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 "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 human 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 oivávovov, 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 yλɛúkʊ 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 aiɛiyλevkoç, 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 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 aiɛípuλλov, 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 quali

fication of the saltness of the sea, by the admixture of fresh water, when the whole watery element was together.

And it may be signally illustrated from the like examples in Theophrastus* and Pliny† in words to this effect: even the sea affordeth shrubs and trees; in the Red Sea whole woods do live, namely of bays and olives bearing fruit. The 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 water, 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 mustard-seed, 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 xiii. 19. "It is like a grain of mustard-seed, which a man took and cast it into his garden, and it waxed a great tree, and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches. thereof."

This expression by a grain of mustard-seed, will not seem so strange unto you, who well consider it. That it is simply the least of seeds, you cannot apprehend, if you have beheld the seeds of rapunculus, marjorane, tobacco, and the smallest seed of lunaria.

But you may well understand it to be the smallest seed among herbs which produce so big a plant, or the least of herbal plants, which arise unto such a proportion, implied in the expression; the smallest of seeds, and becometh the greatest of herbs.

And you may also grant that it is the smallest of seeds of plants apt to dɛvdpišev, arborescere, fruticescere, or to grow unto a ligneous substance, and from an herby and oleraceous vegetable, to become a kind of tree, and to be

*

Theophrast. Hist. lib. iv. cap. 7, 8. + Pliny, lib. xiii. cap. ultimo.

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 γίνεται τὸ δένδρον and γίνεται εἰς τὸ δένδρον, 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 Judæa, 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 eis qui nunquam Babyloniam regionem adierunt perquam incredibile visum iri. We may likewise consider that the word karaokηywoα doth not necessarily signify making a nest, but rather sitting, roosting, cowering, and resting in the boughs, according as the same word is used by the Septuagint in other places,* as the vulgate 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 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 *Dan. iv. 9. Psalm i. 14, 12.

+ The Rod of Aaron, Numb. xvii. 8.

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 implieth 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 said, a rod of an almond tree. Then said the Lord unto me, thou hast well seen, for I will hasten the word to perform it." I will be quick and forward like the almond tree, to produce the effects of my word, and hasten to display my judgments upon them.

And we may hereby more easily apprehend the expression in Ecclesiastes; "when the almond tree shall flourish," that is, when the head, which is the prime part, and first showeth itself in the world, shall grow white, like the flowers of the almond tree, whose fruit, as Athenæus delivereth, was first called kápηvov, or the head, from some resemblance and covering parts of it.

How properly the priority was comfirmed 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

* Shacher, from Shachar festinus fuit or maturuit.

Eccles. xii. 5.

Jer. i. 11.

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 his ass's 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 author* delivereth, that the statua of Jupiter was made out of a vine; and that out of one single Cyprian vine a scale or ladder was made that reached unto the roof of the temple of Diana at Ephesus.

26. "I was exalted as a palm tree in Engaddi, and as a rose plant in Jericho." That the rose of Jericho, or

*Plin. lib. xiv.

6 Binding, &c.] In some parts of Persia, it was formerly the custom to turn their cattle into the vineyards after the vintage, to browse on the vines, some of which are so large that a man can scarcely compass their trunks in his arms.

ጎ rose plant in Jericho.] Sir R. K. Porter gives the following description of the oriental rose trees probably here intended :-"On first entering this bower of fairy land, I was struck with the appearance of two rose trees; full fourteen feet high, laden with thousands of flowers, in every degree of expansion, and of a bloom and delicacy of scent, that imbued the whole atmosphere with the most exquisite perfume; indeed, I believe that in no country of the world does the rose grow in such