Reuben, and between him and the tabernacle, in number 8,600. The third company were of the family of Merari, over whom Zuriel commanded, in number 6,200, and these were lodged on the north side within the army of Dan; on the east side, and next within those tribes and forces which Judah led, did Moses and Aaron lodge, and their children, who were the first and immediate commanders, both of the ceremonies and of the people; under whom, as the chief of all the other Levitical families, was Eleazar the son of Aaron, his successor in the high priesthood.

This was the order of the army of Israel, and of their encamping and marching; the tabernacle of God being always set in the middle and centre thereof. The reverend care which Moses, the prophet and chosen servant of God, had in all that belonged even to the outward and least parts of the tabernacle, ark, and sanctuary, witnessed well the inward and most humble zeal borne towards God himself. The industry used in the framing thereof, and every and the least part thereof; the curious workmanship thereon bestowed; the exceeding charge and expense in the provisions; the dutiful observance in the laying up and preserving the holy vessels; the solemn removing thereof; the vigilant attendance thereon, and the provident defence of the same, which all ages have in some degree imitated, is now so forgotten and cast away in this superfine age, by those of the family, by the Anabaptist, Brownist, and other sectaries, as all cost and care bestowed and had of the church, wherein God is to be served and worshipped, is accounted a kind of popery, and as proceeding from an idolatrous disposition; insomuch as time would soon bring to pass (if it were not resisted) that God would be turned out of churches into barns, and from thence again into the fields and mountains, and under the hedges; and the offices of the ministry (robbed of all dignity and respect) be as contemptible as these places; all order, discipline, and church government, left to newness of opinion and men's fancies; yea, and soon after, as many kinds of religions would spring up, as there are parish churches within England; every conten

tious and ignorant person clothing his fancy with the Spirit of God, and his imagination with the gift of revelation; insomuch as when the truth, which is but one, shall appear to the simple multitude no less variable than contrary to itself, the faith of men will soon after die away by degrees, and all religion be held in scorn and contempt. Which distraction gave a great prince of Germany cause of this answer to those that persuaded him to become a Lutheran: Si me adjungo vobis, tunc condemnor ab aliis; si me aliis adjungo, a vobis condemnor; quid fugiam video, sed quid sequar non habeo: "If I adjoin myself to you, I am con"demned by others; if I join with others, I am condemned "by you: what I should avoid I see, but I know not what "I should follow."

SECT. II.

The offerings of the twelve princes; the passover of the second year; the departing of Jethro.

NOW when Moses had taken order for all things necessary, provided for the service of God, written the laws, numbered his army, and divided them into the battles and troops before remembered, and appointed them leaders of all sorts; the twelve princes, or commanders of the tribes, brought their offerings before the Lord, to wit, six covered chariots, and twelve oxen to draw them, therein to transport, as they marched, the parts of the tabernacle, with all that belonged thereunto, the sanctuary excepted; which for reverence was carried upon the shoulders of the sons of Korah, to whom the charge was committed; and the chariots, in which were conveyed the other parts of the tabernacle and vessels thereto belonging, were delivered to the Levites for that service; namely, to the sons of Gershan and Merari.

Besides these chariots, each of these commanders, princes, or heads of tribes, offered unto God, and for his service in the temple, a charger of fine silver, weighing 130 m shekels;

1 Numb. vii.

m The Hebrew gerah weigheth six

teen grains; so a gerah of silver is about three halfpence sterling: the

a silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary; and an incense cup of gold of ten shekels, which they performed at the same time when the altar was dedicated unto God by Aaron, and before they marched from Sinai towards their conquest; besides the beasts which they offered for sacrifice, according to the law ceremonial, the weight of all the twelve silver chargers, and twelve silver bowls, amounted unto 2400 shekels of silver; and the weight of gold in the incense cups to 120 shekels of gold; which makes of shekels of silver 1200, every shekel of gold valuing ten of silver; so that the whole of gold and silver which they offered at this time was about 4207. sterling. This done, Moses, as in all the rest by the Spirit of God conducted, gave order for the celebrating of the passover; which they performed on the fourteenth day of the second month of the second year; and on the twentieth day of the same the cloud was lifted up from above the tabernacle, as a sign of going forward, Moses beginning his march with this invocation to God, Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered, and let them that hate thee fly before thee. Then all the people of Israel removed from their encamping at the foot of the mountain Sinai towards Paran; the army or great squadron of Judah, led by Naashon, taking the vanguard, followed by Nethaneel and Eliab, leaders of the tribes of Issachar and Zabulon; after whom the rest marched as in the figure expressed. And because the passage through so many deserts and mountains was exceeding difficult, Moses leaving nothing unforethought which might serve for the advancement of his enterprise, he instantly entreated his father-inlaw, whom in Numbers x. he calleth Hobab, to accompany them in their journey towards Canaan, promising him such part and profit of the enterprise as God should bestow on them; for this man, as he was of great understand

shekel of the sanctuary (as it is expounded Exod. xxx. 13.) containeth twenty gerahs, so a sanctuary shekel of silver is about seven groats; the common shekel is but half so much, to wit, ten gerahs, as it is

usually expounded; though Villalpandus labours to prove, that the common and the sanctuary shekel were all one. Numb. ix. 5. Numb. x. 11. Exod. xl. 34. Numb. ix. 17.

ing and judgment, (as appeared by the counsel he gave to Moses for the appointing of judges over the people,) so was he a perfect guide in all those parts, himself inhabiting on the frontier thereof, at Midian, or Madian; and (as it seemeth) a man of great years and experience, for he was then the priest or prince of Madian, when Moses fled first out of Egypt, and married his daughter; which was fortytwo years before this request made. And though Moses himself had lived forty years in these parts of Arabia, through which he was now to travel; yet the better to assure his passage, and so great a multitude of souls, which could not be so few as a million, it was necessary to use many guides and many conductors. To this request of Moses it may seem by the places, Exod. xviii. 27. and Numb. x. 30. that Jethro, otherwise called Hobab, yielded not; for it is evident, n that he went back from Moses into his own country. But because it appeareth by other places of scripture, that the posterity of this Hobab was mingled with the Israelites; it is most likely that this his return to his own country was rather to fetch away his family, and to take his leave of his own country, by setting things in order, than to abide there.

SECT. III.

The voyage from Horeb to Kades; the mutinies by the way; and the cause of their turning back to the Red sea.

AFTER this dismission of Hobab, Israel began to march towards the deserts of Paran; and after three days wandering, they sat down at the sepulchres of lust, afterward called Tabeera, or Incensio; by reason that God consumed with fire those mutiners and murmurers which rose up in this remove, which happened about the twenty-third day of the same month. And from this twenty-third day of the second month of the second year, they rested, and fed themselves with quails (which it pleased God by a sea-wind to cast upon them) to the twenty-fourth day of the third

n

Judg. i. 16. and iv. 11. also 1 Sam. xv. 6. and 2 Reg. x. 15. 1 Chron. ii. 55. Jer. xxxv.

month, to wit, all the month of Sinan, or June, whereof surfeiting, there died great numbers; from whence in the following month, called Thamus, answering to our July, they went on to Hazeroth; where Miriam the sister of Moses was stricken with the leprosy, which continued upon her seven days, after whose recovery Israel removed toward the border of Idumæa, and encamped at Rithma, near Kades Barnea, from whence Moses sent the twelve discoverers into the territory of Canaan; both to inform themselves of the fertility and strength of the country, as also to take knowledge of the ways, passages, rivers, fords, and mountains. For Arad king of the Canaanites surprised divers companies of the Israelites, by lying in ambush near those ways, through which the discoverers and searchers of the land had formerly passed. Now after the return of the discoverers of Kades, the wrath of God was turned against P Israel; whose ingratitude and rebellion after his so many benefits, so many remissions, so many miracles wrought, was such, as they esteemed their deliverance from the ¶ Egyptian slavery, his feeding them, and conducting them through that great and terrible wilderness, (for so Moses calleth it,) with the victory which he gave them against the powerful Amalekites, to be no other than the effects of his hatred, thinking that he led them on and preserved them, but to bring them, their wives, and children to be slaughtered, and given for a prey and spoil to the Amorites or Canaanites. For it was reported unto them, by the searchers of the land, that the cities of their enemies were walled and defended with many strong towers and castles; that many of the people were giant-like, (for they confessed that they saw the sons of Anak there,) who were men of fearful stature, and so far overtopped the Israelites, as they appeared to them, and to themselves, but as grasshoppers in their respect. Now as this mutiny exceeded all the rest, wherein they both accused God, and consulted to choose them a captain (or as they call it nowadays, an electo).to carry them back again into Egypt; so did God punish the a Deut. i. 19. ▾ Deut. i. 27.

• Numb. xi. xii. and xiii. P Numb. xxi.