OF FOREST-TREES.

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he designed an exprefs place for God’s Divine Service: For there, says book iv,the sacred text, he planted a Grove, and called upon the name of the Lord.

Such another tuft we read of, (for we must not always restrain it to onesingle tree) when the Patriarch came to mio- Eton Moreh, ad

Quercetmn Moreh: But whether that, were the same under which theHigh-Priest reposited the famous Stone, after the exhortation mentioned,

Joshua xxiv. 26, we do not contend; under an Oak , says the Scripture,and it grew near the Sanctuary, and probably might be that which hisgrandchild consecrated with the funeral of his belovedRebecca,Gen.xxxv.

For it is apparent, by the context, that there God appeared to him again :

So Grotius, upon the words, “ subter Quercum,” says, 1llam ipsam cujusmentio, Gen. xxxiv. 4 . in historia Jacobi et Judce , and adds, Is locus inlionorem Jacobi din pro Templa fuit: “ that the very spot was long afterused for a Temple in honour of Jacob.” This was the place, which..

Sozomen calls Terebinthum, from certain trees growing there j. these, saysJosephus, de Bell. Jud. 1. v. were as antientas the world itself. Some re-’port that this Oak sprung from a staff, which one of the Angels, who ap-peared to the Patriarch, fixed in the ground : So Geor. Syncellus inChronico. Mirum verb est (says Valesius on this pafsage of Eusebius)cum Quei'cus ibidem fuerit, sub qua Abraham Tabernaculum posuerit, (utlegitur in Gen. xviii.) cur locus ipse d Terebintho potius quam a Quercmnomcn acceperit. In the mean time, as to the prohibition, Deut. xvi. 21,,whether this Patriarchal Devotion in Groves, and under-ArboreousShades, was approved by God, till there was a fixed altar, and his cere-monial worship confined to the tabernacle and temple, I think needs be

no question*., *D.Dought y

Analecta Sa-if we therefore now would tract the religious esteem of trees and woods' xiii.yet farther in holy writ, we have that glorious vision of Moses in the fierythicket; and it is not to abuse or violate the text, that Moncams andothers interpret it to have been an entire Grove, and not a single bushonly which he saw as burning, yet unconsumed. P.uto ego (says my Au-thor) rubi vocabulo non quidem rubum aliquem unicum et solitanum signiji-cari,-'oerum rubetum totum, aut potius fruticetiim, quomodo de AnercuMambre pro Anerecto toto docti inlelligunt. Now that they worshipped inthat place soon after their coming out of Egypt, the following story s-howsThe feast of tabernacles had some resemblance of patriarchal devotionunder trees f, though but in temporary groves and shades in manner ofbooths, yet celebrated with all the refreshings of the forest 3 and from the XXX1 “-