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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 PIsrael; 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

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

a Deut. i. 19.

r Deut. i. 27.

S

same in a greater measure than any of the former. For he extinguished every soul of the whole multitude, (Joshua and Caleb excepted,) who being confident in God's promises, persuaded the people to enter Canaan, being then near it, and at the mountain foot of Idumæa, which is but narrow, laying before them the fertility thereof, and assuring them of victory. But, as men whom the passion of fear had bereaved both of reason and common sense, they threatened to stone these encouragers to death, accounting them as men either desperate in themselves, or betrayers of the lives, goods, and children of all their brethren to their enemies: but God resisted these wicked purposes, and interposing the fear of his bright glory between the unadvised fury of the multitude, and the innocency and constancy of his servants, preserved them thereby from their violence; threatening an entire destruction of the whole nation, by sending among them at consuming and merciless pestilence. For this was the tenth insurrection and rebellion which they had made, since God delivered them from the slavery of the Egyptians. But u Moses (the mildest or meekest of all men) prayed unto God to remember his infinite mercies; alleging that this so severe a judgment, how deservedly soever inflicted, would increase the pride of the heathen nations, and give them occasion to vaunt that the God of Israel failing in power to perform his promises, suffered them to perish in these barren and fruitless deserts. Yet as God is no less just than merciful, as God is slow to anger, so is his wrath a consuming fire, the same being once kindled by the violent breath of man's ingratitude: and therefore, as with a hand less heavy than hoped for, he scourged this iniquity, so by the measure of his glory (evermore jealous of neglect and derision) he suffered not the wicked to pass unpunished, reserving his compassion for the innocent, whom, because they participated not with the offences of their fathers, he was pleased to preserve, and in them to perform his promises, which have never been frustrate.

8 Numb. xiv. 10.

t Numb. xiv. 12.

u Numb. xii. 3.

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Of their unwillingness to return; with the punishment thereof, and of divers accidents in the return.

NOW when Moses had revealed the purposes of God to the people, and made them know his heavy displeasure towards them, they began to bewail themselves, though overlate, the times of grace and men's repentance having also their appointment. And then when God had left them to themselves, and was no more among them, after they had so often played and dallied with his merciful sufferings, they would needs amend their former disobedience by a second contempt, and make offer to enter the land contrary again to the advice of Moses, who assured them, that God was not now among them, and that the ark of his covenant should not move, but by his direction, who could not err; and that the enemies' sword, which God had hitherto bended and rebated, was now left no less sharp than death, and in the hands of the Amalekites and Canaanites, no less cruel. But as men, from whom God hath withdrawn his grace, do always follow those counsels which carry them to their own destructions; so the Hebrews, after they had forsaken the opportunity by God and their conductors offered, and might then have entered Judæa before their enemies were prepared and joined, did afterwards, contrary to God's commandment, undertake the enterprise of themselves, and ran headlong and without advice into the mountains of Idumæa. There the Canaanites and the Amalekites being joined and attending their advantage, set on them, brake them, and of their numbers slaughtered the greatest part; and following their victory and pursuit, consumed them all the way of their flight even unto Hormah: the Amalekites, in revenge of their former loss and overthrow at Raphidim ; the Canaanites, to prevent their displantation and destruction threatened. Of which powerful assembly of those two nations, (assisted in all likelihood with the neighbour kings, joined together for their common safety,) it pleased God to forewarn Moses, and to direct him another way than that formerly intended. For he commanded him to return by those painful passages

of the deserts, through which they had formerly travelled, till they found the banks of the Red sea again; in which retreat, before they came back to pass over Jordan, there were consumed thirty-eight years: and the whole number of the six hundredth and odd thousand, which came out of Egypt, (Moses, Joshua, and Caleb excepted,) were dead in the wilderness, the stubborn and careless generations were wholly worn out, and the promised land bestowed on their children; which were increased to 600,000, and more. For besides the double fault, both of refusing to enter the land upon the return of the discoverers, and the presumption then to attempt it, when they were countermanded; it seemeth that they had committed that horrible idolatry of worshipping Moloch and the host of heaven. For although Moses doth not mention it, yet * Amos doth, and so doth the martyr Stephen; 'as also that the Israelites worshipped the sun and moon in aftertimes, it is proved out of sundry other places.

Χ

Now after the broken companies were returned to the camp at Kades, Moses, according to the commandment received from God, departed towards the south from whence he came, to recover the shores of the Red sea. And so from Kades or Rithma he removed to Remmonparez, so called of abundance of pomegranates there found and divided among them. From thence he went on to Libnah, taking that name of the frankincense there found. From y Libnah he crossed the valley, and sat down at Ressa near the foot of the mountain. And after he had rested there, he bended towards the west, and encamped at Ceelata; where one of the Hebrews, for gathering broken wood on the sabbath, was stoned to death. After which, Moses always keeping the valley, between two great ledges of mountains, (those which bound the desert of Zin, and those of Pharan,) crossed the same from Ceelata, and marched eastward to the mountain of Sapher, or Sepher; this making the twentieth mansion. From thence he passed on to Ha

* Amos v. 25. Acts vii. 42. 2 Kings xvii. 16. and xxi. 3. and xxiii. 4, 5, 11.

2 Chron. xxxiii. 3. Jer. xix 13, &c. y Numb. xxxiii. 21.

rada, then to Maceloth, and then to Thahah, and so to Thara or Thare, the four and twentieth mansion. Where, while Moses rested, the people began that insolent and dangerous mutiny of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram; who, for their contempt of God and his ministers, were some of them swallowed up alive, and by the earth opening her mouth devoured; others, even 250 which offered incense with Korah, were consumed with fire from heaven; and 14,700 of their party, which murmured against Moses, stricken dead with a sudden pestilence: one of the greatest marvels and judgments of God that hath been shewed in all the time of Moses's government, or before. For among so great a multitude, those laymen, who would have usurped ecclesiastical authority, were suddenly swallowed up alive into the earth with their families and goods, even while they sought to overthrow the order, discipline, and power of the church, and to make all men alike therein, rebelliously contending against the high priest and magistrate, to whom God had committed the government both of his church and commonweal of his people. And the better to assure the people, and out of his great mercy to confirm them, it pleased him in this place also to approve by miracle the former election of his servant Aaron, by the twelve rods given in by the heads of the twelve tribes, of which Moses received one of every head and prince of his tribe; which being all withered and dry wands, and on every rod the name of the prince of the tribe written, and Aaron's on that of Levi; it pleased God, that the rod of Aaron received by his power a vegetable spirit, and having lain in the tabernacle of the congregation before the ark one night, had on it both buds, blossoms, and ripe almonds.

From Tharah the whole army removed to Methra, and thence to Esmona, and thence to Moseroth, (or Masurit, after St. Jerome,) and from Moseroth to Benejacan, and so to Gadgad, which Jerome calleth Gadgada, thence to Jetabata, the thirtieth mansion; where from certain fountains of water gathered in one, Adrichomius maketh a river, which falleth into the Red sea, between Madian and Ezion-gaber.

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