Pliny testifies that the Books of Numa continued so long a time under ground unperished, by having been rubbed over with the Oyl of Cedar. Horace, de Ar. Po. -Speramus carmina fingi Posse linenda Cedro, aut lævi servanda Cupresso? Cedro digna locutus; Who speaks things worthy to be preserved always by Cedar Oyl; which was likewise used in the Embalming of dead Bodies. 55. Of Linen Books Livy makes often mention: They were called Libri Lintei, and were Publique Records; by others termed too Lintea Mappa, and Carbasina volumina, Silken Volumns, Claud. de B. Get. Quid carmina poscat Fatidico custos Romani carbasus ævi. And Sym. 1. 4. Epist. Monitus Cumanos lintea texta sumpserunt. And Pliny says, the Parthians used to have Letters woven in their cloaths. 55. Tender Barks. The thin kind of skin between the outward Bark and the body of the Tree. The paper used to this day in China and some part of the Indies, seems to be made of the same kind of stuff. The name of Liber, a Book, comes from hence. Some the sharp style, &c. These waxen Table-books were very ancient, though I am not sure there were any of them in the Library at Naioth. Iliad. 6. Prætus sent a Letter in such Table-books by Bellerophon. The Style or Pen with which they wrote, was at first made of Iron, but afterwards that was forbid at Rome, and they used styles of Bone; it was made sharp at one end to cut the Letters, and flat at the other to deface them; from whence stylum vertere. 56. Pliny says, that Paper (so called from the Name of the Reed of which it was made) or Charta (termed so of a Town of that name in the Marshes of Egypt) was not found out till after the building of Alexandria; and Parchment, not till Eumenes his time, from whose Royal City of Pergamus it was denominated Pergamena. In both which he is deceived; for Herod. in Terps. says, that the Ionians still call Paper-skins, because formerly when they wanted Paper, they were forced to make use of skins instead of it. See Melch. Guiland. de Pap. upon this argument. And the Dipthera of the Gracians were nothing else but the skins of beasts; that wherein Jupiter is feigned to keep his Memorials of all things was made of the she-Goat that gave him milk. And many are of opinion, that the famous Golden-Fleece was nothing but a Book written in a Sheep-Skin. Diod. Sicul. I. 2. affirms that the Persian Annals were written in the like Books; and many more Authorities, if needful, might be produced: however, I call Parchment and the Paper of Egypt new Arts here, because they were later than the other. 57. Hieroglyphicks. The use of which it is very likely the Jews had from Egypt where they had lived so long, Lucan 1. 3. Nondum flumineas Memphis contexere Biblos Noverat, & saxis tantùm volucresq; feræq; Sculptaq; servabant magicas animalia linguas. 58. Nathan and Gad were famous Prophets in Davids time; and therefore it is probable they might have lived with Samuel in his Colledge, for their particular Professorships, the one of Astronomy, the other of Mathematicks, that is a voluntary gift of mine to them, and I suppose the places were very lawfully at my disposing. Seraia was afterwards Scribe or Secretary to David, called 1 Kings 42. Sisha, and 1 Chron. 18. 16. Shausha. Mahol the Reader of Natural Philosophy, is mentioned, 1 Kings 4. 31. Heman and Asaph are often spoken of in the Scripture, 1 Kings 4. 1 Chron. 15. 17, 19. and 16. 5. and 37.41, 42. and 25. 59. A Pyramide is a figure broad beneath, and smaller and sharper by degrees upward, till it end in a point, like our Spire-Steeples. It is so called from Пup, Fire, because Flame ascends in that Figure. Number is here called a Turn'd Pyramide, because the bottom of it is the point One (which is the beginning of Number, not properly Number, as a Point is of Magnitude) from whence it goes up still larger and larger, just contrary to the nature of Pyramidical Ascension. 60. Sacred Blew. Because of the use of it in the Curtains of the Tabernacle, the Curtain for the Door, the Vail, the Priests Ephod, Breast-Plate, and briefly all sacred Ornaments. The reason of chusing Blew, I suppose to have been in the Tabernacle, to represent the seat of God, that is, the Heavens, of which the Tabernacle was an Emblem, Numb. 15. 38. The Jews are commanded to make that lace or ribband of Blew, wherewith their fringes are bound to their cloaths; and they have now left off the very wearing of Fringes; because, they say, the art is lost of dying that kind of Blew, which was the perfectest sky-colour. Cæruleus is derived by some, Quasi cœluleus. 61. Virg. l. 6. En. Obloquitur numeris Septem discrimina vocum. From which Pancirollus conjectures that, as we have now six notes in Musick, Ut. Re. Mi. Fa. So. La. (invented by a Monk from the Hymn to S. John, beginning every line with those syllables) so the ancients had seven; according to which Apollo too instituted the Lyre with seven strings; and Pindar calls it 'ETTάτоTOν, his Interpreter, 'Enrάμтov, and the Argives forbad under a penalty, the use of more strings. 62. Porphyrius affirmed, as he is cited by Eusebius, 3. Præpar. Evang. that the Egyptians (that is, the Thebans in Egypt) believed but one God, whom they called Kvno (whom Plutarch also names de Is. & Osyr. & Strabo, l. 17. Cnuphis) and that the image of that God was made with an Egg coming out of his mouth, to shew that he Spoke out the world, that is, made it with his word; for an Egg with the Egyptians was the symbol of the world. So was it too in the mystical Ceremonies of Bacchus, instituted by Orpheus, as Plut. Sympos. 1. II. Quæst. 3. and Macrob. 1. 7. c. 16. whence Proclus says upon Timaus, To 'Oppikov wov kal тò тоû Пλáτшvos "Ov, to be the same things. Voss. de Idol. 63. Theophil. 1. 2. adversus Gent. Oeds où xwрeîтαι, ȧλλ AUTÓS ÉσTI TÓTOS TV Awv, God is in no place, but is the Place of all things; and Philo, AvròS ἑαυτῷ τόπος, καὶ αὐτὸς ἑαυτοῦ πλήρης. Which is the same with the expression here. 64. Gen. 14. 13. And there came one that had escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew, &c. which Text hath raised a great controversie among the Learned, about the derivation of the name of the Hebrews: The general opinion received of old was, that it came from Eber; which is not improbable, and defended by many learned men, particularly of late by Rivet upon Gen. 11. The other, which is more followed by the late Critiques, as Arpennius, Grotius, and our Selden, is, that the name came from Abrahams passage over Euphrates into Canaan (as the name of Welch is said to signifie no more than strangers, which they were called by the people amongst whom they came, and ever after retained it) which opinion is chiefly grounded upon the Septuagint Translation in this Text, who render Abram the Hebrew, tŵ πepáry, The Passenger; and Aquila, Περαίτῃ. 65. For even these Sons of the Prophets that were Students in Colledges did sometimes likewise foretel future things, as to Elisha the taking up of Ělijah, 2 King. 2. 3, &c. TH THE CONTENTS. He Friendship betwixt Jonathan and David; and upon that B DAVIDEIS. The second Book. Ut now the early birds began to call The morning forth; up rose the Sun and Saul; Both, as men thought, rose fresh from sweet repose; But both, alas, from restless labours rose. For in Sauls breast, Envy, the toilsome Sin, Adorn'd with sweat, and painted gay with Blood, Then destin'ed in the glories of his look; He saw, and strait was with amazement strook, What art thou, Love, thou great mysterious thing? From hence thou took'est thy Rise, and went'st that way; And rough as are the Winds that fight with it? 1 Sam. 18. I. |