Chapter XI: Part 11

Fearing that the Lord might forbear punishing them if they repented, and so seemingly tarnish his honour, Jonah shipped himself at Joppa for Tarshish, when a storm quickly pursued the ship wherein he was. The heathen mariners awaked him, and required him to call on his God for deliverance. Lots being cast to discern for whose sake the storm arose, the lot fell on Jonah, who with shame confessed his guilt to the mariners, and desired them to cast him into the sea, that the storm might be stayed, which with reluctance, they were at last obliged to do; whereon the storm immediately ceased. A large fish swallowed up Jonah, and retained him safe in her belly for three days. There he earnestly prayed to the Lord, at whose command the fish vomited him alive on dry land. His orders to warn the Ninevites of their approaching destruction were immediately renewed, and all obedient, he hasted to that vast city, and travelled in it above a day’s journey denouncing their ruin if they did not repent within forty days. When the inhabitants heard this, they were greatly afflicted; a fast of three days both for man and beast was appointed, and they cried mightily to God for the preventing of this stroke; he heard their prayers, and long delayed their ruin. Displeased with the divine mercy, Jonah angrily wished to die, rather than live and see his prediction unfulfilled. While he sat without the city, waiting for his desired view of Nineveh’s ruin, God caused a gourd quickly to spring up to overshadow him from the scorching heat of the sun, but next day, a worm having bitten its root, it suddenly withered. The scorching sun and blasting wind vehemently beating on Jonah, he fainted and angrily wished to die, and averred to God himself that he was right in doing so. The Lord bid him think, if he had pity on the short-lived gourd, was there not far more reason for his and their maker to pity the penitent inhabitants of Nineveh?

Nineveh at last was destroyed about one hundred years after Jonah. The Medes and Persians had several times laid siege to it, but were diverted by various accidents; but after the massacre of the Tartars in Media, they repeated the siege, Cyaxares and Nebuchadnezzar being the commanders: after they had lain before it three years, the river Tigrus or Sycus, being exceedingly swollen, washed away two and a half miles of the wall; when the waters assuaging the besiegers rushed into the city, and murdered the inhabitants, who lay buried in their drunkeness, occasioned by an advantage which they had just before gained over the enemy. When the king, whose name we suppose was Sardanapalus, heard the city was taken, it is said, he shut up himself, family, and wealth to the value of about twenty-five thousand millions sterling, in the palace, and then set fire to it, and destroyed all that was in it, and it was fifteen days before the flames were quenched.

It is hard to say what was the gourd that covered Jonah’s head at Nineveh: Jerome says, it was a small shrub, which, in the sandy places of Canaan, grows up in a few days to a considerable height, and with its large leaves forms an agreeable shade. It is now generally thought to be the _Palma Christi_, which is somewhat like a lily, with large smooth and black spotted leaves; one kind of it grows to the height of a fig-tree, and whose branches and trunk are hollow as a reed; there is also the wild gourd, which creeps along the surface of the earth, as those of cucumbers; its fruit is of the size and form of an orange, containing a light substance, but so excessively bitter that it has been called the gall of the earth.

I have now given you a short account of the History of Jonah, which could be greatly enlarged if space would permit--also the command given by God to preach at Nineveh--Jonah’s disobedience to that command--the pursuit and arrest of him for that disobedience by a storm, in which he was asleep--the discovery of him and his disobedience to be the cause of the storm--the casting of him into the sea, for the stilling of the storm--the miraculous preservation of his life there in the belly of a fish, which was his preservation for further services. We have also Jonah’s praying unto God: in his prayer we have, the great distress and danger he was in--the despair he was thereby almost reduced to--the encouragement he took to himself in this deplorable condition--the assurance he had of God’s favour to him--the warning and instruction he gives to others--the praise and glory of all given to God--his deliverance out of the belly of the fish--and his coming safe and sound upon dry land again--his mission renewed--and the command a second time given him to go preach at Nineveh--his message to Nineveh faithfully delivered, by which its speedy overthrow was threatened--the repentance, humiliatian, and reformation of the Ninevites hereupon--God’s gracious revocation of the sentence passed upon them, and the preventing of the ruin threatened. We have also Jonah’s repining at God’s mercy to Nineveh, and the fret he was in about it--the gentle reproof God gave him for it, Jonah’s discontent at the withering of the gourd, and justifying of himself in that discontent--God’s improving of it for his conviction, that he ought not to be angry at the sparing of Nineveh. Man’s badness and God’s goodness serve here for a foil to each other, that the former may appear the more exceeding sinful, and the latter the more exceeding gracious.

From all this we may learn, _First_, that though God may suffer his people to fall into sin, yet he will not suffer them to lie still in it, but will take a course effectually to show them their error, and to bring them to themselves, and to their right mind again. We have reason to hope that Jonah, after this, was well reconciled to the sparing of Nineveh, and was as well pleased with it, as ever he had been displeased.

_Second_, that God will justify himself in the methods of his grace toward repenting returning sinners, as well as in the course his justice takes with them that persist in their rebellion, though there are those that murmur at the mercy of God, because they do not understand it, (for his thoughts and ways therein are as far above ours as heaven is above the earth) yet he will make it evident that therein he acts like himself, and will be justified when he speaks. See what pains he takes with Jonah, to convince him that it was very fit that Nineveh should be spared. Jonah had said, I do well to be angry, but he could not prove it; God says, I do well to be merciful, and proves it; and it is a great encouragement to poor sinners to hope that they shall find mercy with him, that he is so ready to justify himself in showing mercy, and to triumph in those whom he makes the monuments of it, against those who is evil because he is good; such murmurers shall be made to understand this doctrine, that how narrow soever their souls and their principles are, and how willing soever they are to engross divine grace to themselves, and those of their own way, their is one Lord over all, that is rich in mercy to all that call on him, and in every nation, Nineveh as well as in Israel, he that fears God, and works righteousness, is accepted of him, and he that repents and turns from his evil way shall find mercy with him.

Did not the fate of this prophet typify our Saviour’s being cast into the raging sea of divine wrath; his lying a part of three days in the grave; his glorious resurrection from the dead; and the publication of his gospel to multitudes of perishing sinners that followed.

We cannot close more fitly, perhaps than by extracting a few lines from the powerful summing up by the poet Young.

“What am I? and from whence?--I nothing know,
But what I am: and since I am, conclude
Something eternal: had there e’er been nought,
Nought still had been: eternal there must be.
But what eternal?--Why not human race?
And Adam’s ancestors without an end?
That’s hard to be conceiv’d. Yet grant it true,
Whence earth and these bright orbs?--Eternal too?
Grant matter was eternal, still these orbs
Would want some other father;--much design
Is seen in all their motions, all their makes:
Design implies intelligence, and art;
That can’t be from themselves, or man; that art
Man scarce can comprehend, could man bestow?
Who motion, foreign to the smallest grain,
Shot through vast masses of enormous weight?
Who bade brute matter’s restive lump assume
Such various forms, and gave it wings to fly?
Has matter innate motion? then each atom,
Asserting its indisputable right
To dance, would form an universe of dust:
Has matter none? Then whence these glorious forms
And boundless flights, from shapeless, and repos’d?
Has matter more than motion?--has it thought,
Judgment, and genius?--is it deeply learn’d
In mathematics? Has it fram’d such laws,
Which but to guess a Newton made immortal?--
If so, how each sage atom laughs at me,
Who thinks a clod inferior to a man!
If art to form, and counsel to conduct,
And that with greater far than human skill,
Resides not in each block--a Godhead reigns--
And if a God there is, that God how great!”

THE

HISTORY OF MOSES;

GIVING AN

Account of his birth, his being found by Pharaoh’s daughter in
the ark of bulrushes, and the miracles wrought by him for the
deliverance of the children of Israel.

EMBELLISHED WITH CUTS.

GLASGOW:
PRINTED FOR THE BOOKSELLERS.

The finding of Moses.

Exodus ii. 1.

Moses was the son of Amram and Jochebed, of the tribe of Levi, and was born in Egypt. In consequence of the decree of Pharaoh for putting the male children of the Hebrews to death, his mother seeing that he was a goodly child, hid him three months. At length when she could no longer hide him, she made for him with her own hands a little cradle of bulrushes, which she daubed with slime and pitch to keep out the water, and having put the child into it, she laid it among the flags by the edge of the river Nile. She then left his sister at a little distance from the spot to watch the cradle. A short time after Jochebed had left her child, the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe herself in the river, and when she saw the little ark, she sent her maid to fetch it. And when she opened it, she saw the child, and behold the child wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, “This is one of the Hebrew’s children.” And the sister of the child, who had seen all that had passed, came to the princess, and said to her, “Shall I go and call thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?” And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go:” and the maid went and called the child’s mother. And the woman took the child and nursed it. And we read that the child grew under the tender care of his mother, and that she took him when he was old enough unto Pharaoh’s daughter, who brought him up as her own son. And she called his name Moses, which, in the Egyptian tongue, means one saved out of the water.

As the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, Moses was educated in a magnificent and princely manner, yet Moses did not forget his own people, or his father’s house. In his visits to his own people, Moses saw and pitied the miseries which they had to bear from the cruelty of King Pharaoh. He saw their sufferings, and could no longer be happy in the court of Egypt, among the enemies of his people and of their religion. His faith made him more proud of the name of Israelite then he had ever been of being called the adopted son of King Pharaoh’s daughter. Once more among his own people, he found it very difficult to see with patience all that they had to bear; and on one occasion we read that he saved a Hebrew from the hand of an Egyptian who was smiting him, and slew the Egyptian. When Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. And Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian, and lived several years with Jethro, who gave him one of his daughters for his wife.

The burning Bush.

Exodus iii. 1.

One day, when Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire, out of the midst of a bush. And Moses said, “I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.” Then God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, draw not nigh hither; put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. And the Lord commissioned him to deliver his people Israel. But Moses was afraid when he heard what God commanded him to do; because he thought himself unworthy of such an office, and unfit for it. But it pleased God to assure him, that he would be with him, to guide and protect him.

The Plagues of Egypt.

Exodus viii. 1.

Now Moses and Aaron went as the Lord commanded them, and told the people all that the Lord had spoken unto Moses, and did wonders before them. And Moses and Aaron went in and said to King Pharaoh, “Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.’” And Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.” And from that day Pharaoh made the children of Israel work harder than they had ever done before, desiring that they might no longer have straw given them to make their bricks of, but that they should from that time be obliged to find their own straw, and at the same time get done as much work as they did when they had straw given them. Then when God saw the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart, he commanded Moses to go to Pharaoh in the morning, when he took his walk by the river, and to take his rod in his hand, and to smite the waters of the river before him, which should all be turned into blood. And the fish that were in the river died, and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. Seven days did this sad change in the waters last; but still Pharaoh would not listen to the voice of Moses and Aaron. Then God told Moses to stretch forth his hand over the river, and over all the waters, and to bring frogs over all his people: and Moses did so; and frogs came over all the land of Egypt, as the Lord said. Then Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron, and said, “Entreat the Lord, that he may take away the frogs from me, and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may so sacrifice unto the Lord.” But no sooner did the Lord hear the voice of Moses, and take away this evil from Pharaoh and his people, than the king forgot what he had suffered, and would not let the Israelites go. Great and dreadful were the plagues that the Lord brought upon the land of Egypt before the King would let the children of Israel go. At one time, he covered the whole land, both man and beast, with the most disgusting kind of insects--at another, he sent grievous swarms of flies to torment them--now, he sent mighty hails, and thunderings, and rains upon the land, which were exceeding terrible, filling the hearts of the people with fear--then, he destroyed all the first-born of the land, both man and beast.

The Passover.

Exodus xii. 3.

On the evening before the Passover God commanded that every family of Israel should slay a lamb, and sprinkle the door-posts before the houses with the blood of the lamb; that so, when the angel of the Lord came down to destroy the first-born of Egypt, he might know the houses of Israel from those of Egypt, and pass over them, and save those that dwelt in them from death. This lamb was to be called the Passover, because God should pass over those houses whose doors were sprinkled with its blood. This was the last supper which the children of Israel were ever to eat in Egypt, even the feast of the Passover. They kept up this feast every year, in order that they might remember the night when the Lord smote the Egyptians.

The passage of Israel through the Red Sea.

Exodus xiv. 15.

We now see the children of Israel, delivered by the almighty power of God from Egypt and from Pharaoh, travelling towards the land that God had promised to their fathers. The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way, and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light. When they had thus got as far as Pi-hahiroth, which borders on the Red Sea, they lifted up their eyes, and behold the Egyptians marched after them. So hardened was king Pharaoh’s heart, that scarcely had the Israelites gone out of Egypt before he was sorry that he had let them go. And he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt and captains over every one of them, and passed after the children of Israel, and overtook them by the sea, beside Pi-hahiroth. Then the children of Israel were sore afraid, and cried unto the Lord. The Red Sea before them, the Egyptians behind, they saw no hope of safety; and they were full of anger against Moses, for having brought them out of Egypt. But the Lord said unto Moses, “Lift up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it; and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.” And the angel of the Lord, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them, and came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; so that the one came not near the other all the night. And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. But that foolish and wicked man Pharaoh, still set himself against God, and madly pursued the Israelites into the midst of the sea. But so soon as the Israelites had passed over on dry land, and safely reached the shore, the Lord said unto Moses, “Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.” And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared, and the Egyptians fled against it; but the Lord overthrew them in the midst of the sea, and the waters returned, and covered the chariots and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them: and Israel saw their dead bodies upon the sea shore. Thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians.

Israel fed from Heaven.

Exodus xvi. 1.

We read in the Bible, that after they had crossed the Red Sea, they came into the wilderness of Chur. While travelling onwards through the wilderness of Sin they suffered from hunger, and murmered against Moses and Aaron. But again God heard their cries, and sent them bread from heaven to eat. The Lord said unto Moses, “Behold I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day--at even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread.” And in the morning there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar-frost, on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, “It is manna.” And Moses said, “This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.”

Moses Smiting the Rock.

Exodus xvii. 1.

We now find the children of Israel travelling from the wilderness of Sin, and, according to the commandment of the Lord, pitching their camp at Rephidim. There being no water here, we find those stubborn and rebellious people, saying unto Moses, “Give us water that we may drink; wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us, and our children, and our cattle, with thirst?” The Lord had shewed them signs and mighty wonders in the land of Egypt--he had delivered their children from the sword of the destroying angel, when all around them was anguish and dismay--he heard them when they cried and groaned under the lash of the oppressor, amid the brick-kilns of Egypt, and emancipated them from the same--he opened a passage for them in the mighty waters at the Red Sea, when about to fall a prey to the rage and fury of Pharaoh king of Egypt--moreover, he had given them bread to eat in the wilderness when they hungered for the same; and was still able to give them what they now desired. But they, instead of praying to the Lord that he would once more condescend to look down with compassion upon them, and grant them their request, reproached, and murmured against Moses, the servant of the Lord. And Moses said unto them, “Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the Lord?” Moses tired of their complaints and discontent, felt that he could do nothing with the people under his care; but knew that the Lord could either quench there thirst, or put a stop to their rage. He, therefore, cried unto the Lord, and said, “What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.” Nor did he cry in vain, for the Lord said unto him, “Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb, and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink.” And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. Thus did God open streams in the desert--he clave the hard rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink thereof, as it had been out of the great depth--he brought waters out of the strong rock, so that it gushed out like rivers: and this he did although his people had sinned against him, and provoked the Most High in the wilderness.

The Law given from Mount Sinai.

Exodus xix. 10.

Now the children of Israel encamped before Mount Sinai. Then God 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

GLASGOW:
PRINTED FOR THE BOOKSELLERS.

JOSEPH’S FIRST DREAM.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

“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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.