Under the like latitude of acception, are many expressions in the Canticles to be received. And when it is said he feedeth among the Lilies, therein may be also implied other specious Flowers, not excluding the proper Lilies. But in that expression, the Lilies drop forth Myrrhe, neither proper Lilies nor proper Myrrhe can be apprehended, the one not proceeding from the other, but may be received in a Metaphorical sense: and in some latitude may be also made out from the roscid and honey drops observable in the Flowers of Martagon, and inverted flowred Lilies, and, ’tis like, is the standing sweet Dew on the white eyes of the Crown Imperial, now common among us.
And the proper Lily may be intended in that expression of 1 Kings 7. that the brazen Sea was of the thickness of a hand breadth, and the brim like a Lily. For the figure of that Flower being round at the bottom, and somewhat repandous, or inverted at the top, doth handsomely illustrate the comparison.
But that the Lily of the Valley, mention’d in the Canticles, Cant. 2. I am the Rose of Sharon, and the Lily of the Valleys, is that Vegetable which passeth under the same name with us, that is Lilium convallium, or the May Lily, you will more hardly believe, who know with what insatisfaction the most learned Botanists reduce that Plant unto any described by the Ancients; that Anguillara will have it to be the Oenanthe of Athenæus, Cordus the Pothos of Theophrastus; and Lobelius that the Greeks had not described it; who find not six Leaves in the Flower agreeably to all Lilies, but onely six small divisions in the Flower, who find it also to have a single, and no bulbous Root, nor Leaves shooting about the bottom, nor the Stalk round, but angular. And that the learned Bauhinus hath not placed it in the Classis of Lilies, but nervifolious Plants.
Fitches, Cummin, &c. in Isa. 28. 25
18. Doth he not cast abroad the Fitches, and scatter the Cummin Seed, and cast in the principal Wheat, and the appointed Barley, and the Rye in their place: Herein though the sense may hold under the names assigned, yet is it not so easie to determine the particular Seeds and Grains, where the obscure original causeth such differing Translations. For in the Vulgar we meet with Milium and Gith, which our Translation declineth, placing Fitches for Gith, and Rye for Milium or Millet, which notwithstanding is retained by the Dutch.
That it might be Melanthium, Nigella, or Gith, may be allowably apprehended, from the frequent use of the Seed thereof among the Jews and other Nations, as also from the Translation of Tremellius; and the Original implying a black Seed, which is less than Cummin, as, out of Aben Ezra, Buxtorfius hath expounded it.
But whereas Milium or Κέγχρος of the Septuagint is by ours rendred Rye, there is little similitude or affinity between those Grains; For Milium is more agreeable unto Spelta or Espaut, as the Dutch and others still render it.
That we meet so often with Cummin Seed in many parts of Scripture in reference unto Judæa, a Seed so abominable at present unto our Palates and Nostrils, will not seem strange unto any who consider the frequent use thereof among the Ancients, not onely in medical but dietetical use and practice: For their Dishes were filled therewith, and the noblest festival preparations in Apicius were not without it: And even in the Polenta, and parched Corn, the old Diet of the Romans, (as Pliny recordeth) unto every Measure they mixed a small proportion of Lin-seed and Cummin-seed.
And so Cummin is justly set down among things of vulgar and common use, when it is said in Matthew 23. v. 23. You pay Tithe of Mint, Annise and Cummin: but how to make out the translation of Annise we are still to seek, there being no word in that Text which properly signifieth Annise: the Original being Ἄνηθον, which the Latins call Anethum, and is properly englished Dill.
That among many expressions, allusions and illustrations made in Scripture from Corns, there is no mention made of Oats, so usefull a Grain among us, will not seem very strange unto you, till you can clearly discover that it was a Grain of ordinary use in those parts; who may also find that Theophrastus, who is large about other Grains, delivers very little of it. That Dioscorides is also very short therein. And Galen delivers that it was of some use in Asia minor, especially in Mysia, and that rather for Beasts than Men: And Pliny affirmeth that the Pulticula thereof was most in use among the Germans. Yet that the Jews were not without all use of this Grain seems confirmable from the Rabbinical account, who reckon five Grains liable unto their Offerings, whereof the Cake presented might be made; that is, Wheat, Oats, Rye, and two sorts of Barley.