* Sce Caj>.vii. Lib. lii,Sett. 5.

284 ADISCOURSE

Book IV. In the meantime, that which came nearest to the Schanopegia of^ eJews, and other Solemnities, call’d by the Romans , Dmbrœ ; aSthose in Neptunalibus are ddcrib’d by the Roet:

b All forts together flock ; and on the GroundDisplay'!, each Fellow with his Mate drinks round.

Some Jit in open Air, some build their Tents ;

And some themselves in branchy Arbors fence.

Rlutarch speaking of the Anniversary Feafl of Bacchus, plainlytefembles it to that of the Tabernacles , carrying about QvpasiBranches of Ralm, Citron, and other Trees, as Josephus describes wJewiJh Festival-. The Custom (for ought I know) still kept up inny Places of our Country, and abroad, on May-Day (and about ttime of the year) when the young Men and Maidens , like the RagSvpcm go out into the Woods and Copp'ces , cut down and * fi'O

young Springers , to dress up their May-Booth , and dance about tnRole, as in RiElures we lee the wanton Israelites about the M°^ eCalf. For thus, as we noted, those Rites commanded by God c air fto be prophaned, and the Retirednels of Groves and Shades for ^Opacoufnefs, abus’d to abominable Purposes, and Works of Darkn e ^But what good or indifferent thing has not been subject to Perverf° i t bvid. Seidenum. ^ iS in the end of Isaiah, Exprobratur Hebrais quod in Of l Jde Jure Nat. honais Idolorum horti ejsent in quorum medio februabantur ; but h 0 ^L 2*”c 6 ^ this is applicable to Groves, does not appear lo fully •’ though we ^Lii.&Gre. them interdicted, Deut. xvi. 21. Judg. vi. 16. 2 Chron. xxxi. Z, ^Gyraidum de and forbidden to be planted near the Temple. And an impure G r oftags™!' Sj/ ”~ on Mount Lib anus, dedicated to Venus , was by an Imperial

Conftantine extirpated: But from the Abuse of the thing to theuse, the Consequence is not always valid; and we may note as tovery Particular, that where in divers Places of holy Writ theelation against Groves is lb express, it is frequently to be taker*Catachrestically, from the Wooden Image or Statue call’d by t ^Name, as our Learned Selden makes out by sundry Instances j 1Syntagma de Diis Syr is. Indeed the Use of Groves upon accountDevotion was lo antient, and feem’d lb universal, that they c ° n ^4ted not only real and natural Groves, but lucos p iff os, artificial ^cage and Representations of them. -

The Sum of all is, Raradise itself was but a kind,os Nemorous ^pie, or Sacred Grove, planted by God himself, and given to st ^tanquam primo facerdoti ; the word is 12Z7, which properly fig n ^ c-j-serve or administer res divinas ; a Place consecrated for sober h"pline, and to contemplate those Mysterious and Sacramentalwhich they were not to touch with their Hands; and inthem, I am inclin’d to believe, holy Men (as we have lhevv'd inham and others) might plant and cultivate Groves, where th^Jtionally invok’d the Deity ; and St. Hierom, Chrysoftom, O/A T ^ e {eAugustin, and other Fathers of the Church, greatly magnifi^ ^pious Advantages; and Cajetan tells us, that from Isaac to J aC ° ’

Vid. SanBi-ran, Piscat.Gretitmt.

b Plebs renit, ac virides passim disjecta per herbasPotat & accumbit cum pare quisque sua.•

Sub jove pars durat, pauci tentoria ponunt;

Sunt qwibus e ramis frgstdea, facta casu est. ...

O y 1». F*fi> Ui. M*r.

t

their

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