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CHAP. CXVI. The Mountain of the Lord. (Book 116)

VVHo shall ascend into the Mountain of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy Place? He that is innocent in his Hands, and of a clean Heart, who hath not be∣taken his Soul to Vanity, nor hath sworn in deceit to his Neighbour: this Man shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and mercy from God his Saviour: The Words sound, Eternal blessedness. It is so. Notwithstanding, nothing hinders, but that that figural and typical Speech, may also unfold its Truth according to the Letter; seeing it must needs be, that the Type doth co-answer to the thing signified by the Type.

Truly, I have alwayes observed, that almost all the Mysteries of God were celebrated in mountains: For Abraham was commanded to ascend a Mountain, and there to sacrifice his only begotten Son, for a Figure of the Sacrifice that was to be offered in Mount Calvary. God commanded Moses to ascend up into a Mountain, that he might talk with him; and he gave him the Law: And Moses talked with him face to face, for the space of forty dayes and nights. In Mount Horeb, the Lord was transfigured, &c. All which things might have been done in the Desart, and the God of Armies could have encompassed Moses with Lightning and Fire, as well in a Plain, as in a Mountain, that no Mortal might have approached thereunto: but a Mountain was alwayes chosen from a pri∣viledge: And the blessing from the Lord is promised, in ascending unto the Mountain of the Lord: For the Lord could have signified his Precepts unto Moses in a shorter space; neither was there need of forty continual Dayes and Nights, but that also, delay, might by its weight (for delay in natural things, is required for a just or due Efficacy of the matu∣rities of things) denote some hidden Mystery: For naturally, I understand that in Moun∣taines wanting an endemical malignity, there is, not only a most pure Air, far remote from Dreg and Corruption, commonly seperated from Errours, and Defects, and by rea∣son of Colds, most refined from all defilement: but also that there is the Place, from whence, through the continuation of its Magnal, there is a most dispatched in-beaming of the heavenly Bodies, or Influences; because a drinking in of a most pure Skie: For I re∣membred, that one Morning, I being fasting, felt in the Alpes, the sweetness of an in∣breathed Air, the which I never before nor after, felt in all my Life: For it is certain, that the Almighty hath not framed so great a Bunch in Nature, in vain: And it is cer∣tain, that all the Riches of the World are issued out of Mountains: And then, the best Fountains, and most famous Rivers are conversant with us out of Mountains, by reason of their steepness.

In the next place, all Nations which are the inhabitants of Mountains, are of an hardier Body, and of a more vigorous or flourishing Life, than those who inhabit pleasant Fields: Which Effects do manifest their Causes, because a more sweet, and purer Air is there in-breathed, and every Gas being deprived of its Filths, returns into the pure matter of Wa∣ter. But that God lifts up so great an Earth, or the very face of the Earth into an heap, or hath built so many great or rocky Stones upon the same, or hath conjoyned it into one rocky Stone, nor yet hath enriched it with any Mineral, in which respect he might seem to have collected so great an heap; neither doth he rain down Fountains, nor lastly hath poured forth Fruits worthy of so great Borders; but that he hath exalted it above all Tur∣bulences of Air and Clouds, whirlings of Windes, and monstrous omens of Thunder-bolts, into a most pleasing rest of Air; Surely, that thing seems to me, to be dedicated unto a famous Mystery: For the promised blessing did of old, for the most part, respect long Life, and the Commodities thereof, and the fruitfulness of off-springs (that thou mayest be long lived upon the Earth, &c.) Blessing therefore, unto those that ascend into the Mountain of the Lord, according to the Letter, seems in Nature, to have respect unto the Endowments of long Life: For he, who is alone, and wholly the Life, and Prince of Life, doth likewise, give long Life unto none, not so much as by natural Means, who hath betaken his Soul to Vanity. Therefore the blessing of ascending into the Mountain of the Lord, seemes to contain a long continuance of Life.

Therefore those most high Mountains, which are read to be endowed by Nature for no Fruits sake, and the which pertain unto the sweetness of a not much disturbed Air, seem

to promise a singular 〈…〉〈…〉 or Likeness of the Mountain of the Lord and of a long Life: And that thing is from a certain singular prerogative before other Mountains, and that they may as it were by that right, have the surname of the Mountain of the Lord: for if it reach beyond all the incidencies of inferiour things, it after a singular manner, promiseth unto me, that God is there after a peculiar manner. For he that was not in the Whirle-wind, but in the sweet Air, was perceived by Elias: He, he I say, hath his Mansion in the same place; that is, the Prince of Life doth there give his blessing: Not indeed, that which may be communicated in a few houres; but being signified to Moses in Mount Sinai, in the revolution of forty dayes (to wit, by two full Moons:) For he who could every year continually stay for forty dayes in the Mountain of Rest, about the Feast of the building of Tabernacles, the Commodities of living being called unto him from else∣where, I divine that he might much profit himself for long Life, especially if he were there daily refreshed with a Medicine prepared of the Tree of Life; because that in such a Moun∣tain, by reason of a notable Purity of the Air, there is a greater co-mixture of the Nou∣rishment with the Body nourished, and a more piercing access unto the first constitutive parts. Lastly, although the highest Mountains do bear before them the priviledge of long Life; Yet those that are less high, promise some singular thing, from the sense perceived in the Alpes. Nevertheless, I alwayes reject Mountains, which breath forth some Mine∣ral Gas: For therefore, in Chymical things, Arsenick hath obtained the name of the fume of Mettals. But unto whom the Commidity of living in a healthy Mountain, should be granted, and that not great with Child with the Fruits of Minerals, they certainly should rejoyce in the benefit of long Life, so far as the Nature of the place hath bestowed.