe of Benjamin which probably lay near the influx of Iordan into the dead-Dead-sea denominated from the vicinity of Zeboim thereabouts Philol. The Hebrew Orthography confutes your conceit For Zeboim by you last alledged is spelled with different letters from the City which was burnt with fire from heaven Aleth I confess a threefold variation in the writing of this name though all the same in effect 1 Gen. 14. 2. and so also Deut. 29. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 1 Sam. 13. 18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3 Hoseah 11. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall set thee at Zeboim c. Here to mollifie the word the Gutturall is either altered or wholly omitted neither amounting to make it a new word How variously are the names of the same English towns spoken and spelled as Lester Leicester Legeocester Legecester yet the same word dressed in severall spellings and pronunciations Philol. Why make you Hebâ—on being a noted City of the Priests and City of Refuge different from all the rest onely with a single circle about it Aleth Because the fields and villages thereof were none of the Priests but were given to Caleb the son of Iephunneh for his possession Philol. If so then Hebron ought not to have had any circle at all about it being a bare City of the Priests without any suburbs belonging thereunto Aleth The Priests in Hebron had and had not suburbs pertaining thereunto according to the severall acception of suburbs If by them you onely understand aedificia suburbana buildings though without the City walls contiguous thereunto these no doubt belonged to the Priests who had Hebron with her suburbs otherwise if you extend them to ager suburbanus the fields surrounding the City these related to Caleb as the proper owner thereof Philol. You might well have afforded conjecturall flags to most of the Cities in Iudah going generally by guess in your placing of them and differing from all other authors therein Aleth The Learned in Anatomy have informed me that veins are alike in their trunks but not in their branches so that although the great Channels of bloud run alike in all bodies yet the smaller veines as is most visible in their divaâ—ication on the back of the hand disperse themselves diversly in divers persons The like is confessed in all Maps of Iudah wherein the grand Cities Hebron Debir Bethlehem c. have their certain position agreed on by most Authors whilest their inferiour places and no Tribe afforded more obscure Cities but once named in Scripture are subject to much variety according to the fancies of Authors Wherein we hope we have observed as much as might be these short and small directions we finde in Scripture Philol. But you are not constant to your self in the location of those lesser places as appears by some diversity of their distances both amongst themselves and from Ierusalem in the particular description of Iudah and in the generall Map of Palestine Aleth I confess the same who having discovered some errors in the particular Map reformed the same in the Map-generall Which may be beheld in this point as a new Edition of the former corrected and amended Request I therefore the Reader in such small differences to rely rather on the credit of the Map-generall Philol. You once placed Hepher a royall City in Manasseh on this side Iordan which since you have removed into Iudah without giving any account of the alteration Aleth Some probability perswaded us to our former opinion Cheifly because Hepher is mentioned in Ioshua's list next to Tapuah which is known to be in Manasseh But since finding also a Tapuah in Iudah and a land of Hepher near Sochoh a place also in Iudah it hath staggered our judgment and caused us to remove Hepher into Iudah with a flag of uncertaintie thereon all Authors finding an Ignoramus for the exact position thereof Philol. The land of Goshen is sufficiently known to be in Egypt And how stragleth of Countrey of Goshen into this Tribe Aleth You know that besides this England wherein we live there is an Anglia in Denmark whence our Ancestors are said to have come and there is England beyond Wales whither some of our nation removed Some such occasion to us unknown might give the name of Goshen to a petty tract of ground in Iudah Or else it might be so called from some assimilation in the fruitfulness thereof Wonder not at a Goshen in Egypt and another in Iudah when we finde two Ziphs two Zenoahs two Socohs c. As two Kirbies market-townes in Westmorland within the compass of this Tribe Philol. Conceive you that any wildernesses wherewith Iudah abounded were places of any pleasant habitation Aleth I am confident thereof For instance Engedi though a Wilderness was so delicious a place that the Spouse is compared to a cluster of Camphire in the Vineyards of Engedi Besides it had the conveniency of Palmtrees therefore in Scripture called Hazazon-Tamar which is Engedi Tamar being in Hebrew a Palme Nor can I omit the testimony of Pliny as the best comment herein in Gods word who speaking of people living on the west of the Dead-sea amongst these saith he is the town ENGADDA Second to Ierusalem in fruitfulness and WOODS OF PALME-TREES but now become another heap of Ashes Philol. I finde indeed a City and wilderness of Maon in this Tribe but were the dwellers therein those same Maonites which are said Iudg. 10. 12. with the Zidonians and Amalekites to have oppressed Israel Aleth O no. I take these tyrant Maonites to have been a fierce and forein Nation Saint Hierom de locis Hebraicis conceives Maon to be the Countrey of Moab The vulgar Latine translates it Canaanites because Maonites signifieth inhabitants and the Canaanites we know were the ancient and originall dwellers in the land whose Relicks left in the land contrary to Gods command were constant thornes in the sides of the Israelites But I conceive rather with learned Cajetan on this place these Maonites were a distinct neighbouring nation whose certain habitation is to us unknown Philol. Saul when marching against the Amalekites is said to have numbred the people being two hundred and ten thousand in Telaim which by the coast of the Countrey seems south in or near Iudah Yet no such place appears in your Map thereof Aleth The Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is variously interpreted the Rabbins render it appellatively in Lambes affirming the Saul did not
quilted with timber for their stronger support that Iobâ— children might be though not killed with weight stifled with the closeness of the very linnen in the tent when Satan with such violence in a vengeance drave it in upon them but fairly charge it on the account of the Graver following his own fancy therein Philol. You have made the Red-sea too near to the Dead-sea presenting not above sixty miles distance betwixt them when there is much more in all authentick descriptions of them See now what covetousness doeth it makes men guilty of much falshood as here your over-greediness to recover Ezion Gaber within this Map hath tempted you to trespass on due proportion Aleth I confess the main channell of the Red-sea runs many miles more south-west but this Bay called Sinus Elaniticuâ— from 〈◊〉 Eâ—ath in Scripture a fair City built by Uzziah and restored to Iâ—â—â—ah hard by Ezion Gaber buncheth out more to the north and in Mr. Mores Maps and others of good credit is advanced as near to the Dead-sea as in this our description Besides I have good reason to conceive that this Reach of the Red-sea anciently stretched more north-ward then now adays even to the City of Elana or Elath whence it takes its name because in Ptolemies Map Elana is set in the land some miles distance from the Sea whither no doubt it reached formerly and made an haven for Ezion Gaber thereabouts Philol. But how can Ezion Gaber stand on the Red-sea when we read of Huram King of Tyre an haven sufficiently known to be seated on the Mediterranean that he sent ships to Solomon to Ezion Gaber Surely they sailed not round about Africa much less can you conceive them to goe over land ships having fins and not feet and a shole of fish may with as much probability be driven over the Continent Aleth Here Sir I will not tell you of the Prince of Orange his constantly carrying boats to make bridges of though of no great burden in his wagons much less will I instance in those seventy lesser ships and Galliots brought by Zoganes Bassa Anno 1453. up a great hill and so by dry land with all their sails abroad out of the Bosphorus the space of eight miles into the haven of Constantinople by an ingenious device and a great strength of men to manage it whereby the said City was soon after unexpectedly taken by the Turke An invention formerly found out and practised by the Venetians at the lake of Bennacus But waving these things take notice I pray of two memorable passages concerning the matter in hand 1 King 9. 26. And King Solomon made a navy of Ships in Ezion Gaber 2 Chron. 8. 18. And Huram sent him to Ezion Gaber by the 〈◊〉 of his servants Ships and servants that had knowledge of the sea The result of both is this Solomons ships were built in the place at Ezion Gaber where all their lumber and maâ—sie timber was provided at the Dock wherein they were made whilest their tackling and other essentiall implements thereof easily portable when taken in pieces might be sent from Tyre by land-carriages Such far carting being part of the burdens Solomon imposed on the people whereof they afterwards so grievously complained or else by Hurams sending ships by a Metonymie of the cause understand ship-rights such as found materials there and brought art and industry virtually with the former a whole navy thither with them Philol. Seeing Edom bounded north-ward on the Dead south-ward on the Redsea whereon stood Ezion Gaber in the land of Edom how can the children of Israel be conceived when denyed passage through it to compass the land of Edom without coming into any part thereof except they went into the water Aleth Understand it they went not the nearest way to Canaan through the heart and fruitfull middle of Edom but surrounded the same going through the borders thereof leaving the red-Red-sea on the right hand where their passage was no whit prejudiciall to the Edomites as being through a base Countrey secured against the long stay of any passengers therein by its own barrenness Besides some conceive the land of Edom extended not anciently so far as the Red sea so that in Moses his time Ezion Gaber belonged not thereunto though in the days of Solomon accounted parcell thereof CHAP. XXII Objections against the Wilderness of Paran answered Philol. IN your Map of Simeon and Iudah you make that the River of Egypt which runs nigh Rinocolura into the Mediterranean sea And here you call both that brook that runs into the Syrbon Lake as also the easternmost stream of Nilus by the name of the River of Egypt How comes this triplication Where the Scripture presents but one you multiply three Rivers of Egypt Aleth You put me in minde of a passage Bishop Latimer confesseth of himself whilest as yet a young Priest and zealous Papist He being enjoined by the Rubrick to mingle water with the wine in the Châ—lice at Mass was so scrupulous to doe it effectually that he powred in water so much and so often that he almost diluted all into water Such is the 〈◊〉 of my caution herein who have Egypt-rivered this Map to purpose willing to please all without displeasing of the truth You know who saith If it be possible as much as in you lyeth have peace with all men as herein I have endevoured For 1 The Rivolet south of Simeon by generall consent 2 That running into the Syrbon-lake by Mr. More 3 The easternmost stream of Nile by Bochartus is made the River of Egypt Thus each opinion having learned men to patronize it we equally tender them all to the Readers discretion to reject or accept which of them he shall conclude most probable Philol. You make Sinai where the Law was given a different and distinct mountain from mount Horeb. Whereas in Scripture it plainly appears that Horeb was the same with Sinai two names for one and the same mount For that the Law was given in Sinai all agree and the same is attributed to Horeb also The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The Lord talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst the fire Aleth Some conceive this mountain as Moses is erroneously fancied with hornes to rise up Parnassus-like with a double top whereof the one is called Horeb the other Sinai Or else the former like the Alpes is a genericall name to many whilest Sinai like mount Senis amongst the Alpes is more eminent and conspicuous then the rest for the height thereof Philol. Seeing the Spies were sent from Kadesh-Barnea to discover the Land a City afterwards assigned to Iudah how come you to make the Israelites to incamp so many miles south of the same place Aleth None can be so wild as to conceive that the Israelites during their journeying in the wilderness ever came within the
9. p 1 Macca 3. 46 Different success of the Israelâ—tes at Eben-Ezer q 1 Sam. 4. 4. cap. 5. ver 1. r 1 Sam. 7. 11. Ionathâ—ns Scylla and Charybdis s Iosh. 9. 17. t 2 Sam. 4. 2. u 2 Sam. 4. 3. w 1 Sam. 14. 4. x 1 Sam. 14. 13. Anathoth the Country-house of the High-priests y 1 King 2. 26. z Ier. 1. 1. a Ier. 11. 21. b Mat. 13. 57. c Jer. 32. 10. d Act. 3. 6 The Philistines design to destroy smiths in Israel e 1 Sam. 13. 5. f 1 Saâ— 13. 17. g 1 Sam. 13. 20. The massacâ—e of the Priests at Nob by Dâ—â—g h 1 Sam. 21. 4. i 1 Sam. 21. 9. k 1 Sam. 22. 10. Zemaraim the vale of Craftsmen and Zeboim l Iosh. 18. 22. m Gen. 10. 18. n Lib. 1. cap. o 2 Chr. 13. 4. p Nehe. 11. 35. q 1 King 7. 46. r Deâ—â— 29. 23. s 1 King 4. 18. A Wolfe Benjamins Armes t Gen. 49. 27. u Revel 16. 15. w Iudg. 10. 16. Iudah and his good qualities a Gen. 37. 26. b Gen. 44. 18. c Gen. 38. 16. 24. d Numb 2. 4. e 1 Chron. 5. 2. The Soveraignty of this tribe f Numb 2. 3. g Mal. 4. 2. h Judg. 1. 2. i Hagg. 1. 1. How the scepter departed not from Iudah k Gen. 49. 10. l Mat. 22. 2. m Iohn 18. 31. n Iustin Martyr in dialogâ— cum Triphone Iudaeo The limits of the Land of Iudea o Gen. 14. 3. The Dead-sea once a fruitfull countrey p Gen. 13. 10. q 2 Pet. 2. 8. r Gen. 14. 12. s Gen. 18. 32. t Deut. 29. 23. How fire leâ—t water behind it u Gen. 19. 28. w Iosh. 3. 15. c 1 Chr. 12. 15 Eccles. 24. 30 x Gen. 14. 10. Severall names of this sea y Gen. 14. 3. z Gen. 11. 3. Neitheâ— ships nor fish in the Salt-sea a Psal. 104. 26. b Histor. of the Dragon ver 27 Solinus his testimony of the Dead-sea c Solin Polybist cap. 38. Lots wiâ—e turned into a pillar of salt d Gen. 19. 29. c Gen. 19. 26. Zoar spared at Lots request f Gen. 19. 21. g Gen. 19. 30. h Eccles. 9. 14. 15. Lots incest with his daughters i Gen. 19. 30. k Gen. 13. 7. The utility of critâ—cisme in boundaries The borders of Iudah l Josh. 15. 3. c. Kadesh-Barnea in the edge of Canaan m Num. 32. 8. Method propounded n Iosh 10. 10 c. Hebron anciently Kiriath-Arba o Num. 13. 22. p Adricho in deâ—â—r of Iudah num 145. q Iosh. 14. 15. r Gen. â—4 24. s Gen. 37. 14. Entertainment of Angels t Gen. 18. 8. u Gen. 18. 10. The cave of Machpelah w Gen. 23. 16 17. x Gen. 25. 9. y Gen. 35. 29. z Gen. 50 13. a Josh. 10. 37. Royall turned into Sacerdotall Cities b Josh. 20. 7. c Josh. 21. 13. The suburbs of Hebron gâ—ven to Caleb d Josh. 14. 13. e Josh. 14. 11. s Amos. 2. 9. g Bonâ—rerius in locum Ioshuâ— h Josh. 11. 7. Ioabs cruell killing of Abner i 2 Sam. 3. 27. Aggravation of Ioabs murder * Josh. 30. 7. k 1 King 2. 31. Abner and Ishbosheth buried to â— ether l 2 Sam. 3. 7. m Ibid. v. 31. n 2 Sam. 4. 12. o 2 Sam. 3. 11. p 2 Sam. 4. 12. Numbers repairing to David in Hebron q 1 Chr. 12. 24. r Ibid. v. 29. s Mat. 13. 57. t So saith the text 1 Chr. 12. 39. For their brethren meaning Iudah had prepared for them u Ibid. v. 40. Absalom repaireth to Hebron w 2 Sam. 15. 1. x Ibid. v. 11. y In our description of Gad. Debir a Canaanitish University z Judg. 1. 11. a Num. 1. 12. b Heb. 11. 26. c John 10. 13. The south of Iudah called Caleb d 1 Sam. 30. 14 Libnah a rebellious city l 2 King 8. 22. m Dr Heylyn Microc in Palest p. 571. Libnah how it might subsist a free State n 2 King 19 8. * 2 King 19. 35. Lachish an Idolatrous one o Iosh. 12. 11. p 2 Kin. 14. 19. q Micah 1. 1. r Mic. 1 13. s Isa. 37. 8. t Ier. 34. 7. Adullam Davids retraâ—â—ing u Gen. 38. 1. w 1 Sam. 22. â— x Exod. y Psal. 101. ad Sinem z Iudg. 9. 4. Baal-Hanan inverted Hannibal a 1 Chr. 27. 28. b Gen. 36. 38. c Luk. 22. 25. Carmel Naboths Manor d 1 Sam. 25. 36. The death of Nabal e Ibid. v. 37. f Prov. 19. 12. Giloh the poâ—â—ession of Ahithophel g 2 Sam. 15. 12. h 2 Sam. 17. 2. i Ibid. v. 11. k Ibid. v. 23. Tekoah the birth place of Amos. l 2 Sam. 14. 2. m Amos. â— 1. n 2 Chr. 10. 2. o 2 Chr. 17. 14. p Ibid. v. 15. q Ibid. v. 16. r Ibid. v. 17. s Ibid. v. 18. t Iudg. 7. 2. Why Iehosaphat might justly fear u 2 Chr. 20. 2. w Sir Walter Rayleigh li. 2. parâ—â— pa. 440. Iehosaphats admirable victory x 2 Chr. 20. 22. y Ibid. v. 26. Davids severall removals a 1 Sam. 23. 13 b Luk. 9. 58. c Psal. 104. 18. d 1 Sam. 23. 25. e 1 Sam. 26. 20. From Adullam to Mizpah f 1 Sam. 22. 3. g 1 Sam. 22. 5. To Keilah h Ibid. i 1 Sam. 23. 12. k Psal. 139. 2. To Hachilah hill l 1 Sam. 23. 16. To the rock of Division m 1 Sam. 23. 27 To the cave in Engedi n 1 Sam. 24. 4. o 1 Sam. 24. 5. p 1 Sam. 24. 16. q 1 Sam. 24. 22. To Carmel r 1 Sam. 25. 22. s 1 Sam. 25. 33. Again to Hachilah-hill t 1 Sam. 26. 7. To Ziglag u 1 Sam. 27. 4. w 1 Sam. 27. 8. x 1 Sam. 29. 3. Lastly to Hebrâ—â— y Psal. 34. 19. Davids other haunting places z 1 Sam 30. 31. * Possibly the same with Siâ—ma in the tribe of Reuben a 1 Chr. 2. 26. b Psal. 56. 8. The totall sum of Iudah's Cities c Josh. 1â— 21. d Josh. 15. 36. e Ibid. v. 41. f Ibid. v. 44. g Ibid. 46. h Ibid. 51. i Ibid. 54. k Vers. 57. l Vers. 59. * Josh. 15. 44. †2 Chr. 14. 9. * Micah 1. 1. Eleutheropolis uncertain in situation m In his book de lociâ— Hâ—braicis Rivolets in Iudah n 2 Chr. 20. 16. o 1 Sam. 17. 4â— Bitâ—ell betwixt David and Goliah p 1 Sam. 17. 7. q Job 7. 6. Many wildernesses in Iudah r Josh. 15. 1. s 1 Sam. 23. 14. t 1 Sam. 23. 24. u 1 Sam. 24. 1. w 2 Chr. 20. 16. x Ibid. v. 20. y Judg. 1. 16. z Mark 8. 4. a Joel 1. 19. b Iosh. 15. 61. Iohn Baptist preaching in the wilderness c Mark 3. 1. d Levit. 11. 22. e 1 Sam. 14. 26. * Mat. 11. 18. Nothing befriendeth the Eremites f Isa. 40 3. g Mark 6. 20. h Gen. 4. 20. * 1 King 4. 10. Iudah for the maâ—n freed from Solomons Purveyours i Josh. 12. 17. k See more
dead-Dead-sea but rather conceive they ran onely through the Tribe of Gad and emptied themselves in Aroer whereof in due time we shall give our best account Philol. I wonder you make Nophah so near to Medeba contrary to others descriptions which set it thence twenty miles at least Aleth I wonder they place it so far from Medeba contrary to the words of the Scripture and we have laid them wast unto N O P H A H which reacheth unto M E DE B A where the verb though supplyed by the Translatours is implyed in the Text. Philol. Why make you three fishponds in Heshbon to which the eyes of the Spouse are compared which is in effect to make her a monster if the resemblance be applyed Aleth I set a certain for an uncertain number in the originall it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 plurall and therefore indefinite In all these comparisons the strength of the similitude lies in the nature not the number of the things They deserve not the name of a flock of sheep which are under an hundred to which the teeth of the Spouse are compared and nature commoly allowes not above thirty two Philol. The City of Misor belonging to the Levites and recorded by Adrichomius in this Tribe is omitted by your oversight Aleth Commendable is his charity to the Levites For whereas Moses allotted them but four Cities in Reuben namely Kedemoth Iahazah Mephaah and Bezar his bounty bestoweth a fifth this Misor upon them But the poor Priests might well be full lean had they nothing to feed them but this imaginary City groundless in the Hebrew and onely founded on the erroneous Vulgar Yea generally the descriptions of Adrichomius are guilty herein that more made ad splendorem then ad veritatem to render them specious to the beholder because a lean bald Map is not so amiable as one filled full he poulders them thick with places rather scraped then gathered thereby offending the judgments of the learned to please the eyes of the ignorant But it is my business to excuse my self not accuse him and consciousness to my own many faults commands me to be tender to the errors of others CHAP. III. Objections concerning Gad answered Philol. VVHy make you the City of Iazer so in-land into this tribe which Adrichomius placeth on the River of Arnon Aleth I can demonstrate it could not stand on that River and by consequence must be more within the Tribe of Gad. For Arnon is notoriously known to be the eastern bound of Canaan Now attend what Moses saith And the suburbs of the Cities which yee shall give unto the Levites shall reach from the wall of the City and outwards a thousand Cubits round about And yee shall measure from without the City on the east side two thousand Cubits and on the south side two thousand Cubits and on the west side two thousand Cubits and on the north side two thousand Cubits and the City shall be in the middest this shall be to them the suburbs of their Cities Iazer therefore being a City of the Levites could not stand upon Arnon because they could not measure three thousand Cubits eastward for then they should take so much out of an enemies Countrey which belonged not to Israel Where we may also observe that no sea-town was allotted the Levites because for the reason aforesaid it would have proved less unto them hindering the circular dimensions of their possessions Philol. You are much mistaken in the placing of the City of Aroer The Scripture saith that it is before Rabba or as Tremellious rendreth it ante conspectum Rabbae within the view or sight of Rabba Whereas your Map presents it six and twenty miles off from that place Lynceus his eyes need a prospective-glass to discover Rabba from Aroer at the distance in your description Aleth Judicious Sir Walter Raleigh answers in my behalf that Rabba near to which Aroer was seated was not as you erroneously conceive Rabba of Ammon to which it was neither near nor in sight as he worthily observes but Rabba a chief City of Moab Which Rabba bordered on Aroer as in our Map of Moab doth appear though here straitned fro room no mention is made thereof Philol. You ill observe Scripture-instructions in fixing the first tent of Ioab when sent to number the people For the text saith that the he pitched in Aroer that is in the Countrey not City of Aroer wherein I concur with you on the right side of the City that lyeth in the midst of the River of Gad and toward Iazer Be your own judge whether or no the tent be set on the right side of the City Aleth The chief directory in placing this tent is the word right hand and that relative term is varied according as the face is setled If Ioabs face in his journy respected the north then the east is the right hand of the City and then the posture of the tent is rightly placed However the best is a tent is but a tent no solid or substantiall structure it will be no great work or weight on better grounds to take it down and remove it Philol. IN Iaâ—obs travells you place Soccoth fifteen miles from Peniel yet was it the very next station to which he removed Now I appeal to Nurses and Drovers the most competent judges in this controversie whether it be not too long a journy for little Children and Eâ—s big with young except you conceive miles are as easily gone on the grounds as measured in a Map with the Compass Aleth Though in Iacobs Gests Succoth succeeds the next place to Peniel yet it follows not that Iacob with his train went so far in one day Probably he might bait yea lodge severall days betwixt them the Scripture not mentioning every stage of his staying but onely marking signall places whereat some memorable accidents did happen or wherein for some considerable time he made his abode Philol. Sir Walter Raleigh whose judgment you deservedly honour makes the River of Iabbok the northern bound on the matter of the Tribe of Gad therein following the example of Adrichomius Whereas you extend this Tribe many miles beyond that river even to the sea of Cinneroth or Galilee a great tract of ground which you injuriously take from Manasseh and bestow on this Tribe Aleth I exactly follow Scripture directions in dividing this land betwixt them The text saith expresly that the border of the inheritance of the Gadites reached even to the edge of the sea of Cinneroth and therefore the land betwixt Iabbok and the edge of the sea undoubtedly belongs to this Tribe which justly may have an action of trespass against the foresaid Author for depriving it of so considerable a part of its true possession And yet under favour I conceive Mr. More in his Maps doth much overdoe stretching the inheritance of this Tribe to the utmost and most northern part of the sea
Ribera in altari Lateranensi infra quod dicitur esse Arca In the Lateran Altar say they in Rome beneath within which IT IS SAID the Ark is but both of them speak so uncertainly and put it on publick fame that they teach us to deny the Truth thereof Philol. You are very briefe in the destruction of the City and Temple by the Romans whereas so memorable a subject deserved a fuller description Aleth It is largely related by Iosephus to whom the Reader is referred onely I will adde a word of the remarkable time thereof God graciously promised his people Neither shall any man desire thy land when thou shalt goe up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice a year Obedience is better then an Army to secure ones estate As the Meniall-servants of great Persons are protected in some cases from Arrests whilest they waite on their Masters in publick imployment so Gods people were priviledged from damage during their attendance on him thrice a year in his Temple no invasion being found to befall them on that occasion clean through the Scripture But at last in token that they by their wickedness had out-lawed themselves of his protection and he withdrawn his defending of them the Romans besieged them in Ierusalem coming up thither on the solemn feast of the Passeover and soon after both Temple and City was destroyed by Vespasian and Titus his son seventy two years after our Saviours birth Not one stone of the Temple left upon another though three towers of the City Maâ—iamne Phaselus and Hippicus were left standing not out of pity but pride their devouring sword leaving this mannerly bit on purpose that posterity might tast how strong the place was to the greater credit of the conquerours Philol. To adde to the solemnity of the State Titus with his Father Vespasian made a solemn Triumph in Rome wherein the golden Table and Candlestick with other sacred Utensils of the Temple formerly reverenced now derided made once for Gods service now served to adorn the Trophees of Pagans We read what befell Belshazzar when he quaffed in the vessels of the Temple Some perchance might here expect that God to punish the profanaâ—ion of these holy instrumentâ— should then have shewed some signall judgment on the profaners But the case was altered because the date of Ceremonies was then expired the use of Types ended Christ the Truth being come and the Moon may set obscurely without any mans taking notice of her when the Sun is risen Aleth The last and greatest Trophee then carried in triumph was the LAW OF THE IEWS probably that very numericall book the Authentiâ—k or Originall of the Law which by Gods command was constantly to be kept in the Temple And this perchance was permitted by divine providence not without a peculiar mystery therein to shew that the Law which formerly bound men over to damnation was now bound it self in captivity outed of its former dominion deposed from its condemning power having now the Gospell of Grace succeeding in the place thereof Lastly orders were issued out to the Governour of Syria to set the whole land of Iudea to sale which was done accordingly Time was when by the Leviticall Law Iewish land though â—old yet at the year of Iubile was to revert to the ancient owners but now the King of heaven granted such a license of Alienation that it was fully and finally passed away from its ancient possessors Philol. To perpetuate thâ— memory of this Roman conquest besides many other monuments Coins were stamped both in gold and silver with the Image of Vespasian and Titus on the one side and on the reverse a woman placed in a pensive posture under a Palme-tree which tree was the Hieroglyphick of Iudea onely differing herein that the Palme-tree the more depressed the more it flourisheth whereas Iudea sunke under the weight of her woes and never again outgrew her miseries And lest men should miss the fancy of the Impress they are guided thereunto by the Motto subscribed Iudaea capta Iudea taken Aleth What â—an on sight hereof would not call to minde the complaint of the Prophet How doth the City sit solitary that was full of people how is she become as a widow she that was great among the nations and Princess among the Provinces how is she become tributary Great no doubt was the grief of the Iews hereat But few drops seasonably showred would preserve the green blade from withering when much rain cannot revive the roots once withered Eyes dry for their sins are vainly wet after their sufferings and a drought in the Spring is not to be repaired by a deluge in the Autumn CHAP. XX. Objections concerning the Description of Mount Libanus answered Philol. YOu make Libanus to be the north-ridge of these hills and Anti-Libanus to be the south part thereof clean contrary unto learned Munster in his description of it Aleth Munster is singular therein unseconded by any other Authors However the controversie is not important as touching Scripture wherein this distinction appears not at all both the north and south chains of those mountains being promiscuously called Libanus in Holy Writ Some humane Authors lay this distinction in point of east and west so great is the difference among them If I may freely profess my opinion herein I conceive that the inhabitants of this mountain termed the place of their own habitation wheresoever they dwelt Libanus and named the mountains of their overthwart neighâ—bours Anti-Libanus as commonly men account their own Religion onely to be Christianity and all such opinions as are opposite to their own Antichristian Philâ—l In your Map generall of old Canaan the Island of Arvad or Aradus is not above forty miles from Zidon which in this Map of mount Libanus are fourscore miles asunder Indeed I have read of a floating Isle in Scotland moving from place to place with the winde and waves But is this Isle of Aradus fixed to no firmer foundations so that it hath swom forty miles more northward in this then in your former draught thereof Aleth May you be pleased to remember that in our instructions premised to the Reader we gave notice that places standing on the Um-stroke or utmost line of any Map denote not their accurate position but situation thereabouts to clear the continuation of the Countrey Such the location of Arvad in our former Map which in this of mount Libanus is placed according to the true distance thereof Philol. You make the River Abanâ— in heathen Authors Chrysorrhoâ—s to sink into the ground without communicating it self to the sea This is out of the common road of nature that this River should be free from paying tribute to the Ocean to which all smaller waters are indebted Yea and Adrichomius no doubt on good authority maketh it when passing from Damâ—scus to run through a plain called Arch abod and so
into the Syrian or mediteâ—ranean-Mediteâ—ranean-sea Aleth His error therein is confuted both by ancient and modern writers Strabo speaking thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which Chrysorrhoâ—s beginning from the City and Countrey of Damascus in a manner is wholly spent in drains thence derived for it watereth much ground and that very deep Some thing more may be collected from Ptolemies expression not terming the fall of Chrysorrhoas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his ordinary word the Out-lets or Ejections thereof into the sea but onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the End or determination thereof Where by the degrees by him assigned Beâ—tius in his Maps presenteth this River swallowed up wholly in the sands and the same is confessed by Bellonius an eye-witness thereof and other modern Geographers that it never cometh unto any sea Philol. You have omitted the Vale of Salt in your Map near Aramâ— Zobaâ— neither mentioning in your description that most memorable defeat which David gave the Syrians therein Your modern Merchants of Aleppo will inform you thereof who have been on the very place where the battell was fought as tradition reporteth Aleth I have heard so much from the mouths of my judicious friends which have lived in those parts and have formerly read the same in effect How within halfe a days-journey of Aleppo there is a very great plain without grass growing on it the sand whereof is naturally good salt and after rain being dried again with the Sun the people gather it However I cannot be perswaded that this Salt Vale was the place whereon David gave his enemies that notable overthrow as on the perusall of the following Scriptures will appear 2 Sam. 8. 13 And David gat him a name when he returned from smiting the Syrians in the valley of Salt being eighteen thousand men And he put garrisons in Edom throughout all Edom put he garrisons 1 Chr. 18. 12. Moreover Abishai the sonne of Zerviah slew of the Edomites in the valley of Salt eighteen thousand Inscription of Psal. 60. To the chief Musician upon Sushan-Eduth Michtam of David to teach When he strove with Aram Maharaim and with Aram Zobah when Ioab returned and smote of Edom in the valley of Salt twelve thousand Here under favour I conceive these severall Scriptures intend one and the same victory because fought in the same place the Valley of Salt whilest the seeming contradictions in the names of the Conquerors different numbers and nations of the persons conquered are easiely reconciled 1. Ioab as Generall might give the Command and Abishai Lieutenant Generall do the execution whilest David as Soveraign received the honour of the Action 2. Twelve thousand might be slain on the place and six more kild in the pursuit so making up eighteen thousand in the totall number 3. This slaughter fell on the Edomites who are called Syrians not by their Countrey though Syria taken in a large sense is comprehensive of many nations but cause and confederacy as ingaging themselves to their cost auxiliaries in the same quarrell of the Syrians against King David This battell thus stated with most probability in my opinion it seems fought rather in the land of Edom where there is another Valley of Salt eminent in Scripture and not near Aleppo or Aram Zobah However because Tradition is a Tyrant on the contrary I dare resolve nothing positively but suspend my own and attend the judgments of others herein Philol. You make Marra the next modern stage south of Aleppo whereas there be many moe miles and intermediate lodging-places namely Cane-Toman and Saracoop betwixt them Aleth I confess no less but am sorry your memory is so short that I must so often incultate the same rule unto you That places situate on the Um-stroke such the location of Aleppo in our Map are not in their exact position whilest we onely make a long arme to reach them confusedly into our description though otherwise they be at greater distance then the scale of miles will admit Philol. I wonder you make the Mediterranean from Tripoli to Antioch to run with such a crooked flexure in form of an Hook which certainly will not catch the beleefe of any judicious beholder thereof The rather because no Geographers take cognizance of it and such a bending is disavowed by all modern Maps Aleth Consult Ptolemies Maps as drawn by learned Bertius and they present the fashion thereof accordingly though such an Elbow appears not in the late Cardes of this Countrey No news now adays for Sea to gain Land to lose or reciprocally both to alter their ancient and accept new forms seeing our Cornish-men will tell us that a good piece of their horn is blunted and broken off by the sea whose land formerly stretched out more westward and was called as they say Lioness before the waters devoured both the paws and whole body thereof CHAP. XXI Objections answered against the eastern confines of Palestine Philol. YOu have left the eastern part of this Map altogether empty which you ought to have furnished with moe towns and Cities therein Aleth Whose image and superscription doth this Map bear Is it not of Arabia the desert a wild barren Countrey To make a desert full is as absurd as to paint a Black-more faire Besides whence should the Geographer fetch the names of these Cities except from his own groundless fancy And then as King Edgar is said to have founded in England as many Monasteries as there be weeks in the year a Map-maker might build moe Cities then there be hours therein whilest the Reader must have as much simplicity as the Author dishonesty that gives credit thereunto Philol. You have false pointed to use your own expression the Iewish peregrinations seeing those four intermediate stages Comma's as you term them be Ar Mattanah Nahaliel and Bamoth being named after the stream of Arnon seem on the other side of the River and therefore rather to be placed in the Tribe of Reuben Aleth I have consulted the text and best Comments upon it and cannot yet be convinced but that the same is rightly situate Arnon I conceive divided into many streams therefore plurally termed the brooks of Arnon probably tributary brooks running into that main River and though the places aforesaid lay north of these rivolets they were south of the main Arnon and in the land of Moab However because of their so ambiguous posture being more willing to learn then to teach I am ready to alter them on any better information Philol. You make Iobs sons tent in your Map blown down on his children therein whereas Scripture calleth it expresly an house and otherwise it is unlikely they should be slain with such slight curtains falling upon them Aleth I will not plead that a tent is also termed an house in Scripture phrase that tent-dwelling was most fashionable in the eastern Countries especially in that ancient age that statory or long standing tents were