Of the nature and use of lots a treatise historical and theologicalOf the nature and vse of lots a treatise historicall and theologicall

That which ^ha learned Linguist gathereth out of the change of the number in those words of that story, ⁱThey gave out their Lots; and the Lot lighted on Jonah; to wit, that they should cast Lots oft over and over to be more fully assured of the certainty of the thing, and that upon every casting the Lot lighted still upon the same party; is not unlike that which ^kone of the Rabbins gathereth from ^lthe change of the Gender afterward in the same story, that ^mJonah should be in the bowels or belly of two several Whales, a male and a female, the one after the other; the one an idle and senseless, the other also a groundless conceit. For as ⁿthe Genders in that language are oft indifferent and indefinite, else there might be three Whales as well as two picked out of the text, ^othe gender being also once again afterward changed: so the interchange of numbers in passing sometime ^pfrom the plural to the singular, sometime from the singular to the plural is a thing no less usual, ^qas well with the penmen ⟨p. 279⟩of holy writ, as with ^rother profane Writers, and those of the best note. And yet this help needeth not here neither: for there is ^san Article of some emphasis in the original, They cast their Lots; which were, it may be, many, as usually there are; and