The Vestments of the High-Priest CHAP. 44. The Sacrifices of Aaron consumed by fire from Heaven CHAP. 45. The Pillar of fire and the Cloud CHAP. 46. The Brazen Serpent CHAP. 47. The last actions of Moses CHAP. 48. The last Canticle of Moses CHAP. 49. The death of Moses at the sight of the Holy Land THE HOLY HISTORIE FIRST TOME GOD THE CREATOR FIRST BOOK CHAP. I. Gods First Sally out of himself in the Birth of the Universe THough God was what he is and in the perfect fruition of his Grandeurs before his omnipotent hand had drawn the Creatures out of their Nothing The motives which invited God to create the world yet his Nature required Hommages his Majesty Servitudes his Glory Admirations his Goodness Acknowledgments and his Beauty hearts and affections It was needfull though he were independent of all Beings Immense in his extent Eternall in his duration and Infinite in all his perfections that he should cause himself to be seen and felt by Emanations out of himself It was not sufficient me thinks that God should contemplate himself in the Myrror of his Essence and that without issuing out of himself he should beget his Word in the splendors which flow from his Claritie It was not enough to love himself and in loving himself to produce without change loss or alteration the sacred fire of his Love All these immanent and infinite productions could not exhaust the Treasures of so fruitfull a Nature For in giving it self it suffers no detriment since amidst these sallies and Emanations the Father and the Son in such sort communicate their Nature and perfections the Father to the Son and both to the Holy Ghost that all three by a Common power can act ad extra or exteriorly and they needed to employ but one single word to create not only a World but even Worlds without end I represent unto my self that Nature sigh'd even without tongue or voice The sighs of Nature before she had a being Me thinks I hear her silence and that she saith to God before her Creation Speak then O speak Great God stretch forth thy arm and cast thy looks out of thy self issue forth of the Luminous Darkness which formes thee a day without Night and a Night more resplendent then the day Give some little passage to those Ejaculations and flames which from all eternity are inclosed within thy bosome and which frame therein a Circle of Light and Love Thou needst but open thy mouth and immediatly all Creatures will be obedient to thy commands The least of thy Irradiations will dissipate the shadows and open that abyss in which they are buried It is true that nothing ought to disturbe the peace and repose of thy solitude It is true thou hast and possessest in thy self all that can ever be But thou canst bring it to light and art able without noyse and disorder to break that eternall silence which hitherto hath made thee heard but of thy self In fine thou art a God of Love and this love would be Captive if it had not Sallies and Ejaculations It was not satisfied to remain in thee by eminence and as it were in the source of beauty and goodness but having made its folds within its self by numberless revolutions Dyonys c. 11. divin Nom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appellat munifestationem Dei per se ipsum it must descend upon externall objects to attain that effect and property which is naturall to Love viz. that amorous extasy that prodigious effusion and that pompous and magnificent shew which to speak properly is the Torch of Love or rather the Chariot of its tryumph Well then Creatures come forth of the Mass in which you lye confused Heaven Earth Sea Stars Trees Fishes Furnaces of fire and flames The first allarum of Nature vast extents of Air Clouds Abysses Precipices listen to the voice and Command of God of the Word and of their Love O God! O Power O Love what word what speech and what voice we must proceed in order and pursue the same which God himself hath followed The word was in God the Father and this word was God from that beginning which could never begin the Common Spirit of God animated the Father and the Son But in fine this glorious and happy moment which saw the birth of times and seasons being arrived The eternall God seeing no Object out of himself which could deserve his love and besides this Love being incited by a holy desire of communicating it self it was requisite to frame a Copy of the Intellectuall Originall which was in his Idea Love the architect of the World and in his heavenly mind From that instant the world then but a lively vacuum but an universall privation of forms and qualities was chosen as the blanck Table whereon he resolved to draw the first stroaks of his goodness That Nothing which hath but the bare name men give it In principio creavit Deus Coelum Terram Gen. 1. v. 1. became immediatly a fruitfull Abyss of Essences and Nature was ingendred out of it by the sole power of the Divinity First Heaven Earth Water and Darkness appeared in an instant as the Field on which all the effects of a most Amorous and sage Prodigality were to be displayed Terra autem erat inanis vacua tënebrae crant super saciem abyssi Gen. 1. v. 2. It was before any other thing that this tenebrous Compound this confused Medley and this heap of Water and Earth was the object of him who alone was able to chase away its shadows and convert its dust into Gold and Cristall This is the Throne on which the title of Soveraign Monarch and Lawgiver shall be seen ingraved But what this Theater is too obscure to behold therein the birth of the World we must expect the Aurora and the rayes of the day CHAP. II. The work of the six dayes NAture awake The first day of the Creation it is time for the World to rise the Night hath preceded and twelve hours are as it were already past since Heaven and Earth have been in obscurity Dixitque Deus fiat tax facta est lux Gen. c. 1. v. 3. Behold the break of day and those delightfull colours which play upon the waters are the Companions of that light which in Palestine hath already opened the doors and windows of the East and is going to spread it self upon another Hemisphear Nevertheless to finish this Carriere to perfect this course and to round the whole Globe twelve hours more are required And then counting from Evening till Morning and from Morning till Evening you shall find all the Moments which form the first day a glorious day a day illustrious for having first received the light which gives glory and splendor to all dayes Et vidit Deus lucem quod esset bona Gen. 1. v. 1. God himself made even a stand to be
erat quasi species ignis usque mane Num. 9. v. 15. Sic siebat jugiter per diem operiebat illud nubes per nectem quasi species ignis Num. 9. v. 16. the last prodigy was the Pillar which served them for a Torch amidst the obscurities of the night and for an umbrello to oppose the over-violent ardors of the day It was a Chariot of Fire and a Cloud conducted by an Intelligence which held the Reigns thereof and guided it according to the will of God It was a Barque in the Air more fortunate than that which heretofore carried in artificial fire the hopes of Greece For this Vessel had real Fires its Pilot marked out as some have believed the seasons of the year and the hours of the day and night It was a Standard which accompanied and preceded all the Triumphs and Victories of the Hebrews and at the same time routed their enemies It was the Holy Standard whose Ciphers were Love-nets and Draughts of Clemency it was a Sun in Eclipse and a Cloud where the Sun was in his Meridian The Morning and Evening Stars saw this Veil hanging over the Camp of the Israelites when they were inforced to make a halt and flying when they were to march God himself made sometimes use of it as his Throne Si fuisset nubes à vespere usque ad mane statim diluculo tabernaculum reliquisset proficiscebantur Et si post diem noctem recessisset dissipabant tentoria Num. 9. v. 21. and these resplendent obscurities this luminous night and this day shadowed with Clouds served him for a Veil through which he darted on the people the splendors of his glory and the shafts of his amiable Providence which gave the first motion to the Pillar and conducting Angel Is not this a lively Image of the Holy Ghost who is the Pillar of Saints and of the Church who gives strength unto the feeble and light unto the blinde He illuminates during the night of sin and placeth us under his Wings during the day of Grace This amiable Pillar goes marking out our Lodgings during this whole Pilgrimage and at last will stop when it must take its resting place and make its last retreat under the Canopy of Heaven O Israel Chosen People lose not then the sight of this Pillar it is for thee it is for all and if thine eyes cannot endure the splendor of its Rayes put thy feir at last under its shadow and never forsake it until this Divine Cloud which covers thee pour down into thy heart and until without veil or mixture thou maist receive the clarities which make the Paradise and glory of the Blessed for the rest thou needst fear nothing For there is no person who may not gain a place in Heaven and break all the obstacles on Earth following this most Blessed Guide and never losing the sight of these pleasing Lights The Humble may raise themselves by respect and fear the Merciful by the love of Piety the Couragious by Valor the Considerate by Counsel the Provident by the Prudence of Saints the most Solid by Wisdom and such as have the Gift of Discretion by Knowledge and by the various Trials they shall have CHAP. XLVI The Brazen Serpent Quod cum audisset Chananaeus rex Arad qui babitabat ad meridiem venisse scilicet Israel per explorator ◠viam pugnavit contra illum victor existens duxit ex eo praedam Num. 21. v. 1. A While after the death of Mary and Aaron when the people pursued their voyage towards the Holy Land Arad King of the Canaanites had no sooner heard the news of it but he instantly took the field to hinder their further advance It was upon the same way that two years after their departure out of Egypt the Hebrews had sent their Spies into the Land of Canaan and this was the occasion which moved Arad to raise forces in great haste imagining that all these Travellers and Strangers had no other intention than to invade his Territories and render themselves masters of his Country The first conflicts were very prosperous to this Prince At Israel voto se Domino obligans ait Si tradideris populū istū in manu mea delebo urbes ejus Num. 21. v. 2. Exaudivitque Dominus preces Israel tradidit Chananaeum quē ille interfecit subversis urbibus ejus vocavit nomen illius Horma id est anathema Num. 21. v. 3. Profecti sunt autem de monte Hor per viam quae ducit ad Mare rubrum ut circumirent terram Edom. Et taedere coepit populum itineris ac laboris Num. 21. v. 4. Locutusque contra Deum Moisen ait Cur eduxisti nos de Aegypto ut moreremur in solitudine Deest panis non sunt aquae anima nostra jam nauseat super cibo isto levissimo Num. 21. v. 5. and I am confident he would have defeated his Enemies if God had not combined against him according to the solemn Vow the Israelites made to demolish for his honor all the strong holds of this King and to lay so many Anathemaes on them that there might remain nothing but the execrable footsteps and bloody marks of the abominations and impieties which reigned in the Land of Canaan And this they did after a general victory from thence pursuing their way toward the Red Sea and about the Lands of Idumea But in fine these ungrateful men seeing already their promised Palms could not forbear to mingle murmurs with their Songs of Victory and the vexation they had to see themselves so long in a Pilgrimage made them lose the remembrance of him who had conducted them through the desart and rendred them conquerors over their Enemies after he had in a maner inforced the Elements and the most insensible Bodies of Nature to contribute unto their necessities Ah! said they we have too long wandred in this solitary place sometimes upon Mountains and then in Valleys nevertheless after a journey of forty years we have not hitherto reached the Haven And even this Manna which fell from Heaven and which indeed hath hitherto supplied our most pressing necessities is yet but a very slight nourishment and which affords more distaste than benefit Why did we then leave Egypt to come into these desarts and arid places where we have neither Water nor Bread Can we truly represent unto our selves a more unworthy and blinde ingratitude than this But where may we finde punishments harsh enough to inflict on this impious people and darts sharp enough to cause a resentment of so great a disloyalty I could wish that all the Oaths of these perjured persons had been numbred after so many favors and miracles done for their sake and yet behold their Sacrifices their Offerings their Vows and all their Gratitude Why have you brought us hither and why have you delivered us out of slavery to cause us to die with hunger and thirst in this desart
hold these lights and could not contein himself from praysing the attractive charms of this glistring and pompous quality which is as the life of the eye and a most lively representation of the spirit The second day was not less glorious The second Day for it was that in which God chose to raise up the Firmament like a Circle of Brass Dixit quoque Deus fial Firmamentum in medio aquarum dividat aquas ab aquis Gen. 1. v. 5. or rather like a Globe of Gold and azure which might serve to divide the seaven Orbes of the Planets from the empyreall Heaven Now it was in the midst of the waters that this admirable work was formed whether they were necessary to temper the rays and orders of the Stars or that the course and revolutions of a mooving body would be more even and free in an Element so pure and so plyable to all sort of Motions Or finally whether it were for some other reason known only to the incomparable Architect who caus'd his power and wisdome equally to shine in the Fabrick of the Universe The next day God descended from Heaven upon Earth and it was on this day he marked out bounds The third Day and limits to Rivers Streams Seas and Torrents so that the waters retyring some on one side and some on the other Congregentur aquae quae sub Coelo sunt in Deuâ— unum apraâ—cat arida Gen. 1. v. 7. just as they were shut up within their banks Clifts and Chanels the Earth appeared and immediatly her sides were found pierced with Caverns and her back loaden with Mountains and Rocks which rais'd her in a stately manner Instantly her entrals were filled with Stones and Metals and whilst those four great portions of the Earth which divide the World and all the Islands of the Ocean and Seas were Levelled to serve for Empires and possessions of men The hand of God as just as liberall did in the bosome of the Earth uphold the Arches of her Prisons and Dungeons to the end that if the Paradice of Eden was a Garden of delights and pleasures Hell on the contrary might be an abode of dread horror and Misery It was likewise very convenient that as God had mixed Light with Darkness he should create wild places and desarts to render the Gardens Fields and Meadows more delightfull and finally having the very same day given Plants Herbs and Flowers for an ornament to the Earth his wise Providence mingled Thorns with Roses and the most wholesome Herbs sprung out of the same soyl with the Mandrake and Aconite The fourth day The fourth Day having bin as it were the Chariot of the Sun Fiant luminaria in Virmamento Coeli dividant diem ac noctem sint in signa ten pora dies annos Gen. 1. v. 14. Moon Stars and Planets which shine in the Heavens may in some manner be called the day of days since it hath bin the Origin of the fires brightness and flames which are the soul of the Day Then were the frozen and condensed waters gathered together with more light and heat to form the Body of the Planets Et luceant in firmamento Coeli illuminent terram Gen. 1. v. 15. Fecitque Deus dun lâ—minaria magna lumanare majus ut praeesset diei luminaâ—e minus ut traeesht nocti stâ—llas v. 16. Next the Sun Moon and Stars began their courses periods and revolutions and took the tracks and ways which were traced out to them from East to West they began likewise to cast their favourable aspects and from that time their influences fell upon the Earth and they received the Orders and Laws which they have since observed so inviolably and with so great respect But whilst these Torches rowl over our heads for fear lest our eyes should be dazeled at such luminous objects Let us turn them upon the Fift day The â—ift Day Producant eqâ—as reâ—tile animae vtventis volatile super terram sub Firmamento Coelâ— Gen. 1. v. 25. wherein God created the Birds which fly in the Air and the Fishes which swim in the Water One must hear represent unto his thoughts some fair Summers day and imagine that he sits in the cool upon the shore of some Island From thence he must lift up his eyes towards Heaven and behold over head thousands of little feathered bodies cleaving the air with their wings piercing the Clouds and mingling with their flight the sweet Harmony of their warblings He must afterwards behold at his Feet a River full of Fishes armed with scales some of which cut their way neer the surface of the water and others through the midst of the waves some swim aloft against the stream and Current others are carryed down at the pleasure of the winds and by the favour of so sweet and rapid an Element This is that which God took pleasure to see and doe five dayes after the Creation of Heaven and Earth This was the day he chose to people the Air and Sea with their guests which were in so great numbers as since it hath not been necessary to create other species of Birds and Fishes But what the Earth which serves for a Basis and foundation unto Sea and Air would have some cause to murmur against both and might with reason complain as it were of God her Creator if she were abandoned and without Inhabitants Soft a little patience It belongs not unto Creatures to prescribe laws to their Creator Scarce had the Morning brought news of the arrivall of the sixth day The sixt Day Producat terra animam viventem in genere suo jumenta reptilia bestias terrae secundum species suas Gen. 1. v. 24. but at the same instant the Earth opened her eyes unto her Sun and her ears unto the voice of her God This dull heavy and insensible Mass not satisfied to have brought forth Flowers Plants and Trees yet farther displaid it self to produce all sorts of Beasts and Animals Behold the World in her Cradle and Nature in her Infancy The unmoveable Earth round about her Center is sown with flowers tapistred with Turf and Verdures beautified with Woods and Forrests she is stately in her Mountains pleasant in her Valleys delightfull in her Meadows She is rich in her Metals fertile in her Fruits and plentifull by her Rivers and Seas which inviron her on all parts and form her a thousand liquid transparences The Air encompasses her on all fides and serves her for a veil to temper the over-humid Influences of the Moon and the too ardent Rays of the Sun The Heavens like pendent Roofs and rowling Arches are strewed with Flowers Emeraulds and Rubies Hesiod in the genealogy of false divinity What doth remain after all these Prodigies of Power and all these works of Love O Power O Love I cannot condemn his fancy who said that Love produced Heaven out
that their Hearts can desire They possess the Monarchy of the Universe for their Inheritance and Government Their Empire extends over all out-bounds and limits the Winds doe not blow but at their pleasure the Rivers and Streams doe not Rowl along but at their Command Praesit piscibus mariâ— volantibus Coeli universaeque terrae omnique repâ—ili quod movetur in terra Gen. 1. v. 16. the Birds doe not tune their Warbling Notes but to afford them delight the Lions themselves and the Leopards dare not roar in their presence All is in Peace all in Joy and all in a pleasing silence devoid of Fear and Apprehension Their Bodies are neither subject to Weariness nor the Butchery of any tormenting Maladies Their Paradise knows neither Anxiety grief nor pain In that place no sound was ever heard of those frightfull terms whose thought alone is able to raise strange Commotions in our Hearts The mind cannot there be diverted by those sad thoughts which are inventive to bring us Torment In a word they are as it were the Gods of the Terrestiall Paradise and partake in a manner of all the delights which can be tasted in Heaven CHAP. V. The Disasters and Banishment of Adam and Eve ADam and Eve are happy but how long will this happiness endure Doth Adam remember that he is a Man and a Man of Earth Doth Eve well understand that her Sex is more Light more frail and lesse constant Adam art thou Ignorant that nothing is more flattering and more cunning than a woman when her mind is excited by some passion Audax est ad omnia quaecunque odit vel amat famina et artificiosa est nocere cum vult Valerius in Epist ad Rufum Cum invisa est mulier se odâ—sse ait Cum amat amari cum suratur se compilari queritur Nicephor Gregorius Just l. 7. One must will what shee wils and even the force and reason of the wisest men are often obliged to give way unto her Beware then Adam of this Woman for my own part I imagin to have in a manner seen her behind a Tree and to my thinking I have heard her speak unto a serpent Behold how she comes wholy affrighted Adam advance and observe a little what ayles her And if thou desirest to know the truth believe the contrary of what she shall tell thee Eve from whence doest thou come Disunion the first misfortune of the World and why doest thou leave him all alone who is the heart of thy heart and the soul of thy soul Where can be the Members without the Head and the Head without the Members What doest thou not know that I am to be witness of all thy Actions and that I must give an account unto God for what thou shalt doe what fruit is this that thou hold'st in thy hand Ah my Son Sed et serpens erat callidior Gen. 3. v. 1. my Friend my dear Husband would you did but know what hath happened since I was absent from you Not far from hence I met a Serpent of a Prodigious and extraordinary shape A diabolicall serpent he also spake to me contrary to the use of Beasts For my part I did believe that he was a Prodigy of Heaven Cui respondit mulier de fructu lignorum quae sucrunt in Puradiso vesâ—imur Gen. 3. v. 2. De fructu vero ligni quod est in Medio Paradisi praecepit nobis Deus ne comedemus et ne tangeremus illud ne fâ—rte moriemur Gen. v. 3. Dixit autem serpens ad mulierem nequaquam marte moriemini Gen. v. 3. c. 4. Scit enim Deus quod in quocunque die comederitis de eo aperientur oculi vestri et eritu sicut dis scientes bonum et malum Gen. 1. v. 5. Vidit igitur mulier quod bonum esset lignum ad vescendum et pulcrum oculis aspectuque delectabile tulit de fructu illius et comedit Gen. 3. v. 4. and an Angel which God sent me under the form of a Serpent He shewed me the Tree of life and promised me that if I would eat of it's fruit I should become like unto God and have a perfect knowledge of Good and Evill I told him that God had forbid it us uppon pain of death But he protested to me that on the contrary this fruit had the Juyce of Life and Immortality For my part I have gather'd it I have eaten of it and I intreat you to taste as little of it as you please O God! how eloquent is the malice of a woman and what powerfull charmes and perswasions hath she Her lips and Mouth distill at once both Honny Poyson her Tongue shoots forth Arrowes of Death and Life her very Lookes are so many Lightnings which she mingleth with the dartes of her Passions This is that which destroyed the Angel of the Terrestriall Paradise the Monarch of the World and the Father of all Mankind He chose rather to disobey God than contradict his Wife He resolv'd to be rather a complice in her Disloyalty Deditque viro suo et comedit Gen. 3. v. 6. Et aperti sunt oculi amborum cumque cognovissent se esse nudos consuerunt folia ficus et fecerunt sibi perizomata Gen. 3. v. 7. Abscondit se Adam et uxor eius à facie Domini Dei Gen. 3. v. 6. than to take revenge of it It was from his own Wife's hand he took this fatall Apple which would choak his Posterity O wretch what hast thou done open a little thine Eies and blush rather at the sight of this Crime than of thy Nakedness Adam what hast thou done why doest thou hide thy self Hast thou swallowed down that bit which hath since infected all of us Proud man thou thoughtst to be free but thou now bearest the shackles of an eternall captivity Thy weakness could not deny that to thy wife which God had reserved to himself And thou hast done for the love of a foolish Woman what the Eternall Wisedom had so expresly forbidden thee Blind and disloyall Man thou gavest more credit to a Serpent which deceived thee than to God and truth which can never fail Art thou not ashamed to have committed this Sacrilege which made thee submit to the allurements of a Woman against the Decree which God himself hath published Adam where art thou God calls thee Vocavitque Dominus Deus Ad met dixit ei ubies G. n. 3. v. 5. thou must Answer thou must appear in vain is it to seek out shades and groves to oppose the Word who gives speech to the Dum and those Eles whose least glances make the day to break in the darkest dungeons and greatest obscurities Adam behold this lightning which teares the cloudes and is about to imprint upon thy Spirit the difference between Grace and Sin thou shalt discern what thou now art and what thou wert before and all the future disasters which
approach of the skins of Wolves and that Lambs scarce come out of the Yeows belly have neverthelesse natural apprehensions of the Wolf My soul hast thou not seen Chickens hiding themselves under the wings of a Hen at the meer shadow of a Kite Partridges flying before Haukes and even Lyons roaring at the sight of a Cock I ask of thee From whence proceeds this fear these affrightments and Antipathies If thou tellest me they are Natural and have bin as it were infused by Nature even from the first to the last of each kind I likewise answer that this Original stain of culpable Nature is derived from father to son and from the first man to all his of-spring and so it comes to be imprinted in the substance of their Souls And if thou hast a desire to passe further and know the reason I am content stand then upon thy guard my Soul for I intend to fight thee with thy own Weapons Is it not true that when by thy desires thou kindlest fires and infamous flames in thine Eys thou art the cause of this Burning and that it is thy self who renders them Criminal Is it not as true that when thou armest thy Hands to commit a Murther and thy Tongue to detract and bite like a Dog or to vomit forth some Blasphemy it is thou that makest both thy Hand and Tongue culpable which are thy Members thy Officers thy Slaves and Executioners which act perform and execute what thou hast commanded them In like manner Adam having bin chosen by God for the Head and Father of all mankind Original sin his Heart was the Fountain which should powre out it's qualities into the substance of their Souls even as doth the Head and Heart into the armes into the tongue and into all the Members of the Body Moreover the Will of Adam was so streightly united to that of his Children as when he acted they seconded all his Actions From whence I conclude that as Actuall sins committed by the Ears Eyes and Hands take their Malignity from the Heart and Will which is their Cause and Origin so likewise those sins which are commonly called Originall The first Contagion and are found in the Soul of all Mankind have as it were crept in and taken their Descent from Adam as their Author and beginner which having been once infected hath afterward made its venom pass from Father to Son as by Hereditary right Poor Children of Adam pittifull Reliques of an unfortunate Father behold your Patrimony the Rights of your Families and what Adam and Eve have left you for Legacies Let no Man hereafter be astonisht to see you wandring about Countryes Pittifull Reliques of Sin and going from door to door in Cities with Tears in your Eys Sighs in your Mouths with dusty Hair and Sun-burnt Faces Let no Man be any more astonished to see you goe bare-Headed and bare-Footed a Wallet on your Shoulders and a Staff in your Hand for these are the portions of Sin Miserable Mortals the Earth from henceforth shall be to you but a Dark Prison Life but a Gally and the World but a great Chain of Misfortunes The Elements shall joyn in Arms against you The Fire shall inkindle frightfull Comets over your Heads The Air shall dart forth merciless Thunder-bolts upon your Houses The Sea shall raise its Billows against your Towers and the Earth shal be the Theater of VVars the Meadow in which the Plague shall Mow and the Field of Battail where all the powers of the VVorld and Hell it self shall deliver you up to Tragick Combats In fine your Bodies shal be Subject to all sorts of Maladies and your Minds to all kinds of Passions I hear already Envie grumbling and murmuring in the Heart of Cain I hear the cry of Abell Let us observe a while what passeth CHAP. VI. The Murther of Abel and the Despair of Cain ANtiently in Temples Houses and Closets Concil 6. in Trullo Can. 32. the Images of Jesus Christ were drawn in form of a Lamb which was the most lively Mark and Symbol that Painters could find out to frame some Copy of Meekness Abel was this Picture from his Birth and shewed from the beginning so sweet and facile so plyant and tractable a disposition as Adam and Eve were even inforced to bestow on him their most tender affections Cain on the contrary who was his Elder Brother Diversity of Natures appeared to be of so fierce and imperious a Nature that at length to sweeten it they resolved to oblige him to cultivate the Earth that his spirit might learn how to soften the hardest of Elements and to temper the harshness of his Courage Abel at the same time employed himself in keeping Sheep Fuitque Abel pastor ovium Cain agricola Gen. 4. v. 2. and guiding his Fathers Flocks amidst the Pastures His mind in repose and amidst the silence of the Fields began to take its flight And as God had chosen his Heart to powre into it his dearest favours he easily felt himself surprised with a Holy thought and a Sacred desire which was elevated to God to offer unto him the purest and choicest Sacrifices Cain also felt some touch of Piety Factum est autem post multos dâ—es ut offerret Cain de fructibuâ— terrae munera Domino Gen. 4 v. 3. Abel quoque obtulit de primogenitis gregis sui de adipibâ—s corum Gen. 4. v. 4. and but passingly beheld a glorious Light which sufficiently shewed him all he was to doe from whence I gather by the way That there is no Clymate so barbarous no Land so desart nor no Cave so tenebrous into which God casts not his Shafts and darts not his Lights to illuminate our Hearts and Souls But it often comes to pass that we shut the Doors and Windows suffering our Day and Life to slip away to expect Death and Blindness in the Night Abel received the Day from its Aurora and neither the Interests of the World nor the Goods of the Earth were ever able to separate his Soul from the Interests of Heaven and Piety His Intentions were still most pure and he had no other Object than the Glory of a God who requires the whole and not a single part who demands Hearts and not bare Words and who cannot permit upon his Altars but the fairest and most liberall Victims of Love Now this is what our innocent Shepheard did when he rendred his Sacrifice most perfect offering unto God what he had most beautifull most fat and rare among his Flocks having first set apart the First Fruits and afterwards Immolated them with the rarest Lights of his Understanding and the purest Flames of his Will Cain on the other side erects Altars Very different Sacrifices Rupert lib. 4. in Gen. c. 2. Cain cum Deâ— of seriet sua scipsum sibi retinet and offers Fruits But in offering his Presents saith Rupertus he retains Himself And his Earthy
and resembled Tombs in which they were imprisoned Their punishment saith the Wiseman was suitable to the horror of those crimes where with they were poluted in the obscurity of Caves and Subterranean places where they thought to shun the sight of him whose eyes illuminate the purtest Clarities of the Heavens In this dreadful state they were terrified by Specters which flew before their eyes they had sometimes the use of their sight to be affrighted by these tenebrous Phantasms every where they were in fear and followed by terrors which troubled their guilty Consciences They also heard dreadful noises which made them even die with fear Cum sit enim timida nequitia dâ—t testimoniunt condemnationis semper enim praesumit saeva perturbata conseientia Sap. 17. v. 10. Aliquando monstrorum â—xagâ—tabantur timore c. Sap. 17. v. 14. Et ignis quidem nulla vis poterat illis lumen praebere nec siderum limpidae slammae illaminare poterant illam noctem horrendam Sap. 17. v. 5. Apparebat autem illis subitaneus ignis timore plâ—nus timore pereulsi illius quae non videbatur faciei aestimabant deteriora esse quae vidâ—bantur Sap. 17. v. 6. Et magicae a tis apposici erant derisus sapientiae gloriae correptio cum contumelia Sap. 17. v. 7. Illienim qui promittebant timores perturbationes expellere so ab anima languente bi cum derisu pleni timore languebant Sap. 17. v. 8. and the hideous shapes which were presented to them amongst these dreadful noises so lively affrighted them that for their last remedy they desired nothing but Death This horrid night could not be dissipated by the Rayes of the Sun and Moon and notwithstanding the fires which were kindled on all sides nothing but black vapors appeared which were so sensible that men might even feel them but the Lightnings which from time to time withdrew these black veils represented to them such strange forms that they then imagined to see what had never been The most Learned were the most confounded and the Diabolical Art of Inchanters found real matter for Humiliation This infamous and proud Art appeared but meer folly and the Errors of it better discovered themselves in that night than in all the precedent days The deceipt of the Magicians was never more shamefully decryed For all the promises they had made to free Egypt from all sorts of diseases were changed into confusion The prodigious effects whereof they published themselves to be Masters appeared chiefly in their astonishment which was so excessive that they scarce knew themselves And as their eyes saw nothing but Specters and Phantasms their ears heard nothing but the cryes and roarings of Beasts which contributed to their affrightment In vain was it for them to shut their eyes against all these Visions their fancies were too full of these shaâ—â—ows and they were in a maner constrained to see all the objects wherewith the imagination could be disquieted Behold the dreadful state wherein these infortunate people remained during the excess of so horrid an obscurity which lasted for the space of three days and that which ought to appear more strange was That amongst these tenebrous Exhalations and these shadows of Hell their mindes were even darkned and their understandings became no less blinde than their eyes Briefly they suffer both in Body and Soul such Convulsions and tortures as cannot be expressed Vna enim catena tenebrarum omnes erant colligati sive spiritus sibilans aut vis aquae decurrentis nimium Sap. 17. v. 17. Aut sonus volidus praecipitatarum petrarum c. Sap. 17. v. 18. All that were shut up in this Labyrinth resembled Gally-slaves tied by a chain of darkness which held them as fast as if it had been of Iron In this slavery they were tied by invisible enemies which the Wiseman describes under the figure of a Whirl-wind which grumbleth in the Air or of a rapid torrent which makes a Sea of the Fields or of a Rock which cleaves and is broken into shivers by the violence of a storm with a dreadful noise which continues until it fall into the bottom of some precipice Now all this was but a rough draught and a sign of the horrors which after the expiration of some ages and revolutions of the Sun and days were to produce a night which shall never enjoy light and a general eclipse which shall endure for all Eternity Then all the Evening and Morning Stars shall be veiled and the Inhabitants of Egypt the obstinate Souls and the hardned Hearts shall feel nothing but animated Shafts and killing Darts which the Eye of a just Vengeance shall cast in the midst of darkness to mark out these destroying Ciphers and Characters with more reason than they were heretofore ingraven on the Gates of the Prison of a certain person whom a sad and furious despair had transported to kill himself after he had exercised all manner of cruelty on his own body O night without day O death without life evill without remedy torment without end eternall darknesse But the Israelites Sanctis autem tuis maxima erat lux horum quidem vocem audiebant quia non ipsi eadem passi erant magnificabunt te Sap. 18. v. 1. the Children of light and they that walked amongst the splendours of virtue and sanctity shall have no share in this great obscurity they shall enjoy an ever-shining brightness and whilst the Egyptians shall houle like dispairing men in the Abysse of their darkness they shall magnifie the ineffable grandures and the most powerfull bounties of him who is able at the same time to reward the innocent and punish the guilty and causeth the Sun to rise under the feet of Saints whilst he inkindles his lightnings and comets over the heads of the wicked Such will be the great day and night full of horrour and miserie in which light shall apparently decay and ashes and dust shall ascend even as high as the heavens there to form more beautifull and radiant planets than those which at present expresse their Pomp with so much magnificence and splendor O my God! be thou then the Sun of my Soul that I may goe alwaies increasing from one light unto an other and that I may never be invelop'd in this night with the Egyptians but that I may without limit without measure and without obstacle enjoy those blessed aspects and those luminous glances which make the day of dayes and of eternity CHAP. XVI The Death of the First-born of Egypt WE must acknowledge that the Philosopher who called Death the Center of punishments Timocles and the last extremity of all evills had as just reason as that Prince who after he had sought out all wayes to terrifie his people who had taken up armes against him resolv'd at last to have one great Skeleton carried in triumph which held a Hand of Justice and a Sith after which
hand of pennance It is there where we ought to gird our Reins for otherwise a God of Purity would abhor to enter into an unclean Habitation into an unchaste Soul and into a Body which serves for a retreat unto the most merciless enemies of Vertue and Chastity We must have Staves in our Hands and Shooes on our Feet like Pilgrims which pass along and seek an abode elswhere than in a forrein Country where we must quit all we have or else either soon or late be forsaken by them Let us make haste then and remember An excellent thought I beseech you that this very day may be our Paschal and our passage from Earth unto Heaven What stayes us in the World our Parents will pass away or else are already gone before Our Friends are not here beneath for the Earth hath none but infidel perfidious and envious people In fine All that is under Heaven remains in a continual vicissitude The face of the Universe changeth every moment and that which sparkleth the most hath but marks of a vain appearance which serve onely to dazle our eyes and deceive our souls Such then saith St. Paul as have wives ought to live as if they had none that is to say Without being fastned unto any inordinate affection Those also who sigh and groan under the weight of miseries as if they had attained to the height of their desires and pretensions those that are on the top of the wheel as if they were under the feet of Fortune and loaden with all afflictions those that heap together riches as if they possessed nothing those that are ingaged amongst Creatures and are inforced to make use of them as if they were severed from them or as if the use of those Creatures were forbidden them This concludes my Brethren That we must break the Chains which fasten us to any other thing than God we must abandon Egypt and depart out of this unfortunate Land where nothing but Plagues Deaths and all sorts of horrors are seen Happy are they who follow God and Moses in the thickest part of the desart out of these tumults and dangers Proscâ—tique sunt filii Israel de Ramesse in Socoth sexcenta fere millia peditum virorum absque parvulis Exod. 12. v. 27. which are so frequent in Cities and Courts We cannot have more delightful company than his Elect who go from Egypt into Ramasses and from Ramasses into the Land of Socoth almost to the number of six hundred thousand foot-men without reckoning women and little children nor even the common people which can hardly be numbred I leave you my dear Reader to reflect on all that passed in this illustrious Departure and during this voyage which was I believe the most famous that hath ever been Nothing but the echoes of their Songs of Victory and of the Benedictions they gave unto their Redeemer were every where heard whilst their Tyrants howled like wolves from whom their prey is taken or else like Ravens which croak upon some dead body Moreover the convoy of the people of Israel was very rich and sumptuous Dominus autem dedit grariam populo coram Aegyptiis c. for they carried with them the most pretious moveables of Egypt as God had ordained them And to this effect he had imprinted on their foreheads and upon their faces I know not what marks of sweetness and so strong and powerfull attractives or as St. Austin beleev'd Sed vulgus promiscuum innumerabile ascendit cum eis oves armenta animantia diversi generis multa nimis Exod. 12. v. 38. Coxcruntque farinam quam dudum de Aegypto conspersam tulerant fecerunt sub cinâ—ricios panes azimos Exod. 12. v. 39. Habitatio autem filiorum Israel qua manserunt in Aegypto fuit quadringentorum trigenta annorum Exod. 12. v. 40. Hanc observare debent omnes filii Israel ingenerationibus suis Exod. 12. v. 42. Dixitque Dominus 〈◊〉 Moisen Aaron haec est Religio omnis alienigena non comedit ex eo Exod. 12. v. 43. Omnis autem servus emptititus circumcidetur sic comedet Exod. 12. v. 44. Advena mercenarius edent etit ex ea Exod. 12. v. 45. Omnis caetus filiorum Israel faciet illud Exod. 12. v. 47. such secret qualities as thereby they gained the hearts and friendships of those who before were their persecutors So that they desir'd them to burthen themselves with their spoiles and to depart as it were loaded with the booty they had gained from their enemies and pillaged after the victory of a most just warr which was also due unto them as a just recompence of their labours They carried also with them Sheep Oxen and all kind of Beasts Yet had nothing dressed and fit to eat wherefore they were faine speedily to set their hands awork and cause that which they had brought with them to be baked upon Ashes In fine This night when God drew them out of the calamities of Egypt and the bondage of Pharaoh was the end of four hundred and Thirty years which they pass'd therein and all the Children of Israel ought to observe it with a Solemnall worship throughout all generations It was also for this cause God said unto Moses and Aaron that such were the Ceremonies of the Paschal and that no stranger foreign Merchant nor any mercenary Servant or bought with money could be admitted unto the banquet of the Lamb till after the establishment of the Lawes for Circumcision To the end there might be but one Law both for those of the Country and for strangers which were mingled with the naturall Jewes All these conditions were most religiously kept and the Israelites omitted nothing of what God had given in command unto Moses Feceruntque omnes fibi Israel sicut praececeperâ—t dominus Moisi Aaron Exod. 12. v. 50. Et cadem die eduxit Dominus filâ—os Israel de terra Aegypti per turmas suas Exod. 12. v. 51. And so on the same day the Lord drew them out of Egypt according to their Tribes prescribing to them all the lawes they were to observe ordaining them chiefly Sanctification that is to say the offering of the first born as well of men as beasts to the end by this Sacrifice they should have a living and animated occasion to recall into their memory the singular favours had been done them when during the Murther of the Egyptians all theirs were preserved CHAP. XVIII Pharaoh Swallowed up in the Red Sea THE belief of one God Clemens Allexan â—rom 5. and the Evident demonstration of his justice are so inseparable as it would be more easy to meet with a spring without Water a life without a Soul and stars without rayes than a Soveraign nature which had not the power to punish sinners This then is almost as much as to say that there is one God and he is just We cannot even understand the frightfull termes and
monstrously confused I should be unwilling to black this Paper in setting forth so many horrors and Ordures and to recall the memory of them but I cannot conceal what God and Moises have published Moreover the Heavens are ready to powre down Water enough to efface all these stains and all the marks of those abhominable sins Nevertheless I feel my Spirit affrighted at the sight of these Horrors and my Eyes would need tears of Bloud to divert all these mournfull Objects O God! who art the Origin of all Beauties and whose least Glance compleats the happiness of Angels and Saints What! must Man must thy Children and Creatures adhere to an other than thy self why do'st thou permit the fairest City of the World to be but a horrid and common Sewer And must the World become a heap of Murthers and Uncleanness What! doe you not see these Ravens to whom some worldly beauty gives Wings to make a sodain stoop at carrion putrifi'd and almost consum'd by it's own rottennesse doe you see all these incarnate Devils these Gyants of the Earth and these Men devoid of Soul and reason who imploy all their study and care to Court an Idoll of Clay Detestable Idolatry a Face of Marble and the Picture of a Nice dame who is attended by excess of Dyet Pomp of Garments painting musk perfumes wantonness attractives artifices amorous looks gestures freedom sport Raillerie Idleness Night Solitude and all sorts of privacies Surely so many vapours and exhalations as are risen from the World or rather from Hell for above sixteen ages together have too much thickned the Clouds God is necessitated at last to pluck up the Flood-gates Videns autem Deus quod multa malitia hominum esset in terra cuncta cogitatio cordis intenta esset ad malum omni tempore Gen. 6. v. 5. and open the Cataracts to swallow up the World and cause Shelves and Shipwracks upon Mountains and Cities as well as upon the Ocean The iniquity of Men is too deeply rooted in the bottom of their Hearts and all their thoughts are too strongly fastned on Evill The Decree is given and I see nothing that is able to with-hold an arm holily irritated God repents himself for having created Man Panituitque eum quod hominem fecisset in terra tactus dolore cordis intrinsecus Gen. 6. v. 6. and bestowed on him all his labour and affection he repents himself and his heart riseth at the sight and thought of this Object In fine being no longer able to restrain his wrath and indignation I swear by my self saith he that I will destroy Man and Efface his name and memory over the face of the Universe Deleho inquit hominem quem creavi à facie â—eirae ab homim usque ad animantia à reptilt usque ad volucres Cae i â—oeâ—â—eâ— enim me secisse illus Gen. 6. v. 7. I will not spare even Beasts and Birds to the end that what hath been a Witness Complice or even a slave of his crime shall also be the Companion of the pain and punishment which is ordained him This said and done Of so many men who then lived upon the Earth and of so many Families Noe va ò invenit gra tiam coram Domino Gen. 6. v. 8. Cumque vidisset Deus terram esse corruptam omnis quippe caro corruperat viam suam super terram Gen. 6. v. 12. that only of Noah deserved favour and was freed from Shipwrack God then calls this holy Man â—â—â—â—t ad Noe sints untversae carnâ—â— veniet coram me Kepleta esâ— terra iniquitate à facie toruÌ„ ego aisperdam illos cum terâ—a Gen. 6. v. 13. and great Patriark to advertise and communicate his whole design unto him Friend saith God the World is in its agony and my Justice shall put an end to this Work which my Love began All my patience and delays have only served to make way for evill And my clemency is converted into rigour After all my goodness is tired and I am resolv'd to open all the Torrents of my wrath that the World being no longer but a great Abyss and a vast Scpulcher may be drowned in it self and that there may never be more mention of it Goe then Noah Fac tibi arcam de ligms laevigatis mansiunculas in arca factes birumine lintes intrinsecus extrmsecuâ— Ger. 6. v. 14. Et sic factes cam â—recentorum cubitoru erit longitodo arcae quinquaginta cubitorit altitudo ejâ— Gen. 6. v. 15. â—enestram in arca sacies in cubito consummabis summitatemeâ—us Ostrum autem arcae pones in latere deorsum senacula trillegafacies in ca. Ger. 6. v. 16. Ponamque faedus meum tecum ingredieris arcam tu silâ—i tui uxor tua uxores fitiorum â—â—cum Gen. 6. v. 18. Ex omnibus animantibus mundis tolle septena septena Masculum Faeminam De animantibus vero immundis duo duo Masculum Faeminam Gen. 7. v. 2. Sed de volatilibus Caeli septena septena Masculum Feminam ut salvetur semen super faciemuniversae terrae Gen. 7. v. 3. and build an Ark of Timber and Planks make small apartments in it and pitch it both within and without Let it be three hundred Cubits in length fifty in breadth and thirty in height make then a Window a Cubit high and in the side contrive a door to goe in and out dispose also Chambers therein and be carefull that the whole be divided into three stories to the end the Body of this large structure may be the more commodious and better proportioned Afterwards I will make my accord and pact with thee and thou shalt presently enter in with thy Wife Children and Cattle Besides thou shalt conduct into this Sanctuary all sorts of Beasts and Birds with this distinction that amongst the clean thou shalt choose seaven of every species and of the unclean two only pairing alwaies the Male and Female that they may repair the Earth and Air by their Copulations This good Man performed exactly all that God had commanded him he is already in the Ark Fecitque Noe omnia quae praeceperat illt Deus Gen. 6. v. 22. Cumque transissent septem dies aquae diluvii inundaverunt super terram Gen. 7. v. 10. Rupti sunt omnes sontes Abyssi magnae cataraclae caeli apertae sunt Gen. 7. v. 11. Et facta est pluvia super terram quadraginta dicbus quadraginta noctibus Gen. 7.12 and he busieth himself in disposing and nourishing all these different Species of Beasts and Birds Seaven dayes were spent about these preparations and in the miraculous inclosure of this new House At the end whereof the Heavens opened on all sides and the Sun Moon and Stars seem'd to be chang'd into Sources and Chanels the Air and Clouds became a Sea and all the Elements joyned together to make of the
whole World an Ocean without shoars without bottom without Haven and without limit I represent unto my self the liquid firmament all-inflamed with his wrath and indignation who intends to alter the whole State of Nature I firmly believe that amidst this storm Thunder upon Thunder and a thousand Claps were heard which served to arm the Heavens the Planets and the Clouds It is probable that the Night and the Winds were mixed together and I cannot doubt but that Hell and Earth did also conspire to increase the horror of so dismall and universall a Punishment Mean while where are you the unhappy Inhabitants of the City of Enos Gyants of what use is your Mass of Body and those vast dimensions which have only serv'd to make you fall from a higher pitch and rendred your ruin more remarkable Poor Heirs of Cain Children of Men Effeminate Spirits wanton Souls where are you The Heavens fall on your Heads the Air stifles you the Water swallows you up and the Earth vanisheth away Fathers Mothers Children Husbands and VVives Brothers and Sisters Kindred Friends where are you and where are your Monsters and Prodigies of Allyance I behold I behold your Towers buryed under the VVaves I hear your cryes your sighs and your voices notwithstanding the Tempest In fine your floating Bodies and your dying Souls acknowledge but too late the Excess of your Sins Ah Sin Sin these are thy Spoyls and this is the Tempest thou hast raised Sin do'st thou discern the State into which thou hast reduc'd the World the Air the Earth and the Heavens Sin do'st thou at lâ—st acknowledge that thou art the Origin of this Disaster and of all these Calamities O God! Factúmque est diluvium quadragenta diebus super terram mul iplicatae sunt aquae chvave unt arcam in subleme à terra Gen. 7. v. 17. Vehementer enim inundaverunt amâ—ia repleverunt in superfiâ—e terrae porrò arca fercbatur super aquas Gen. 7. v. 18. Et aquae praevaluerunt nimis super terram opertique sunt omnes montes excelsi sub universo Caelo Gen. 7. v. 19. Is it possible that those Fires and Thunders were to punish Sin Is it possible that so many Streams so many Rivers and so many Seas are needfull to Efface his Image Must all the Elements weep forty Dayes and as many Nights And in fine must all Nature be in Mourning or rather in Triumph Since every where she erects Trophies and Mountains of Water to swallow up the most shamefull and most Insolent of all Vices I mean that which a Chast and Christian Mouth dares scarcely Name During this Triumph and Mourning Noah stears his Vessell his Family and Troops upon the Billows This holy man enjoyes a Calm and sayles securely over these Storms and Billows He beholds the Day in the midst of Might And the Tempest which sinks the whole world even as low as Hell lifteth him up even as high as the Heavens Range then O Noah Range upon the waters of the Deluge and expect the day and moments when God shall land thee in the Haven And thou O Ark that carryest the world and its Spoyls behold how the Sea makes a halt at thy approach and keeps back its Suspended waves as it were out of complacency and an orderly respect Holy house of God Fortunate Sanctuary of all mankind float on without oares or sayles float on for it is the Spirit of God and the hand of the justest of men which directs and guides thee In effect scarce were the Forty dayes expired Recordatus autem Dâ—us Noë cunctorumque animantium omnium jumentorum quae crant cum co in area adduxit spiritum super terram imminutae sunt aquae Gen. 8. v. 1. Et clausi sunt sontes abyssi et caâ—aroctae caeli et probibitae sunt pluviae decaelo Gen. 8. v. 2. Reversaeque sunt aquae de terra euâ—â—es redeuntes caeperunt minui Gen 8. v. 3. Requieviâ—que aâ—ca mense scptimo vigesimo septimo die mensis supermontes Armeniae Geâ— 8. v. 4. At vero aquae ibant decrescebant usque ad decimum mensem Decimo enim mense aparuerunt cacumina montium Gen. 8. v. 5. Cumque transissent quadraginta dies aperiens Neë fenestram arca quam fecerat dimisit corvum Gen. 8. v. 6. Qui egredichatur non revertebatur donec siccarentar â—quae super terram Gen. 8. v. 7. â—â—nisit quâ—que columbam post cumâ—â— videyet si sam cessassent aquae super faciem terrae Gen. 8. v. 8. when in an Instant the Heavens dryed up their sources the air appeared most serene and the great drops of Rain were turned into Pearls and dew as it were to give notice of the return of the Sun and Morning which should begin to spread every where a Calm together with the Day In a word God remembred the hower and Moment which he had promised unto Noah to restrain and stop all his Torrents The Earth at the same time impatient of bearing a burthen which was not naturall to her rose up on all sides and in her emotion forc'd the waters to make a thousand Fluxes and refluxes which sufficiently testified the violence of these two Elements At length after seaven Monthes contest and conflict this wandring Iland which carried Noah and his family landed upon the Mountaines of Armenia expecting till the tenth Moneth when the other Hils shew'd their heads and tops Forty dayes after which this most Holy and wise Pilot who had almost spent a whole year in the pleasing obscurites of his prison still victorious and trumphant resolv'd at last to open its window to give flight and passage to a Crow which indeed went forth but never returned For he entertained himself on Stincking Carkases and Carrion finding there his Nourishment and repose There needed then a purer and more faithfull Messenger Noah chose a Dove a mongst all the Birdes that she might discover whether the waters were quite retired But this innocent Creature and amiable Spye finding no â—resting place clean enough returned presently into the Ark and advertis'd Noah that the waters of the Deluge were not wholely decreased Quae euÌ„ non invenisset ubi requiesceret pes ejus reversa est ad eum in arcam aquae enim erant super universam terram extenditque manum apprehensam intulit in arcam Gen. 8. v. 9. Expectatis autem ultra septem diebus aliis ruâ—sum dimisit columbam ex arca Gen. 8. v. 10. At illa venit ad eum ad vesperam portans ramum olivae virentibus foliis in ore suo Intellexit ergo Noë quod cessassent aquae super terram Gen. 8. v. 11. Expectavitque nihilominus septem alios dies emisit columham quae non est reversa ultra ad eum Gen. 8. v. 12. It was this newes that obliged Noah to expect yet the space of Seaven dayes after which he took the Dove
malice of men might never be able to efface it and that on the contrary he might be oblig'd never to make war against them when he should see between him and the World those illustrious caracters of Love and those magnificent Articles of Truce pardon and peace Moreover this sign which appeared in the heavens was but a Bow without Arrowes It was a resplendent Arch and a Circle beset with Diamonds Emeraulds and Rubies It was a chain of Gold Silver and Pearls It was a Scarf interwoven with the most lively splendors and the most sensible lights of the Sun and Day It was the Portraict of Peace which appeared under feign'd and imaginary colours or to expresse in a word all that can be thought and said when we cast our Eyes on this wonder of the Aire It was the Diadem which St. John discover'd on the head of Almighty God and which therefore was to be for all eternity the Crown of a God who can never change but will everlastingly conserve this Garland and Diadem of peace O God of peace goodness and Love Great God who art alwayes loving and canst never be loved enough Ah! let not the World be so bold as to take up Armes to disturb thy peace Lord let all hearts love thee and let them be tributaries to thy affections O God of Heaven all Good all Just all Powerfull powre down no more Storms and Abysses on our heads Yea my God drown us in those amorous billowes that if the World must perish at last let it be in the Torrents and flames of thy holy Love CHAP. XII The unhappy effects of Wine IT is true that Men were never more at Peace the Earth never more pure and Heaven never powred down so many favours as it shed upon the Earth and the Children of Noah Coepitque Noë vir agricola exercere terram plantavit vineam Gen. 9. v. 20. Bibensque vinum inebrâ—atus est nudatus in tabernaculo suo Gen. 9. v. 21. Quod cùm vidisset Cham Pater Chanaan verenda scilicet Patris esse nudata nuntiavit duobus Fratribus suis for as Gen. 9. v. 22. Nevertheless in the mid'st of Pleasure Peace Concord Love Joy and all sorts of Benedictions this poor Man whom all the Waters of the World and of the Deluge could not vanquish was drown'd at last in a Glass of Wine O God! what scandall what shame what disquiet and what disorder in the family of Noah This good old Man fell cold and stiff on the ground and it is not known whether he be dead or alive His Children run presently to help him but as if the fume of the Wine which their Father had taken too inconsiderately had dazel'd and blinded the youngest of them Unnaturall Impudence instead of casting ashes and water on the flaming Coals which consum'd his poor Father At verò Sem Japheth Pallium imposuerunt humeris suis incedentes retrorsum operuerunt verenda Patris sui faciesque eorum aversae erant Patris visilia non viderunt Gen. 9. v. 23. he made a bon fire of Mirth and scorn about his Nakedness and with an unparalleld Impudence discover'd to the Eyes of all his Brethren what Nature hath concealed His Brothers nevertheless were more respectfull and prudent than himself for immediatly Piety cast veyls over their Eyes and Love though Blind found out Artifices to cover an Object which was neither decent nor lawfull to behold Ingenious respect It was in recompence of these chast duties Evigilans autem Noë ex vino cùm didicisset quae fecerat â—i filius suus minor ait Maledictus Chanaan servus servorum erit Fratribus suis Gen. 9. v. 24. Dixitque benedictus Dominus Dous Sem sit Chanaan servâ—s ejâ—s Gen. 9. v. 26. that Noah being returned out of that Abyss into which Wine had precipitated him open'd the Eyes of his Body and Soul and afterwards perceiving the unnaturall Impudence of Cham he darted forth the Thunder of his Malediction against his Son Chanaan beseeching likewise God to bless and fill Sem Japhet and all their Progeny with his Graces It was from their Posterity all the Generations of the World are descended Dilatat Deus Japbet c. Gen. 9. v. 27. and they were the Persons who laid the foundation of Sodome Ninivie Salem and Gomorrha as also of so many other famous Cities from whence afterwards Arts Republicks Policies Governments and all the Empires of the Universe took their Rise CHAP. XIII The Tower of Babel AT that time though Hearts were divided Erat autem terra labii unius sermonum eorundem Gen. 11. v. 1. and all opinions different yet there was but one Mouth but one Interpreter of Souls and one common manner of Speech Cumque proficiscerentur de oriente invenerunt campum in terra Sennaar habitaverunt in eo Gen. 11. v. 2. But as it is very difficult for the Tongue long to bely the Heart So it hapned not long after that the Inhabitants of the Earth feeling the Justice of their own Consciences which call'd upon that of God and threatned them with the comming of another Deluge resolv'd to build a Tower Et dixerunt Venite sactamus nobis Turrem cujus cusmen pertiagat ad Caelum celebremus nomen antequam dividamur in universas terrae Gen. 11. v. 4. and raise the top of it even as high as the Clouds The chief Undertaker of this famous Structure was the Gyant Nembrod Granchild to that Reprobate Cham who discovered his Fathers shame This Architect was of a proud Nature and of a Capricious humour believing that his enterprises and designs were to be executed without the least opposition In effect never was any work undertaken Descendit autem Dominus ut videret civitatem Turrim quam edificabant filii Adam Gen. 11. v. 5. and advanced with more Expedition nor with more Ardor Zeal and Submission But the Grand Designer of the World the Architect of the Universe and the generall Producer of all things who takes delight to confound the Wisdome of the Wise and to overthrow the Plots and Enterprises of the most Powerfull beholding these Fortifications rais'd neer mid-way and being able no longer to endure this Audacity and these presumptuous Attempts resolv'd at last to over turn all these Forts Venite igitur descendamus confundamus ibi linguam eoruÌ„ ut non audiat unusquisque linguam proximi sui Gen. 11. v. 7. Et idcirco vocatum est nomen ejus Babel quia ibi confusum est labium universae terrae inde dispersit eos Dominus super faciem cunctarum regionum Gen. 11. v. 9. and to cast a generall confusion of Tongues amongst the Carpenters and Masons This made a Tower of Babel that is to say of Disorder War and Confusion This stately Building this lofty Cittadell this impregnable Fort was but a Labyrinth of deaf and dumb people who spake
the one before the bad qualities which appeared in the other and so her fraud was more full of mystery than malice Her Artifices then were innocent and her intentions very just and holy when she disguised Jacob to deceive Isaack and frustrate Esau of the blessing he expected Goe then my Son saith she and make choice amongst our flocks of the two fattest Kids you shall find I will so dress them that I will make them serve for your Fathers repast to the end having fed on them he may bless you before his death But what replyed Jacob Mother you know that my Body is not Hairy like my Brothers I am fearfull then lest my Father touch me and believing I intend to mock him lay on me his malediction Can we wish more Respect Candor and Piety in a Son towards his Father Surely this did not agree with the comportments and bad humours of so many Children who daily sell their Fathers and Mothers for some slight interests The World is full of Sons Daughters Kindred and such brutish persons who treat the Authors of their Life as their Servants and Handmaids A dangerous Malediction But doe they well understand that the lightnings and thunderbolts which are formed in the Ayr cause less dangerous spoils than the furious Darts which issue out of the Mouth of an Incensed Father Doe they know that Fathers and Mothers are impowred to thunder out the tempests of their Malediction and that they have as many or more killing shafts than Death to punish the Insolence and presumption of their Children Jacob would never have been so adventurous as to undertake an action which might irritate the goodness of Isaack if Rebecca had not relieved him in his fear and if she had not made appear to him that her Wiles were very just Ad quem mater in me sit ait ista maledictio fili mi tantum audi vocern meam pergens asser quae dixi Gen. 27. v. 13. and her design most Innocent Ah! saith she my Son leave unto me this fear I will preserve thee from this danger thou apprehendest and if any ill chance to happen I wish it may fall on me doe then boldly what I shall say unto thee She presently apparelled him in Esau's Garments Et vestibus Esau valde bonis quos apud se habebat domi induit eum Gen. 27. v 15. Dedâ—que pulmentum panes quos coxerat tradidit Gen. 27. v. 17. Quibus illatis dixit pater mi at ille respondit audio quis es tu fili mi Gen. 27. v. 18. Dixitque Jacob Ego sum primogenitus tuus Esau feci sicut praecepisti mihi surge sede comede de venatione mea ut benedicat mibi anima tua Gen. 27. v. 19. Rarsumque Isaac ad filium suum quomodo inquit tam cito invenire potuisti fili mi qui respondit voluntas Dei suit c. Gen. 27. v. 20. Dixitque Isaac Accede huc ut tangam te fili mi c. Gen. 27. v. 21. Accessit ad patrem palpato eo dixit Isaac vox quidem vox Jacob est sed manus sunt Esau Gen 27. v. 22. Et non cognovit eum quia pilosae manus similitudinem majoris expresserant benedicens ergo illi ait Ecce odor filii mâ—â— sicut odor agri pleni cui benedixit Dominus Gen. 27. v. 27. covered his Neck and Hands with Skins which had some resemblance of his Brothers and gave him such Bread and Meat as she knew would be pleasing to Isaacks tast Jacob presents them unto his Father who hearing his voice asked if he were Esau he answered that he was his Eldest Son and that having exactly performed all his commands he besought him to eat of the Venison he had prepared for him But what said Isaack to him how couldst thou take and provide it in so short a time Jacob answers it is God who hath so dispos'd it and made it as it were fall into my Hands If it be so approach my Son and give me thy Hands that I may touch them and feel whether thou art my Son Esau or not Jacob obeyed and after Isaack had touched him he saith unto him surely this is the voice of Jacob I hear but if I be not deceived these are the Hands and Hair of Esau I feel Notwithstanding this doubt Isaack gave his benediction to Jacob and made good cheer of all he had presented to him Imagin whether Rebecca stood not watching to observe all that passed I represent unto my self that she incourag'd Jacob with Gestures and Signs which made up a good part of this action The time must needs seem long unto her out of the fear she might have lest Esau should come in and disturb the course of Divine providence and the conduct of her prudent designs Make haste then Isaack and doe quickly what God inspires thee thy Bed is the Altar on which God will have Jacob consecrated and it is the Table of a mysterious repast and the Theater of the prudence and dexterities of Love It was then neither Rebecca nor Jacob that guided this enterprise But God who from all eternity had chosen Jacob for his Eldest Son It is a great advantage when those favours which arrive to us are presents from Heaven and an illustrious Prerogative when our fortunes are established by the decrees of God These are adorable decrees and mysterious obscurities dazeling clarities and dark verities which must be penetrated to discover that light which is inveloped under the secrets of the Divinity Isaack is blind Rebeca sees but the shadows of a mysterie which was reveal'd to her Jacob is in doubt whether what he doth will come to pass Esau runs and beats the Bushes whilst an other takes the Prey It is God nevertheless who instructs Rebecca who inspires Isaack and directs Jacob. Behold also how all succeds agreeable to his own desires and those of his Mothers Approach my son saith Isaack Dixit ad eum accede ad me da mihi osculum fili Gen. 27. v. 26. Accessit osculatus est eum Gen. 27. v. 27. Statimque ut sensit vestimentorum illius fragrantiam benedicens illi ait ecce odor filii mei sicut odor agripteni cui benedixit Dominus Gen. 27. v. 27 Det tibi Deus de rore caeli de pinguedine terrae abundantiam frumenti vini Gen. 27. v. 28. Et serviant tibi populi edorent te Tribus esto domiâ—us fratrum tuorum incurventur ante te filii matris tuae qui matedixerit tibi sit ille maledictus qui beâ—â—dixcrit tibi benedictionibus repleatur Gen. 27. v. 29. and bestow a kisse on thy poor father Presently Jacob leaps on his neck embraceth him huggs him and lays his eyes his lipps and mouth on him I know not why the Mother did not cast her self between them both as the knot of so tender and holy an Amity But perchance
and under the veiles of the Divinity Jacob. c. 3. It comes from heaven as the Apostle St. James affirms and there its Origine and Source is to be found Baruch v. 3. as the Prophet Baruch assureth It issues out of hearts and out of the most intimate secrets of our souls Diodorus as the Sun and light from the obscurest nights and it was peradventure for this reason the Egyptians drew the picture of Osiris the Husband of Isis who presided over Wisdome like a Sun Wisdome like the Sun whose rayes were as so many eyes which penetrated the darkest obscurities In like manner also in the most holy Pictures of the Old Testament Wisdome was represented as a good Mother and as a brave Mistresse which kept an Academy and changed men into Planets full of brightness I know not whether this were not the reason Artemidorus lib. 26. c. 36. as Artemidorus believed which heretofore moved Fathers and Mothers to call their children Suns having no cleerer termes to flatter their wisdome and the excellencie of their wits However it be divine Wisdome is a Sun which is alwaies in his high Noons and at the same instant inlightens the evening and morning that is to say the future and past time as well as the present These wayes though oblique goe alwaies straight and soon or late bring us to the Haven The course of Wisdome It was this wise Conducter which lead Abraham in all his Pilgrimages And it is she at present as the Wiseman himself assures us who taketh her Jacob by the hand and diverts him insensibly from the Abyss into which Esau's despair intended to lead him Haec prosugum irae fratris justum deduxit per vias rectas Sap. c. 10. It was this wisdome saith Solomon which freed an Innocent from the rage and fury of a Brother who contrived his death To this effect it casts some streams of light into Rebeccas soul who presently knew the designs which Esan had on Jacob. Afterwards this prudent woman went to find out Isaack and remonstrated to him that it was not time to marry Jacob but that he must needs permit him to take a wife out of the Land of Chanaan Isaack though blind clearly discerned what his wife pretended Vocavit itaque Isaac jacob benedixit cam praecepique ei dicens Genes 28. v. 1. Vade presiciscere in Meseâ—r tamtam Syriae ad domum Bathâ—â—l patras matris tuae accipe tibi indâ— uxorem de siliabus Laâ—â—an evunculitui Gen. 28. v. 2. And then feeling some touches of this wise hand which managed the whole business he commanded Jacobs presence to give him his blessing and to express unto him his trouble to see him depart out of his house before his death But nevertheless since time pressed him for his Mariage it was most convenient to take the way of Mesopotamia to obtain one of Labans daughters for his wife Goe then my dear Child Deus autem omnipoeens benediâ—a tibi c. Gen. 28. v. 3. Et det lib. benedicâ—â—anes Abrahae semini tuo post te c. Gen. 28.5.4 said this good old man goe and let the God of Abraham be thy guide during thy whole voyage For my part I beseech him to augment on thee the benedictions I have most willingly given thee Above all I beg of him to multiply thy off-spring and to put thee in possession of the Country where thou shalt be as a stranger or Pilgrim Farewell then my most dear Son A sensible Separation farewell all my Joy and all the Love of my house which said he kisseth him he embraces him he waters him with his tears Nevertheless Rebecca to whom all moments were longer than Dayes endevoured speedily to draw him thence that she might put him in the Equipage of a Traveller and give him her farwell lest Esan should disturb the departure and the design of this voyage It was indeed a tryall of constancy for this poor Mother when shee must leave this Son but at last shee had him adieu and brought him on his way after shee had spoken to him some few words which issued lesse from her Mouth than from her Heart I wonder how the Father Mother and Son did not die upon this sad Separation But the Wisedom of God who was as the wheel of all these Motions knew how to moderate the excesse of her grief by the hopes of that good which would arise from thence Neverthelesse to speak truth these combats were very rigorous and there needed an Isaack a Jacob and a Rebecca to accomplish this resolution In fine the wise Providence of God expects Jacob at his resting place and intends by the favour of the Night visibly to discover the manner of his conduct and the model of his government Jacob is gon then from Bershabè and travels all alone under the protection of Heaven Igitur egressus Jacob de Bersabee pergebat Hatam Gen. 28. v. 10. Cumque venisset ad quendam locum vellet in es requiescere post solis occubitum tulit de lapidibus qui jacebant supponens capiti suo dormivit in codem Loco Gen. 28. v. 11. and with this confidence that God would never abandon him But what Behold Night already founding the retreat and shuting up all passages to our Pilgrim He beheld the Sun stealing from his Eyes and the Moon giving no light but to discover to him on the Plains of Bethel a bed of Earth and some stones to serve him for a Bolster Poor Jacob What Bed what Bolster what Night and what Inn Without doubt here is the place where long since God appeared unto Abraham and it is this so famous Bethel where he saw the Land of Promise Besides it is in the Night God discloseth his lights The voice of God in silence it is amidst silence wee hear his voice and in solitude he useth to reveal his secrets Repose then Jacob and spend all the Night in security since God hath ben pleased to Assign you this Lodging O happy retreat O pleasing Night O delicious bed O divine Repose Jacob is faln a sleep Viditque in somnis scalam stantem super terram cacumine illius tangens caelum Anâ—â—lâ—s quoque dei asceadentes per eum Gen. 28. v. 12. Et Donanum innio um scalae Gen. 28. v. 13. Cumque vigilasset Jacob de sumno aiâ— v◠è Domiâ—uâ—â—st in â—oco â—sto non est 〈◊〉 alâ—us nist domus Dâ—i po ta caeli but God who always watcheth shewed him a Prodigious Ladder which touched the Earth with one end and the Heavens with the other Angels by turns descended and ascended this Ladder and on the top God himself appeared as it were supported by it But behold indeed a strange Spectacle upon a Theater of Sanctity I am not astonished if after Jacob had taken his rest he awaked at this vision bearing God in his
her considerable by her fruitfulness and by the birth of four Sons Videns autem Dominus quòd despiceret Liam aperuit vulvam ejus Genes 29. v. 31. Quae conceptum genuit silium vocavitque nomen ejus Ruben Gen. 29. v. 31. Rursúmque concepit peperit filium vocavitque nomen ejus Simeon c. Genes 29. v. 23. the first of which was called Ruben the second Simeon the third Levi and the fourth Judas which were the four principall causes of Rachels envying Leah It is the vice of great souls to be touched with envy and the effect of an unworthy melancholy to seek good from anothers mishap It is no wonder then if women for the most part are subject unto these abominable motions but I am astonished at the violence of this passion when it transports men even unto despair Rachel will dye Cernens autem Rachel quâ—d insoecunda essâ—t ci maâ—â—to sua da miht liberos c. Gen. 30. v. 1. Câ—i iâ—aâ—us respondit Jacob Nâ—m pro Deo ego sum c. Gen. 30. v. 3. Ingressâ— ad se viâ—o concepit peperit filium Gen. 30 v. 5. Et idâ—iâ—co apellavit nâ—mâ—n esus Dan. Gen. 30. v. 6. Rursumque Bala concipiens peâ—erit alterum Gen. 30. v. 7. Vocavitque eum Nephthali Gen. 30. v. 8. shee saith if no children be given her What man I beseech you can bestow a favour which God hath reserved to himself was not this then a means to make Jacob dye seeing that his wife asked that which lay not in his power to give her It was requisit neverthelesse that the goodness of God should aleviate the grief of this sad Mother giving unto her handmaid two Sons one of which was called Dan and the other Nepthalim God immediatly after shewed the same favour to the Handmaid of Leah who brought forth Gad and Asser After which Leah her self conceived of Jsachar then of Zebulon and at last of a Daughter called Dina. It was by the means of these generations God began to accomplish the Promise he had made to Abraham Isaack and Jacob And it was out of these first springs issued a thousand and a thousand streams of this blood of Patriarcks which was to overflow the fairest Lands of the Universe Recordatus quoque Dominus Rachelis exatedivit eam aperuit vulvam ejus Gen. 30. v. 22. Quae concepit peperit filium Gen. 30. v. 23. 〈◊〉 vocavit nomen ejus Joseph Gen. 30. v. 24. At that time Jacob saw the time approching during which he had tyed himself to serve his Father-in-Law Laban Rachel neverthelesse was troubled at her barrenness But at length God heard her prayers and made her the Mother of a Son whose birth effaced all the marks of her shame and dishonor This Joseph this miraculous Infant was the delight of his parents the glory of Rachel the love of Jacob the wish and desire of both the support of his family the King of all his brethren the Saviour of his people and the master-peece of the graces and favours of God CHAP. VII The reward Jacob received for his services and his departure out of Mesopotamia WHen Jacob had finished his fourteen years of service he began to long for liberty Nato autem Joseph dixit Jacob socero suc dimitte me ut revertar in patriam ad terram meam Gen. 30. v. 25. and for his own country where he had never lived under the command of a Master and Father-in-Law but under the tuition of a Father and Mother who had always treated him not as a Servant but as their Child Hee intreated then Laban to give way unto his retirement But as interest is the first inciter of all passions Laban immediatly felt his Heart assaulted with all sorts of Motions In fine Ait illi Laban Inveniam gratiam in conspectu tuo c. Gen. 30. v. 27. the hope he had that Jacobs presence would every day increase the blessings and Graces of Heaven upon his family he invites Jacob to remain some small time with him To which Jacob freely accorded well foreseeing the trouble he should have in his journey being burthened with Women and Children too weak and young to resist the incommodities of travell He condescended then to the desire of Laban Dixitque Loban quid tibi daâ—o At ille ait nibil volo sed si feceris quod postulo iterum â—ascam custodiam 〈◊〉 tua Gen. 30. v. 31. Gyraomnes greges tuos separa cunctas ves vaâ—ias sparso velâ—â—â—e quodcumque fâ—râ—â—m maculosum varIumque suerit tam in ovibus quam in capris erit merces mea Gen. 30. v. 32. tollens ergo Jacob virgas populeas virides amygdalin as c. Gen. 30. v. 37. upon condition he might have the government of his flocks and Herds and that he would distribute them in such sort as from thenceforth all the beasts which were found spotted should be his and those which should be of one single colour were to be Labans The agreement is made to the Content and liking of both parties but disunion and Iealousie arose quickly on Labans part seeing his own flocks barren and on the contrary those of Jacob very fruitfull This was as Theodoret believ'd a miraculous artifice of divine Providence which incited Jacob to place white and green wands before the Eyes of his flocks when they were in copulation which caused various impressions and effects conformable to the desires of Jacob Posuitque eas in canalibus ubi essundebatur aequa ut cum venissent greges ad bibendâ—m ante oculos haberent virgas in aspectu earum coreiperent Gen. 30. v. 38. Arist lib. 3. de Hist anim Varro in Solino and agreeable to the picture which an Angel had represented to him I conceive neverthelesse absolutely speaking that such productions are not above the power of Nature It is the opinion of all Philosophers and amongst others of Aristotle who affirms that in Antandria there are two great Rivers in one of which the beasts which drink of it grow white and in the other become black In like manner the River Seamander breeds golden colours And in the red Sea there is a fountain as Varro observes which changeth every thing into Carnation It is then no impossible thing for the imagination to produce like effects and to form in Bodyes what the Sun doth in the clouds and Painters in their pictures These are draughts of the Soul which in the strict Union shee hath with the Body is the source of its Actions and Motions Portraicts of the Soul so that she labors therein as a Workman doth upon his Matter and a Designer upon the Platform which he contrived And truly if a Carver can shape upon Marble and Brass the intelligible form and the Idea which is in his Fancy and Reason What disorder can there be if the Sensitive Soul the Fancy of Animals
whose colours are in the mysterious Ordinances of time and Eternity Such was Josephs vision But Jacob knowing on the one side that this Revelation was but a Copy of the Designs God had on him And on the other side seeing that this was but a ground of scandall hatred and envy to his Brethren he resolved to sever them for a time to the end by this separation in their absence he might smother all these Fires which were inkindled by the Goodness of the one and the Malice of the rest For this purpose Jacob had no other expedient than to retain Joseph in his House Pate and to send all his Brethren into the Country Imagining besides that by separating Bodies he might reunite their Minds and alter their passions But this was only to sever a Dove from Vultures and Sheep from Wolves it only whets their naturall rage and mortall Antipathy when they are with-held from their prey and when they sent it a far off I know that the Fields are innocent But they cease not for all this to be retreits for Criminals The solitariness of Woods and Meadows is the Element of Meekness and Peace but we must bring thither tame Hearts and quiet Souls In fine it is a very sweet and pleasing vocation to guide Sheep and Lambs upon Hils and Dales But if Lions be their conductors they are so far from being changed as on the contrary they will find every moment new baits and allurements to inflame their cruelty We must not hope then that time place Cumque fratres illiuâ— in pascendis gregibus Patris morarentur in Sichem Gen. 37. v. 32. Dixit ad cum Israel fratres tui pascunt Oves in Sichem veni mittam te ad eos Gen. 37. v. 15. and employment can alter these Tygers which Jacob sends into the plains of Sichem to guide his Flocks Nevertheless after some delay conceiving that their humours were sweetned and that the divertisements of a Country Life had made them forget what passed in his House Praesto sum ait ei vade vide si cuncti prospera sint c. Gen. 37. v. 14. he resolved to send his Joseph to them who had no sooner taken notice of his Fathers desire but at the very instant he began his journey This amiable Dove and this Lamb went passionatly cralling upon Vultures and Wolves when a passenger met him who told him that his Brethren were in Dothaim Invenitque eum vir â—rantem in agro interrogavit quid quareret Gen. 37. v. 15. At ille respondit fratres meos quaero Gen. 37. v. 16. Dixitque ei vir exaudivi eos Aicentes eamus in Dothaim Gen. 37. v. 17. Ah poor Child whether goest thou thus abandoned and all alone straying in the Desarts without Father Friends and defence Joseph what seekest thou I seek saith he my Brethren Thy Brothers deceive not thy self why doest thou seek them Doest thou not know the hatred they bear to thee and the tragick design they have upon thy life My God! how secure is Innocence how calm is Vertue and generally how happy are Men when they follow the impulses of God Assured Innocence The Spirit of the World is an unquiet turbulent fearfull dissembling mutable fantastick and outragious Devill But that of Heaven is an Angel of Peace alwaies equall without emotion without terrors without inconstancy without Capriciousness and free from all Jealousy as also from all those shadows which make a tenebrous Chaos of the purest Lights and place Night in the midst of Day It is no wonder then if Joseph were secure in the midst of dangers Perrexit eâ—go Joseph post fratres suos invenit eos in Dothaim Gen. 37. v. 17. for God who possessed his Soul freed him from those panique terrors and those unquiet fears which assassinate the wicked it sufficed him to obey his Father and provided he meet with his Brethren his mind is satisfied Mean while these impious Spirits Qui cum vidissent eum procul c. Gen. 37. v. 18. which extend their vengeance even to rage perceived him a far off but as if the shadows of their own crimes had cast veyls over their Eyes or stifled in their Hearts all sense of Nature they did not acknowledge him for their Brother or at least they would not call him by this so amiable so sweet and so powerfull a name Et mutuò loquebantur ecce somniator venit Gen. 37. v. 19. Venite occidamus eü mittamus in Cysternam veterem dicemusque fera pessima devoravit eum Gen. 37. v. 20. Audiens autem haec Ruben nitebâ—tur liberare eum c. Gen. 37. v. 21. Non interficiatis animam ejus nec effundatis sanguinem c. Gen. 37. v. 22. Hoc autem dicebat volens eripere eum de manibus corum c. Gen. 37. v. 22. Confestim igitur ut pervenit ad fratres suos nudaverunt eum tunica talari polymita Gen. 37. v. 23. Et sedentes ut comederent panem viderunt Ismaclitas viato es venire de Galaad c. Gen. 37. v. 25. Dixit ergo Judas fratribus suas Quid nobis prodest si occiderimus fraâ—rem nostrâ—ü celaverâ—â—â—â—s sanguinem ipsius Gen. 37. v. 26. Behold this dreamer say they who comes unto us and they looking upon one another before he approached any nearer they resolved to take away his Life and to cast him into a Well which was near at Hand to the end they might say unto Jacob that a cruell and ravenous Beast had devoured Joseph Afterwards this bloudy design would have been accomplished if Ruben who was their Elder Brother had not opposed it Remonstrating to them that at least it were much better to take him aside and bury him alive in some Pit than to kill him and that by this means their Hands would not be polluted with his Bloud the stains whereof are never to be effaced This was a pretence and an occasion the more easily to free and restore him unto his Father In effect Joseph having accosted them Ruben cast himself on his Neck But the rest immediatly took off his Garment and then put him into an old Pit where there was no Water Mean while they all sate round about the place in which they had inclosed this Lamb. At the same time behold some Merchants passing by who were going into Egypt Whereupon Judas who feared lest hunger thirst nakedness cold and the horrours of a Well might stifle Joseph took occasion to conjure his Brethren to sell him rather unto the Ismaelites than to render themselves culpable of his death and become the Authors of a crime which useth to raise storms of Bloud These Remonstrances were as so many lightnings which dissipated this Cloud and the Thunder-bolts which these cruell Brethren Darted against their Prisoner did not ruin him but for a time Joseph must be taken out of the Well to be exposed for sale unto
duodecim inquiunt fratres sumus servo tuo c. Gen. 42. v. 13. who presently knowing them began to treat them as strangers saying to them they were Spies and that their whole design was to Inform themselves concerning the weakest parts of the Country God knows whether they were astonished hearing this discourse but nothing availed them to say that they all were Ten brothers and the Children of Jacob and that for the rest they sought nothing but peace and the honour to live and die in the quality of his most humble servants No No said Joseph you are deceivers and besides your coming down into this Country was to no other purpose then to Spy out those places and parts by which Egypt might be the more easily assaulted and surprised To this they could not answer the second time but that they were twelve Brothers his servants Children of the same Father who retained but one with him and that the other dyed three and Twenty years before Did I not say well Hoe est ait quod lacutus sum exploratores estis Gen. 42. v. 13 Jam nunc experimentum vestri capiam per salutem Pharaonis non egrediemini hinc donec veniat frater vester minimus Gen. 42. v. 16. Vos autem eritis in vinculis donec probentura quae dixistis Gen. 42. v. 16. replyed Joseph that you were all Spies I shall have immediatly certain proofs thereof for I swear by the life of Phâ—ro that you shall not depart hence till the arrivall of the youngest of your Brethren Send then speedily some one of you to bring him Mean while you shal be bound and Fettered untill I shall have some assurance touching what you have said unto me Behold them with Irons on their feet Chains on their hands officers leading them to prison This is the place where the justice of God hath long since expected them there shall they see the Ghoast of his innecent body pursuing Them then shall they hear the Ecche of that voyce which called them in the Feilds and cryed out to them from the bottom of the pit Alas Tradidit ergo illos custodiae tribus diebus Gen. 42. v. 17. Where are my Brethren and how have they used me At least they will have the Leasure for the Space of three dayes to recall into their minds the dreadfull design they heretofore had to kill their own Brother They will find the Image of the pit in the obscurity of a Dungeon In fine they can expect nothing but death or at least a perpetuall Captivity when they shall remember they sould their own blood The third day Neverthelesse Joseph Commanded their release out of prison Die autem tertio eductis de carcere ait sacite quae dixi vinetis Deum enim timeo Gen. 42. v. 18. Frater vester ligetur unus in carcere c. Gen. 42. v. 19. Et fratrem vestrum minimum ad me adducite Gen. 42. v. 20. and promised to grant them their lives if they would perform what he had said unto them Yes said he I swear by the great God whom I dread that you shall not die if you obey me and if you shew a desire to love the peace which I seek It is sufficient then that one of you be kept in prison the rest may carry into their Country what they have bought upon condition that they will speedily bring hither the youngest of all who remains behind as you have said At this demand these poor wretches sighed bitterly and then looking upon one another they began to say with a lamentable voice In truth all these misfortuns have justly befallen us Et locuti sunt ad invicem merito haec patemur quiae peccavimus in fratrem nostrum c. Gen. 42. v. 21. God is just and doubtlesse it is the blood of Joseph which riseth up against us and earnestly cals upon the rigours of his adorable vengeance Wee must then acknowledge our selves too insensible and too unnaturall towards him his teares his sighes and the Innocence of his age ought to have mollified us if wee had not had pittilesse hearts and Souls harder then Marble Ah God what have wee done From whence at one time arrive to us so many Miseries During this discourse Joseph seemed not to hear them Nesciebant autem quod intelligeret Joseph ex eo quid per interpretem loqueretur ad eos Gen. 42. v. 23. Avertitque se parumper flevit Gen. 42. v. 24. For he onely spake to them by the mouth of an Interpreter But his eyes had much adoe to dissemble the resentments of his heart He was even constrained to turn aside his head to shed some tears which without doubt were ready to betray him But God who would have him passe for the Judge of his brethren did not permit that clemency should induce him to doe any thing unworthy of the office he exercised And truly when Judges are seated on their Throns they ought to know neither Parents nor Friends It is for this respect Justice ought to wear a vail over her Eyes least nature and interests of Blood and affection should dazle her This Canopy which is spread over her bed is of Skie-colour and sodered with Stars by reason shee took her birth in the Heavens and to the end shee should act nothing but by the favour of these most pure lights Joseph then must execute what he had begun if God hath ordained him to be the Judge of his Brethren and if they be culpable he ought not to consider them as Brethren but as criminals This he doth Tollensque Simeon bigans illis praesentibus Gen. 42. v. 23. and without making himself known but in quality of the Vice-King of Egipt he stayd Simeon and Manacled his hands in the prefence of the rest Afterwards as they were ready to depart Jussit ministris ut implerent corum saccos tritico reponerent pecunias singulorum insaceulis suis datis supra cibrariis in viâ—n Gen. 42. v. 25. he secretly commanded his servants speedily to fill all their sacks with Corne and in the Mouth of them to leave the Money they had brought and also what they might need for the expence of their journey This was done without their heeding it For their minds as well as their eyes were busied on Simeon to whom from time to time they adress'd some sighs in testimony of the regret they had to leave him alone in prison and for an hostage At last they departed and having layed the Corn they had bought upon Asses At illi portantes frumenta in asinis suis prosecti sunt Gen. 42. v. 26. Apertoque unus sacco ut daret jumento pabulum in diversorio contemplatus pecumam in ore sacculi Gen. 42. v. 27. Dixic fratribus suis Reddita est mibi picunia en habetur in sacco Gen. 42. v 28. Et obstupifacts turbatique mutuò dixerunt c. Gen. 42. v.
vain Idols which men use to adore Nevertheless Videns autem Pharno quod cessasset plavia grando tonitrua auxit peccatum Exod. 9. v. 34. Nec misit filios Israel ficut praeceperat Dominus per manum Moisis Exod. 9. v. 35. albeit Heaven is always armed with Fires Flames Thunders Lightnings and Thunderbolts against Egypt and Pharaoh yet all these Tempests did onely shake this Rock but could not overthrow it for scarce did the calm appear but presently this hardned Spirit reassumed his former designs and as if nothing had passed he continued to retain the people to whom God nevertheless was willing to give Liberty CHAP. XIV The Grasshoppers of Egypt BEhold saith Rupertus Rubertus hic what are the Armies of the God of Pharaoh Frogs in the Van Flyes in the Main-body and Grasshoppers in the Rere Fourth Plague but to speak truth all those prodigious Squadrons would have been very weak if he that formed them with his own hand had not marched in the head of all these Regiments Now it was with a Southern hot and stifling wind Ego indâ—cam craâ—l custam in Fines 〈◊〉 qâ—ae operiat supâ— crem terrae Exod. â— v. 4. these last battalions were raised composed of Grasshoppers in so great number that Egypt was wholly covered and wasted by them I know that intire Provinces and Kingdomes have been infected by such creatures and if Pliny speaks truth some of them have been seen in the Indies three foot long and in so great abundance that the Sun was shadowed by them Italy and Africa also have been very often tormented by them and the Cyreneans had a Law which obliged them to warr thrice every year against Grasshoppers first breaking their Egs then stifling them when they were disclosed and in fine persuing them on all sides when they were hatched For the same reason there was an Ordinance in the I le of Lemnos by which every inhabitant was enjoyned to bring every year a certain Number of them which he was to kill with his own hands Deorum ira pestis haec esse intelligitur Pâ—inius However it were this Authour said true when he calls this sort of Animals a Plague and scourge of Heaven for this was a Mortall wound which Pharaoh felt no less rigorous than death it self And when he saw himself on all sides assayled by them Corrodat enim omnia ligna quae germinant in agris Exod. 10. v. 5. and that they did gnaw even into the substance of Trees he conjured Aaron and Moses to ask in his behalf a deliverance from this mischief 〈…〉 〈…〉 Aaron 〈…〉 precavi in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈…〉 Exod 10. v. 16. Seit nunc dimiâ—te peccatum 〈…〉 〈◊〉 Domilium 〈…〉 ut 〈…〉 moâ—tem 〈◊〉 Exod. 10. v. 17. Cruel perfid ousness which he stiled death confessing afterwardes that he acknowledged his fault and most humbly demanded pardon for it Alas how often doe we promise to forsake our Errours and never more to provoke the wrath of God how often doe we say during Sickness Health will afford Remedy to our sins we weep upon our beds we beat our breasts we ask pardon we call the Saints of Paradise to our aid O strange God who sees the heart farr from a perfect resentment and a generous repentance seemes nevertheless to be moved at the noise of these sighes and tears and of all these disimulations His goodnesse cannot be wearied and his clemency enforceth him to hear and grant at last the petitions of a Just man who prayes for some Reprobate Behold Moses imploring God for Pharaoh Egressusque Moises de conspectu Pharaonis oravit Dominum Exod. 10. v. 18. Quo flare fecit ventum ab occidente vehementissimum areptam locustam projecit in mare rubrum Exod. 10. v. 19. he knows that the Graces his divine Majesty shall impart unto this impious person will fall uneffectually into his heart like dewes upon some Rock and that quickly after this Apostate will return unto his former wayes It imports not Moses no sooner raised his Arm and stretched out his Rod over Egypt but instantly a cold moist and Western wind hapned to blow with so much violence that it carried away all the Grasshoppers into the Sea CHAP. XV. The Darkness of Egypt MY God! Magna sunt enim judicia tua Domine menarrabilia verba tua c. Sap. 17. v. 1. said Solomon I confesse that the depth of thy judgements is incomprehensible and that the height of thy thoughts is rather understood by silence than discourse It is yet the stone of scandal and the most fatal Rock on which Faith is very often seen to suffer a dreadful shipwrack and reason remains yet insensible though it beholds on every side a thousand prodigies and a thousand miraculous effects which might serve as a Watch-Tower to guide it into a secure Haven Nothing seems to be beyond the reach of an incredulous minde and Egypt at present can hardly believe what it cannot conceive This blinde Nation would willingly attribute unto Chance or at least unto Nature the punishments which are laid on them by the Great God of Heaven But it is no wonder to see a people following the example of their King I am more astonished at this obstinate Prince who notwithstanding all these still bleeding wounds and by which he saw all his Subjects slain could perswade himself That no force was able to constrain him to release these poor people which he detained in a most unjust Captivity The Thunders and Lightnings of Heaven had but dazling Clarities Extenditque Moises manum in caelum factaesunt tenebrae horribiles in universa terra Aegypti tribus diebus Exod. 10. v. 22. Nemo vidit fratrem suum nec movit se de loco in quo crat Exod. 10. v. 23. Vbicumque autem babitabant filii Israel lax erat Exod. 10. v. 23. Digni quidem illi carere luce pati carcerem tenebrarum qui inelusos custodrebant filios suos c. Sap. 18. v. 4. Nam etsi nihil illos ex monstris perturbabat transitu animalium serpentium sibilatione commoti tremebundi peribant c. Sap. 17. v. 9. which but slightly struck the eyes of his minde It was requisite then to bury him alive in darkness and make him a Sepulchre of one night which lasted the space of three days God commanded Moses to lift up his hand towards Heaven and presently all Egypt was covered with such a thick and dreadful darkness that it was even palpable and this detestable Kingdom seemed to become a prison full of blinde and paralitick men who could neither see one another nor move from the place in which they had been surprised They were all Captives under the rigors of a holy Justice which casting these Criminals under shades furnished the Hebrews with lights which were to conduct them unto Liberty The Houses of Egypt were obscured with darkness
Darts of his Teeth and Tongue as so many little Javelins afterwards he cuts and tears the Skin and then if a man doth not give way to him and cast himself at his feet he kills and eats even to the bones We must be then foolish even unto madness to oppose God True Wisdom consists in rendring our selves so plain unto his commands that we must never so much as provoke his mildest Vengeances otherwise we shall see our selves at last assaulted by all sorts of enemies The Air the Earth the Sea Angels Men and Beasts will arm themselves to punish so unworthy a Rebellion A fair subject of Meditation Alas My dear Reader whatever thou be'st fix then a while thine eyes and minde upon this Scene and do not expect till God afflict thee with the last of his Plagues If thou art be-nighted and under the obscurities of a dismal blindness pass not even to those mortal darknesses where the Stars are extinguished and where after the death of the first-born we our selves must die and be buried under the Billows of an Ocean where no calm can ever be and where we remain in a flux and reflux of such miseries as will never end CHAP. XVII The Paschal Lamb and the departure of the Children of Israel out of Egypt IT was about the beginning of the night A memorable Feast in the midst whereof there hapned a general massacre of the first-born of Egypt that the Hebrews made that famous Feast whereof the bloody remnants and unfortunate spoils served to mark on the side of their doors and on their thresholds the Safeguard of their whole Nation It was on the fourteenth day of the Moneth which they called Nisan when the Moon was directly opposit to the Sun and equally shared with him the Empire which they possess in the Heavens that they celebrated this admirable Sacrifice which was one of the most express and lively Figures of that which Jesus Christ presented unto his Father upon the Tree of the Cross Now to know what order was observed therein Loquimini ad universum coetum siliorum Israel dicite eis Decima die mensis hujus tollat unusquisque agnum per familias domos suas Exod. 12. v. 3. Erit autem agnus absque macula masculus annicutus Exod. 12. v. 5. Et sument de sanguine ejus ac poâ—â—nt super utrum que postem c. Exod. 12. v. 7. Non comedetis ex eo crudum quid nec coctum agnum sed tantum assum igni c. Exod. 12. v. 9. Si quid residuum fuerit igne comburetis Exod. 12. v. 10. and what Ceremonies were used First God had commanded Moses to publish unto all his people That on the tenth day of the Moon of the first Moneth every Family should have a Lamb in his house and that four days after it was to be Sacrificed without breaking any part of his bones Secondly It was to be a Male and not a Female Thirdly It was to be but a year old Fourthly It was to be without blemish or defect Afterwards the Thresholds of the Doors and Houses where this Feast had been kept were to be dyed with his blood It was also ordained That this Lamb should be eaten neither Boiled nor Raw but onely Rosted with Unlevened Bread and with Wilde Lettice in such sort as neither Feet Entrails nor Head must remain at least if any were left it was to be thrown into the fire Concerning the Ceremony which they obliged to observe at this Feast Renes vestros accingetis calceamentu habebitis in pedibus tenentes baculos in manibus comedetis festinanter Exod. 12. v. 11. Erit autem sanguis vobis in signum in aedibus in quibus eritis videbo sanguinem transibo vos c. Exod. 12. v. 13. They all ought to be in a posture of taking a journey at their rising from the Table and like Travellers to have their Reins girt shooes on their Feet and Staves in their Hands The Law also enjoyned this repast to be made in haste and that every one should be careful to keep the blood of this Lamb to mark the place where he lived to the end when God should pass about midnight before their doors to destroy all the first-born of Egypt seeing this blood he might pass further and be touched with Compassion for the Afflictions of his people But to what purpose were these marks and this blood upon the doors What! Can there be any thing hidden from him who beholds in his Word and in himself all that is shall be and hath ever been This was then but a Sign Representions of the Lamb. and an Image by which the Eternal Father was pleased to manifest That whosoever should be marked with the precious blood of this Lamb ought not to apprehend any danger And truly if the blood of Bulls and Goats and if the Ashes of a Red Heifer which were cast upon those who had contracted some uncleanness had the power to absolve offenders at least before the eyes of men and if they put them in a condition to partake of the common Sacrifices with others with how much stronger reason ought the Blood of Jesus Christ who is the same Innocence and hath been sacrificed for sinners upon the Altar of Mount Calvary after he had given his Body for food and his Blood for drink to be more efficacious for cleansing our souls from all sorts of impurities It is for this he hath acquired the title of the Mediator of the New Testament and in like maner where the Old Law was confirmed by Ceremonies of Blood it was onely to prefigure what was to be done in the Mysteries of the New Mysteries hidden under the Paschal Lamb. We must then onely understand by the Banquet and Sacrifice of the Paschal Lamb the Sacred Mystery of the Passion and the Adorable Sacrament of the most Holy Eucharist in which the Lamb was masculine and yong that is to say Constant and generous though tender and delicate He was without spot or stain being the Ransom for all sinners and his Bones were not broken to testifie his strength and courage which were not overcome by the rigor of torments He was rosted in the Ardors of his love and such onely have eaten him boiled in cold water who out of meer curiosity without the flames of Charity and the lights of Faith or without Humility have eaten him and measured his Infinite Grandeurs by the lownesses of their mindes Moreover Septem diebus azymae comedetis in die primo non erit sermentuâ—â— in domibus vestris Exod. 12. v. 15. This Lamb ought to be eaten with Azim Bread without any mixture of Leaven Behold an entry into the Feast of the Supper where he ought to be taken with a pure Conscience and a mouth which hath been purified by bitter Lettices that is to say With dolourous tears and waters distilled by the
honour of him who is our Redeemer Lucifer is fallen from his Throne The Dragon is swallowed up in the billows of the Sea and all these Traytors who intended to drown us are overwhelmed with the waves and where they thought to gather Laurels and Palms they found nothing but an harvest over-spread with Cypres and a vast Sepulcher in the bottom of the Sea where they proposed to themselves toerect a Theater of honour and a field of Triumph This Crosse Fortune some will tell me is a strange turn of Fortune but to speak more Christianly this is an admirable stroak of the Providence and Justice of God which frustrates all the projects of the world and of the wicked to raise Theaters unto vertue and to place Crowns upon the heads of the vertuous when they think themselves in a condition to be trampled on by their enemies Not that but sometimes and very often Wormwood and Gall are mingled with the most pleasing waters of their consolations and with graces which he is ready to impart unto them And not to goe farther to seek examples of this verity Ambulaveruntque tribus dichus per solitudinem non inveniebant aquam Exod. 15. v. 22. Et venerunt in Mara nec poterunt bibere aquas de Mara eo quod essent amarae unde congruum loco nomen imposuit vocans illum Mara id est amaritudinem Exod. 15. v. 23. let us stay a while in this desart where the Israelites now are All their enemies are drowned in the Sea and they themselves have marched for the space of three dayes in this desolate place finding nothing but bitter waters and if nothing else happen they will all dye with hunger and thirst In vain is it for them to murmur if Moses worked not here a Miracle I fear it must appear a truth that the Egyptians are dead in the Sea and that the Israelites will almost perish neer a Sea or in a place which hath nothing but Salt and bitter Waters from which it takes its denomination Alas where then is Moses where is Mary where is this Star of the Sea At ille clamavit ad Dominum qui ostendit ei lignum Quod cum misisset in aquas in dulcedinem versae sunt Exod. 15. v. 25. whose sole name is able to cause a thousand Fountains and Rivers to spring in the midst of Desarts Courage then behold thy happy Conductor to whom God hath shown a certain Wood of life and sweetness which he had scarce put into the water but it presently became delicious Behold a pleasing Metamorphosis But we must not wonder at it since this Wood is no other than the Image of him who can change all the torrents bitternesses of this life into an Ocean of consolation It is the Cross which hath been steep'd in the waters of Mara O Cross O Mara what sweet rigours and pleasing bitternesses doe all those find Venerunt autem in Elim filii Israel ubi erant duodecim sontes aquarum septuaginta palmae castrametatisunt juxta aquas Exo. 15. v. 27. who make use of thee to sweeten their sharpest afflictions Likewise after the Israelites had steeped this wood in the waters of Mara and sweetned the bitter waters of this Desart they went directly to the Land of Elim which was watered with many delightfull Fountains and where under the shades of Palm-trees they might sweetly and joyfully repeat their Canticle of Peace and Victory CHAP. XX. The Manna of the Desart IT was not without reason God from the beginning of the world took the name of Elohim Beneficent Nature of God that is to say a benefactor and obliger For his Nature is so propense to doe good as there is no moment in our lives which is not marked with some of his favours For this end he hath rais'd the Heavens the Air and the Stars over our heads as so many treasuries in which he hath enclosed the light and vitall influences without which the world would be but a confus'd Mass and a dreadfull Tomb. He hath also peopled the elements and given to every one what was convenient and necessary for their infirmities He himself is a great Ocean of Essences and an Abyss of goodness from whence spring a thousand torrents of graces which from Heaven water the Earth in so great abundance and with so generall an effusion that there is no person who may not be satiated thereby It seems also that he was as it were obliged thereunto and that if by some secret of his wise Providence he chance to withdraw his arm and hand which fills us with all sorts of benedictions we may have some cause to complain and murmur against him Et murmuravit omnis congregatio filiorum Israel contra Moysen Aaron in solitudine Exod. 16. v. 2. Dixeruntque filii Israel ad eos utinam mortui essemus per manum Domini in terra Aegypti quando sedebamus super ollas carnium comedebamus panem in saturitate cur eduxisti nos in desertum istud ut occideretis omnem multitadinâ—m fame Exod. 16. v. 3. Behold a while this People I beseech you whom a month since he drew out of Egypt and freed from the Tyranny of Pharaoh Behold these good people for whom he hath sweetned the bitterness of Mara who were scarce gone out of the little Paradise of Elim but they presently murmur'd because their Meal began to fail and as if Moses had been the cause of it they said unto him that they very much wondred at his causing them to depart out of Egypt and that it had been better for them to have there dyed amongst their flesh pots and Caldrons where they had alwayes something to eat than to follow him in a desart where they were even ready to perish with hunger Ah wicked and ungratefull men are you not asham'd to prefer your bellies before God and to forget all the benefits you received in your last necessities Neverthelesse this is what all these Apostates and misbelievers did who having remained some time under the Palm-Trees of Elim and drunk the waters of these sweet fountains being somewhat farther advanc'd in the desart and having met with some wants and difficulties they presently repented themselves for having left the flesh-pots and dung-hils of Egypt to enter a wilderness into which notwithstanding God had conducted and freed them from off the bondage and tyrannie of sin These gluttons are afraid of abstinence the Lent hath affrighted them the just and holy Laws of God and his Church were insupportable to them They choose rather to die with Flesh and Blood upon a dung-hill of ordures and horrours and neer a pile inkindled by the hand of the most infamous passions and where there is some sense of Egypt some flame of Babylon Lib. 1. c. 7 in the spoiles of envy some Spirit of Babel and some remnant of Cain than in a place consecrated to vertue
which would fall in the new Law and should continue even unto the last consummation of the world and of the Church It was an Antepast of the Body of Jesus Christ hidden under this adorable bread whose species hath a particular resemblance with the Manna and a more excellent sweetness than that of this bread of the desart It must not also be taken untill we have abandoned the carnal alurements of Egypt and the deceiptfull delights of the world and sin This is the food presented by the hand of Magnificence and received by those of faith Whence it comes that covetous and unbelieving people find there nothing but wormes and putrefaction It is also a fruit and there is no need either of cultivating the Earth or sowing any graines or seedes to gather it But without humane labour it comes out of the bosome of God its Father and out of the Bowels of the Virgin and amidst the influences and dewes of the holy Ghost on a Table where souls meet with their most pleasing repast It is little and inclosed under small appearances of bread The people are astonished at it they ask in this great astonishment what it is and how that could be done which was told them and what they were to believe concerning it Every one might take it and how little soever it appeared it was given in such a proportion that men received is as great and immense as it is in Heaven It will cease on the Great day of Sabbath and repose after the course of this life and when we shall see it with our own Eyes without veil or figure in the Land of promise There shall we drink large draughts of it in the torrents of delight and in stead of the dew of Manna we shall be satiated in an Ocean of Nectar and Ambrosia that is without boundes measure limit or bottome Ah! I think the time long till we be out of Egypt and free from these chaines which linck us to so shamefull services and so unworthy of a Soul ransomed by the blood and life of a God Alas When will this so much desired moment come When shall we hear the Canticles of victory and when shall we goe amongst the daughtes of Sion to our Country crying out with a loud voice that Pharaoh is swallowed up under the Abysses and that all those troops of Enemies which pursue us have suffered a dismal shipwrack not onely under the waves of the Red Sea but under the lakes of fire Sulphur blood and Malediction Mean while let us content our selves with the real Manna whereof our forefathers have had but the Figure Let us goe unto the Sanctuary where it is deposited for us and our generations Let us eat this bread of Angels and let us drink of this wine which germinats virgins Let us make use of it according to the Lawes which are prescrib'd us Let us goe then early in the morning that is to say before the noise and tumult of this great World hath strucken our eares with so many importune unprofitable extravagant and dangerous discourses before our Eyes have been surprised by the sight of these Objects of Vanity Ambition Envy or of some other vice which is yet more infamous and finally before the great day be arrived in which we are commonly so dazled by some false splendors as we can hardly discern the truth Above all since this bread of Heaven hath all sorts of Savours let us not mix with it any earthly food or any of all those meates which the Flesh the World and Hell use to season for this were to mingle remedies with poison and convert a Feast of life into a repast of death and it had been much better for them to have remained amongst the Flesh-pots and onyons of Egypt or at least to have dyed of famine in some desart than to have immolated themselves at the foot of an Altar and Sanctuary as a victime of terror perfidiousness and Execration CHAP. XXI The Fountain of Horeb. IT is our condition here In hoc positi sumus Thes 1.3 saith the Apostle to be tempted on all sides and it is as natural to man to live in the midst of Combats and assaults as unto Fishes to Swim in the water and Birds to fly in the Air. It is our profession our Imployment and one of our most usual exercises to be in this conflict and we must necessarily always attacque or defend And often to repulse an assault were to be a Conquerour in this kind of war and though sometimes we be almost vanquished yet we may have the glory of triumphing provided we hold out to the last the reason of this is most evident for as much as the assailer being afterwards wholy constrained to make a dishonorable retreat he that hath been so couragious as strongly to ward all his blowes and to smile at his threats remains like a fortress and strong hold which after a long siedge sees at last the rout of those who had assaulted it and where if the Gates out-works Bulwarks and walls had mouths they would be heard to cry out victory and all these breaches would serve onely to say that even the defences have overcome Now that which causeth many to yeeld at the first approaches is the little courage they have to resist or an over-great confidence in their own forces imagining that they can doe what is impossible for them and that it is easy long to preserve a place whereof God is not the Govenour There are also some who are affrighted at the first difficulty and presently despair as if God were not gratious enough to help them and powerfull enough to furnish them with what they need His magnificent hand hath been pleased to doe us all the good we have and can expect Nevertheless we doe like the Hebrews who in the midst of the raines and dewes of Manna complain and murmur for want of one drop of water What ingratitude and what cruelty What would a man say who after he hath been delivered out of the midst of Slaves and Gallies or rather out of some dark prison where he could expect nothing but death and after he hath been conducted into Palaces and royall Courts educated and treated as a King amidst all the honours and delights which could be invented should be so brutish as to complain if once it should happen that some small attendance were not soon enough given him Would not the Prince and Redeemer of this infamous wretch have just cause to use him according to his desert and to change all his favours and bounties into punishments to chastice so horrid an ingratitude God notwithstanding after all the good entertainments he had bestowed on the people of Israel Igitur profecta omnie multitudo filiorum Israel de deserto Sin per mansiones suas ubi non erat aqua ad bibendum populo Exod. 17. v. 1. Et murmuravit contra Moisen dicens cur fecisti nos exire de
those limits which Moses had prescribed them no person presuming to touch the Mountain according to the Prohibition made to that end Behold a dreadfull nose of Trumpets accompanied with Thunder and Lightning which began to send forth Claps upon Claps issuing forth of a thick Cloud wherewith the Mountain was covered and which served for a Pavilion unto his Sanctuary upon which God intended to shew his Majesty and establish his Laws These poor people had never seen so dreadfull a storm never such a flaming Pile never so stately a Theatre never so pompous a Throne and never so magnificent resplendent and terrible a Tribunall One would have sworn that the Element of fire had fallen on Mount Sina and that all the Infernall parts or rather all the heavens had darted forth their Flames and Thunderbolts upon this Mountain out of which there did rise so horrid a smoak that it reached even to the Stars and albeit the Sun was in the beginning of his course yet he seems to make a stand or at least his light became obscured to produce on Sina a day of flames and a night of horrour and darkness where in fine all the people being assembled and with a respect worthy of the place and of him who had descended to speak unto Moses and to dictate unto him all that was to be done the Antient Law was published on the same day that the news of it was divulged and almost with the same Circumstances which rendred the Feast more illustrous and the action more full of affrightment and veneration CHAP. XXV The Promulgation of the Law upon Mount Sina IF we should ask of a man what he is and. whether in truth he be a man it were to deride him Nevertheless as there are three sorts of Men within us whereof one hath the life of a Plant the second the life of a Beast and the last a life resembling that of Angels if any one be found having but the two first he would be rather a beast and an herb than a man and what ever may be said of him he would have but the name or at most some exteriour form of a man which may be counterfeited with plaister or morter To be truly a man he must have qualities and perform those functions which deserve this name And in a word it is requisite to evidence that he hath in himself the Source of a human and reasonable life which is an intelligent Soul and the powers of this Soul which are memory will and understanding which though the most noble and excellent would yet be nevertheless a Sun in Eclips a Torch without light a Star without rayes a Well without water a silent Mouth a blind Eye an Orchard without Trees Fruits and Herbs if it had not the knowledge of good and evill of truth and falshood and of what is profitable or pernitious to him but above all of what God hath expressedly commanded him Wherefore every man who desires to be a man and live like a man ought to understand the Mysteries which have been revealed to us by God himself and proposed in the Church He must submit thereto his reason with faith love and reverence He ought to be in the Church as in the midst of a choice plot of ground watered with seven beautifull Fountains which are the Sacraments and this plot must not be far distant from Mount Sina nor the Land of Judea to the end he may there learn what concerns his Salvation and see with his eyes and hear with his ears the voice of God and this Angell which represents his person and who by sound of Trumpet and in the midst of Flames and Fires proclames those Laws and Commands of which we must not be ignorant if we be men CHAP. XXVI The subversion of Idols I Am The first Commandement of God saith he thy God and thy Lord thou shalt have no other God than me and thou must not make to thy self any Idol to adore it Behold the first Thunderbolt darted against Idolaters Non habebis Deos aâ—enos coram mc. Exod 20. v. 3. Non facies tibi sculptile c. Exod. 20. v. 4 Magicians Atheists Sorcerers Diviners and all those who by a Sacrilegious worship by horrid impiety by abominable Superstitions or in any manner whatsoever adore any other than God unto whom all the honours which are rendred unto his Images doe relate whose rayes discover as it were to our eyes what is hidden from them Whence it evidently follows that those Grammarians are ignorant in the terms of the Sacred Bible who call an Idol any kind of Image for we ought not properly to call Idols but those counterfeit and Sacrilegious figures which the wicked will have pass for Divinities Otherwise God had not commanded Moses to set up a Serpent in the Desart and he had not placed on the side of the Sanctuary the Images of Cherubins and therefore the forbidden Idols are those which Superstition Impiety or some inordinate passion will adore and by this means ravish from God the honour which is due unto him as unto the Lord of all things and who is wont either soon or late to punish all those that prove rebellious unto his most holy commands For he is a powerfull and zealous God who visits the iniquities of Fathers even in the Cradles and Sepulchres of Children to revenge even unto the third and fourth generation but whose mercies are infinite for all those that love and honour him as their God CHAP. XXVII An Edict against Blasphemers THou shalt not take the name of God in vain The Second Commandement Non assumes nomen Domini Dei tui in vanum c. Exod. 20. v. 7. That is to say thou shalt not be so bold as to borrow this most holy name to authorise thy perjuries thy false oaths and thy depraved Customes Blasphemers and you who so easily swear behold a coal drawn out of the fire of Mount Sina to burn those accursed tongues which without necessity without reverence and contrary to all truth impudently riffe the ineffable name of God and of his Saints This language is execrable in the mouth of a Devill Criminal in that of an Atheist and what will it then be issuing from the heart and lips of a Christian Nevertheless it is now an ornament in the discourses of Cavaliers they are the threats of Ranters the Vizards under which the most horrid treacheries are concealed the veyles wherewith a disloyall Oath is covered and the furious ingredient of the most brutish and blindest passions CHAP. XXVIII The Sanctification of the Sabbath REmember to sanctifie the Sabbath day The third Commandement Memento ut diem Sabbati sanctifices Exod. 20. v. 8. This Sanctification was scarce any other than that with which we are now obliged to celebrate the Feasts of the Saints and Sundayes This is then a day of repose This was a day of rest in remembrance of that on which God
mean consolation Seventhly we must play the Philosophers studying the qualities of our desires and temptations to the end having discovered the Nature of the disease we may apply such remedies as are proper for it Eighthly we must withdraw our selves from objects For these are lights which dazle neer at hand and afar off have scarce any luster at all Ninthly we must dry up the spring of our desires and concupiscences mortifying our bodyes and reducing our souls to such a condition as we might desire nothing but what is good and honest Tenthly we may sometime discover the error of our desires and fancies and contemplate that with horror which we desire with so much passion And we shall perceive as well as Raymundus Lullius that all is but a Canker an Ulcer an infectious and stinking dunghill covered over with a bit of Taffaty or some small piece of fine Holland In fine we ought to be well employed and to imitate that brave Captain who commanded his Army to march alwayes in Battell-aray either in time of Peace or War and even upon his own lands that he might not be surprized CHAP. XXXV An Abridgement of the Law THe Law of God and Moses then both in generall and in particular forbids all sorts of persons of what Condition Sex Age or Country they either are or may be First all Idolatrie Infidelity contempt of Sacred things Magick-Art Sorceries Divinations Superstious Worships mistrusts of Gods goodnesse Presumption of their own forces Languishment Tepidities Hypocrisies Irreverences Sacrileges and Impieties Secondly Swearing without necessitie Blasphemies false Oaths Execrations Derision of holy things and words of Scripture as also of all that God hath either said done or revealed Thirdly on Holy-dayes all exercises of labour and Commerce or any other employment whatsoever if it be not of necessitie or if it may divert us from the holy entertainments of Piety and the repose we ought to have on those great dayes when surely labour would be yet less Criminall in the sight of God than the impieties and Irreverences which are very often used in the most Sacred places and during the divine Service of Almighty God Fourthly Disdains contempts abandonments ingratitudes hatreds and disobedience towards Fathers and Mothers Kindred and Superiours As also the excessive liberty we give unto our Servants Children and Domestiques Fifthly Quarrels Enmities Aversions Wranglings Violences Extortions Treacheries Injustices Vexations unjust Duels Mutilations of members Poisonings Murthers Aborsions Hatreds Outrages cruelties towards our Neighbours and our selves by some violent passion which may pass even unto death or at least to the desire of it Sixthly Fornications Adulteries Incests Rapes Deflowrings Clandestine Marriages Sacrileges Pollutions the ill use of Marriage and so many other abominable things and unworthy of a man which make Sepulchres in Houses Laystalls in beds and a great Sodome of the whole World where without punishment is seen all that leads unto impudicity as dishonest thoughts impure words wanton glances kisses touchings Pictures Statues Images Books Letters Playes Ballads Satieties and Feastings wherewith amidst good Wine and good chear very often Love-charms and poisons are mingled Seventhly Thefts Robberies Plundrings Correspondency with Theeves Counterfeiting of Seals Keys Letters Schedules Wills Bonds deceiptfull Purchases false Aequisitions false Sales false Mony Frauds Surprises Usurpations of the goods of the Church Symonie Usurie Delays of payment crafty devises in Law Superfluous expences Cheats Extortions and the barbarous usage of the Poor Eighthly false Depositions Calumnies defamatory Libells Lyes Impostures Perfidiousness Dissimulations Flatteries and Treasons Ninthly Enterprises and designes against Marriage dishonest Plots which are done by words gestures signs allurements by Epistles with desires more becomming a Devill than a man In fine the passion of Possessing other mens goods wrongfully and contrary to Justice which seems to be born with men and to dy with them if it be not stifled with the ashes of the Sanctuary and of Sina otherwise we shall find inflamed fire-brands of Hell which will never be quench'd but punish our sins for all eternity CHAP. XXXVI The antient Policies AFter God had given unto Moses the Morall Lawes which are ingraven in hearts by the finger of Nature C. 2. q. 104. a. 1. he added those which according to Saint Thomas have a certain mutuall relation in order to man and which of themselves cannot oblige but only by reason God hath so ordained it This then to speak properly concerns the Policie and government of people in Common-wealths or else of servants in Families which would be but a Labyrinth of disorders an Abyss of confusions a Tower of Babel and little Babylonians if they had no Lawes which are as it were the Mothers of Peace Mistresses which watch day and night to instruct reprehend and direct those who chance to fail in their duty An excellent with heretofore compared them to those little Mercuries which were placed at the corners of streets but this is not enough The excellencie of Lawes for they are the Soul of the Universe the spirit of the World the Eyes of the Body the Interpreters of Reason the Oracles of Justice the Angels of the great Councell the Governesses of Cities silent Voices Thunders which lowdly roar against Criminals the Armes of the Innocent and the Intelligences which settle order in Heaven Aeternitas mundi ex obedientiâ ad intelligentiam matricem Apud Mathiam de Vienna Philost l. 1. c. 6. before they bring it on Earth as some Disciples of Plato have observed And it is peradventure for the same reason that the Babylonians as Philostratus affirms built Palaces where they us'd to administer Justice in form of a Heaven where the stones were no other than Saphires and the Arches of immoveable Clouds beset with Stars which would have been taken for those of the Empyreall Heaven if they had had as much motion as splendor and light In fine God is the principall Intelligence who sets all things in order His Lawes establish order in the World and this generall order which may be discernd even in the bosome of Nature Dixit praeterea Dominus ad Moysem haec dices filiis Israël c. Exod. 20. v. 22. Responditque omnu populus una voce Omnia verba Domini quae locutus est faciemus Exod. 24. v. 3. Et mane consurgens aedificavit altare ad radices montis duodecim titulos per duodecimtribus Israël Exod 24. v. 4. Misitque Juvenes de filiis Isâ—aël obtulerunt holocausta immolaveruntque victimas pacificas Domino vitulos Exod. 24. v. 5. Tulit itaque Moyses dimidiam partemâ—sanguinis misit in crateras partem autemresâ—duam fudit super altare Exod. 24. v. 6. Assumensque volumen foederis lâ—git audiente populo qui dixerunt Omnia quae lacutus est Dominus faciemus c. Exod. 24. v. 7. Ille verò sumptum sanguinem respersit in populum ait hic est sanguis foederts quod pepigit Domintes
a Picture of those who goe round about the Sanctuary and never enter into it For all these miserable men were shut out of the Land of Promise and this favour was reserv'd for their Children who notwithstanding were long in expectation of it There are some languishing Spirits in the world and souls floating about the Ark these are little Fishes which swim alwayes between two waters or else resemble those Birds which can never take their flight upon elevated places and never come out of their holes but when night approacheth and when scarse any light is to be seen These are also certain curious persons who would pry even into the Sun but the excesse of light blinds them In matters of Faith the eyes ought to be shut and all the reasons of human policy serve but to dazle and confound We ought never to be so presumptuous as to measure the grandeurs of the Mysteries of Heaven with the lownesse of our understanding It is sufficient to follow the lights of God to see what passeth in Chanaan and in the Land of Promise without sending other Spies than our most ardent desires and our purest actions otherwise the hand eye and mind which serve us for a guide in this Pilgrimage will forsake us on the way and amidst windings where we shall see but a far off the end of our travels and the shore which we strive to reach by strength of arms and Oars I even doubt whether after we have long expected Cum mihi quoque iratus propter vos Dominus dixit nec tu ingredieris illuc c. Deut. 1. v. 37. Precatusque sum Dominum in tempore illo dicens Deut. 3. v. 23. and demanded the land of Promise with tears in our eyes and sighs in our hearts we shall not be enjoyned silence and surely it would be done with more reason than unto Moses who notwithstanding his virtue and merits was not heard in the request he made upon this occasion for after he had made his prayer in these termes My Lord Domine Deus tu coepisii estendere servo tuo magnitudinem tuam manumque fortis simam Neque enim est alius Deus vel in caelo vel in terra qui passit facere opera tua comparari sortitudini tuae Deut. 3. v. 24. Transibo igitur videbo terram hanc optimam trans Jordanem montem istum egregium Libanum Deut. 3. v. 25. and my God thou hast begun to withdraw the Veiles which hide from us thy greatness and power It is necessary to confess that neither in the Heavens nor upon Earth there is any power comparable to thine nor other God who can work those miracles whereof I have been a witness I hope then that thy victorious hand and thy Omnipotent arm will conduct me beyond Jordan and that being under this happy Climat and in these fortunate Lands for which I have even sighed the space of fourty years I shall at last ascend the Mountain of Moria and Liban where I may kiss the paces and discern the foutsteps of those who have been my well-beloved fore-Fathers Iratusque est Dominus mihi propter vos nec exaudivit me sed dixit mihi sufficit tibi nequaquam ultrae loquaris de hac re ad me Deut. 3. v. 26. and thy dear Children God who can do nothing but with Justice shewed some marks of his Anger and most expresly prohibited Moses to importune him any more concerning this matter Afterwards he sent him to the top of Mount Phasga Ascende cacumen Phasga aculos tuos circumser ad occidentem ad Aquilonem Austrumque Orientem aspice Deut. 3. v. 27. Sed Josue filius Nun minister tuus ipse intrabit pro te hunc exhortare robora ipse sorte terram dividet Israeli Deut. 1. v. 38. Mansimusque in valle contra fanum Phoger Deut. 3. v. 29. Non addetis ad verbū quod vobis loquor nec auseretis ex eo custodite mandata Domini Dei vestri c. Deut. 4. v. 2. from whence having commanded him to look towards the East the South the West and the North he charged him only to incourage Josua who was to succeed him after his death in the quality of a Conductor of his people and to divide Chanaan and the Land of Promise amongst the Tribes of Israel I know not the terms which Moses used in the Establishment of so prudent and worthy a Successor For he was content to say that having received this answer and commission he descended into the Valley where was the Temple of Phogor Having in this manner concluded the first Chapter of Deuteronomy In the eighth Chapter following he makes a long discourse exhorting his people to keep exactly the Lawes and Commandements which were first given upon Mount Sina with a Spirit inviron'd with flames and ardors which sufficiently testified the greatness of this mysterie and the importance of the matter Beware then my dear Children said Moses to them Remarkable words of Moses of violating the Oath of your fore-Fathers and if you be sensible of all the blessings you have received Dye rather a thousand times than efface in your souls the love and gratitude due unto him who hath delivered you out of the furnaces of Egypt Cave ne quando obliviscaris pacti Domini tui Deut. 4. v. 23. and whose spirit hath secret flames and devouring fires which will consume you if you have been so audacious as to forget him and despise his commands But if you obey him you shall goe into those pleasant Countries which will prove a Haven unto all your miseries and the accomplishment of all your desires Et juravit ut non transirem Jordanem nec ingrederer terram optimam quam daturus est vobis Deut. 4. v. 21. Ecce morior in hac humo non transibo Jordanem vos transibitis possidebitis terram egregiam Deut. 4. v. 22. There all your Fetters shall be broken and your selves freed from bondage without fear and apprehension you shall enjoy those blessings which were heretofore promised unto Abraham Isaac and Jacob. For my part my well-beloved I am at the end of my life and shall never pass over Jordan nor the Land of Chanaan Goe then happily thither and before you set your foot on this Country engrave in the bottom of your soules the Lawes and Precepts I have so often taught you Haec est enim vestra sapientia intellectus coram populis ut audientes universa praecepta haec dicant En populus sapiens intelligens gens magna Deut. 4. v. 6. to the end when another People shall see and hear these Oracles and documents from your mouths they may say with astonishment Behold these wise and learned men this great Nation and these illustrious Tribes for whom heaven hath alwayes had an extraordinary care and a particular affection For the rest in case you observe not
if you be so unhappy as to infringe the least of these Commandments and contemn these Laws I have so often declared to you or those Ceremoâ—â—es I have so publikely established your Privileges shall be changed into punishments and your Favors into execrations which will at last make you the subject of all the Plagues wherewith Egypt hath been heretofore so cruelly afflicted and you shall even feel some which you never yet heard of or at least whereof you shall not finde any mention in this Book What pity will it be to see you a reproach and scorn to the most barbarous Nations in the World amongst whom you shall nevertheless be dispersed to serve their unknown gods and masters who will give you neither truce nor repose no more than your own consciences which will always carry Vultures and Vipers to torment you without pity or intermission Your hearts will have disturbing terrors and your wandring eyes will cast darts as infallible marks of the misertes and tyranny you shall undergo It is also the doleful portion and the most usual course of the wicked to live amidst frights fears which like so many Goalers both day and night surround an unhappy soul which sees nothing but Specters and Phantasms which solicite her ruine so that you will be always like Criminals whose eyes are already veiled whose necks are laid down and hands tied in expectation of the fatal stroke which will in an instant sever their heads from their bodies Scarce shall the Sun be risen when you will say with sighs Dabit enim tibi Dominus ibi cor pavidum deficientes oculos animam consumptam moerore Deut. 28. v. 65. Manè dices Quis wihi det vesperum vespere Quis mihi det manè Deut. 28. v. 67. Ah! Who will assure me that I may be secure till night and in the Evening some new apprehension will even tear this complaint out of your mouths Ah! I know not whether I shall ever see day Alas who will give me then some assurance of it Sinners where are we Is this to live to die every moment and can we call by the name of life a train of pains torments wounds terrors and deaths O life how sweet art thou when thou dost fear and love nothing but God! O death how dreadful art thou when we have followed and loved some other than God! What Favors and Benedictions in the life and death of a vertuous man But what horrors Anathemaes and Maledictions during the course and end of the life of a sinner Alas My dear Reader reflect a little I beseech thee on these Verities and if the voice of thy Conscience and the examples thou seest daily before thy eyes cannot move thee come then again in spirit with the children of Israel and the predestinated souls hear the voice and exhortation of Moses take a while his Testament into thy hands and then casting thy eyes upon every Article fix thy thoughts upon that where he speaks unto all the Tribes and where after Moses had addressed himself into all sorts of States and Conditions of men and women which were gathered together about him he saith unto them That he spake not onely unto those that were present but also unto the absent and therefore it is unto thee and to all men of the world this discourse must be directed Hear then mortal men your Law-giver hear your Lord your Master and your Prophet who conjures you to look back upon the past ages and when you shall come to those dreadful days in which the Sun and all the Lights of Heaven shall be obscured by fire sulphure and the shameful smokes of those infamous Cities which the spirit of the justest furies of God had consumed and reduced into ashes Interrogate these frightful Reliques and they will tell you That these are the tracts of the Vengeances of Heaven and the remnants of those who have broken with God that Faith which they owed him In fine to conclude this whole discourse with Moses What is more sweet and easie saith this Holy Man Mandatum hoe quod ego praecipio tibi bodie non supra te est neque procul positum Deut. 30. v. 11. than to live under the Laws of so holy a Religion and carefully to observe all those orders which have been dictated by the mouth of a God whose rigors and decrees cannot be but most just What can there be in all that is commanded you which exceeds your forces and is beyond your capacity or too far distanced from your power Nec in caele situm ut possis dicere Quis nostrum valet ad caelum ascendere ut deferat illud ad nos audiamus atque opere compleamus Deut. 30. v. 12. Considera quod hodie proposuerim in conspectu tuo vitam bonum è contraria mortem malum Deut. 30. v. 15. Testes invoco bodic calum terram c. Deut. 30. v. 19. Et diligas Dominum Deum tuum atque obedias voci ejus illi adhaereas ipse est enim vita tua longitudo dierum tuorum ut habites in terra pro qua juravit Dominus patribus tuis Abraham Isaac Jacob ut daret eam illis Deut. 30. v. 20. It is not necessary to mount so high as the Heavens and to pass beyond the Seas to learn and perform what is enjoyned you For what is there you may not do and know and where much trouble is not required to accomplish it The words of God refound in your ears they are near your mouths and hearts Ingrave then deeply in your mindes all that I have this day said unto you and above all remember that on the one side I have proposed happiness and life and on the other misfortune and death I call Heaven and Earth to witness the choice I have given you it is then your part to prefer either good or evil and choose rather life than death to the end you may live with all your children in the peace and obedience you ow unto God and to fix your mindes and hearts so strongly on him that you may live onely for and in him for he is the soul of your spirits on him alone depends the course of your life and it is his hand which will conduct you into this fortunate Land which he promised to your fore-fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob. Israel it is unto thee Moses speaks and it is unto you Christian People that the eccho of this voice is addressed and loudly resounds in the Law of Grace and of the Messias Do not say then Who shall ascend unto Heaven who shall cause Jesus Christ to descend who shall draw him out of the Sepulchre or who can descend into the Abyss It is not required thou shouldst do these impossible things and which are already done it sufficeth thou perform what lies in thy power and what thou oughtest and the rest shall be granted thee O my
sunt dii eorum in quibus habebant fiduciam Deut. 32. v. 37. De quorum victimis Comedebant adipes bibebant vinum libaminum surgant opitulentur vobis in necessitate vos protegant Deut. 32. v. 38. Videte quòd ego sim solus non sit alius Deus praeter me Ego occidam ego vivere faciam percutiam ego sanabo non est qui de manu mea possit eruere Deut. 32. v. 39. Levabo ad caelum manum meam dicam Vivo ego in aeternum Deut. 32. v. 40. Si acuero ut fulgur gladium meum arripuerit judicium manus mea reddam â—ltionem hostibus meis his qui oderunt me retribuam Deut. 32. v. 41. Inebriabo sagiteas meas sanguine gladius meus devorabit carnes de cruore occisorum de captivitate nudati inimicorum capitis Deut. 32. v. 42. and the dreadfull period of an irritated patience Alas what day what Tribunall What Assises and what Judgements This will be the fortunate moment which mercy hath ordained to crown the merits of Virtue and the frightfull Instant which Justice hath decreed for the punishment of sins Then all the force pride and power of the Jews shall appear but weakness and even those who think to be in Cities and in their Towers as in places of security shall be miserably oppressed And then what Answer will these miserable wretches make unto the voice of God who will lay a thousand reproaches on them and in deriding their Miseries will say Alas then where are those Gods whom you idolatrize and in whom you place your Assurances where are those who did eat the fat of the Victims which they have immolated and drank the Wine of their Sacrifices Let them now rise up and succour you in so pressing necessities In fine now acknowledge whether there be another God than my self who is able to dispose of life and death of Evill and the remedy and whose power is so absolute as no man can resist it It is I the living God that I am who will lift up my hand unto Heaven and if I sharpen my Sword and if I inkindle its Edge like Lightning to make you undergoe the rigour of my severest Judgements the thunder of my vengeances shall fall on my enemies and upon all those who shall wage War against me as a furious lightning which shall consume all that it strikes by the breath of its ardours and devouring flames afterwards I will steep my merciless darts and arrows in the bloud of Rebels and I will satiate my justest furies in the most horrid slaughter of those bodyes which have been massacred sparing neither Masters nor slaves Let the Gentiles learn then from hence the praise they ought to give unto this people who have a God whose goodnesses are alwayes favourable to those whom he loves Laudate gentes populum ejus quie sanguinem servorum suorum ulciscetur c. Deut. 32. v. 43. and whose vengeances are dreadfull to his enemies Behold my dear Reader the end of this famous Canticle which was first recited in the presence of all the people of Israel and which contains a description of the miracles God wrought to deliver them out of Captivity It was likewise a powerfull exhortation which ought to oblige them either by force or sweetness to remain faithfull in the service of so good and powerfull a Master But this was to sing in the ears of Tygers whose fury is the more irritated when they hear any Musick Christians let us not doe the like but benefit our selves at the expence of this people And faithfully keep the Lawes and Commandements God hath given us let us listen once more unto the last words of Moses and of our Prophet who speaks both to them and us My dear Children I have nothing else to say Et dixit ad eos Ponite corda vestra in omnia verba quae ego testificor vobis heaie ut mandetis ea siâ—â—iâ— vestris custodire facere implere universa quae scripta sunt legis hujus Deut. 32. v. 46. Quia non in cassâ—â— praecepta sunt vobis sed ut singuli in eis viverent quae facientes longo perseveretis tempore in terra ad quam Jordane transmisso ingredimini possidendam Deut. 32. v. 47. and ask of you before my death but that you would seriously consider what I have delivered to you and that you would deeply imprint it both in your own and your Childrens hearts to the end you may all practise and accomplish it for these Lawes have not been established in vain but to the end they may keep you if you keep them and that they may conserve you with bonds of peace and love in this blessed Land into which you are going after your passage over Jordan CHAP. XLIX The Death of Moses at the sight of the holy Land IN fine after forty years of travell behold us with the people of Israel upon the Confines of the Land of Promise All our enemies are vanquished our Chains are broken the Sea hath suspended its billows to make us a passage the bitternesses of Mara are changed into delights the Heavens have rained down nothing but Manna on our deserts and totall Nature hath wrought miracles to serve us But alas we know not what will be the issue of all these happy accidents and of these admirable prodigies for the Aspects of this amiable Intelligence which have been as it were our starrs amidst so many obscurities and these arms which have been so often lifted up towards Heaven for our safety after they had conducted and delivered us amidst so many dangers are now even ready me-thinks to languish and decay In truth the Judgements of God are frightfull Abysses and it were to lose our selves to enter into them with other lights than those of Faith and Love All our fairest designs are sometimes but the draughts and Images of a dream where our proudest hopes meet only with a Tomb. Have we not seen Conquerours who having measur'd by their Triumphs the richest parts of the Universe banish'd into some corner of the Earth and into the Gates of some Cities where they scarce found any Sepulchre Behold the period of their Combats the end of their Triumphs and the Occident of all these Stars which shined not but amongst Laurels Behold them in lamentations in bloud and under some Cypress tree which formeth the funestous Crown of their ambition and the Tomb of their memory Is this the fatall end of their desires the subject of their tears and the period of their projects At least if their Children were their heirs and if these dolefull issues could open them a passage and give them some entrance into the Empires of honour and immortality after which they had so long sighed they would receive this consolation that their death had been the life of others and that in dying they had rendred