desired that the people would put away all their usual employments,
and spend the next two days in preparing to appear before him. And
on the third day Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to
meet with God; and Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke; because
the Lord descended upon it in fire, and the whole mount quaked
greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed
louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.
And the Lord called Moses up to the top of the mount. Then Moses
went up and heard God himself speak the Ten Commandments which we
have in the twentieth Chapter of Exodus.
The Israelites worshipping the golden calf.
[Illustration]
Exodus xxxii. 1.
Now Moses was forty days and forty nights in the mount with God;
and the people had began to wonder what had become of him, and to
be tired of waiting and looking for his return. Although the glory
of the Lord still rested on the mount, and the presence of the Lord
was clearly there, they pretended to think that God and Moses had
left them, and they said one to another, “Let us make us gods which
shall go before us.” And they made them a golden calf, and said,
“These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee out of the land
of Egypt.” And they worshipped the golden calf which they had set
up, although God had positively forbidden them to make any graven
image to worship, or the likeness of any thing in heaven above,
or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth. But so
evil were their hearts, so ready to wander from God, so quick to
forget his mercies, that having been left only for a few short days
to themselves, they set up a golden calf to worship. And the Lord
said unto Moses, “Go, get thee down; for thy people have corrupted
themselves: they have turned aside quickly out of the way which
I commanded them; they have made them a molten calf, and have
worshipped it: let me alone that my wrath may consume them, and I
will make of thee a great nation.” But Moses loved the people of
Israel; and he prayed earnestly for them, unto the Lord his God.
And the Lord who is abundant in mercy, graciously heard his prayer;
so as not to destroy them altogether in a moment. And Moses went
down from the mount, and as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, he
saw the calf, and the dancing; and his anger waxed hot, and he cast
the tables out of his hands, and break them beneath the mount. And
he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire,
and ground it to powder, and strewed it upon the water, and made
them drink of it. And he stood in the gate of the camp, and said,
“Who is on the Lord’s side? let him come unto me.” And all the sons
of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. Then Moses, by the
command of God, desired the sons of Levi to take their swords and
go in amongst the people, and kill them: and they did so; and there
fell of the people that day about three thousand. And to the rest
of the people Moses said, “Ye have sinned a great sin; and now will
I go up unto the Lord; peradventure I shall make an atonement for
your sin.”
Nadab and Abihu burnt by fire.
[Illustration]
Leviticus x. 1.
Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer,
and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange
fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not. And there went
out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the
Lord. Then Moses said unto Aaron, “This is it that the Lord spake,
saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before
all the people I will be glorified.” And Aaron held his peace. And
Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel, the uncle
of Aaron, and said unto them, “Carry your brethren from before the
sanctuary out of the camp.” So they carried them, as Moses had
said; And Moses said unto Aaron, and unto his sons, “Uncover not
your heads, neither rend your clothes, lest ye die.”
The Spies return from surveying Canaan.
[Illustration]
Numbers xiii. 1.
The children of Israel were thus wonderfully led by the Lord
throughout all their journeys, until they arrived safely on the
borders of the land of Canaan. There God desired Moses, to send men
to search the land of Canaan. And Moses sent twelve men, one man
from each of the tribes or families of Israel, and said unto them,
“Go, see the land what it is, and the people that dwell therein,
whether they be strong or weak, few or many; and what the land is
that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad. And be ye of good
courage, and bring of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the
time of the first ripe grapes. So they went up and searched the
land; and they came to a brook or valley, afterward called Eshcol.
And so beautiful were the fruits they found in this fertile valley
of Eshcol, that they cut down there a bunch of grapes so large that
two men were obliged to carry it between them on a stick: they took
also of the pomegranates and the figs. After forty days spent in
searching the land, they went back to Moses and Aaron, and all the
people, and shewed them the fruit of the land; and they told them
that such were the fruits of the land of Canaan, and that it was
certainly a land flowing with milk and honey; but in other respects
these men gave a very evil account of the land itself, and a very
frightful one of the people that dwelt there, whom they called
giants; saying, “That by the side of them they seemed to themselves
as grasshoppers.” But two of the children of Israel, named Caleb
and Joshua, who were of the twelve who had been sent into the land,
declared unto all the people that what the others had told them was
not true. But the people would not listen to Caleb and Joshua, nor
believe what they said; for their hearts were exceedingly perverse
towards God. And the anger of the Lord was exceeding great against
the children of Israel; and because they had acted in this wicked
manner, God said they should not see the land which he had promised
them; no, not one of them should enter that land, excepting his
servants Caleb and Joshua; but that the rest of the people should
die in the wilderness, and that their children should wander there,
until all those who had now and so often before sinned against the
Lord had died and were buried. Then God said to this wicked people,
“Turn you, and get you into the wilderness, by the way of the Red
Sea.” Now Moses told these sayings to the people of Israel, and
they murmured greatly.
He that violated the Sabbath is stoned.
[Illustration]
Numbers xv. 32.
On one occasion some of the children of Israel found a man
gathering sticks upon the sabbath day. And they put him in ward,
because it had not been declared what should be done to him. And
the Lord said unto Moses, “The man shall be surely put to death:
all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp.”
And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned
him with stones, and he died; as the Lord commanded Moses. And the
Lord spake unto Moses, saying, “Bid them make fringes in the border
of their garments, throughout their generations, and put upon the
fringe of the borders a ribband of blue; that they may remember,
and do all my commandments, and be holy unto their God.”
The earth swalloweth up Korah.
[Illustration]
Numbers xvi. 1.
Now Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, took men; and they rose up before
Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and
fifty princes of the assembly. And they gathered themselves
together against Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, “Ye take
too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every
one of them, and the Lord is among them; wherefore then lift ye
up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord?” And when Moses
heard it, he fell upon his face; and he spake unto Korah, and all
his company, saying, “Even to-morrow, the Lord will shew who are
his, and who is holy; and will cause him to come near unto him.
This do; take you censers, Korah and all his company; and put fire
therein, and put incense in them before the Lord to-morrow, and
it shall be, that the man whom the Lord doth choose, he shall be
holy.” And they took every man his censer, and put fire in them,
and laid incense thereon, and stood in the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation with Moses and Aaron. And Korah gathered all
the congregation against them, and the glory of the Lord appeared
unto all the congregation. And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto
Aaron, saying, “Separate yourselves from among this congregation,
that I may consume them in a moment.” But Moses and Aaron fell upon
their faces, and entreated the Lord to spare the congregation. And
the Lord commanded Moses to speak unto them, and say, “Get you up
from about the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.” So Moses
spake these words unto them, and they obeyed him, and departed
from the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Then Moses said
unto them, “If these men die the common death of all men, then
the Lord hath not sent me; but if the Lord open the mouth of the
earth, and swallow them up, and all that pertaineth unto them, then
ye shall know that these men have provoked the Lord.” And it came
to pass, as he had made an end of speaking these words, that the
ground clave asunder under them; and the earth opened her mouth,
and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that
appertained unto Korah. And there came out fire from the Lord and
consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense. Then
the congregation murmured against Moses, saying, “Ye have killed
the people of the Lord.” And the Lord was angry with the children
of Israel, and smote them with a plague; which, however, was stayed
by the intercession of Aaron.
The Brazen Serpent.
[Illustration]
Numbers xxi. 6.
The children of Israel being obliged to take a longer journey than
they expected before they were permitted to enter the promised
land, murmured against the Lord and against Moses. Then the Lord
in his anger sent fiery serpents among the people, which bit them;
and much people of Israel died. And Moses prayed for the people.
And the Lord said unto Moses, “Make thee a fiery serpent, and set
it upon a pole; and it shall come to pass, that every one that
is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.” And Moses made
a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass,
that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent
of brass, he lived. The children of Israel continued their journey
towards the promised land; none of them, however, who had left
the land of Egypt, save Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son
of Jephunneh, were permitted to enter it, for having sinned so
often against the Lord. Even Moses the servant of the Lord, though
permitted to see it from the top of Mount Nebo, was not permitted
to enter; but died in the land of Moab, when he was an hundred and
twenty years of age. And the children of Israel wept for Moses
thirty days.
FINIS.
THE HISTORY
OF
JOSEPH & HIS BRETHREN,
EMBELLISHED WITH CUTS;
TO WHICH IS ADDED,
THE LIFE, JOURNEYINGS, AND DEATH
OF THE
APOSTLE PAUL.
[Illustration]
GLASGOW:
PRINTED FOR THE BOOKSELLERS.
JOSEPH’S FIRST DREAM.
[Illustration]
In Canaan lived a man of righteousness,
Whom the great God in love was pleas’d to bless
With twelve sweet sons, one Joseph called by name.
Whose worthiness we’ll to the world proclaim.
Being endued with blessings from above,
He gained the favour of his father’s love,
Now while his brothers hated him, behold!
He dream’d a dream, which unto them he told;
Saying, “As we were binding in the field
Our sheaves of wheat, it was to me revealed
That mine arose upright, and yours around,
Stood making low obedience to the ground.”
These words of his, they did anger breed;
They say, must you reign over us indeed?
The like of this was never known before,
Thus for his dreams they hated him the more.
HIS SECOND DREAM.
[Illustration]
Soon after this as Joseph sleeping
Free from the toils and troubles of the day,
He dreamed a second dream, and told the same
Unto his brothers, as to them he came;
Saying, in sleep appeared before my eyes,
The sun, the moon, the seven stars likewise,
All making their obedience unto me,
With meek and humble humility.
He told it likewise to his father dear,
Who chid him, saying, what is this I hear?
Must I, thy mother, and thy brothers too,
Be all obliged to bow the knee to you,
Low on the earth, as if you reigned and ruled:
’Tis very hard that aged parents should
A meek and lowly veneration pay
To you who ought to honour and obey.
HE IS PUT INTO A PIT.
[Illustration]
This very paragraph will clearly show
How they did seek young Joseph’s overthrow,
His father sent him to the rural plain,
Where with their flocks his brothers did remain.
When afar off young Joseph they espied,
Behold, here comes the dreamer now, they cried
Let us conclude to take his life away,
And cast him in a pit without delay,
Then see how all his dreams will come to pass:
But Reuben, Reuben pitied him, alas!
And hid him in the pit, there to remain,
Till he might safe conduct him home again.
What mortal man is able to express,
Poor Joseph’s grief when in the wilderness
He lay confined? no doubt his present fears
Caused his youthful eyes to flow with tears.
HE IS SOLD INTO EGYPT.
[Illustration]
While in the pit young Joseph lay confined,
They sat them down to eat, and ere they dined
Some Ishmaelites from Egypt passed by;
Then Judah made his brothers this reply,
“What shall it profit to us now, I pray,
If we should take this precious life away?”
They all consented to the same with speed,
For loth they were to see their brother bleed.
Then from the lonesome pit the child they drew,
And sold him to those trading merchants, who
A score of silver pieces for him paid,
And then to Egypt he was soon conveyed.
When Reuben found him not, how did he grieve
The rest contrive their father to deceive,
By staining Joseph’s coat with purple blood,
Which caused poor Joseph many a weeping flood.
TEMPTED BY POTIPHAR’S WIFE.
[Illustration]
When Joseph to the land of Egypt came,
One Potiphar a man of noted fame,
Bought him with silver and preferred him straight
Making him steward of his whole estate.
On whom his mistress cast her wanton eyes,
And he reproved her, and said, be wise,
And cast, henceforth, these idle thoughts away--
How can I do that wicked thing, I pray?
Now finding her entreaties would not do,
She went to seize him, but away he flew,
Leaving his garment in her hand also:
Now from that time she proved his mortal foe:
She said, my lord, (when he returned at night,)
Thy Hebrew strove with all his might,
To mock thy lady, but was ne’er the near,
I cried, he fled, and left his garment here.
CAST INTO THE DUNGEON.
[Illustration]
No sooner had she made this false report
Of Joseph’s coming in so vile a sort,
But Potiphar immediately he flew
Into a sad and cruel passion too,
And cast him into prison where he lay
Till the chief butler and the baker, they
By Pharaoh’s strict command were sent to be
Confined from their former liberty.
The baker and the butler both, we find
With dreams one night were much disturbed in mind,
When they to Joseph did themselves apply,
He told them what their dreams did signify;
One he restores unto his former place,
The other, he must die in sad disgrace;
The butler must his former place supply,
The baker by the laws be doomed to die,
HE IS MADE LORD OF THE LAND.
[Illustration]
Still Joseph lay confined in prison fast,
Until two tedious years were gone and past.
At length Pharaoh dreamed, but none in the land
Could his dream interpret or understand.
Then the chief butler to the king did say,
“I needs must own my faults this day:
In prison lies a Hebrew servant there,
Who will the truth of all your dreams declare:”
Then from a prison to a palace straight,
Joseph was brought, and Pharoah did relate
His dreams, and did full satisfaction find,
Which eased the grief and anguish of his mind:
He gave such satisfaction to the king,
That from his royal hand he drew a ring,
And gave it Joseph, saying, “Thou shalt be
Next to myself in royal dignity.”
His Brethren going to buy Corn.
[Illustration]
Behold the dreams of Pharoah did fortell,
A mighty famine, which at length befell;
Joseph in Egypt was head ruler over all;
But when his brothers came, and seemed to fall
Before him, straight his dreams came in his mind
Yet he spoke rough, and seemed most unkind:
You’re spies said he, they answered, no,
We are true men, my lord, pray say not so,
Sons of one man, we twelve in number were,
The youngest now under his father’s care
Remains at home, the other he is not.
He knew them, yet his anger seemed hot,
And for three days they were in prison cast,
Confined they lay, yet Joseph came at last,
And laid upon them all a strict command,
To bring their young brother out of hand.
THE CUP IN BENJAMIN’S SACK.
[Illustration]
When they had eaten up their slender store
Jacob he needs must send them down for more;
But knowing that his youngest son must go,
His eyes with melting tears did overflow.
With presents then they did return again,
And Joseph doth them kindly entertain.
When he his brother Benjamin beheld,
His bowels yearned, his heart with joy was filled;
But here’s a grief which did them all surround,
The nightly lord, his silver cup was found
On Benjamin; this made them sore afraid,
That for that crime they would be captives made:
Then to the house of Joseph they returned,
Judah he pleaded, till his bowels yearned,
To be a captive in his brother’s room,
Lest he should see his father’s threatened doom.
JOSEPH DECLARETH HIMSELF.
[Illustration]
“My lord, hear thy servant now I pray,
Our father, when we brought the child away
Expressed such grief and sorrow for his sake,
That if he stay, his aged heart will break:
Seeing his tears, which fell like showers of rain,
I promised then he should return again.
Therefore, my lord, pray let him go, for I
Am loth to live to see my father die.”
Joseph from tears could now no longer hold:
He said, “I am your brother whom you sold
To Egypt, when on me your anger fell;
And is my father yet alive and well?”
Then on each other’s necks they wept amain.
Their cries were heard, from tears could not refrain
“O fetch my father hither,” Joseph cried,
“That for the family I may now provide.”
JACOB’S JOURNEY INTO EGYPT.
[Illustration]
The sons of Jacob Pharaoh did command,
To take both food and waggons from the land
Of Egypt, to fetch their father straight;
They did, and poor old Jacob’s joy was great
He said, still as his spirits did revive,
It is enough, Joseph is yet alive,
The son for whom I mourned, therefore I
Will go and see him now before I die.
Then on his journey still he doth proceed,
And in the land of Goshen, there indeed
Joseph did meet him, whom he straight did bring
Into the royal presence of the king.
When Jacob before king Pharaoh stood,
His age one hundred and thirty years, a good
Old man was he; Pharaoh gave to his race,
The land of Goshen for a dwelling-place.
JOSEPH VISITS HIS FATHER.
[Illustration]
When Joseph knew his pious father lay
On his sick bed, to him he hastes away,
Joseph he brought Manasseh and Ephraim,
Placed them before his father’s eyes now dim,
At sight of them, cries Jacob, “Who are these?”
“My sons,” says Joseph, “from between my knees.”
When near, he kissed them, and with sweet embrace
Admires his GOD before his Joseph’s face.
These boys of thine which were in Egypt born,
They shall be mine, not orphans or forlorn.
Manasseh he blest, commended to his GOD,
Bids him to mark the steps that Abraham trod,
Displeased was Joseph to see his elder son
Put by, and the younger the blessing won;
But Jacob replied, “Son, I know it well,
For Ephraim shall unto great nations swell.”
JACOB BLESSETH HIS SONS.
[Illustration]
Jacob he calls his first born, Reuben, near,
Weak as the water from the fountain clear;
Simeon and Levi, men of cruelty,
They smote a man, and caused him so to die.
Judah’s bright sceptre shan’t from him depart
Till Shiloh come rejoicing every heart.
Zebulun’s a small port where tall ships may pass,
Issachar well resembles the couchant ass.
Dan as a judge will do his people right,
Gad by a troop at last will win the fight;
Asher his bread is fat, and of a dainty sort,
Naphtali’s a hind loosed for the hunter’s sport.
Joseph’s a bough laden with pleasent fruit,
Near to a well, whose branches sap recruit:
Benjamin like a ravenous wolf doth slay,
Devours his prey, then bears the spoil away.
JOSEPH’S LOVE TO HIS FATHER.
[Illustration]
Filial affection’s to old Jacob good,
When Canaan’s land lay destitute of food,
Then Joseph kind his aged father fed,
When thousands daily starved for want of bread;
His love expressed with mind sedate and calm,
Then with rich spices did his corpse embalm;
When breathless lay upon a bed of down,
He treats blest Jacob, father of renown;
Falls on his clay and with a kind embrace,
Salutes the late most venerable face
Of Pious Jacob, now growing stiff and cold.
It must be so when life is charged to mould,
Plenty of tears did from his eye balls flow,
To show mankind he did his duty know,
That nought’s too much to pay a parent dear,
From children that the awful GOD do fear.
JACOB’S FUNERAL.
[Illustration]
When seventeen long years Jacob had dwelt,
Behold, the fatal hand of death he felt:
To Joseph he commits the special care
Of his great funeral, and tells him where
He would be laid, which was fulfilled at large,
According to the tenor of his charge;
For having yielded up his vital breath,
He dropped into the frozen arms of death.
Numbers of mourning coaches out of hand
Prepared were; thus to his native land
He was conveyed a sleeping-place to have,
Near to the borders of his father’s grave.
Upright he was, and just in all his ways;
Pray now observe the number of his days,
He was, when he dropt off this earthly stage,
One hundred and forty-seven years of age.
THE LIFE OF ST. PAUL.
Saint Paul, though not one of the twelve, yet for his great
eminence in the ministry of the gospel, had the honour to be
styled an apostle, particularly above all the rest that were
not of the number, and hath justly the next place to St. Peter
allotted to him, both in regard they were so conversant in their
lives, and inseparable in their deaths. He was born at Tarsus, not
only of Jewish parents, but originally descended from an ancient
Jewish family of the tribe of Benjamin in Judea, where he had his
education, which was a flourishing Academy, whose scholars (as
Strabo testifies) excelled those of Alexandria, and even Athens
itself. In the schools of this city, he was brought up from his
childhood, and became an excellent proficient in all the polite
learning of the ancients, yet at the same time he was brought up
to a manual trade, as even the most learned of their Rabbins were,
for enabling them to get a livelihood if occasion required it; it
being a maxim (especially amongst the Jews,) that he who teacheth
not his son a trade, teacheth him to be a thief; for learning of
old was not made an instrument to get a maintenance by, but for
the better polishing the mind; so that the learned among the Jews
were frequently denominated (as Drusius observes,) from some one
or other handy-craft trade, as Rabbie Judah, the baker; Rabbie
Jochanan, the Shoemaker, &c.