Wisdom:17

---

Seeker Overlay ON

* For great are thy judgments , and cannot be expressed : therefore unnurtured souls have erred . * For when unrighteous men thought to oppress the holy nation ; they being shut up in their houses , the prisoners of darkness , and fettered with the bonds of a long night , lay [there ] exiled from the eternal providence . * For while they supposed to lie hid in their secret sins , they were scattered under a dark veil of forgetfulness , being horribly astonished , and troubled with [strange ] apparitions . * For neither might the corner that held them keep them from fear : but noises [as of waters ] falling down sounded about them , and sad visions appeared unto them with heavy countenances . * No power of the fire might give them light : neither could the bright flames of the stars endure to lighten that horrible night . * Only there appeared unto them a fire kindled of itself , very dreadful : for being much terrified , they thought the things which they saw to be worse than the sight they saw not . * As for the illusions of art magick , they were put down , and their vaunting in wisdom was reproved with disgrace . * For they , that promised to drive away terrors and troubles from a sick soul , were sick themselves of fear , worthy to be laughed at . * For though no terrible thing did fear them ; yet being scared with beasts that passed by , and hissing of serpents , * They died for fear , denying that they saw the air , which could of no side be avoided . * For wickedness , condemned by her own witness , is very timorous , and being pressed with conscience , always forecasteth grievous things . * For fear is nothing else but a betraying of the succours which reason offereth . * And the expectation from within , being less , counteth the ignorance more than the cause which bringeth the torment . * But they sleeping the same sleep that night , which was indeed intolerable , and which came upon them out of the bottoms of inevitable hell , * Were partly vexed with monstrous apparitions , and partly fainted , their heart failing them : for a sudden fear , and not looked for , came upon them . * So then whosoever there fell down was straitly kept , shut up in a prison without iron bars , * For whether he were husbandman , or shepherd , or a labourer in the field , he was overtaken , and endured that necessity , which could not be avoided : for they were all bound with one chain of darkness . * Whether it were a whistling wind , or a melodious noise of birds among the spreading branches , or a pleasing fall of water running violently , * Or a terrible sound of stones cast down , or a running that could not be seen of skipping beasts , or a roaring voice of most savage wild beasts , or a rebounding echo from the hollow mountains ; these things made them to swoon for fear . * For the whole world shined with clear light , and none were hindered in their labour : * Over them only was spread an heavy night , an image of that darkness which should afterward receive them : but yet were they unto themselves more grievous than the darkness .

---