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temple of the true God, for the Bible in- 

 forms us that Joshua " wrote the command- 

 ments and the precepts of the Lord, in the 

 book of the law, and that he took a 

 very great stone, which he put under 

 an oak, which was in the sanctuary of the 

 Lord." 



In the Valley of Mamre, which was in 

 the beautiful country of the tribe of Judea, 

 where Abraham was visited by the angels 

 who announced to him the birth of Isaac, 

 stood an oak, that became celebrated as the 

 tree under which Abraham often went to re- 

 pose and refresh himself. Bayle says, that 

 this oak was said to have existed under the 

 emperor Constantius. 



It was an oak that caused the death of 

 the son of David in the battle of the wood 

 of Ephraim : " And Absalom rode upon a 

 mule, and the mule went under the thick 

 boughs of a great oak, and his head caught 

 hold of the oak, and he was taken up between 

 the heaven and the earth : and the mule that 

 was under him went away/* 



A periwig-maker in the town of Lewes, 

 in Sussex, made use of this story to recom- 

 mend the sale of false hair. He had a sign 

 painted on the front of his shop, represent- 

 ing the rebellious son of David hanging in the 



