SYLVA 215 



which David celebrated the humanity of the Gileadites, 

 in nemora Jabes, as most sacred and inviolable. In 

 such a place did the angel appear to Gideon ; and in 

 others,princes were inaugurated; soAbimelech^y^/r.g. 

 And the rabbins add a reason why they were reputed 

 so venerable ; because more remote from men and 

 company, more apt to compose the soul, and fit it for 

 divine actions, and sometimes apparitions, for which 

 the first enclosures, and sacra septa were attributed to 

 groves, 1 mountains, fountains of water, and the like 

 solemn objects; as of peculiar sanctity, and as the old 

 sense of all words denoting sanctity did import separ- 

 ateness, and uncommon propriety : See our learned 

 Mede. For though since the Devil's intrusion into 

 Paradise, even the most holy and devoted places were 

 not free from his temptations and ugly stratagems ; 

 yet we find our Blessed Saviour did frequently retire 

 into the wilderness, as Elijah and St. John Baptist did 

 before him, and divers other holy men ; particularly, 

 the OtwpririKol, whom Philo 2 mentions ; a certain reli- 

 gious sect, who addicting themselves to contemplation, 

 chose the solitary recesses of groves and woods, as of 

 old the Rechabites, Essenes, primitive monks, (and 

 other institutions) retired amongst theThebaid desarts: 

 And perhaps the air of such retired places may be 

 assistant and influential, for the inciting of penitential 

 expressions and affections ; especially where one may 

 have the additional assistances of solitary grotts, mur- 

 muring streams, and desolate prospects. I remember 

 that under a tree was the place of that admirable St. 

 Augustine's solemn conversion, after all his importun- 

 ate reluctances : I have often thought of it, and it is 



1 Kal TTQ&TOV V\a,Q CLTTfvkjJiOVTO^ KO.I O^TJ av'&t<JO.V. 



* Philo. lib. Trepi fliov Oeag. 



