Cbap.4z.n Expofitios riper the Book of J o's. Verf. 3 t. ing this fcope to defcribe the turbulency of Leviathan in the Sea, feems not to refpe& the favour or find of the pot of ointment, but only the troubled motion or ebullition of it, when'tis boyl- ing over the fire: And in that refpe&, the Whale maketh the Sea like a pot of boyling ointment, as much as, yea, more than the Crocodile, The fecond thing which Bechartns takes notice of in this verle, isan objc&ion whichmay be railed from it, againft his opinion. The Lord fpcaks of Leviathan, asbeing in the Sea, and (which is a werd of the fame fignificancy) in the deep. Now, the Croco- dile is not a Sea- animal, but a River- animal, therefore Levia- than isnot aCrocodile. To this he anfwers, Firfl, That. the River Ants is called the Egyptian Sea (Ifa. zi.il.) and,quotes a Jewifh Dolor, who expounds it fo. To this I may reply, That other learnedmen (and among them the late Annotators upon our EngliJh Bible) deny that expoftion, and are very confident, that by the Egyptian Sea, is meant (not Ni- las, but) the Red Sea, which out of the main Ocean (hoots into the Land, in form and fafhion of a tongue. Secondly, He anfwers, that not only the River Xi/us, and the Lakes adjoyning to ir, which abound with Crocodiles, but feve- ral other great Lakes, both in holy Writ, and by many Writers, are calledSeas; and therefore he concludes, the argument will not hold, that by the name Leviathan the Crocodile cannot be fignified, becaufe theSea is here alfianed as the feat or habitation of Leviathan. I grant this is is not a concluding argument againfl the Croce.; dile, yet from thefe words we may gather a probable argument for the Whale ; for as the word Sea is taken fometimes in a large fenfe, for great Rivers and Lakes where Crocodiles are, fo in ftri&andproper fenfe, it alwayes lignifies the Ocean,where Cro- codiles are not. And the Scripture tells us, that the proper place appointedby God for the molt proper Leviathans feat, is not the Sea, ina large and improper fenfe, but in that which is moti aria and proper,even that which is called thegreat andwide Sea (Pjal. 1e4. 24, 2 g.) as was (hewed before. And that we have reafon to believe, that (hod fpake to yob of and about the moti proper and eminent of all thofe animals, whichby Scripture allowance may be called Leviathan, was there alfo (hewed. And if fo, then we PH f f z muftt 771
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=