they think suitable to the Dignity of God whilst he is upon Earth for they reckon it below him to mind the Government of the World to take care of Men and Beasts and to produce all that the Universe brings forth and in this manner it is that the World shall be from time to time renewed to all Eternity I thought it fit to premise all these things before I came to speak of Sommonokhodom so the Siamese call the God whom at present they adore because they are necessary to the understanding of his History That History after all Sommonokhodom is the Last God of the Siamese is a monstrous mixture of Christianity and the most ridiculous Fables It is at first supposed that Sommonokhodom was born God by his own virtue and that immediately after his Birth without the help of any Master to instruct him he acquired by a meer glance of his Mind a perfect knowledg of all things relating to Heaven the Earth Paradice Hell and the most impenetrable Secrets of Nature that at the same time he remembred all that ever he had done in the different Lives he had led and that after he had taught the People those great Matters he left them wriâ—en in Books that Posterity might be the better for them In these Books he reports of himself Fables which the â—alapoins relatâ— of their God. that being become God one day he desired to manifest his Divinity to Men by some extraordinary Prodigy He then sate under a Tree called Ton ppô which for that reason the Siamese reverence as some sacred thing and look upon it as a happy Presage for the places where it grows being perswaded that it would be a great sin to do the least hurt to that Tree He adds that presently he found himself carried up into the Air in a Throne all shining with Gold and precious Stones which came out of the Earth in the place where he was and that at the same instant Angels coming down from Heaven rendered him the Honours and Adorations that were due unto him His Brother Thevathat and his Followers could not without extream Jealousie behold the Glory and Majesty that environed him Thevathat Sommonokhodoms younger brother makes war against him They conspired his Ruin and having stirred up the Beasts against him engaged with him in a War. Though he was all alone he was not terrified by that multitude of Enemies he resisted all their Attempts without being shaken and by virtue of his good works which defended him the shafts they darted at him were changed into so many Flowers which far from hurting him served only to encrease his Honour In the mean time he confesses that in the brunt of the Battle when he was most in danger it was but in vain that he had his recourse to the good works he had done in keeping the Nine first Commandments of the Law which he found were not sufficient to defend him in this pressing Necessity But being armed with the tenth Command which he had inviolably observed and which enjoyns the practice of Charity towards Men and Beasts he easily triumphed over his Enemies and in this manner he obtained that Victory The Female Guardian-Angel of the Earth for we have already distinguished two Sexes amongst the Angels coming to him Sommonokhodom assisted by the Female tutelary Angel of the Earth triumphs over his Enemies at first adored him then turning towards Thevathat and his Adherents she made known to them that Sommonokhodom was really become God. She told them that she had been a Witness of his good Works and to convince them of that shewed them her own Hair still dropping with the Waters that he poured out in the beginning of his good Actions Hence came the â—uperstitious Custom of the Siamese of shedding Water in the beginning of their good works whereof we have spoken several times already and which the Siamese religiously observe since that time In fine she exhorted them to render him the Adorations that he deserved but finding them to be hardned and obstinately resolved not to hearken to her Remonstrances she squeezed her wet hair and pressed out of them an Ocean of Water wherein they were all drowned It is also found written in the Books of Sommonokhodom The Poppery which the Talapoins tell of Sommonokhodom that from the time he aspired to be God he had returned into the World five hundred and fifty times under various shapes that in every Regeneration he had been always the Chief and as it were Prince of the Animals under whose shape he was born that many times he had given his Life for his Subjects and that being a Monkey he had delivered a Town from a horrible Monster that wasted it that he had been a most potent King and that seven days before he obtained the Sovereign Dominion of the Universe he had retired in imitation of some Anchorites with his Wife and two Children into remote Solitudes that there he was dead to the World and his Passions in such a degree that without being moved he suffered a Baramen who had a mind to try his Patience and carry away his Son and Daughter and torment them before his face Nay his mortification went a great deal farther for he even gave his Wife to a poor Man that begged an Alms and having put out his own eyes he sacrificed himself by distributing his flesh amongst the Beasts to stay the hunger that pressed them From thence they take occasion again to find fault with the Christian Religion which enjoyns not Men to comfort and assist Beasts in their necessities These are the rare actions which the Talapoins in their Sermons propose to the people for imitation and the examples they make use of to encline them to virtue Thevathat killed his Brother Sommonokhodom when they were Apes What is Recorded of Thevathat in the same Books is no less extraordinary nor Fabulous There we learn that he was always born again with his Brother Sommonokhodom in the same kind as he was but still inferiour in Dignity because Sommonokhodom was the Prince of the Animals whose shape he took But Thevathat aspiring also to Divinity and not endeavouring any thing above himself would never submit to his Brother On the contrary he endeavoured by continual Revolts to disturb his Reign and omitted nothing that he might deprive him of the Empire wherein at length he succeeded in some manner for he killed him when both of them were Apes What we saw during our abode in Siam did but too much convince us how far the People are infatuated with such Fables A young Church-man maintaining a position of Divinity in presence of my Lord Ambassador some Talapoins came thither out of curiosity and amongst others the superiour of one of their most famous Monasteries This Man asked what they were disputing about with so much heat and being answered that they were speaking of God and of matters concerning that first Being Likely
troubles with Patience We commended it to them particularly that they would examine their Consciences at night and honour the holy Virgin who was ablest to procure them more Grace to live Christianly and to keep them from Heresie They who spoke French Latin Spanish or Portuguese were confessed We visited the Sick in their Houses and in the Hospital This was all that could be done for their Consolation in so short a time they not having the Liberty to come on board of us and hear Mass nor we to say it to them a Shoar The Jesuits are suspected of administing the Sacraments Nevertheless it must have been suspected at the Cape that we carried them the Sacrament For two of our Fathers returning one day from on Board with a Microscope in one of their Hands covered with Spanish Leather gilt two or three of the Inhabitants walking upon the Shoar imagined it to be the holy Sacrament which they were carrying to Catholicks in a Box. They drew near to the Father to know the truth of the matter the Father told them what it was and to convince them made them look into the Microscope Then one of them told him Sir I thought it had been so because I know that you are the greatest Enemies of our Religion We could not but smile at that saying but without making answer we kept on in our way strait to the Fort. To conclude all that concerns the Cape of Good Hope it only remains that I relate what we learned of the state of the Countrey For some of our Fathers were charged to inform themselves of that whilst the rest were taken up about their Observations In that Prospect we made it our Business to get out of M. Vanderstellen in the several Conversations we had with him all that could contribute to our Information and we made acquaintance with a young Physician of Braslon in Silesia called Mr. Claudius whom the Dutch for his great Capacity entertain at the Cape Seeing he hath already travelled into China and Japan where it was his Custom to observe every thing and that he designs and paints Animals and plants perfectly well the Hollanders have stop'd him there to assist them in making their new discoveries of Countries and labour about the natural History of Africa He hath compleated two great Volumes in Folio of several Plants which are drawn to the life and he hath made a Collection of all the kinds which he hath pasted to the Leaves of another Volume Without doubt the Heer van Rheeden who had always these Books by him at home and who shewed them to us has a design to give the publick shortly an Hortus Africus after his Hortus Malabaricus Had these Books been to be sold we would have spared no Cost to have bought them and sent them to the Kings Library Since this learned Physician hath already made some Progresses Sixscore Leagues up into the Country towards the North and East there to make new discoveries it is from him that we got all the knowledg we have of that Country of which he gave us a little Map made with his own hand with some Figures of the Inhabitants of the Country and of the rarest Animals which here are inserted The most remarkable things we learnt are what follow The Dutch finding that an establishment in that place would be convenient for their Ships The Dutch setling on the Cape which they yearly send to the Indies treated with the Chief Heads of that Nation who consented for a certain quantity of Tobacco and Brandy to surrender that Country to them and to withdraw farther up into the Continent This agreement was made about the year 1653 and since that time they have taken a great deal of pains to make a firm setlement on the Cape They have at present there a great Town and a Fort with five Bastions which commands all the Road. The air is very good the Soil excellent and Cort grows there as well as in Europe they have planted Vines which yield a most delicate Wine Wild Game they have every where in abundance Our Officers returned from Hunting and Fowling with wild Goats Antelopes Pheasant and abundance of Partridges as big as the Wood-hens of France The different Animals that are to be found on the Cape and there are four sorts of them The Oxen and the Sheep are got farther up amongst the wild Natives of the Country buâ— that is a Traffic which the Company reserves to themselves who buy them up for a little Tobacco and sell them again to the Inhabitants of the Cape and to Strangers that put in there for fresh Provisions We saw Sheep there that weighed fourscore pound weight and were very good meat They have there also Civit-cats many Wildcats Lyons and Tygers which have very pretty skins and especially huge great Apes that comes sometimes in Troops down from the Table-land into the Gardens of private Persons and carry away their Melons and other fruit Nine or ten Leagues from the Cape Eastward there is a Chain of Hills full oâ— Lyons Elephants and Rhinocerosses of a prodigious bigness Men of credit who have travelled there assured me that they had found the foot-traâ—e of an Elephant two foot and a half in diameter and that they had seen several Rhinocerosses as high and big as an ordinary Elephant A prodigiouâ— Elephant All that I can say as to that is that I have seen the two horns which that Beast carries on its Nose fastned together as they are naturally of a bigness and weight that inclined me to believe that what they told me of it was true A property of the Rhinoceros The Lieutenant of the Castle who went on that Progress told me that the Rhinoceros being in rage runs his greatest Horn into the Ground and continues to run a kind of Furrow with it till he come up with him that has smitten him The skin of that Beast is so hard that it is Musquet-proof unless one take his time to hit it when it shews its Flank the only place of its body where fire-arms or halbards that the Travellers carry can wound it There are Horses and Asses there of extraordinary beauty The first have a very little head and pretty long Ears They are covered all over with black and white streaks that reach from their back to their belly about four or five fingers broad and are very pretty to look on I saw the skin of one that had been killed which my Lord Ambassador bought to carry with him into France as a very curious thing As for the Asses they are of all colours they have a long blew list on the back that reaches from head to tail and the rest of the body like the horse full of pretty broad streaks blew yellow green black and white all very lively Stags are so plentiful there that they are seen feeding in Flocks like Sheep and I heard the Commanders Secretary say and
the Garden and the Fort with two little Halls on each side over that there is a Pavilion open every way betwixt two Tarasses paved with Brick and railed about the one looking towards the North and the other to the South This Pavilion seemed to be purposely made for our Design For on the one side we discovered the North the View whereof was absolutely necessary to us because it is the South in relation to that Country Whil'st they were a preparing that Pavilion which with the Dutch I shall call our Observatory we went on Board to give the Ambassador and our Fathers an Account of all that had past Next day the Commissary and Commander sent us on Board all sorts of Refreshments The Ambassador and Commissary General inter-change many Civilities The Officer who was ordered to make that Present to the Ambassador in their Behalf told us that these Gentlemen had also sent us a Boat to carry us and our Instruments ashoar Having in the Night time prepared these which we thought we might stand in need or we put them into the Boat and so went to the Observatory the second of June in the Year one thousand six hundred and eighty five A Pendulum Clock with Seconds We began to make our Observations made by Monsieur Thuret at Paris being set at to Hour as near the true Hour as we could guess not having as yet corrected the Clock we began the following Observations The first Satelles appeared in the Evening at eleven and three Minutes of the Clock not as yet corrected distant from Jupiter somewhat less than the Diameter of the same Jupiter By the Telescope we saw two parallel Bands or Streaks upon the Body of Jupiter the one larger towards the Southern Border and the other narrower towards the Northern The first Satelles began to touch the Border of Jupiter at 11 a Clock 37 M. 30 S. at eleven a Clock 58 M. 5 S. the Satelles was no more to be seen These Observations were made with an Excellent Telescope twelve foot long of the late Monsieur le Bas the Hours are still of the Pendulum not rectified We constantly observed Jupiter untill two of the Clock five Minutes after Midnight at what time he was hid behind the Lyon Mountain which limited our Sight towards the West so that we could not that day see the Emersion of the first Satelles The third of June 1685. For rectifying the Hour of the Clock Heights before Noon Hours of the Clock Deg. Min. Ser. Hour Min. Ser. 20 16 0 9 35 38 22 56 20 9 34 47 24 11 0 10 4 50 24 39 55 10 8 48 Heights after Noon Hours of the Clock Deg. Min. Ser. Hour Min. Ser. A dubious Observation 24 39 55 0 The Observation fail'd 24 11 0 2 50 19 22 56 20 2 57 40 0 26 0 3 16 38 These Elevations were taken with a Quadrant of ninety Degrees of eighteen Inches the Radius made by Mr. Butterfield at Paris It is to be observed that these Heights of the Sun were not of the same Border in the Morning we took the Height of the Superior Border and in the Evening of the Inferior only which is to be taken notice of For the Variation of the Needle By Mr. Butterfield's equinoxial Dial which carries a great compass under the Meridian the Variation of the Needle was found to be eleven Degrees and a half North-west Having no particular Observations to make in the Evening we considered several fixed Stars with the Telescope twelve foot long The foot of the Crozier marked in Bayer is a double Star that is to say Several Observations concerning the Southern Stars consisting of two bright Stars distant one from another about their own Diameter only much like to the most Northern of the Twins not to speak of a third much less which is also to be seen but farther from these two Under the Croziers there are several Places of the Milky Way which seem to be filled if you look through the Telescope with an infinite number of Stars The two Clouds which are near the South Pole appear not to be a croud of Stars like the Praesepe Cancri nor yet a duskish Light as the cloudy part of Andromeda nothing hardly is to be seen there with great Glasses though without a Glass one may see them very white especially the great Cloud No Constellation in the Heavens looks so lovely as those of the Centaur and Ship. There are no fair Stars near the Pole but a great many little ones Bayer and other Books that speak of them omit a great many and most of these they set down appear not in the Heavens in the same Scituation The Fourth of June 1685. For rectifying the Hour of the Clock Heights before Noon Hours of the Clock D. M. S. H. M. S. 22 23 0 9 50 47 23 31 50 10 0 32 24 37 30 10 9 18½ 25 53 20 10 20 29 Heights after Noon Hours of the Clock D. M. S. H. M. S. 25 53 20 2 32 33 24 37 30 2 43 38 23 31 50 2 52 47 22 23 0 3 1 38½ The Horizontal Thread of the Telescope was not exactly parallel to the Horizon we always endeavoured to supply that in the Certifications of the Clock by making the Border of the Sun pass by the same Place of the Thread or as near as could be to it You are always to mind that they are the Heights of different Borders of the Sun in the Morning of the Superior Border and in the Evening of the Inferior Monday after Dinner we went to the Fort to see the Gentlemen and communicate to them the Observations which we had already made and acquaint them with that we were to make that Evening according to which alone one might regulate the true Longitude of the Cape Upon our return all these Gentlemen would needs go along with us to be Spectators of that Observation An Interview betwixt the Ambassador and Commissary General We were together upon the Terrass taken up in showing them our Instruments which seemed very pretty and curious to them when we perceived my Lord Ambassador who having come incognito the Day before to walk in the Garden found it so pleasant that he returned again next day to divert himself there with most part of the Officers of both Ships and the Gentlemen of his Retinue The Ambassador and Commissary had mutually enterchanged many Civilities from the very day of our Arrival and no day past without sending one another Presents The Heer Van Rheeden perceiving him went immediately down from the Terrass where he was observing with us and after two or three turns meeting the Ambassador as by chance they entertained one another to their mutual satisfaction When the Ambassador was gone The Emersion of the first Satelles of Jupiter observed the Commissary with the Heer 's St. Martin Vanderste and Bocheros stayed with us in the Observatory till
Sir to make any suitable Returns for so great Favours but since we cannot do it as we ought to do we hope your Majesty will suffer us to do it the best way we can We are the Servants of the true God and the Subjects of a great Monarch As the Subjects of so great a King we will inform him of the Favours your Majesty hath shewed us and as Servants of the true God we will make our earnest Prayers to him that he would in all things prosper your Reign and so enlighten your Majesty with his Divine Truths that after so glorious a Reign upon Earth you may come to the Possession of the Glories of Heaven Some days after the L. Constance discoursed his Majesty about a Project which he had had a long time in his thoughts of bringing to Siam twelve Jesuits Mathematicians whom he had already demanded of our Reverend Father General and about the Design of building an Observatory in imitation of Paris and Pekin He made his Majesty sensible of the Glory and Profit that would thereby redound to him and the Advantage that his Subjects would reap from it who would be taught the finest Arts and Sciences of Europe His Majesty much approved that Project and bid the Lord Constance tell us that he would have an Observatory built in his Kingdom which he would bestow upon the Fathers of the Company of Jesus whom he much esteemed and whom he would protect and favour in all things that lay in his power Whereupon the Lord Constance thought it fit that some of us should return to France to press that Affair which seemed to him to be of extream consequence for Religion He mentioned it one day to the Father Superior when we were all three together We joyfully consented to it and the Commission falling upon me I had Orders presently to prepare for my Return It grieved me to the heart then to see my self for a long time removed to so great a distance from China which I had longed after for so many years The Lord Constance who is no less ready to embrace the Occasions of advancing the Glory of God than of procuring Advantages to his Master communicated to us another View which he thought might contribute much to the Conversion of the Siamese He pretends that if once their Esteem and Affection can be gained by Zeal Meekness and Learning it will be no difficult matter to dispose them to hearken to Instruction That he throughly knew the temper of that Nation and no man better why Christianity hath made no greater progress at Siam after so many years endeavours of having it planted there that besides the Observatory there must be another House of Jesuits where they should as much as lay in their power lead the austere and retired Life of the Talapoins that have so great credit with the people that they should take their Habit visit them often and endeavour to convert some of them to the Christian Religion that in short it was well known how that Conduct had succeeded with the Portuguese Jesuits who are at Madura towards Bengal The truth is we have learnt from several places and very lately too at Siam from a French Missionary who had been at St. Thomas two Months before that these Fathers had liâ—ed several years amongst those People and applied themselves with care and pains to their Conversion without any considerable fruit One of them who had been made Superior of that Mission having long implored Assistance from heaven and reflecting on the Reverence that those People had for the Bramines who are their Priests and Religious thought that if he did take the Habit of the Bramens and lived after their manner he might gain Crediâ— amongst them and win them over to Jesus Christ He communicated that Design to his Superiors who proposed it to the Congregation de propaganda Fide. It was considered of at Rome and it being represented to the Cardinals that the Habits the Bramens wore were no Mark of Religion but of Nobility and eminent Quality they permitted that Father and some other Jesuits who approved his Judgment to try that last way for the Conversion of those People Having so taken the Badge of the Bramens they began to live as they did and since that time these Apostolic Men have been seen walking upon the burning hot Sand bare-footed and bare-headed and continually exposed to the heat of the Sun which is extraordinary there because the Bramens wear no Stockings nor Shoes and never cover their Head living on nothing but Herbs and spending three or four days without eating under a Tree or on the high way waiting till some Indian affected with such surprizing austerity should come and hear them God hath so much blessed their Zeal and Mortification that they have converted above threescore thousand Indians and the People come flocking in so great numbers to be instructed that they value not all the hardship and trouble they have endured The same Church-man added that he had seen one of those Fathers whose feet had been all chopt with the burning Sand which getting afterwards into the Wounds put him to extream pain and raised strange Swellings Upon what he told us of these Missions we earnestly desired to see a more ample Relation of them being perswaded that we should therein meet with rare Examples of Zeal and great ground of Edification A VOYAGE TO SIAM The Fifth BOOK Of our Return from Siam WHen it was resolved upon that I should return to France the Lord Constance redoubled the Testimonies of Friendship wherewith he had till then honour'd me telling me that he wished he might frequently discourse me in private Next day I went to see him according as he had enjoyned me at parting I found him taken up in preparing Presents for those who had had the greatest hand in the Favour which the King had done us of sending us to China and making us draw near to see them these are but very mean Presents said he for so great Lords But you shall tell them Father that I came to know of it but very late and after I had given away all the finest and most curious things I had For besides the Presents which he sent to France and that he had given to the French who were at Siam he had sent some very considerable to Portugal by the three Ambassadors whom the King of Siam had dispatched to Lisbone sometime before we arrived there Nor is it said he a Present that I would have them take as from me but as from one of your Brothers to thank them for the Goodness they have for you and the Protection they honour you with We could make no answer to such obliging Expressions but by our most humble Thanks but he would not hear us interrupting and adjuring us not to speak to him in that Strain that being our Brother he was perwaded he did no more but his Duty The same day that we had
there they come out and take the first word they hear spoken for the response of the Oracle which they have consulted It sometimes happens that to punish their criminal Curiosity God permits that the event confirms what they have learnt by this way Thus some of the Wives of the first Ambassadors that were sent to France or board the Sun of the East being anxious to know the Destiny of their Husbands whom they feared they should never see again made their Sacrifices in the Cave I mentioned and being afterwards come back again to the Town in the Evening they heard a Woman saying to her Slaves Shut the door they 'le return no more They took these words as a presage of the misfortune that happened in the Sequel and from that time bewailed the loss of their Husbands The respect they have for the King goes as far as adoration The Reverenâ—e the Siameâ—e have for their King. The posture wherein they are to be in his presence is a visible mark of it Nay even in the Council which sometimes lasts four hours the Ministers lye all the while prostrate before the King and if any of them chance to faint he dares not rise upon his knees nor sit up upon the ground though the Prince commâ—nd him so to do till a Curtain he drawn before â—is Throne When the King goes abroad all must withdraw and no body dares to be in his way but they who have express orders for it unless it be when he had a mind to show himself to his people on certain days of Ceremony Strangers also have Notice given them to keep within doors when the King is to go abroâ—d No man is suffered to come near the Palace whil'st he is there One day as I was returning from a Pagod with a Mandarin who had carried me thither in his Balon our Water-men going along with the Stream came a little too near the Walls of the Palace But they soon stood off again when they felt a shower of pease flying about their ears which the Sâ—uldiers upon the guard shot at them with Trunks to make them withdraw The King holds Council several times a day The King holds several Councils daily and that 's his greatest exercise None of his Counsellers dares be absent and if any of them chanced to have extraordinary business or to fall sick he ought before the hour of Council ask leave of the King to be absent Without that leave no hurry of business nor sickness will excuse him from incurring grievous punishments if he be able to go for the King never fails to send to know the reasons of his absence and the Officer whom the King sends has Orders to speak to the person himself The Kings Daughter hath her Court and Council The Princess the Kings only Daughter hath her Court and Council consisting of the Wives of the chief Mandarins She is witty and active and in the Government of the Provinces which the King hath given her shows a great deal of wisdom and moderation She is only served by Women and no Man ever saw her neither publicly nor privately When she goes abroad upon an Elephant she is shut up in a kind of Chair that hinders her from being seen The Kingdom of Siam descends not from Father to Son. In the Kingdom of Siam the Kings Brothers are preferred before his Children in the Succession to the Crown but it returns to these after the death of their Uncles The present King has two Brothers who live with him in the Palace he hath also according to the custom of the Orientals an adoptive Son who accompanies him in all places and who has peculiar honours rendered unto him The Religion of the Siamese is very odd and cannot be perfectly understood but by the Books that are written in the Balis Language which is the Learned Language and hardly understood by any except some of their Doctors Nor do these Books neither always agree amongst themselves This following account of their Religion is the most exact that possibly I could attain to The Siamese believe a God but they have not the same notion of him that we have What the Siamese believe of their God. By that word they understand a being perfect after their manner consisting of Spirit and Body whose property it is to assist-men That assistance consists in giving them a Law prescribing them the ways of living well teaching them the true Religion and the Sciences that are necessary unto them The perfections which they attribute unto him are all the moral virtues possessed by him in an eminent degree acquired by many acts and confirmed by a continual exercise in all the Bodies he hath past through He is free from passions and feels no motion that can alter his tranquillity but they affirm that before he arrived at that State he made so prodigious a change in his Body by struggling to overcome his Passions that his blood is become white He hath the Power to appear when he pleases and also to render himself invisible to the eyes of men and he hath such wonderful agility that in a moment he can be in any place of the world he pleases The knowledg of the God of the Siamese He knoweth all without having ever learnt any thing from men whose Doctor and Master he himself is and that universal knowledg is inherent in his state having possessed it from the instant that he was born God it consists not as our doeâ— in a train of consequences but in a clear simple and intuitive vision which all at once represents to him the Precepts of the Law Vices Virtues and the most hidden secrets of Nature things past present and come Heaven Earth Paradice Hell this Universe which we see and even what is done in the other Worlds which we know not He distinctly remembers all that hath ever befallen him from the first transmigration of his Soul even to the last His body is infinitely more radiant than the Sun it lights that which is most hidden and by the help of the light that it diffuses a man here below upon Earth might that I may make use of their expression see a grain of Mustard seed placed in the Highest Heavens Wherein consists his happiness The happiness of that God is not compleat but when he dies never to be born again for then he appears noâ— more upon the Earth nor is he any more subject to Misery They compare that death to a torch extinct or to a sleep that renders us insensible of the Evils of Life with this difference that when God dies he is exempted from them for ever whereas a man asleep is but free from them for a certain time This reign of every Deity lasts not eternally it is confined to a certain number of years that 's to say until the number of the elect who are to be sanctified by his Merits be accomplished after which he appears