by this overthrow of Amalek the better assured himself of that part of Arabia. For it is written, Exodus xviii. 1. When Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, heard all that God had done for Moses, &c. of which the last deed, to wit, the overthrow of Amalek, gave Jethro courage and assurance, he then repaired to his son-in-law Moses, at Sinai; where, amongst other things, he advised Moses to appoint judges, and other officers, over Israel; being himself unable to give order in all causes and controversies, among so many thousands of people full of discontentment and private controversy.

This Jethro, although he dwelt amongst the Midianites, yet he was by nation a Kenite, as in Judges iv. 11. 17. it is made manifest, where it is written, Now Heber the Kenite, which was of the children of Hobab, to wit, the son of Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, was departed from the Kenites, and pitched his tents until the plain of Zaanaim, which is by Kedesh. Likewise in the first of Samuel, fSaul commanded the Kenites to depart from among the Amalekites, lest he should destroy them with the Amalekites. For the Kenites inhabited the mountains of Sin Kadesh, and the Amalekites dwelt in the plains, according to the saying of Balaam, speaking of the Kenites; Strong is thy dwellingplace, and thou hast put thy nest in the rock. And that Saul spared this nation, he giveth for cause, that they shewed mercy to all the children of Israel when they came up from Egypt. For these Kenites were a nation of the Midianites, and the Midianites were of the issues of Midian, one of the six sons which Abraham begat on Keturah; and might also take that name of Kenites from Keturah, of whom they descended by the mother, who, as it seemeth, kept the knowledge of the true God among them, which they received from their parent Abraham. For Moses, when he fled out of Egypt into Midian, and married the daughter of Jethro, would not (had he found them idolaters) have made Jethro's daughter the mother of his children. And although the

f 1 Sam. xv. 16. Numb. xxiv. 21.

h1 Sam. xv.

i Gen. xxv.

Kenites are named amongst those nations which God promised that the seed of Abraham should root out, and inherit their lands; yet it cannot be meant by these, who are descended from Abraham himself; but by some other nation bearing the same name, and in all likelihood of the race of Chus. For in Genesis xv. 19. these Kenites, or Chusites, are listed with the Hittites and Perezites, with the Amorites, Canaanites, Gergesites, and Jebusites, which were indeed afterwards rooted out. But these Kenites descended from k Abraham, had separated themselves from among the rest, which were altogether idolatrous. For, as is before remembered, Heber the Kenite, which was of the children of Hobab, was departed from the Kenites, that is to say, from those Kenites of Canaan, and inhabited in Zaanaim, which is by Kedesh, or Kadesh. Again, Moses nameth that nation of the Kenites, before Midian, or any of Abraham's other sons were born; which he did (referring myself to better judgment) rather, because they were more ancient, than by anticipation.

And as of the Kenites, so we may consider of the m Midianites, parted by Moses into five tribes. For some of them were corrupted, and heathens; as those of Midian by the river Zared, afterwards destroyed by Moses. But the Midianites near the banks of the Red sea, where Moses married his wife Zipporah, and with whom he left her and his children, till after the overthrow of Amalek, seem likewise not to have been corrupted. For these Midianites with the Kenites assisted Israel, and guided them in the deserts. But the Midianites in Moab, and to the north of the metropolis of Arabia, called Petræa, were by Israel rooted out, when those adjoining to the Red sea were not touched.

And though it may be doubted, whether those of Midian, of whom Jethro was priest, and the other cities in Moab were the same, yet the contrary is more probable. For Moses would not have sent 12,000 Israelites, as far back as the Red sea, from the plains of Moab, to have destroyed that Midian where his wife's kindred inhabited; seeing 1 Judg. iv. 11.

k Gen. xv.

In Gen. xxv. 4.

himself coming with 600,000 able men was encountered by Amalek in that passage. Neither could Moses forget the length of the way through those discomfortable deserts, wherein himself and Israel had wandered forty years.

That Jethro or Jothor, Raguel or Reuel, and Hobab, were but one person, the scriptures teach us. For the Vulgar and Septuagint, which call him Raguel, and our English, Reuel, Exod. ii. 18. call him Jethro, or Jothor, Exod. iii. 1. iv. 18. xviii. 1, and 6, 9, 10, 12. and in Numbers x. 29. Hobab. Others take Jethro and Hobab to be the same, but not Raguel.

SECT. III.

Of the time when the law was given; with divers commendations of the invention of laws.

THE rest of the months of this year 2515 were spent in the desert of Sinai, near the mountain of Sinai or Horeb, the twelfth mansion. Eusebius thought that Sinai or Horeb were distinct mountains; Jerome, to be but one, of a double name; and so it appeareth by many scriptures. For in Exod. iii. 1. it is called Horeb; and in Exod. xxiv. 16. it is written Sinai. In Psalm cvi. 19. Horeb; in Exod. xix. 11. Sinai. And so it is called Galatians iv. 24. and again, Deut. iv. 10, 15. and Deut. v. 2. Horeb. And so it is in the 1st of Kings, viii. 6. and the 2d of Chron. v. 10. and in Malachi iv. 4. Finally, in Ecclesiasticus xlviii. 7. they are named as one: Which heardest, saith Ecclesiasticus, the rebuke of the Lord in Sinai, and in Horeb the judg ment of the vengeance. Somewhat they are disjoined at the top by the report of Peter Belonius, who in the year 1588 passed out of Egypt into Arabia, with monsieur de Fumet of France, and travelled to the top both of Sinai and Horeb, Sinai being by far the higher hill. From the side of Horeb, saith he, there falleth a very fair spring of water into the valley adjoining; where he found two monasteries of Christian Marronites, containing some 100 religious persons of divers nations, who had pleasant gardens, delicate

fruits, and excellent wine. These, saith the same "author, give entertainment to all strangers which pass that way.

Now, that there was some such torrent of water near Sinai in Moses's time, it is very probable; first, because he encamped thereabout almost a year, and drew no water, as in other places, by miracle; secondly, because it is written, Exod. xxxii. 20. that when Moses had broken the golden calf to powder, which Aaron set up in his absence, he cast the powder thereof into the water, and made the children of Israel to drink thereof.

On this mountain, the law by the angel of God was given to Moses, where he stayed a whole year, wanting some ten or twelve days; for he removed not till the twentieth day of the second month of the second year, and he arrived about the forty-fifth day after the egression; the law being given the fiftieth day.

At this mansion all was done which is written from the beginning of the twenty-ninth chapter of Exodus to the end of that book, all in Leviticus, and all in Numbers to the tenth chapter. Whereof (because there is no story nor other passage) I will omit the repetition, and in place thereof speak somewhat of the law, and the kinds and use thereof; whereby, if the reader find the story any way disjoined, he may turn over a few leaves, and, omitting this, find the continuation thereof. We must first consider, that as there can be neither foundation, building, nor continuance of any commonwealth, without the rule, level, and square of laws; so it pleased God to give thereby unto Moses the powerfullest mean (his miraculous grace excepted) to govern that multitude which he conducted, to make them victorious in their passage, and to establish them assuredly in their conquest. For as the north star is the most fixed director of the seaman to his desired port; so is the law of God the guide and conductor of all in general to the haven of eternal life; the law of nature, from God's eternal law deduced, the rule of all his creatures; the law human, de

u Pet. Bel. lib. 2. c. 62,

pending on both these, the guard of kings, magistrates, and virtuous men; yea, the very spirit and the very sinews of every estate in the world, by which they live and move; the law, to wit, a just law, being resembled to an heart without affection, to an eye without lust, and to a mind without passion; a treasurer, which keepeth for every man what he hath, and distributeth to every man what he ought to have.

This benefit the ancients, though barbarous, esteemed so highly, that, among them, those which were taken for the first makers of laws were honoured as gods, or as the sons of gods; and the rest, that made either additions or corrections, were commended to all posterity for men of no less virtue, and no less liberally beneficial to their countries, than the greatest and most prosperous conquerors that ever governed them. The Israelites, the Lacedæmonians, and the Athenians, received their laws from one; as the Israelites from Moses, the Lacedæmonians from Lycurgus, the Athenians from Solon; the Romans sometimes from their first kings, from their decemviri, from their senators, from their lawyers, and from the people themselves; others from the prince, nobility, and people, as in England, France, and in other Christian monarchies and estates.

SECT. IV.

Of the name and meaning of the words law and right.

THE word lex, or law, is not always taken alike, but is diversely and in an indifferent sense used. For if we consider it at large, it may be understood for any rule prescribing a necessary mean, order, and method, for the attaining of an end. And so the rules of grammar and other arts are called laws. Or it is taken for any private ordinance of superiors to inferiors; for the commandments of tyrants, which they cause to be observed by force; for their decrees do also usurp that title, according to the general acceptation of the word law; of which Isaiah, Woe unto them that decree wicked decrees, and write grievous things. Likewise the word is used for the tumultuary resolutions

• Isaiah x. I.

RALEGH, HIST. WORLD. VOL. II.

H