A Pisgah-Sight of Palestine, Book 3 · Body of book · Chapter 8
Here the Map of Manasseh on this side Jordan is to be inserted.
THE DESCRIPTION OF MANASSEH on this side IORDAN. CHAP. 8.
§ 1. MAnasseh his numbers and worthies have formerly been described on the east of Iordan, The remainder of Manasseh.as also such Cities as being environed with Issachar, yet belonged to this Tribe. It remaineth that we survey that portion of Manasseh west of Iordan, lying entire in it self, and having Issachar on the north, Ephraim on the south, the Mediterranean Sea on the west, and Iordan on the east thereof, a fruitfull Countrey divided betwixt aJosh. 17. 2.six male-families of the Manassites, and the five daughters of Zelophehad.Zeloph…h…ds daughters plea.
§ 2. These were those Virgins, who pleading beforebNumb. 27. 2. & 36. 12. Moses, got a right to, beforecJosh. 17. 4. Ioshua got possession of their inheritance. Silence was injoined their Sex in thed1 Tim. 2. 1…. Church, not Court, where they handled their own cause so well, it is pity any Counsell should be retained for them. Nor was it the worst part of their Rhetorick, the good Character they gave their dead Father, which might serve for an Epitaph to be inscribed on his monument.
Here lieth the man, whoeNumb. 2…3. was not in the company of them who gathered themselves together against the Lord in the COMPANY OF KORAH, but died in his OWN SIN.
Meaning he died a naturall death for his personall offences, and was no sharer in the guilt of Rebellion against God in Moses. This instance of Zelophehad his coheirs, let Lawyers judge how justly it is alledged of some against their practise, who by entailes on the Heire male, dam up inheritances from running in that generall channell into which God and nature hath derived them.
§ 3. In the west of this Tribe on the sea,Cesarea built by Herod. we meet with Cesarea Stratonis, built and beautified (with a fair haven called Drusus) by Herod the great in the honour of Augustus Cesar. Amongst other edifices therein, fAct. 23. 35.Herods judgement hall by him built was a most remarkable structure. Indeed all Cesarea might be termed Gods judgement hall, from an exemplary piece of justice here executed on Herod Antipas. Who coming hither from Ierusalem clad with gorgeous raiment, (and the guilt of Saint gAct. 12. 2.Iames his bloud) made an eloquent oration, more gaudy then his apparell, unto the people, who cryed out in approbation thereof, The voice of a God, and not of a man: here Herod in stead of rejoining The voice of lying flatterers, and not of sober men; in stead of reclaiming what they exclaimed, imbraced and hug'd their praises as proper to himself, and thereupon an*Act. 12. 23. Angell and worms, the best and basest of creatures, met in his punishment, the one smiting, the other eating him up: and no wonder if Worms quickly devoured him, whom those flesh-flies had blown up before. If any aske, seeing the people were equally guilty in that their sacrilegious expression, (yea they were the theeves, Herod but the receiver) why fell not the pun…shment also on the whole multitude? It is answered, First, because they were the whole multitude; and God in such cases mercifully singles out some singall offenders for punishment to save but fright the rest. Secondly, more discretion was expected from a Prince, then from a rabble of people. Lastly, what in them was but a blasphemous complement, was by Herods acceptance thereof made in him a reality, usurped by him as due to his deserts.
§ 4. But leaving profane Herod, Inhabited by pious people.many pious people lived in Cesarea, as*Act. 10. 1. Cornelius the Centurion, the first fruits of the Gentiles; *Act. 21. 10.Agabus the Prophet, foretelling Saint Pauls bonds and Martyrdome; and Philip the Evangelist, famous for his four daughters*Act. 21. 9. Virgins-prophetesses. This I firmely beleeve, whilest my faith demurres at what I read of Brechin a Lord in*Camdens Brit. in Brecknockshire. Wales, who had four and twenty daughters all Saints begotten of his own body.
§ 5. Here Saint Paul eloquently defended his innocence,Saint Paul his behaviour in Cesarea. against the salable tongue of Tertullus, and afterwards reasoned of righteousness, temperancehAct. 24. 25. and judgement, before Felix the corrupt, vicious and debauched Deputy of Iudea, till Felix, (his foundred feet feeling the Pincers) began to winch and to prefer Saint Pauls room before his company. In the same place the Apostle pleaded for himself before Festus, Agrippa and Bernice his*Ioseph. lib. 20. incestuous wife-sister, entering into the place of hearing,iAct. 25. 23. foreign, with much fancifulness, or great pompe. Perchance this Bernice ware then about her, that eminent Gem, whereof the Heathen PoetkI…venal Satyr. 6. took especiall notice.
—deinde adamas notissimus, & Berenices
In digito factus preciosior; hunc dedit olim
Barbarus, incestae dedit hunc Agrippa sorori.
AndlTranslated by Sir Rob. Stapil…on. the fam'd diamond the richer show'd
On Berenices fingers, this bestow'd
The barbarous Agrippa, he to his
Incestuous sister once presented this.
But be Bernice never so brave, themAct. 26. 29. bonds of Saint Paul, (worn by him then in Cesarea) were in the Judgement of God, and all good men the most glorious ornament.
§ 6. South of Cesarea stood Antipatris, The river Kanah.named in the honour of Antipater father to Herod the great. Hi…her Saint Paul came guarded in state by night with more thennAct. 23. 23. five hundred souldiers, and hence the footmen were sent back to Ierusalem whilest the seventy horse advanced forward with him to Cesarea. South of Antipatris the riveroJosh. 17. 9. Kanah (which divideth this Tribe from Ephraim) runneth into the sea, so called from reeds KANAH in Hebrew, (whence our English Canes or walking-staves fetch in both the name and thing from the east Countreys) growing plentifully thereabouts, and many Maps present us with a valley of Reeds in this place. Say not this debaseth the land, that so course a commodity should take up a whole valley therein, (for besides as London water-men will tell you, an acre of reeds on the bank side is as beneficiall as one of wheat) these Canes were to make arrowes and staves, yea some to make Sugars thereof: an pM. Sands in his travels pageye-witness affirming that plenty of sugar-canes grow in Palestine at this day. Surely formerly growing there, (though little known to▪ and less used by the ancients) seeing that Countrey hath gained no new plants, but rather lost much fertility it had before.
§ 7. Sugar (pardon a digression) was anciently less used,S…gar a modeer invention. either because their masculine palats were not so liquorish as ours now adays; or because they preferred honey, plenty whereof was extracted and refined to their hand. Yea our modern Sugar, as it is boiled and baked, is not above two hundred years old; and the art of refining it was found out long since by aqPanci…ollus de r…bus in…ent. lib. 2. …it. 5. Venetian, getting above an hundred thousand crowns thereby, leaving them to his son afterward made a Knight, who wasted all to nothing.
§ 8. In the north of this Tribe lies the vale of Iesreel and Well of Herod, Gedeon of a thresher made Judge.where Gedeon conquered the Midianites …ncamping by the hill of Moreh. Indeed the achievements of Gedeon take up almost this whole half-tribe, and therefore we will attend on him from his call to be a Judge unto his summons to his Grave.
§ 9. Sad in his time was the condition of the Israelites, Israels sad cond…tion.oppressed by the Midianites, who swarmed*Iudg. 6. …. like Grass-hoppers, for number and noisomeness, over the land of Canaan: Grass-hoppers were formerly a Plague for Egypt, but now for Israel, these*Iudg. 6. 3. Midianites devouring all which the other had sowen. Time was, when the Israelites reaped the fields they did not sow, whereas now they sowed what they did not reap. See what wofull inversions sin can make. In this dolefull estate the Angell found Israel, when he sat under*Iudg 6. 11. an oake in Ophrah in the east of this Tribe neare Iordan, and saluted Gedeon threshing by the winepress, The Lord is with thee, thou valiant man. Much concealed valour may lurk under a plain & painful outside, whcih a just occasion may produce into publick view. Yet let none turn their flailes, aker-staves, sheep-hooks, shuttles, needles, into swords, till first with Gedeon they have a warrant from God for the same. Gedeon having thus a cal from God, and confirmed with many miracles, first by night cast down the Altar (erecting one to God in the same place) and cut down the grove of Baal, then gathered an army of thirty two thousand therewithall to fight the Midianites.
§ 10. But his army must be garbled, Gedeons army abridged.as too great for God to give victory thereby: all the fearfull return home byrIudg. 7. 3. Proclamation, leaving the Perons, not the Men in the army, fewer for their departure. The good liquor was no less for the loss of such froath, though two and twenty thousand then went away. Yea the body of his men remaining, was still too big, and must pass another decoction. Their valour, hardiness and industry must be tried by a Purgatory of water, and those onelyonly were admitted to march on, (proving but three hundred) who bowed not down on their knees, in a lazy posture, (as if they meant to make a set meal… in drinking) but loath to lose so much time, sIudg. 7. 5.doglike lapped water out of their hands, (their dishes, as their tongues, were their spoons,) manifesting thereby, (quick at meat, quick at work) the activity of their spirits, taking all refreshing, only in passage to their farther imployment.
§ 11. With these three hundred Gedeon advanceth against the Midianites, Gods condescension to Ged…on.and (as formerly by the deeds of his friends) is now confirmed afresh with the dreams of his foes, and their owntIudg. 7. 14. interpretation thereof. Strange that God should condescend so much, and so often for Gedeons satisfaction, working miracles backward and forward for his sake: fleece only wet, and ground dry,uIudg. 6. 37. 39 fleece onelyonly dry, and ground wet. Heavens reall miracles, will endure turning, being lining, and facing, inside and outside both alike. Yea after these and other confirmations, God the night before the battell gave Gedeon a new sign out of his enemies own mouth. He that spurneth at the presumptuous, how low will he stoop to take up a weake but true faith! Thus the wise mother beateth the sound and froward, but bemoaneth and cherisheth her sick and froward child.
§ 12. The Midianites lay secure in their tents when the word was given,The Midianites assaulted. The sword of God and Gedeon. Excellent mixture, both joined together; admirable method God put in the first place; Where divine blessing leads up the Van, and mans valour brings up the battell, must not victory needs follow in the rear? Gedeons men by order from him brake their lamp-lined pitchers, whereby night is turned into light, silence becomes a loud sound in an instant. We have this treasure in earthen vessels, and what miracles may the light of Gods word in the pitchers of poor preachers bring to pass?
§ 13. The sodain shining and sounding fills the eyes and eares of the Midianites with amazement. Whence came these spirits walking in the dark, dropt from heaven, or raised from the earth? The text was terrible, but oh what dis…all descants did their affrighted fancies make thereon? Every mans fear, single in it selfe, was doubled by reflexion from his next neighbour. For, hearing so many Trumpets, together, if so many Trumpeters, then how many souldiers in proportion unto them? Hereupon the host ran,wJudg. 7. 21. and cryed, and fled to Bethshittah in Zererah, and to the borders of Abel-meholah, unto Tabbath. Thus, great Armies, once struck with amazement, are like wounded whales, give them but line enough, and the fishes will be the fishermen to catch themselves, and beat themselves …ame by their own violence.
§ 14. Hereafter let none term Gideon (as Ulysses xSene…. in Troad.is disgracefully called) Nocturne miles, Improves his victory.the night Knight, because he conversed with the Angel, cast down Baals Altar, conquered the Midianites, all by night; seeing now in open light he pursued his conquest, chasing Zebah and Zalmunna with the rest of their Army, home to their own Countrey, where he overtook and destroied them. Mean time the Ephraimites were active in stopping the passages on Iordan, and slew Oreb and Zeeb, the one at a rock, the other at ayJudg. 7. 2…. wine-press, first coloured with their bloud, then called after their names to all posterity.
§ 15. What remains of Gideon, Gideon occasioneth Idolatry.I would willingly conceal, that his Sun might not set in a cloud. But, man must not smother, what God will have seen, especially because tending to his honour, our instruction, though Gideons disgrace. Who, refusing a Crown, accepted the earrings of the people, and thereof made anzJudg. 8. 27. Ephod: surely onelyonly as a civill memoriall of his valour, and their thankfulness. But, what had Gideon a Manassite, to doe with an Ephod, a Leviticall vestment? Such a monument was neither of divine institution, or benediction, and therefore through mans corruption, easily subject to be abused to superstition. If Gideon walks but on the brink, the next generation will fall to the bottome of Idolatry, as here it came to pass. Posterity went aaIbidem. whoring after this Ephod, which caused the massacre in, and destruction of the f…mily of Gideon, whom we leave buried in Ophrah in thebIbid. v. 32. grave of his father Ioash, and so proceed.
§ 16. And now his history finished,Abel-meholah the place of Elisha. we shall soon dispatch the remainder of this half Tribe. First we resume Abel-meholah (lately mentioned) which was the habitation in after ages of Elisha. Here he was plowing with twelvec1 King. 19. 19. yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth. What in severall teames, or all in the same, to draw one plough? The latter is most likely, whilest our English husbandmen will not wonder at such an herd of oxen, (twenty four) haling at one plough, when they shall read, that the Vale of Iordan (wherein lay Abel-meholah) is noted ford1 King. 7. 46. clay ground, and therefore such stiffe land, (especially at the first tilth thereof) must needs require a great strength thereunto. But had his oxen been as many more Elisha would willingly have left them, when Eliah his man…le was once cast upon him. Mo…le, which could, stop rivers in the full speed of theire… King. 2. 8. course, and therefore might stay a man in the height of his calling. Hereby we perceive that the words of our Saviour, NofLuke 9. 62. …an having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdome of God, are not literally, but spiritu…lly, to be expounded, of such as having well begun, apostate from their religious Resolutions.
§ 17. In the aforesaid vale of Iordan The Vale of Iordan.lay Zarthan, betwixt which and S…ccoth (on the other side of Iordan in the Tribe of Gad) the two brazen pillars, (Iachin, and Boaz) with all the vessels of the Temple, were made by Hiram, of bright brass, in the clay g1 Ki…g. 7. 46.ground, which probable served him for moldes to run the melted metall therein. And somewhat more towards the north, lay Aenon near to Salim, where Iohn was baptizing, because there was muchhIohn 3. 23. water there. Here his Disciples complained to Iohn, concerning Jesus eclipsing him with his lustre. Iohn truly stated the controversie, and modestly determined it against himself, how he must decrease, whilest Christ must increase.
§ 18. As these places lay on the east of this Tribe,Gath. Rimmon, and the land of Tappuah. in the vale of Iordan. so in the western part thereof in the vale of Iezreel, layiIosh. 21. 25. Gath-Rimmon (in Chronicles calledk1 Chr. 6. 70. Bileam) the sole City which the Levites had in this entire part of the Tribe of Manasseh; seeing Taanach (called Anar in Chronicles) lay (as is aforesaid) in that part of Manasseh which was surrounded with Issachar. The land of Tappuah belonged also to this half Tribe, though Tappuah the City pertained to Ephraim. Thus the town, and late Castle of Belvoir stands in Lincolne-shire, though the vale thence denominated lies in three shires round about it.
§ 19. Amongst the mountains in Manasseh, The mountain of O…adiah.we take especiall notice of Gilead (so called from Gilead the grand son of Manasseh)lIudg. 7. 3. whence Gideon's cowards departed; the hill Moreh, mIudg. 7. 1.nigh which the Midtanitish Army was incamped; and above all the mountain of Obadiah, so called because therein in two caves he hid ann1 Kin. 1…. 13. hundred Prophets, so close, that neither foes nor friends knew thereof, neither Iezebel nor Elijah getting intelligence of their being there, the latter erroneously conceiving himself alone left of all the Prophets in the land. Their bill of fare was bread and water, pretious liquour when it had not rained in Israel for three years and an half; hereto our Saviour reflected, that none should lose his reward that gave his little ones a cup of cold water, yea, that such who received a Prophet, should receive a ProphetsoM…t. 10. 41. reward, as here it came to pass. For the sparkes of his guests spirit catched hold on Obadiah their host, so far inflaming his breast with inspiration that the short prophecy bearing his name, is by learned men referred to him, as the Author thereof. SaintpIn Epitaphio Paulae & Epist. ad …arcellum. Hierome tells us, that the Lady Paula (as weak as she was) climbed up this mountain, to behold those monimental caves therein.
§ 20. In this land we also meet with the woody hils of the Perizzites, The Rephaims their iron chariots.and of the Rephaims, or Giants, mingled amongst them, much affright…ng the Manassites with their Iron chariots. Not as if all made of massie iron▪ (such would have been slugs in fight, and so heavy, that they needed horses of steel for strength to draw them) but that they were plated and armed with iron hooks, mischievous instruments of execution, especially in the pursuit of a broken army, men being as grass whereof whole swathes were mowed down with these crooked sithes in chasing a routed enemy. Enough almost to make one suspect our ancient Britones akin to these Canaanites, seeing such chariots were so fashionable in their qCaesar de B…llo ….fights; were it not that we finde the likerDiod S…c l. 17 Pluta…chus in Artax…xi & ali. foreign, frequently used in all eastern Countries. However Ioshua gave the Manassites both a promise and prophecy, that (notwithstanding those Ironmoving forts of the Canaanites) they should in process of time certainly overcome them.
§ 21. We must not forget Beths…n Bethsan where Bacchus hisn nur…e was b…i…d.belonging to M…nasseh (butsIosh. 17. 11. seated and invironed with Issach…r) whence for a long time they could not expell the Canaanites, therefore called it Bethsan, that is, the house of an Enemy. Here the bodies of Saul and Ionathan were hung up by thet1 Sam. …1. 12. Philistines Bethsan was afterwards called Nysa byuPlin. Nat. hist. lib. 5. cap. 18. humane writers (and at last Scythopolis) from Nysa Bacchus his nurse, whom he is said there solemnly to have buried. A jolly dame no doubt, as appears by the well battling of the plump boy her nursery. But seeing wine was Bacchus his milk when a child, meat when a man, food when well, physick when sick, we may justly conceive the history mythologically true, the burying of Bacchus his nurse in this place plainly importing plenty of the best wines in the Countrey hereabouts.
§ 22. As for Bezek Bezek.I name it last of all▪ because ambiguously placed in the confines of Manasseh, and Ephraim, different from a City of the same name, nearerwSee the des…ription of the land of Moriah. Ierusalem, where the Tyrant Adonibezek lived. In this Bezek x1 Sam. 11. 8.saul numbred the Israelites (being three hundred and thirty thousand) and thence marched to the relieving of L…besh-Gilead from the Ammonites. The Armes of Manasseh have been formerly blazoned, and expounded in our Description of the half Tribe beyond Iordan, and in the Solomons Purveyourships this land, with some of Zebulun, fell under the care of Baanah the Son of Ahilud.