COLLECTANEA.

ABRAHAM'S WIFE; tradition respecting her beauty.

THE rabbies have invented the following singular account of Abraham's conveyance of Sarah into Egypt. He put her into a chest, and locked the cover of the same upon her face, jealous of her beauty being noticed. When he was come to the toll or custom-house, they said, 'Pay us custom,' and he said, 'I will pay the custom.' They said to him, 'Thou carriest clothes;' and he said, 'I will pay for the clothes.' They said to him, 'Thou carriest gold;' and he answered them, 'I will pay for my gold.' They said to him further, 'Thou carriest the finest silk;' then he said to them, 'I will pay for the finest silk?' Farther, they said to him, 'Thou carriest pearls; and he said to them, 'I will pay for the pearls,' and he was willing to pay custom as if he had carried such valuable things. But they said unto him, 'It cannot be, but thou must open, and show us what is within.' And when he had opened the chest, the whole land of Egypt was brightly illumined by the lustre of Sarah."-Allen.

ADAM's designation of the Animals in Paradise allegorized.

The beasts of the field which God brought to Adam, in order that he might give them names, are the unreasonable motions of the flesh. Fowls of the air, are idle thoughts, and empty speculations. The garden of Eden the spiritual purity of the mind and the region of heavenly truth into which Paul was wrapt.-HEYWOOD.

There is a tradition that our first parents were forty days in Paradise.

CHRIST, his nativity, intercession, gracious and miraculous operations spiritualized;-Nature's recognition of her Deity;-—and parallelisms illustrating the Mosaic and Christian dispensations.

Unexpressible is the Sacrament of the nativity of our Lord the God of life, which we ought rather to believe than examine. A virgin conceived and brought forth, which nature affordeth not; use knew not; reason was ignorant of; understanding conceived not. This, at which heaven wondered; earth admired; the creature, was stupefied, what human language is able to deliver! There

fore, the Evangelist, as he opened the conception and birth in a human phrase, so he shut it up in a divine secret. And, this he did to show, that it is not lawful for a man to dispute that which he is commanded to believe. And, again, how can there be the least damage unto modesty when there is interested a Deity? when an angel is the messenger; faith, the bridesmaid; chastity, the contract; virtue, the espouser; conscience, the priest; God, the cause; integrity, the conception; virginity, the birth; a maid, the mother? Let no man, therefore, judge that thing after the manner of man which is done by a divine sacrament; let no man examine a celestial mystery by earthly reason, or a secret novelty, by that which is frequent and common. Let no man measure that which is singular, by example; nor derive contumely from piety; nor run into danger by his rashness, when God has promised salvation by his goodness. What was the necessity that Mary the blessed virgin should be espoused unto Joseph ? but, either because that mystery should be concealed from the devil; and so the false accuser should find no cavil against her chastity, being affianced unto an husband; or else that after the infant was born, he should be the mother's conductor into Egypt and back again. For Mary was the untouched, the unblemished, the immaculate mother of the only begotten Son of God;-the almighty Father and Creator of all things,—of that Son who, in heaven, was without a mother;-on earth, without a father;-in heaven, (according to his Deity,) in the bosom of his Father; on earth, (according to his humanity,) in the lap of his mother.-HEYWOOD.

Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!

Philosophy, therefore, if it required a lesson in humanity, may come to school here. The feeling which prompted these words touched the highest culminating point of human nature, where divinity itself begins.-SIR THOMAS BROWNE.

The fountain with which Paradise was watered is Christ: of the four rivers into which it is often parted, Pison is prudence; Gihon, temperance; Tigris (Hiddekel), fortitude; Euphrates, justice.

That of three things the world has great cause to wonder—of Christ's resurrection after death,-of his ascension to heaven in the flesh, and that by his Apostles, being no better than fishermen, the whole world should be converted. There be four miraculous imitators made by Christ-a fisherman, to be first shepherd of his flocka persecutor, to be first master and teacher of the Gentiles-a publican, to be the first evangelist-a thief, that first entered heaven.

Would we be acquainted with the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, we must make application not to angels, for they are themselves learners, but to Christ himself.-AMBROSE.

As in the earthly Paradise there were four rivers which watered the whole earth; so in Christ, who is our Paradise, we may find four fountains; the first is the fountain of mercy, to wash away our sins by the waters of remission; the second is the fountain of wisdom, to quench our thirst with the waters of discretion; the third is the

fountain of grace, to water the plants of good works with the springs of devotion; and the fourth is the crystal fountain of everlasting life whose refreshing waters issue from the mount of the heavenly Zion.

The heavens knew him, which lent him a bright star to light him into the world. The sea knew him, which against its own nature, made itself passable for his feet. The earth knew him, which shook and trembled at his passion. The sun knew him, which hid its face, and withdrew his beams from beholding so execrable an object as the crucifixion. The stones and buildings knew him, which split and rent themselves asunder. The grave and hell knew him, the one, by yielding up the dead; the other, by witnessing his descension.

The

The Jews reckoned up five several marks of divine favor which distinguished the first temple, and were wanting in the second. The ark of the covenant and the mercy seat which was upon it; the Shechinah or the divine presence; the Urim and Thummim; the holy fire upon the altar; and the spirit of prophecy. Now the absence of those several things was abundantly supplied by the presence of that Divine Person of whom each of them was in some measure typical. Christ may be called the ark, as he was the material representative of the Deity, in whom was deposited the perfect law of God. Like the cedar of which the ark was composed, Christ was incorruptible; and the golden crown of divinity and glory was upon him, as it was upon the ark. Angels attended him in his humiliation, and desired to penetrate the mystery of his incarnation, as the cherubim bent over the mercy seat; so is Christ the meeting place between God and man. Christ was the Shechinah, for he dwelt in the tabernacle among men, the true glory of the Shechinah. Urim and Thummim were not required when the Messiah was on the earth. He only has given those clear oracular answers, which shall ever instruct the world; the others were but typical of that union of light and perfection which met in Him alone. Never but in him were united perfect knowledge and perfect holiness. He is the Great High Priest, who has spoken with the mouth of God. The holy fire was not necessary, it was but typical of that eternal flame of devotion, and purity, and love, which God requires, and Christ exemplified. The spirit of prophecy was not wanted, for on him rested the spirit without measure. He was the prophet like unto Moses, in bringing in a new dispensation; though greater than Moses, for he was perfect in himself, and grace and truth are better than the law. Christ united in himself all these ornaments of the first temple, and He excelled them all, inasmuch as the substance is superior to the shadow. These things, it is true, made the first temple glorious; but the glory of the second temple was indeed greater than that of the first; when Christ uniting all the realities of which the first temple were but typical, presented himself in the second temple, to the admiring and wondering crowd as the true Messiah, the expected Hope and Savior of Israel.

Socinius and his followers believed in the actual translation of Jesus to some celestial region in the interval between his baptism and his entrance upon his public ministry.

CREATION; allegorized.

"That God has taught us by the course he took in framing and fashioning the world, how we must proceed to become a new creation or a new heaven and a new earth, renewed both in soul and body. In the first day, he made the light; therefore the first thing of the new man ought to be the light of knowledge, for saith St. Paul, 'he that cometh to God must know that he is.' On the second day, he made the firmament, so called because of its steadfastness; so the second step in man's new creation must be firmamentum fidei-the sure foundation of faith. On the third day, the seas and trees bearing fruits; so the third step in the new man is, that he become waters of relenting tears, and that he bring forth fruit worthy of repentance. On the fourth day, God created the sun, that whereas on the first day there was light without heat, now on the fourth day there is light and heat joined together; so the fourth step in the new creation of the new man is, that he join the heat of zeal with the light of knowledge; as in the sacrifices, fire and salt were coupled. The fifth day's work was of fishes to play in the seas, and fowls to fly and soar towards heaven; so the fifth step, in a new creature, is to live and rejoice in a sea of troubles, and fly by prayer and contemplation heavenward. On the sixth day, God made man; now all those things before named being performed by Him, man, is a new creature. They are all thus like a golden chain concatenated into several links by Saint Peter." Add to your light of knowledge, the firmament of faith; to your faith, seas of repentant tears; to your tears, the fruitful trees of good works; to your good works, the hot sunshine of zeal; to your zeal, the winged fowls of prayer and contemplation; and so Ecce omnia facta sunt. Behold all things are made new!-HEYWOOD.

DECALOGUE; fetched from heaven by Moses, and the opposition he encountered from angelic interference.

Moses is represented by the Cabalists as having received the law, not as is commonly believed by Christians, by the condescension of the divine Majesty, on Mount Sinai; but by actually ascending into heaven to fetch it. And ample details have been given of the opposition he experienced from numerous and mighty angels, and the means by which he overcame that opposition and surmounted other difficulties and obstacles in his progress through the celestial regions.

DEITY; hieroglyphically represented.

Divers nations, but especially the Egyptians, made certain hieroglyphics to express the sole supremacy of the Deity. First, by the stork, which is a bird that hath no tongue; and God created all things in a temperate and quiet silence: inferring from this that man ought not to speak of him too freely or rashly, nor to search too narrowly into his hidden attributes. They interpreted His infinity by a circle, which hath neither beginning nor an end. So likewise by the eye; for

as in all other creatures, so especially in man the eye is of his other members, the most beautiful and excellent, as the moderator and guide of our affections and actions; so God is the bright eye of the world who by the apostle James is called the Father of men, unto whose eyes all thoughts be naked and open, who looketh upon the good and bad, and searches into the reins of either.-HEYWOOD.

DEVIL; the method and ceremony of the homage performed; and the fealty paid to him, according to the ritual of witchcraft.

First, the magician or witch is brought before the tribunal of Satan, either by a familiar spirit or else by a magi or hag of the same profession, who sits crowned upon a majestic throne, surrounded by a host of other devils, who attend upon him in the capacity and dignity of lords, barons, and princes, richly appareled in the vestments of Tartarean paraphernalia. The palace or parliament-house of his satanic majesty is represented as built of beautiful marble, and the walls of which are hung with gorgeous drapery interwoven with gold and silver and purple covered arras, and designed to augment the pomp of his regality and imperial state. Satan, from his royal seat, casts his eyes round about, as if ready to incline his benign ear, by way of encouragement, to any suitor that may be presented. A devil, of venerable aspect, now steps forth and saith, Most potent lord and master, great patron of the spacious universe, in whose hands are all the riches and treasures of the earth, and all the goods and gifts of the world, this person I present before thine imperial throne, to follow thy standard, and to fight under the patronage of thy great name and power; who is ready to acknowledge thee to be god and creator of all things, and none but thee. It shall be thy clemency, O most sovereign lord, to vouchsafe this man (or woman) the grace of thy benign aspect and receive him (or her) unto thy patronage and favor." To which Satan, with a grave countenance and loud oration answereth, "I cannot but commend this thy friend, who so cordially hath committed himself (or herself) unto our safe guard and trust; whom as our client and favorite we accept, and promise to supply him with all felicity and pleasure, both in this present life and the future." This done, the miserable wretch is commanded to renounce his faith, baptism, the eucharist, and all other holy things, and to confess Lucifer his only lord and governor; which is done with many infernal and execrable ceremonies not befitting to be here mentioned. Then Then is the certificate of initiation and reception written with the blood of the left thumb. After which the devil marks him either in the brow, neck or shoulders, but commonly in the more secret parts, with the stamp or character of the foot of a hare, a black dog, or a toad, or some such figure by which he brands him (as the custom was of old, to stamp their slaves and captives whom they bought for money in the market-places) to become his perpetual slave and vassal; and this the wicked spirit doeth, as desirous to imitate God in all things; who in the Old Testament marked

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