(29) Then God stirred up a Prophet among them, even Moses, who gave them Laws, and sharp Doctrines, as Nature required; and these were given them (through the Spirit of the great World) in Zeal, in the Fire. Yet seeing they would live still in the Roughness, therefore they were tried [or tempted to see,] Rule, or Dominion. whether they would live in the Father; and God gave them Bread from Heaven, and fed them forty Years, to try what Manner of People they would be, and whether they would by any Means be brought to cleave to God: He gave them Ordinances and Customs [to observe,] in Meats and Drinks, and also a priestly Order, with heavy and hard Precepts and Punishments, which he published also to them; but it availed not, they were only wicked, and walked in the Dominion [or Regimen] of the Stars; and yet far worse, [they walked] altogether according to the Wrathfulness of Hell.

Then follows a very long account of the dealings of Moses, an incarnation of true reason, with Pharaoh, the exponent of mere opinion or illusion. It begins with a long discussion between Moses and Pharaoh. Moses tells Pharaoh that both of them alike owe their bodies to earth and their souls to God, and that God is their only lord. Pharaoh replies that he is lord of Moses, and chides Moses for his want of gratitude to himself for nurturing him in his childhood. Moses replies that he recognizes no lord but God, and reminds Pharaoh how he had tried to kill him in his infancy. Pharaoh complains that he is made of no account by Moses, and Moses retorts that in order to cultivate a waste field it is necessary to break up the soil; and in order to make a good garment, the stuff must first be cut up; and in order to make bread, the wheat must first be ground in the mill, and so on. The best return he can make to Pharaoh for his hospitality to him in his infancy is to set him free from his lust-engendered illusions, like a fish from the fish-hook which has caught him. Pharaoh then twits Moses with his sorceries in changing his staff into a serpent, and thereby beguiling the people. Moses replies that all this was accomplished not by sorcery, like that of Pharaoh's own magicians, but by the power of God, though Pharaoh could not see it, owing to his want of perception of divine things. The ear and the nose cannot see beautiful objects, but only the eye, and similarly the sensual eye, blinded by lust, is impotent to behold spiritual truth. On the other hand, men of spiritual insight, whose vision is purged from lust, become as it were all eyes, and no longer see double, but only the One sole real Being. Man's body, it is true, is formed of earth, but by discipline and contrition it may be made to reflect spiritual verities, even as coarse and hard iron may be polished into a steel mirror. Pharaoh ought to cleanse the rust of evil-doing from his soul, and then he would be able to see the spiritual truths which Moses was displaying before him. The door of repentance is always open. Moses then promised that if Pharaoh would obey one admonition he should receive in return four advantages. Pharaoh was tempted by this promise, and asked what the admonition was. Moses answered that it was this, that Pharaoh should confess that there is no God except the One Creator of all things in heaven and on earth. Pharaoh then prayed him to expound the four advantages he had promised, saying that possibly they might cure him of infidelity, and cause him to become a vessel of mercy, instead of one of wrath. Moses then explained that they were as follows:

(1) Moses said, "Their sorcery confuses them; What can I do? These people have no discernment." God said, "I will generate in them discernment; Although like a sea their waves cast up foam, O Moses, thou shalt prevail over them; fear not!" The magicians gloried in their own achievements, But when Moses' rod became a snake, they were confounded. Whoso boasts of his beauty and wit, Sorcery fades away, but the miracles of Moses advance. Both resemble a dish falling from a roof: The noise of the dish of sorcery leaves only cursing;

(27) Here I will faithfully admonish the Reader, deeply to consider Moses, for shere, under the Vail of Moses, he may look upon the Face of Moses: Also he may see the second Adam in the tLove of the Virgin: Also he may see him in his Temptation, and upon the Cross; as also in Death; and lastly, in the Virtue of the Resurrection at the Right Hand of God: Also you may see Moses on Mount Sinai; and lastly, the Clarification [or Transfiguration] of Christ, Moses and Elias on Mount Tabor: Also you may see herein the whole Scripture of the Old and New Testament: Also you find herein all the Prophets from the Beginning of the World to this Time, and all the Might and Power of all Tyrants, why Things have gone so, and must still go [as they do:] Lastly, you find the golden Gate of the Omnipotence, and of the great Power in the Love and Humility; and why the Children of God must still be tempted; and why the noble Grain of Mustard-Seed must grow in Storms, Crosses, and Misery, and why it cannot be otherwise: Also here you find the Essence of all Essences.

(11) God sent the prophets for this purpose, Namely, to sever infidelity from faith. God sent the prophets to mankind Infidel and faithful, Mosalman and Jew, Before the prophets came, seemed all as one. Before they came we were all alike, Genuine coin and base coin were current alike; The world was a night, and we travelers in the dark, Till the sun of the prophets arose, and cried, "Begone. O slumber; welcome, O pure light!"

(4) Hereupon Reason will say, Is not God the Father one [and the same] Essence with the Son? Answer, Yes. [They are] one Essence and Will. By what Means then did he give the Law? Answer, By the Spirit of the great World; because Adam after the Fall, and all Men, lived therein, therefore it must be tried, whether Man could live therein, in Confidence towards God. Therefore he established it with great Wonders [or Miracles,] and gave uit Clarity, [shining Brightness or Glory;] as may be seen in Moses, who had a [glorious bright] shining Face. And when he had chosen to himself this People, he destroyed the Children of Unbelief, and brought them out with Wonders into the Wilderness; and there it was tried whether Men could live in perfect Obedience under this Clarity, [Glory or Brightness.]

(20) Dost thou suppose that all the Prophets have spoken from the pleasant kind Love of God, from the Heart of God, when they said to the Kings of Israel, Enter into Battle, thou shalt overcome, God shall give you Victory? Indeed they spoke from God, but from his fierce Wrath against Sins, through the Spirit of the great World, which would devour again what it has made, because the Love was extinguished.

(3) But if any one should say, "How then were the people of the Hebrews alone conducted to the supremely Divine illuminations?" we must answer, that we ought not to throw the blame of the other nations wandering after those which are no gods upon the direct guidance of the Angels, but that they themselves, by their own declension, fell away from the direct leading towards the Divine Being, through self-conceit and self-will, and through their irrational veneration for things which appeared to them worthy of God. Even the Hebrew people are said to have suffered the same thing; for He says, "Thou I hast cast away knowledge of God, and hast gone after thine own heart." For neither have we a life governed by necessity, nor on account of the free will of those who are objects of providential care, are the Divine rays of the providential illumination blunted; but the inaptitude of the mental visions makes the overflowing light-gift of the paternal goodness, either altogether unparticipated or inpenetrable to their resistance, or makes the participations of the one fontal ray, diverse, small, or great, obscure, or brilliant, although that ray is one and simple, and always the same and ever overflowing; for even if, over the other nations (from whom we also have emerged to that boundless and bounteous sea of Divine Light, which is readily-expanded for the ready reception of all), certain not alien gods were wont to preside; yet there is one Head of all, and to this, the Angels, who religiously direct each nation, conduct those who follow them. Let us consider Melchizedek as being a Hierarch, most dear to God; (not of gods which are not, but of the truly most high God); for the godly-wise did not call Melchizedek simply dear to God, but also Priest, in order that they may clearly shew to the wise, that not only was he himself turned to the true God, but further that he was guide to others, as Hierarch of the elevation to the true and only Godhead.

(21) Or dost thou suppose that God sent Moses to slay the Kings of the Heathens in the promised Land, and that he is so well pleased with Murderings? No, Friend, look under the Vail of Moses, and thou shalt find it quite otherwise.

(21) For forty years meat and drink came from heaven, My staff became a mighty serpent in my hand, The staff became a snake, and my hand bright as the sun; Have not these incidents, and hundreds more like them, Banished these doubts from you, O cold-hearted one? The calf lowed through magic, And you bowed down to it, saying, 'Thou art my God.' The golden calf lowed; but what did it say, That the fools should feel all this devotion to it? You have seen many more wondrous works done by me,

(34) The prophets answered, "Verily God has created Some qualities in you which you cannot alter; But He has created other accidental qualities, Which, being objectionable, may be made good. Bid stone become gold that is impossible; Bid sand bloom as a rose it cannot; God has sent some pains for which there is no cure, Such, for instance, as lameness, loss of nose, and blindness. God has sent other pains for which there are cures, To wit, crooked mouth and headache. God has ordained these remedies of His mercy;

(4) But that that Moses might not come to see but seldom, and that not without great long travail, Aaron had in his power because of his office, for to see it in the Temple within the Veil as oft as him liked for to enter. And by this Aaron is understood all those the which I spake of above, the which by their ghostly cunning, by help of grace, may assign unto them the perfection of this work as them liketh.

(23) Also when the Heathens should hear, that God would send this People, which he had brought out of Egypt with great Wonders [or Miracles,] among them to destroy them, that they should turn to God and depart from Covetousness, and enter into The Stars order their Government, Brotherly Love, therefore he gave them a long Time of Respite; as also to Israel (whom he fed from Heaven) for an Example, that one People should be an Example to the other, that there is and only evil, and seeing they did live in the Father' fierce Anger, therefore the Anger and Severity of God lusted also to devour them, because they continually kindled P it.

(11) In you too has God created infant needs; When they cry out, their milk is brought to them; God said, "Call on God;" continue crying, Moses said to one of those full of vain imaginations, "O malevolent one, through error and heresy You entertain a hundred doubts as to my prophethood, Notwithstanding these proofs, and my holy character. You have seen thousands of miracles done by me, Through doubts and evil thoughts you are in a strait, I brought the host out of the Red Sea before all men,

The doctrine of the Mu'tazilites, mentioned, that all men's intellects are alike and equal at birth, is again controverted, and the poet dwells on the essential differences which characterize the intellects akin to Universal Reason or the Logos, and those swayed by partial or carnal reason; the former, like the children of Israel, seeking exaltation through self-abasement; and the others, like Pharaoh, running after worldly rank and power, to their own destruction. In order to make probation of men, as already explained, God fills the world with deceptions, making apparent blessings destructive to us, and apparent evils salutary. On the other hand, if men try to deceive God, they fail signally. Hypocritical weeping and wailing like that of Joseph's brethren is at once detected by God. Thus a certain Arab had a dog to which he was much attached; but one day the dog died of hunger. He at once began to weep and wail, and disturbed the whole neighborhood by his ostentatious grief One of the neighbors came and inquired into the matter, and on hearing that the dog had died of hunger, he asked the Arab why he had not fed him from the wallet of food which he had in his hand. The Arab said that he had collected this food to support himself, and made it a principle not to part with any of it to any one who could not pay for it; but that, as his tears cost him nothing, he was pouring them forth in token of the sorrow he felt for his dog's death. The neighbor, on hearing this, rebuked him for his hypocrisy, and went his way. Then follows a commentary on the text, "Almost would the infidels strike thee down with their very looks when they hear the reading of the Koran."

(31) They have no tenderness or gentleness or amity, Love and tenderness are qualities of humanity, Woman is a ray of God, not a mere mistress, The Creator's self, as it were, not a mere creature! Moses and Pharaoh, alike doers of God's will, Verily, both Moses and Pharaoh walked in the right way, Though seemingly the one did so, and the other not. By day Moses wept before God, At midnight Pharaoh lifted up his cry, Saying, "What a yoke is this upon my neck, O God!

(61) And to house and wall, saying, "Afford no shade! Ward not off the pouring rain and the sun's heat;" Till those men hasted to listen to the prophet Shu'aib, Saying, 'O king, have pity; most of us are dead!' When that Omnipotent hand made the staff a serpent, If you have reason, that portent should suffice. You have sight indeed, but fail to mark carefully; The heavenly treasure lies "nearer to us than our neck-vein". The Faqir was in this state when a divine voice came, And God thus solved his difficulties,

(36) The Glossies that are put upon Moses from Reason, will not show you Paradise, much less the Creator. The Prophets and Apostles learned more in the paradisical School in one Hour, than the Doctors in their Schools in thirty Years. One's own Wisdom avails nothing. God gives it to him whom he loves, for nothing. It cannot be bought for Money nor Favour, as King Solomon will tell you.

(7) But now when they were fallen away from God, [as Adam was,] then came Moses and Joshua, and saw the Apostacy [or Falling away,] and broke the Tables in Pieces, and led them into the Wilderness; where they must all die, except Joshua and Caleb: For the Clarity [or Brightness] of the Father in the Fire, in the first Principle, could not bring them into the promised Land; and although they did eat Manna, yet it did not help [in] the Trial, only Joshua, and at length JESUS must do it.

(1) ALTHOUGH in the writings of Moses the spirit has kept the deepest mysteries secret, hidden and concealed in the letter, yet all is so very regularly described that there is no defect at all in the order thereof.