vobiscum c. Exod. 24. v. 8. Moysi autem dixit aftende ad Dominum tu Aaron Nadab Abihu septuaginta senes ex Israel Exod. 24. v. 9. Lyranus Cajetanus Prados in Ezechielé Et viderunt Deum Israel sub pedibus ejus quasiopus lapidis saphirini quasi caelum cum serenum est Exod. 24. v. 10. Solusque Moyses ascendet ad Dominum illi non appropinquabunt nec populus ascendet cum eo Exod 24. v. 2. Cumque ascendisset Moyses operuit nubes montem Evo 24. v. 15 Et habitavit gloria Domini super Sinai c. Exod. 24. v. 16. Erat autem species gloriae Domini quasi ignis audens c. Exod 24. v. 17. Et fuit ibi Moyses quadraginta diebus quadraginta noctibus Exod. 24. v. 18. out of which it never departs but to guide us first unto God as unto the Father of Unions and unto the Author of Wisdome who desiring orderly to rule and govern the whole Universe was obliged to give Lawes and Precepts on which Policy ought to move as the Heavens doe upon their Poles Now it had not been sufficient to have revealed them unto Moses but it was necessary to publish them to all the people to the end they might be obliged to observe them after their reception Moses then declared unto the Hebrews all that God commanded them unto which they all consented crying out unanimously that these Lawes were just and that they would willingly keep them This was like an oath of fidelity after which Moses erected an Altar at the foot of the Mountain and raised twelve steps in reference to the twelve Tribes for whom he caused Holocausts to be offered up unto God by the hands of the first born of Israel which were born Priests in the Law of Nature These Sacrifices being made Moses gathered up in Cups the one half of the bloud of the Sacrifices casting the rest upon the Altar after which he took the Book of the Law to have it read unto the whole assembly who having again accepted it were sprinkled with the bloud of the Victime in witness of the Compact and agreement which had been newly made and which they were inviolably to observe towards God After this Ceremony Moses went up to the Mountain with Aaron Nadab Abihu and seventy old men chosen out of the people of Israel who had the honour to see God at a neerer distance in the form of a young Prince surrounded with rayes of glory who had under his feet as it were a large Throne of Saphirs whose splendor resembled that which we see in the Skies when they appear inameled with Stars sparkling like so many Diamonds It was in this pomp and Magnifick State God commanded Moses to draw neer him and to ascend higher even to the top of Mount Sina where being arriv'd he was incompassed with a great Cloud which covered the whole Mountain and formed as it were a great Pavillion of fire and clowd through which the Majesty of God made it self felt and known and where Moses spent forty dayes and as many nights without either eating or drinking thereby keeping the first Lent which was ever celebrated CHAP. XXXVII The Adoration of the golden Calf NOthing is so great a blemish unto Paganism as to see the wisest and most learned amongst these Idolaters rendring honours and adorations unto wood stone and living creatures And even the first of their Gods who abandons his Throne and changeth his Thunderbolt and Scepter for a Pencil to paint Goats and Hippocentaurs upon the Clouds but it is a more ridiculous and strange spectacle in the time of Christianity to see men and Demi-Gods who having lost all thoughts of Heaven and glory to which they are ordained descending even beneath themselves to adore brutish passions and to set in the place of God and piety infamous Idols Videns autem Populus quod moram faccret descendendi de monte Moyses c. Et fecit exeis vitulum conflatilem Diâ—cruntque hi sunt dâ—i tui Israël qui te eduxerunt de terra Agypti Exo. 32. v. 17. imitating Aaron and the Israelites who seeing that Moses staid long upon the Mountain where God detained him to deliver him the Tables of the Law were so stupid and ungratefull as to make a golden Calf in imitation of the Serapis of Egypt and to take it for their God and Conductor in the remainder of their voyage Did we ever hear of a more brutish blindness and of a more execrable Idolatry These Sacrilegious people who had neither life nor liberty but by Moses means and by the almost continuall Miracles which God wrought for their sake prefer nevertheless their passions before both of them and efface out of their souls all the remembrance of what had passed to satisfie a foolish imagination which made them contemn all manner of piety and gratitude But who would have ever beleeved that Aaron Dixitque ad eos Aaron Tollite inaures aureas de uxorum filiorumque filiarum auribus afferte ad me Exod. 32. v. 2. Quas cum ille accepisset formavit opere fusorio fecit ex eit vitulum conflatilem c. Exod. 32. v. 4. Quod cum vidisset Aaron adificavit altare coram co Exod. 32. v. 5. who had been as it were the Interpreter of God and Moses to work so many Miracles upon the people should serve as the most fatall instrument of their Idolatry Erecting with his own hands an Altar to this abominable Statue and receiving the profane acclamations of all this people who cryed out Behold behold our gods O God of Gods What applauses what congratulations what solemnity I know not whether the Devils have ever celebrated a Sabbath or the Gentiles a feast more full of abominations Methinks I see Lucifer in the midst of his troops when I behold Aaron amongst these people who should rather suffer his throat to be cut by these ungrateful wretches than give way to their impiety Et sedit populus manducare bibere surrexerunt ludere Exod. 32. v. 6. Pro vitulo cum vitulo vitulati sunt Tertul. lib. de Jes contra Psych The Altar of Aaron is an Altar of Sacrilege this High Priest is a prevaricator their Religion is Idolatry Perfumes are changed into Blasphemies and instead of the ineffable name of Jehovah the head of a Golden Calve is seen about which they laugh they leap they carouse they eat and commit a thousand sorts of impurities Alas What Sacrifices what sports Locutus est Dominus ad Maisen dicens Vade descende peccavit populus tuus quem eduxisti de terra Aegypti Exod. 32. v. 7. what festivals Nevertheless God whose goodness is infinite and who was not resolved to inflict the last punishment on these impious people nor to destroy them for ever but onely in case no man should address himself to implore favor for them revealed unto Moses what
sight of a fault takes presently armes into his Hands for sometimes his patience gives truce during the whole course of life and expects the repentance of a Sinner even till Death otherwise the World would be quickly a Desart or the Earth would at lest transform it self into a Hell of Punishments and Torments Nevertheless we must not weary his Patience An iâ—ritated patience is terrible and abuse his Goodness for sometimes he Darts his Shafts in an instant and the very smoak of evill is no sooner risen in the Air but presently Thunder breaks all the Clouds without Threats or Lightnings At least he is wont after some delay to send publick chastisements and his zeal at last appears throughly inflamed after some sparks of fire which his Clemency had cast forth as the Messengers of his wrath Thus did he long before the inkindling of the funestous Pile of Sodom and Gomorrha where these incestuous Cities quenched their flames in the midst of their own fires Abraham himself took the Liberty to confer with him upon this design Freedome of Holy Souls and when he beheld the Lighted Torches which were to be the Instruments of this sad Incendium the Sanctity and freeness of his Heart permitted him to say Ah! Et appropinquans ait nunquid perdes justum cumimpio Gen. 18. v. 23. Si suerint quinquaginta justi in civitate peribunt simul non parces loco illi propter quinquaginta justos si fuerint Gen. 18. v. 24. what great God! could it possibly happen that thy indignation should be Blind and that thy Thunder-bolts should equally fall upon the Just and Sinners God of Goodness canst thou behold the innocent in the midst of punishments without some touch of Compassion Alas Lord wilt thou not pardon this Criminall City if in case but fifty Innocent Persons be found in it Is not this a Motive powerfull enough to invite thee unto Commiseration Absit à te ut rem hanc facias c. Gen. 28. v. 25. Ah! let it be never then said that thy just providence which extends it self over all the Empires of the World hath stifled Vice and Vertue under the same Ashes Is not this an Innocent freedom Dixilque Dominus sl invenero Sodimâ—s quiâ—quaginta justes in medio civitatis dimittam omni loco propter eos Gen. 18. v. 26. and capable of moving even the Bowels of Gods mercy Indeed God promised him to deliver all those that were invelaped in that crime in case there were found not fifty but ten only worthy of pardon But it seems the iniquity of Men is so much the more enormous as the goodness of God is immense and admirable Ineffable goodness Who would believe this if truth it self had not reveal'd it Et dixit Non delebo propter decem Gen. 18. v. 23. who would credit it if God himself had not sayd it And who would believe that Vertue and Piety are in such sort banished from the Earth as some good Men may not be found in it It is then for this cause God advanced towards Sodom Abiitque Dominus postquam cessavit loqui ad Abraham to chastise their Vices and to extinguish the Lust of their Women with a Deluge of Fire CHAP. VIII The firing of Sodom and the deliverance of Lot MAximus of Tyre and Dion Chrysostomus had but slightly and as it were in passing by considered the Nature of God when they believed it was a shamefull exercise for a Soveraign Essence to mingle rewards with punishments Atheisticall Ignorance It is an employment say they worthy of Gods greatness to give Crowns but to Dart Thunder-bolts is the Office of a deformed cruell unpittifull and rigorous Spirit Pliny the great was possest with the same Errors when out of an Atheisticall flattery Deus est mortali juvare mortalem haec ad aeternam gloriam via and an Idolatrous Complancy he gave unto his Prince the name and title of a God who had onely power to doe good Is not this a pernicious flattery and altogether unworthy of a Divinity But I will believe that in the time of Vespatian and Pliny Rome had not yet seen that famous Statue of Justice The Statue of Justice which in the one Hand carryed the Tables of Equity and of the Law and in the other a Scepter covered with a Stork the true Symbol of Piety upheld also by a Hippocentaure which denotes cruelty Besides her Head was armed with a great Helmet wrought out of Gold and Iron At her Feet appeared an Ostridge and a World on which certain Enigmaticall terms were read yet clear enough to manifest that it was the Picture of Gods Soveraign Justice which holds in one of her Hands all the Laws and in the other a Scepter of Clemency and Severity the World is under her Feet as under her Empire and close by her the Ostridge which disgests Iron sufficiently evidenceth that her rigors break Diamonds like Straws and consume Steel and Iron like Air and Wind. Behold the Portraict of Gods Justice her Scepter hath not been seen hitherto in the Land of Sodom and Gomorrha but upon the Wings of a Stork that is to say by Clemency and Meekness Now the Hippocentaurs and the Ostriges will serve her for support and a Hand of Justice will shortly appear in the Clouds which will powr down upon these Rebellious Cities a floud of Sulphure Ashes Fires And truly if God had not a Hand of Justice how could he govern the World whose Empire cannot Rowl but upon two commanding Wheels which are Justice and Goodness Moreover if God had no other Marks but of Meekness and Love the Earth saith Aristotle would be without a Sun and the Elect as well as the Reprobate would be seen perishing in the self-same Chaos Finally Criminals would have no terrors which might induce them to penance and the Just would want motives to preserve their purity It stands then with reason that God should have Justice and that his wrath should from time to time powr down upon the Heads of Sinners Too long have the horrors of Sodom irritated and provoked him the Night already approacheth Veneruntque due Angeli Sodomam vespere sedeâ—e Loth in soribus civitatis Gen. 19. v. 1. Qui cum vidisset eos surrexit ivit obviam eis adoravtique pronus in terram dixit obsecro Domini declinate in dâ—mum pucri vestri qui dexerunt minimè sed in platea mancbimus Gen. 19. v. 2. Compalit eos oppido ut divertereat aa eum sâ—cit convivium comederunt Gen. 19. v. 3. and there remains no Day but to behold two Angels in the habit of Pilgrims who seek out Lot even at the Gates of Sodom observe how welcome they are and certainly they have met with an Heart who perfectly understands the Rights of Hospitality observe what hast he makes to them how he casts himself at their Feet
how he conjures them to spend at lest one Night in his House In fine after some refusals and Complements he inforceth them by his Charitable importunities to shelter themselves in his Lodging they enter into it and nothing but Feasts and congratulations are seen in this House But they were no sooner risen from the Table and preparing to take some repose when immediatly Sodomites came from all parts like inraged Wolves howling and trembling as if they had already felt the Agony of Death and the Flames which were ready to devour them O God Prius autem quam irent cubitum viri civitatis vallaverunt domum c. Gen. 19. v. 5. Nolite quaeso sratres mes noliâ—e malum hoc sacere Gen. 19. v. 7. what frenzies and what furies of a brutish appetite when it is once let loose Disastrous passions blind will inchanted desires shamefull brutalities Tyrannicall Love Alas is it not true that your Eyes are veiled with a fatall Scarf Blind Sodomites are you not yet satisfied to have exceeded all the bounds of humane Nature Sacrilegious Effeminats Diabolicall Men must Angels be constrained to satiate the ardors of your beastialities Mean while Lot is very much afflicted Habeo duas filias quae necdum cognoverunt virum educaem eas ad vos abutemini eis sicut voâ—â—s pâ—acuerit dummodo viris istis nihil faciatis c. Gen. 19. v. 8. At illt direrunt recedo illuc rursus ingressus es inquiunt ut a. vma c. Gen. 19. v. 9. for these Cyclops of Hell are come out of a Furnace of obscurities with Hammers and Iron Bars in their Hands to break his Gate in a thousand pieces to destroy Fathers and Children Masters and Servants Briefly even from the highest to the lowest all the Inhabitants of Sodom have befieged this chast retreat and desire to make it the Den of their Impurities In vain doth Lot intreat and declare unto them that the honour of his Guests is more precious to him than that of his Daughters Et ecce miserunt manam viri introduxerunt ad se Loth clauseruntque ostium Gen. 19. v. 11. For after all this these inraged Beasts made him no Answer but with Blasphemies and reproaches and they were already as it were Masters of this fortunate Sanctuary when the tutelary Guards of this House carryed him away as a Lamb in the midst of these Wolves and a while after the Gate being shut these Angels of I ight cast forth so many glorious and resplendent Rayes as at last these desperate Sodomites were blinded with them After this blindness Lot began to open his Eyes to discern yet more clearly the force and Vertue of these blessed Guardians of his House Et eos qui foris crant percusserunt caecitate à minimo usque ad maximum c. Gen. 19. v. 11. Dixerunt autem ad Loth habes â—iâ— queÌ„piam tuorum generuâ— aut filios aut filias omnes qui tui sunt educ de urbe hat Gen. 19. v. 12. â—gressus itaque Ioth locutus est ad generos suos qui accâ—pturi erant filias ejus surgi e egredimini de loro isto quia delebit Dominus civitatom hanc Gen. 19. v. 14. They also perceiving the hour which God had chosen to Execute the Decrees of his Justice and having made an inquiry concerning the number and quality of those persons who were with Lot they advertized him presently to depart out of this reprobate City which was even ready to serve as a Theater for the most rigorous vengeance of an irritated God Instantly Lot informed all his kindred of this strange news to the end they might remove their Wives and Daughters out of this danger But what they that had no Eyes to discern God had no Ears to hear their Father or at least they made but a sport at his most serious Remonstrances Mean while the Night slips away Cun que essâ—â— marè cogehant cum Anâ—â—li diâ—entes surge telle uxo em tuam duas filias quas hâ—bes c. Gen. 19 v. 15. Eduxeruntque cuâ— posuerunt extra civitatem th que locâ—â— sunt ad cum dicentes salva animan tuam c. Gen. 1â— v. 17. and from the break of Day as if the Sun should have served to inkindle the Pyle of Sodom the Angels delegated for the preservation of Lot taking him by the Hand with his Wife and two Daughters constrained them to depart together out of the City advertizing them that to preserve their lives and to enjoy the benefit they had received they must seek out a refuge upon some high Mountain without turning their Heads or Eyes towards the unhappy Sodom lest some Whirlwind of Flames should chance to surprise and devour them Behold then Lot much astonished Nevertheless he conjures these amiable Spirits to afford him a Retreat in a little Town not far from thence Dixitque Loth adeos quaeso Domine mi Gen. 19. v. 18. Quia invenit servus tuus gratiam coram te ne forte deprehendat me malum moriar Gen. 19. v. 19. Est civitas haec juxta ad quam possum fugere parva salvabor in ea Nunquid noa modica est vivet anima mea Gen. 19. v. 20. Dixitque ad cum ecce etiam in hoc suscepi preces tuas ut non subvertam urbem pro qua locutus es Gen. 19. v. 21. Festina salvare ibi quia non poleâ—o facere quidquam doaec ingrediaris illuc Gen. 19. v. 22. Respiciensque uxor ejus post se versa est in statuam salis Gen. 19. v. 23. Igitur Dominus pluit super Sodomam Gomorrham Sulphur ignem à Domine de Caelo Gen. 19. v. 24. Et subvertit civitates has omnem cirda regionem univosos babicatores urbium cuncta terrae vireatia Gen. 19. v. 25. the Angels granted all he desired and the Village assign'd him for a Sanctuary was also freed from the flames for his sake But as there is nothing weaker and more wavering than a Womans Mind Lot had not power enough to hinder her Head which was filled only with Wind from moving at the sight of the first Lightnings which preceded this Storm so in testimony of her inconstancy she was transformed into a Piller of Salt as if God intended by this exemplar punishment to leave unto over light Souls a Tragick monument of Inconstancy and a dreadfull effect of Temerity Mean while the Heavens are no longer but a lively Source of Flames and Fires The Sun Moon and Stars are so many Chanels through which God powres down upon Sodom and Gomorrha all the Thunderbolts of his wrath The Clouds are the Torrents of Thunder which makes a hideous Noise which tears the Skyes and carries away all without pitty Nothing is seen in the Air but flaming obscurities and ardent shadows heaped upon one another which form a Hears-cloath to cover the shamefull Reliques of
testifie at least by their sighs and tears the violence and injustice of the slavery in which they had lived for their Clamour having ascended unto heaven he that is always propitious to those who earnestly call upon him shewed them that he had not forgotten the pact and agreement he had made with Abraham Isaack and Jacob. CHAP. III. Of the flaming Bush THE office of a Shepheard was antiently a noble imployment The Apprentiship of Empires And Philo who hath been one of the most faithfull Historians of the first ages called it in expresse termes the prelude to an Empire that is to say to the government of men which ought to be the most humane and most amiable of all others This most wise and learned Authour passed much further for he believ'd that person could be only perfect in the art of ruling who was a good Shepheard and who governing flocks whose conduct is most facil had learnt how a man must behave himself in commanding those whose government is more difficult and important It was then for this cause the first men of the world The first shepheards of the world and the most illustrious persons of the old Testament had this innocent imployment as if God would have them passe this apprentiship to render them capable of ruling this people for whom he had a particular care It was also for the most part in these imployments which have less of Pomp and splendour than sweetness and repose that God who delightes in humility and peace hath chosen humble and peaceable souls to give himself unto them and make them both see and feel that it was his hand which had guided them in the fields and out of the noise and tumults to the end their minds might be better prepared to hear and receive the laws and precepts which he intended to give them and that the night and obscurity of a Country and solitary life Moises autem pascebat oves Gethro soceri sui sacerdotis Madian cumque minasset gregem ad interiora deserti venit ad montem Dci Horeb. Exod. 3. v. 1. Apparuit ei Dominus in flimma ignis de medior rubi videbat quod rubus arderet non conbureretur Exod. 3. v. 2. might serve to raise the luster of that glory and dignity to which he had designed them So when Moses went guiding the sheep of Iethro who was his father-in-Law one day as he was in the thickest part of the desart whether the feeding were better or whether as it is more probable he had a desire to attend more sweetly to contemplation having at length reached the top of Mount Sina called Horeb he saw God in a fiery Bush which neverthelesse was not consumed in the midst of the flames This was no illusion of the Understanding The verity of the Bush the figure of a dream nor any phantasticall image which appear'd to Moses But the second Person of the most holy Trinity or at least some Angell who represented him This fire likewise was a true and real fire produced by a Divine breathing and by an Angelicall hand which without breaking the Laws of Nature was able to draw this fire either out of Wood the Air or those stones which were about this sacred Bush The respect neverthelesse the fire bore unto a matter which it never spares was not naturall there requir'd a Miracle to stay the course of its activity and the rigour of those flames which issued forth of the earth had not left this Wood unconsum'd if He whose least glance inlightens the stars in the heavens without whom the Sun Moon would remain in darkness had not suspended for a while this active conjunction and these fertile and powerfull influences without which creatures have neither life motion nor action Now to understand what this miracle denoted A fair subject of Enâ—gma we must presuppose that Fire hath been always a Symbol of the Divinity not only amongst the Egyptians Grecians Chaldeans and Romans but amongst all other people of the Earth who have not seen any thing more conformable more resembling a most pure Divine flames subtill simple and luminous Nature living only in the splendours and flames which flow from its substance then a most pure subtile simple Element which hath no life but amidst Lights and Ardours naturall to it It being so this Enigma can have no other literal sense than this This fire is the Image of God and the flaming Bush a figure of the Israelites whom these Divine flames kept in a gentle heat where like gold in the Furnace they might be purified but not consum'd They that will otherwise explicate this Picture may say that this is God cloathed with our humane nature the Aeternall Word who is all fire who cast himself amidst the Thorns and Brambles of a weak and mortall nature which could not yet be consumed by the ardours of those flames which incompass it on all sides Others with Rupertus Theodoret and St. Bernard will believe that it was a figure of the blessed Virgin whose Chastity as a fiery bush could not be violated although she had brought forth him who is nothing but Splendour Fire Light and Ardour However it be and what ever can be said of it we must approach neerer unto it with Moses and behold with a holy respect this Stupendious Vision Cernens autem Dominus quod pergeret ad videndum vocavit eum de medio rubi ait Moses Moses qui respondit adsum Exed 3. v. 4. At illâ— ne appropies inquit huc solve calceamentum de â—edibus tuis locus enim in quo stas terra sancta est Exod. 3. v. 5. Et ait Ego sum Deus patris tui Deus Abrabam Deus Isaac Deus Jacob. Exod. 3. v. 6. Abscondit Moises faciem suaâ— non enim audebat aspicere contra Deum Exod. 3. v. 6 I hear already the voice of God who calls this happy solitary person and who in the midst of this flaming Pyle say's unto him Moses Moses Lord what is thy pleasure answers this amiable Sheapheard Behold me ready to doe all that thou shalt command The sight of this Sacred Bush had surprised him and given him a holy Curiosity to approach and see it neer at hand But as he advanced God sayd unto him that the place where he set his Feet was Holy ground that he must put off his shooes and besides He that had spoken to him was the great God of his Father the God of Abraham Isaack and Jacob. At these words Moses remained so much astonished and the sight of this Object ravished him with so sweet a violence as he was inforc'd to veil his Eyes too weak to endure the Splendor and Majesty of God who seeing him so plyable and obedient spake to him as a good Father who feels his heart touched with compassion for the miseries of his poor Children I have Cui ait Vidi
its bowels to serve as an instrument unto the Justice of its God Witness also that dreadfull tempest which shook the whole Kingdome of Naples Vide Patriarcham and which hapned in the year three hundred fourty and three under the government of Jane the first of that name All these chastisements nevertheless were but light and rather threats than punishments if we compare them with those which in the law of Nature and in the written Law laid desolate the whole Universe or at least the beautifull'st parts thereof Water began and as it hath less respect in its disorders than the rest of Creatures it spared but eight persons who guided into the Ark the relicks of the world Afterwards Fire which hath a more furious and violent nature than Water fell suddenly upon four infamous Cities where it left nothing but ashes and stench Behold the first revenge God took upon sinners and to speak according to the opinion of a Learned Divine of the Primitive Church Jobius mouachus in Bibliotheca Photii These were the first Tremblings of the Earth The third was in the strange punishment of Pharaoh commonly called The Plagues of Egypt which hapned about the time of that famous deluge which drowned in a maner all Greece and those excessive heats which almost consumed the whole Universe The number of these Plagues was Ten a perfect number and which denotes That the punishment was to pass even unto extremity since the offence had passed even unto excess As for the place where these Plagues began Fecit mirabilia in terra Aegypti in campo Taneos Psal 77. the City of Taniz the Metropolitan of Egypt was first strucken with it the disease came first from them as out of a fatal spring which afterwards spred it self with dread and terror over the Lands of that Empire I know not of whose hands God made use in this strange Ministry nevertheless it is most probable That he imployed therein those Spirits of Fires and Flames which are the Instruments of his Wrath and the Executioners of his severest Vengeances I cannot also determine how long they lasted but following the Narration of Moses it is credible That their course was six or seven and twenty days Wherein God manifested his goodness and mercy in the greatest height of his Justice for he might have destroyed all Egypt in an instant and made a dreadful Sepulchre of this infamous Kingdom But he thought good to cast his Darts one after another and to shew That he was not onely a Judge but also a Father and that he had not onely the power and force to punish but also the patience and sweetness to expect and mollifie those who notwithstanding became more and more obstinate as we shall presently see CHAP. IX The Waters of Egypt turned into Blood IT is the ordinary course of the vengeances of Heaven to punish sinners with the same weapons they use to assault it And it is for this cause First Plague Quest 19. in Exod. as Theodoret observes the River Nilus of which Egypt made a Divinity and whose Crocodils she also adored was the first field of battail in which God gave them the first alarm with the first combats upon the waves and Billows of blood which bore the Murtherous colours of so great a number of Innocents as had been drowned therein Solinus c. 35. It may be said that then the Angel whom St. Apocalyp 16. John saw in his Apocalyps powred into the waters of Egypt that mortall viall in which was the bloody water of the wrath and indignation of God The River Nilus saith Artabau increased excessively and its waves seemed to have so much sense as to complain and call for vengeance against the cruelties of Pharaoh as also to recall into his memory that he had spilt more blood than needed to make a great River Now it was not onely of a vermillion colour and purpled Et elevns virgam percusit aquam fluminis coram Pharaone servit ejus quae versa est in sanguinem Exod. 7. v. 21. with some drops of blood which had dyed the surface of Rivers and all ponds but also all the waters of Egypt were turned into blood which was the cause that all fishes dyed therein not finding themselves any longer in their naturall Element This was indeed a Triumph worth of God and of his glory Dixitque Dominus ad Moisen dic Aaron tolle virgam tuam extende manum tuam super aquas Aegypti super fluvios eorum ut vertantur in sanguinem to see Moses at his bare word putting the miraculous Rod into Aarons hand and who having commanded him by order from his God to hold it over the water he no sooner did it but instantly this body though insensible began to have sense in the quarrel of its Master and testified by a change of Nature and by a generall corruption that there is nothing in the World which ought and may not arm it self against creatures when it concernes the interest of their Creator No man ought then to wonder if the water of Nilus and of Egypt takes the form of blood if this blood putrifies and if all the Fishes die therein For God begins on the water to hold his justice-seat and his Throne must be exposed under a bloody Canopy and infectious vapours must be seen to rise under his feet which are as the shadowes of those horrors and crimes which have been commited by this people It is said Et fuit sanguis in totâ terâ—â Aegypti Exod 7. v. 21. Avertitque se ingressus est domum suam nec apposuit coretiam hac vice Exod. 7. v. 22. Feceruntque similiter malefici Aegyptiorum in cantationibus suis Exod. 7. v. 22. Foderunt autem omnes Aegyptii per circuitum fluminis aquam ut biberent Exod. 7. v. 24 Impletique sunt dies septem post quam percussit Dominus fluvium Exod. 7. v. 25. that a Diamond which hardneth under Hammers and Anvils is broken with blood The heart of Pharaoh is harder than the diamond since being in the midst of a kingdome covered over with blood it could not be softned besides he turned his Eyes from this verity and that he might not hear the noise of this tempest he retires into his House there he strives to flatter the wound God nevâ—ly gave him resting satisfied to have seen his inchanters who had done some such like thing but instead of changing water into blood they should have done better to have changed blood into water to quench the thirst of the Egyptians who half dispairing digged pits about the River Nilus to seek for water to drink and who would at least have dyed in this sad affliction if God after seven dayes had not stopt the torrents of his wrath and staied the course of the Rivers of blood which poysoned and choaked that miserable people CHAP. X. The Frogs of Egypt SEven days
France may boast That she hath had Hyppocrateses and Galens who have even pierced the source of this disease and all generally conclude that amongst all Maladies this hath something I know not what of Divine In a word it is ordinarily the scourge of Heaven of which we must not often seek out other causes than God And these were the Arms wherewith he made himself to be felt in Egypt which became more insensible by the strokes of Aarons and Moses Rod. Ecce manus mea ibit super agros tuos Et super equos asinos camelos boves oves pestis valde gravis Exod. 9. v. 3. Et faciet Dominus mirabile inter poffessionâ—â— Israel Exod. 9.4 I will lift up my hand saith he over the Fields of Egypt and the Plague shall choak its Horses its Oxen and Sheep And that which will be more Prodigious the Heritages and the Flocks of the People of Israel shall receive no damage by it In such a case Remedies are useless all the Aspects of the Planets are malignant the whole Air is contagious the most solid Meats corrupt the best Wine is converted into poyson Purgations made of Saffron Mirrhe and Aloes prove mortal all the Doses of Mithridate serve but to inkindle the fire and all the fumigations of Incense Juniper and Turpentine make but a gross smoke which causeth blindness to march before death In vain then doth Pharaoh Unprofitable Labor and his Inchanters strive to quench these Flames because they are inkindled by a Hand which can in a moment consume the whole World and after remake it just as it is and it is this Hand which gives vertue unto Herbs and without which all Medicines are converted into poyson Behold the Hand of God Mortuaque sunt omnia animantia Aegyptiorum Exod. 9. v. 6. and who ever would know the force and rigor of it let him see how in one day it makes a bloody Butchery of all the Animals which are found in Egypt This was the fift Plague of Pharaoh The sixt which followed The sixt Plague happened in the same maner God commanded Moses and Aaron to fill their hands with Ashes Et dixit Dominus ad Moisen Aaron Tollite plenas manus cineris de camino steterunt coram Pharaone sparsit illum Moises in coelum factaque sunt ulcera vesicarum turgentium in hominibus jumentis Exod. 9.10 Videbatur unum ulcus à vertice usque ad fines pedis Philo. Nec poterant malefici stare coram Moise propter ulcera quae in illis erant Exod. 9. v. 21. and then to cast them into the Air the which Moses had no sooner done but presently after there was formed in the Eyes of Pharaoh and of all Egypt as it were a vast Cloud of Dust which pouring down it self and falling on their Bodies covered them with certain tumors and with a general ebolition which breaking the Skin made the whole Body but as one great Ulcer the smart and pain was so extreme that the Magicians of Pharaoh who had been strucken with it could hardly remain in his presence But notwithstanding all this neither they nor their Master became wiser than before CHAP. XIII The Hail Storms Lightnings and Thunders Hist Tripart lib. 7. v. 22. THe Ecclesiastical History assures us That three hundred sixty and nine years after the Birth of Jesus Christ The seventh Plague Lib. 10. c. 20. An. Dom. 406. there fell in Constantinople a showre of Hailstones and that a while after there arose in the same City almost the like storm which was doubtless a punishment for the Vices and Impieties which insensibly rendred this famous Town a Moscho filled with horrors and a Seraglio with the most abominable impurities A long time after Lodovic Clavitellius fol. 260. the City of Cremona was beaten with Hail-stones which were as great as Hen-eggs and scarce hath an Age passed since this dreadful Tempest which fell in the Countrey of Bolonia during which a great Rain of Blood was seen with so frightful a Hail Idem An. Dom. that each stone was found to weigh one and twenty pound Now it is not to be doubted but such effects commonly speaking and as they usually happen cannot proceed from any natural cause but we should speak like Atheists in denying That he who at the end of the World shall cause Hail Snow and Thunder to march before him as Messengers of his Wrath did not before make use of them in several Ages either to intimidate or punish his Adversaries and consequently that he formed them in an instant as great Prodigies which spring from a supernatural source Such was then the Hail which fell upon the Land of Egypt in so great a quantity and with so much violence that all that chanced to be in the Fields were strucken by it Pluitque Dominus grandines super terram Aegypti Exod. 9. v. 23. Et percussit grando in omni terra Aegypti cuncta quae fuerunt in agris ab homine usque ad jumentum Exod. 9. v. 25. and there was neither man nor beast which could save themselves from it This was the seventh scourge of Egypt and that wherein God especially began to cause the rigor of his Arm and the weight of his Hand to be felt Go then again unto Pharaoh saith he unto Moses and let this inflexible person learn to bowe under my Laws for I am resolved at his cost to make my Power and Authority thunder out to the end it may be every where known that I am his Lord and God At the same time the hour was suspended for punishment The next day at the prefixed time and in the same moment which had been appointed the Air began to melt into so prodigious and thick a Hail Et Dominus dedit tonitrua grandinem ac discurrentia fulgura super terram Exod. 9. v. 23. Tantaque fuit magnitudinis quanta ante nunquam apparuit in universa terra Aegypti Exod. 9. v. 24. Et grando ignis mista pariter ferebantur Exod. 9. v. 24. that Egypt had never seen any thing like it That which rendred the accident more dreadful and strange was the noise of Thunder and the frightful mixture of Air Fire Lightnings and Rain which made throughout this unfortunate Countrey an Abyss of horror and misery I leave you to think what dread and affrightment must this Prince have who had inkindled all these fires and raised all these storms over his own head and that of his subjects Alas How frail are the Scepters of this World how weak is the splendor of Crowns and how little resistance have Thrones since there needs but one furious clap of Thunder but one deluge of Rain one Lightning in the Clouds one Wind one Storm of Hail one Exhalation or some Vapor to ravage to destroy to drown to bury in a Tomb of Ashes and Flames all these proud Colossusses and those
which they usually invelop themselves even in the same fire It is allmost impossible that the World can ever enjoy a perfect peace so long as there shall be men for peace it self is very often the mother of warr repose which gives truce unto the soul raiseth in it a thousand thoughts and passions which arm themselves at the beating of the first Alarm and advance into the field upon the first occasion God himself marcheth in the head of battalions and I know not whether it be not for this cause he Calls himself the great God of Hostes well doe I know that he always presides there making use of them to reward some and to punish others and to the end we may take notice that war is one of his scourges and that there be always invisible weapons resembling so many torches which he lights and extinguisheth according to his good pleasure In fine it is a most infallible verity that victory in war though wavering and inconstant in its own nature remains in the hand of God and it is a Bird which cannot take its flight but to that part which is assign'd it by his most holy Providence The Israelites had a powerfull motive to know this verity in the first war they were enforced to maintain against the Amalekites after their passage over the Red Sea This people had for their King and general the son of Eliphas called Amaleck of Esau's race Venit autem Amalec pugnavit contra Jsrael in Raphidim Exod 17. v. 8. of whom they had as it were inherited an implacable hatred against Jacob and the Hebrews who descended from him This was the motive of their taking up arms besides their fear seeing this great multitude led by Moses who marched towards the Land of Promise as if the happy moment were come in which the Benediction which Jacob had in a manner forced from Esau was to be accomplished Methinks when I cast my eyes upon these mutinous troops which forraged the Country and pursu'd the Hebrews with so much fury and animosity I see an army of hobgoblins which are commonly called the inciters of Flesh and Blood which have no sooner perceiv'd a soul out of the Lands of Egypt and out of the empire of carnall and mundane pleasures but they presently take the field to assault her and to disturb her entry into the happy Land which was promised her and into some holy retreat But we must fear nothing since we need but lift up our hands to Heaven like Moses and implore the assistance of that great Intelligence who never abandons those who are inroled under his Standard and fight valiantly for the honour of his name Cumque levaret Moises manus vincebat Israel sin autem paululum remisisset superabat Amalec Exod. 17. v. 11. Yes at the same time that this great Captain lifted up his Arm towards God to implore his aid and to give him a sign that he only expected the victory from him the people of Israel became Conquerors but if he chanced never so little to let down his Hand these poor people would be lost and overcome by Amaleck O God The efficacy of prayer what victory Kings Captains Soldiers entire Legions are defeated by the ejaculations sighs and prayers of one single man what efficacy of Prayer It is Theater where death finds life a Throne where weakness takes force and Majesty a Field where Laurels and Palms are reaped a Sea which hath alwaies prosperous gales and an Air where Graces and Angels incessantly fly Prayer is not only as St. Ephraim saith the monument and Sepulcher of dying men the Sanctuary of the Afflicted the Advocate of Criminals the Seal and Character of purity the Nurse of temperance the Bridle of impatience the Conserver of peace but the Standard also of War and the Soul of all our triumphs who will wonder then if the Amalekites be defeated since Moses who was the most devout ardent zealous and holy Man upon Earth made his most humble supplications unto God for this purpose Manus autem Moisi erant graves c. Exod. 17. v. 12. Aaron autem Hur sustentabant manus eius ex utraque parte Exod. 17. v. 13. But I fear lest the forces of his Spirit might weaken those of the Body and that at last his Arms and Hands stretched out towards Heaven might suffer themselves to follow their naturall propension towards the Earth I assure my self that Hur and Aaron had the same apprehension for behold them on the top of a little Hill Hur on the one side and Aaron on the other supporting the victorious Hands and the conquering Arms of Moses Fugavitque Josue Amalec populum eius in ore gladii Exod. 17. v. 13. whilst Josua pursued and put to the Sword both Amaleck and his Amalekites who discerned in their flight and by their defeat that it was more than a humane Hand which had assailed and vanquished them Behold then the victories of Heaven and Crowns wrought by the Hand of God who will have the whole World to know that there are for his Soldiers Laurels and Palms in his Hands and on the contrary Thunderbolts and Lightnings to dart against his enemies Non ego ó Imperator victus sum sed tuipse prodidisti victoâ—iam qui contra Deum aciem instruere non desinis Deum sequitur victoria ad eos accedet quibus se Deus dacem praebet Theo. lib. 4. hist c. 29. Trajan was not ignorant of this when having been sent by Valens to conduct troops which were defeated under his command he had the courage to say unto him at his return That he had not been vanquished but rather the person that sent him and who was so temerarious as to raise troops against him whose steps are alwaies followed by those of victory The Emperour Theodorus had the same thoughts when having received news in a full Theater and in the midst of the sports used in the Circus that a certain Tyrant his enemy had been overcome commanded all that were present to follow him Niceph. lib. 4. c. 7. to render thanks unto God as unto the Author of this prosperous success France also knows the glorious victory which Clotarius gained after a troublesome and domestique War Gregorius Turon lib. 4. c. 16. 17. by the help of prayer In fine not to search further into former ages and to dis-inter so many Princes who have been either Conquerors or Conquered by this kind of Arms we need but cast our eyes upon the victories of our incomparable Lewis and amongst others on that of the Isle of Ree where like an other Moses he lifted up his Hands unto Heaven in the Chapel of Saumeur and then like Josua he pursued his enemies even to the destruction of their Ships and even into the bosom of the proudest and most rebellious City in the World where at last he might justly say unto his France what God said
Sed ego scio quòd non dimittat vos Rex Aegypti ut eatis nisi per manum validam Exod. 3. v. 19. Extendam enim manum meam percutiam Aegyptum in cunctis mirabilibus meis quae facturus sum in medio corum posi haec dimittet vos Exod. 3. v. 20. that the God of the Hebrews had enjoyned them to offer sacrifices to him and therefore it was his pleasure they should withdraw themselves three day journey off for that end Mean while God who knew that Pharaoh would not consent thereunto advertis'd Moses of it and said unto him that in fine he would force him by rigour and the power of his armes to permit them to depart Now these weapons were no other than those of the misfortunes which befell this king and constrained him to give liberty unto the people of Israel CHAP. V. The assured markes of Moses Power THere is nothing more charming and more powerfull to Captivate men than speech Marvelous command of speech chiefly when it proceeds from a mouth full of Authority Neverthelesse there are some untamable spirits and rebellious souls who cannot be vanquished by these weapons and to whom all these discourses at most serve but for some time to lull asleep their fury This is sometimes seen in youth in whom the heat of their Age and the boyling of their blood make so much noise and stir up such dark tempests that reason is there alwayes as it were eclips't Oftentimes also there are persons of experience and Authoritie who adore only some old Error and admit of no reason but the course of a long and depraved custome It was not without cause that Moses so much fear'd to speak unto the Elders of the people Respondens Moises ait Non credent mihi neque audient vocem meam Exod. 4. v. 1. perswading himself they would not believe him and that they would deride both himself and his discourse but God made him see Prodigies which were to be infallible marks of his power over the minds of the most potent of his Nation The first was the Rod he held in his hand which became a Serpent Dixitque Dominus projice eam in terram prosicit versa est in colubrum Exod. 4. v. 3. Daxitque Dominus rursum mitte manum tuam in sinum tuum quam cum misisset in sinum protullt leprosam Exod. 4. v. 6. Retrahe ait manum tuam in sinum tuum retraxit protulit iterum erat similis carni reliquae Exod. 4. v. 7. Quod si nec duobus quidem his signis crediderint neque audierint vocem tuam sume aquam fluminis essunde eam super aridam quidquid hauseris de fluvio vertetur in sanguinem Exod. 4. v. 9. and afterwards reassum'd its former Nature The second appeared in his hand which he had no sooner put into his bosome but it became Leprous and afterwards returning into the same place it became immediatly like the rest of his body This was done by the command of him who is omnipotent and who by these miraculous effects would incourage Moses and assure him that those to whom he was sent would give Credit unto these prodigies He said farther to him that if they were so obstinate as not to believe him he was to take water out of the River Nilus and that it should be infallibly changed into blood Behold strange Metamorphoses that of the Rod into a Serpent and of the Serpent into a Rod signifyed three very different states of the people of Israel in Egypt The first was whilst Joseph lived during whose life they had possession of the Rod that is to say the Scepter and government of Egypt After that followes the death of this great Patriark and from that time all these poor people were detested by the Egyptians and like so many Serpents which crawled on the Earth But at length the time will come when Serpents shall be turned into Rods and be powerfull in the hand of Moses The second Metamorphosis by the hand of Moses signifies only the various afflictions of the Hebrews and the different alterations of their fortuns under the government of this wise conductor The third of the waters of Nilus did foretell the death and swallowing up of the Egyptians under the bloody and murthering waves of the Red Sea Notwithstanding all this Moses persists in excusing himself Alt Moises obsecro Domine non sum eloquens ab heri nudius tertius ex quo locutus es ad ser vum tuum impeditioris tardioris linguae sum Exod. 4. v. 10. and useth his best endeavors to discharge himself of an imployment in which he foresaw so many difficulties and whereof he esteemed himself so uncapable He represented unto God the trouble he had to expresse himself and how that since the very hour he had the honour to speak unto him he could hardly draw one word out of his mouth Lord saith he I am as a Child who can form but a confused sound between his lips And my tongue is so heavy and fat as I cannot speak a word without stammering Ah what God answered him Dixitque Dominus ad eum quis secit os hominis aut quis fabricatus est mutum surdum videntem caecum non ego Exod. 4. v. 11. am I not he who hath formed men with my own hand and put words into their mouths and is it not I who renders them deaf and dumb at my pleasure Yes truly it is God who discovers thoughts even in the most intricate minds It is he who moves and animates the tongues of Children and there needs but a breathing from his mouth to give life motion and voice unto the most insensible bodies These vertues are too well known At ille obsecro inquit Domine mitte quem missurus es Exod. 4. v. 13. Iratus Dominus in Meisem ait Aaron frater tuus Levites scio quod cloquens sit c. Exod. 4. v. 14. Loquere ad eum pone versia mea in ore ejus Exod. 4. v. 15. Virgam quoquc hanc sume in manu tua Exod. 4. v. 17. Abiit Moises reversus est ad Iethro Socerum suum dixitque ei vadam revertar ad fratres meos in Aegyptum Exod. 4. v. 18. and I am astonished at Moses who persists notwithstanding in his demand and who conjures God to send in his place the person whom he is to send Now it was doubtlesse the Messias whom he meant but the happy moment in which he should be born was not yet arriv'd and it had been to break the orders and decrees in Heaven to desire absolutely at that time the grant of this request God also grew angry with Moses and resolving no more to hear his complaints and excuses he was content to say unto him that his brother Aaron should serve him for interpreter to declare his will From that time
Moses took the Rod in his hand as God had commanded him and then he took leave of his father-in-law to return into Egypt whither he carried his wife and Children It was upon the way God appeared to him the second time Dixitque ei Dominus revertenti in Aegyptum Vide ut omnia ostenta quae posui in manu tua sacias coram Pharaâ—ne ego indurabo cor ejus non dimittet populum Exod 4. v. 21. Ecce ego interficiam silium tuum primogenitum Exod. 4. v. 23. and where he advertised him of the future obduration of Pharaoh's heart and that after so many signs he should persist in his obstinacy and in the design of detaining the Children of Israel It was also commanded him to carry unto this unfortunate Prince the first news of the death of his Eldest Son which was to be the last dart of the revenging Justice of God and that which was to open the eyes of Pharaoh and to mollifie his heart for some time In some part of Moses Journey into Egypt Cumque esset in itinere in dâ—ersorio occurrit ei dominus qui volebat occidere eum Exod 4. v. 24. he was met by an Angel who offer'd to kill him with the Sword he held in his hand Rabbi Solomon who had a wit more inventive for a Romance than a true one for a History would induce credulous mindes to believe That this Angel had appeared under the shape of a Dragon and that he had devoured Moses even to the place of the Body where Circumcision was wont to be applied The two Eusebius's of Caesaria and Emissene believed That the cause why God threatned and afflicted Moses was for having brought his Wife with him the which might vilifie his Mission and render it suspected unto the Hebrews But that which followed renders the conception of St. Isidore of Damietta of Rupertus and Cajetan more probable who believed That it was done to punish the disobedience and the too long delays of Moses to whom he had given command to circumcise his Children Gen. 17. v. 12. Tulit illico Sephora acutissimam petram circumcidit praeputium silii sui Exod. 4. v. 25. For presently his Wife desiring in some sort to repair this fault and to withhold the hand of the Angel took a Knife made of a Stone to circumcise her Son The which being done she kneeled down to mitigate the wrath of this Angel who vanishing left the Husband and Wife in a sad astonishment In such sort as Moses was not able to speak a word Vide Cajetanum and Sephora beholding his eyes bathed in tears and his hands red with blood could not open her mouth but to say unto Moses That in truth he was her Husband but a bloody Husband Et â—it Sponsus sanguinum tu mihies and whom she had as it were acquired by shedding the blood of his own children Now from this example Advice to Parents all Fathers of Families should learn to obey the Will of God and testifie their Zeal and Piety not onely in their own persons but also in the person of their Children Above all they must take a Knife into their hands to cut off all that is impure And if men be therein less manly that is to say less generous than their Wives it is their part to take up Arms and as I have already said upon two or three occasions not to spare either Fire Sword or Blood provided it be done with Prudence Counsel and Piety CHAP. VI. The Embassie of Moses and of Aaron into Egypt TO the end God may be obeyed when he commands Necessary Obedience we must march when he sets forth and we ought not to be silent when he puts words into our mouths to speak by his order Kings hold their Scepters from him and all their Power is but a flash of light which issueth from this Sun without which all Thrones Empires and Crowns would have neither lustre Post haec ingressi sunt Moises Aaron dixerunt Pharaoni Haec dâ—cit Domirus Deus Israel dimitte populum meum Exod. 5. v. 1. At ille respondit Quis est Dominus ut audiam vocem ejus dimittam Israel Nescio Dominum Israel non dimittam Exod. 5. v. 2. nor resplendency Moses and Aaron then need not fear to appear in the presence of Pharaoh and to say boldly unto him That he who is their Lord and God commands him to restore Liberty unto his people But who is this God saith he unto Moses and Aaron of whom you speak For my part I know him not and in despight of him I will detain this people which you demand of me He doth much more for he heaps punishment upon punishment and orders these poor people to be used with more rigor than before Now as it is the custom of the miserable Occurreruntque Moisi Aaron qui stabant ex adverso egredientibus à Pharaont dixerunt ad eos Videat Dominus judicet quoniam foetere secistis odorem nostrum coram Pharaone c. Exod. 5. v. 21. and of those that suffer to complain of every thing and oftentimes to make even those the Authors of their afflictions who endeavor to procure their good so the people of Israel began even to murmure against Aaron and Moses as if the design of their coming-in had been to increase their sufferings There is nothing more cruel and less supportable to a good soul than Ingratitude It is the justest occasion can interrupt the current and continuation of a Benefit and not wholly to stop it we must seek constancy in God who alone hath power and goodness enough to oblige even the most ungrateful persons It is also to him Moses addresseth himself and it is into his bosom he makes an amiable discharge of all his thoughts Alas Reversusque est Moises ad Dominum ait Domine cur afflixisti populum istum quare misisti me Exod. 5. v. 22. Ex eo enim quo ingressus sum ad Pharaonem ut loqueâ—er in nomine tuo afflixit populum tuum non liberasti â—os Exod. 5. v. 23. Lord saith he why dost thou permit the oppressions of thy people And if I be not able to bring them relief why hast thou sent me rather to exasperate than comfort their Afflictions After this loving complaint God discovered himself fully unto Moses to give him a more assured mark of his love Go from me saith he and know that I am that Adonijah whose name is ineffable and whom the quickest and most peircing eyes do not discover but amidst obscurities Yes surely For it is onely under the veils of Faith and through the clouds which cover the Sanctuary God can be known Blindness of Humane Wisdom We must be guided by his obscure Clarities or God himself must inform us who he is otherwise we shall be the Disciples of Aximenes who will swear That God