eth it with Mesopotamia and Æthiopia, calling the land of Chus Ethiopia, after the Vulgar and Septuagint. And lastly, the river which watereth the regions, saith Æthicus, falleth into the gulf of Persia; which river he calleth Armodius for Tigris, Tigris being but a name imposed for the swiftness thereof. And out of Armenia both Tigris and Euphrates have their original: for out of Eden came a river, or rivers, to water the garden, both which rivers, to wit, Tigris and Euphrates, come out of Armenia, and both of them traverse Mesopotamia, regions first of all known by the name of Eden, for their beauty and fertility. And it is very probable that Eden contained also some part of Armenia; and the excellent fertility thereof in divers places is not unworthy the name of Eden: for in some part thereof, saith Strabo, the leaves are always green, and therefore therein a perpetual spring. Also Stephanus, de Urbibus, mentioneth the city of Adana upon Euphrates; and the name of Eden was in use in Amos's time, though he spake not of Eden in the east, but of Eden in Colesyria. But to the end I may not burden the reader's patience with too long a discourse, it may suffice to know, that Euphrates and Tigris (once joined together, and afterwards separate) are two of those four heads, into which these rivers which are said to water the garden of paradise were divided; whose courses being known, Eden (out of which they are said to come) cannot be unknown. Now that Hiddekel and Perath were Tigris and Euphrates, it is agreed by all: for the Seventy, and all others, convert Perath by Euphrates: et Hiddekel, Tigrim omnes exponunt; " and all men understand "Hiddekel by Tigris," saith Vatablus. And because that which I have said of the isle of Eden shall not be subject to the censure of self-invention, I have hereunder set down the words out of the two general epistles of the Nestorians, as Masius (ad verbum) hath converted them into Latin. The occasion of those letters and supplications to the pope were, that the Nestorian Christians which inhabit Mesopotamia, Assyria, Persia, and Babylonia, and have to this day (at least in queen Mary's time they had) fifteen churches in one city,

called Seleucia Parthorum, or Mosel, upon the river, Tigris having no sufficient authority to choose themselves a patriarch, (which cannot be done without four, or three metropolitan bishops at the least,) sent to the bishop of Rome, in the year of Christ 1552, (as aforesaid,) a petition to obtain allowance unto such an election as themselves had made; having three hundred years before that, upon the like defect, sent one Marius thither to be confirmed; and in this negotiation they made known to the bishop of Rome the state of the Christian church in those parts: for, upon the death of their patriarch, (who of a covetous desire to enrich himself had foreborne to institute metropolitan bishops when the places fell void,) they all assembled themselves together to consult of the church-government. And because all the patriarchs for an hundred years had been of one house and family, to the prejudice of the church, and that there yet remained one bishop of the same stock and kindred, who aspired to the same dignity which his predecessors had held, the rest of the professors refused to allow him. Upon which occasion, and for the choice of a governor more sufficient, the teachers in all the churches assembled themselves. The words of the general epistle to the pope were these, about the middle of the said epistle; Verum nos non acceptavimus, neque proclamavimus ipsum; sed subito convenimus ex omnibus locis orientalibus, et ex omnibus civitatibus et pagis quæ sunt circum civitatem Mosel (hoc est, Attur) in vicinia Nineves, ex Babylonia, ex Charra, ex Arbella, ex insula quæ est in medio Tigris, fluminis Eden, &c. i. e. “But we "did neither accept of this man, neither pronounced him; "but suddenly we assembled ourselves out of all parts of "the east, and out of all the cities and villages which are "about Mosel, or Attur, neighbouring upon Nineve; and "out of Babylon, Charra, Arbella; and out of the island "which lieth in the middle of Tigris, a river of Eden, or "rather out of the isle of Eden, which lieth in the river Tigris." And in a second epistle, at the same time sent, they used these words: Neque supersunt apud nos metropolita, quorum est ordinare catholicum; sed soli pauci episcopi,

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episcopus Arbela, episcopus Salmasti, episcopus Adurbeigan; en e vestigio convenimus in insulam, quæ est intra Tigrim flumen, Eden; fecimusque compactum inter nos, &c. which is, " Neither are there remaining among us any metropolitan bishops, to whom it belongs to ordain a pa"triarch, but only a few bishops, as the bishop of Arbela, "the bishop of Salmastus, and the bishop of Adurbeigan: "but lo, we assembled speedily in the island of Eden, "which is in Tigris, and agreed between ourselves," &c.

Now this island of Eden, Masius describeth with other places; which being well conceived, the Nestorian epistles and the state of the church may be in those parts, saith he, the better understood. And after he hath distinguished the four sorts of Christians in those parts of the world, and in the south part of Africa, which he calleth Nestorians, Jacobites, Maronitæ, and Cophti, he goeth on in these words: Mox, audita illius morte, concurrisse aiebant tumultuario in illam quam modo dixi Tigris insulam, quæ duodecim circiter passuum millibus supra Mosal posita, decem fere millia passuum suo ambitu continet, muris undique cincta, et a paucis aliis quam Christianis hominibus habitata: which is, "Now hearing of the death of the patri"arch, (as those that came to Rome reported,) they ran tu"multuously together into that island of Tigris, or Eden, be"fore spoken of, which island is situated about twelve miles "above Mosal, containing very near ten miles in compass, "and every where environed with a wall, inhabited by few "other men than Christians." And afterward he maketh a recapitulation of the Christian churches; among the rest he addeth the isle of Eden by the name of Geserta, insula Tigris, sive Geserta. Furthermore, describing the city of Hosan-Cepha, or Fortis Petra, he placeth it supra prædictam Tigris insulam, rupi asperæ impositam; "above the "aforesaid island of Tigris, being seated on a steep rock." Of this island of Geserta, Andrew Theuet maketh mention in his 10th book of his general Cosmography in these words: Geserta ou Gesire est au milieu de la riviere du Tigre, et pense que c'est une terre des plus fertiles de toute l'Asie;

"Geserta, or Gesire, is in the middle of Tigris, the soil the "most fertile of all Asia."

By this we may see that the ancient name of Eden liveth; and of that Eden which lieth eastward from Arabia Petræa, and the desert where Moses wrote, and that Eden which bordereth Charran, according to Ezekiel, and that Eden which is seated according to the assertion of the said prophet, and joined with those nations of Reseph, Canneh, and Charran, and the rest which traded with the Tyrians, and is found at this day in the parting of the two regions of Assyria and Babylonia, where the Edenites in Telassar were garrisoned to resist the Assyrians, whose displantation Senacherib vaunted of, as above written; and lastly, the same Eden which embraceth Tigris, and looketh on Euphrates, two of the known rivers of those four, which are by all men ascribed to paradise.

SECT. XI.

Of the difficulty in the text, which seemeth to make the four rivers to rise from one stream.

BUT it may be objected, that it is written in the text, that a river went out of Eden, and not rivers, in the plural: which scruple Matthew Beroaldus hath thus answered in his Chronology: the Latin translation, saith he, hath these words: Et fluvius egrediebatur de loco voluptatis ad irrigandum paradisum, qui inde dividebatur in quatuor capita: quæ verba melius consentiunt cum rei narratione, et ejusdem explicatione, si ita reddantur; Et fluvius erat egrediens ex Edene (hoc est) fluvii procedebant ex Edene regione ad rigandum pomarium; et inde dividebatur, et erat in quatuor capita: which is, " And a river went out of the "place of pleasure to water paradise, and thence was di"vided into four heads; which words," saith Beroaldus, "do better agree with the narration and explication of the place, if they be thus translated; And a river was going "forth of Eden, that is, rivers went forth, and ran out of "the region of Eden to water the orchard; and from thence

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"it was divided, and they became four heads." The Tigurine differs from the Vulgar, or Latin; for it converts it thus, Et fluvius egrediebatur de deliciis; "And a river went out "of pleasure," instead of Eden; and the Latin addeth the word locus, or place, Et fluvius egrediebatur de loco voluptatis; "And a river went out of the place of pleasure:" and so the word place may rightly be referred to Eden, which was (of all other) a region most delightful and fertile; and so also the word inde, and thence was divided, hath reference to the country of Eden, and not to the garden itself.

And for the word river for rivers, it is usual among the Hebrews for it is written, Gen. i. 11. Let the earth bud forth the bud of the herb that seedeth seed, the fruitful tree, &c. Here the Hebrew useth the singular for the plural, herb and tree, for herbs and trees; and again, Gen. iii. 2. We eat of the fruit of the tree, instead of trees: and thirdly, Gen. iii. 8. The man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of God; in medio ligni paradisi, in the middle of the tree of the garden, for trees. And of this opinion is David Kimchi and Vatablus, who upon this place of Genesis say, that the Hebrews do often put the singular for the plural, as illud, for unumquodque illorum; and he giveth an instance in this question itself, as, a river, for rivers, went out of Eden.

And this answer out of divers of the learned may, not without good reason, be given to the objection, that Moses speaketh but of one river, from which the heads should divide themselves. Howbeit I deny not, but with as good (and perhaps better) reason, we may expound the four heads to be four notable passages into famous countries. And so we may take the word river, verse the 10th, for one river, to wit, Euphrates, as this name comprehendeth all the branches thereof. For this river (after he is past the place where we suppose Paradise to have been) divides itself, and ere long yieldeth four notable passages into several countries, though not all the way down stream, (for this is no where in the text,) where it is noted, that following the river down