CERTAIN MISCELLANY TRACTS.  
Written by THOMAS BROWN, Kt, and Doctor of Physic; late of NORWICH.  
LONDON, Printed for Charles Mearn, Bookseller to his most Sacred Majesty, MDCLXXXIII.   

THE PUBLISHER TO The Reader.  
THE Papers from which these Tracts were printed, were, a while since, delivered to me by, those worthy persons, the Lady and Son of the excellent Author. He himself gave no charge concerning his Manuscripts, either for the suppressing or the publishing of them. Yet, seeing he had procured Transcripts of them, and had kept those Copies by him, it seemeth probable that He designed them for public use.  
Thus much of his Intention being presumed, and many who had tasted of the fruits of his former studies being covetous of more of the like kind; Also these Tracts having been perused and much approved of by some Judicious and Learned men; 〈◊〉 was not unwilling to be instrumental in fitting them for the Press.  
To this end, I selected them out of many disordered Papers, and disposed them into such a method as They seemed capable of; beginning first with Plants, going on to Animals, proceeding farther to things relating to Men, and concluding with matters of a various nature.  
Concerning the Plants, I did, on purpose, forbear to range them (as some advised) according to their Tribes and Families; because, by so doing, I should have represented that as a studied and formal work, which is but a Collection of occasional Essays. And, indeed, both this Tract, and those which follow, were rather the diversions than the Labours of his Pen: and, because He did, as it were, drop down his Thoughts of a sudden, in those little spaces of vacancy which he snatched from those very many occasions which gave him hourly interruption; If there appears, here and there, any uncorrectness in the style, a small degree of Candour sufficeth to excuse it.  
If there be any such errors in the words, I'm sure the Press has not made them fewer; but I do not hold myself obliged to answer for That which I could not perfectly govern. However, the matter is not of any great moment: such errors will not misled a Learned Reader; and He who is not such in some competent degree, is not a fit Peruser of these LETTERS. Such these Tracts are; but, for the Persons to whom they were written, I cannot well learn their Names from those few obscure marks which the Author has set at the beginning of them. And these Essays being Letters, as many as take offence at some few familiar things which the Author hath mixed with them, find fault with decence. Men are not wont to set down Oracles in every line they write to their Acquaintance.  
There, still, remain other brief Discourses written by this most Learned and ingenious Author. Those, also, may come forth, when some of his Friends shall have sufficient leisure; and at such due distance from these Tracts, that They may follow rather than stifle them.  
Amongst these Manuscripts there is one which gives a brief Account of all the Monuments of the Cathedral of Norwich. It was written merely for private use: and the Relations of the Author expect such Justice from those into whose hands some imperfect Copies of it are fallen; that, without their Consent first obtained, they forbear the publishing of It.  
The truth is, matter equal to the skill of the Antiquary was not, there, afforded: had a fit Subject of that nature offered itself, He would scarce have been guilty of an oversight like to that of Ausonius, who, in the description of his native City of Bordeaux, omitted the two famous Antiquities of it, Palais de Tutele, and, Palais de Galen.  
Concerning the Author himself, I choose to be silent, though I have had the happiness to have been, for some years, known to him. There is on foot a design of writing his Life: and there are, already, some Memorials collected by one of his ancient Friends. Till that work be perfected, the Reader may content himself with these present Tracts; all which commending themselves by their Learning, Curiosity and Brevity, if He be not pleased with them, he seemeth to me to be distempered with such a niceness of Imagination as no wise man is concerned to humour.  
Tho. Tenison.   


The Contents of these Tracts.  
TRACT I. OBservations upon several Plants mentioned in Scripture. Page 1, etc.  
TRACT II. Of Garlands, and Coronary or Garland-plants. 89, etc.  
TRACT III. Of the Fishes eaten by our Saviour with his Disciples after the Resurrection from the dead. 97.  
TRACT IU. An Answer to certain Queries relating to Fishes, Birds, Infects. 103, etc.  
TRACT V. Of Hawks and Falconry, ancient and modern. 111, etc.  
TRACT VI Of Cymbals, etc. 121, etc.  
TRACT VII. Of Ropalic or Gradual Verses, etc. 125, etc.  
TRACT VIII. Of Languages, and particularly of the Saxon-Tongue. 129, etc.  
TRACT IX. Of Artificial Hills, Mounts or Boroughs in many parts of England: what they are, and to what end raised, and by what Nations. 151, etc.  
TRACT X. Of Troas, what place is meant by that Name. Also of the situations of Sodom, Gomorrah, Zeboim, in the Dead Sea. 157, etc.  
TRACT XI. Of the Answers of the Oracle of Apollo at Delphos to Croesus' King of Lydia. 167, etc.  
TRACT XII. A Prophecy concerning the future state of several Nations; in a Letter written upon occasion of an old Prophecy sent to the Author from a Friend, with a request that he would consider it. 181, etc.  
TRACT XIII. Musaeum Clausum, or, Bibliotheca Abscondita: containing some remarkable Books, Antiquities, Pictures and Rarities of several kinds, scarce or never seen by any man now living. 193, etc.    

ERRATA.  
PAge 13. l, 20, 21. for Carobbe and Carobbole, read, Carboe and Carobala. p. 17. l. 18, 21. blot out the marks of the Parenthesis. p. 36. l. 5. for Prery, r. lafoy Prairie. p. 40▪ l. 5. for Centessimal, r. Centesimal. p. 62. l. 4, 5. for Chesue verde, r. Chesue ver●. p. 77. blot out M. in the Margin. p. 99 l. 9 for 103 fishes, r. 153. p. 121. l. 1. blot out not. p. 160. the Greek of Herodot. should have been set on the Margin. p. 170. l. 4. for held a, r. had.   

TRACT I. OBSERVATIONS Upon several PLANTS Mentioned in Scripture.  
SIR,  
THough many ordinary Heads run 
The Introduction.  smoothly over the Scripture, yet I must acknowledge, it is one of the hardest Books I have met with: and therefore well deserveth those numerous Comments, Expositions and Annotations which make up a good part of our Libraries.  
However so affected I am therewith, that I wish there had been more of it: and a larger Volume of that Divine Piece which leaveth such welcome impressions, and somewhat more, in the Readers, than the words and sense after it. At least, who would not be glad that many things barely hinted were at large delivered in it? The particulars of the Dispute between the Doctors and our Saviour could not but be welcome to them, who have every word in honour which proceeded from his mouth, or was otherwise delivered by him: and so would be glad to be assured, what he wrote with his Finger on the ground: But especially to have a particular of that instructing Narration or Discourse which he made unto the Disciples after his resurrection, where 'tis said: And 
Luke 24 27.  beginning at Moses, and all the Prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.  
But to omit Theological obscurities, you must needs observe that most Sciences do seem to have something more nearly to consider in the expressions of the Scripture.  
Astronomers find therein the Names but of few Stars, scarce so many as in Achilles his Buckler in Homer, and almost the very same. But in some passages of the Old Testament they think they discover the Zodiacal course of the Sun: and they, also, conceive an Astronomical sense in that elegant expression of S. James concerning the father of lights, with whom there is no 
Jam. 1. 17.  variableness, neither shadow of turning: and therein an allowable allusion unto the tropical conversion of the Sun, whereby ensueth a variation of heat, light, and also of shadows from it. But whether the Stellae erraticae, or wand'ring Stars in S. Judas, may be referred to the celestial Planets, or some metereological wand'ring Stars, Ignes fatui, Stellae cadentes & erraticae, or had any allusion unto the Impostor Barchochebas, or Stellae Filius, who afterward appeared, and wandered about in the time of Adrianus, they leave unto conjecture.  
Surgeons may find their whole Art in that one passage, concerning the Rib which God took out of Adam, that is their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in opening the Flesh, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in taking out the Rib, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in closing and healing the part again.  
Rhetoricians and Orators take singular notice of very many excellent passages, stately metaphors, noble tropes and elegant expressions, not to be found or paralleled in any other Author.  
Mineralists look earnestly into the twenty eighth of Job, take special notice of the early artifice in Brass and Iron under Tubal-Cain: And find also mention of Gold, Silver, Brass, Tin, Led, Iron; beside Refining, Sobering, Dross, Nitre, Salt-pits, and in some manner also of 
* Depinxit oculos stibio. 2 King. 9 30. Jerem. 4. 30. Ezek. 23. 40.  Antimony.  
Gemmarie Naturalists read diligently the precious Stones in the holy City of the Apocalypse: examine the Breastplate of Aaron, and various Gems upon it, and think the second Row the nobler of the four: they wonder to find the Art of Ingravery so ancient upon precious Stones and Signets; together with the ancient use of Earrings and Bracelets. And are pleased to find Pearl, Coral, Amber and Crystal in those sacred Leaves, according to our Translation. And when they often meet with Flints and Marbles, cannot but take notice that there is no mention of the Magnet or Loadstone, which in so many similitudes, comparisons, and allusions, could hardly have been omitted in the Works of Solomon; if it were true that he knew either the attractive or directive power thereof, as some have believed.  
Navigatours consider the Ark, which was pitched without and within, and could endure the Ocean without Mast or Sails: They take special notice of the twenty seventh of Ezekiel; the mighty Traffic and great Navigation of Tyre, with particular mention of their Sails, their Masts of Cedar, Oars of Oak, their skilful Pilots, Mariners and Calkers; as also of the long Voyages of the Fleets of Solomon; of Jehosaphats Ships broken at Ezion-Geber; of the notable Voyage and Shipwreck of S. Paul, so accurately delivered in the Acts.  
Oneirocritical Diviners apprehend some hints of their knowledge, even from Divine Dreams; while they take notice of the Dreams of Joseph, Pharaoh, Nabuchadnezzar, and the Angels on Jacob's Ladder; and find, in Artemidorus and Achmetes, that Ladders signify Travels, and the Scales thereof Preferment; and that Oxen Lean and Fat naturally denote Scarcity or Plenty, and the successes of Agriculture.  
Physiognomists will largely put in from very many passages of Scripture. And when they find in Aristotle, quibus frons quadrangula, commensurata, fortes, referuntur ad leones, cannot but take special notice of that expression concerning the Gadites; mighty men of war, fit for battle, whose faces were as the faces of lions.  
Geometrical and Architectonical Artists look narrowly upon the description of the Ark, the fabric of the Temple, and the holy City in the Apocalypse.  
But the Botanical Artist meets every where with Vegetables, and from the Fig Leaf in Genesis to the Star Wormwood in the Apocalypse, are variously interspersed expressions from Plants, elegantly advantaging the significancy of the Text: Whereof many being delivered in a Language proper unto Judaea and neighbour Countries are imperfectly apprehended by the common Reader, and now doubtfully made out, even by the Jewish expositor.  
And even in those which are confessedly known, the elegancy is often lost in the apprehension of the Reader, unacquainted with such Vegetables, or but nakedly knowing their natures: whereof holding a pertinent apprehension, you cannot pass over such expressions without some doubt or want of satisfaction in your judgement. Hereof we shall only hint or discourse some few which I could not but take notice of in the reading of holy Scripture.  
Many Plants are mentioned in Scripture which are not distinctly known in our Countries, or under such Names in the Original, as they are fain to be rendered by analogy, or by the name of Vegetables of good affinity unto them, and so maintain the textual sense, though in some variation from identity.  
1. That Plant which afforded a shade 
The Observations. Kikaion.  unto 
* Jona 4. 6. a Gourd.  Jonah, mentioned by the name of Kikaion, and still retained at least marginally in some Translations, to avoid obscurity Jerome rendered Hedera or Ivy; which notwithstanding (except in its scandent nature) agreed not fully with the other, that is, to grow up in a night, or be consumed with a Worm; Ivy being of no swift growth, little subject unto Worms, and a scarce Plant about Babylon.  
2. That Hyssop is taken for that Plant 
Hyssop.  which cleansed the Leper, being a well scented, and very abstersive Simple, may well be admitted; so we be not too confident, that it is strictly the same with our common Hyssop: The Hyssop of those parts differing from that of ours; as Bellonius hath observed in the Hyssop which grows in Judaea, and the Hyssop of the Wall mentioned in the Works of Solomon, no kind of our Hyssop; and may tolerably be taken for some kind of minor Capillary, which best makes out the Antithesis with the Cedar. Nor when we meet with Libanotis, is it to be conceived our common Rosemary, which is rather the first kind thereof among several others, used by the Ancients.  
3 That it must be taken for Hemlock, 
Hemlock. Hosea. 10. 4. Amos. 6. 2  which is twice so rendered in our Translation, will hardly be made out, otherwise than in the intended sense, and implying some ●ant, wherein bitterness or a poisonous quality is considerable.  
4. What Tremelius rendereth Spina, and 
Paliurus.  the Vulgar Translation Paliurus, and others make some kind of Rhamnus, is allowable in the sense; and we contend not about the species, since they are known Thorns in those Countries, and in our Fields or Gardens among us: and so common in Judaea, that men conclude the thorny Crown of our Saviour was made either of Paliurus or Rhamnus.  
5. Whether the Bush which burned and 
Rubus.  consumed not, were properly a Rubus or Bramble, was somewhat doubtful from the Original and some Translations, had not the Evangelist, and S. Paul expressed the same by the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which from the description of Dioscorides, Herbarists accept for Rubus; although the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expresseth not only the Rubus or kinds of Bramble, but other Thorn-bushes, and the Hipp-briar is also named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or the Dog-briar or Bramble.  
6. That Myrica is rendered, Heath, 
Myrica. Cant. 1. 14.  sounds instructively enough to our ears, who behold that Plant so common in barren Plains among us: But you cannot but take notice that Erica, or our Heath is not the same Plant with Myrica or Tammarice, described by Theophrastus and Dioscorides, and which Bellonius declareth to grow so plentifully in the Deserts of Judaea and Arabia.  
7. That the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, botrus Cypri, or Clusters of Cypress, should have 
Cypress. Cant. 1. 14.  any reference to the Cypress Tree, according to the original Copher, or Clusters of the noble Vine of Cyprus, which might be planted into Judaea, may seem to others allowable in some latitude. But there seeming some noble Odour to be implied in this place, you may probably conceive that the expression drives at the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Dioscorides, some oriental kind of Ligustrum or Alcharma, which Dioscorides and Pliny mention under the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Cyprus, and to grow about Egypt and Ascalon, producing a sweet and odorate bush of Flowers, and out of which was made the famous Oleum Cyprinum.  
But why it should be rendered Camphor your judgement cannot but doubt, who know that our Camphor was unknown unto the Ancients, and no ingredient into any composition of great Antiquity: that learned men long conceived it a bituminous and fossil Body, and our latest experience discovereth it to be the resinous substance of a Tree, in Borneo and China; and that the Camphor that we use is a neat preparation of the same.  
8. When 'tis said in Isaiah 41. I will 
Shittah Tree, etc. Isa. 41. 19  Plant in the wilderness the Cedar, the Shittah Tree, and the Myrtle and the Oil Tree, I will set in the Desert, the Fir Tree, and the Pine, and the Box Tree: Though some doubt may be made of the Shittah Tree, yet all these Trees here mentioned being such as are ever green, you will more emphatically apprehend the merciful meaning of God in this mention of no fading, but always verdant Trees in dry and desert places.  
9 And they cut down a Branch with one 
Grapes of Eshcol. Num. 13. 23.  cluster of Grapes, and they bore it between two upon a Staff, and they brought Pomegranates and Figgs. This cluster of Grapes brought upon a Staff by the Spies, was an incredible sight, in 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Philo.  Philo Judaeus, seemed notable in the eyes of the Israelites, but more wonderful in our own, who look only upon Northern Vines. But herein you are like to consider, that the Cluster was thus carefully carried to represent it entire, without bruising or breaking; that this was not one Bunch but an extraordinary Cluster, made up of many depending upon one gross stalk. And however, might be paralleled with the Eastern Clusters of Margiana and Caramania, if we allow but half the expressions of Pliny and Strabo, whereof one would lad a Curry or small Cart; and may be made out by the clusters of the Grapes of Rhodes presented unto Duke 
* Radzivil in his Travels.  Radzivil, each containing three parts of an Ell in compass, and the Grapes as big as Prunes.  
10. Some things may be doubted in 
Ingred. of holy Perfume. Stacte, etc. Exod. 30. 34, 35.  the species of the holy Ointment and Perfume. With Amber, Musk and Civet we meet not in the Scripture, nor any Odours from Animals; except we take the Onycha of that Perfume for the Covercle of a Shellfish called Unguis Odoratus, or Blatta Byzantina, which Dioscorides affirmeth to be taken from a Shellfish of the Indian Lakes, which seeding upon the Aromatical Plants is gathered when the Lakes are dry. But whether that which we now call Blatta Byzantina, or Unguis Odoratus, be the same with that odorate one of Antiquity, great doubt may be made; since Dioscorides saith it smelled like Castoreum, and that which we now have is of an ungrateful odour.  
No little doubt may be also made of Galbanum prescribed in the same Perfume, if we take it for Galbanum which is of common use among us, approaching the evil scent of Assa Foetida; and not rather for Galbanum of good odour, as the adjoining words declare, and the original Chelbena will bear; which implies a fat or resinous substance, that which is commonly known among us being properly a gummous body and dissoluble also in Water.  
The holy Ointment of Stacte or pure Myrrh, distilling from the Plant without expression or firing, of Cinnamon, Cassia and Calamus, containeth less questionable species, if the Cinnamon of the Ancients were the same with ours, or managed after the same manner. For thereof Dioscorides made his noble Unguent. And Cinnamon was so highly valued by Princes, that Cleopatra carried it unto her Sepulchre with her Jewels; which was also kept in wooden Boxes among the rarities of Kings: and was of such a lasting nature, that at his composing of Treacle for the Emperor Severus, Galen made use of some which had been laid up by Adrianus.  
11. That the Prodigal Son desired to 
Husks eaten by the Prodigal. Luke 15. 16.  eat of Husks given unto Swine, will hardly pass in your apprehension for the Husks of Pease, Beans, or such edulious Pulses; as well understanding that the textual word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ceration, properly intendeth the Fruit of the Siliqua Tree so common in Syria, and fed upon by Men and Beasts; called also by some the Fruit of the Locust Tree, and Panis Sancti Johannis, as conceiving it to have been part of the Diet of the Baptist in the Desert. The Tree and Fruit is not only common in Syria and the Eastern parts, but also well known in Apuglia, and the Kingdom of Naples, growing along the Via Appia, from Fundi unto Mola; the hard Cod or Husks making a rattling noise in windy weather, by beating against one another: called by the Italians Carobbe or Carobbole, and by the French Carouges. With the sweet Pulp hereof some conceive that the Indians preserve Ginger, Mirabolans and Nutmegs. Of the same (as Pliny delivers) the Ancients made one kind of Wine, strongly expressing the Juice thereof; and so they might after give the expressed and less useful part of the Cod, and remaining Pulp unto their Swine: which being no gustless or unsatisfying Offal, might be well desired by the Prodigal in his hunger.  
12. No marvel it is that the Israelites 
Cucumbers, etc. of Egypt.  having lived long in a well watered Country, and been acquainted with the noble Water of Nilus, should complain for Water in the dry and barren Wilderness. More remarkable it seems that they should extol and linger after the Cucumbers and Leeks, Onions and Garlic in Egypt: wherein notwithstanding lies a pertinent expression of the Diet of that Country in ancient times, even as high as the building of the Pyramids, when Herodotus delivereth, that so many Talents were spent in Onions and Garlic, for the Food of Labourers and Artificers; and is also answerable unto their present plentiful Diet in Cucumbers, and the great varieties thereof, as testified by Prosper Alpinus, who spent many years in Egypt.  
13. What Fruit that was which our first 
Forbidden Fruit. Gen. 2. 17, etc.  Parents tasted in Paradise, from the disputes of learned men seems yet indeterminable. More clear it is that they covered their nakedness or secret parts with Figg Leaves; which when I read, I cannot but call to mind the several considerations which Antiquity had of the Fig Tree, in reference unto those parts, particularly how Figg Leaves by sundry Authors are described to have some resemblance unto the Genitals, and so were aptly form for such contection of those parts; how also in that famous Statue of Praxiteles, concerning Alexander and Bucephalus, the Secret Parts are veiled with Figg Leaves; how this Tree was sacred unto Priapus, and how the Diseases of the Secret Parts have derived their Name from Figgs.  
14. That the good Samaritan coming 
Balsam. Oil. Luke 10. 34.  from Jericho used any of the Judean Balsam upon the wounded Traveller, is not to be made out, and we are unwilling to disparage his charitable Surgery in pouring Oil into a green Wound; and therefore when 'tis said he used Oil and Wine, may rather conceive that he made an Oinelaeum or medicine of Oil and Wine beaten up and mixed together, which was no improper Medicine, and is an Art now lately studied by some so to incorporate Wine and Oil that they may lastingly hold together, which some pretend to have, and call it Oleum Samaritanum, or Samaritans Oil.  
15. When Daniel would not pollute 
Pulse of Daniel. Dan. 1. 12.  himself with the Diet of the Babylonians, he probably declined Pagan commensation, or to eat of Meats forbidden to the Jews, though common at their Tables, or so much as to taste of their Gentile Immolations, and Sacrifices abominable unto his Palate.  
But when 'tis said that he made choice of the Diet of Pulse and Water, whether he strictly confined unto a leguminous Food, according to the Vulgar Translation, some doubt may be raised, from the original word Zeragnim, which signifies Seminalia, and is so set down in the Margin of Arias Montanus; and the Greek word Spermata, generally expressing Seeds, may signify any edulious or cerealious Grains besides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or leguminous Seeds.  
Yet if he strictly made choice of a leguminous Food, and Water instead of his portion from the King's Table, he handsomely declined the Diet which might have been put upon him, and particularly that which was called the Potibasis of the King, which as Athenoeus informeth implied the Bread of the King, made of Barley, and Wheat, and the Wine of Cyprus, which he drank in an oval Cup. And therefore distinctly from that he chose plain Fare of Water, and the gross Diet of Pulse, and that perhaps not made into Bread, but parched, and tempered with Water.  
Now that herein (beside the special benediction of God) he made choice of no improper Diet to keep himself fair and plump and so to excuse the Eunuch his Keeper, Physicians will not deny, who acknowledge a very nutritive and impinguating faculty in Pulses, in leguminous Food, and in several sorts of Grains and Corns, is not like to be doubted by such who consider that this was probably a great part of the Food of our Forefathers before the Flood, the Diet also of Jacob: and that the Romans (called therefore Pultifagi) fed much on Pulse for six hundred years; that they had no Bakers for that time: and their Pistours were such as, before the use of Mills, beat out and cleansed their Corn. As also that the Athletic Diet was of Pulse, Alphiton, Maza, Barley and Water; whereby they were advantaged sometimes to an exquisite state of health, and such as was not without danger. And therefore (though Daniel were no Eunuch, and of a more fattening and thriving temper, as some have phancied, yet) was he by this kind of Diet, sufficiently maintained in a fair and carnous state of Body, and accordingly his Picture not improperly drawn, that is, not meager and lean, like Jeremy's, but plump and fair, answerable to the most authentic draught of the Vatican, and the late Germane Luther's Bible.  
The Cynics in Athenoeus make iterated Courses of Lentils, and prefer that Diet before the luxury of Seleucus. The present Egyptians, who are observed by Alpinus to be the fattest Nation, and Men to have Breasts like Women, owe much, as he conceiveth, unto the Water of Nile, and their Diet of Rice, Pease, Lentils and white Cicers. The Pulse-eating Cynics and Stoics, are all very long livers in Laertius. And Daniel must not be accounted of few years, who, being carried away Captive in the Reign of Joachim, by King Nabuchadnezzar, lived, by Scripture account, unto the first year of Cyrus.  
16. And Jacob took Rods of green Poplar, 
Jacob 's Rods. Gen. 30. 31.  and of the Hazel and the Chestnut Tree, and peeled white streaks in them, and made the white appear which was in the Rods, etc. Men multiply the Philosophy of Jacob, who, beside the benediction of God, and the powerful effects of imagination, raised in the Goats and Sheep from peeled and particoloured objects, conceive that he chose out these particular Plants above any other, because he understood they had a particular virtue unto the intended effects, according unto the conception of 
* G. Venetus Problem. 200.  Georgius Venetus.  
Whereto you will hardly assent, at least till you be better satisfied and assured concerning the true species of the Plants intended in the Text, or find a clearer consent and uniformity in the Translation: For what we render Poplar, Hazel and Chesnut, the Greek translateth Virgam styracinam, nucinam, plataninam, which some also render a Pomegranate: and so observing this variety of interpretations concerning common and known Plants among us, you may more reasonably doubt, with what propriety or assurance others less known be sometimes rendered unto us.  
17. Whether in the Sermon of the 
Lilies of the Field. Matt. 6. 28.  Mount, the Lilies of the Field did point at the proper Lilies, or whether those Flowers grew wild in the place where our Saviour preached, some doubt may be made: because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word in that place is accounted of the same signification with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and that in Homer is taken for all manner of specious Flowers: so received by Eustachius, Hesychius, and the Scholiast upon Apollonius Rhodius. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is also received in the same latitude, not signifying only Lilies, but applied unto Daffodils, Hyacinths, Iris', and the Flowers of Colocynthis.  
Under the like latitude of acception, are many expressions in the Canticles to be received. And when it is said he feedeth among the Lilies, therein may be also implied other specious Flowers, not excluding the proper Lilies. But in that expression, the Lilies drop forth Myrrh, neither proper Lilies nor proper Myrrh can be apprehended, the one not proceeding from the other, but may be received in a Metaphorical sense: and in some latitude may be also made out from the roscid and honey drops observable in the Flowers of Martagon, and inverted flowered Lilies, and, 'tis like, is the standing sweet Dew on the white eyes of the Crown Imperial, now common among us.  
And the proper Lily may be intended in that expression of 1 Kings 7. that the brazen Sea was of the thickness of a hand breadth, and the brim like a Lily. For the figure of that Flower being round at the bottom, and somewhat repandous, or inverted at the top, doth handsomely illustrate the comparison.  
But that the Lily of the Valley, mentioned 
Cant 2.  in the Canticles, I am the Rose of Sharon, and the Lily of the Valleys, is that Vegetable which passeth under the same name with us, that is Lilium convallium, or the May Lily, you will more hardly believe, who know with what insatisfaction the most learned Botanists, reduce that Plant unto any described by the Ancients; that Anguillara will have it to be the Oenanthe of Athenaeus, Cordus the Pothos of Theophrastus; and Lobelius that the Greeks had not described it; who find not six Leaves in the Flower agreeably to all Lilies, but only six small divisions in the Flower, who find it also to have a single, and no bulbous Root, nor Leaves shooting about the bottom, nor the Stalk round, but angular. And that the learned Bauhinus hath not placed it in the Classis of Lilies, but nervifolious Plants.  
18. Doth he not cast abroad the Fitches, 
Fitches, Cummin, etc. in Isa. 28 25.  and scatter the Cummin Seed, and cast in the principal Wheat, and the appointed Barley, and the Rye in their place: Herein though the sense may hold under the names assigned, yet is it not so easy to determine the particular Seeds and Grains, where the obscure original causeth such differing Translations. For in the Vulgar we meet with Milium and Gith, which our Translation declineth, placing Fitches for Gith, and Rye for Milium or Millet, which notwithstanding is retained by the Dutch.  
That it might be Melanthium, Nigella, or Gith, may be allowably apprehended, from the frequent use of the Seed thereof among the Jews and other Nations, as also from the Translation of Tremellius; and the Original implying a black Seed, which is less than Cummin, as, out of Aben Ezra, Buxtorfius hath expounded it.  
But whereas Milium or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Septuagint is by ours rendered Rye, there is little similitude or affinity between those Grains; For Milium is more agreeable unto Spelta or Espaut, as the Dutch and others still render it.  
That we meet so often with Cummin Seed in many parts of Scripture in reference unto Judaea, a Seed so abominable at present unto our Palates and Nostrils, will not seem strange unto any who consider the frequent use thereof among the Ancients, not only in medical but dietetical use and practice: For their Dishes were filled therewith, and the noblest festival preparations in Apicius were not without it: And even in the Polenta, and parched Corn, the old Diet of the Romans, (as Pliny recordeth) unto every Measure they mixed a small proportion of Lin-seed and Cumminseed.  
And so Cummin is justly set down among things of vulgar and common use, when it is said in Matthew 23. v. 23. You pay Tithe of Mint, anise and Cummin: but how to make out the translation of anise we are still to seek, there being no word in that Text which properly signifieth anise: the Original being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which the Latins call Anethum, and is properly englished Dill.  
That among many expressions, allusions and illustrations made in Scripture from Corns, there is no mention made of Oats, so useful a Grain among us, will not seem very strange unto you, till you can clearly discover that it was a Grain of ordinary use in those parts; who may also find that Theophrastus, who is large about other Grains, delivers very little of it. That Dioscorides is also very short therein. And Galen delivers that it was of some use in Asia minor, especially in Mysia, and that rather for Beasts than Men: And Pliny affirmeth that the Pulticula thereof was most in use among the Germans. Yet that the Jews were not without all use of this Grain seems confirmable from the Rabbinical account, who reckon five Grains liable unto their Offerings, whereof the Cake presented might be made; that is, Wheat, Oats, Rye, and two sorts of Barley.  
19 Why the Disciples being hungry 
Ears of Corn. Matt. 12. 1.  plucked the Ears of Corn, it seems strange to us, who observe that men half starved betake not themselves to such supply; except we consider the ancient Diet of Alphiton and Polenta, the Meal of dried and parched Corn, or that which was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or Meal of crude and unparched Corn, wherewith they being well acquainted, might hope for some satisfaction from the Corn yet in the Husk; that is, from the nourishing pulp or mealy part within it.  
20. The inhuman oppression of the 
Stubble of Egypt. Exod. 5. 7, etc.  Egyptian Taskmasters, who, not content with the common tale of Brick, took also from the Children of Israel their allowance of Straw, and forced them to gather Stubble where they could find it, will be more nearly apprehended, if we consider how hard it was to acquire any quantity of Stubble in Egypt, where the Stalk of Corn was so short, that to acquire an ordinary measure, it required more than ordinary labour; as is discoverable from that account, which 
* Lib. 18. Nat. Hist.  Pliny hath happily left unto us. In the Corn gathered in Egypt the Straw is never a Cubit long: because the Seed lieth very shallow, and hath no other nourishment than from the Mudd and Slime left by the River; For under it is nothing but Sand and Gravel.  
So that the expression of Scripture is more Emphatical than is commonly apprehended, when 'tis said, The people were scattered abroad through all the Land of Egypt to gather Stubble instead of Straw. For the Stubble being very short, the acquist was difficult; a few Fields afforded it not, and they were fain to wander far to obtain a sufficient quantity of it.  
21. It is said in the Song of Solomon, that 
Flowers of the Vine. Cant. 2. 13.  the Vines with the tender Grape give a good smell. That the Flowers of the Vine should be Emphatically noted to give a pleasant smell, seems hard unto our Northern Nostrils, which discover not such Odours, and smell them not in full Vineyards; whereas in hot Regions, and more spread and digested Flowers, a sweet savour may be allowed, denotable from several humane expressions, and the practice of the Ancients, in putting the dried Flowers of the Vine into new Wine to give it a pure and flosculous race or spirit, which Wine was therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, allowing unto every Cadus two pounds of dried Flowers.  
And, therefore, the Vine flowering but in the Spring, it cannot but seem an impertinent objection of the Jews, that the Apostles were full of new Wine at Pentecost when it was not to be found. Wherefore we may rather conceive that the word 
* Acts 2. 13.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that place implied not new Wine or Must, but some generous strong and sweet Wine, wherein more especially lay the power of inebriation.  
But if it be to be taken for some kind of Must, it might be some kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or long-lasting Must, which might be had at any time of the year, and which, as Pliny delivereth, they made by hindering, and keeping the Must from fermentation or working, and so it kept soft and sweet for no small time after.  
22. When the Dove, sent out of the 
The Olive Leaf in Gen. 8. 11.  Ark, returned with a green Olive Leaf, according to the Original: how the Leaf, after ten Months, and under water, should still maintain a verdure or greenness, need not much amuse the Reader, if we consider that the Olive Tree is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or continually green; that the Leaves are of a bitter taste, and of a fast and lasting substance. Since we also find fresh and green Leaves among the Olives which we receive from remote Countries; and since the Plants at the bottom of the Sea, and on the sides of Rocks, maintain a deep and fresh verdure.  
How the Tree should stand so long in the Deluge under Water, may partly be allowed from the uncertain determination of the Flows and Currents of that time, and the qualification of the saltness of the Sea, by the admixture of fresh Water, when the whole watery Element was together.  
And it may be signally illustrated from the like examples in 
* theophra Hist. Lib. 4. Cap. 7, 8.  Theophrastus and 
† † Plin. lib. 13. cap. ultimo.  Pliny in words to this effect: Even the Sea affordeth Shrubs and Trees; In the red Sea whole Woods do live, namely of Bays and Olives bearing Fruit. The Soldiers of Alexander, who sailed into India, made report, that the Tides were so high in some Islands, that they overflowed, and covered the Woods, as high as Plane and Poplar Trees. The lower sort wholly, the greater all but the tops, whereto the Mariners fastened their Vessels at high Waters, and at the root in the Ebb; That the Leaves of these Sea Trees while under water looked green, but taken out presently dried with the heat of the Sun. The like is delivered by Theophrastus, that some Oaks do grow and bear Acorns under the Sea.  
23. The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a 
Grain of Mustardseed in S. Matt. 13. 31, 32.  grain of Mustardseed, which a Man took and sowed in his Field, which indeed is the least of all Seeds; but when 'tis grown is the greatest among Herbs, and becometh a Tree, so that the Birds of the Air come and lodge in the Branches thereof.  
Luke 13. 19 It is like a grain of Mustardseed, which a Man took and cast it into his Garden, and it waxed a great Tree, and the Fowls of the Air lodged in the Branches thereof.  
This expression by a grain of Mustardseed, will not seem so strange unto you, who well consider it. That it is simply the least of Seeds, you cannot apprehend, if you have beheld the Seeds of Rapunculus, Marjorane, Tobacco, and the smallest Seed of Lunaria.  
But you may well understand it to be the smallest Seed among Herbs which produce so big a Plant, or the least of herbal Plants, which arise unto such a proportion, implied in the expression; the smallest of Seeds, and becometh the greatest of Herbs.  
And you may also grant that it is the smallest of Seeds of Plants apt to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, arborescere, fruticescere, or to grow unto a ligneous substance, and from an hereby and oleraceous Vegetable, to become a kind of Tree, and to be accounted among the Dendrolachana, or Arboroleracea; as upon strong Seed, Culture and good Ground, is observable in some Cabbages, Mallows, and many more, and therefore expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it becometh a Tree, or arborescit, as Beza rendereth it.  
Nor if warily considered doth the expression contain such difficulty. For the Parable may not ground itself upon generals, or imply any or every grain of Mustard, but point at such a grain as from its fertile spirit, and other concurrent advantages, hath the success to become arboreous, shoot into such a magnitude, and acquire the like tallness. And unto such a Grain the Kingdom of Heaven is likened which from such slender beginnings shall find such increase and grandeur.  
The expression also that it might grow into such dimensions that Birds might lodge in the Branches thereof, may be literally conceived; if we allow the luxuriancy of Plants in Judaea, above our Northern Regions; If we accept of but half the Story taken notice of by Tremellius, from the Jerusalem Talmud, of a Mustard Tree that was to be climbed like a Fig Tree; and of another, under whose shade a Potter daily wrought: and it may somewhat abate our doubts, if we take in the advertisement of Herodotus concerning lesser Plants of Milium and Sesamum in the Babylonian Soil: Milium ac Sesamum in proceritatem instar arborum crescere, etsi mihi compertum, tamen memorare supersedeo, probè sciens eye qui nunquam Babyloniam regionem adierunt perquam incredibile visum iri. We may likewise consider that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not necessarily signify making a Nest, but rather sitting, roosting, covering and resting in the Boughs, according as the same word is used by the Septuagint in other places 
* Dan. 4. 9 Ps. 1. 14. 12.  as the Vulgar rendereth it in this, inhabitant, as our Translation, lodgeth, and the Rhemish, resteth in the Branches.  
24. And it came to pass that on the morrow 
The Rod of Aaron. Numb. 17. 8.  Moses went into the Tabernacle of witness, and behold the Rod of Aaron for the House of Levi was budded, and brought forth Buds, and bloomed Blossoms, and yielded Almonds. In the contention of the Tribes and decision of priority and primogeniture of Aaron, declared by the Rod, which in a night budded, flowered and brought forth Almonds, you cannot but apprehend a propriety in the Miracle from that species of Tree which leadeth in the Vernal germination of the year, unto all the Classes of Trees; and so apprehend how properly in a night and short space of time the Miracle arose, and somewhat answerable unto its nature the Flowers and Fruit appeared in this precocious Tree, and whose original Name 
* Shacher from Shachar festinus fuit or maturuit.  implies such speedy efflorescence, as in its proper nature flowering in February, and showing its Fruit in March.  
This consideration of that Tree maketh the expression in Jeremy more Emphatical, when 'tis said, What seest thou? and he 
Jer. 1. 11.  said, A Rod of an Almond Tree. Then said the Lord unto me, Thou hast well seen, for I will hasten the Word to perform it. I will be quick and forward like the Almond Tree, to produce the effects of my word, and hasten to display my judgements upon them.  
And we may hereby more easily apprehend the expression in Ecclesiastes; When 
Eccles. 12. 5.  the Almond Tree shall flourish. That is when the Head, which is the prime part, and first showeth itself in the world, shall grow white, like the Flowers of the Almond Tree, whose Fruit, as Athenaeus delivereth, was first called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or the Head, from some resemblance and covering parts of it.  
How properly the priority was confirmed by a Rod or Staff, and why the Rods and Staffs of the Princes were chosen for this decision, Philologists will consider. For these were the badges, signs and cognisances of their places, and were a kind of Sceptre in their hands, denoting their supereminencies. The Staff of Divinity is ordinarily described in the hands of Gods and Goddesses in old draughts. Trojan and Grecian Princes were not without the like, whereof the Shoulders of Thersites felt from the hands of Ulysses. Achilles in Homer, as by a desperate Oath, swears by his wooden Sceptre, which should never bud nor bear Leaves again; which seeming the greatest impossibility to him, advanceth the Miracle of Aaron's Rod: And if it could be well made out that Homer had seen the Books of Moses, in that expression of Achilles, he might allude unto this Miracle.  
That power which proposed the experiment by Blossoms in the Rod, added also the Fruit of Almonds; the Text not strictly making out the Leaves, and so omitting the middle germination: the Leaves properly coming after the Flowers, and before the Almonds. And therefore if you have well perused Medals, you cannot but observe how in the impress of many Shekels, which pass among us by the name of the Jerusalem Shekels, the Rod of Aaron is improperly laden with many Leaves, whereas that which is shown under the name of the Samaritan Shekel seems most conformable unto the Text, which describeth the Fruit without Leaves.  
25. Binding his Foal unto the Vine, and 
The Vine in Gen. 49. 11.  his Ass' Colt unto the choice Vine.  
That Vines, which are commonly supported, should grow so large and bulky, as to be fit to fasten their Juments, and Beasts of labour unto them, may seem a hard expression unto many: which notwithstanding may easily be admitted, if we consider the account of Pliny, that in many places out of Italy Vines do grow without any stay or support: nor will it be otherwise conceived of lusty Vines, if we call to mind how the same 
* Plin. lib. 14.  Author delivereth, that the Statue of Jupiter was made out of a Vine; and that out of one single Cyprian Vine a Scale or Ladder was made that reached unto the Roof of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus.  
26. I was exalted as a Palm Tree in Engaddi, 
Rose of Jericho. Ecclus. 24. 14.  and as a Rose Plant in Jericho. That the Rose of Jericho, or that Plant which passeth among us under that denomination, was signified in this Text, you are not like to apprehend with some, who also name it the Rose of S. Mary, and deliver, that it openeth the Branches, and Flowers upon the Eve of our Saviour's Nativity: But rather conceive it some proper kind of Rose, which thrived and prospered in Jericho more than in the neighbour Countries. For our Rose of Jericho is a very low and hard Plant, a few inches above the ground; one whereof brought from Judaea I have kept by me many years, nothing resembling a Rose Tree, either in Flowers, Branches, Leaves or Gorwth; and so, improper to answer the Emphatical word of exaltation in the Text: growing not only about Jericho, but other parts of Judaea and Arabia, as Bellonius hath observed: which being a dry and ligneous Plant, is preserved many years, and though crumpled and furdled up, yet, if infused in Water, will swell and display its parts.  
27. Quasi Terebinthus extendi ramos, 
Turpentine Tree in Ecclus. 24. 16.  when it is said in the same Chapter, as a Turpentine Tree have I stretched out my Branches: it will not seem strange unto such as have either seen that Tree, or examined its description: For it is a Plant that widely displayeth its Branches: And though in some European Countries it be but of a low and fruticeous growth, yet Pliny 
* Terebinthus in Macedonia fruticat, in Syria, magna est. Lib. 13. Plin.  observeth that it is great in Syria, and so allowably, or at least not improperly mentioned in the expression of 
† Hosea. 4. 13.  Hosea according to the Vulgar Translation. Super capita montium sacrificant, etc. sub quercu, populo & terebintho, quoniam bona est umbra ejus. And this diffusion and spreading of its Branches, hath afforded the Proverb of Terebintho stultior, appliable unto arrogant or boasting persons, who spread and display their own acts, as Erasmus hath observed.  
28. It is said in our Translation. Saul 
Pomegranate in 1 Sam. 14. 2.  tarried in the uppermost parts of Gibeah, under a Pomegranate Tree which is in Migron: and the people which were with him were about six hundred men. And when it is said in some Latin Translations, Saul morabatur fixo tentorio sub Malogranato, you will not be ready to take it in the common literal sense, who know that a Pomegranate Tree is but low of growth, and very unfit to pitch a Tent under it; and may rather apprehend it as the name of a place, or the Rock of Rimmon, or Pomegranate; so named from Pomegranates which grew there, and which many think to have been the same place mentioned in 
* Judges 20. 45, 47. Ch. 21. 13.  Judges.  
29. It is said in the Book of Wisdom, 
A Green Field in Wisd. 19 7.  Where water stood before, dry land appeared, and out of the red Sea a way appeared without impediment, and out of the violent streams a green Field; or as the Latin renders it, Campus germinans de profundo: whereby it seems implied that the Israelites passed over a green Field at the bottom of the Sea: and though most would have this but a Metaphorical expression, yet may it be literally tolerable; and so may be safely apprehended by those that sensibly know what great number of Vegetables (as the several varieties of Alga's, Sea Lettuce, Phasganium, Conferua, Caulis Marina, Abies, Erica, Tamarice, divers sorts of Muscus, Fucus, Quercus Marina and Corallins) are found at the bottom of the Sea. Since it is also now well known, that the Western Ocean, for many degrees, is covered with Sargasso or Lenticula Marina, and found to arise from the bottom of that Sea; since, upon the coast of Provence by the Isles of Eres, there is a part of the Mediterranean Sea, called la Prery, or the Meadowy Sea, from the bottom thereof so plentifully covered with Plants: since vast heaps of Weeds are found in the Bellies of some Whales taken in the Northern Ocean, and at a great distance from the Shore: And since the providence of Nature hath provided this shelter for minor Fishes; both for their spawn, and safety of their young ones. And this might be more peculiarly allowed to be spoken of the Red Sea, since the Hebrews named it Suph, or the Weedy Sea: and, also, seeing Theophrastus and Pliny, observing the growth of Vegetables under water, have made their chief illustrations from those in the Red Sea.  
30. You will readily discover how 
Sycamore.  widely they are mistaken, who accept the Sycamore mentioned in several parts of Scripture for the Sycamore, or Tree of that denomination, with us: which is properly but one kind or difference of Acer, and bears no Fruit with any resemblance unto a Fig.  
But you will rather, thereby, apprehend the true and genuine Sycamore, or Sycaminus, which is a stranger in our parts. A Tree (according to the description of Theophrastus, Dioscorides and Galen) resembling a Mulberry Tree in the Leaf, but in the Fruit a Fig; which it produceth not in the twigs but in the Trunk or greater Branches, answerable to the Sycamore of Egypt, the Egyptian Fig or Giamez of the Arabians, described by Prosper Alpinus, with a Leaf somewhat broader than a Mulberry, and in its Fruit like a Fig. Insomuch that some have fancied it to have had its first production from a Fig Tree grafted on a Mulberry.  
It is a Tree common in Judaea, whereof they made frequent use in Buildings; and so understood, it explaineth that expression in 
* Isa. 9 10.  Isaiah: Sycamori excisi sunt, Cedros ' substituemus. The Bricks are fallen down, we will build with hewn Stones: The Sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into Cedars.  
It is a broad spreading Tree, not only fit for Walks, Groves and Shade, but also affording profit. And therefore it is said that King 
† 1 Chron. 27. 28.  David appointed Baalhanan to be over his Olive Trees and Sycamores, which were in great plenty; and it is accordingly delivered, 
‖ 1 King. 10. 27.  that Solomon made Cedars to be as the Sycamore Trees that are in the Vale for abundance. That is, he planted many, though they did not come to perfection in his days.  
And as it grew plentifully about the Plains, so was the Fruit good for Food; and, as Bellonius and late accounts deliver, very refreshing unto Travellers in those hot and dry Countries: whereby the expression of 
* Amos 7. 14.  Amos becomes more intelligible, when he said he was an Herdsman, and a gatherer of Sycamore Fruit. And the expression of 
† Psal. ●8. 47.  David also becomes more Emphatical; He destroyed their Vines with Hail, and their Sycamore Trees with Frost. That is, their Sicmoth in the Original, a word in the sound not far from the Sycamore.  
Thus when it is said, 
‖ Luk. 17. 6.  If ye had Faith as a grain of Mustardseed, ye might say unto this Sycamine Tree, Be thou plucked up by the roots, and be thou placed in the Sea, and it should obey you: it might be more significantly spoken of this Sycamore; this being, described to be Arbour vasta, a large and well rooted Tree, whose removal was more difficult than many others. And so the instance in that Text, is very properly made in the Sycamore Tree, one of the largest and less removable Trees among them. A Tree so lasting and well rooted, that the Sycamore which Zacheus ascended, is still shown in Judaea unto Travellers; as also the hollow Sycamore at Maturaea in Egypt, where the blessed Virgin is said to have remained: which though it relisheth of the Legend, yet it plainly declareth what opinion they had of the lasting condition of that Tree, to countenance the Tradition; for which they might not be without some experience, since the learned describer of the 
* D Greaves.  Pyramids observeth, that the old Egyptians made Coffins of this Wood, which he found yet fresh and undecayed among divers of their Mummies.  
And thus, also, when Zacheus climbed up into a Sycamore above any other Tree, this being a large and fair one, it cannot be denied that he made choice of a proper and advantageous Tree to look down upon our Saviour.  
31. Whether the expression of our Saviour 
Increase of Seed 100 fold in Matt. 13. 23.  in the Parable of the Sour, and the increase of the Seed unto thirty, sixty and a hundred fold, had any reference unto the ages of Believers, and measures of their Faith, as Children, Young and Old Persons, as to beginners, well advanced and strongly confirmed Christians, as learned men have hinted; or whether in this progressional assent there were any latent Mysteries, as the mystical Interpreters of Numbers may apprehend, I pretend not to determine.  
But, how this multiplication may well be conceived, and in what way apprehended, and that this centessimal increase is not naturally strange, you that are no stranger in Agriculture, old and new, are not like to make great doubt.  
That every Grain should produce an Ear affording an hundred Grains, is not like to be their conjecture who behold the growth of Corn in our Fields, wherein a common Grain doth produce far less in number. For Barley consisting but of two Versus or Rows, seldom exceedeth twenty Grains, that is, ten upon each 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or Row; Rye, of a square figure, is very fruitful at forty: Wheat, besides the Frit and Uruncus, or imperfect Grains of the small Husks at the top and bottom of the Ear, is fruitful at ten triple Glumoe or Husks in a Row, each containing but three Grains in breadth, if the middle Grain arriveth at all to perfection; and so maketh up threescore Grains in both sides.  
Yet even this centessimal fructification may be admitted in some sorts of Cerealia, and Grains from one Ear: if we take in the Triticum centigranum, or fertilissimum Plinii, Indian Wheat, and Panicum; which, in every Ear, containeth hundreds of Grains.  
But this increase may easily be conceived of Grains in their total multiplication, in good and fertile ground, since, if every Grain of Wheat produceth but three Ears, the increase will arise above that number. Nor are we without examples of some grounds which have produced many more Ears, and above this centessimal increase: As Pliny hath left recorded of the Byzacian Field in Africa. Misit ex eo loco Procurator ex uno quadraginta minus germina. Misit & Neroni pariter tercentum quadraginta stipulos, ex uno grano. Cum centessimos quidem Leontini Sicilioe campi fundunt, aliique, & tota Boetica, & imprimis Aegyptus. And even in our own Country, from one Grain of Wheat sowed in a Garden, I have numbered many more than an hundred.  
And though many Grains are commonly lost which come not to sprouting or ear-ring, yet the same is also verified in measure; as that one Bushel should produce a hundred, as is exemplified by the Corn in Gerar; 
* Gen. 26. 12.  Then Isaac sowed in that Land, and received in that year an hundred fold. That is, as the Chaldee explaineth it, a hundred for one, when he measured it. And this Pliny seems to intend, when he saith of the fertile Byzacian Territory before mentioned, Ex uno centeni quinquaginta modii redduntur. And may be favourably apprehended of the fertility of some grounds in Poland; wherein, after the account of Gaguinus, from Rye sowed in August, come thirty or forty Ears, and a Man on Horseback can scarce look over it. In the Sabbatical Crop of Judoea, there must be admitted a large increase, and probably not short of this centessimal multiplication: For it supplied part of the sixth year, the whole seventh, and eighth until the Harvest of that year.  
The seven years of plenty in Egypt must be of high increase; when, by storing up but the fifth part, they supplied the whole Land, and many of their neighbours after: for it is said, 
* Gen. 41. 56.  the Famine was in all the Land about them. And therefore though the causes of the Dearth in Egypt be made out from the defect of the overflow of Nilus, according to the Dream of Pharaoh; yet was that no cause of the scarcity in the Land of Canaan, which may rather be ascribed to the want of the former and latter rains, for some succeeding years, if their Famine held time and duration with that of Egypt; as may be probably gathered from that expression of Joseph, 
† Gen. 45. 9, 11.  Come down unto me [into Egypt] and tarry not, and there will I nourish you: (for yet there are five years of Famine) lest thou and thy Household, and all that thou hast come to poverty.  
How they preserved their Corn so long in Egypt may seem hard unto Northern and moist Climates, except we consider the many ways of preservation practised by antiquity, and also take in that handsome account of Pliny; What Corn soever is laid up in the Ear, it taketh no harm keep it as long as you will; although the best and most assured way to keep Corn is in Caves and Vaults under ground, according to the practice of Cappadocia and Thracia.  
In Egypt and Mauritania above all things they look to this, that their Granaries stand on high ground; and how dry so ever their Floor be, they lay a course of Chaff betwixt it and the ground. Besides, they put up their Corn in Granaries and Binns together with the Ear. And Varro delivereth that Wheat laid up in that manner will last fifty years; Millet an hundred; and Beans so conserved in a Cave of Ambracia, were known to last an hundred and twenty years; that is, from the time of King Pyrrhus, unto the Piratic War under the conduct of Pompey.  
More strange it may seem how, after seven years, the Grains conserved should be fruitful for a new production. For it is said that Joseph delivered Seed unto the Egyptians, to sow their Land for the eighth year: and Corn after seven years is like to afford little or no production, according to Theophrastus; 
* Theoph. Hist. l. 8.  Ad Sementem semen anniculum optimum putatur, binum deterius & trinum; ultra sterile fermè est, quanquam ad usum cibarium idoneum.  
Yet since, from former exemplifications, Corn may be made to last so long, the fructifying power may well be conceived to last in some good proportion, according to the region and place of its conservation, as the same Theophrastus hath observed, and left a notable example from Cappadocia, where Corn might be kept sixty years, and remain fertile at forty; according to his expression thus translated; In Cappadociae loco quodam petra dicto, triticum ad quadraginta annos foecundum est, & ad sementem percommodum durare proditum est, sexagenos aut septuagenos ad usum cibarium servari posse idoneum. The situation of that Conservatory, was, as he delivereth, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, high, airy and exposed to several favourable winds. And upon such consideration of winds and ventilation, some conceive the Egyptian Granaries were made open, the Country being free from rain. Howsoever it was, that contrivance could not be without some hazard: 
* Egypt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Vid. Theophrastum.  for the great Mists and Dews of that Country might dispose the Corn unto corruption.  
More plainly may they mistake, who from some analogy of name (as if Pyramid were derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Triticum,) conceive the Egyptian Pyramids to have been built for Granaries; or look for any settled Monuments about the Deserts erected for that intention; since their Storehouses were made in the great Towns, according to Scripture expression, 
† Gen. 41. 48.  He gathered up all the Food of seven years, which was in the Land of Egypt, and laid up the Food in the Cities: the Food of the Field which was round about every City, laid he up in the same.  
32. For if thou wert cut out of the Olive 
Olive Tree in Rom. 11. 24.  Tree, which is wild by nature, and wert grafted, contrary to nature, into a good Olive Tree, how much more shall these, which be the natural Branches, be grafted into their own Olive Tree? In which place, how answerable to the Doctrine of Husbandry this expression of S. Paul is, you will readily apprehend who understand the rules of insition or grafting, and that way of vegetable propagation; wherein that is contrary to nature, or natural rules which Art observeth: viz. to make use of a Cyons more ignoble than the Stock, or to graft wild upon domestic and good Plants, according as 
* De causis Plant. Lib. 1. Cap. 7.  Theop●●ath ●ath anciently observed, and, mak●g ●ce in the Olive, hath lest this Do●●nto us; Urbanum Sylvestribus ut sat●●tris inserere. Nam si è contrario Sylve● in Urbanos severis, ctsi differentia quaedam 〈◊〉, tamen 
† 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  bonae frugis Arbor nunquam profe● reddetur: which is also agreeable unto our present practice, who graft Pears on Thorns, and Apples upon Crabb Stocks, not using the contrary insition. And when it is said, How much more shall these, which are the natural Branches, be grasted into their own natural Olive Tree? this is also agreeable unto the rule of the same Author; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Insitio melior est similium in similibus: For the nearer consanguinity there is between the Cyons and the Stock, the readier comprehension is made, and the nobler fructification. According also unto the later caution of Laurenbergius; 
‖ De horticultura.  Arbores domesticae insitioni destinatae, semper anteponendae Sylvestribus. And though the success be good, and may suffice upon Stocks of the same denomination; yet, to be grafted upon their own and Mother Stock, is the nearest insition: which way, though less practised of old, is now much embraced, and found a notable way for melioration of the Fruit; and much the rather, if the Tree to be grafted on be a good and generous Plant, a good and fair Olive, as the Apostle seems to imply by a peculiar 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Rome 11. 24.  word scarce to be found elsewhere.  
It must be also considered, that the Oleaster, or wild Olive, by cutting, transplanting and the best managery of Art, can be made but to produce such Olives as (Theophrastus saith) were particularly named Phaulia, that is, but bad Olives; and that it was reckoned among Prodigies, for the Oleaster to become an Olive Tree.  
And when insition and grafting, in the Text, is applied unto the Olive Tree, it hath an Emphatical sense, very agreeable unto that Tree which is best propagated this way; not at all by surculation, as Theophrastus observeth, nor well by Seed, as hath been observed. Omne semen simile genus perficit, praeter oleam, Oleastrum enim generat, hoc est sylvestrem oleam, & non oleam veram.  
If, therefore, thou Roman and Gentile Branch, which wert cut from the wild Olive, art now, by the signal mercy of God, beyond the ordinary and commonly expected way, grafted into the true Olive, the Church of God; if thou, which neither naturally nor by humane art canst be made to produce any good Fruit, and, next to a Miracle, to be made a true Olive, art now by the benignity of God grafted into the proper Olive; how much more shall the Jew, and natural Branch, be grafted into its genuine and mother Tree, wherein propinquity of nature is like, so readily and prosperously, to effect a coalition? And this more especially by the expressed way of insition or implantation, the Olive being not successfully propagable by Seed, nor at all by surculation.  
33. As for the Stork, the Fir Trees 
Stork nesting on Fir Trees in Psal. 104. 17.  are her House. This expression, in our Translation, which keeps close to the Original Chasidah, is somewhat different from the Greek and Latin Translation; nor agreeable unto common observation, whereby they are known commonly to build upon Chimneys, or the tops of Houses, and high Buildings, which notwithstanding, the common Translation may clearly consist with observation, if we consider that this is commonly affirmed of the black Stork, and take notice of the description of Ornithologus in Aldrovandus, that such Storks are often found in divers parts, and that they do in Arboribus nidulari, proesertim in abietibus; Make their Nests on Trees, especially upon Fir Trees. Nor wholly disagreeing unto the practice of the common white Stork, according unto Varro, nidulantur in agris: and the concession of Aldrovandus that sometimes they build on Trees: and the assertion of 
* Bellonius de Avibus.  Bellonius, that men dress them Nests, and place Cradles upon high Trees, in Marish regions, that Storks may breed upon them: which course some observe for Herns and Cormorants with us. And this building of Storks upon Trees, may be also answerable unto the original and natural way of building of Storks before the political habitations of men, and the raising of Houses and high Buildings; before they were invited by such conveniences and prepared Nests, to relinquish their natural places of nidulation. I say, before or where such advantages are not ready; when Swallows found other places than Chimneys, and Daws found other places than holes in high Fabrics to build in.  
34. And, therefore, Israel said carry 
Balm in Gen▪ 43. 11.  down the man a present, a little Balm, a little Honey, and Myrrh, Nuts and Almonds. Now whether this, which Jacob sent, were the proper Balsam extolled by humane Writers, you cannot but make some doubt, who find the Greek Translation to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is, Resina, and so may have some suspicion that it might be some pure distillation from the Turpentine Tree, which grows prosperously and plentifully in Judaea, and seems so understood by the Arabic; and was indeed esteemed by Theophrastus and Dioscorides, the chiefest of resinous Bodies, and the word Resina Emphatically used for it.  
That the Balsam Plant hath grown and prospered in Judaea we believe without dispute. For the same is attested by Theophrastus, Pliny, Justinus, and many more; from the commendation that Galen affordeth of the Balsam of Syria, and the story of Cleopatra, that she obtained some Plants of Balsam from Herod the Great to transplant into Egypt. But whether it was so anciently in Judaea as the time of Jacob; nay, whether this Plant was here before the time of Solomon, that great collector of Vegetable rarities, some doubt may be made from the account of Josephus, that the Queen of Sheba, a part of Arabia, among presents unto Solomon, brought some Plants of the Balsam Tree, as one of the peculiar estimables of her Country.  
Whether this ever had its natural growth, or were an original native Plant of Judaea, much more that it was peculiar unto that Country, a greater doubt may arise: while we read in Pausanias, Strabo and Diodorus, that it grows also in Arabia, and find in 
* theophra. l. 9 c. 6.  Theophrastus, that it grew in two Gardens about Jericho in Judaea. And more especially whiles we seriously consider that notable discourse between Abdella, Abdachim and Alpinus, concluding the natural and original place of this singular Plant to be in Arabia, about Mecha and Medina, where it still plentifully groweth, and Mountains abound therein. From whence it hath been carefully transplanted by the Bassa's of Grand Cairo, into the Garden of Matarea; where, when it dies, it is repaired again from those parts of Arabia, from whence the Grand Signior yearly receiveth a present of Balsam from the Xeriff of Mecha, still called by the Arabians Balessan; whence they believe arose the Greek appellation Balsam. And since these Balsam-plants are not now to be found in Judaea, and though purposely cultivated, are often lost in Judaea, but everlastingly live, and naturally renew in Arabia; They probably concluded, that those of Judaea were foreign and transplanted from these parts.  
All which notwithstanding, since the same Plant may grow naturally and spontaneously in several Countries, and either from inward or outward causes be lost in one Region, while it continueth and subsisteth in another, the Balsam Tree might possibly be a native of Judaea as well as of Arabia; which because the facto it cannot be clearly made out, the ancient expressions of Scripture become doubtful in this point. But since this Plant hath not, for a long time, grown in Judaea, and still plentifully prospers in Arabia, that which now comes in precious parcels to us, and still is called the Balsam of Judaea, may now surrender its name, and more properly be called the Balsam of Arabia.  
35. And the Flax and the Barley was 
Barley, Flax, etc. in Exod. 9 31.  smitten; for the Barley was in the Ear, and the Flax was bolled, but the Wheat and the Rye was not smitten, for they were not grown up. 
* Linum solliculos germinavit, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Septuag. Serotina, Lat. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Gr.  How the Barley and the Flax should be smitten in the plague of Hail in Egypt, and the Wheat and Rye escape, because they were not yet grown up, may seem strange unto English observers, who call Barley Summer Corn sown so many months after Wheat, and, beside hordeum Polystichon, or big Barley, sow not Barley in the Winter, to anticipate the growth of Wheat.  
And the same may also seem a preposterous expression unto all who do not consider the various Agriculture, and different Husbandry of Nations, and such as was practised in Egypt, and fairly proved to have been also used in Judaea, wherein their Barley Harvest was before that of Wheat; as is confirmable from that expression in Ruth, that she came into Bethlehem at the beginning of Barley Harvest, and stayed unto the end of Wheat Harvest; from the death of Manasses the Father of Judith, Emphatically expressed to have happened in the Wheat Harvest, and more advanced heat of the Sun; and from the custom of the Jews, to offer the Barley Sheaf of the first fruits in March, and a Cake of Wheat Flower but at the end of Pentecost. Consonant unto the practice of the Egyptians, who (as Theophrastus delivereth) sowed their Barley early in reference to their first Fruits; and also the common rural practice, recorded by the same Author, Maturè seritur Triticum, Hordeum, quod etiam maturius seritur; Wheat and Barley are sowed early, but Barley earlier of the two.  
Flax was also an early Plant, as may be illustrated from the neighbour Country of Canaan. For the Israelites kept the Passeover in Gilgal in the fourteenth day of the first Month, answering unto part of our March, having newly passed Jordan: And the Spies which were sent from Shittim unto Jericho, not many days before, were hid by Rahab under the stalks of Flax, which lay drying on the top of her House; which showeth that the Flax was already and newly gathered. For this was the first preparation of Flax, and before fluviation or rotting, which, after Pliny's account, was after Wheat Harvest.  
But the Wheat and the Rye were not smitten, for they were not grown up. The Original signifies that it was hidden, or dark, the Vulgar and Septuagint that it was serotinous or late, and our old Translation that it was late sown. And so the expression and interposition of Moses, who well understood the Husbandry of Egypt, might Emphatically declare the state of Wheat and Rye in that particular year; and if so, the same is solvable from the time of the flood of Nilus, and the measure of its inundation. For if it were very high, and over-drenching the ground, they were forced to later Seedtime; and so the Wheat and the Rye escaped; for they were more slowly growing Grains, and, by reason of the greater inundation of the River, were sown later than ordinary that year, especially in the Plains near the River, where the ground drieth latest.  
Some think the plagues of Egypt were acted in one Month, others but in the compass of twelve. In the delivery of Scripture there is no account, of what time of the year or particular Month they fell out; but the account of these Grains, which were either smitten or escaped, make the plague of Hail to have probably happened in February: This may be collected from the new and old account of the Seed time and Harvest in Egypt. For, according to the account of 
* Radzevil 's Travels.  Radzevil, the River rising in June, and the Banks being cut in September, they sow about S. Andrews, when the Flood is retired, and the moderate dryness of the ground permitteth. So that the Barley anticipating the Wheat, either in time of sowing or growing, might be in Ear in February.  
The account of 
† Plin. lib. 18. cap. 18.  Pliny is little different. They cast the Seed upon the Slime and Mudd when the River is down, which commonly happeneth in the beginning of November. They begin to reap and cut down a little before the Calends of April, about the middle of March, and in the Month of May their Harvest is in. So that Barley anticipating Wheat, it might be in Ear in February, and Wheat not yet grown up, at least to the Spindle or Ear, to be destroyed by the Hail. For they cut down about the middle of March, at least their forward Corns, and in the Month of May all sorts of Corns were in.  
The turning of the River into Blood shows in what Month this happened not. That is, not when the River had overflown; for it is said, the Egyptians digged round about the River for Water to drink, which they could not have done, if the River had been out, and the Fields under Water.  
In the same Text you cannot, without some hesitation, pass over the translation of Rye, which the Original nameth Cassumeth, the Greek rendereth Olyra, the French and Dutch Spelta, the Latin Zea, and not Secale the known word for Rye. But this common Rye so well understood at present, was not distinctly described, or not well known from early Antiquity. And therefore, in this uncertainty, some have thought it to have been the Typhas of the Ancients. Cordus will have it to be Olyra, and Ruellius some kind of Oryza. But having no vulgar and well known name for those Grains, we warily embrace an appellation of near affinity, and tolerably render it Rye.  
While Flax, Barley, Wheat and Rye are named, some may wonder why no mention is made of Ryce, wherewith, at present, Egypt so much aboundeth. But whether that Plant grew so early in that Country, some doubt may be made: for Rice is originally a Grain of India, and might not then be transplanted into Egypt.  
36. Let them become as the Grass growing 
Sheaves of Grass, in Psal. 12. 6, 7.  upon the House top, which withereth before it be plucked up, whereof the mower filleth not his hand, nor he that bindeth Sheaves his bosom. Though the filling of the hand, and mention of Sheaves of Hay, may seem strange unto us, who use neither handfuls nor Sheaves in that kind of Husbandry, yet may it be properly taken, and you are not like to doubt thereof, who may find the like expressions in the Authors de Re rustica, concerning the old way of this Husbandry.  

* Columella lib. 2. cap. 22.  Columella, delivering what Works were not to be permitted upon the Roman Feriae, or Festivals, among others sets down, that upon such days, it was not lawful to carry or bind up Hay, nec foenum vincire nec vehere, per religiones Pontificum licet.  
Marcus 
† Varro lib. 1. cap. 49.  Varro is more particular; Primum de pratis herbarum cum crescere desiit, subsecari falcibus debet, & quoad peracescat furcillis versari, cum peracuit, de his manipulos fieri & vehi in villam.  
And their course of mowing seems somewhat different from ours. For they cut not down clear at once, but used an after section, which they peculiarly called Sicilitium, according as the word is expounded by Georgius Alexandrinus, and Beroaldus after Pliny; Sicilire est falcibus consectari quae foenisecae praeterierunt, aut ea secare quae foenisecae praeterierunt.  
37. When 'tis said that Elias lay and 
Juniper Tree, in 1 King. 19 5, etc.  slept under a Juniper Tree, some may wonder how that Tree, which in our parts groweth but low and shrubby, should afford him shade and covering. But others know that there is a lesser and a larger kind of that Vegetable; that it makes a Tree in its proper soil and region. And may find in Pliny that in the Temple of Diana Saguntina in Spain, the Rafters were made of Juniper.  
In that expression of 
* Psal. 120. 4.  David, Sharp Arrows of the mighty, with Coals of Juniper; Though Juniper be left out in the last Translation, yet may there be an Emphatical sense from that word; since Juniper abounds with a piercing Oil, and makes a smart Fire. And the rather, if that quality be half true, which Pliny affirmeth, that the Coals of Juniper raked up will keep a glowing Fire for the space of a year. For so the expression will Emphatically imply, not only the smart burning, but the lasting fire of their malice.  
That passage of 
* Job 30. 3, 4.  Job, wherein he complains that poor and half famished fellows despised him, is of greater difficulty; For want and famine they were solitary, they cut up Mallows by the Bushes, and Juniper roots for meat. Wherein we might at first doubt the Translation, not only from the Greek Text but the assertion of Dioscorides, who affirmeth that the roots of Juniper are of a venomous quality. But Scaliger hath disproved the same from the practice of the African Physicians, who use the decoction of Juniper roots against the Venereal Disease. The Chaldee reads it Genista, or some kind of Broom, which will be also unusual and hard Diet, except thereby we understand the Orobanche, or Broom Rape, which groweth from the roots of Broom; and which, according to Dioscorides, men used to eat raw or boiled in the manner of Asparagus.  
And, therefore, this expression doth highly declare the misery, poverty and extremity of the persons who were now mockers of him; they being so contemptible and necessitous, that they were fain to be content, not with a mean Diet, but such as was no Diet at all, the roots of Trees, the roots of Juniper, which none would make use of for Food, but in the lowest necessity, and some degree of samishing.  
38. While some have disputed whether 
Scarlet Tincture, in Gen. 38. 28. Exod. 25. 4, etc.  Theophrastus knew the Scarlet Berry, others may doubt whether that noble tincture were known unto the Hebrews, which notwithstanding seems clear from the early and iterated expressions of Scripture concerning the Scarlet Tincture, and is the less to be doubted because the Scarlet Berry grew plentifully in the Land of Canaan, and so they were furnished with the Materials of that Colour. For though Dioscorides saith it groweth in Armenia and Cappadocia, yet that it also grew in Judaea, seems more than probable from the account of Bellonius, who observed it to be so plentiful in that Country, that it afforded a profitable Commodity, and great quantity thereof was transported by the Venetian Merchants.  
How this should be fitly expressed by the word Tolagnoth, Vermis, or Worm, may be made out from Pliny, who calls it Coccus Scolecius, or the Wormy Berry; as also from the name of that Colour called Vermilion; or the Worm Colour; and which is also answerable unto the true nature of it. For this is no proper Berry containing the fructifying part, but a kind of Vessicular excrescence, adhering commonly to the Leaf of the Ilex Coccigera, or dwarf and small kind of Oak, whose Leaves are always green, and its proper seminal parts Acorns. This little Bag containeth a red Pulp, which, if not timely gathered, or left to itself, produceth small red Flies, and partly a red powder, both serviceable unto the tincture. And therefore, to prevent the generation of Flies, when it is first gathered, they sprinkle it over with Vinegar, especially such as make use of the fresh Pulp for the confection of Alkermes; which still retaineth the Arabic name, from the Kermes-berry; which is agreeable unto the description of Bellonius and Quinqueranus. And the same we have beheld in Provence and Languedock, where it is plentifully gathered, and called Manna Rusticorum, from the considerable profit which the Peasants make by gathering of it.  
39 Mention is made of Oaks in divers 
Oaks, in Gen. 35. 4, 8. Josh. 24. 26. Isa. 1. 29. Ezek. 27. 6. Hosea. 4. 13, etc.  parts of Scripture, which though the Latin sometimes renders a Turpentine Tree, yet surely some kind of Oak may be understood thereby; but whether our common Oak as is commonly apprehended, you may well doubt; for the common Oak, which prospereth so well with us, delighteth not in hot regions. And that diligent Botanist Bellonius, who took such particular notice of the Plants of Syria and Judaea, observed not the vulgar Oak in those parts. But he found the Ilex, Chesue Verde, or Ever-green Oak, in many places; as also that kind of Oak which is properly named Esculus: and he makes mention thereof in places about Jerusalem, and in his Journey from thence unto Damascus, where he found Montes Ilice, & Esculo virentes; which, in his Discourse of Lemnos, he saith are always green. And therefore when it is said 
* 2 Sam. 18. 9, 14.  of Absalon, that his Mule went under the thick Boughs of a great Oak, and his Head caught hold of the Oak, and he was taken up between the Heaven and the Earth, that Oak might be some Ilex, or rather Esculus. For that is a thick and bushy kind, in Orbem comosa, as Dale-champius; ramis in orbem dispositis comans, as Renealmus describeth it. And when it is said 
† 2 King. 18. 4.  that Ezechias broke down the Images, and cut down the Groves, they might much consist of Oaks, which were sacred unto Pagan Deities, as this more particularly, according to that of Virgil,  
— Nemorúmque Jovi quae maxima frondet Esculus,—  
And, in Judaea, where no Hogs were eaten by the Jews, and few kept by others, 'tis not unlikely that they most cherished the Esculus, which might serve for Food of men. For the Acorns thereof are the sweetest of any Oak, and taste like Chestnuts; and so, producing an edulious or esculent Fruit, is properly named Esculus.  
They which know the Ilex, or Ever-green Oak, with somewhat prickled Leaves, named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, will better understand the irreconcilable answer of the two Elders, when the one accused Susanna of incontinency under a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or Ever-green Oak, the other under a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Lentiscus, or Mastic Tree, which are so different in Bigness, Boughs, Leaves and Fruit, the one bearing Acorns, the other Berries: And, without the knowledge hereof, will not Emphatically or distinctly understand that of the Poet,  
Flauáque de viridi stillabant Ilice mella.  
40. When we often meet with the Cedars 
Cedars of Libanus.  of Libanus, that expression may be used not only because they grew in a known and neighbour Country, but also because they were of the noblest and largest kind of that Vegetable; And we find the Phoenician Cedar magnified by the Ancients. The Cedar of Libanus is a coniferous Tree, bearing Cones or Clogs; (not Berries) of such a vastness, that Melchior Lussy, a great Traveller, found one upon Libanus as big as seven men could compass. Some are now so curious as to keep the Branches and Cones thereof among their rare Collections. And, though much Cedar Wood be now brought from America, yet 'tis time to take notice of the true Cedar of Libanus, employed in the Temple of Solomon; for they have been much destroyed and neglected, and become at last but thin. Bellonius could reckon but twenty eight, Rowolfius and Radzevil but twenty four, and Bidulphus the same number. And a later account of 
* A Journey to Jerusalem, 1672.  some English Travellers saith, that they are now but in one place, and in a small compass, in Libanus.  
Quando ingressi fueritis terram, & Plantaveritis 
Uncircumci sed Fruit, in Levit. 19 23.  in illa ligna Pomifera, auferetis praeputia eorum. Poma quae germinant immunda erunt vobis, nec edetis ex eyes. Quarto autem anno, omnis fructus eorum sanctificabitur, laudabilis Domino. Quinto autem anno comedetis fructus. By this Law they were enjoined not to eat of the Fruits of the Trees which they planted for the first three years: and, as the Vulgar expresseth it, to take away the Prepuces, from such Trees, during that time; the Fruits of the fourth year being holy unto the Lord, and those of the fifth allowable unto others. Now if auferre praeputia be taken, as many learned men have thought, to pluck away the bearing Buds, before they proceed unto Flowers or Fruit, you will readily apprehend the Metaphor, from the analogy and similitude of those Sprouts and Buds, which, shutting up the fruitful particle, resembleth the preputial part.  
And you may also find herein a piece of Husbandry not mentioned in Theophrastus, or Columella. For by taking away of the Buds, and hindering fructification, the Trees become more vigorous, both in growth and future production. By such a way King Pyrrhus got into a lusty race of Beefs, and such as were desired over all Greece, by keeping them from Generation until the ninth year.  
And you may also discover a physical advantage of the goodness of the Fruit, which becometh less crude and more wholesome, upon the fourth or fifth years production.  
41. While you read in Theophrastus, 
Partition of Plants into Herb and Tree, in Gen. 1. 11.  or modern Herbalists, a strict division of Plants, into Arbour, Frutex, Suffrutex & Herba, you cannot but take notice of the Scriptural division at the Creation, into Tree and Herb: and this may seem too narrow to comprehend the Classis of Vegetables; which, notwithstanding, may be sufficient, and a plain and intelligible division thereof. And therefore in this difficulty concerning the division of Plants, the learned Botanist, Caesalpinus, thus concludeth, Clarius agemus si alterâ divisione neglectâ, duo tantùm Plantarum genera substituamus, Arborem scilicet, & Herbam, conjungentes cum Arboribus Frutices, & cum Herba Suffrutices; Frutices being the lesser Trees, and Suffrutices the larger, harder and more solid Herbs.  
And this division into Herb and Tree, may also suffice, if we take in that natural ground of the division of perfect Plants, and such as grow from Seeds. For Plants, in their first production, do send forth two Leaves adjoining to the Seed; and then afterwards, do either produce two other Leaves, and so successively before any Stalk; and such go under the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or Herb; or else, after the first Leaves succeeding to the Seed Leaves, they send forth a Stalk, or rudiment of a Stalk before any other Leaves, and such fall under the Classis of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or Tree. So that, in this natural division, there are but two grand differences, that is, Tree and Herb. The Frutex and Suffrutex have the way of production from the Seed, and in other respects the Suffrutices, or Cremia, have a middle and participating nature, and referable unto Herbs.  
42. I have seen the ungodly in great 
The Bay Tree, in Psal. 37. 35.  power, and flourishing like a green Bay Tree. Both Scripture and humane Writers draw frequent illustrations from Plants. Scribonius Largus illustrates the old Cymbals from the Cotyledon Palustris, or Umbelicus Veneris. Who would expect to find Aaron's Mitre in any Plant? yet Josephus hath taken some pains to make out the same in the seminal knop of Hyoscyamus, or Henbane. The Scripture compares the Figure of Manna unto the Seed of Coriander. In 
* Jer. 10. 5.  Jeremy we find the expression, Straight as a Palm Tree: And here the wicked in their flourishing state are likened unto a Bay Tree. Which, sufficiently answering the sense of the Text, we are unwilling to exclude that noble Plant from the honour of having its name in Scripture. Yet we cannot but observe, that the Septuagint renders it Cedars, and the Vulgar accordingly, Vidi impium superexaltatum, & elevatum sicut Cedros Libani; and the Translation of Tremelius mentions neither Bay nor Cedar; Seize explicantem tanquam Arbor indigena virens; which seems to have been followed by the last Low Dutch Translation. A private Translation renders it like a green selfgrowing 
* Ainsworth.  Laurel. The High Dutch of Luther's Bible, retains the word Laurel; and so doth the old Saxon and Island Translation; so also the French, Spanish; and Italian of Diodati: yet his Notes acknowledge that some think it rather a Cedar, and others any large Tree in a prospering and natural Soil.  
But however these Translations differ, the sense is allowable and obvious unto apprehension: when no particular Plant is named, any proper to the sense may be supposed; where either Cedar or Laurel is mentioned, if the preceding words [exalted and elevated] be used, they are more appliable unto the Cedar; where the word [flourishing] is used, it is more agreeable unto the Laurel, which, in its prosperity, abounds with pleasant Flowers, whereas those of the Cedar are very little, and scarce perceptible, answerable to the Fir, Pine and other coniferous Trees.  
43. And in the morning, when they were 
The Fig Tree, in S. Mark. 11. 13, etc.  come from Bethany, he was hungry; and seeing a Fig Tree afar off having Leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon; and when he came to it, he found nothing but Leaves: for the time of Figgs was not yet. Singular conceptions have passed from learned men to make out this passage of S. Mark, which 
* Matt. 21. 19  S. Matthew so plainly delivereth; most men doubting why our Saviour should curse the Tree for bearing no Fruit, when the time of Fruit was not yet come; or why it is said that the time of Figgs was not yet, when, notwithstanding, Figgs might be found at that season.  

† Heinsius in Nonnum.  Heinsius, who thinks that Elias must salve the doubt, according to the received Reading of the Text, undertaketh to vary the same, reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is, for where he was, it was the season or time for Figgs.  
A learned 
‖ D. Hammond.  Interpreter of our own, without alteration of accents or words, endeavours to salve all, by another interpretation of the same, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, For it was not a good or seasonable year for Figgs.  
But, because men part not easily with old beliefs, or the received construction of words, we shall briefly set down what may be alleged for it.  
And, first, for the better comprehension of all deductions hereupon, we may consider the several differences and distinctions both of Figg Trees and their Fruits. Suidas upon the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 makes four divisions of Figgs, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. But because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 makes no considerable distinction, learned men do chiefly insist upon the three others; that is, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or Grossus, which are the Buttons, or small sort of Figgs, either not ripe, or not ordinarily proceeding to ripeness, but fall away at least in the greatest part, and especially in sharp Winters; which are also named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and distinguished from the Fruit of the wild Fig, or Caprificus, which is named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and never cometh unto ripeness. The second is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or Ficus, which commonly proceedeth unto ripeness in its due season. A third the ripe Fig dried, which maketh the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or Carrier.  
Of Figg Trees there are also many divisions; For some be prodromi, or precocious, which bear Fruit very early, whether they bear once, or oftener in the year; some are protericae, which are the most early of the precocious Trees, and bear soon of any; some are aestivae, which bear in the common season of the Summer, and some serotinae which bear very late.  
Some are biferous and triferous, which bear twice or thrice in the year, and some are of the ordinary standing course, which make up the expected season of Figgs.  
Again some Figg Trees, either in their proper kind, or fertility in some single ones, do bear Fruit or rudiments of Fruit all the year long; as is annually observable in some kind of Figg Trees in hot and proper regions; and may also be observed in some Fig Trees of more temperate Countries, in years of no great disadvantage, wherein, when the Summer-ripe Fig is past, others begin to appear, and so, standing in Buttons all the Winter, do either fall away before the Spring, or else proceed to ripeness.  
Now, according to these distinctions, we may measure the intent of the Text, and endeavour to make out the expression. For, considering the diversity of these Trees, and their several fructifications, probable or possible it is, that some thereof were implied, and may literally afford a solution.  
And first, though it was not the season for Figgs, yet some Fruit might have been expected, even in ordinary bearing Trees. For the Grossi or Buttons appear before the Leaves, especially before the Leaves are well grown. Some might have stood during the Winter, and by this time been of some growth: Though many fall off, yet some might remain on, and proceed towards maturity. And we find that good Husbands had an art to make them hold on, as is delivered by Theophrastus.  
The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or common Summer Figg was not expected; for that is placed by Galen among the Fructus Horarii, or Horaei, which ripen in that part of Summer, called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and stands commended by him above other Fruits of that season. And of this kind might be the Figgs which were brought unto Cleopatra in a Basket together with an Asp, according to the time of her death on the nineteenth of August. And that our Saviour expected not such Figgs, but some other kind, seems to be implied in the indefinite expression, if haply he might find any thing thereon; which in that Country, and the variety of such Trees, might not be despaired of, at this season, and very probably hoped for in the first precocious and early bearing Trees. And that there were precocious and early bearing Trees in Judaea, may be illustrated from some expressions in Scripture concerning precocious Figgs; 
* Jer. 24. 2.  Calathus unus habebat Ficus bonas nimis, sicut solent esse Ficus primi temporis; One Basket had very good Figgs, even like the Figgs that are first ripe. And the like might be more especially expected in this place, if this remarkable Tree be rightly placed in some Maps of Jerusalem; for it is placed, by Adrichomius, in or near Bethphage, which some conjectures will have to be the House of Figgs: and at this place Figg Trees are still to be found, if we consult the Travels of Bidulphus.  
Again, in this great variety of Figg Trees, as precocious, proterical, biferous, triferous, and always bearing Trees, something might have been expected, though the time of common Figgs was not yet. For some Trees bear in a manner all the year; as may be illustrated from the Epistle of the Emperor Julian, concerning his Present of Damascus Figgs, which he commendeth from their successive and continued growing and bearing, after the manner of the Fruits which Homer describeth in the Garden of Alcinous. And though it were then but about the eleventh of March, yet, in the Latitude of Jerusalem, the Sun at that time hath a good power in the day, and might advance the maturity of precocious often-bearing or everbearing Figgs. And therefore when it is said 
* S. Mark 14. 67. S. Luke 22. 55, 56.  that S. Peter stood and warmed himself by the Fire in the Judgement Hall, and the reason is added [
† S. John 18. 18.  for it was cold] that expression might be interposed either to denote the coolness in the Morning, according to hot Countries, or some extraordinary and unusual coldness, which happened at that time. For the same Bidulphus, who was at that time of the year at Jerusalem, saith, that it was then as hot as at Midsummer in England: and we find in Scripture, that the first Sheaf of Barley was offered in March.  
Our Saviour therefore, seeing a Fig Tree with Leaves well spread, and so as to be distinguished a far off, went unto it, and when he came, found nothing but Leaves; he found it to be no precocious, or always-bearing Tree: And though it were not the time for Summer Figgs, yet he found no rudiments thereof; and though he expected not common Figgs, yet something might happily have been expected of some other kind, according to different fertility, and variety of production; but, discovering nothing, he found a Tree answering the State of the Jewish Rulers, barren unto all expectation.  
And this is consonant unto the mystery of the Story, wherein the Fig Tree denoteth the Synagogue and Rulers of the Jews, whom God having peculiarly cultivated, singularly blessed and cherished, he expected from them no ordinary, slow, or customary fructification, but an earliness in good Works, a precocious or continued fructification, and was not content with common after-bearing; and might justly have expostulated with the Jews, as God by the Prophet 
* Micah 7. 1.  Micah did with their Forefathers; Praecoquas Ficus desideravit Anima mea, My Soul longed for, (or desired) early ripe Fruits, but ye are become as a Vine already gathered, and there is no cluster upon you.  
Lastly, In this account of the Fig Tree, the mystery and symbolical sense is chiefly to be looked upon. Our Saviour, therefore, taking a hint from his hunger to go unto this specious Tree, and intending, by this Tree, to declare a Judgement upon the Synagogue and people of the Jews, he came unto the Tree, and, after the usual manner, inquired, and looked about for some kind of Fruit, as he had done before in the Jews, but found nothing but Leaves and specious outsides, as he had also found in them; and when it bore no Fruit like them, when he expected it, and came to look for it, though it were not the time of ordinary Fruit, yet failing when he required it, in the mysterious sense, 'twas fruitless longer to expect it. For he had come unto them, and they were nothing fructified by it, his departure approached, and his time of preaching was now at an end.  
Now, in this account, besides the Miracle, some things are naturally considerable. For it may be questioned how the Fig Tree, naturally a fruitful Plant, became barren, for it had no show or so much as rudiment of Fruit: And it was, in old time, a signal Judgement of God, that the Fig Tree should bear no Fruit: and therefore this Tree may naturally be conceived to have been under some Disease indisposing it to such fructification. And this, in the Pathology of Plants, may be the Disease of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or superfoliation mentioned by Theophrastus; whereby the fructifying Juice is starved by the excess of Leaves; which in this Tree were already so full spread, that it might be known and distinguished a far off. And this was, also, a sharp resemblance of the hypocrisy of the Rulers, made up of specious outsides, and fruitless ostentation, contrary to the Fruit of the Fig Tree, which, filled with a sweet and pleasant pulp, makes no show without, not so much as of any Flower.  
Some naturals are also considerable from the propriety of this punishment settled upon a Fig Tree: For infertility and barrenness seems more intolerable in this Tree than any, as being a Vegetable singularly constituted for production; so far from bearing no Fruit that it may be made to bear almost any. And therefore the Ancients singled out this as the fittest Tree whereon to graft and propagate other Fruits, as containing a plentiful and lively Sap, whereby other Cyons would prosper: And, therefore, this Tree was also sacred unto the Deity of Fertility: and the Statue of Priapus was made of the Fig Tree.  
Olim Truncus eram Ficulnus inutile lignum. 
M.   
It hath also a peculiar advantage to produce and maintain its Fruit above all other Plants, as not subject to miscarry in Flowers and Blossoms, from accidents of Wind and Wether. For it beareth no Flowers outwardly, and such as it hath, are within the Coat, as the later examination of Naturalists hath discovered.  
Lastly, It was a Tree wholly constituted for Fruit, wherein if it faileth, it is in a manner useless, the Wood thereof being of so little use, that it affordeth proverbial expressions,  
Homo Ficulneus, argumentum Ficulneum.  
for things of no validity.  
44. I said I will go up into the Palm 
The Palm Tree, in Cant. 7. 8.  Tree, and take hold of the Boughs thereof. This expression is more agreeable unto the Palm than is commonly apprehended, for that it is a tall bare Tree bearing its Boughs but at the top and upper part; so that it must be ascended before its Boughs or Fruit can be attained: And the going, getting or climbing up, may be Emphatical in this Tree; for the Trunk or Body thereof is naturally contrived for ascension, and made with advantage for getting up, as having many welts and eminencies, and so as it were a natural Ladder, and Staves, by which it may be climbed, as 
* Plin. 13. cap. 4.  Pliny observeth, Palmae teretes atque proceres, densis quadratisque pollicibus faciles se ad scandendum praebent, by this way men are able to get up into it. And the Figures of Indians thus climbing the same are graphically described in the Travels of Linschoten. This Tree is often mentioned in Scripture, and was so remarkable in Judaea, that in aftertimes it became the Emblem of that Country, as may be seen in that Medal of the Emperor Titus, with a Captive Woman sitting under a Palm, and the Inscription of Judaea Capta. And Pliny confirmeth the same when he saith, Judaea Palmis inclyta.  
45. Many things are mentioned in Scripture, 
Lilies, in Cant. 2. 1, 2, 16.  which have an Emphasis from this or the neighbour Countries: For besides the Cedars, the Syrian Lilies are taken notice of by Writers. That expression in the Canticles, 
* Cant. 4. 1.  Thou art fair, thou art fair, thou hast Doves eyes, receives a particular character, if we look not upon our common Pigeons, but the beauteous and fine eyed Doves of Syria.  
When the Rump is so strictly taken notice of in the Sacrifice of the Peace Offering, in these words, 
† Levit. 3. 9  The whole Rump, it shall be taken off hard by the Backbone, it becomes the more considerable in reference to this Country, where Sheep had so large Tails; which, according to 
11 Aristot. Hist. Animal. lib. 8.  Aristotle, were a Cubit broad; and so they are still, as Bellonius hath delivered.  
When 'tis said in the Canticles, 
† Cant. 4. 2.  Thy Teeth are as a Flock of Sheep, which go up from the washing, whereof every one beareth Twins, and there is not one barren among them; it may seem hard unto us of these parts to find whole Flocks bearing Twins, and not one barren among them; yet may this be better conceived in the fertile Flocks of those Countries, where Sheep have so often two, sometimes three, and sometimes four, and which is so frequently observed by Writers of the neighbour Country of Egypt. And this secundity, and fruitsulness of their Flocks, is answerable unto the expression of the Psalmist, 
* Psal. 144. 13.  That our Sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our Streets. And hereby, besides what was spent at their Tables, a good supply was made for the great consumption of Sheep in their several kinds of Sacrifices; and of so many thousand Male unblemished yearling Lambs, which were required at their Passovers.  
Nor need we wonder to find so frequent mention both of Garden and Field Plants; since Syria was notable of old for this curiosity and variety, according to Pliny, Syria hortis operosissima; and since Bellonius hath so lately observed of Jerusalem, that its hilly parts did so abound with Plants, that they might be compared unto Mount Ida in Crete or Candia; which is the most noted place for noble Simples yet known.  
46. Though so many Plants have their 
Trees and Herbs not expressly named in Scripture.  express Names in Scripture, yet others are implied in some Texts which are not explicitly mentioned. In the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths, the Law was this, 
* Levit. 23. 40.  Thou shalt take unto thee Boughs of goodly Trees, Branches of the Palm, and the Boughs of thick Trees, and Willows of the Brook. Now though the Text descendeth not unto particulars of the goodly Trees, and thick Trees; yet Maimonides will tell us that for a goodly Tree they made use of the Citron Tree, which is fair and goodly to the eye, and well prospering in that Country: And that for the thick Trees they used the Myrtle, which was no rare or infrequent Plant among them. And though it groweth but low in our Gardens, was not a little Tree in those parts; in which Plant also the Leaves grew thick, and almost covered the Stalk. And Curtius 
* Curtius' de Hortis.  Symphorianus in his description of the Exotic Myrtle, makes it, Folio densissimo senis in ordinem versibus. The Paschal Lamb was to be eaten with bitterness or bitter Herbs, not particularly set down in Scripture: but the Jewish Writers declare, that they made use of Succory, and wild Lettuce, which Herbs while some conceive they could not get down, as being very bitter, rough and prickly, they may consider that the time of the Passeover was in the Spring, when these Herbs are young and tender, and consequently less unpleasant: besides, according to the Jewish custom, these Herbs were dipped in the Charoseth or Sauce made of Raisins stamped with Vinegar, and were also eaten with Bread; and they had four Cups of Wine allowed unto them; and it was sufficient to take but a pittance of Herbs, or the quantity of an Olive.  
47. Though the famous paper Reed of 
Reeds in Scripture.  Egypt, be only particularly named in Scripture; yet when Reeds are so often mentioned, without special name or distinction, we may conceive their differences may be comprehended, and that they were not all of one kind, or that the common Reed was only implied. For mention is made in 
* Ezek 40. 5.  Ezekiel of a measuring Reed of six Cubits: we find that they smote our Saviour on the Head with a 
† S. Matt. 27. 30, 48.  Reed, and put a Sponge with Vinegar on a Reed, which was long enough to reach to his mouth, while he was upon the Cross; And with such differences of Reeds, Vallatory, Sagittary, Scriptory, and others, they might be furnished in Judaea: For we find in the portion of 
‖ Josh. 16. 17.  Ephraim, Vallis arundineti; and so set down in the Maps of Adricomius, and in our Translation the River Kana, or Brook of Canes. And Bellonius tells us that the River Jordan affordeth plenty and variety of Reeds; out of some whereof the Arabs make Darts, and light Lances, and out of others, Arrows; and withal that there plentifully groweth the fine Calamus, arundo Scriptoria, or writing Reed, which they gather with the greatest care, as being of singular use and commodity at home and abroad; a hard Reed about the compass of a Goose or Swans Quill, whereof I have seen some polished and cut with a Webb; which is in common use for writing throughout the Turkish Dominions, they using not the Quills of Birds.  
And whereas the same Author with other describers of these parts affirmeth, that the River Jordan, not far from Jericho, is but such a Stream as a youth may throw a Stone over it, or about eight fathoms broad, it doth not diminish the account and solemnity of the miraculous passage of the Israelites under Joshua; For it must be considered, that they passed it in the time of Harvest, when the River was high, and the Grounds about it under Water, according to that pertinent parenthesis, As the Feet of the Priests, which carried the Ark, were dipped in the brim of the Water, (for 
* Josh. 3. 19  Jordan oversloweth all its Banks at the time of Harvest.) In this consideration it was well joined with the great River Euphrates, in that expression in 
† Ecclus. 24. 26.  Ecclesiasticus, God maketh the understanding to abound like Euphrates, and as Jordan in the time of Harvest.  
48. The Kingdom of Heaven is likened 
Zizania, in S. Matt. 13. 24, 25, etc.  unto a man which sowed good Seed in his Field, but while men slept, his Enemy came and sowed Tares (or, as the Greek, Zizania) among the Wheat.  
Now, how to render Zizania, and to what species of Plants to confine it, there is no slender doubt; for the word is not mentioned in other parts of Scripture, nor in any ancient Greek Writer: it is not to be found in Aristotle, Theophrastus, or Dioscorides. Some Greek and Latin Fathers have made use of the same, as also Suidas and Phavorinus; but probably they have all derived it from this Text.  
And therefore this obscurity might easily occasion such variety in Translations and Expositions. For some retain the word Zizania, as the Vulgar, that of Beza, of Junius, and also the Italian and Spanish. The Low Dutch renders it Oncruidt, the Germane Oncraut, or Herba Mala, the French Yuroye or Lolium, and the English Tares.  
Besides, this being conceived to be a Syriack word, it may still add unto the uncertainty of the sense. For though this Gospel were first written in Hebrew, or Syriack, yet it is not unquestionable whether the true Original be any where extant: And that Syriack Copy which we now have, is conceived to be of far later time than S. Matthew.  
Expositors and Annotatours are also various. Hugo Grotius hath passed the word Zizania without a Note. Diodati, retaining the word Zizania, conceives that it was some peculiar Herb growing among the Corn of those Countries, and not known in our Fields. But Emanuel de Sa interprets it, Plantas semini noxias, and so accordingly some others.  
Buxtorfius, in his Rabbinical Lexicon, gives divers interpretations, sometimes for degenerated Corn, sometimes for the black Seeds in Wheat, but withal concludes, an hoec sit eadem vox aut species, cum Zizaniâ apud Evangelistam, quoerant alii. But Lexicons and Dictionaries by Zizania do almost generally understand Lolium, which we call Darnel, and commonly confine the signification to that Plant: Notwithstanding, since Lolium had a known and received Name in Greek, some may be apt to doubt, why, if that Plant were particularly intended, the proper Greek word was not used in the Text. For 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. theophra. Hist. Plant. l. 8.  Theophrastus named Lolium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and hath often mentioned that Plant; and in one place saith that Corn doth sometimes Loliescere or degenerate into Darnel. Dioscorides, who traveled over Judoea, gives it the same name, which is also to be found in Galen, Aetius and Aegineta; and Pliny hath sometimes latinized that word into Aera.  
Besides, Lolium or Darnel shows itself in the Winter, growing up with the Wheat; and Theophrastus observed that it was no Vernal Plant, but came up in the Winter; which will not well answer the expression of the Text, And when the Blade came up, and brought forth Fruit, or gave evidence of its Fruit, the Zizania appeared. And if the Husbandry of the Ancients were agreeable unto ours, they would not have been so earnest to weed away the Darnel; for our Husbandmen do not commonly weed it in the Field, but separate the Seeds after Thrashing. And therefore Galen delivereth, that in an unseasonable year, and great scarcity of Corn, when they neglected to separate the Darnel, the Bread proved generally unwholesome, and had evil effects on the Head.  
Our old and later Translation render Zizania, Tares, which name our English Botanists give unto Aracus, Cracca, Vicia sylvestris, calling them Tares, and strangling Tares. And our Husbandmen by Tares understand some sorts of wild Fitches, which grow amongst Corn, and clasp upon it, according to the Latin Etymology, Vicia à Vinciendo. Now in this uncertainty of the Original, Tares as well as some others, may make out the sense, and be also more agreeable unto the circumstances of the Parable. For they come up and appear what they are, when the Blade of the Corn is come up, and also the Stalk and Fruit discoverable. They have likewise little spreading Roots, which may entangle or rob the good Roots, and they have also tendrils and claspers, which lay hold of what grows near them, and so can hardly be weeded without endangering the neighbour Corn.  
However, if by Zizania we understand Herbas segeti noxias, or vitia segetum, as some Expositors have done, and take the word in a more general sense, comprehending several Weeds and Vegetables offensive unto Corn, according as the Greek word in the plural Number may imply, and as the learned 
* De Horti cultura.  Laurenbergius hath expressed, Runcare quod apud nostrates Weden dicitur, Zizanias inutiles est evellere. If, I say, it be thus taken, we shall not need to be definitive, or confine unto one particular Plant, from a word which may comprehend divers: And this may also prove a safer sense, in such obscurity of the Original.  
And therefore since in this Parable the sour of the Zizania is the Devil, and the Zizania wicked persons; if any from this larger acception, will take in Thistles, Darnel, Cockle, wild strangling Fitches, Bindweed, Tribulus, Restharrow and other Vitia Segetum; he may, both from the natural and symbolical qualities of those Vegetables, have plenty of matter to illustrate the variety of his mischiefs, and of the wicked of this world.  
49. When 'tis said in Job, Let Thistles 
Cockle, in Job 31. 40.  grow up instead of Wheat, and Cockle instead of Barley, the words are intelligible, the sense allowable and significant to this purpose: but whether the word Cockle doth strictly conform unto the Original, some doubt may be made from the different Translations of it; For the Vulgar renders it Spina, Tremelius Vitia Frugum, and the Geneva Turoye or Darnel. Besides, whether Cockle were common in the ancient Agriculture of those parts, or what word they used for it, is of great uncertainty. For the Elder Botanical Writers have made no mention thereof, and the Moderns have given it the Name of Pseudomelanthium, Nigellastrum, Lychnoeides Segetum, names not known unto Antiquity: And therefore our Translation hath warily set down [noisome Weeds] in the Margin.   

TRACT II. OF GARLANDS, AND Coronary or Garland-plants.  
SIR,  
THE use of flowery Crowns and Garlands is of no slender Antiquity, and higher than I conceive you apprehend it. For, besides the old Greeks and Romans, the Egyptians made use hereof; who, beside the bravery of their Garlands, had little Birds upon them to peck their Heads and Brows, and so to keep them sleeping at their Festival compotations. This practice also extended as far as India: for at the Feast with the Indian King, it is peculiarly observed by Philostratus that their custom was to wear Garlands, and come crowned with them unto their Feast.  
The Crowns and Garlands of the Ancients were either Gestatory, such as they wore about their Heads or Necks; Portatory, such as they carried at solemn Festivals; Pensile or Suspensory, such as they hanged about the Posts of their Houses in honour of their Gods, as of Jupiter Thyroeus or Limeneus; or else they were Depository, such as they laid upon the Graves and Monuments of the dead. And these were made up after all ways of Art, Compactile, Sutile, Plectile; for which Work there were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or expert Persons to contrive them after the best grace and property.  
Though we yield not unto them in the beauty of flowery Garlands, yet some of those of Antiquity were larger than any we lately meet with: for we find in Athenoeus that a Myrtle Crown of one and twenty foot in compass was solemnly carried about at the Hellotian Feast in Corinth, together with the Bones of Europa.  
And Garlands were surely of frequent use among them; for we read in 
* De Theriaca ad Pisonem.  Galen that when Hypocrates cured the great Plague of Athens by Fires kindled in and about the City; the fuel thereof consisted much of their Garlands. And they must needs be very frequent and of common use, the ends thereof being many. For they were convivial, festival, sacrificial, nuptial, honorary, funebrial. We who propose unto ourselves the pleasure of two Senses, and only single out such as are of Beauty and good Odour, cannot strictly confine ourselves unto imitation of them.  
For, in their convivial Garlands, they had respect unto Plants preventing drunkenness, or discussing the exhalations from Wine; wherein, beside Roses, taking in Ivy, Vervain, Melilote, etc. they made use of divers of small Beauty or good Odour. The solemn festival Garlands were made properly unto their Gods, and accordingly contrived from Plants sacred unto such Deities; and their sacrificial ones were selected under such considerations. Their honorary Crowns triumphal, ovary, civical, obsidional, had little of Flowers in them: and their funebrial Garlands had little of beauty in them beside Roses, while they made them of Myrtle, Rosemary, Apium, etc. under symbolical intimations: but our florid and purely ornamental Garlands, delightful unto sight and smell, nor framed according to mystical and symbolical considerations, are of more free election, and so may be made to excel those of the Ancients; we having China, India, and a new world to supply us, beside the great distinction of Flowers unknown unto Antiquity, and the varieties thereof arising from Art and Nature.  
But, beside Vernal, Aestival and Autumnal made of Flowers, the Ancients had also Hyemal Garlands; contenting themselves at first with such as were made of Horn died into several Colours, and shaped into the Figures of Flowers, and also of Aes Coronarium or Clincquant or Brass thinly wrought out into Leaves commonly known among us. But the curiosity of some Emperors for such intents had Roses brought from Egypt until they had found the art to produce late Roses in Rome, and to make them grow in the Winter, as is delivered in that handsome Epigram of Martial,  
At tu Romanae jussus jam cedere Brumae  
Mitte tuas messes, Accipe, Nile, Rosas.  
Some American Nations, who do much excel in Garlands, content not themselves only with Flowers, but make elegant Crowns of Feathers, whereof they have some of greater radiancy and lustre than their Flowers: and since there is an Art to set into shapes, and curiously to work in choicest Feathers, there could nothing answer the Crowns made of the choicest Feathers of some Tomineios and Sun Birds.  
The Catalogue of Coronary Plants is not large in Theophrastus, Pliny, Pollux, or Athenaeus: but we may find a good enlargement in the accounts of Modern Botanists; and additions may still be made by successive acquists of fair and specious Plants, not yet translated from foreign Regions or little known unto our Gardens; he that would be complete may take notice of these following,  

Flos Tigridis.  
Flos Lyncis.  
Pinea Indica Recchi, Talama Ouiedi.  
Herba Paradisea.  
Volubilis Mexicanus.  
Narcissus Indicus Serpentarius.  
Helichrysum Mexicanum.  
Xicama.  
Aquilegia novae Hispaniae Cacoxochitli Recchi.  
Aristochaea Mexicana.  
Camaratinga sive Caragunta quarta Pisonis.  
Maracuia Granadilla.  
Cambay sive Myrtus Americana.  
Flos Auriculoe Flor de la Oreia.  
Floripendio novae Hispaniae.  
Rosa Indica.  
Zilium Indicum.  
Fula Magori Garciae.  
Champe Garciae Champacca Bontii.  
Daullontas frutex odoratus seu Chamaemelum arborescens Bontii.  
Beidelsar Alpini.  
Sambuc.  
Amberboi Turcarum.  
Nuphar Aegyptium.  
Lilionarcissus Indicus.  
Bamma Aegyptiacum.  
Hiucca Canadensis horti Farnesiani.  
Bupthalmum novae Hispaniae Alepocapath.  
Valeriana seu Chrysanthemum Americanum Acocotlis.  
Flos Corvinus Coronarius Americanus.  
Capolin Cerasus dulcis Indicus Floribus racemosis.  
Asphodelus Americanus.  
Syringa Lutea Americana.  
Bulbus unifolius.  
Moly latifolium Flore luteo.  
Conyza Americana purpurea.  
Salvia Cretica pomifera Bellonii.  
Lausus Serrata Odora.  
Ornithogalus Promontorii Bonae Spei.  
Fritallaria crassa Soldanica Promontorii Bonae Spei.  
Sigillum Solomonis Indicum.  
Tulipa Promontorii Bonae Spei.  
Iris Uvaria.  
Nopolxoch sedum elegans novae Hispaniae.   
More might be added unto this List; and I have only taken the pains to give you a short Specimen of those many more which you may find in respective Authors, and which time and future industry may make no great strangers in England. The Inhabitants of Nova Hispania, and a great part of America, Mahometans, Indians, Chineses, are eminent promoters of these coronary and specious Plants: and the annual Tribute of the King of Bisnaguer in India, arising out of Odours and Flowers, amounts unto many thousands of Crowns.  
Thus, in brief, of this matter. I am, etc.   

TRACT III. OF THE FISHES Eaten by OUR SAVIOUR WITH HIS DISCIPLES After His Resurrection from the Dead.  
SIR,  
I Have thought, a little, upon the Question proposed by you [viz. What kind of Fishes those were of which our Saviour ate with his Disciples after his 
* S. Joh. 21. 9, 10, 11, 13.  Resurrection?] and I return you such an Answer, as, in so short a time for study, and in the midst of my occasions, occurs to me.  
The Books of Scripture (as also those which are Apocryphal) are often silent, or very sparing, in the particular Names of Fishes; or in setting them down in such manner as to leave the kinds of them without all doubt and reason for farther inquiry. For, when it declareth what Fishes were allowed the Israelites for their Food, they are only set down in general which have Finns and Scales; whereas, in the account of Quadrupeds and Birds, there is particular mention made of divers of them. In the Book of Tobit that Fish which he took out of the River is only named a great Fish, and so there remains much uncertainty to determine the Species thereof. And even the Fish which swallowed Jonah, and is called a great Fish, and commonly thought to be a great Whale, is not received without all doubt; while some learned men conceive it to have been none of our Whales, but a large kind of Lamia.  
And, in this narration of S. John, the Fishes are only expressed by their Bigness and Number, not their Names, and therefore it may seem undeterminable what they were: notwithstanding, these Fishes being taken in the great Lake or Sea of Tiberias, something may be probably stated therein. For since Bellonius, that diligent and learned Traveller, informeth us, that the Fishes of this Lake were Trout, Pikes, Chevins and Tenches; it may well be conceived that either all or some thereof are to be understood in this Scripture. And these kind of Fishes become large and of great growth, answerable unto the expression of Scripture, One hundred and three great Fishes; that is, large in their own kinds, and the largest kinds in this Lake and fresh Water, wherein no great variety, and of the larger sort of Fishes, could be expected. For the River Jordan, running through this Lake, falls into the Lake of Asphaltus, and hath no mouth into the Sea, which might admit of great Fishes or greater variety to come up into it.  
And out of the mouth of some of these forementioned Fishes might the Tribute money be taken, when our Saviour, at Capernaum, seated upon the same Lake, said unto Peter, Go thou to the Sea, and cast an Hook, and take up the Fish that first cometh; and when thou hast opened his mouth thou shalt find a piece of money; that take and give them for thee and me.  
And this makes void that common conceit and tradition of the Fish called Fabermarinus, by some, a Peter or Penny Fish; which having two remarkable round spots upon either side, these are conceived to be the marks of S. Peter's Fingers or signatures of the Money: for though it hath these marks, yet is there no probability that such a kind of Fish was to be found in the Lake of Tiberias, Geneserah or Galilee, which is but sixteen miles long and six broad, and hath no communication with the Sea; for this is a mere Fish of the Sea and salt Water, and (though we meet with some thereof on our Coast) is not to be found in many Seas.  
Thus having returned no improbable Answer unto your Question, I shall crave leave to ask another of yourself concerning that Fish mentioned by 
* De Bello Gothico, lib. 1.  Procopius, which brought the famous King Theodorick to his end: his words are to this effect: The manner of his Death was this, Symmachus and his Son-in-law Boëthius, just men and great relievers of the poor, Senators and Consuls, had many enemies, by whose false accusations Theodorick being persuaded that they plotted against him, put them to death and confiscated their Estates. Not long after his Waiters set before him at Supper a great Head of a Fish, which seemed to him to be the Head of Symmachus lately murdered; and with his Teeth sticking out, and fierce glaring eyes to threaten him: being frighted, he grew i'll, went to Bed, lamenting what he had done to Symmachus and Boëthius; and soon after died. What Fish do you apprehend this to have been? I would learn of you; give me your thoughts about it.  
I am, etc.   

TRACT IU. AN ANSWER To certain QUERIES Relating to Fishes, Birds, Infects.  
SIR,  
I Return the following Answers to your Queries which were these,  

[1. What Fishes are meant by the Names, Halec and Mugil?  
2. What is the Bird which you will receive from the Bearer? and what Birds are meant by the Names Halcyon, Nysus, Ciris, Nycticorax?  
3. What Insect is meant by the word Cicada?]   
The word Halec we are taught to render 
Answer to Query 1.  an Herring, which, being an ancient word, is not strictly appropriable unto a Fish not known or not described by the Ancients; and which the modern Naturalists are fain to name Harengus; the word Halecula being applied unto such little Fish out of which they were fain to make Pickle; and Halec or Alec, taken for the Liquamen or Liquor itself, according to that of the Poet,  
— Ego faecem primus & Alec  
Primus & inveni piper album—  
And was a conditure and Sauce much affected by Antiquity, as was also Muria and Garum.  
In common constructions, Mugil is rendered a Mullet, which, notwithstanding, is a different Fish from the Mugil described by Authors; wherein, if we mistake, we cannot so closely apprehend the expression of Juvenal,  
— Quosdam ventres & Mugilis intrat.  
And misconceive the Fish, whereby Fornicatours were so opprobriously and irksomely punished; for the Mugil being somewhat rough and hard skinned, did more exasperate the guts of such offenders: whereas the Mullet was a smooth Fish, and of too high esteem to be employed in such offices.  
I cannot but wonder that this Bird you 
Answer to Query 2.  sent should be a stranger unto you, and unto those who had a sight thereof: for, though it be not seen every day, yet we often meet with it in this Country. It is an elegant Bird, which he that once beholdeth can hardly mistake any other for it. From the proper Note it is called an Hoopebird with us; in Greek Epops, in Latin Upupa. We are little obliged unto our School instruction, wherein we are taught to render Upupa a Lapwing, which Bird our natural Writers name Vannellus; for thereby we mistake this remarkable Bird, and apprehend not rightly what is delivered of it.  
We apprehend not the Hieroglyphical considerations which the old Egyptians made of this observable Bird; who considering dering therein the order and variety of Colours, the twenty six or twenty eight Feathers in its Crest, his latitancy, and mewing this handsome outside in the Winter; they made it an Emblem of the varieties of the World, the succession of Times and Seasons, and signal mutations in them. And therefore Orus, the Hieroglyphic of the World, had the Head of an Hoopebird upon the top of his Staff.  
Hereby we may also mistake the Duchiphath, or Bird forbidden for Food in Leviticus; 
Levit. 11. 19  and, not knowing the Bird, may the less apprehend some reasons of that prohibition; that is, the magical virtues ascribed unto it by the Egyptians, and the superstitious apprehensions which that Nation held of it, whilst they precisely numbered the Feathers and Colours thereof, while they placed it on the Heads of their Gods, and near their Mercurial Crosses, and so highly magnified this Bird in their sacred Symbols.  
Again, not knowing or mistaking this Bird, we may misapprehend, or not closely apprehend, that handsome expression of Ovid, when Tereus was turned into an Upupa, or Hoopebird.  
Vertitur in volucrem cui sunt pro vertice Cristae,  
Protinus immodicum surgit pro cuspide rostrum  
Nomen Epops volucri, facies armata videtur.  
For, in this military shape, he is aptly phancied even still revengefully to pursue his hated Wife Progne: in the propriety of his Note crying out, Pou, pou, ubi, ubi, or Where are you?  
Nor are we singly deceived in the nominal translation of this Bird: in many other Animals we commit the like mistake. So Gracculus is rendered a Jay, which Bird notwithstanding must be of a dark colour according to that of Martial,  
Sed quandam volo nocte nigriorem  
Formica, pice, Gracculo, cicada.  

* See Vulg. Err. B. 3. c. 10.  Halcyon is rendered a King-fisher, a Bird commonly known among us, and by Zoographers and Naturals the same is named Ispida, a well coloured Bird frequenting Streams and Rivers, building in holes of Pits, like some martin's, about the end of the Spring; in whose Nests we have found little else than innumerable small Fish Bones, and white round Eggs of a smooth and polished surface, whereas the true Halcyon is a Sea Bird, makes an handsome Nest floating upon the Water, and breedeth in the Winter.  
That Nysus should be rendered either an Hobby or a Sparrow Hawk, in the Fable of Nysus and Scylla in Ovid, because we are much to seek in the distinction of Hawks according to their old denominations, we shall not much contend, and may allow a favourable latitude therein: but that the Ciris or Bird into which Scylla was turned should be translated a Lark, it can hardly be made out agreeable unto the description of Virgil in his Poem of that name,  
Ind alias volucres mimóque infecta rubenti Crura—  
But seems more agreeable unto some kind of Hoemantopus or Redshank; and so the Nysus to have been some kind of Hawk, which delighteth about the Sea and Marshes, where such prey most aboundeth, which sort of Hawk while Scaliger determineth to be a Merlin, the French Translator warily expoundeth it to be some kind of Hawk.  
Nycticorax we may leave unto the common and verbal translation of a Night Raven, but we know no proper kind of Raven unto which to confine the same, and therefore some take the liberty to ascribe it unto some sort of Owls, and others unto the Bittern; which Bird in its common Note, which he useth out of the time of coupling and upon the Wing, so well resembleth the croaking of a Raven that I have been deceived by it.  
While Cicada is rendered a Grasshopper, 
Answer to Query 3.  we commonly think that which is so called among us to be the true Cicada; wherein, as we have elsewhere 
Vulg. Err. B. 5. c. 3.  declared, there is a great mistake: for we have not the Cicada in England, and indeed no proper word for that Animal, which the French nameth Cigale. That which we commonly call a Grasshopper, and the French Saulterelle being one kind of Locust, so rendered in the Plague of Egypt, and, in old Saxon named Gersthop.  
I have been the less accurate in these Answers, because the Queries are not of difficult Resolution, or of great moment: however, I would not wholly neglect them or your satisfaction, as being, Sir,  
Yours, etc.   

TRACT V. OF HAWKS AND FALCONRY, Ancient and Modern.  
SIR,  
IN vain you expect much information, de Re Accipitraria, of Falconry, Hawks or Hawking, from very ancient Greek or Latin Authors; that Art being either unknown or so little advanced among them, that it seems to have proceeded no higher than the daring of Birds: which makes so little thereof to be found in Aristotle, who only mentions some rude practice thereof in Thracia; as also in Aelian, who speaks something of Hawks and Crows among the Indians; little or nothing of true Falconry being mentioned before Julius Firmicus, in the days of Constantius, Son to Constantine the Great.  
Yet if you consult the accounts of later Antiquity left by Demetrius the Greek, by Symmachus and Theodosius, and by Albertus Magnus, about five hundred years ago, you, who have been so long acquainted with this noble Recreation, may better compare the ancient and modern practice, and rightly observe how many things in that Art are added, varied, disused or retained in the practice of these days.  
In the Diet of Hawks, they allowed of divers Meats which we should hardly commend. For beside the Flesh of Beef, they admitted of Goat, Hog, Deer, Whelp and Bear. And how you will approve the quantity and measure thereof, I make some doubt; while by weight they allowed half a pound of Beef, seven ounces of Swine's Flesh, five of Hare, eight ounces of Whelp, as much of Deer, and ten ounces of He-Goats Flesh.  
In the time of Demetrius they were not without the practice of Phlebotomy or Bleeding, which they used in the Thigh and Pounces; they plucked away the Feathers on the Thigh, and rubbed the part, but if the Vein appeared not in that part, they opened the Vein of the fore Talon.  
In the days of Albertus, they made use of Cauteries in divers places: to advantage their sight they seared them under the inward angle of the eye; above the eye in distillations and diseases of the Head; in upward pains they seared above the Joint of the Wing, and at the bottom of the Foot, against the Gout; and the chief time for these cauteries they made to be the month of March.  
In great coldness of Hawks they made use of Fomentations, some of the steam or vapour of artificial and natural Baths, some wrapped them up in hot Blankets, giving them Nettle Seeds and Butter.  
No Clysters are mentioned, nor can they be so profitably used; but they made use of many purging Medicines. They purged with Aloe, which, unto larger Hawks, they gave in the bigness of a Greek Bean; unto less, in the quantity of a Cicer, which notwithstanding I should rather give washed, and with a few drops of Oil of Almonds: for the Guts of flying Fowls are tender and easily scratched by it; and upon the use of Aloe both in Hawks and Cormorants I have sometimes observed bloody excretions.  
In phlegmatic causes they seldom omitted Stavesaker, but they purged sometimes with a Mouse, and the Food of boiled Chickens, sometimes with good Oil and Honey.  
They used also the Ink of Cuttle Fishes, with Smallage, Betony, Wine and Honey. They made use of stronger Medicines than present practice doth allow. For they were not afraid to give Coccus Baphicus; beating up eleven of its Grains unto a Lentor, which they made up into five Pills wrapped up with Honey and Pepper: and, in some of their old Medicines, we meet with Scammony and Euphorbium. Whether, in the tender Bowels of Birds, infusions of Rhubarb, Agaric and Mechoachan be not of safer use, as to take of Agary two Drachms, of Cinnamon half a Drachm, of Liquorish a Scruple, and, infusing them in Wine, to express a part into the mouth of the Hawk, may be considered by present practice.  
Few Mineral Medicines were of inward use among them: yet sometimes we observe they gave filings of Iron in the straitness of the Chest, as also Lime in some of their pectoral Medicines.  
But they commended Unguents of Quicksilver against the Scab: and I have safely given six or eight Grains of Mercurius Dulcis unto Kestrils and Owls, as also crude and current Quicksilver, giving the next day small Pellets of Silver or Led till they came away uncoloured: and this, if any, may probably destroy that obstinate Disease of the Filander or Back-worm.  
A peculiar remedy they had against the Consumption of Hawks. For, filling a Chicken with Vinegar, they closed up the Bill, and hanging it up until the Flesh grew tender, they fed the Hawk therewith: and to restore and well Flesh them, they commonly gave them Hog's Flesh, with Oil, Butter and Honey; and a decoction of Cumfory to bouse.  
They disallowed of salt Meats and Fat; but highly esteemed of Mice in most indispositions; and in the falling Sickness had great esteem of boiled Bats: and in many Diseases, of the Flesh of Owls which feed upon those Animals. In Epilepsies they also gave the Brain of a Kid drawn through a gold Ring; and, in Convulsions, made use of a mixture of Musk and Stercus humanum aridum.  
For the better preservation of their Health they strewed Mint and Sage about them; and for the speedier mewing of their Feathers, they gave them the Slough of a Snake, or a Tortoise out of the Shell, or a green Lizard cut in pieces.  
If a Hawk were unquiet, they hooded him, and placed him in a Smith's Shop for some time, where, accustomed to the continual noise of hammering, he became more gentle and tractable.  
They used few terms of Art, plainly and intelligibly expressing the Parts affected, their Diseases and Remedies. This heap of artificial terms first entering with the French Artists: who seem to have been the first and noblest Falconers in the Western part of Europe; although, in their Language, they have no word which in general expresseth an Hawk.  
They carried their Hawks in the left hand, and let them fly from the right. They used a Bell, and took great care that their Jesses should not be red, lest Eagles should fly at them. Though they used Hoods, we have no clear description of them, and little account of their Lures.  
The ancient Writers lest no account of the swiftness of Hawks or measure of their flight: but 
De Re Rustica.  Heresbachius delivers that William Duke of Cleve had an Hawk which, in one day, made a flight out of Westphalia into Prussia. And, upon good account, an Hawk in this Country of Norfolk, made a flight at a Woodcock near thirty miles in one hour. How far the Hawks, Merlin's and wild Fowl which come unto us with a Northwest wind in the Autumn, fly in a day, there is no clear account; but coming over Sea their flight hath been long, or very speedy. For I have known them to light so weary on the coast, that many have been taken with Dogs, and some knocked down with Staves and Stones.  
Their Perches seem not so large as ours; for they made them of such a bigness that their Talons might almost meet: and they chose to make them of Sallow, Poplar or Lime Tree.  
They used great clamours and hollowing in their flight, which they made by these words, ou loi, la, lafoy, la; and to raise the Fowls, made use of the found of a Cymbal.  
Their recreation seemed more sober and solemn than ours at present, so improperly attended with Oaths and Imprecations. For they called on God at their setting out, according to the account of Demetrius, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in the first place calling upon God.  
The learned Rigaltius thinketh, that if the Romans had well known this airy Chase, they would have left or less regarded their Circensial Recreations. The Greeks understood Hunting early, but little or nothing of our Falconry. If Alexander had known it, we might have found something of it and more of Hawks in Aristotle; who was so unacquainted with that way, that he thought that Hawks would not feed upon the Heart of Birds. Though he hath mentioned divers Hawks, yet Julius Scaliger, an expert Falconer, despaired to reconcile them unto ours. And 'tis well if, among them, you can clearly make out a Lanner, a Sparrow Hawk and a Kestril, but must not hope to find your Gier Falcon there, which is the noble Hawk; and I wish you one no worse than that of Henry King of Navarre; which, Scaliger saith, he saw strike down a Buzzard, two wild Geese, divers Kites, a Crane and a Swan.  
Nor must you expect from high Antiquity the distinctions of Eyess and Ramage Hawks, of Sores and Entermewers, of Hawks of the Lure and the Fist; nor that material distinction into short and long winged Hawks; from whence arife such differences in their taking down of Stones; in their flight, their striking down or seizing of their Prey, in the strength of their Talons, either in the Heel and fore-Talon, or the middle and the Heel: nor yet what Eggs produce the different Hawks, or when they lay three Eggs, that the first produceth a Female and large Hawk, the second of a midler sort, and the third a smaller Bird Tercellene or Tassel of the Masle Sex; which Hawks being only observed abroad by the Ancients, were looked upon as Hawks of different kinds and not of the same Eyrie or Nest. As for what Aristotle affirmeth that Hawks and Birds of prey drink not; although you know that it will not strictly hold, yet I kept an Eagle two years, which fed upon Kats, Kittling, Whelps and Rats, without one drop of Water.  
If any thing may add unto your knowledge in this noble Art, you must pick it out of later Writers than those you inquire of. You may peruse the two Books of Falconry writ by that renowned Emperor Frederick the Second; as also the Works of the noble Duke Belisarius, of Tardiffe, Francherius, of Francisco Sforzino of Vicensa; and may not a little inform or recreate yourself with that elegant Poem of 
De Re Accipitraria, in 3 Books.  Thuanus. I leave you to divert yourself by the perusal of it, having, at present, no more to say but that I am, etc.   

TRACT VI OF Cymbals, etc.  
SIR,  
WITH what difficulty, if not possibility, you may expect satisfaction concerning the Music, or Musical Instruments of the Hebrews, you will easily discover if you consult the attempts of learned men upon that Subject: but for Cymbals, of whose Figure you inquire, you may find some described in Bayfius, in the Comment of Rhodius upon Scribonius Largus, and others.  
As for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned by S. 
1 Cor. 13. 1.  Paul, and rendered a Tinkling Cymbal, whether the translation be not too soft and diminutive some question may be made: for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implieth no small sound, but a strained and lofty vociferation, or some kind of hollowing sound, according to the Exposition of Hesychius, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. A word drawn from the lusty shout of Soldiers, crying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the first charge upon their Enemies, according to the custom of Eastern Nations, and used by Trojans in Homer; and is also the Note of the Chorus in Aristophanes' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. In other parts of Scripture we read of loud and high sounding Cymbals; and in Clemens Alexandrinus that the Arabians made use of Cymbals in their Wars instead of other military Music; and Polyaenus in his Stratagems affirmeth that Bacchus gave the signal of Battle unto his numerous Army not with Trumpets but with Tympans and Cymbals.  
And now I take the opportunity to thank you for the new Book sent me containing the Anthems sung in our Cathedral and Collegiate Churches: 'tis probable there will be additions, the Masters of Music being now active in that affair. Beside my naked thanks I have yet nothing to return you but this enclosed, which may be somewhat rare unto you, and that is a Turkish Hymn translated into French out of the Turkish Metre, which I thus render unto you.  

O what praise doth he deserve, and how great is that Lord, all whose Slaves are as so many Kings!  
Whosoever shall rub his Eyes with the dust of his Feet, shall behold such admirable things that he shall fall into an ecstasy.  
He that shall drink one drop of his Beverage, shall have his Bosom like the Ocean filled with Gems and precious Liquors.  
Let not lose the Reins unto thy Passions in this world: he that represseth them shall become a true Solomon in the Faith.  
Amuse not thyself to adore Riches, nor to build great Houses and Palaces.  
The end of what thou shalt build is but ruin.  
Pamper not thy Body with delicacies and dainties; it may come to pass one day that this Body may be in Hell.  
Imagine not that he who findeth Riches findeth Happiness; he that findeth Happiness is he that findeth God.  
All who prostrating themselves in humility shall this day believe in 
* Velè the Founder of the Convent.  Velè, if they were Poor shall be Rich, and if Rich shall become Kings.   
After the Sermon ended which was made upon a Verse in the Alcoran containing much Morality, the Deruices in a Gallery apart sung this Hymn, accompanied with Instrumental Music, which so affected the Ears of Monsieur du Loyr, that he would not omit to set it down, together with the Musical Notes, to be found in his first Letter unto Monsieur Bouliau, Prior of Magny.  
Excuse my brevity: I can say but little where I understand but little.  
I am, etc.   

TRACT VII. OF ROPALIC OR Gradual Verses, etc.  
Mens mea sublimes rationes praemeditatur.  
SIR,  
THough I may justly allow a good intention in this Poem presented unto you, yet I must needs confess, I have no affection for it; as being utterly averse from all affectation in Poetry, which either restrains the fancy, or fetters the invention to any strict disposure of words. A Poem of this nature is to be found in Ausonius' beginning thus,  
Spes Deus aeternae stationis conciliator.  
These are Verses Ropalici or Clavales, arising gradually like the Knots in a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Club; named also Fistulares by Priscianus, as Elias 
* El. Vinet. in Auson.  Vinetus hath noted. They consist properly of five words, each thereof increasing by one syllable. They admit not of a Spondee in the fifth place, nor can a Golden or Silver Verse be made this way. They run smoothly both in Latin and Greek, and some are scatteringly to be found in Homer; as,  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉,  
Liberè dicam sed in aurem, ego versibus hujusmodi Ropalicis, longo syrmate protractis, Ceraunium affigo.  
He that affecteth such restrained Poetry, may peruse the Long Poem of Hugbaldus the Monk, wherein every word beginneth with a C penned in the praise of Calvities or Baldness, to the honour of Carolus Calvus King of France,  
Carmina clarisonae calvis cantate Camaenae.  
The rest may be seen at large in the adversaria of Barthius: or if he delighteth in odd contrived fancies may he please himself with Antistrophes, Counterpetories, Retrogrades, Rebusses, Leonine Verses, etc. to be found in Sieur des Accords. But these and the like are to be looked upon, not pursued, odd works might be made by such ways; and for your recreation I propose these few lines unto you,  

Arcu paratur quod arcui sufficit.  
Misellorum clamoribus accurrere non tam humanum quam sulphureum est.  
Asino teratur quae Asino teritur.  
Ne Asphodelos comedas, phaenices manduca.  
Caelum aliquid potest, sed quae mira praestat Papilio est.   
Not to put you unto endless amusement, the Key hereof is the homonomy of the Greek made use of in the Latin words, which rendereth all plain. More enigmatical and dark expressions might be made if any one would speak or compose them out of the numerical Characters or characteristical Numbers set down by 
* Tract 2. Part lib. 1.  Robertus de Fluctibus.  
As for your question concerning the contrary expressions of the Italian and Spaniards in their common affirmative answers, the Spaniard answering cy Sennor, the Italian Signior cy, you must be content with this Distich,  
Why saith the Italian Signior cy, the Spaniard cy Sennor?  
Because the one puts that behind, the other puts before.  
And because you are so happy in some Translations, I pray return me these two Verses in English,  
Occidit heu tandem multos quae occidit amantes,  
Et cinis est hodie quae fuit ignis heri.  
My occasions make me to take off my Pen. I am, etc.   

TRACT VIII. OF LANGUAGES, And particularly of the SAXON TONGUE.  
SIR,  
THE last Discourse we had of the Saxon Tongue recalled to my mind some forgotten considerations. Though the Earth were widely peopled before the Flood, (as many learned men conceive) yet whether after a large dispersion, and the space of sixteen hundred years, men maintained so uniform a Language in all parts, as to be strictly of one Tongue, and readily to understand each other, may very well be doubted. For though the World preserved in the Family of Noah before the confusion of Tongues might be said to be of one Lip, yet even permitted to themselves their humours, inventions, necessities, and new objects, without the miracle of Confusion at first, in so long a tract of time, there had probably been a Babel. For whether America were first peopled by one or several Nations, yet cannot that number of different planting Nations, answer the multiplicity of their present different Languages, of no affinity unto each other; and even in their Northern Nations and incommunicating Angles, their Languages are widely differing. A native Interpreter brought from Califormia proved of no use unto the Spaniards upon the neighbour Shore. From Chiapa, to Guatemala, S. Salvador, Honduras, there are at least eighteen several Languages; and so numerous are they both in the Peruvian and Mexican Regions, that the great Princes are fain to have one common Language, which besides their vernaculous and Mother Tongues, may serve for commerce between them.  
And since the confusion of Tongues at first fell only upon those which were present in Sinaar at the work of Babel, whether the primitive Language from Noah were only preserved in the Family of Heber, and not also in divers others, which might be absent at the same, whether all came away and many might not be left behind in their first Plantations about the foot of the Hills, whereabout the Ark rested and Noah became an Husbandman, is not absurdly doubted.  
For so the primitive Tongue might in time branch out into several parts of Europe and Asia, and thereby the first or Hebrew Tongue which seems to be ingredient into so many Languages, might have larger originals and grounds of its communication and traduction than from the Family of Abraham, the Country of Canaan and words contained in the Bible which come short of the full of that Language. And this would become more probable from the Septuagint or Greek Chronology strenuously asserted by Vossius; for making five hundred years between the Deluge and the days of Peleg, there ariseth a large latitude of multiplication and dispersion of People into several parts, before the descent of that Body which followed Nimrod unto Sinaar from the East.  
They who derive the bulk of European Tongues from the Scythian and the Greek, though they may speak probably in many points, yet must needs allow vast difference or corruptions from so few originals, which however might be tolerably made out in the old Saxon, yet hath time much confounded the clearer derivations. And as the knowledge thereof now stands in reference unto ourselves, I find many words totally lost, divers of harsh sound disused or refined in the pronunciation, and many words we have also in common use not to be found in that Tongue, or venially derivable from any other from whence we have largely borrowed, and yet so much still remaineth with us that it maketh the gross of our Language.  
The religious obligation unto the Hebrew Language hath so notably continued the same, that it might still be understood by Abraham, whereas by the Mazorite Points and Chaldee Character the old Letter stands so transformed, that if Moses were alive again, he must be taught to read his own Law.  
The Chinoys, who live at the bounds of the Earth, who have admitted little communication, and suffered successive incursions from one Nation, may possibly give account of a very ancient Language; but consisting of many Nations and Tongues; confusion, admixtion and corruption in length of time might probably so have crept in as without the virtue of a common Character, and lasting Letter of things, they could never probably make out those strange memorial which they pretend, while they still make use of the Works of their great Confutius many hundred years before Christ, and in a series ascend as high as Poncuus, who is conceived our Noah.  
The present Welsh, and remnant of the old Britanes, hold so much of that ancient Language, that they make a shift to understand the Poems of Merlin, Enerin, Telesin, a thousand years ago, whereas the Herulian Pater Noster, set down by Wolfgangus Lazius, is not without much criticism made out, and but in some words; and the present Parisians can hardly hack out those few lines of the League between Charles and Lewis, the Sons of Ludovicus Pius, yet remaining in old French.  
The Spaniards, in their corruptive traduction and Romance, have so happily retained the terminations from the Latin, that notwithstanding the Gothick and Moorish intrusion of words, they are able to make a Discourse completely consisting of Grammatical Latin and Spanish, wherein the Italians and French will be very much to seek.  
The learned Casaubon conceiveth that a Dialogue might be composed in Saxon only of such words as are derivable from the Greek, which surely might be effected, and so as the learned might not uneasily find it out. Verstegan made no doubt that he could contrive a Letter which might be understood by the English, Dutch and East Frislander, which, as the present confusion standeth, might have proved no very clear Piece, and hardly to be hammered out: yet so much of the Saxon still remaineth in our English, as may admit an orderly discourse and series of good sense, such as not only the present English, but Aelfric, Bede and Alured might understand after so many hundred years.  
Nations that live promiscuously, under the Power and Laws of Conquest, do seldom escape the loss of their Language with their Liberties, wherein the Romans were so strict that the Grecians were fain to conform in their judicial Processes; which made the Jews lose more in seventy years' dispersion in the Provinces of Babylon, than in many hundred in their distinct habitation in Egypt; and the English which dwelled dispersedly to lose their Language in Ireland, whereas more tolerable relics there are thereof in Fingall, where they were closely and almost solely planted; and the Moors which were most huddled together and united about Granada, have yet left their Arvirage among the Granadian Spaniards.  
But shut up in Angles and inaccessible corners, divided by Laws and Manners, they often continue long with little mixture, which hath afforded that lasting life unto the Cantabrian and British Tongue, wherein the Britanes are remarkable, who, having lived four hundred years together with the Romans, retained so much of the British as it may be esteemed a Language; which either they resolutely maintained in their cohabitation with them in Britain, or retiring after in the time of the Saxons into Countries and parts less civilised and conversant with the Romans, they found the People distinct, the Language more entire, and so fell into it again.  
But surely no Languages have been so straight locked up as not to admit of commixture. The Irish, although they retain a kind of a Saxon Character, yet have admitted many words of Latin and English. In the Welsh are found many words from Latin, some from Greek and Saxon. In what parity and incommixture the Language of that People stood which were casually discovered in the heart of Spain, between the Mountains of Castille, no longer ago than in the time of Duke D' Alva, we have not met with a good account any farther than that their words were Basquish or Cantabrian: but the present Basquensa one of the minor Mother Tongues of Europe, is not without commixture of Latin and Castilian, while we meet with Santifiea, tentationeten, Glaria, puissanea, and four more in the short Form of the Lord's Prayer, set down by Paulus Merula: but although in this brief Form we may find such commixture, yet the bulk of their Language seems more distinct, consisting of words of no affinity unto others, of numerals totally different, of differing Grammatical Rule, as may be observed in the Dictionary and short Basquensa Grammar, composed by Raphael Nicoleta, a Priest of Bilboa.  
And if they use the auxiliary Verbs of Equin and Ysan, answerable unto Hazer and sir, to Have, and Be, in the Spanish, which Forms came in with the Northern Nations into the Italian, Spanish and French, and if that Form were used by them before, and crept not in from imitation of their neighbours, it may show some ancienter traduction from Northern Nations, or else must seem very strange; since the Southern Nations had it not of old, and I know not whether any such mode be found in the Languages of any part of America.  
The Romans, who made the great commixture and alteration of Languages in the World, effected the same, not only by their proper Language, but those also of their military Forces, employed in several Provinces, as holding a standing Militia in all Countries, and commonly of strange Nations; so while the cohorts and Forces of the Britanes were quartered in Egypt, Armenia, Spain, Illyria, etc. the Stablaesians and Dalmatians here, the Gauls, Spaniards and Germans in other Countries, and other Nations in theirs, they could not but leave many words behind them, and carry away many with them, which might make that in many words of very distinct Nations some may still remain of very unknown and doubtful Genealogy.  
And if, as the learned Buxhornius contendeth, the Scythian Language as the Mother Tongue runs through the Nations of Europe, and even as far as Persia, the community in many words between so many Nations, hath a more reasonable original traduction, and were rather derivable from the common Tongue diffused through them all, than from any particular Nation, which hath also borrowed and holdeth but at second hand.  
The Saxons settling over all England, maintained an uniform Language, only diversified in Dialect, Idioms, and minor differences, according to their different Nations which came in to the common Conquest, which may yet be a cause of the variation in the speech and words of several parts of England, where different Nations most abode or settled, and having expelled the Britanes, their Wars were chiefly among themselves, with little action with foreign Nations until the union of the Heptarchy under Egbert; after which time although the Danes infested this Land and scarce left any part free, yet their incursions made more havoc in Buildings, Churches and Cities, than the Language of the Country, because their Language was in effect the same, and such as whereby they might easily understand one another.  
And if the Normans, which came into Neustria or Normandy with Rollo the Dane, had preserved their Language in their new acquists, the succeeding Conquest of England, by Duke William of his race, had not begot among us such notable alterations; but having lost their Language in their abode in Normandy before they adventured upon England, they confounded the English with their French, and made the grand mutation, which was successively increased by our possessions in Normandy, Given and Aquitain, by our long Wars in France, by frequent resort of the French, who to the number of some thousands came over with Isabel Queen to Edward the Second, and the several Matches of England with the Daughters of France before and since that time.  
But this commixture, though sufficient to confuse, proved not of ability to abolish the Saxon words; for from the French we have borrowed many Substantives, Adjectives and some Verbs, but the great Body of Numerals, auxiliary Verbs, Articles, Pronouns, Adverbs, Conjunctions and Prepositions, which are the distinguishing and lasting part of a Language, remain with us from the Saxon, which, having suffered no great alteration for many hundred years, may probably still remain, though the English swell with the inmates of Italian, French and Latin. An Example whereof may be observed in this following,  


ENGLISH I  
The first and foremost step to all good Works is the dread and fear of the Lord of Heaven and Earth, which through the Holy Ghost enlighteneth the blindness of our sinful hearts to tread the ways of wisdom, and leads our feet into the Land of Blessing.   

SAXON 1  
The erst and fyrmost staep to eal good Weorka is the draed and feurt of the Lavord of Heofan and Eorth, while thurh the Heilig Gast onlihtneth the blindness of ure sinful heorte to traed the waeg of wisdom, and th'one laed ure fet into the Land of Blessung.   

ENGLISH II.  
For to forget his Law is the Door, the Gate and Key to let in all unrighteousness, making our Eyes, Ears and Mouths to answer the lust of Sin, our Brains dull to good Thoughts, our Lips dumb to his Praise, our Ears deaf to his Gospel, and our Eyes dim to behold his Wonders, which witness against us that we have not well learned the word of God, that we are the Children of wrath, unworthy of the love and manifold gifts of God, greedily following after the ways of the Devil and witchcraft of the World, doing nothing to free and keep ourselves from the burning fire of Hell, till we be buried in Sin and swallowed in Death, not to arise again in any hope of Christ's Kingdom.   

SAXON II.  
For to fuorgytan his Laga is the Dure, the Got and Caeg to let in eal unrightwisnysse, makend ure Eyge, Eore and Muth to answare the lust of Sin, ure Braegan dole to good Theoht, ure Lippan dumb to his Preys, ure Earen deaf to his Gospel, and ure Eyge dim to behealden his Wundra, whilc ge witnysse ongen us that we oef noht well gelaered the weord of God, that we are the Cilda of ured, unwyrthe of the lufe and maenigfeald gift of God, grediglice felygend after the waegen of the Deoful and wiccraft of the Weorld, doend nothing to fry and caep ure saula from the byrnend fyr of Hell, till we be geburied in Sin and swolgen in Death not to arise again in aenig hope of Christ's Kynedome.   

ENGLISH III.  
Which draw from above the bitter doom of the Almighty of Hunger, Sword, Sickness, and brings more sad plagues than those of Hail, Storms, Thunder, Blood, Frogs, swarms of Gnats and Grasshoppers, which ate the Corn, Grass and Leaves of the Trees in Egypt.   

SAXON III.  
Whilc drag from buf the bitter doom of the Almagan of Hunger, sword, Seoknesse, and bring mere sad plag, th'one they of Hagal, Storm, Thunner, Blood, Frog, swearme of Gnaet and Gaersupper, whilc eaten the Corn, Gaers and Leaf of the Treowen in Egypt.   

ENGLISH IV.  
If we read his Book and holy Writ, these among many others, we shall find to be the tokens of his hate, which gathered together might mind us of his will, and teach us when his wrath beginneth, which sometimes comes in open strength and full sail, oft steals like a Thief in the night, like Shafts shot from a Bow at midnight, before we think upon them.   

SAXON IU.  
Give we raed his Boc and heilig Gewrit, these gemong maenig othern, we sceall findan the tacna of his hatung whilc gegatherod together miht gemind us of his willan, and teac us whone his ured onginneth, whilc sometima come in open strength and fill sail, oft stael gelyc a Theof in the niht, gelyc Sceaft scoten fram a Boge at midneoht, beforan we think uppen them.   

ENGLISH V.  
And though they were a deal less, and rather short than beyond our sins, yet do we not a whit withstand or forbear them, we are wedded to, not weary of our misdeeds, we seldom look upward, and are not ashamed under sin, we cleanse not ourselves from the blackness and deep hue of our guilt; we want tears and sorrow, we weep not, fast not, we crave not forgiveness from the mildness, sweetness and goodness of God, and with all livelihood and steadfastness to our uttermost will hunt after the evil of guile, pride, cursing, swearing, drunkenness, overeating, uncleanness, all idle lust of the flesh, yes many uncouth and nameless sins, hid in our inmost Breast and Bosoms, which stand betwixt our forgiveness, and keep God and Man asunder.   

SAXON V.  
And theow they waere a dael less, and reither scort th'one begond our sinnan, get do we naht a whit withstand and forbear them, we ear bewudded to, noht werig of ure again misdeed, we seldom loc upweard, and ear not ofschaemod under sin, we cleans noht ure selvan from the blacnesse and daep hue of ure guilt; we won tear and sara, we weope noht, faced noht, we craf noht foregyfnesse fram the mildness, sweetness and goodness of God, and mit eal lifelyhood and steadfastness to ure uttermost wit hunt after the ufel of guile, pride, cursung, swearung, druncennesse, overeat, uncleanness and eal idle lust of the flaesc, yis maenig uncuth and nameleas sinnan, hid in ure inmaest Brist and Bosom, whilc stand betwixt ure foregyfnesse, and caep God and Man asynder.   

ENGLISH VI  
Thus are we far beneath and also worse than the rest of God's Works; for the Sun and Moon, the King and Queen of Stars, Snow, Ice, Rain, Frost, Dew, Mist, Wind, fourfooted and creeping things, Fishes and feathered Birds, and Fowls either of Sea or Land do all hold the Laws of his will.   

SAXON VI.  
Thus ear we far beneoth and ealso wyrse th'one the rest of Gods Weorka; for the Sun and Moon, the Cyng and Cquen of Stearran, Snaw, Ice, Ren, Frost, Deaw, Mist, Wind, feower fet and crypend dinga, Fix yefetherod Brid, and Faelan author in Sae or Land do eal heold the Lag of his willan.    
Thus have you seen in few words how near the Saxon and English meet.  
Now of this account the French will be able to make nothing; the modern Danes and Germans, though from several words they may conjecture at the meaning, yet will they be much to seek in the orderly sense and continued construction thereof, whether the Danes can continue such a series of sense out of their present Language and the old Runick, as to be intelligible unto present and ancient times, some doubt may well be made; and if the present French would attempt a Discourse in words common unto their present Tongue and the old Romana Rustica spoken in Elder times, or in the old Language of the Francs, which came to be in use some successions after Pharamont, it might prove a Work of some trouble to effect.  
It were not impossible to make an Original reduction of many words of no general reception in England but of common use in Norfolk, or peculiar to the East Angle Countries; as, Bawnd, Bunny, Thurck, Enemmis, Sammodithee, Mawther, Kedge, Seel, Straft, Clever, Matchly, Dear, Nicked, Stingy, Noneare, Feft, Thepes, Gosgood, Kamp, Sibrit, Fangast, Sap, Cothish, Thokish, Bide owe, Paxwax: of these and some others of no easy originals, when time will permit, the resolution may be attempted; which to effect, the Danish Language new and more ancient may prove of good advantage: which Nation remained here fifty years upon agreement, and have left many Families in it, and the Language of these parts had surely been more commixed and perplex, if the Fleet of Hugo de Bones had not been cast away, wherein threescore thousand Soldiers out of Brittany and Flanders were to be wafted over, and were by King John's appointment to have a settled habitation in the Counties of Norfolk and Suffolk.  
But beside your laudable endeavours in the Saxon, you are not like to repent you of your studies in the other European and Western Languages, for therein are delivered many excellent Historical, Moral and Philosophical Discourses, wherein men merely versed in the learned Languages are often at a loss: but although you are so well accomplished in the French, you will not surely conceive that you are master of all the Languages in France, for to omit the Briton, Britonant or old British, yet retained in some part of Brittany, I shall only propose this unto your construction.  
Chavalisco d' aquestes Boemes chems an freitado lou cap cun taules Jargonades, ero necy chi voluiget bouta sin ten embè aquelles. Anin à lous occells, i dizen tat prou ben en ein voz L' ome nosap comochodochi then ay jes de plazer, d' ausir la mitat de paraulles en el mon.  
This is a part of that Language which Scaliger nameth Idiotismus Tectosagicus, or Langue d' oc, counterdistinguishing it unto the Idiotismus Francicus, or Langue d' ovy, not understood in a petty corner or between a few Mountains, but in parts of early civility, in Languedoc, Provence and Catalonia, which put together will make little less than England.  
Without some knowledge herein you cannot exactly understand the Works of Rabelais: by this the French themselves are fain to make out that preserved relic of old French, containing the League between Charles and Lewis the Sons of Ludovicus Pius. Hereby may tolerably be understood the several Tracts written in the Catalonian Tongue; and in this is published the Tract of Falconry written by Theodosius and Symmachus: in this is yet conserved the Poem Vilhuardine concerning the French expedition in the Holy War, and the taking of Constantinople, among the Works of Marius' Aequicola an Italian Poet. You may find, in this Language, a pleasant Dialogue of Love: this, about an hundred years ago, was in high esteem, when many Italian Wits flocked into Provence; and the famous Petrarcha wrote many of his Poems in Vaucluse in that Country.  
For the word [Dread] in the Royal Title [Dread Sovereign] of which you desire to know the meaning, I return answer unto your question briefly thus.  
Most men do vulgarly understand this word Dread after the common and English acception, as implying Fear, Awe or Dread.  
Others may think to expound it from the French word Droit or Droyt. For, whereas in elder times, the Precedents and Supremes of Courts were termed Sovereigns, men might conceive this a distinctive Title and proper unto the King as eminently and by right the Sovereign.  
A third exposition may be made from some Saxon Original, particularly from Driht, Domine, or Drihten, Dominus, in the Saxon Language, the word for Dominus throughout the Saxon Psalms, and used in the expression of the year of our Lord in the Decretal Epistle of Pope Agatho unto Athelred King of the Mercians, Anno, 680.  
Verstegan would have this term Drihten appropriate unto God. Yet, in the Constitutions of 
* V. Cl. Spelman● Concil.  Withered King of Kent, we find the same word used for a Lord or Master, Si in vesperâ proecedente solemn servus ex mandato Domini aliquod opus servile egerit, Dominus (Drihten) 80 solidis luito. However therefore, though Driht, Domine, might be most eminently applied unto the Lord of Heaven, yet might it be also transferred unto Potentates and Gods on Earth, unto whom fealty is given or due, according unto the Feudist term Ligeus à Ligando unto whom they were bound in fealty. And therefore from Driht, Domine, Dread Sovereign, may, probably, owe its Original.  
I have not time to enlarge upon this Subject: Pray let this pass, as it is, for a Letter and not for a Treatise. I am  
Yours, etc.   

TRACT IX. OF ARTIFICIAL HILLS, MOUNTS or BURROWS, In many parts of ENGLAND.  
What they are, to what end raised, and by what Nations.  

My honoured Friend Mr. E. D. his Quaere.  
IN my last Summer's Journey through Marshland, Holland and a great part of the Fens, I observed divers artificial heaps of Earth of a very large magnitude, and I hear of many others which are in other parts of those Countries, some of them are at least twenty foot in direct height from the level whereon they stand. I would gladly know your opinion of them, and whether you think not that they were raised by the Romans or Saxons to cover the Bones or Ashes of some eminent persons?   

My Answer.  
Worthy Sir,  
COncerning artificial Mounts and Hills, raised without Fortifications attending them, in most parts of England, the most considerable thereof I conceive to be of two kinds; that is, either signal Boundaries and Landmarks, or else sepulchral Monuments or Hills of Interment for remarkable and eminent persons, especially such as died in the Wars.  
As for such which are sepulchral Monuments, upon bare and naked view they are not appropriable unto any of the three Nations of the Romans, Saxons or Danes, who, after the Britain's, have possessed this Land; because upon strict account, they may be appliable unto them all.  
For that the Romans used such hilly Sepultures, beside many other testimonies, seems confirmable from the practice of Germanicus, who thus interred the unburied Bones of the slain Soldiers of Varus; and that expression of Virgil, of high antiquity among the Latins,  
— facit ingens monte sub alto  
Regis Dercenni terreno ex aggere Bustum.  
That the Saxons made use of this way is collectible from several Records, and that pertinent expression of 
* Leland. in Assertione Regis Arthuri.  Lelandus, saxons gens Christi ignara, in hortis amoenis, si domi forte oegroti moriebantur; sin foris & bello occisi, in egestis per campos terroe tumulis, quos (Burgos appellabant) sepulti sunt.  
That the Danes observed this practice, their own Antiquities do frequently confirm, and it stands precisely delivered by Adolphus Cyprius, as the learned 
† Wormius in Monumentis Danicis.  Wormius hath observed. Dani olim in memoriam Regum & Heroum, ex terra coacervata ingentes moles, Montium instar eminentes, erexisse, credibile omnino ac probabile est, atque illis in locis ut plurimum, quo soepe homines commearent, atque iter haberent, ut in viis publicis posteritati memoriam consecrarent, & quodammodo immortalitati mandarent. And the like Monuments are yet to be observed in Norway and Denmark in no small numbers.  
So that upon a single view and outward observation they may be the Monuments of any of these three Nations: Although the greatest number, not improbably, of the Saxons; who fought many Battles with the Britain's and Danes, and also between their own Nations, and left the proper name of Burrows for these Hills still retained in many of them, as the seven Burrows upon Salisbury Plain, and in many other parts of England.  
But of these and the like Hills there can be no clear and assured decision without an ocular exploration, and subterraneous enquiry by cutting through one of them either directly or crosswise. For so with lesser charge discovery may be made what is under them, and consequently the intention of their erection.  
For if they were raised for remarkable and eminent Boundaries, then about their bottom will be found the lasting substances of burnt Bones of Beasts, of Ashes, Bricks, Lime or Coals.  
If Urns be found, they might be erected by the Romans before the term of Urnburying or custom of burning the dead expired: but if raised by the Romans after that period; Inscriptions, Swords, Shields and Arms after the Roman mode, may afford a good distinction.  
But if these Hills were made by Saxons or Danes, discovery may be made from the fashion of their Arms, Bones of their Horses, and other distinguishing substances buried with them.  
And for such an attempt there wanteth not encouragement. For a like Mount or Burrow was opened in the days of King Henry the Eighth upon Barham Down in Kent, by the care of Mr. Thomas Digges and charge of Sir Christopher Hales; and a large Urn with Ashes was found under it, as is delivered by Thomas Twinus De Rebus Albionicis, a learned Man of that Country, Sub incredibili Terroe acervo, Urna cinere ossium magnorum fragmentis plena, cum galeis, clypeis oeneis & ferreiss rubigine ferè consumptis, inusitatoe magnitudinis, eruta est: sed nulla inscriptio nomen, nullum testimonium tempus, aut fortunam exponebant: and not very long ago, as 
* Cambd. Brit. p. 326.  Cambden delivereth, in one of the Mounts of Barklow Hills in Essex, being leveled there were found three Troughs, containing broken Bones, conceived to have been of Danes: and in later time we find, that a Burrow was opened in the Isle of Man, wherein fourteen Urns were found with burnt Bones in them; and one more neat than the rest, placed in a Bed of fine white Sand, containing nothing but a few brittle Bones, as having passed the Fire; according to the particular account thereof in the 
* Published 1656. by Dan. King.  description of the Isle of Man. Surely many noble Bones and Ashes have been contented with such hilly Tombs; which neither admitting Ornament, Epitaph or Inscription, may, if Earthquakes spare them, out last all other Monuments. Suae sunt Metis metae. Obelisks have their term, and Pyramids will tumble, but these mountainous Monuments may stand, and are like to have the same period with the Earth.  
More might be said, but my business, of another nature, makes me take off my hand. I am  
Yours, etc.    

TRACT X. OF TROAS, What place is meant by that Name.  
Also, of the situations of Sodom, Gomorrha, Admah, Zeboim, in the dead Sea.  
SIR, To your Geographical Queries, I answer as follows.  
IN sundry passages of the new Testament, in the Acts of the Apostles, and Epistles of S. Paul, we meet with the word Troas; how he went from Troas to Philippi in Macedonia, from thence unto Troas again: how he remained seven days in that place; from thence on foot to Assos', whither the Disciples had sailed from Troas, and there, taking him in, made their Voyage unto Caesarea.  
Now, whether this Troas be the name of a City or a certain Region seems no groundless doubt of yours: for that 'twas sometimes taken in the signification of some Country, is acknowledged by Ortelius, Stephanus and Grotius; and it is plainly set down by Strabo, that a Region of Phrygia in Asia minor was so taken in ancient times; and that, at the Trojan War, all the Territory which comprehended the nine Principalities subject unto the King of Ilium, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, was called by the name of Troja. And this might seem sufficiently to salve the intention of the description, when he came or went from Troas, that is, some part of that Region; and will otherwise seem strange unto many how he should be said to go or come from that City which all Writers had laid in the Ashes about a thousand years before.  
All which notwithstanding, since we read in the Text a particular abode of seven days, and such particulars as leaving of his Cloak, Books and Parchments at Troas: And that S. Luke seems to have been taken in to the Travels of S. Paul in this place, where he begins in the Acts to write in the first person, this may rather seem to have been some City or special Habitation, than any Province or Region without such limitation.  
Now that such a City there was, and that of no mean note, is easily verified from historical observation. For though old Ilium was anciently destroyed, yet was there another raised by the relics of that people, not in the same place, but about thirty Furlongs westward, as is to be learned from Strabo.  
Of this place Alexander in his Expedition against Darius took especial notice, endowing it with sundry Immunities, with promise of greater matters at his return from Persia; inclined hereunto from the honour he bore unto Homer, whose earnest Reader he was, and upon whose Poems, by the help of Anaxarchus and calisthenes, he made some observations. As also much moved hereto upon the account of his cognation with the Aeacideses and Kings of Molossus, whereof Andromache the Wife of Hector was Queen. After the death of Alexander, Lysimachus surrounded it with a Wall, and brought the inhabitants of the neighbour Towns unto it, and so it bore the name of Alexandria; which, from Antigonus, was also called Antigonia, according to the inscription of that famous Medal in Goltsius, Colonia Troas Antigonia Alexandrea, Legio vicesima prima.  
When the Romans first went into Asia against Antiochus 'twas but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and no great City; but, upon the Peace concluded, the Romans much advanced the same. Fimbria, the rebellious Roman, spoilt it in the Mithridatick War, boasting that he had subdued Troy in eleven days which the Grecians could not take in almost as many years. But it was again rebuilt and countenanced by the Romans, and became a Roman Colony, with great Immunities conferred on it; and accordingly it is so set down by Ptolemy. For the Romans, deriving themselves from the Trojans, thought no favour too great for it; especially Julius Caesar, who, both in imitation of Alexander, and for his own descent from Julus, of the posterity of Aeneas, with much passion affected it, and, in a discontented humour, 
* Sueton.  was once in mind to translate the Roman wealth unto it; so that it became a very remarkable place, and was, in Strabo's time, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, one of the noble Cities of Asia.  
And, if they understood the prediction of Homer in reference unto the Romans, as some expound it in Strabo, it might much promote their affection unto that place; which being a remarkable prophecy, and scarce to be paralleled in Pagan story, made before Rome was built, and concerning the lasting Reign of the progeny of Aeneas, they could not but take especial notice of it. For thus is Neptune made to speak, when he saved Aeneas from the fury of Achilles.  

Verum agite hunc subito praesenti à morte trahamus  
Ne Cronides ira flammet si fortis Achilles  
Hunc mactet, fati quem Lex evadere jussit.  
Ne genus intereat de laeto semine totum  
Dardani ab excelso prae cunctis prolibus olim,  
Dilecti quos è mortali stirpe creavit,  
Nunc etiam Priami stirpem Saturnius odit,  
Trojugenum posthaec Aeneas sceptra tenebit  
Et nati natorum & qui nascentur ab illis.   
The Roman favours were also continued unto S. Paul's days; for 
* Sueton.  Claudius, producing an ancient Letter of the Romans unto King Seleucus concerning the Trojan Privileges, made a Release of their Tributes; and Nero elegantly pleaded for 
Tacit. l. 13.  their Immunities, and remitted all Tributes unto them.  
And, therefore, there being so remarkable a City in this Territory, it may seem too hard to lose the same in the general name of the Country; and since it was so eminently favoured by Emperors, enjoying so many Immunities, and full of Roman Privileges, it was probably very populous, and a fit abode for S. Paul, who being a Roman Citizen, might live more quietly himself, and have no small number of faithful wellwishers in it.  
Yet must we not conceive that this was the old Troy, or rebuilt in the same place with it: for Troas was placed about thirty Furlongs West, and upon the Sea shore; so that, to hold a clearer apprehension hereof than is commonly delivered in the Discourses of the Ruins of Troy, we may consider one Inland Troy or old Ilium, which was built farther within the Land, and so was removed from the Port where the Grecian Fleet lay in Homer; and another Maritime Troy, which was upon the Sea Coast placed in the Maps of Ptolemy, between Lectum and Sigaeum or Port Janizam, Southwest from the old City, which was this of S. Paul, and whereunto are appliable the particular accounts of Bellonius, when, not an hundred years ago, he described the Ruins of Troy with their Baths, Aqueducts, Walls and Towers, to be seen from the Sea as he sailed between it and Tenedos; and where, upon nearer view, he observed some signs and impressions of his conversion in the ruins of Churches, Crosses, and Inscriptions upon Stones.  
Nor was this only a famous City in the days of S. Paul, but considerable long after. For, upon the Letter of Adrianus, 
Philostrat. in Vita Herodis Attici.  Herodes Atticus, at a great charge, repaired their Baths, contrived Aqueducts and noble Watercourses in it. As is also collectible from the Medals of Caracalla, of Severus, and Crispina; with Inscriptions, Colonia Alexandria Troas, bearing on the Reverse either an Horse, a Temple, or a Woman; denoting their destruction by an Horse, their prayers for the Emperor's safety, and, as some conjecture, the memory of Sibylla, Phrygia or Hellespontica.  
Nor wanted this City the favour of Christian Princes, but was made a Bishop's See under the Archbishop of Cyzicum; but in succeeding discords was destroyed and ruined, and the nobler Stones translated to Constantinople by the Turks to beautify their Mosques and other Buildings.  

Concerning the Dead Sea, accept of these few Remarks.  
IN the Map of the Dead Sea we meet with the Figure of the Cities which were destroyed: of Sodom, Gomorrha, Admah and Zeboim; but with no uniformity; men placing them variously, and, from the uncertainty of their situation, taking a fair liberty to set them where they please.  
For Admah, Zeboim and Gomorrha, there is no light from the Text to define their situation. But, that Sodom could not be far from Segor which was seated under the Mountains near the side of the Lake, seems inferrible from the sudden arrival of Lot, who, coming from Sodom at day break, attained to Segor at Sun rising; and therefore Sodom is to be placed not many miles from it, not in the middle of the Lake, which against that place is about eighteen miles over, and so will leave nine miles to be gone in so small a space of time.  
The Valley being large, the Lake now in length about seventy English miles, the River Jordan and divers others running over the Plain, 'tis probable the best Cities were seated upon those Streams: but how the Jordan passed or wound, or where it took in the other Streams, is a point too old for Geography to determine.  
For, that the River gave the fruitfulness unto this Valley by over watering that low Region, seems plain from that expression in the 
* Gen. 13. 10.  Text, that it was watered, sicut Paradisus & Aegyptus, like Eden and the Plains of Mesopotamia, where Euphrates yearly overfloweth; or like Egypt where Nilus doth the like: and seems probable also from the same course of the River not far above this Valley where the Israelites passed Jordan, where 'tis said that Jordan oversloweth its Banks in the time of Harvest.  
That it must have had some passage under ground in the compass of this Valley before the creation of this Lake, seems necessary from the great current of Jordan, and from the Rivers Arnon, Cedron, Zaeth, which empty into this Valley; but where to place that concurrence of Waters or place of its absorbition, there is no authentic decision.  
The probablest place may be set somewhat Southward, below the Rivers that run into it on the East or Western Shore: and somewhat agreeable unto the account which Brocardus received from the Saracens which lived near it, Jordanem ingredi Mare Mortuum & rursum egredi, sed post exiguum intervallum à Terra absorberi.  
Strabo speaks naturally of this Lake, that it was first caused by Earthquakes, by sulphureous and bituminous eruptions, arising from the Earth. But the Scripture makes it plain to have been from a miraculous hand, and by a remarkable expression, pluit Dominus ignem & Sulphur à Domino. See also Deut. 29. in ardore Salis: burning the Cities and destroying all things about the Plain, destroying the vegetable nature of Plants and all living things, salting and making barren the whole Soil, and, by these fiery Showers, kindling and setting loose the body of the bituminous Mines, which showed their lower Veins before but in some few Pits and openings, swallowing up the Foundation of their Cities; opening the bituminous Treasures below, and making a smoke like a Furnace able to be discerned by Abraham at a good distance from it.  
If this little may give you satisfaction, I shall be glad, as being, Sir,  
Yours, etc.    

TRACT XI. OF THE ANSWERS OF THE Oracle of Apollo at Delphos TO Croesus' King of Lydia.  
SIR,  
AMong the 
* See Vulg. Err. l. 7. c. 12.  Oracles of Apollo there are none more celebrated than those which he delivered unto Croesus' King of 
† Herod. l. 1. 46, 47, etc. 90, 91.  Lydia, who seems of all Princes to have held the greatest dependence on them. But most considerable are his plain and intelligible replies which he made unto the same King, when he sent his Chains of Captivity unto Delphos, after his overthrow by Cyrus, with sad expostulations why he encouraged him unto that fatal War by his Oracle, saying, 
* Herod. Ibid. 54.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Croesus, if he Wars against the Persians, shall dissolve a great Empire. Why, at least, he prevented not that sad infelicity of his devoted and bountiful Servant, and whether it were fair or honourable for the Gods of Greece to be ingrateful: which being a plain and open delivery of Delphos, and scarce to be paralleled in any ancient story, it may well deserve your farther consideration.  
1. His first reply was, That Croesus suffered not for himself; but paid the transgression of his fifth predecessor, who killed his Master and usurped the dignity unto which he held no title.  
Now whether Croesus suffered upon this account or not, hereby he plainly betrayed his insufficiency to protect him; and also obliquely discovered he had a knowledge of his misfortune; for knowing that wicked act lay yet unpunished, he might well divine some of his successors might smart for it: and also understanding he was like to be the last of that race, he might justly fear and conclude this infelicity upon him.  
Hereby he also acknowledged the inevitable justice of God; that though Revenge lay dormant, it would not always sleep; and consequently confessed the just hand of God punishing unto the third and fourth generation, nor suffering such iniquities to pass for ever unrevenged.  
Hereby he flatteringly encouraged him in the opinion of his own merits, and that he only suffered for other men's transgressions: mean while he concealed Croesus his pride, elation of mind and secure conceit of his own unparallelled felicity, together with the vanity, pride and height of luxury of the Lydian Nation, which the Spirit of Delphos knew well to be ripe and ready for destruction.  
2. A Second excuse was, That it is not in the power of God to hinder the Decree of Fate. A general evasion for any falsified prediction founded upon the common opinion of Fate, which impiously subjecteth the power of Heaven unto it; widely discovering the folly of such as repair unto him concerning future events: which, according unto this rule, must go on as the Fates have ordered, beyond his power to prevent or theirs to avoid; and consequently teaching that his Oracles had only this use to render men more miserable by foreknowing their misfortunes; whereof Croesus himself held a sensible experience in that Daemoniacal Dream concerning his eldest Son, That he should be killed by a Spear, which, after all care and caution, he found inevitably to befall him.  
3. In his Third Apology he assured him that he endeavoured to transfer the evil Fate and to pass it upon his Children; and did however procrastinate his infelicity, and deferred the destruction of Sardis and his own Captivity three years longer than was fatally decreed upon it.  
Wherein while he wipes off the stain of Ingratitude, he leaves no small doubt whether, it being out of his power to contradict or transfer the Fates of his Servants, it be not also beyond it to defer such signal events, and whereon the Fates of whole Nations do depend.  
As also, whether he intended or endeavoured to bring to pass what he pretended, some question might be made. For that he should attempt or think he could translate his infelicity upon his Sons, it could not consist with his judgement, which attempts not impossibles or things beyond his power; nor with his knowledge of future things, and the Fates of succeeding Generations: for he understood that Monarchy was to expire in himself, and could particularly foretell the infelicity of his Sons, and hath also made remote predictions unto others concerning the fortunes of many succeeding descents; as appears in that answer unto Attalus,  
Be of good courage, Attalus, thou shalt reign  
And thy Sons Sons, but not their Sons again.  
As also unto Cypselus King of Corinth.  

Happy is the Man who at my Altar stands,  
Great Cypselus who Corinth now commands.  
Happy is he, his Sons shall happy be,  
But for their Sons, unhappy days they'll see.   
Now, being able to have so large a prospect of future things, and of the fate of many Generations, it might well be granted he was not ignorant of the Fate of Croesus his Sons, and well understood it was in vain to think to translate his misery upon them.  
4. In the Fourth part of his reply, he clears himself of Ingratitude which Hell itself cannot hear of; alleging that he had saved his life when he was ready to be burnt, by sending a mighty Shower, in a fair and cloudless day, to quench the Fire already kindled, which all the Servants of Cyrus could not do. Though this Shower might well be granted, as much concerning his honour, and not beyond his power; yet whether this merciful Shower fell not out contingently or were not contrived by an higher power, which hath often pity upon Pagans, and rewardeth their virtues sometimes with extraordinary temporal favours; also, in no unlike case, who was the author of those few fair minutes, which, in a showry day, gave only time enough for the burning of Sylla's Body, some question might be made.  
5. The last excuse devolveth the error and miscarriage of the business upon Croesus, and that he deceived himself by an inconsiderate misconstruction of his Oracle, that if he had doubted, he should not have passed it over in silence, but consulted again for an exposition of it. Besides, he had neither discussed, nor well prepended his Oracle concerning Cyrus, whereby he might have understood not to engage against him.  
Wherein, to speak indifferently, the deception and miscarriage seems chiefly to lie at Croesus his door, who, if not infatuated with confidence and security, might justly have doubted the construction: besides, he had received two Oracles before, which clearly hinted an unhappy time unto him: the first concerning Cyrus.  
When ever a Mule shall o'er the Medians reign,  
Stay not, but unto Hermus fly amain.  
Herein though he understood not the Median Mule of Cyrus, that is, of his mixed descent, and from Assyrian and Median Parents, yet he could not but apprehend some misfortune from that quarter.  
Though this prediction seemed a notable piece of Divination, yet did it not so highly magnify his natural sagacity or knowledge of future events as was by many esteemed; he having no small assistance herein from the Prophecy of Daniel concerning the Persian Monarchy, and the Prophecy of Jeremiah and Isaiah, wherein he might read the name of Cyrus who should restore the Captivity of the Jews, and must, therefore, be the great Monarch and Lord of all those Nations.  
The same misfortune was also foretold when he demanded of Apollo if ever he should hear his dumb Son speak.  

O foolish Croesus who hast made this choice,  
To know when thou shalt hear thy dumb Son's voice;  
Better he still were mute, would nothing say,  
When he first speaks, look for a dismal day.   
This, if he contrived not the time and the means of his recovery, was no ordinary divination: yet how to make out the verity of the story some doubt may yet remain. For though the causes of deafness and dumbness were removed, yet since words are attained by hearing, and men speak not without instruction, how he should be able immediately to utter such apt and significant words, as 
* Herod. l. 1. 85.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, O Man slay not Croesus, it cannot escape some doubt, since the Story also delivers, that he was deaf and dumb, that he then first began to speak, and spoke all his life after.  
Now, if Croesus had consulted again for a clearer exposition of what was doubtfully delivered, whether the Oracle would have spoke out the second time or afforded a clearer answer, some question might be made from the examples of his practice upon the like demands.  
So when the Spartans' had often fought with ill success against the Tegeates, they consulted the Oracle what God they should appease, to become victorious over them. The answer was, that they should remove the Bones of Orestes. Though the words were plain, yet the thing was obscure, and like finding out the Body of Moses. And therefore they once more demanded in what place they should find the same; unto whom he returned this answer,  

When in the Tegean Plains a place thou findest  
Where blasts are made by two impetuous Winds,  
Where that that strikes is struck, blows follow blows,  
There doth the Earth Orestes Bones enclose.   
Which obscure reply the wisest of Sparta could not make out, and was casually unriddled by one talking with a Smith who had found large Bones of a Man buried about his House; the Oracle importing no more than a Smith's Forge, expressed by a double Bellows, the Hammer and Anvil therein.  
Now, why the Oracle should place such consideration upon the Bones of Orestes the Son of Agamemnon, a mad man and a murderer, if not to promote the idolatry of the Heathens, and maintain a superstitious veneration of things of no activity, it may leave no small obscurity.  
Or why, in a business so clear in his knowledge, he should affect so obscure expressions it may also be wondered; if it were not to maintain the wary and evasive method in his answers: for, speaking obscurely in things beyond doubt within his knowledge, he might be more tolerably dark in matters beyond his prescience.  
Though EI were inscribed over the Gate of Delphos, yet was there no uniformity in his deliveries. Sometimes with that obscurity as argued a fearful prophecy; sometimes so plainly as might confirm a spirit of divinity; sometimes morally, deterring from vice and villainy; another time viciously, and in the spirit of blood and cruelty: observably modest in his civil enigma and periphrasis of that part which old Numa would plainly 
* Plut. in Thes.  name, and Medea would not understand, when he advised Aegeus not to draw out his foot before, until he arrived upon the Athenian ground; whereas another time he seemed too literal in that unseemly epithet unto Cyanus King of * Cyprus, and put a 
† V. Herod.  beastly trouble upon all Egypt to find out the Urine of a true Virgin. Sometimes, more beholding unto memory than invention, he delighted to express himself in the bare Verses of Homer. But that he principally affected Poetry, and that the Priest not only or always composed his prosal raptures into Verse, seems plain from his necromantical Prophecies, whilst the dead Head in Phlegon delivers a long Prediction in Verse; and at the raising of the Ghost of Commodus unto Caracalla, when none of his Ancestors would speak, the divining Spirit versified his infelicities; corresponding herein to the apprehensions of elder times, who conceived not only a Majesty but something of Divinity in Poetry, and as in ancient times the old Theologians delivered their inventions.  
Some critical Readers might expect in his oraculous Poems a more than ordinary strain and true spirit of Apollo; not contented to find that Spirits make Verses like Men, beating upon the filling Epithet, and taking the licence of dialects and lower helps, common to humane Poetry; wherein, since Scaliger, who hath spared none of the Greeks, hath thought it wisdom to be silent, we shall make no excursion.  
Others may wonder how the curiosity of elder times, having this opportunity of his Answers, omitted Natural Questions; or how the old Magicians discovered no more Philosophy; and if they had the assistance of Spirits, could rest content with the bare assertions of things, without the knowledge of their causes; whereby they had made their Acts iterable by sober hands, and a standing part of Philosophy. Many wise Divines hold a reality in the wonders of the Egyptian Magicians, and that those magnalia which they performed before Pharaoh were not mere delusions of Sense. Rightly to understand how they made Serpents out of Rods; Frogs and Blood of Water, were worth half Porta's Magic.  
Hermolaus Barbarus was scarce in his wits, when, upon conference with a Spirit, he would demand no other question than the explication of Aristotle's Entelecheia. Appion the Grammarian, that would raise the Ghost of Homer to decide the Controversy of his Country, made a frivolous and pedantic use of Necromancy. Philostratus did as little, that called up the Ghost of Achilles for a particular of the Story of Troy. Smarter curiosities would have been at the great Elixir, the Flux and Reflux of the Sea, with other noble obscurities in Nature; but probably all in vain: in matters cognoscible and framed for our disquisition, our Industry must be our Oracle, and Reason our Apollo.  
Not to know things without the Arch of our intellectuals, or what Spirits apprehend, is the imperfection of our nature not our knowledge, and rather inscience than ignorance in man. Revelation might render a great part of the Creation easy which now seems beyond the stretch of humane indagation, and welcome no doubt from good hands might be a true Almagest, and great celestial construction: a clear Systeme of the planetical Bodies of the invisible and seeming useless Stars unto us, of the many Suns in the eighth Sphere, what they are, what they contain and to what more immediately those stupendious Bodies are serviceable. But being not hinted in the authentic Revelation of God, nor known how far their discoveries are stinted; if they should come unto us from the mouth of evil Spirits, the belief thereof might be as unsafe as the enquiry.  
This is a copious Subject; but, having exceeded the bounds of a Letter, I will not, now, pursue it farther. I am  
Yours, etc.   

TRACT XII. A PROPHECY, Concerning the future state of several NATIONS,  
In a Letter written upon occasion of an old Prophecy sent to the Author from a Friend, with a Request that he would consider it.  
SIR,  
I Take no pleasure in Prophecies so hardly intelligible, and pointing at future things from a pretended spirit of Divination; of which sort this seems to be which came unto your hand, and you were pleased to send unto me. And therefore, for your easier apprehension, divertisement and consideration, I present you with a very different kind of prediction: not positively or peremptorily telling you what shall come to pass; yet pointing at things not without all reason or probability of their events; not built upon fatal decrees, or inevitable designations, but upon conjectural foundations, whereby things wished may be promoted, and such as are feared, may more probably be prevented.  


THE PROPHECY.  
WHen New England shall trouble New Spain.  
When Jamaica shall be Lady of the Isles and the Main.  

When Spain shall be in America hid,  
And Mexico shall prove a Madrid.   

When Mahomet's Ships on the Baltic shall ride,  
And Turks shall labour to have Ports on that side.   
When Africa shall no more sell out their Blacks  
To make Slaves and Drudges to the American Tracts.  
When Batavia the Old shall be contemned by the New.  
When a new Drove of Tartars shall China subdue.  

When America shall cease to send out its Treasure,  
But employ it at home in American Pleasure.   

When the new World shall the old invade,  
Nor count them their Lords but their fellows in Trade.   

When Men shall almost pass to Venice by Land,  
Not in deep Water but from Sand to Sand.   

When Nova Zembla shall be no stay  
Unto those who pass to or from Cathay.   

Then think strange things are come to light,  
Whereof but few have had a foresight.     

THE EXPOSITION OF THE PROPHECY.  

WHen New England shall trouble New Spain.  
That is, When that thriving Colony, which hath so much increased in our days, and in the space of about fifty years, that they can, as they report, raise between twenty and thirty thousand men upon an exigency, shall in process of time be so advanced, as to be able to send forth Ships and Fleets, as to infest the American Spanish Ports and Maritime Dominions by depredations or assaults; for which attempts they are not like to be unprovided, as abounding in the Materials for Shipping, Oak and Fir. And when length of time shall so far increase that industrious people, that the neighbouring Country will not contain them, they will range still farther and be able, in time, to set forth great Armies, seek for new possessions, or make considerable and conjoined migrations, according to the custom of swarming Northern Nations; wherein it is not likely that they will move Northward, but toward the Southern and richer Countries, which are either in the Dominions or Frontiers of the Spaniards: and may not improbably erect new Dominions in places not yet thought of, and yet, for some Centuries, beyond their power or Ambition.   

When Jamaica shall be Lady of the Isles and the Main.  
That is, When that advantageous Island shall be well peopled, it may become so strong and potent as to overpower the neighbouring Isles, and also a part of the main Land, especially the Maritime parts. And already in their infancy they have given testimony of their power and courage in their bold attempts upon Campeche and Santa Martha; and in that notable attempt upon Panama on the Western side of America: especially considering this Island is sufficiently large to contain a numerous people, of a Northern and warlike descent, addicted to martial affairs both by Sea and Land, and advantageously seated to infest their neighbours both of the Isles and the Continent, and like to be a receptacle for Colonies of the same originals from Barbadoes and the neighbour Isles.   

When Spain shall be in America hid; 
 And Mexico shall prove a Madrid.  
That is, When Spain, either by unexpected disasters, or continued emissions of people into America, which have already thinned the Country, shall be farther exhausted at home: or when, in process of time, their Colonies shall grow by many accessions more than their Originals, than Mexico may become a Madrid, and as considerable in people, wealth and splendour: wherein that place is already so well advanced, that accounts scarce credible are given of it. And it is so advantageously seated, that, by Acapulco and other Ports on the South Sea, they may maintain a communication and commerce with the Indian Isles and Territories, and with China and Japan, and on this side, by Porto Belo and others, hold correspondence with Europe and Africa.   

When Mahomet's Ships in the Baltic shall ride.  
Of this we cannot be out of all fear: for, if the Turk should master Poland, he would be soon at this Sea. And from the odd constitution of the Polish Government, the divisions among themselves, jealousies between their Kingdom and Republic; vicinity of the Tartars, treachery of the Cossacks, and the method of Turkish Policy, to be at Peace with the Emperor of Germany when he is at War with the Poles, there may be cause to fear that this may come to pass. And then he would soon endeavour to have Ports upon that Sea, as not wanting Materials for Shipping. And, having a new acquist of stout and warlike men, may be a terror unto the confiners on that Sea, and to Nations which now conceive themselves safe from such an Enemy.   

When Africa shall no more sell out their Blacks.  
That is, When African Countries shall no longer make it a common Trade to sell away their people to serve in the drudgery of American Plantations. And that may come to pass when ever they shall be well civilised, and acquainted with Arts and Affairs sufficient to employ people in their Countries: if also they should be converted to Christianity, but especially unto Mahometism; for than they would never sell those of their Religion to be Slaves unto Christians.   

When Batavia the Old shall be contemned by the New.  
When the Plantations of the Hollanders at Batavia in the East Indies, and other places in the East Indies, shall, by their conquests and advancements, become so powerful in the Indian Territories; Then their Original Countries and States of Holland are like to be contemned by them, and obeyed only as they please. And they seem to be in a way unto it at present by their several Plantations, new acquists and enlargements: and they have lately discovered a part of the Southern Continent, and several places which may be serviceable unto them, when ever time shall enlarge them unto such necessities.   

And a new Drove of Tartars shall China subdue.  
Which is no strange thing if we consult the Histories of China, and successive Inundations made by Tartarian Nations. For when the Invaders, in process of time, have degenerated into the effeminacy and softness of the Chinese, than they themselves have suffered a new Tartarian Conquest and Inundation. And this hath happened from time beyond our Histories: for, according to their account, the famous Wall of China, built against the eruptions of the Tartars, was begun above a hundred years before the Incarnation.   

When America shall cease to send forth its Treasure, 
 But employ it at home for American Pleasure.  
That is, When America shall be better civilised, new policied and divided between great Princes, it may come to pass that they will no longer suffer their Treasure of Gold and Silver to be sent out to maintain the Luxury of Europe and other parts: but rather employ it to their own advantages, in great Exploits and Undertake, magnificent Structures, Wars or Expeditions of their own.   

When the new World shall the old invade.  
That is, When America shall be so well peopled, civilised and divided into Kingdoms, they are like to have so little regard of their Originals, as to acknowledge no subjection unto them: they may also have a distinct commerce between themselves, or but independently with those of Europe, and may hostilely and pyratically assault them, even as the Greek and Roman Colonies after a long time dealt with their Original Countries.   

When Men shall almost pass to Venice by Land, 
 Not in deep Waters but from Sand to Sand.  
That is, When, in long process of time, the Silt and Sands shall so choke and shallow the Sea in and about it. And this hath considerably come to pass within these fourscore years; and is like to increase from several causes, especially by the turning of the River Brenta, as the learned Castelli hath declared.   

When Nova Zembla shall be no stay 
 Unto those who pass to or from Cathay.  
That is, When ever that often sought for Northeast passage unto China and Japan shall be discovered; the hindrance whereof was imputed to Nova Zembla; for this was conceived to be an excursion of Land shooting out directly, and so far Northward into the Sea that it discouraged from all Navigation about it. And therefore Adventurers took in at the Southern part at a straight by Waygatz next the Tartarian Shore: and, sailing forward they found that Sea frozen and full of Ice, and so gave over the attempt. But of late years, by the diligent enquiry of some Moscovites, a better discovery is made of these parts, and a Map or Chartley made of them. Thereby Nova Zembla is found to be no Island extending very far Northward; but, winding Eastward, it joineth to the Tartarian Continent, and so makes a Peninsula: and the Sea between it which they entered at Waygatz, is found to be but a large Bay, apt to be frozen by reason of the great River of Oby, and other fresh Waters, entering into it: whereas the main Sea doth not freeze upon the North of Zembla except near unto Shores; so that if the Moscovites were skilful Navigatours they might, with less difficulties, discover this passage unto China: but however the English, Dutch and Danes are now like to attempt it again.  
But this is Conjecture, and not Prophecy: and so (I know) you will take it. I am,  
Sir, etc.     

TRACT XIII. MUSAEUM CLAUSUM, OR, Bibliotheca Abscondita:  
Containing Some remarkable Books, Antiquities, Pictures and Rarities of several kinds, scarce or never seen by any man now living.  
SIR,  
WITH many thanks I return that noble Catalogue of Books, Rarities and Singularities of Art and Nature, which you were pleased to communicate unto me. There are many Collections of this kind in Europe. And, besides the printed accounts of the Musaeum Aldrovandi, Calceolarianum, Moscardi, Wormianum; the Casa Abbellita at Loretto, and treasure of S. Dennis, the Repository of the Duke of Tuscany, that of the Duke of Saxony, and that noble one of the Emperor at Vienna, and many more are of singular note. Of what in this kind I have by me I shall make no repetition, and you having already had a view thereof, I am bold to present you with the List of a Collection, which I may justly say you have not seen before.  
The Title is, as above,  
Musaeum Clausum, or Bibliotheca Abscondita: containing some remarkable Books, Antiquities, Pictures and Rarities of several kinds, scarce or never seen by any man now living.  

1. Rare and generally unknown Books.  
1. A Poem of Ovid Naso, written in the Getick Language; 
* Ah pudet & scripsi Getico sermone Libellum.  during his exile at Tomos, found wrapped up in Wax at Sabaria, on the Frontiers of Hungary, where there remains a tradition that he died, in his return towards Rome from Tomos, either after his pardon or the death of Augustus.  
2. The Letter of Quintus Cicero, which he wrote in answer to that of his Brother Marcus Tullius, desiring of him an account of Brittany, wherein are described the Country, State and Manners of the Britain's of that Age.  
3. An Ancient British Herbal, or description of divers Plants of this Island, observed by that famous Physician Scribonius Largus, when he attended the Emperor Claudius in his Expedition into Brittany.  
4. An exact account of the Life and Death of Avicenna confirming the account of his Death by taking nine Clysters together in a fit of the Colic; and not as Marius the Italian Poet delivereth, by being broken-upon the Wheel; left with other Pieces by Benjamin Tudelensis, as he traveled from Saragossa to Jerusalem, in the hands of Abraham Jarchi, a famous Rabbi of Lunet near Montpelier, and found in a Vault when the Walls of that City were demolished by Lewis the Thirteenth.  
5. A punctual relation of Hannibal's march out of Spain into Italy, and far more particular than that of Livy, where about he passed the River Rhodanus or Rhosne; at what place he crossed the Isura or L'isere; when he marched up toward the confluence of the Sun and the Rhone, or the place where the City Lions was afterward built; how wisely he decided the difference between King Brancus and his Brother, at what place he passed the Alps, what Vinegar he used, and where he obtained such quantity to break and calcine the Rocks made hot with Fire.  
6. A learned Comment upon the Periplus of Hanno the Carthaginian, or his Navigation upon the Western Coast of Africa, with the several places he landed at; what Colonies he settled, what Ships were scattered from his Fleet near the Aequinoctial Line, which were not afterward heard of, and which probably fell into the Trade Winds, and were carried over into the Coast of America.  
7. A particular Narration of that famous Expedition of the English into Barbary in the ninety fourth year of the Hegira, so shortly touched by Leo Africanus, whither called by the Goths they besieged, took and burnt the City of Arzilla possessed by the Mahometans, and lately the seat of Gayland; with many other exploits delivered at large in Arabic, lost in the Ship of Books and Rarities which the King of Spain took from Siddy Hamet King of Fez, whereof a great part were carried into the Escurial, and conceived to be gathered out of the relations of Hibnu Nachu, the best Historian of the African Affairs.  
8. A Fragment of Pythaeas that ancient Traveller of Marseille; which we suspect not to be spurious, because, in the description of the Northern Countries, we find that passage of Pythaeas' mentioned by Strabo, that all the Air beyond Thule is thick, condensed and gelid, looking just like Sea Lungs.  
9 A Sub Marine Herbal, describing the several Vegetables found on the Rocks, Hills, Valleys, Meadows at the bottom of the Sea, with many sorts of Aiga, Fucus, Quercus, Polygonum, Gramen and others not yet described.  
10. Some Manuscripts and Rarities brought from the Libraries of Aethiopia, by Zaga Zaba, and afterward transported to Rome, and scattered by the Soldiers of the Duke of Bourbon, when they barbarously sacked that City.  
11. Some Pieces of Julius Scaliger, which he complains to have been stolen from him, sold to the Bishop of Mende in Languedock, and afterward taken away and sold in the Civil Wars under the Duke of Rohan.  
12. A Comment of Dioscorides upon Hippocrates, procured from Constantinople by Amatus Lusitanus, and left in the hands of a Jew of Ragusa.  
13. Marcus Tullius Cicero his Geography; as also a part of that magnified Piece of his De Republica, very little answering the great expectation of it, and short of Pieces under the same name by Bodinus and Tholosanus.  
14. King Mithridates his Oneirocritica. Aristotle de Precationibus.  
Democritus de his quae fiunt apud Orcum, & Oceani circumnavigatio.  
Epicurus de Pietate.  
A Tragedy of Thyestes, and another of Medea, writ by Diogenes the Cynic.  
King Alfred upon Aristotle de Plantis.  
Seneca's Epistles to S. Paul.  
King Solomon de Umbris Idaearum, which Chicus Asculanus, in his Comment upon Johannes de Sacrobosco, would make us believe he saw in the Library of the Duke of Bavaria.  
15. Artemidori Oneirocritici Geographia.  
Pythagoras de Mari Rubro.  
The Works of Confutius the famous Philosopher of China, translated into Spanish.  
16. Josephus in Hebrew, written by himself.  
17. The Commentaries of Sylla the dictator.  
18. A Commentary of Galen upon the Plague of Athens described by Thucydides.  
19 Duo Caesaris Anticatones, or the two notable Books writ by Julius Caesar against Cato; mentioned by Livy, Salustius and Juvenal; which the Cardinal of Liege told Ludovicus Vives were in an old Library of that City.  
Mazhapha Einok, or, the Prophecy of Enoch, which Aegidius Lochiensis, a learned Eastern Traveller, told Peireschius that he had found in an old Library at Alexandria containing eight thousand Volumes.  
20. A Collection of Hebrew Epistles, which passed between the two learned Women of our age Maria Molinea of Sedan, and Maria Schurman of Utrecht.  
A wondrous Collection of some Writings of Ludovica Saracenica, Daughter of Philibertus Saracenicus a Physician of Lions, who at eight years of age had made a good progress in the Hebrew, Greek and Latin Tongues.   

2. Rarities in Pictures.  
1. A Picture of the three remarkable Steeples or Towers in Europe built purposely awry and so as they seem falling. Torre Pisana at Pisa, Torre Garisenda in Bononia, and that other in the City of Colein.  
2. A Draught of all sorts of Sistrums, Crotaloes, Cymbals, Tympans, etc. in use among the Ancients.  
3. Large Submarine Pieces, well delineating the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, the Prerie or large Sea-meadow upon the Coast of Provence, the Coral Fishing, the gathering of Sponges, the Mountains, Valleys and Deserts, the Subterraneous Vents and Passages at the bottom of that Sea. Together with a lively Draught of Cola Pesce, or the famous Sicilian Swimmer, diving into the Voragos and broken Rocks by Charybdis, to fetch up the golden Cup, which Frederick, King of Sicily, had purposely thrown into that Sea.  
4. A Moon Piece, describing that notable Battle between Axalla, General of Tamerlane, and Camares the Persian, fought by the light of the Moon.  
5. Another remarkable Fight of Inghimmi the Florentine with the Turkish Galleys by Moonlight, who being for three hours grappled with the Bassa Galley, concluded with a signal Victory.  
6. A delineation of the great Fair of Almachara in Arabia, which, to avoid the great heat of the Sun, is kept in the Night, and by the light of the Moon.  
7. A Snow Piece, of Land and Trees covered with Snow and Ice, and Mountains of Ice floating in the Sea, with Bears, Seals, Foxes, and variety of rare Fowls upon them.  
8. An Ice Piece describing the notable Battle between the Jaziges and the Romans, fought upon the frozen Danubius, the Romans settling one foot upon their Targets to hinder them from slipping, their fight with the Jaziges when they were fallen, and their advantages therein by their art in volutation and rolling contention or wrestling, according to the description of Dion.  
9 Socia, or a Draught of three persons notably resembling each other. Of King Henry the Fourth of France, and a Miller of Languedock; of Sforza Duke of Milan and a Soldier; of Malalesta Duke of Rimini and Marchesinus the Jester.  
10. A Picture of the great Fire which happened at Constantinople in the Reign of Sultan Achmet. The Janissaries in the mean time plundering the best Houses, Nassa Bassa the Vizier riding about with a Cimetre in one hand and a Janizary's Head in the other to deter them; and the Priests attempting to quench the Fire, by pieces of Mahomet's Shirt dipped in holy Water and thrown into it.  
11. A Night Piece of the dismal Supper and strange Entertain of the Senators by Domitian, according to the description of Dion.  
12. A Vestal Sinner in the Cave with a Table and a Candle.  
13. An Elephant dancing upon the Ropes with a Negro Dwarf upon his Back.  
14. Another describing the mighty Stone falling from the Clouds into Aegospotamos or the Goat's River in Greece, which Antiquity could believe that Anaxagoras was able to foretell half a year before.  
15. Three noble Pieces; of Vercingetorix the Gaul submitting his person unto Julius Caesar; of Tigranes' King of Armenia humbly presenting himself unto Pompey; and of Tamerlane ascending his Horse from the Neck of Bajazet.  
16. Draughts of three passionate Looks; of Thyestes when he was told at the Table that he had eaten a piece of his own Son; of Bajazet when he went into the Iron Cage; of Oedipus when he first came to know that he had killed his Father, and married his own Mother.  
17. Of the Cymbrian Mother in Plutarch who, after the overthrow by Marius, hanged herself and her two Children at her feet.  
18. Some Pieces delineating singular inhumanities' in Tortures. The Scaphismus of the Persians. The living truncation of the Turks. The hanging Sport at the Feasts of the Thracians. The exact method of flaying men alive, beginning between the Shoulders, according to the description of Thomas Minadoi, in his Persian War. Together with the studied tortures of the French Traitors at Pappa in Hungaria: as also the wild and enormous torment invented by Tiberius, designed according unto the description of Suetonius. Excogitaverunt inter genera cruciatûs, ut largâ meri potione per fallaciam oneratos repentè veretris deligatis fidicularum simul urinaeque tormento distenderet.  
19 A Picture describing how Hannibal forced his passage over the River Rhosne with his Elephants, Baggage and mixed Army; with the Army of the Gauls opposing him on the contrary Shore, and Hanno passing over with his Horse much above to fall upon the Rear of the Gauls.  
20. A neat Piece describing the Sack of Fundi by the Fleet and Soldiers of Barbarossa the Turkish Admiral, the confusion of the people and their flying up to the Mountains, and Julia Gonzaga the beauty of Italy flying away with her Ladies half naked on Horseback over the Hills.  
21. A noble Head of Franciscus Gonzaga, who, being imprisoned for Treason, grew grey in one night, with this Inscription,  
O nox quam longa est quae facit una senem.  
22. A large Picture describing the Siege of Vienna by Solyman the Magnificent, and at the same time the Siege of Florence by the Emperor Charles the Fifth and Pope Clement the Seventh, with this Subscription,  
Tum vacui capitis populum Phaeaca putares?  
23. An exquisite Piece properly delineating the first course of Metellus his Pontificial Supper, according to the description of Macrobius; together with a Dish of Pisces Fossiles, garnished about with the little Eels taken out of the backs of Cod and Perches; as also with the Shell Fish's found in Stones about Ancona.  
24. A Picture of the noble Entertain and Feast of the Duke of Chausue at the Treaty of Collen, 1673. when in a very large Room, with all the Windows open, and at a very large Table he sat himself, with many great persons and Ladies; next about the Table stood a row of Waiters, than a row of Musicians, than a row of Musketeers.  
25. Miltiades, who overthrew the Persians at the Battle of Marathon and delivered Greece, looking out of a Prison Grate in Athens, wherein he died, with this Inscription,  
(quam,  
Non hoc terribiles Cymbri non britons un-  
Sauromataeve truces aut immanes Agathyrsi.  
26. A fair English Lady drawn All Negro, or in the Aethiopian hue excelling the original White and Red Beauty, with this Subscription,  
Sed quandam volo nocte Nigriorem.  
27. Pieces and Draughts in Caricatura, of Princes, Cardinals and famous men; wherein, among others, the Painter hath singularly hit the signatures of a Lion and a Fox in the face of Pope Leo the Tenth.  
28. Some Pieces A la ventura, or Rare Chance Pieces, either drawn at random, and happening to be like some person, or drawn for some and happening to be more like another; while the Face, mistaken by the Painter, proves a tolerable Picture of one he never saw.  
29. A Draught of famous Dwarves with this Inscription,  
Nos facimus Bruti puerum nos Lagona vivum.  
30. An exact and proper delineation of all sorts of Dogs upon occasion of the practice of Sultan Achmet; who in a great Plague at Constantinople transported all the Dogs therein unto Pera, and from thence into a little Island, where they perished at last by Famine: as also the manner of the Priests curing of mad Dogs by burning them in the forehead with Saint belin's Key.  
31. A noble Picture of Thorismund King of the Goths as he was killed in his Palace at Tholouze, who being let blood by a Surgeon, while he was bleeding, a slander by took the advantage to stab him.  
32. A Picture of rare Fruits with this Inscription,  
Credere quae possis surrepta sororibus Afris.  
33. An handsome Piece of Deformity expressed in a notable hard Face, with this Inscription,  
— Ora  
Julius in Satyris qualia Rufus habet.  
34. A noble Picture of the famous Duel between Paul Manessi and Caragusa the Turk in the time of Amurath the Second; the Turkish Army and that of Scanderbag looking on; wherein Manessi slew the Turk, cut off his Head and carried away the Spoils of his Body.   

3. Antiquities and Rarities of several sorts.  
1. CErtain ancient Medals with Greek and Roman Inscriptions, found about Crim Tartary; conceived to be left in those parts by the Soldiers of Mithridates, when overcome by Pompey, he marched round about the North of the Euxine to come about into Thracia.  
2. Some ancient Ivory and Copper Crosses found with many others in China; conceived to have been brought and left there by the Greek Soldiers who served under Tamerlane in his Expedition and Conquest of that Country.  
3. Stones of strange and illegible Inscriptions, sound about the great ruins which Vincent le Blanc describeth about Cephala in Africa, where he opinioned that the Hebrews raised some buildings of old, and that Solomon brought from thereabout a good part of his Gold.  
4. Some handsome Engraveries and Medals, of Justinus and Justinianus, found in the custody of a Bannyan in the remote parts of India, conjectured to have been left there by the Friars mentioned in Procopius, who traveled those parts in the Reign of Justinianus, and brought back into Europe the discovery of Silk and Silk Worms.  
5. An original Medal of Petrus Aretinus, who was called Flagellum Principum, wherein he made his own Figure on the Obverse part with this Inscription,  
Il Divino Aretino.  
On the Reverse sitting on a Throne, and at his Feet Ambassadors of Kings and Princes bringing presents unto him, with this Inscription,  
I Principi tributati da i Popoli tributano il Servitor loro.  
6. Mummia Tholosana; or, The complete Head and Body of Father Crispin, buried long ago in the Vault of the Cordeliers at Tholouse, where the Skins of the dead so dry and parch up without corrupting that their persons may be known very long after, with this Inscription,  
Ecce iterum Crispinus.  
7. A noble Quandros or Stone taken out of a Vulture's Head.  
8. A large Ostriches Egg, whereon is neatly and fully wrought that famous Battle of Alcazar, in which three Kings lost their lives.  
9 An Etiudros Alberti or Stone that is apt to be always moist: useful unto dry tempers, and to be held in the hand in Fevers instead of Crystal, Eggs, Limmons, Cucumbers.  
10. A small Viol of Water taken out of the Stones therefore called Enhydri, which naturally include a little Water in them, in like manner as the Aetites or Aëgle Stone doth another Stone.  
11. A neat painted and gilded Cup made out of the Confiti di Tivoli and form up with powdered Eggshells; as Nero is conceived to have made his Piscina admirabilis, singular against Fluxes to drink often therein.  
12. The Skin of a Snake bred out of the Spinal Marrow of a Man.  
13. Vegetable Horns mentioned by Linschoten, which set in the ground grow up like Plants about Goa.  
14. An extract of the Ink of Cuttle Fishes reviving the old remedy of Hypocrates in Hysterical Passions.  
15. Spirits and Salt of Sargasso made in the Western Ocean covered with that Vegetable; excellent against the Scurvy.  
16. An extract of Cachundè or Liberans that famous and highly magnified Composition in the East Indies against Melancholy.  
17. Diarhizon mirificum; or an unparallelled Composition of the most effectual and wonderful Roots in Nature.  

℞ Rad. Butuae Cuamensis.  
Rad. Moniche Cuamensis.  
Rad. Mongus Bazainensis.  
Rad. Casei Baizanensis.  
Rad. Columbae Mozambiguensis.  
Gim Sem Sinicae.  
Foe Limb lac Tigridis dictae.  
Foyes seu  
Cort. Rad. Soldae.  
Rad. Ligni Solorani.  
Rad. Malacensis madrededios dictae an. ℥ ij.  
M. fiat pulvis, qui cum gelatinâ Cornu cervi Moschati Chinensis formetur in massas oviformes.   
18. A transcendent Perfume made of the richest Odorates of both the Indies, kept in a Box made of the Muschie Stone of Niarienburg, with this Inscription,  
— Deos rogato  
Totum ut te faciant, Fabulle, Nasum.  
19 A Clepselaea, or Oil Hourglass, as the Ancients used those of Water.  
20. A Ring found in a Fish's Belly taken about Gorro; conceived to be the same wherewith the Duke of Venice had wedded the Sea.  
21. A neat Crucifix made out of the cross Bone of a Frogs Head.  
22. A large Agath containing a various and careless Figure, which looked upon by a Cylinder representeth a perfect Centaur. By some such advantages King Pyrrhus might find out Apollo and the nine Muses in those Agaths of his whereof Pliny maketh mention.  
23. Batrachomyomachia, or the Homerican Battle between Frogs and Mice, neatly described upon the Chizel Bone of a large Pike's Jaw.  
24. Pyxis Pandoroe, or a Box which held the Unguentum Pestiferum, which by anointing the Garments of several persons begat the great and horrible Plague of Milan.  
25. A Glass of Spirits made of Aethereal Salt, Hermetically sealed up, kept continually in Quicksilver; of so volatile a nature that it will scarce endure the Light, and therefore only to be shown in Winter, or by the light of a Carbuncle, or Bononian Stone.  
He who knows where all this Treasure now is, is a great Apollo. I'm sure I am not Herald However, I am,  
Sir, Yours, etc.    

AN ALPHABETICAL INDEX.  

A  
AGath, 214.  
Alfred 's Epistles, 199.  
Almond-Tree, 31.  
America, 189, 190.  
Apollo 's answers to Croesus, 168, etc.  
— to Attalus and Cypselus, 171.  
Ark, without Masts, 5.  
Aristot. de Precat. 198.  
Artemidorus, 199.  
Astronomical Hints in the Bible, 2, 3.  
Avicenna 's death, 195.   

B  
BArley-harvest in Egypt, 52.  
Balm, 49.  
Balsam-oil, 15.  
Baltic, 187.  
Barham- Down. One of the Tumuli opened there, 155.  
Barklow- Hills: a Tum. opened there, 155, 156.  
Barchochebas, 3.  
Batavia, Old and New, 188.  
Basquensa- Tongue, 136.  
Bay-Tree, 67.  
Beefs of Pyrrhus, 65.  
Blacks, 187.  
Broom-rape, 59   

C  
CAchunde, 212.  
J. Caesar against Cato, 199.  
Cedars of Libanus, 63.  
Cephala. Inscriptions there, 209, 210.  
Chirurgion's Art in the forming Eve, 3.  
China-Language, 132, 133.  
China, 189.  
— North-East passage to it, 191, 192.  
Q. Cicero's Letter, 195.  
M. Cicero's Geogr. 198.  
Cicada: what, 108.  
Cold, at S. Peter's denial: how, 73.  
Cockle. 88  
Corn-Ears, 23.  
Confusion of Tongues, 130, 131.  
Confutius' Works, 199.  
Crosses in China. 209.  
Croesus' King of Lydia, how answered at Delphos, 167, etc.  
— his Son's first Speech, 174.  
Crucifix, 213.  
Cucumbers, 14.  
Cummin, 22.  
Cup, a remarkable one, 211, 212.  
Cymbals; tinkling Cymbal, 121.  
Cypress, 9  
Cypselus, how answered by Apollo. 171.  
Cyrus, the Oracle concerning him, 172, 173.   

D  
DAnish-Tongue, 146.  
Darnel, 84, 88  
Democritus, 198.  
Diarhizon mirificum, 212, 213.  
Diogenes, Cyn. Thyestes, etc. 198.  
Dioscorides on Hypocrates, 198.  
Dread Sovereign; its signification, 149, 150.   

E  
NEW-England, 184.  
English, their Expedition into Barbary, 196, 197.  
Enoch's Prophecy. 200.  
Etiudros' Alberti, 211.   

F  
FAlconry, ancient and modern, 111, etc.  
— its Terms, whence, 116.  
Famine in Egypt, 42.  
Fitches, 21.  
Firr-Tree. 48.  
Figtree, 68  
Fishes of the Sea of Tiberias, 97, etc.  
Fish called Faber Marinus, 99, 100  
Fish that affrighted K. Theodorick, 100  
Flax, 52.  
Forbidden Fruit, 14.   

G  
GAlen, 199.  
Garlic and Onions, 14.  
Garlands and Garland-Plants, 89, etc.  
Ghosts consulted on frivolous occasions, 178.  
Grapes of Eschol, 10.  
Granaries, 43.  
Grass; the Sheaves of it, 57  
Gracculus, what Bird, 107.  
Gradual Verses, 125, etc.  
Green-Field, 35.   

H  
HAnnibal's march into Italy, 196.  
Hanno's Periplus, a Comment on it, 196.  
Halec, what Fish, 104.  
Halcyon, what Bird, 107.  
Hawks and Hawking, 111, etc.  
— their Diet, 112.  
— their Physic, 112, 113, etc.  
— their Flights, 116, 118.  
Herbal Submarine, 197.  
Herbs at bottom of Red Sea, etc. 35, 36.  
Herbs eaten at the Passover, 81.  
Herbal British, 195.  
Hemlock, 8.  
Hebrew-Tongue, 131.  
Hourglass with Oil, 213.  
Homer's Battle of Frogs, 214.  
Hugo de Bones. 147.  
Husks of the Prodigal. 13.  
Hymn Turkish, 123.   

I  
JAmaica, 185.  
Ida-Mount, its Plants, 80.  
Ilex Coccigera, 61.  
Ink of Cuttlefish, 212.  
Jordan, 83, 165.  
Josephus, 199.  
Irish-Tongue, 135.   

K  
KIkaion, 7.   

L  
LAdders, their signification in Dreams, 5.  
Languages, 129, etc.  
Language of the people found in a certain place in Spain, by Duke d'Alva, 136.  
Languedoc, 147, 148.  
Lilies, 19, 79.  
Loadstone, not mentioned in Scripture, 4.   

M  
MAdrid, 186.  
Mazorites, 133.  
Medals, 209, 210.  
Milium, 22.  
Modest and immodest forms of speaking, 176.  
Mounts and Hills artificial, 151, etc.  
Mithridatis Oneirocrit. 198.  
Manuscripts from Aethiopia, etc. 197, 198.  
Musaea. Musaeum Clausum, 193, 194, etc.  
Mugil, what, 104.  
Mustardseed, 27.  
Mummia Tholosana, 210, 211.  
Myrica, 9  
Myrtle, 81.   

N  
NOrfolk, odd words in use there, whence, 146.  
Nysus, what, 108.  
Nycticorax, what, 108.   

O  
OAks, 61.  
Oats, 23.  
Olive-Leaf, 26.  
Olive-Tree, in Rom. 11. 45.  
Oracle at Delphos, 167, etc.  
— its answer about the Bones of Orestes, 175.  
— its obscurity, 175, 176.  
Oracles, why in Verse, 177.  
Ostriches Egg, 211.  
Ovid's Getick Poem, 194.   

P  
Palmtree, 78.  
Paliurus, 8.  
Perfume, 11, 213.  
Petrarch, 148.  
Pictures. Rarities in Picture, etc. 200, etc. to 209.  
Pomegranate, 34.  
Plants in holy Scripture 1. to 88  
— Scripture distribution of Plants, 65.  
Physiognomy. Face Quadrangular, etc. 5, 6.  
Prophesy, a feigned one by the Author, 181, 182, 183.  
— It's Exposition, 184, etc.  
Prepuces of Fruit, 64.  
Pyramids, 45.  
Pythaeas' Fragment, 197.  
Pythag. de Mari rubro, 199.  
Pyxis Pandorae, 214.   

Q  
AQuandros, 211.   

R  
Reed's 82.  
Rye, 22, 54, 56.  
Ring, one found in a Fish, 213.  
Rods of Jacob, 18.  
Rod of Aaron, 30.  
Roman-Tongue, 137.  
Ropalick Verses, 125, etc.  
Roses of Egypt and Rome, 92.  
Rose of Jericho, 33.  
Rubus, 8.  
Rump of the Sacrifice, 79.   

S  
Salted of Sargasso, 212.  
— aetherial, 215.  
Saxon-Tongue, 134, 138, etc.  
Samaritans Oil, 15.  
Seed, Increase of it, 39  
Shekels of Jerusalem, 32.  
Shittah-Tree, 10.  
Sheep, how fruitful, 79, 80.  
Snakes-Skin, 212.  
Stones in Aaron's Breastplate, 4.  
Stones called Enhydri. 211.  
Solomon de Umbris, etc. 199.  
Seneca's Epistles to S. Paul, 199.  
Jo. Scaliger; some pieces of his stolen away. 198.  
Sea, dead, 164, etc.  
Sodom, where, 164, etc.  
Spain, 186.  
Spanish-Tongue, 133.  
Lud. Saracenica, 200.  
Shower said to be sent by Apollo, 172.  
A. M. Schurman, 200.  
Sylla Dict. 199.  
Stork, 48.  
Stubble of Egypt, very short, 24.  
Sycomore, 36.  
Scythian-Tongue, 137.   

T  
Tartars' invading China, 189.  
Tincture, Scarlet, 60.  
Troas, where, and what its privileges, 161, 163.  
Trees not expressly named in Scripture, 81.  
Trees named by the Elders who accused Susannah, 63.  
Turpentine Tree, 34.  
Tumuli of Romans, Saxons, Danes, 151, 152, 153.  
— how to know the nature of them, 153, 154.   

U  
UPupa, 105.   

V  
VEnice, 190.  
— Sea about it, why apt to be choked with Sands, 190, 191.  
Verse used by Oracles, 177.  
Vine, 32.  
Vine-Flowers, 25.   

W  
WElch-Tongue, 133, 135.  
Wine new, not at Pentecost, 25.  
Wheat-Harvest in Egypt, 54.   

Z  
ZEmbla, 191.  
Zizania, 85.   
FINIS.