angels going up and down, are the great ministers of God's Providence, by whom he manages all things here below, and who are never idle but always in motion to succour and assist the servants of God. Their ascending shows their going to receive the divine commands, and the descending the execution of them. Or to speak more particularly of Jacob's present condition, one signified their safe conduct of him in his journey to Padan Aram, and the other, their bringing him home again. Above the whole appeared the Almighty as the immovable director of all events, from which all things proceed as the first cause, and return at the last end." When Jacob awoke, the awful impression remained on his mind; and he felt a holy dread at the idea that this was the place where the Majesty of Heaven held communion with mankind on earth. Though the visitation was full of love and promise, yet there was something in it awful and tremendous, that it made Jacob afraid, and he said, "How dreadful is this place! This is none other than the house of God; and this is the gate of Heaven." Gen. xxviii. 17.

521 Wafted by Angels, or flew o'er the lake

The beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. Luke xvi. 22. 522 Rapt in a chariot drawn by fiery steeds.

Behold a chariot of fire, and horses of fire,and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. 2 Kings ii. 11.

When great Elijah in the fiery car,
Flam'd visible to heaven, a living star,

A seer remained to thunder what he knew, And with his mantle caught his spirit too. 531 Over the promis'd land to God so dear,

The land of Canaan, in Asia, has had the several names of the Land of Promise, the Land of Israel, Palestine, Judea, and the Holy Land.

It received the name of the Land of Promise, because God had promised to give it to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 535 From Paneas the fount of Jordan's flood.

The Jordan, a river in Palestine, which it crosses from north to south, and falls into the Red Sea, near the spot where Sodom and Gomorrah stood.

536 To Bëersaba where the Holy Land

Beersaba, a place in Canaan; the Holy Land is bounded on the north by Syria, on the east and south by Arabia, and on the west by the Mediterranean.

537 Borders on Egypt

Egypt is a narrow vale on both sides of the Nile, bounded by parallel ridges of mountains or hills, in Africa. It is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea, on the north; by the Red Sea, east; by Abyssinia, or the Upper Ethiopia, on the south; and by the Desert of Barca, and the unknown parts of Africa on the west.

and th' Arabian shore;

Arabia, a country in Asia. The climate is very various; in some parts it is excessively hot and dry, and subject to poisonous winds. In other parts the soil is fertile, and the air highly salubrious. In the desert travellers are guided

557

by the stars and compass, as mariners are at sea. Arabia is divided into three parts; Arabia Stony, Arabia the Desert, and Arabia Felix, or happy. Stony Arabia is a small province, north of the Red Sea, between Egypt and Palestine: The chief town is Suez. Between the narrow branches of the northern extremity of the Red Sea, are Mount Sinai and Mount Horeb; on which are several cells or chapels possessed by the monks. Arabia the Desert is the middle part of the country, the inhabited parts of which lie on the borders of the Red Sea. In Arabia is the wilderness through which the children of Israel were forty years in passing from Egypt to Canaan. from eastern point

Of Libra

The seventh constellation, the autumnul equinox is expressed by the balance or scales, in equilibro, because the days and nights being then of the same length, seem to make an equilibrium like that instrument. Hence this constellation is called by Virgil, “Astrea's balance”.

But when Astrea's balance hung on high,

Betwixt the nights and days, divides the sky. Astre was called Justice, of which virtue she was goddess. She lived on earth, as the poets mention, in the golden age. All men were happy, and all men were good; the earth brought forth its fruits without the labour of man, and cares, wants, and diseases were unknown; but this happy state of man did not last long; in the golden age, innocence and brotherly love were a pleasing spectacle. But the impiety of mankind drove

her to heaven, in the brazen or iron ages, when she left the earth in disgust, and our ingenious astronomers ranked her in the zodaic, under the name of Virgo. This sign enters in August, and leaves in September, when our best and most useful fruits are ripening, and the peasants are working "under the sweat of their brow,' to hasten the harvest home, (to burn the faggot), at length it arrives; and the beverage which Ceres has ripened, crown their happiness-it is nectar, the surloin and plum pudding, the terrestrial ambrosia. The equinoctial points are the beginning of Aries and Libra, called the vernal and autumnul equinoxes.

Andromeda

to the fleecy star that bears

The fleecy star, Aries, emblem of the ram. The figures of the twelve signs are supposed by Dr. Jennings and other astronomers to be Egyptian hieroglyphics, by which they designed to exhibit some natural occurrence in each month: thus the first three months beginning from the vernal equinox were remarkable for the fleecy kind, namely sheep and goats, first the lamb, represented by their parent the ram. Andromeda was after death made a constellation; she was the daughter of Cepheus, king of Ethiopia. The marine god, Neptune, was displeased with Cassiope, Andromeda's mother, and would not be appeased unless she was exposed to the sea monster on a rock. Perseus on his return from the conquest of the Gorgons, proposed to release her, if as a reward he might receive her in

marriage.

Cepheus consented, and Perseus

released Andromeda, and changed the sea monster

into a rock.

Minerva thus to Perseus lent her shield,

Secure of conquest sent him to the field;
The hero acted what the queen ordain'd,

So was his fame complete, and Andromeda
unchain'd.

560 Beyond th' horizon;

Is that circle which bounds the sight of any person, who being placed either in a large plain, or in the midst of the sea, looks round about; and by which the earth and heavens seem to be join'd, as it were, with a kind of closure. It is also called the sensible or visible horizon. 568 Like these Hesperian gardens fam'd of old

576

Hesperia, an Island of Africa, this celebrated garden abounded with fruits of the most delicious kind, which was guarded by a dragon that never slept. It was one of the twelve labours of Hercules, to destroy the monster, and to bring away some golden apples. The fable of this mythology is supposed to have arisen from an ambiguous word signifying sheep, and an apple. The Hesperides were persons who kept an immense number of flocks.

where the great luminary

The sun, which seems to perform its daily stages through the sky, is, in this respect, fixed and immoveable. 'Tis the great axle of heaven, about which the globe we inhabit, and other more spacious orbs, wheel their stated courses. The sun, though seemingly smaller than the dial it