and faid to him, that he would no more pour out his curfe upon the whole earth, nor no more deftroy all the animals as he had now done. He gave Noah power over all the brute creation, and permitted him to eat of them, as of the herbs and fruits of the earth, except only the blood, the ufe of which God did not allow him. He bid him increase and multiply; made a covenant with him; and God engaged himself to fend no more an univerfal deluge upon the earth and as a memorial of his promife, he fet his bow in the clouds, to be as a pledge of the covenant he made with Noah. Gen. ix. 13, 14. Arcum me um ponam in nubibus, apparebit arcus meus in nubibus." Cumque obduxero nubibus calum, apparebit arcus meus in nubibus. Noah being an husbandman, began to cultivate the vine; and having made wine and drank thereof, he unwarrily made himself drunk, and fell afleep in his tent, and happened to uncover himself in an indecent pofture. Ham, the father of Canaan, having obferved him in this condition, made himself fport with him, and acquainted his two brothers with it, who were without; but they, inftead of making it a matter of fport, turned away from it, and going backwards, they covered their father's nakednefs by throwing a mantle over him. Noah awaking, and knowing what Ham had done, faid that Canaan, the fon of an, fhould be accurfed, that he fhould be a flave of flaves in respect of his brethren. It is thought he had a mind to fpare the perfon of his fon Ham for fear the curfe might light upon the other children of Ham, who had no part in this action; he curfed Canaan by a fpirit of prophecy, because the Canaanites, his defcendants, were after this to be rooted out by the Ifraelites. Noal added, "Let the Lord the God of Shem b:bleffed and September, 1810. let Canaan be the fervant of Shem;" and he was fo in effect, in the perfon of the Canaanites fublued by the Hebrews. Laftly, Noah faid," Let God extend the poffeffion of Japhet; let Japhet dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his fervant." This prophecy had its accomplishment, when the Grecians, and afterwards the Romans, being defcended from Japhet, made a conquest of Afia, which was the portion of Shem. But Noah lived yet after the deluge three hundred and fifty years, and the whole time of his life having been nine hundred and fifty years, he died in the year of the world 2006. He left three fons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet; and according to the cominon opinion, he divided the whole world amongst them, in order to re-people it. To Shen he gave Afia; to Ham Africa, and Europe to Japhet. Some will have it, that befides these three fons, he had feveral others. The fpurious Berofus gives him thirty, called Titans, from the name of their mother called Tica. They pretend the Teutons or Germans are derived from a fon of Noah, called Thuiscon. The falfe Methodius makes mention of Jonithus or Jonicus, à pretended fon of Noah. St. Peter (Epistle ii. 2, 5.) calls him "a preacher of justice," becaufe before the deluge he was in. ceffantly preaching and declaring to men, not only by his difcourfes, but by his innocent, irreproachable life, and by the building of the ark, in which he was employed a hundred and twenty years, that the wrath of God was ready to pour upon them; but his preaching had no effect, fince when the deluge came, it found mankind plunged in their former irregularities. Matt. ii. 37. Several learned men have obferved that the Heathens confounded Saturn, Deucalion, Ogyges, the god Cælus or Ouranus, Janus, Protheus, 3 E Promotheus, Promotheus, Vertamnius, Bacchus, Ofiris, Vadimon and Nifuthrus, &c. with Noah. The wife of Noah is called by the Gnoftics, Noriah, and the fable of Deucalion, and his wife Pyrrha, is manifeftly invented from the hiftory of Noah. The Rabbins pretend, that God gave Noah and his fons, (all whom that are not of the chofen race of Abraham they call Noachida) cer. tain general precepts, which contain, according to them, the precepts of the law of nature common to all men indifcriminately, and the obfervation of which alone will be fufficient to fave them. After the law of Mofes, the Hebrews would not fuffer any flranger to dwell among them, unless he would conform to the precepts of the Noachida; in war they put to death without quarter all that were ignorant of them. Thefe precepts are feven in number. The first directs that obedience be paid to judges, magiftrates and prin ces. The fecond forbids the worship of falfe gods, fuperftition, and facrilege. The third forbids curling the name of God, blafphemies and falle oaths. The fourth forbids all incestuous and unlawful conjunctions, and crimes againit nature. The fifth forbids the effufion of blood of all forts of animals, murder, wounds and mutilations. The fixth forbids thefts, fraud, cheats, lying, &c. The feventh forbids to eat the parts of an animal till alive, as was practifed by fome Pagans, according to Arnobius contra gentes. Lib. 5. To thefe the Rabbins have added fome others, but as no mention is made of them in fcripture, or in the writings of Jofephus, Philo, Onkelus or any of the ancient fathers, we are inclined to doubt of the authenticity or antiquity of these precepts. RAINBOW. (From the French.)" The rainbow, or fimply the bow, is a meteor in form of a parti-coloured arch, or femi-circle, exhibited in a rainy fky, oppofite to the fun, by the refraction of his rays in the drops of falling rain. There is a fecondary, or fainter bow, ufually feen, invefting the former at fome diftance, and among naturalifts we alfo read of lunar rainbows, marine rainbows, &c. The rainbow, Sir Ifaac Newton obferves, never appears but when it rains in the fun-fhine; and it may be reprefented artificially, by contriving water to fall in little drops like rain, through which the fun fhining, exhibits a bow to a spectator placed between the fun, and the drops, efpecially if a dark body, as black cloth, be difpofed beyond the drops. Ant. de Dominis first accounted for the rainbow in 1611; he explained at large how it was formed by refraction and reflection of the funbeams in fpherical drops of water, and confirmed his explications by experiments made with glass globes &c. full of water; wherein he was followed by Defcartes, who mended and improved on his account ; but as they were both in the dark as to the true origin of colours, their explications are defective, and in fome fort erroneous. This is one of the glories of the Newtonian doctrine of colours to fupply and correct. he rainbow was the fign or token which God appointed, as a confirmation of the truth of his promife to Noah, that he would not any more deftroy the earth by a general deluge, or disturb the order of nature and the feveral seasons of the year, and their regular viciffitudes, Genefis ix. 11. Whether the rainbow was previous or fubfequent to the deluge has been a matter much debated among the Jearned. It cannot indeed be denied, but this curious mixture of light and fhade, arifes naturally from the fuperficies of those parts which conftitute a cloud, when the rays of the fun from the adverse part of the hemifphere are darted upon it, and for this reafoo, whenever there is the like difpofition of the fun to the cloud, it may be imagined that the fame phonomenon may be feen, and confequently at certain times has been feen, not from the deluge only, but from the first foundation of the world But as this opinion has nothing in fcripture to enforce it, fo are there no grounds in nature to give it any fanction, unless we affert this manifeft untruth--that every difpofition of the air, and every density of a cloud, is fitly qualified to produce a rain bow. This meteor, as the fcripture in forms us, was appointed by God to be a witness of his covenant with the new world, and a meffenger to fecure mankind from deftruction by deluges -fo that had it appeared before the flood, the fight of it afterwards would have been but a poor comfort to Noah and his pofterity, whofe fear of an inundation was too violent ever to be taken away by a common and ordiBary fign. But if we fuppofe, on the other hand, that the rainbow firft appeared to the inhabitants of the earth after the deluge, nothing could be a more proper and appofite fign for Providence to pitch upon, in order to confirm the promise made to Noah and his pofterity that the world would be no more deftroyed by the water. The rainbow had a fecret connection with the effect itfelf, and fo far was a natural fign; and as it appeared first after the deluge and was formed in a thin watery cloud, there is a great eafinefs and propriety of its application for fuch a purpose: for if we fuppofe, that while God Almighty was declaring his promife to Noah, and what he intended for the fign of it, there appeared at the fame time in the clouds a fair rainbow, that marvellous and beautiful meteor, which Noah had never seen before, it could not but make a moft lively impreffion upon him, enlivening his faith, and giving him comfort and affurance that God would be steady to his purpofe. The ingenious Marcus Marei is of opinion, that the rainbow which appeared to Noah after the flood, and was fo particularly dignified by God as to be confecrated for a divine fign was not the common one, but a great and univerfal Iris, inimitable by art, which he had defined, a fegment of a circle, diffected into feveral gyrations, or rounds, by the diverfity of colours, differing one from another, begotten by the fun-beams reflected in the atmosphere, and terminated with an opaque fuperfices; but whether this serves to explain the matter any better, or whether the common rainbow be not an appearance illustrious enough to answer the purpofes for which it was intended, we leave the curious to enquire, and fhall obferve farther, that whether it was an ordinary or extraordinary bow which appeared to Noah, it is the opinion of fome, that the time of its first appearing was not immediately after he had facrificed, as is generally fuppofed; but on the 150th day of the flood. Genefis viii. &c. upon which very day of the year, they likewife calculate the birth of Chrift (as pretypified thereby) to have exactly fallen out; and that even the glory of the Lord, which fhone round the fhepherds, was a gracious phænome дод non, correfponding with this fign of breath at the ancient family feat of the covenant. Bibliotheca Biblica. Latragh Caftle, near Nenagh, in Ire. According to the Fachers, it prefigu- land; or in England, or within the red the church, that caufes the bright- diocefe of Khodes, in Linguedoc, nefs of her colours to glitter, fhine, the Marifco family at that period be and exhibit luftre on earth, though ing poffeffed of extenfive eftates in furrounded by the thickeft clouds; all thofe countries. The Languedothofe bright, refplendent, brilliant cian eftates derived in right of a fecolours are the different graces that male ancestor, named Lucia, daugh. God is pleafed to communicate to ter and heir to Alexander de Narthis divine spouse, that is a monument bonne, Sire d'Alais, or Alez, mother and an eternal memorial of his recon- to Jordan de Montmorency, Sire de ciliation with man. It reprefents alfo Marifco, alias Morres, (who lies inJefus Chrift placed between God and terred along with that lady, her faman, at whofe fight God remembers ther and mother, in the chapter-houfe the eternal alliance and the blood of of Bath, in Somerfetthire) all of his Son, with which it has been feal which were forfeited to France after ed, and the deluge, that was to have the expulfion of the English, in the deftroyed us is converted into gentle 15th century. Morres, was firft condew, i. e. the eternal punishments Atituted Bilhop of Tricafteau, next that our fins merit, are changed into tranflated to St. Papoul, and laftly to very flight ones, Caftres; Pope Martin II created him Cardinal. He was attached to the party of Charles VI. of France, and is fuppofed by Juvenal des Urfins to CARDINAL MORRES. To the Editor of the Irish Magazine. be the perfon who was deputed by SIR, In the last number of your intelligent Magazine you favour your readers with an interefting biographical fketch of Cardinal Norreys. Not withstanding the high claims of Ireland to any diftinctions of honour in the Pontiff's power to confer on her deferving fons of the Catholic church, I believe only two inftances remain recorded, of a Cardinal's hat having been bestowed on Irifhmen, or Irith mens' fons, one of which was the above recited grant to Norreys, the fecond,to Dr. Redmond Morres, under the title, St. Praxede, more generally called Cardinal de Caftres, who died at Rome, according to de Catal, Hiftory of Languedoc, (published at Tholoufe, anno 1633) in the year 1427. It has not been afcertained, whether Cardinal Morres drew his fift that prince, to parly with the Queen and Duke of Burgundy, when they deliberated upon marching to Paris. At, or about this period, our intercourfe with Guinne, Languedoc and the British provinces in France, was intimately preferved, and church preferments indifcriminately conferred upon the fubjects of both countries. Thus, was the learned Auguftinian monk, Robert Waldby, a native of York, conftituted Bishop of Aix, and by the Pope's buil, from thence tranflated in the year 1391, to the fee of Dublin. King Richard II. made him Chancellor of Ireland, and in 1395, Archbishop of York. He died May 29, 1397, and lies buried in Weftminster Abbey, in St. Edmond's chapel, under a monument with the following epitaph. which though irrelevant from our fubje&t, yet, as demonftrative of the character of a good and learned man, once connected with Ireland amicus; Confultor Regis optabat profpere Ecclefiæ choris fuit unus, bis quo Hic Cicestrensis-tandem Primas Quarto Calendas Junii-migravit Vos precor orate-ut fint fibi do In English, it is thus given: A the laws; great Divine, a great Phyfician was And gen'rous patron to the needy clafs : A Privy Councellor, the laws he lov'd; Twice in the fee of Aix, was digni fied, And afterwards o'er Dublin did pre fide; And thence to Chicefter, and fo to York remov'd : He died in thirteen hundred ninetyfeven, The twenty-ninth of May: Pray that in Heaven Among the Saints, he may be ever bleit,. And here, may undisturb'd in quiet reft. In honour of Cardinal Redmond I have the honor to remain, HISTORICUS, Thurles, Aug. 18, 1810. |