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
Mouth and Heart He calls Heaven to witness and protests that Bethel is the Temple of God where the most glorious rayes of his Majesty are seen Ah saith he how venerable is this place and how full of a holy terror It is the gate of Heaven and if Jacob could live a hundred Thousand years he would have no other God than he that appeared to him Besides more authentically to seal his confession and promise he powred oyl out of a Bottle which he carried for his provision Surgens ergo Jacob manâ— tulit lapidem quem supposuerat â—piti suo exerit in titulum sundens oleum desuper and annointed therewith the stone which during the Night had served him for a Pillow Behold in truth strange mysteries but I would willingly have demanded of God the explication of them if I had been in Jacobs place I know neverthelesse that some have thought that it was a figure of the Temporall Generation of the Word who descended from Abraham even unto Joseph and Mary and who ascends from Joseph and Mary unto Adam and God himself It is the Incarnation of the Word whereby God descends on Earth and Meâ—mount up to Heaven A picture of the Incarnation As God he is impassible in the bosome of his Father and mortall in the Womb of his Mother Subject to time and death It is God united unto Man who rests on this sacred wood and it is hâ— who sends his Angels as his Nuncios and Embassadours St. Austin frames another sense upon this Enigma and he conceives that this Ladder was a draught of the life and death of Jesus Christ Isaack represents God the Father Jacob is the Image of the Son The image of the life and death of Jesus Aug. ser 79. de temp and the Angels which ascend and descend are the Apostles and preachers who Elevate themselves unto God by their Thoughts and stoop even to the grossest understandings by means of their Words These two Explications to speak the truth are most Sublime But St. Basill expounding the three and thirty Psalm gives an other explanation which will be more profitable This Ladder saith he is the Exercise The description of a perfect Soul or rather the picture of a Soul which raiseth her self unto the highest pitch of Perfection First to the end God may descend into this Soul The forsaking of Creatures and that this Soul may ascend unto God shee must forsake the Earth and renounce the World This is the first step Secondly shee ought to make a generous divorce from all Creatures and even efface out of her memory all their Footsteps and all the species of her dearest affections Thirdly Contempt of the World shee must have nothing but Contempt and disdain for that which before shee adored At the fourth step shee must resolve to trample over her Friends and all her kindred Estimation of God that is to say shee must preferr God before them and boldly reject their designs when they are opposite unto the Will of God The fift step passeth even unto Death Extreme Mortification for the Soul ought lesse to esteem Life than her God and if God suffers her to live Longer her life is but a Living Death which finds its Tomb in her Nothing It is for this consideration shee remains in a most profound Humility Annihilation of oâ—â— selves and in a most inflamed Charity which communicats her flames and zeal not onely to her Friends but also to her Enemies In fine Union of the soul God is present at the top of the Ladder united unto the Soul and it is upon her he reposeth and is united to her and she to him Philo and Origen have yet layd some other touches on this picture many also have since laboured therein But having perused all their works and collected all their opinions I think that Gods design was to manifest unto Jacob in this vision the care his Divine providence took of him The Ladder of Divine Providence Jacobs Ladder then was a most lively draught of the wise conduct of Almighty God concerning Jacob and of the Universall Government of the World which is in the Hands of the Divinity The Bounds and Limits of this Empire are infinite Huic ex alto cunesa tuenti nulla terrae mole resistunt Non nox atâ—is nulubus obstat Vno cernit mentis erictu quae sint quae fueriat quae veniantque Boet. lib. de cons and his Scepter extends it self over the Earth and over the Heavens where he absolutely resides and beholds all the events like a Sun saith Boetius which penetrates every where and guides all Creatures by means of his splendor The two sides of the Ladder represent Power and Sweetness which are as the Hands of the Divine Providence which goes mounting and descending from Heaven to Earth by divers steps that is to say by divers sweet and admirable walks and ways through which the World is insensibly guided unto the period and term proposed to it God nevertheless rests himself on the top of this Ladder and from thence deputes his Angels and Embassadours which are as St. Gregory saith the Ministers of the Divine Providence It is then in the Company of these most Heavenly Spirits that Jacob is on his way to renew his Journey unto Mesopotamia In fine Ego sum Dominus suÌ„ Dominus Deus Abraham Patris tui Deus Isaac terram in qua dormis tibi dabo semini tuo Gen. 28. v. 13 Eritque semen tuuÌ„ quasi pulvis terrae Dilat aberis ad occidentem orientem septentrionem meridiem Gen. 28. v. 14. Et ero custos tuus quocunque perrexeris reducam te in terram hanc nec dimittam nisi complevero universa quae dixi Gen. 28. v. 15. under the protection of the Divine Providence Jacob pursues his design and this was the promise made him during his Vision Yeas Jacob saith God I am the Lord of thy Progenitors Abraham and Isaack and I will bestow the Land where thou reposest on thy self and all thy Children I will multiply them as grains of Sand which are upon the Earth and their Progenie shall extend as far as the four Corners of the Universe I my self will be thy Guardian during all thy voyages and will bring thee back to thine own House Thou mayst be affur'd of it Jacob and constantly believe that God speaketh unto thee and that his Providence will never abandon thee untill he hath accomplished his Oath and promises O God! what happiness for Jacob and for all those who live under the favour of thy Providence what Peace in a Soul when God is the primum mobile or first mover of all his Actions what assurance when we walk in the way his increated wisdom hath marked out to us with his own Hand and enlightned with the purest rayes of his Eyes My Soul is it true Ah! if
water which had been so long detained prisoner returns from thence towards the North and into the Indies If you desire more the washing of poor mens feet is represented to us by the River Nilus or rather by that of Jordan Solinus c. 35. Pausanias Sieionius Apol. or finally by the waters of Alpheus For all these miraculous Rivers hide themselves for a time and what is cast into them remain some dayes absorpt under the Abysses of water but at length we receive all that is thought to be lost This is in a word as Solomon said to cast ones bread upon the torrent of waves to receive it in aeternity In fine this is to resemble those Roman Emperors Vopiscus in Aureliane ait eum fecisse corenas de panibus and amongst others Aurelian who made crowns of bread or to conclude and not to intermix prophane Emperors with Christian Kings and with the father of all Christian Princes which is Abraham let us say that this most charitable Man washing these three Pilgrims feet sowed benedictions upon a River Seminate in benedictionibus 2. Cor. 9. Beati qui senunatis super omneâ— aquas Jsa 32. and that he put himself the first in the list of those blessed persons who as Isay saith sowed upon all the waters and lands of Paradise In effect these three guests whom Abraham received into his tents with so much affection zeal and reverence made a Paradise under one Pavillion these were also Angels of Heaven having only the shape and countenance of men from whence I gather that under ragged garments and a skin torn with ulcers and eaten up with cankers God hidden under the habit of poor men God and his Angels conceal themselves to teach the purity of heart works and intentions which ought never to stay upon the rinde and exterior apparence but to passe even to the Center where God himself is retired Presently after the veiles are seen remov'd and the shadowes unfoulded to disclose celestiall lights the Angels of God nay God himself who makes the heart melt into joy and the eyes distill teares of Love and rapture there are seen miraculous generations and fruitfull sterilities which produce Families Nations and Worlds at the birth of one Infant In sequel of these favors the tendernesses of a human heart and the least touches of compassion which men have towards one another hold so secret intelligence with the heart of God as even at that instant men open their hearts God dilates his own to impart unto them his most intimate secrets The confidence he expressed to Abraham was a very Divine condeâ—â—â—â—dency evident mark of this verity for when the crimes and the execrations of Sodom and Gomorrha pressingly called upon his Justice and when the blackest vapors of these horrid sinks ascended even as high as Heaven this most absolute Judge who makes his definitive decrees without dependencoâ—râ— counsell demeaned himself as if he durst not doe it without the advice of Abraham Ah what Diaitque Dominus num celare petero Abraham quae gesturus sum saith he can I conceal my designs and thoughts from my dear Abraham who is to be the Pillar of the World and the Father of so many Nations No certainly but I must discharge part of my displeasure into his bosom that he may share with me in my designs as well as in my contentments Hearken then Abraham Dixit itaque Dominus clamor Sodomorum Gomorrhae multiplicatus est peccatum corum aggravatum est nimis dost thou well understand saith God what passeth for my part I hear a confused Noise which daily sounds louder and louder it is surely the Voice of my Justice which requires vengeance against the Inhabitants of Sodom and Gomerrha which have rendred their Cities an Abyss of horrors and abominations Dost thou not hear these impure Mouths these poysonous Tongues these bewitched Hearts these fleshy Souls these Soul-less Bodies and these ungodly Men without Faith without Law and without Honour I hear them and their infamous clamours awake my indignation Descendam videbo utrum clamorem qui venit ad me opere compleverint An non est ita ut sciam Gen. 28. v. 21. I perceive also the sparkles and flames of their fire which are converted in my Hands into ardent and murthering Torches which consume them I am resolved then to descend even into their Hearts to see neer at Hand the Ashes and the Wood which nourisheth so enormous a Fire But what my God! hast thou not Eyes which pierce from the highest Heaven even into the Center of Hell and is not the least of thy glances able to dissipate all the shadows of the Night and of the Sun to produce there the Day of thy most rigorous Justice hast thou not a myrror in thy self which without disorder confusion presents all objects to thee If thou art a God why doest thou speak to us like a Man And is it not well known that thou art every where and as well in the Desart where Cain killed his Brother as in the Paradise where Eve gave her Husband the mortall wound Hast thou not been seen in Heaven precipitating the Angels upon the Waters of the Deluge drowning Men and in the highest story of Babel over-turning this great Edifice and confounding those Gyants Why dost thou then say that thou wilt descend into Sodom and see in person what passeth before thine Eyes Alas Lord take not the pains to draw aside those shamefull Courtains which hide so many lubricities from our Eyes Lord doe not debase thy self so much as with thy own Hand to discover those Ashes which take from us the prospect of so many volatile fires and so many poysonous coals Notwithstanding God descends as I may say into this gulph of impurity Fair example to Judges and resolves to be not only the Judge but the Witness also of those crimes which he must afterwards punish with so much severity Is not this a fair lesson for those who hold the ballances of Justice in their Hands and with whom God intrusts the most terrible and dreadfull of his Attributes I would willingly demand of these Masters who judge so often upon bare breviats and instead of confronting witnesses and making a diligent inquiry into the fact and truth consult their passions follow their own interests and too inconsideratly pass sentences of life for Criminals and of death against the Innocent I would gladly ask of them if nevertheless there chance to be such kind of people in Christian Republicks whether they have learnt that stile from God Most exact Justice who is the Soveraign of all Justice and who is not satisfied to hear complaints and accusations yet disdains not to cast down his Eyes even to the Earth upon the Authors of crimes to be as I have already said not only their Judge but also their Witness Notwithstanding we must not imagin that God at the first
testifie at least by their sighs and tears the violence and injustice of the slavery in which they had lived for their Clamour having ascended unto heaven he that is always propitious to those who earnestly call upon him shewed them that he had not forgotten the pact and agreement he had made with Abraham Isaack and Jacob. CHAP. III. Of the flaming Bush THE office of a Shepheard was antiently a noble imployment The Apprentiship of Empires And Philo who hath been one of the most faithfull Historians of the first ages called it in expresse termes the prelude to an Empire that is to say to the government of men which ought to be the most humane and most amiable of all others This most wise and learned Authour passed much further for he believ'd that person could be only perfect in the art of ruling who was a good Shepheard and who governing flocks whose conduct is most facil had learnt how a man must behave himself in commanding those whose government is more difficult and important It was then for this cause the first men of the world The first shepheards of the world and the most illustrious persons of the old Testament had this innocent imployment as if God would have them passe this apprentiship to render them capable of ruling this people for whom he had a particular care It was also for the most part in these imployments which have less of Pomp and splendour than sweetness and repose that God who delightes in humility and peace hath chosen humble and peaceable souls to give himself unto them and make them both see and feel that it was his hand which had guided them in the fields and out of the noise and tumults to the end their minds might be better prepared to hear and receive the laws and precepts which he intended to give them and that the night and obscurity of a Country and solitary life Moises autem pascebat oves Gethro soceri sui sacerdotis Madian cumque minasset gregem ad interiora deserti venit ad montem Dci Horeb. Exod. 3. v. 1. Apparuit ei Dominus in flimma ignis de medior rubi videbat quod rubus arderet non conbureretur Exod. 3. v. 2. might serve to raise the luster of that glory and dignity to which he had designed them So when Moses went guiding the sheep of Iethro who was his father-in-Law one day as he was in the thickest part of the desart whether the feeding were better or whether as it is more probable he had a desire to attend more sweetly to contemplation having at length reached the top of Mount Sina called Horeb he saw God in a fiery Bush which neverthelesse was not consumed in the midst of the flames This was no illusion of the Understanding The verity of the Bush the figure of a dream nor any phantasticall image which appear'd to Moses But the second Person of the most holy Trinity or at least some Angell who represented him This fire likewise was a true and real fire produced by a Divine breathing and by an Angelicall hand which without breaking the Laws of Nature was able to draw this fire either out of Wood the Air or those stones which were about this sacred Bush The respect neverthelesse the fire bore unto a matter which it never spares was not naturall there requir'd a Miracle to stay the course of its activity and the rigour of those flames which issued forth of the earth had not left this Wood unconsum'd if He whose least glance inlightens the stars in the heavens without whom the Sun Moon would remain in darkness had not suspended for a while this active conjunction and these fertile and powerfull influences without which creatures have neither life motion nor action Now to understand what this miracle denoted A fair subject of Enâ—gma we must presuppose that Fire hath been always a Symbol of the Divinity not only amongst the Egyptians Grecians Chaldeans and Romans but amongst all other people of the Earth who have not seen any thing more conformable more resembling a most pure Divine flames subtill simple and luminous Nature living only in the splendours and flames which flow from its substance then a most pure subtile simple Element which hath no life but amidst Lights and Ardours naturall to it It being so this Enigma can have no other literal sense than this This fire is the Image of God and the flaming Bush a figure of the Israelites whom these Divine flames kept in a gentle heat where like gold in the Furnace they might be purified but not consum'd They that will otherwise explicate this Picture may say that this is God cloathed with our humane nature the Aeternall Word who is all fire who cast himself amidst the Thorns and Brambles of a weak and mortall nature which could not yet be consumed by the ardours of those flames which incompass it on all sides Others with Rupertus Theodoret and St. Bernard will believe that it was a figure of the blessed Virgin whose Chastity as a fiery bush could not be violated although she had brought forth him who is nothing but Splendour Fire Light and Ardour However it be and what ever can be said of it we must approach neerer unto it with Moses and behold with a holy respect this Stupendious Vision Cernens autem Dominus quod pergeret ad videndum vocavit eum de medio rubi ait Moses Moses qui respondit adsum Exed 3. v. 4. At illâ— ne appropies inquit huc solve calceamentum de â—edibus tuis locus enim in quo stas terra sancta est Exod. 3. v. 5. Et ait Ego sum Deus patris tui Deus Abrabam Deus Isaac Deus Jacob. Exod. 3. v. 6. Abscondit Moises faciem suaâ— non enim audebat aspicere contra Deum Exod. 3. v. 6 I hear already the voice of God who calls this happy solitary person and who in the midst of this flaming Pyle say's unto him Moses Moses Lord what is thy pleasure answers this amiable Sheapheard Behold me ready to doe all that thou shalt command The sight of this Sacred Bush had surprised him and given him a holy Curiosity to approach and see it neer at hand But as he advanced God sayd unto him that the place where he set his Feet was Holy ground that he must put off his shooes and besides He that had spoken to him was the great God of his Father the God of Abraham Isaack and Jacob. At these words Moses remained so much astonished and the sight of this Object ravished him with so sweet a violence as he was inforc'd to veil his Eyes too weak to endure the Splendor and Majesty of God who seeing him so plyable and obedient spake to him as a good Father who feels his heart touched with compassion for the miseries of his poor Children I have Cui ait Vidi
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
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