acute and obtuse at the intersection; and so upon progression making a Rhombus or Lozenge figuration, which seemeth very agreeable unto the Originall figure; Answerable whereunto we observe the decussated characters in many consulary Coynes, and even in those of Constantine and his Sons, which pretend their pattern in the Sky; the crucigerous Ensigne carried this figure, not transversely or rectangularly intersected, but in a decussation, after the form of an Andrean or Burgundian cross, which answereth this description.

Where by the way we shall decline the old Theme, so traced by antiquity, of crosses and crucifixion : Whereof some being right, and of one single peece without transversion or transome, do little advantage our subject. Nor shall we take in the mysticall Tau, or the Crosse of our blessed Saviour, which having in some descriptions an Empedon or crossing footstay, made not one single transversion. And since the Learned Lipsius hath made some doubt even of the Crosse of St. Andrew, since some Martyrologicall Histories deliver his death by the general Name of a crosse, and Hippolytus will have him suffer by the sword; we should have enough to make out the received Crosse of that Martyr. Nor shall we urge the labarum, and famous Standard of Constantine, or make further use thereof, then as the first Letters in the Name of our Saviour Christ, in use among Christians, before the dayes of Constantine, to be observed in Sepulchral Monuments1 of Martyrs, in the reign of Adrian and Antoninus; and to be found in the Antiquities of the Gentiles, before the advent of Christ, as in the Medall of King Ptolemy, signed with the same characters, and might be the beginning of some word or name, which Antiquaries have not hit on.

We will not revive the mysterious crosses of Egypt, with circles on their heads, in the breast of Serapis, and the hands of their Geniall spirits, not unlike the 1 Of Marius, Alexander. Roma Sotterranea.

character of Venus, and looked on by ancient Christians, with relation unto Christ. Since however they first began, the Ægyptians thereby expressed the processe and motion of the spirit of the world, and the diffusion thereof upon the Celestiall and Elementall nature; implyed by a circle and right-lined intersection. A secret in their Telesmes and magicall Characters among them. Though he that considereth the plain cross1 upon the head of the owl in the Lateran obelisk, or the cross2 erected upon a picher diffusing streams of water into two basins, with sprinkling branches in them, and all described upon a two-footed Altar, as in the Hieroglyphicks of the brasen Table of Bembus; will hardly decline all thought of Christian signality in them.

We shall not call in the Hebrew Tenupha, or ceremony of their Oblations, waved by the Priest unto the four quarters of the world, after the form of a cross; as in the peace-offerings. And if it were clearly made out what is remarkably delivered from the Traditions of the Rabbins, that as the Oyle was powred coronally or circularlly upon the head of Kings, so the HighPriest was anointed decussatively or in the form of an X; though it could not escape a typicall thought of Christ, from mysticall considerators; yet being the conceit is Hebrew, we should rather expect its verification from Analogy in that language, than to confine the same unto the unconcerned Letters of Greece, or make it out by the characters of Cadmus or Palamedes.

Of this Quincuncial Ordination the Ancients practised much, discoursed little; and the Moderns have nothing enlarged; which he that more nearly considereth, in the form of its square Rhombus, and decussation, with the several commodities, mysteries, parallelismes, and resemblances, both in Art and Nature, shall easily discern the elegancy of this order.

1 Wherein the lower part is somewhat longer, as defined by Upton de studio militari, and Johannes de Bado Aureo, cum comment. clariss. et doctiss. Bissæi.

2 Casal, de Ritibus. Bosio nella Trionfante croce.

M

That this was in some wayes of practice in diverse and distant Nations, hints or deliveries there are from no slender Antiquity. In the hanging Gardens of Babylon, from Abydenus, Eusebius, and others,1 Curtius describeth this Rule of decussation. In the memorable Garden of Alcinous anciently conceived an originall phancy, from Paradise, mention there is of wellcontrived order; For so hath Didymus and Eustachius expounded the emphatical word. Diomedes describing the Rural possessions of his father, gives account in the same Language of Trees orderly planted. And Ulysses being a boy was promised by his Father fourty figge-trees, and fifty2 rows of Vines producing all kinde of grapes.

That the Eastern Inhabitants of India, made use of such order, even in open Plantations, is deducible from Theophrastus; who describing the trees whereof they made their garments, plainly delivereth that they were planted κατ' ὄρχους, and in such order that at a distance men would mistake them for Vineyards. The same seems confirmed in Greece from a singular expression in Aristotles concerning the order of Vines, delivered by a military term representing the orders of Souldiers, which also confirmeth the antiquity of this form yet used in vineall plantations.

That the same was used in Latine plantations is plainly confirmed from the commending penne of Varro Quintilian, and handsome Description of Virgil.4

That the first Plantations not long after the Floud were disposed after this manner, the generality and antiquity of this order observed in Vineyards, and Wine plantations, affordeth some conjecture. And since from judicious enquiry, Saturn, who divided the world between his three sonnes, who beareth a Sickle

1 Decussatio ipsa jucundum ac peramænum conspectum præbuit. Curt. Hortar. 1. vi.

2 ὄρχοι, στίχοι ἀμπέλων, φυτῶν στίχος, ἡ κατὰ τάξιν φυτεία. Phavorinus. Philoxenus.

3 συστάδας ἁμπέλων. Polit. vii.

• Indulge ordinibus, nec secius omnis in unguem

Arboribus positis, secto via limite quadret. Georg. ii.

in his hand, who taught the plantations of Vines, the setting, grafting of trees, and the best part of Agriculture, is discovered to be Noah, whether this early dispersed Husbandry in Vineyards had not its Originall in that Patriarch, is no such Paralogicall doubt.

And if it were clear that this was used by Noah after the Floud, I could easily beleeve it was in use before it; Not willing to fix to such ancient inventions no higher originall than Noah; nor readily conceiving those aged Heroes, whose diet was vegetable, and only, or chiefly consisted in the fruits of the earth, were much deficient in their splendid cultivations; or after the experience of fifteen hundred years, left much for future discovery in Botanicall Agriculture. Nor fully perswaded that Wine was the invention of Noah, that fermented Liquors, which often make themselves, so long escaped their Luxury or experience; that the first sinne of the new world was no sin of the old. That Cain and Abel were the first that offered Sacrifice; or because the Scripture is silent that Adam or Isaac offered none at all.

Whether Abraham, brought up in the first planting Countrey, observed not some rule hereof, when he planted a grove at Beer-sheba; or whether at least a like ordination were not in the Garden of Solomon, probability may contest. Answerably unto the wisedom. of that eminent Botanologer, and orderly disposer of all his other works. Especially since this was one piece of Gallantry, wherein he pursued the specious part of felicity, according to his own description. "I made me Gardens and Orchards, and planted Trees in them of all kindes of fruits. I made me Pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth Trees," which was no ordinary plantation, if according to the Targum, or Chaldee paraphrase, it contained all kinds of Plants, and some fetched as far as India; and the extent thereof were from the wall of Jerusalem unto the water of Siloah.

1 Eccles. ii.

And if Jordan were but Jaar Eden, that is, the River of Eden, Genesar but Gansar or the Prince of Gardens; and it could be made out, that the Plain of Jordan were watered not comparatively, but causally, and because it was the Paradise of God, as the Learned Abramas1 hinteth, he was not far from the Prototype and originall of Plantations. And since even in Paradise itself, the tree of knowledge was placed in the middle of the Garden, whatever was the ambient figure, there wanted not a centre and rule of decussation. Whether the groves and sacred Plantations of Antiquity, were not thus orderly placed, either by quaternios, or quintuple ordinations, may favourably be doubted. For since they were so methodicall in the constitutions of their temples, as to observe the due scituation, aspect, manner, form, and order in Architectonicall relations, whether they were not as distinct in their groves and Plantations about them, in form and species respectively unto their Deities, is not without probability of conjecture. And in their groves of the Sunne this was a fit number, by multiplication to denote the dayes of the year; and might Hieroglyphically speak as much, as the mysticall statua of Janus2 in the Language of his fingers. And since they were so criticall in the number of his horses, the strings of his Harp, and rayes about his head, denoting the orbes of heaven, the Seasons and Moneths of the Yeare; witty Idolatry would hardly be flat in other appropriations.

CHAPTER II.

NOR was this only a form of practise in Plantations, but found imitation from high Antiquity, in sundry artificiall contrivances and manuall operations. For to omit the position of squared stones, cuneatim or wedgwise, in the Walls of Roman and Gothick buildings;

1 Vet. Testamenti Pharus.

2 Which king Numa set up with his fingers so disposed that they numerically denoted 365.—Pliny.