1<\/sup>For great are thy judgments, and cannot be expressed: therefore unnurtured souls have erred.<\/span> <\/p>\n 2<\/sup>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.<\/span> <\/p>\n 3<\/sup>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.<\/span> <\/p>\n 4<\/sup>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.<\/span> <\/p>\n 5<\/sup>No power of the fire might give them light: neither could the bright flames of the stars endure to lighten that horrible night.<\/span> <\/p>\n 6<\/sup>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.<\/span> <\/p>\n 7<\/sup>As for the illusions of art magick, they were put down, and their vaunting in wisdom was reproved with disgrace.<\/span> <\/p>\n 8<\/sup>For they, that promised to drive away terrors and troubles from a sick soul, were sick themselves of fear, worthy to be laughed at.<\/span> <\/p>\n 9<\/sup>For though no terrible thing did fear them; yet being scared with beasts that passed by, and hissing of serpents,<\/span> <\/p>\n 10<\/sup>They died for fear, denying that they saw the air, which could of no side be avoided.<\/span> <\/p>\n 11<\/sup>For wickedness, condemned by her own witness, is very timorous, and being pressed with conscience, always forecasteth grievous things.<\/span> <\/p>\n 12<\/sup>For fear is nothing else but a betraying of the succours which reason offereth.<\/span> <\/p>\n 13<\/sup>And the expectation from within, being less, counteth the ignorance more than the cause which bringeth the torment.<\/span> <\/p>\n 14<\/sup>But they sleeping the same sleep that night, which was indeed intolerable, and which came upon them out of the bottoms of inevitable hell,<\/span> <\/p>\n 15<\/sup>Were partly vexed with monstrous apparitions, and partly fainted, their heart failing them: for a sudden fear, and not looked for, came upon them.<\/span> <\/p>\n 16<\/sup>So then whosoever there fell down was straitly kept, shut up in a prison without iron bars,<\/span> <\/p>\n 17<\/sup>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.<\/span> <\/p>\n 18<\/sup>Whether it were a whistling wind, or a melodious noise of birds among the spreading branches, or a pleasing fall of water running violently,<\/span> <\/p>\n 19<\/sup>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.<\/span> <\/p>\n 20<\/sup>For the whole world shined with clear light, and none were hindered in their labour:<\/span> <\/p>\n 21<\/sup>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.<\/span> <\/p>\n