Olive Tree in Rom. 11. 24.
32. For if thou wert cut out of the Olive Tree, which is wild by nature, and wert grafted, contrary to nature, into a good Olive Tree, how much more shall these, which be the natural Branches, be grafted into their own Olive Tree? In which place, how answerable to the Doctrine of Husbandry this expression of S. Paul is, you will readily apprehend who understand the rules of insition or grafting, and that way of vegetable propagation; wherein that is contrary to nature, or natural rules which Art observeth: viz. to make use of a Cyons more ignoble than the Stock, or to graft wild upon domestick and good Plants, according as Theophrastus[216] hath anciently observed, and, making instance in the Olive, hath left this Doctrine unto us; Urbanum Sylvestribus ut satis Oleastris inserere. Nam si è contrario Sylvestrem in Urbanos severis, etsi differentia quædam erit, tamen[217] bonæ frugis Arbor nunquam profecto reddetur: which is also agreeable unto our present practice, who graft Pears on Thorns, and Apples upon Crabb Stocks, not using the contrary insition. And when it is said, How much more shall these, which are the natural Branches, be grafted into their own natural Olive Tree? this is also agreeable unto the rule of the same Author; Ἔστι δὲ βελτίων ἐγκεντρισμὸς, ὁμοίων εἰς ὅμοια, Insitio melior est similium in similibus: For the nearer consanguinity there is between the Cyons and the Stock, the readier comprehension is made, and the nobler fructification. According also unto the later caution of Laurenbergius;[218] Arbores domesticæ insitioni destinatæ, semper anteponendæ Sylvestribus. And though the success be good, and may suffice upon Stocks of the same denomination; yet, to be grafted upon their own and Mother Stock, is the nearest insition: which way, though less practised of old, is now much imbraced, and found a notable way for melioration of the Fruit; and much the rather, if the Tree to be grafted on be a good and generous Plant, a good and fair Olive, as the Apostle seems to imply by a peculiar word[219] scarce to be found elsewhere.
It must be also considered, that the Oleaster, or wild Olive, by cutting, transplanting and the best managery of Art, can be made but to produce such Olives as (Theophrastus saith) were particularly named Phaulia, that is, but bad Olives; and that it was reckon’d among Prodigies, for the Oleaster to become an Olive Tree.
And when insition and grafting, in the Text, is applied unto the Olive Tree, it hath an Emphatical sense, very agreeable unto that Tree which is best propagated this way; not at all by surculation, as Theophrastus observeth, nor well by Seed, as hath been observed. Omne semen simile genus perficit, præter oleam, Oleastrum enim generat, hoc est sylvestrem oleam, et non oleam veram.
"If, therefore, thou Roman and Gentile Branch, which wert cut from the wild Olive, art now, by the signal mercy of God, beyond the ordinary and commonly expected way, grafted into the true Olive, the Church of God; if thou, which neither naturally nor by humane art canst be made to produce any good Fruit, and, next to a Miracle, to be made a true Olive, art now by the benignity of God grafted into the proper Olive; how much more shall the Jew, and natural Branch, be grafted into its genuine and mother Tree, wherein propinquity of nature is like, so readily and prosperously, to effect a coalition? And this more especially by the expressed way of insition or implantation, the Olive being not successfully propagable by Seed, nor at all by surculation."
Stork nesting on Firre Trees in Psal. 104. 17.
33. As for the Stork, the Firre Trees are her House. This expression, in our Translation, which keeps close to the Original Chasidah, is somewhat different from the Greek and Latin Translation; nor agreeable unto common observation, whereby they are known commonly to build upon Chimneys, or the tops of Houses, and high Buildings, which notwithstanding, the common Translation may clearly consist with observation, if we consider that this is commonly affirmed of the black Stork, and take notice of the description of Ornithologus in Aldrovandus, that such Storks are often found in divers parts, and that they do in Arboribus nidulari, præsertim in abietibus; Make their Nests on Trees, especially upon Firre Trees. Nor wholly disagreeing unto the practice of the common white Stork, according unto Varro, nidulantur in agris: and the concession of Aldrovandus that sometimes they build on Trees: and the assertion of Bellonius,[220] that men dress them Nests, and place Cradles upon high Trees, in Marish regions, that Storks may breed upon them: which course some observe for Herns and Cormorants with us. And this building of Storks upon Trees, may be also answerable unto the original and natural way of building of Storks before the political habitations of men, and the raising of Houses and high Buildings; before they were invited by such conveniences and prepared Nests, to relinquish their natural places of nidulation. I say, before or where such advantages are not ready; when Swallows found other places than Chimneys, and Daws found other places than holes in high Fabricks to build in.
Balm, in Gen. 43. 11.
34. And, therefore, Israel said carry down the man a present, a little Balm, a little Honey, and Myrrhe, Nuts and Almonds. Now whether this, which Jacob sent, were the proper Balsam extolled by humane Writers, you cannot but make some doubt, who find the Greek Translation to be Ῥητίνη, that is, Resina, and so may have some suspicion that it might be some pure distillation from the Turpentine Tree, which grows prosperously and plentifully in Judæa, and seems so understood by the Arabick; and was indeed esteemed by Theophrastus and Dioscorides, the chiefest of resinous Bodies, and the word Resina Emphatically used for it.