30. You will readily discover how widely they are mistaken, who accept the Sycamore mention’d in several parts of Scripture for the Sycamore, or Tree of that denomination, with us: which is properly but one kind or difference of Acer, and bears no Fruit with any resemblance unto a Figg.
But you will rather, thereby, apprehend the true and genuine Sycamore, or Sycaminus, which is a stranger in our parts. A Tree (according to the description of Theophrastus, Dioscorides and Galen) resembling a Mulberry Tree in the Leaf, but in the Fruit a Figg; which it produceth not in the Twiggs but in the Trunck or greater Branches, answerable to the Sycamore of Ægypt, the Ægyptian Figg or Giamez of the Arabians, described by Prosper Alpinus, with a Leaf somewhat broader than a Mulberry, and in its Fruit like a Figg. Insomuch that some have fancied it to have had its first production from a Figg Tree grafted on a Mulberry.
It is a Tree common in Judæa, whereof they made frequent use in Buildings; and so understood, it explaineth that expression in Isaiah:[203] Sycamori excisi sunt, Cedros substituemus. The Bricks are fallen down, we will build with hewen Stones: The Sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into Cedars.
It is a broad spreading Tree, not onely fit for Walks, Groves and Shade, but also affording profit. And therefore it is said that King David[204] appointed Baalhanan to be over his Olive Trees and Sycamores, which were in great plenty; and it is accordingly delivered,[205] that Solomon made Cedars to be as the Sycamore Trees that are in the Vale for abundance. That is, he planted many, though they did not come to perfection in his days.
And as it grew plentifully about the Plains, so was the Fruit good for Food; and, as Bellonius and late accounts deliver, very refreshing unto Travellers in those hot and drie Countries: whereby the expression of Amos[206] becomes more intelligible, when he said he was an Herdsman, and a gatherer of Sycamore Fruit. And the expression of David[207] also becomes more Emphatical; He destroyed their Vines with Hail, and their Sycamore Trees with Frost. That is, their Sicmoth in the Original, a word in the sound not far from the Sycamore.
Thus when it is said,[208] If ye had Faith as a grain of Mustard-seed, ye might say unto this Sycamine Tree, Be thou plucked up by the roots, and be thou placed in the Sea, and it should obey you: it might be more significantly spoken of this Sycamore; this being described to be Arbor vasta, a large and well rooted Tree, whose removal was more difficult than many others. And so the instance in that Text, is very properly made in the Sycamore Tree, one of the largest and less removable Trees among them. A Tree so lasting and well rooted, that the Sycamore which Zacheus ascended, is still shewn in Judæa unto Travellers; as also the hollow Sycamore at Maturæa in Ægypt, where the blessed Virgin is said to have remained: which though it relisheth of the Legend, yet it plainly declareth what opinion they had of the lasting condition of that Tree, to countenance the Tradition; for which they might not be without some experience, since the learned describer of the Pyramides[209] observeth, that the old Ægyptians made Coffins of this Wood, which he found yet fresh and undecayed among divers of their Mummies.
And thus, also, when Zacheus climbed up into a Sycamore above any other Tree, this being a large and fair one, it cannot be denied that he made choice of a proper and advantageous Tree to look down upon our Saviour.
Increase of Seed 100. fold in Matt. 13. 23.
31. Whether the expression of our Saviour in the Parable of the Sower, and the increase of the Seed unto thirty, sixty and a hundred fold, had any reference unto the ages of Believers, and measures of their Faith, as Children, Young and Old Persons, as to beginners, well advanced and strongly confirmed Christians, as learned men have hinted; or whether in this progressional assent there were any latent Mysteries, as the mystical Interpreters of Numbers may apprehend, I pretend not to determine.
But, how this multiplication may well be conceived, and in what way apprehended, and that this centesimal increase is not naturally strange, you that are no stranger in Agriculture, old and new, are not like to make great doubt.