Fiet Deorum ab hominibus dolenda secessio; soli nocentes angeli remanebant, qui humanitati commixti ad omnia audaciæ mala miseros manu injecta compellent in bella, in rapinas, in fraudes, et in omnia quæ sunt animarum naturæ contraria._ Tunc non terra constabit, nec navigabitur mare, nec cœlum astrorum cursibus, nec siderum cursus constabit in cœlo. Omnis vox divina necessaria taciturnitate mutescet, fructus terræ corrumpentur, nec fœcunda erit tellus, et aër ipse mœsto torpore languescet. Hæc et talis senectus veniet mundi, irreligio, inordinatio, irrationabilitas bonorum omnium. Cùm hæc cuncta contigerint, O Asclepi, tunc ille dominus et pater, Deus primipotens, et unus gubernator mundi, intuens in mores factaque voluntaria voluntate sua, quæ est Dei benignitas, vitiis resistens, et corruptelæ omnium errorem revocans, malignitatem omnem vel alluvione diluens, vel igne consumens, vel morbis pestilentiisque per diversa loca dispersis finiens, ad antiquam faciem mundum revocabit, ut et mundus ipse adorandus videatur et mirandus, et tanti operis effector et restitutor Deus ab omnibus qui tunc erunt frequentibus laudum præconiis benedictionibusque celebretur. Hæc enim mundi genitura cunctarum reformatio rerum bonarum, et naturæ ipsius sanctissima et religiosissima restitutio, peracto temporis cursu, quæ est et fuit sine initio sempiterna. Voluntas enim Dei caret initio, quæ eadem est, et ubique est sempiterna.” i. e. “Are you ignorant, O Asclepius, that Egypt is the image of heaven, or, which is more true, a translation and descent of everything which is governed and exercised in heaven? And, if it may be said, our land is truly the temple of the whole world. Nevertheless, because it becomes wise men to foreknow all things, it is not lawful that you should be ignorant that the time will come when it may seem that the Egyptians have in vain, with a pious mind and sedulous religion, paid attention to divinity, and all their holy veneration shall become void and of no effect. For divinity shall return back from earth to heaven. _Egypt shall be forsaken, and the land which was the seat of divinity shall be destitute of religion, and deprived of the presence of the Gods. For when strangers shall possess and fill this region and land, there shall not only be a neglect of religion, but (which is more miserable) there shall be laws enacted against religion, piety, and divine worship; they shall be prohibited, and punishments shall be inflicted on their votaries. Then this most holy land, the seat of places consecrated to divinity, and of temples, shall be full of sepulchres and dead bodies. O Egypt, Egypt, fables alone shall remain of thy religion, and these such as will be incredible to posterity; and words alone shall be left engraved in stones, narrating thy pious deeds. The Scythian also, or Indian, or some other similar nation, shall inhabit Egypt._ For divinity shall return to heaven, all its inhabitants shall die, and thus Egypt,