on his neck and dearly embraceth him but he had no other than tears to utter What then can Iacob say Ah! my Son saith he now that I have seen thy face I am content and after this I shall willingly dye for it sufficeth me to leave thee alive After this Ioseph turning himself towards his Brethren and towards all those of Jacobs house began to say unto them that he was going unto Pharaoh to advertise him that his Brethren were arrived with their whole Family and that they had brought their Flocks and goods with them and when Command should be given them to see the King if he chanced to ask them of what Trade they were they should answer they had no other than that of meer Sheapheards and that all their â—indred who were as well as themselves his most humble servants and resolved to live and dye in his service never had any other employment since their birth Behold the instructions Joseph gave to all his Brethren whilst he conducted them with his Father to salute Pharaoh Now it was not out of Complement he put these words into their Mouths but upon Design that the King hearing they were Sheapheards and brought up in this Profession might permit them to live peaceably together with their Father in the Land of Gessen Vt habitare positis in terra Gessen quia detestantur Aegyptii omnes pastores ovium Gen. 46. v. 34. which was neerest unto Chanaan where there were also lovely Pastures and where they should be severed from the Egyptians who mortally hated all the Sheapheards which were in their Country by reason they had not the religious impiety of Egypt which adored Animals for Gods and who for that effect durst not kill them detesting for that reason all the Sheapheards of other Regions who had the care of Feeding their Flocks to the end they themselves with others might be nourished by them In fine Extremos quoque fratrum suorum quinque viros constituit coran Rege Gen. 47. v. 2. Hebraei Hemerus Pererius Oleaster In optimo loco fac eos habitare trade eis terram Gessen Gen. 47. v. 6. Quod si nosti in eis esse viros industrios constitue illos magistros pecorum meorum Gen. 47. v. 6. Post haec introduxit Joseph patrem suum ad Regem statuit eum coram co Gen. 47. v. 7. Et benedicto Rege egressus est soras Gen. 47. v. 10. the advice of Ioseph and his desire found happy success For assoon as he was returned unto the Court he presented unto Pharaoh five of his Brethren who in shew promised the least The King having cast his eyes on them and knowing they were Sheapheards gave them Gessen for their quarter and Commanded from that time they should take care of his Flocks Not long after Iacob entred who bore on his brow the Majesty of a King the authority of a Patriarch the wisedome of a Prophet and the glory of a Father of Nations When first he saw the King he besought Heaven to pour on him and his Kingdome all sorts of Benedictions The holy Scripture hath not otherwise declared unto us Iacobs entry into the presence of Pharaoh for my part I have often represented him unto my thoughts at the door or in the Kings anti-Chamber bare-headed and with hair whiter than Snow a beard down to his girdle and a neck bowed with old age eyes watered with tears and all his whole body somewhat trembling Me thinks I see him supported on one side with Ioseph on the other by Benjamin I even hear some sighs which issue forth of his mouth to refresh the ardors of his heart for notwithstanding all the coldnesse of his age he alwayes conserved in a dying body the sense of a truly generous soul and of a spirit of fire which was never out of Motion or Action I know not what Pharaoh thought seeing this good old man Et interrogatus ab eo quot sunt dies annorum vitae tuae Gen. 47. v. 7. Respondit Dies peregrinationis meae centum triginta annorum sunt parvi mali non pervenerunt usque ad dies patrum meo um quibus peregrinati sunt Gen. 47. v 9. Floscule mane puer media vir floscule luce Floscule sub nocte sole cadents senex Sic oreris morcrisque uno tu floscule Phoebo Vno sisque puer virque senexque die but he asked him how old he was to which he made answer Sir for the space of a hundred and thirty years I have been a Pilgrim on the Earth This journey truly is very short if you onely consider its durance but very long if you cast your eyes on the miseries of my life Nevertheless I am not yet arrived to the Term of my Fore-fathers Few old men will be found in the World who may not say the same For life is but a course in which we go from our Cradle to the Tomb. Dayes months years and entire Ages are but moments in the sight of God Man is but but a Flower which begins to blow at the break of day to fade about Noon and to drop away at night He is a shadow which passeth away a Feather which flyes a Reed which breaks an Image which loseth its Luster a Vapour which is dissipated a Beauty which perisheth a breath a smoak and a puff of Air which swells in the midst of a storm and appears on the water to dissolve at the same instant Nevertheless we need no longer space to see and feel much misery For it is enough to be born of a woman to be consumed with sorrows and to serve as a pittifull Subject to all sorts of Accidents Vicissitudes of life Witness Iacob who was no sooner come into the World but he must leave his Fathers house to go from thence with a staff in his hand into Forein Countries and like a fugitive to shun the persecution of his Brother We need but follow him in this sad journey and spend with him Twenty years in quality of a Servant at Labans house From thence we must depart out of Mesopotamia and bondage to expose our selves unto dangers of Death and to meet with Esau who comes to assail him with four hundred men We must see him in the affrightment he took at the Murther his Children committed upon the Sichemites Had he not also some cause to die at the death of Rachel and to expire on her body which inclosed the moitie of his life But who could behold the sorrow which pierc'd his heart when his Children were so impudent as to bring incest even into his house Surely he would have said that his life was but a web of misfortunes if we joyn with it the loss of Joseph the separation of Benjamin the captivity of Simeon and finally his last departure out of Chanaan Life both very short and long who will deny he had reason to say that his life had been very short if
if you be so unhappy as to infringe the least of these Commandments and contemn these Laws I have so often declared to you or those Ceremoâ—â—es I have so publikely established your Privileges shall be changed into punishments and your Favors into execrations which will at last make you the subject of all the Plagues wherewith Egypt hath been heretofore so cruelly afflicted and you shall even feel some which you never yet heard of or at least whereof you shall not finde any mention in this Book What pity will it be to see you a reproach and scorn to the most barbarous Nations in the World amongst whom you shall nevertheless be dispersed to serve their unknown gods and masters who will give you neither truce nor repose no more than your own consciences which will always carry Vultures and Vipers to torment you without pity or intermission Your hearts will have disturbing terrors and your wandring eyes will cast darts as infallible marks of the misertes and tyranny you shall undergo It is also the doleful portion and the most usual course of the wicked to live amidst frights fears which like so many Goalers both day and night surround an unhappy soul which sees nothing but Specters and Phantasms which solicite her ruine so that you will be always like Criminals whose eyes are already veiled whose necks are laid down and hands tied in expectation of the fatal stroke which will in an instant sever their heads from their bodies Scarce shall the Sun be risen when you will say with sighs Dabit enim tibi Dominus ibi cor pavidum deficientes oculos animam consumptam moerore Deut. 28. v. 65. Manè dices Quis wihi det vesperum vespere Quis mihi det manè Deut. 28. v. 67. Ah! Who will assure me that I may be secure till night and in the Evening some new apprehension will even tear this complaint out of your mouths Ah! I know not whether I shall ever see day Alas who will give me then some assurance of it Sinners where are we Is this to live to die every moment and can we call by the name of life a train of pains torments wounds terrors and deaths O life how sweet art thou when thou dost fear and love nothing but God! O death how dreadful art thou when we have followed and loved some other than God! What Favors and Benedictions in the life and death of a vertuous man But what horrors Anathemaes and Maledictions during the course and end of the life of a sinner Alas My dear Reader reflect a little I beseech thee on these Verities and if the voice of thy Conscience and the examples thou seest daily before thy eyes cannot move thee come then again in spirit with the children of Israel and the predestinated souls hear the voice and exhortation of Moses take a while his Testament into thy hands and then casting thy eyes upon every Article fix thy thoughts upon that where he speaks unto all the Tribes and where after Moses had addressed himself into all sorts of States and Conditions of men and women which were gathered together about him he saith unto them That he spake not onely unto those that were present but also unto the absent and therefore it is unto thee and to all men of the world this discourse must be directed Hear then mortal men your Law-giver hear your Lord your Master and your Prophet who conjures you to look back upon the past ages and when you shall come to those dreadful days in which the Sun and all the Lights of Heaven shall be obscured by fire sulphure and the shameful smokes of those infamous Cities which the spirit of the justest furies of God had consumed and reduced into ashes Interrogate these frightful Reliques and they will tell you That these are the tracts of the Vengeances of Heaven and the remnants of those who have broken with God that Faith which they owed him In fine to conclude this whole discourse with Moses What is more sweet and easie saith this Holy Man Mandatum hoe quod ego praecipio tibi bodie non supra te est neque procul positum Deut. 30. v. 11. than to live under the Laws of so holy a Religion and carefully to observe all those orders which have been dictated by the mouth of a God whose rigors and decrees cannot be but most just What can there be in all that is commanded you which exceeds your forces and is beyond your capacity or too far distanced from your power Nec in caele situm ut possis dicere Quis nostrum valet ad caelum ascendere ut deferat illud ad nos audiamus atque opere compleamus Deut. 30. v. 12. Considera quod hodie proposuerim in conspectu tuo vitam bonum è contraria mortem malum Deut. 30. v. 15. Testes invoco bodic calum terram c. Deut. 30. v. 19. Et diligas Dominum Deum tuum atque obedias voci ejus illi adhaereas ipse est enim vita tua longitudo dierum tuorum ut habites in terra pro qua juravit Dominus patribus tuis Abraham Isaac Jacob ut daret eam illis Deut. 30. v. 20. It is not necessary to mount so high as the Heavens and to pass beyond the Seas to learn and perform what is enjoyned you For what is there you may not do and know and where much trouble is not required to accomplish it The words of God refound in your ears they are near your mouths and hearts Ingrave then deeply in your mindes all that I have this day said unto you and above all remember that on the one side I have proposed happiness and life and on the other misfortune and death I call Heaven and Earth to witness the choice I have given you it is then your part to prefer either good or evil and choose rather life than death to the end you may live with all your children in the peace and obedience you ow unto God and to fix your mindes and hearts so strongly on him that you may live onely for and in him for he is the soul of your spirits on him alone depends the course of your life and it is his hand which will conduct you into this fortunate Land which he promised to your fore-fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob. Israel it is unto thee Moses speaks and it is unto you Christian People that the eccho of this voice is addressed and loudly resounds in the Law of Grace and of the Messias Do not say then Who shall ascend unto Heaven who shall cause Jesus Christ to descend who shall draw him out of the Sepulchre or who can descend into the Abyss It is not required thou shouldst do these impossible things and which are already done it sufficeth thou perform what lies in thy power and what thou oughtest and the rest shall be granted thee O my
out then Pharaoh cry out and awake so many sleepy Souls which lie in soft Downy Beds as Coles under Ashes to entertain the ardor of their impurity Doe you see these lascivious men and these ravinous Wolves who are in quest of their Golden fleece and seek out Flesh and Bloud to satiate the rage of their brutality For this they ingage their Servants and Hand-maids they subborn confidents they lay ambushes every where and either soon or late some chast Sara must be taken away But at the same time Luxuria dulce venenâ—m pernicâ—osa potio humanum corpus debâ—itaâ— vâ—â—lâ—s animi robur â—nervat Hugo à S. Vict. lib. 4. inst Monast lâ—t l. saith Hugo Victorensis the poyson of their infamous Mouths cast forth into the Bosom of Virginity reascends into its Source and steals almost insensibly into the Veins of a Body which immediatly becomes corrupted from whence ariseth that the Heart it self is presently infected and it is from this Plague of Souls and this Canker of Bodies so many fatall blindnesses so many blind furies and so many furious errors doe afterwards Spring which cause in the Body an Abysse of Maladies and in the Soul a Maze or Labyrinth of reason These burning coales and these flames saith Justinian which beget such sad fires in the body and fill souls with so black Ignis internalis est luxuria cujus materies gula cujus flamma superbia cujus sintillae prava colloquia cujus fumus infamia cujus cinis inopia cujus finis gebenna Laur. Just c. 3. de sop in lig vitae and thick a smoak rise from the fire of hell It is this fire to which good chear serves for Nourishment It is this fire which Pride and Presumption inflame and inkindle on all sides It is this fire whose sparkles are Lascivious provocations its smoak is but a most dishonorable Fame its ashes are Miseries and Calamities and in fine it is onely in the Hells of this World where this intestine fire is found Let us judge then after this of the Greatnesse of Evill by the excesse of Punishment and if some one have a mind to die the most detestable death in Nature let him lead the most enormous and execrable life which can be in the sight of Heaven But let us return to Pharao who was constrain'd to stifle his unlawfull Loves in the Ocean of his miseries and who at last restor'd to Abraham the flower which had bin cruelly wrested from him CHAP. III. The Agreement of Abraham and Lot upon the Controversy between their Shepheards PEace and Purity are two sisters which have no other Father or Origin but Love and the Spirit of God which cannot breath but in a calm and in cleannesse there is its native Air Element Temple and the usuall place of its residence And it is peradventure for this reason Solomon was accustomed to adorn the gates of his Temple with Lillies and Olive-branches Inseparable companions desiring thereby to inform us that none are to enter there but by the doors of Peace and under the shade of the Olive-branches which are marks and symboles of Peace and Purity This being so I wonder not that Abraham who was animated with the Spirit of God and endued with no other than the purest passions did express so much love and inclination to Concord and Peace He seemed Neverthelesse to have some cause to commence a sute Unde et facta est rixa inter pastores gregum Abram Loth. Gen. 13. v. 7. to wage war against Lot for the preservation of his rights and authority which might receive some prejudice by the strife which arose between his servants and those of Lot their design being to become Masters contrary to Justice and Reason Which Abraham seing to prevent all the disorders which might ensue on this first design he saith unto Lot Nephew I pr'y thee remember Dixit Abram ad Loth ne quaeso sit jurgium inter me te pastâ—res meos pastores tuos fratres enim sumus Gen. 13. v. 8. that hetherto I have not treated thee as an Uncle but rather as a Brother what a scandal would it be if we should begin to live together either like strangers or else as Enemies I had rather lose all the goods of the world than that of thy friendship But I see clearly that these Shepheards Ecce universa terra coram te est recede à me obsecro si ad sinistram eris ego dexteram tenebo si tu dexteram elegeris ego ad sinistram ibo Gen. 13. v. 9. and mercenary friends are the persons who endeavour to engage our passions with their interests It would then be more prudently done to sever our flocks than to disunite our Mindes and therefore dear Nephew take what you please If thou goest to the right hand I will take the left and if the left I will passe to the right Well then is not this to love peace and to purchase at his own expence so pretious a treasure Is not this to be magnificent and can any one seek an accord with more Prodigality Interessed Souls Where are then these little hearts and these narrow Souls which are still bury'd amidst their own interests Where are these worldly People whose Eyes may sooner be turn'd out of their heads than monies out of their hands Where are all these Pertifoggers and these Lawiers who are alwayes for delatory futes and place all their hopes on a forged will or a false contract They are like Moles which have alwayes their Noses in the Earth and incessantly inlarge their holes and graves What shame is it for a man of courage to be still fighting on a flight occasion and to contest upon the point of a Needle who shall carry it Alas where are the Abrahams where are the brothers kindred and friends who shall say one to the other for Gods sake let us live peaceably rather let us dye a thousand times than wage war for those goods which either soon or late we must leave My God! These are generous The Golden Age and heroick thoughts To hear them I conceive my self to be in those golden Ages when men carry'd their hearts on their lips Crowns of Olive-branches on their heads hornes of plenty in their hands their eyes in each part of their body and the Chains of a holy friendship as bracelets and collers of Gold Finally where the goods of the earth were trodden under foot as common to all men And this caused that plenty of all things was carry'd every where upon a Triumphant Chariot casting Gold and Silver to all that would but take the paines to gather it God himself governed the Reignes of this fortunate Chariot and as if he had a purpose to make every man a Monarch of the universe he said the very same to them as to Abraham when the love of Concord and Peace had sever'd him from Lot My friend Abraham lift
Isaac filium suum Gen. 22. v. 3. what sad preparation and sorrowfull departure this poor old Man takes his Ass and chose two or three of his Servants to goe along with him and having made up a Fagot of Thorns and Bushes with his own Hands he layd them on the Shoulders of his dear Isaack But what will Sara say And what can she think when at her waking she shall find neither Abrahare nor Isaack Poor Mother what wilt thou doe Is it possible that Abrahâ—m could conceal a Design which cannot be kept from 〈◊〉 We must freely confess that there are Souls of Gold and Hearts of Diamond in Bodies of Christall It cannot be denyed that there be Women as constant and couragious as Men their Sex though frail tender and delicate often brings forth Amazons who have nothing of Softness Levity and Effeminacy but the bare name It cannot be also doubted but Sara was of this number And I am confident if Abraham had made known to her the will of God at the first news she her self would have performed the Office of a Sacrificer to immolate her Son Nevertheless I will believe with the most part of the interpreters of Scripture and of the Greek and Latine Fathers that Abraham who might have discharged into her Bosom part of his afflictions resolved to endure alone this Martyrdom of Love He is then all alone upon the way with his Son and his two Servants and he advanceth directly to Mount Moria as to the appointed place My dear Reader I leave unto thy imagination what passed for the space of three dayes this journey lasted represent unto thy self I beseech thee that thou art with him whom thou dost love above all men thou seest him thou speakest to him thou drinkest to him and sleepest with him how will it be if at thy departure thou must see him die and if thou thy self must present him the poyson which is to stifle him Husbands and Wifes Fathers and Mothers Brothers Kindred Associats Friends what Torments what despairs what punishments when you stand at the Beds Feet where you shall behold your dearest affections and your most pleasing delights in the Agony of death what corabats Duel of Grief and Love and what Duels of Love and Grief what strength and resolutions to receive the last words and sighs of a dying Mouth to which a thousand and a thousand chast kisses have been given and whose least breath was able to wipe away all sorts of sorrows what Prodigle of constancy to close with your Hands two which served as sunns in the saddest obscurities of Life which is but too much intermingled with mourning and pleasure In fine how can we see with out dying an other self at the point of death Nevertheless this was but the image of a dying life Martyrdom for three dayes which Abraham led for the space of three dayes one would swear that God had undertaken to make him dye ten thousand times upon this sad way every glance of Isaack was a mortall Javelin which pierced his Heart and yet he must have him three times four and twenty hours before his Eyes there was a necessity of eating drinking and speaking with him were not these entertainments and Feasts of Death He was constrained during the night to lay on his Breast and in his Bosom that Head he was to cut off with his own Hands was not this a murthering sleep and a cruell repose In fine he must render all the duties of a Father to so amiable a Son before he was to be his Executioner and he must needs hear almost every moment the voice of Isaack calling him Father who went to murther him My God! what Preludes of death what Preparation to a Martyrdom what Dialogue of Passions what affections what dissimulations what sorrows what pleasures what hopes and what despairs A Father a Son a Priest a Victim Wood Fire a Sword Isaacks Eyes and Heart are fixed on his Father and Abraham lost not the sight of Isaack but to behold his God At every step this poor old Man sends a sigh to Heaven to evaporate grief which being shut up redoubles the more Surely my Heart even bleeds upon the bare thought of this pittifull object Alas how could Abraham look on the criminall Sword which was to give the stroak where did he carry this instrument of Gods Justice me thinks I hear Isaack at every stop saying My Father and Abraham answering Son take courage Die autem tertio ete natis ocutis procul Gen. 21.2.4 let us goe my dear Child we draw neer to Moria O God! what vision and what approaches Mountain of Moria hast thou no compassion will not thy tops thy rocks and thy stones mollifie rigours at the sight of so tragick an act and which seems so unnaturall Mountain of Moria become thou a plain rather than put this poor old Man and this young Child to the trouble of ascending thy top where they are going to erect an Altar and hew a Tomb. But what Nature cannot be sensible when her God deprives her of feeling Aug. in ser de temp 71 existimat eundem faisse montem Moria qui Calvaria and Moria must not have greater tendernessees than the Heart of Abraham These Mountains make an essay of rigour at Jacobs cost to become afterwards insensible at the death of a Jesus of whom Isaack was but an Image and figure Let Abraham then perform resolutely the office of God the Father and let not Isaack be ashamed with his own Bloud to mark out the way unto Jesus Let Abraham take his Sword to strike off Isaacks Head and let Isaack take the Wood on his Shoulders which was provided to consume him since Jesus hath carried the Cross on which he suffered O God! Dixitque ad pueros suos expectate hic cum asino ego puer illuc usque properantes postquam aderaverimus revertemur ad vos Gen. 22. v. 3. Tulit quoque ligna Holocausti imposuit super Isaac filium suum ipse verò portabat in manibus ignem gladium cumque duo pergerent simul Gen. 22. v. 6. O Abraham O Jesus O Isack where is Sara where is Mary my God what Relatives are these Abraham is already at the foot of the Mountain he commands his Servants away he takes his only Isaack he loads him with the instruments of his punishment Let us goe my dear Child let us goe my Son let us go my Isaack my Joy my Hope my Love Father whither doe we goe Dixit Isaac Patri suo Pater mi at ille respondit quid vis fili Ecce inquit ignis ligna ubi est Victima Holocausti Gen. 22. v. 7. Dixitque Abraham Deus providebit sibi victimam Holocausti fili mi pergebant ergo pariter Gen. 22. v. 7. answered Isaack Alas what is your desire I indeed see the Fire and the Sword which you carry as also the Wood on my Shoulders
autem Jacob pulmentum ad quem cum venisset Esaü de apro lassus Gen. 25. v. 29. For this poor Chaser comming one Day weary and Hungry from hunting and meeting with Jacob who had caused some Pulse to be sod he intreated him to give him a share of it to which Jacob willingly agreed Ait da mibi de coctione hac rufa quia oppido lassus sum Gen. 25. v. 31. Cui dixit Jacob vende mibi primogeni ta Gen. 25. v. 31. Ille respondit en morior quid mibi proderunt primogenita Gen. 25. v. 32. Ait Jacob Jura ergo mihi juravit ei Esau vendidit primogenita Gen. 25. v. 33. Et sic accepto pane lentis edulio comedit bibit abiit parvipendens quod primogenita vendidisset Gen. 25. v. 34. upon Condition he would yield up to him his right of Primogeniture Alas I dye for very hunger answered Esau what will this Right avail thee after my death if it be so replyed Jacob take an oath that thou wilt give it me Well in truth then I swear it saith Esau and I acknowledge thee in quality of my Elder Brother whereupon this poor wretch took immediatly Bread and Pulse from his Brothers Hand little valuing the loss he had made of the first advantage wherewith God and Nature had favoured him What Infamy what Ingratitude and what Impiety Can a man represent unto himself so weak an act as to part with the singular Favours of God for a bit of Bread Is there any Ingratitude more Enormous than to misprise the gifts of Nature and is it not a Sacrilege and Simony to sell his Priesthood for a Mess of Pottage In fine is it not to be hunger-starved even unto rage to swallow with the Pulse the right of his Primogeniture which was one of the most Illustrious qualities a man could possess in his Family It was this brutish appetite which desolated the Terrestriall Paradise which consumed Sodom The disasters of Gluttony which daily devours the Wealth of the richest and most Illustrious Houses It is the Well of the Abyss the Cistern of Babylon and the Gulf of Heil The Air the Earth and the Sea cannot satiate these devouring ardors and this Fire which still requires aliment These are those Horse-leaches which never Quench their Thirst these are the Men who have their Eyes in their Bellies and their Reason Buried in Wine I am deceived these are not Men but Spunges and Tuns like those of the Danaides into which the Ocean might enter without silling them Finally It was this Infamous Vice which caused Esau to direct his first step into the Precipice where afterwards he was swallowed up CHAP. III. The Dexterity of Rebecca to procure for Jacob the blessing of Isaack THere is a false Divinity in the World which hath Temples in the Lungs Deus tibi venter est pulmo templum Tertul. advers Psych and Altars in the Bellies of most Men. The appetite of Gluttony is the Origin of all Vices the Furnace in which the most dreadfull flames of Impurity are nourished and inkindled We must not then wonder if Esau who was not ashamed to sell the right of his Primogeniture to satisfie a Gluttonous desire had the Impudence afterwards to Mary against the will of his Parents and to take two forain insolent and furious Wives and which is worse addicted to the Worship of false Gods These were two incarnat Devils and two Spirits bearing neither respect nor any pitty towards Isaack and Rebecca they raised also a War and tumult in the whole House and sufficiently manifested what a Woman can doe when she hath once trodden honour and devotion under her Feet Nevertheless Isaack waxing old amidst these misfortunes Senuit autem Isaac caligaverunt oculi ejus videre non poterat Gen. 27. v. 2. insensibly felt the approach of Death and as if his Eyes abhor'd to serve as witnesses to the disasters of his old age they covered themselves with the Darkness of a lamentable Blindness Amongst these Accidents his Eyes being shut against all the Clarities of Life Vocavitque Esau filium suum majorem dixit ei fili mi Gen. 27. v. 2. Vides inquit quod senuerim ignorem diem mortis meâ—e Gen. 27. v. 2. A most uncertain uncertainty his Soul went penetrating the shade and Night of the Tomb. He calls Esau and sayes to him with a pittifull Tone Alas my Son I am upon the Brink of my Grave and yet I know not when I shall descend into it Surely there is nothing more certain than the end of Life and nothing less certain than the time when wee must Dye The Sun is not more cleer and perspicuous in the Heavens than this Decree on Earth one must be a Beast amongst Men and Dead in the World to doubt of this verity This hinders us not from providing for our necessities and prudence enjoins that meditating upon Death we forget not the Duties of Life as Isaack did This good man feeling his life to extinguish as a Lamp whose Oyl begins to fail called Esau Vocavitque Esau si lium majorem dixit ei fili mi qui respondit adsum Gen. 27. v. 1. Sume arma tua Pharetram arcum egredere for as cumque venatu aliquid apprehenderâ—s Gen. 27. v. 3. Fac mihi inde pulmentum sicut velle me nosti affer ut comedam benedicat tibi anima mea antequam moriar Gen. 27. v. 4. Quod cum audisser Rebecca ille abiesset in agrum ut jussionem Patris impleret Gen. 27. v. 5. Ambr. lib. 2. de Jacob vita beata c. 2. Rebecca non silium filio sed justum praeferebat infusto c. Nunc ergo fili mi acquiesâ—e coâ—si iis meis Gen. 27. v. 8. Pergens ad gregeÌ„ adfer mihi duos â—â—â—dos optimos c. Gen. 27. v. 9 Quos cum intuleris comederit benedicat tibi prius quam moriatur Gen. 27. v. 10. Cui ille respondit nâ—sti quod Esau frater meus homo pilosus sit ego lenis Gen. 27. v. 1â— Si attractaverit me Pater meus senserit timeâ—ne putet me sibi voluisse illudere c. Gen. 27. v. 12. and commanded him to take his Quiver his Bow and Arrows and to goe a hunting that he might bring him something to eat with this promise that at his return he would give him his benediction before his Death Esau immediatly performing what his Father had commanded him Rebecca who heard Isaacks whole discourse made use of her time very seasonably to doe what the Spirit of God directed her Ah! how ingenious is vertue and how dexterous is Love when it follows the will of God! who would believe that a Woman durst undertake what Rebecca did Her design was not saith St. Ambrose to prefer the Younger before the Elder but onely the merits and perfections of
Vt indicaretis ci alium vos habere fratrem Gen. 43. v. 6. and to heap afflictions on me O Children void of compassion Alas what have you done why did you say that you had yet a Brother doth it not satisfie you to have lost Joseph and left Simeon a Captive Must Benjamin leave me and must I remain a Father without Children What death what punishment to see my self torn in pieces and by parcels What Martyrdome to give up first his hands afterwards his arms then his Eyes and at last his life Alas what have you done and who hath inforc'd you to say that I had yet a Child Whither shall I goe when I have him no more with whom shall I entertain my self when he shall be absent and who will have care of me when he is departed At illi responderunt Interrogavit nos homo per ordinem nostram progeniom si pater viveret c. Gen. 43. v. 7. Adducine fratrem vestrum vobiscum Gen. 43. v. 7. Judas quoque dixit patri suo Matte puerum mecum c. Gen. 43. v. 9. Ego suscipio pueâ—um de manu mea requiâ—e illam c. GeÌ„ 43. v. 9. Sâ— non intercessisset dilatio jam vice alterá venissemus Gen. 43. v. 10. Igitur Israel pater eorum dixit ad eos Si sit necesse est facite quod vultis sumite de optimis terrae fructibus in vasis vestris Gen. 43. v. 11. Pecuniam quoque duplicen ferte vobiscum illam quem invenistis in saculis reportate ne fortè errore factum sit Gen. 43. v. 12. was there any necessitie then to speak of him and what need was there of ingaging him for my whole Family Pardon us answered they for this man by order of the state made enquiry concerning your Family who you were whether you were alive and how many Children you had To which we answered conformably to his demands without fore-seeing that he would afterwards command us to bring him our youngest Brother Permit us then said Judas to carry him lest we all chance to dye for very hunger and that our poor Children perish before our eyes For my part I am ready to Answer for him and to ingage my life for his that in case I doe not bring him back you may take mine and let me for ever remain culpable of his death besides we should be already upon our return a second time Goe then answered Jacob Since you will have it so and since it is a necessity which admits of no remedy Goe then in the name of God and carry with you the fairest Fruits and the most pretious Perfumes you can find forget not to carry Frankincense Honey Mirrh Terebinth and Almonds Take also twice as much Money as yon need and above all adde unto that which you found in your Sacks lest the same came to you but by mistake In fine Sed fratrem vestrum tollite ite ad virum Gen. 43. v. 13. Deus autem meus omnipotens faciat vobis eum placabilem remittat vobiscum siatrem quem tenet c. Gen. 43. v. 14. Tulerunt ergo viri munera pecuniam duplicem Benjamin descenderuntque in Aegyptum Gen. 43. v. 15. carry your Brother with you and goe find this man whom I beseech God with my whole heart to render propitious and favourable to you to the end he may speedily send back to me your brother Simeon with my Benjamin Mean while I shall be the most unfortunate of all Fathers because I shall be without Children They loaded themselves then with Presents to carry into Egypt and with the Mony which Jacob had appointed them they took Benjamin by the hand and after Jacob had embraced and watred him with some tears they took him with them What separation and what ravishment Alas what can Jacob from henceforth doe all alone and in the absence of Benjamin Poor father whither goes this Son through what place will he pass And with how many dangers will he meet before his arrivall in Egypt he is young he is weak and he is tender he knows not what the toyl of a journey meaneth what will he doe in a Forein Country and amongst persons who seeing him will be either touched with Love and pitty towards him or not and if he please them and move them unto Compassion they will never send him back on the contrary they will use him as a Slave and as they shall perceive him more Innocent and more simple than the rest they will make a Victim of him which shall satisfie for all the rest Why have I then consented to his departure and why did I not rather goe than he but I have been enforced to leave him and I know not who will have the care of him in my absence At least if I might have carried him in my arms or on my shoulders and what ever hapned he would have alwayes found safety in me during his life and repose after death I should have been his refuge Bed and Tomb But now I know not where he is Benjamin is gone Ah where is he It is not to be doubted but these were the entertainments and the most usuall thoughts of Jacob during the whole Journey of his Children Et steterunt coram Joseph Gen. 43. v. 15. Quos cum ille vidisset Benjamin simul praecepit dispensatori domus suae dicens Introduc viros domuÌ„ occide victimas instrue convivium quoniam mecum sunt comesturi meridie Gen. 43. v. 16. Ibique exterriti dixerunt mutuò propter pecuniam quam retulimus prius in saccis nostris introducti sumus ut devolvat in nos calumniam violenter subsiciat servituti nos asinos nostros Gen. 43. v. 18. Quamobrem in ipfis foribus accedentes ad dispensatorem domus Gen. 43. v. 19. Locuti sunt Oramus Domine ut audias nos Jam ante de scendimus ut emeremus escas Gen. 43. v. 20. Sed aliud attulimus argentum ut emamus quae nobis necessaria sunt Gen. 43. v. 21. At ille respondit pax vobiscum nolite timere Deus vester Deus patris vestri dedit vobis thesauros in saccis vestris nam pecuniam quam dedistis mihi probatam ego habeo Gen. 43. v. 23. Eduxitque ad eos Simeon Gen. 43. v. 23. Et introductis domum attulit aquam c. Gen. 43. v. 24. Illi verò parabant munera donec ingrederetur Joseph meridie Gen. 43. v. 25. Mean-while they travell into Egypt where being arrived they are brought unto Joseph who casting his Eyes on them and upon Benjamin caused immediatly Victims to be killed and commanded the Steward of his house to conduct them unto his Palace and to prepare a Feast by reason about Noon he intended to dine with them It was at this these poor men were astonished for since they did not expect so good a reception they
as far as the City of Sidon Issachar shall make choice of a more happy and quiet life he shall delight in Tillage and the fertile land which shall fall to his lot he shall cultivate with no lesse peace than perseverance His pains shall not be fruitless and in the Continent he shall have all the advantages of those Countries which lye neer the Sea making an exchange with them of its Corn and fruits for those Merchandises which come from remote Nations Hee will impart the riches which agriculture shall afford him unto those who shall govern the Republick and purchase his repose by the Contributions he shall voluntarily give for the maintenance of such as bear Arms so long as he shall live quietly in the heart of his Possessions Dan judicabit populum suum c. Gen. 49. v. 16. Dan shall be the Judge of his people as well as of the other Tribes of Israel Dan by surprise shall ruine his enemies Fiat Dan coluber in via cerastes in semite mordens ungulas equi ut cadat ascensor ejus retiò Gen. 49. v. 17. even as Snakes which hide themselves on the sides of high-wayes to destroy Passengers who stand not sufficiently on their guard or as that crafty Serpent which bites the hoof of a Horse to make his rider fall and to infect him with his venom when he is thrown on the ground Notwithstanding the artifices men may use to defend themselves I shall never think that all their forces and wiles can equall the effects of the Protection which the Messias will give us Salutare tuum expectabo do nine Gen. 49. v. 18. I shall alwayes expect it and never believe that there is any assurance comparable to that which we shall receive from the affection and power of this great Prince Gad having received his share Gad accinctas praeliabitur ante eum ipse acciugitur retrorssum Gen. 49. v. 19. shall march in the head of his Brethren to establish them in their Possessions and returning unto his Territories loaden with Booty he will make his retreat in so good order as he shall not be disturb'd by his enemies Asser shall possess the portion of Palestine which looks towards the Sea Aser pinguis panis ejus praebebit delicias Regibus Gen. 49. v. 20. this Land doth produce all things desirable for the entertainment and comfort of life both Corn and Fruits are there so excellent as they will serve for delicacies unto Kings Nephtali will testifie his courage Cervus emissus dans eloquia pulcritudinis Gen. 49. v. 21. casting himself into dangers to defend his Brethren and shall give them cause to admire and praise him He will break all the obstaeles which shall oppose his generous design as a wounded Hart which though timorous by nature Vide Caietanum Lipoman breaks yet sometimes through the toyls of Hunters and from the cruell teeth of Dogs to defend that life which they would violently take from him The felicity of Joseph shall still increase Filius accrescens Joseph decorus aspectu filiae discurrerunt super murum Gen. 49. v. 22. Sed exasperaverunt eum jurgati sunt invideruntque Illi habentes jacula Gen. 49. v. 23. his beauty is so extraordinary as Ladyes esteem'd themselves happy to see him and they plac'd themselves at Dores and Windows to look on him as he passed through the streets Nevertheless such as ought most to love him have conspired his ruine and transported by a furious passion of envy sought to hinder the effects of the promises of Heaven But as the designs of men cannot alter the decrees and ordinances of God So Innocence prov'd stronger than malice and the Chains wherewith his unchaste Mistris had loaden him and the slavery to which his own Brethren had reduc'd him were the means whereof Divine Providence made use to make him King of Egypt and to secure and preserve the goods and lives of those who wished his death My most dear Son Deus patris tui erit adjutor tuus Gen. 49. v. 25. the God whom thy Father adoreth will alwaies assist thee he will replenish thee with benedictions and cause the most favourable Dews to fall upon thy Lands he will cause streams of living water to flow into their bosome and bowels for the refreshing and inlivening thy Roots Plants and Trees Thou shalt have a particular blessing in thy Children Vide Lyram Abul Per. Rupert Cajet Lip and their great numbers shall manifest that thou art the object of the dearest and most exquisite Providences which God declares to have for men Thy Father hath been more favoured than his Ancestors thou shalt enjoy both their favours and mine and the blessing I promise thee shall never cease untill God having given himself unto men in the person of the Messias shall no longer testifie his particular affection towards his Friends in giving them perishable goods All these graces and favours are due unto thy vertue which hath conserved its self without stain and hath also rendred thee as considerable amongst thy Brethren as the Nazarites who peculiarly consecrate themselves unto the service of the Divine Majesty Benjamin as a ravenous Woolf shall in the morning devour his prey Bâ—njamin â—upus rapax mane comedet praedam vesyere dividâ— spolia Gen. 49. v. 27. Vide Procop. Euseb Theodoret. Abul c. Er praecepit eis dicens Ego congregor ad populum meum sepelite me cum patribus in spelunca duplici quae est in agro Ephron Hethaei Gen. 49. v. 29. and in the evening share and divide the Spoiles Behold the Benedictions Jacob by heavens direction gave to each of his Children He afterwards recommended unto them the Buriall of his body in the Tomb of his fore-Fathers and having exhorted them to remain constant in the service of God dyed peaceably in his bed Can we represent unto our selves an end more sweet and quiet I well know that the like deaths are seen in sacred Houses I have seen such with mine own eyes and with my ears I have heard of some Jacobs who have closed their mouths with Benedictions and Canticles of Victory I have seen standers by bath'd in tears and yet their hearts fill'd with Joy receiving the last words and benedictions of dying men I know that the like effects are sometimes seen in the world and there have bin some Kings and Queens Fathers and Mothers Men and Women of all states and conditions who have spoken on their death-beds with so much Judgement and force of spirit as if they had been upon a Throne or in a Pulpit Likewise from thence Edicts Lawes and Lessons are heard in which there can be no deceit nor disguisment But it will be granted me that these examples are very rare amongst those whose lives pass away in noise and tumult For Death is an Eccho which answers life and a night which resents the Calm
To this effect they chose one amongst them who should goe unto Joseph and whose Commission was to inform him that Jacob their deceased Father of happy memory had commanded them at his death to tell him that he desired him to forget what was past and they all conjur'd him in his name to grant this favour Which Joseph hearing he began to weep and his tears serv'd to assure his Brethren who cast themselves at his feet taking at the same time the boldness of their own accord to demand that Pardon from him which they had already solicited by the means of Benjamin or some other who they believed would be more acceptable to him adding besides that they were all his Servants and resolved to live and dy in that quality To which Joseph answered that they need not fear any thing that he would take care of them and of all their Children and for the rest he would not be less pittifull towards them than God whose example he follow'd and who had changed all their evill purposes into favourable occasions to procure his good having also rarsed him as it were on a Throne of honour and power by the same Arms they had used to precipitate him into an Abyss of miseries and calamities Behold the sense of a noble Soul and of a generous courage whose tears did not resemble those of Crocadiles nor such kindnesses as are used by Apes which strangle in flattering and in shedding feign'd tears Revenge is only proper unto weak minds whereas Clemency resides alwayes in a strong spirit Cruelty is a Tyranny and meekness a true Empire To want the power of retaining any bad resentment is to be invulnerable And those souls also on the contrary are alwayes covered with Wounds and Ulcers which keep in their hearts desire of revenge and cannot grant a Pardon This is more deplorable in respect neither God nor Man have any compassion for those who cannot afford it unto the miseries of others And on the contrary either soon or late there are treasures of graces for those on whom good nature or vertue bestows those amiable inclinations which are mortall enemies to revenge and cruelty And it was I assure my self upon this occasion and to gratifie Joseph for the good entertainment he had given his Brethren and the sweet correspondeney he endevoured to hold with them in despight of all the bad Offices he had received from them that all the powers of Heaven and Earth combin'd to render him perfectly happy almost during the whole course of his life which reached to one hundred and ten years Vixitque centum decem annis Gen. 50. v. 22. Et vidit Ephraim sibios usque ad tertiam generationem Gen. 50. v. 22. Et conditus aromatibus reposiâ—us est loculo in Aegypto Gen. 50. v. 25. at the end of which he saw himself invironed by his Children and by his Childrens Children even to the third generation who at last rendred him all the same duties which they had done unto Jacob for being dead they imbalmed him and his bones a long time after were carried into the Land of promise according to the desire of this great Patriarch from whose end as from that of his forefathers we ought to conclude that it is good to lead a vertuous life that we may dye holily Wee dye every hour and our life is a living death which consumes of it self our looks our vows our words our gestures and all our motions are steps which conduct us to the Tomb. THE HOLY HISTORIE FIRST TOME MOSES FIFTH BOOK CHAP. I. His Birth and Education THe prodigious increase of the people of Israel Filii Israel erevtrunt quasi germinantes multiplicati sunt ac roborati nimis impleverunt terram Exod. 1 v. 7. Creverunt Hebraei divinitus foecundata eorum multitudine Aug. lib. 18. de Civit. c. 7. in the Land of Egypt after the decease of Jacob and of all his Children was not only a work of Nature but a miraculous effect of Divine Providence which inkindled the Ashes of these blessed Patriarcks and intended that their Tombs should be an unexhaustible Spring of life and immortality Egypt neverthelesse was too much blinded to penetrate these secrets Surrexit interea Rex novus super Aegyptum qui ignorabat Joseph Exod. 1. v. 8. Et ait ad populum suum Ecce populus filiorum Israel multus fortior nobis est Exod. 1. v. 9. And Joseph being dead he that took the reigns of the Empire not knowing the services this wise Minister of State had rendred unto his Predecessors for the space of fourscore years seeing that the Israelites went on daily increasing in forces and men resolv'd to humble and suppresse them lest in time they might chance to joyn themselves with the enemies of his Kingdom and form a Party against the State Nevertheless Venite sapicuter opprimamus eum ne fortè multiplicetur si ingruerit contra nos bellum addatur inimicis nostris expugnatisque nobis egrediatur de terra Exod. 1. v. 10. they were like those Grains which shoot out of the Earth and bear a thousand little Ears which the Wind Sun and Rain beat not down but to make new productions But this yong Pharaoh who began to Reign hath not eyes quick enough to discern these mysteries and his hand though most powerful was yet too weak to destroy this fair Nation Jacob is dead Joseph is deceased and this illustrious Colony which left Canaan to come into Egypt hath followed Abraham and Isaac They are no more but the Children of their Children and their Posterity shall never end In vain is it to cast them into servitude Quantó â—ue opprimebant eos tanâ—o magis multiplicabantur crescebant Exod. 1. v. 12. to impose on them a yoke a thousand times more cruel than death and to load them with Irons like Victims These punishments this bondage and all these chains serve but to reinforce their Bodies and me thinks the sweat which drops from their Fore-heads in the midst of their pains is converted into the Juice of Life which renders them marvellously fruitful Have you not seen a River which issueth imperiously after it had passed through the midst of Rocks There are no banks nor limits nor any obstacles which it draws not a long with it It swells the more it is restrained and commonly its highest elevations grow from its greatest falls Thus the people of Israel little in their Birth and as a little Rill in its source increaseth the more it is restrained and like an impetuous torrent which hath broken its Banks Oderuntque filios Israël Aegyptii affligebant illudentes eis Exod. 1. v. 13. Atque ad amaritudinem perducebant vitam eorum operibus duris luti lateris omnique famulatu quo in terrae operibus premebantur Exod. 1. v. 14. it extends it self in a prodigious maner This was the occasion of the mortal hatred the Egyptians conceived
took his Sex enim diebusfecit Dominus caelum terram mare omnia quae in eis sunt requievit die septimo c. Exod. 20. v. 11. seven dayes after the Creaation of the World and to the end every week we might have a set time to think on this amiable benefit and to render thanks for it unto our Creator It was done also to the end the Hebrews might have this day to celebrate that of their departure out of Egypt and of their deliverance and that all men and maid-servants might at least have this day to give some ease unto their labours Plutarch was then deceived who affirms that the Hebrews had Instituted this Sabbath in honour of Bacchus as well as the other Gentiles who believed that it was done in honour of Saturn for the ground of this Feast was no other than what I newly related And the Order observ'd in gathering up of the Manna was but for the same end CHAP. XXIX The duty of Children towards their Parents HOnour thy Father and Mother The fourth Commandement that thy dayes may be long upon the earth which the Lord thy God will give thee Honora Patrem tuum matrem tuam ut sis longaevus super terram quam Dominus Deus dabit tibi Exod 20. v. 12. In truth it is a very reasonable thing to bear respect and love to succour and obey those to whom next unto God we owe our lives and we must be more insensible and more unnaturall than beasts to refuse these affectionate duties to our Parents and to those whom we ought to esteem as Fathers Mothers and Superiours such as heaven hath plac'd over our heads to rule and govern us either concerning temporall or spirituall matters We must banish then out of the world and out of Families all those little Dragons and domestick Vipers which have neither teeth claws gall nor poison but to tear the heart and bowels in which they have been formed and conceived and to destroy those of whom they hold their lives All houses ought to be Temples consecrated unto love and pietie as that which was built at Rome in lieu of a Prison where a young Lady had nourished her Mother with her own Milk seeing the Gaolers hindred her from carrying any food to her O holy piety where are now these Temples and Altars where doe we see such Daughters give suck unto their Mothers as this gallant Roman did or Fathers to have Daughters like this other of whom Valerius Maximus makes mention Valer. Max. lib. 5. who found out the means to nourish her Father in the same manner and had the honour to be the Mother of her Father who rendred his last sighs in her bosome sucking a drop of Milk from her breast Moreover if I am not deceived can there be found more Daughters than Sons who work the like Miracles their Sex is more inclinable to sweetness and piety and to those amiable tendernesses which reach even to the highest pitch of generosity There have been heretofore Men who desiring to suffer death for their Fathers have rendred themselves immortall Such a one was that Lock-smith of Toledo who exposed himself unto the extremest tortures to free his Father and to obtain his life with his pardon But the example of Alexius Son to the Emperour Isaack is more illustrious who in the midst of the Acclamations of Greece which saluted him King had no ears but to hear the plaints of his Father no eyes but to behold his miseries and no power but to replace him on his Throne and in the Empire whereof his Brother had deprived him It is not then against this young Prince nor against his like that Sina will shoot poisonous Darts and deadly Arrows as against Paricides but on the contrary after a long sequel of years they shall have lived in this world the course of their glory will not find its period but in Eternity which can never have an end CHAP. XXX A sentence of Death against Murtherers THou shalt not kill The fift Commandement Nonoccides Exod. 20. v. 13. This Precept doth not only forbid those execrable Murtherers whose Swords and Daggers are plunged into mens bosomes and those horrid butcheries where furie is animated against a body to gnaw it as a Vulture would doe his prey or like a Tyger to tear and eat it even to the bones or to consume it with a slow fire like a Devill whose torments give death without taking away life It is then by this Law that God prohibits not only Murthers but all sorts of exteriour violences and injuries which may be offered unto the body and life of our Neighbour It is also a Sentence of death pronounced by the mouth of God against all those who are causers of other mens deaths and make no more account of a mans life than of a flye I would gladly know whether they find in the Decalogue a Challenge an assassination and all those violences which are practised upon a man as upon a beast I would willingly see them making their randezvous and assignations upon Mount Sina where they shall behold a God thundring and lightning over their heads but it would be more gratefull unto me to see them performing an honourable penance in this life and satisfying Justice and Piety before their deaths than afterwards to expect an Eternity of punishments and severities CHAP. XXXI The Triumph of Chastity THou shalt not commit Adultery The sixt Commandemâ—â—t Nonâ—â—aechaberis Exod 20. v. 14. Honour ought not to be less pretious unto men then life and if both were in danger it is certain we should rather abandon the last than the first and say as the Ermine Motto of the Ermine Malo mori quam fâ—â—â—ari I had rather dye than receive a stain For my part I admire that Christian Woman who in the time of Maxentius plunged a Dagger in to her heart to end her life by eternizing her honour For indeed it is a glorious Death to find by a particular inspiration from Heaven a Purple Robe in our bloud and in our tears a veil of white Sattin to cover our purity which is the soul of our life and the glory of the body This is the Nuptiall garment which we must never put off even in the Sepulchre and he that is cloathed with it ought to be so full of respect and circumspection as he must even blush saith Tertullian at his own vertue And if we meet with Souls which have impudence enough not to change Countenance neither in respect of God who looks upon them nor in regard of men who behold them they shall one day feel him whom they have not seen and such as have been Complices or Witnesses of their Crimes shall be their Executioners And then shall all the Lightnings of Hell inkindle Flames to stiffle theirs and lascivious hands wandring and impure eyes unchast breasts Maegera's heads Diabolicall hearts and the
sunt dii eorum in quibus habebant fiduciam Deut. 32. v. 37. De quorum victimis Comedebant adipes bibebant vinum libaminum surgant opitulentur vobis in necessitate vos protegant Deut. 32. v. 38. Videte quòd ego sim solus non sit alius Deus praeter me Ego occidam ego vivere faciam percutiam ego sanabo non est qui de manu mea possit eruere Deut. 32. v. 39. Levabo ad caelum manum meam dicam Vivo ego in aeternum Deut. 32. v. 40. Si acuero ut fulgur gladium meum arripuerit judicium manus mea reddam â—ltionem hostibus meis his qui oderunt me retribuam Deut. 32. v. 41. Inebriabo sagiteas meas sanguine gladius meus devorabit carnes de cruore occisorum de captivitate nudati inimicorum capitis Deut. 32. v. 42. and the dreadfull period of an irritated patience Alas what day what Tribunall What Assises and what Judgements This will be the fortunate moment which mercy hath ordained to crown the merits of Virtue and the frightfull Instant which Justice hath decreed for the punishment of sins Then all the force pride and power of the Jews shall appear but weakness and even those who think to be in Cities and in their Towers as in places of security shall be miserably oppressed And then what Answer will these miserable wretches make unto the voice of God who will lay a thousand reproaches on them and in deriding their Miseries will say Alas then where are those Gods whom you idolatrize and in whom you place your Assurances where are those who did eat the fat of the Victims which they have immolated and drank the Wine of their Sacrifices Let them now rise up and succour you in so pressing necessities In fine now acknowledge whether there be another God than my self who is able to dispose of life and death of Evill and the remedy and whose power is so absolute as no man can resist it It is I the living God that I am who will lift up my hand unto Heaven and if I sharpen my Sword and if I inkindle its Edge like Lightning to make you undergoe the rigour of my severest Judgements the thunder of my vengeances shall fall on my enemies and upon all those who shall wage War against me as a furious lightning which shall consume all that it strikes by the breath of its ardours and devouring flames afterwards I will steep my merciless darts and arrows in the bloud of Rebels and I will satiate my justest furies in the most horrid slaughter of those bodyes which have been massacred sparing neither Masters nor slaves Let the Gentiles learn then from hence the praise they ought to give unto this people who have a God whose goodnesses are alwayes favourable to those whom he loves Laudate gentes populum ejus quie sanguinem servorum suorum ulciscetur c. Deut. 32. v. 43. and whose vengeances are dreadfull to his enemies Behold my dear Reader the end of this famous Canticle which was first recited in the presence of all the people of Israel and which contains a description of the miracles God wrought to deliver them out of Captivity It was likewise a powerfull exhortation which ought to oblige them either by force or sweetness to remain faithfull in the service of so good and powerfull a Master But this was to sing in the ears of Tygers whose fury is the more irritated when they hear any Musick Christians let us not doe the like but benefit our selves at the expence of this people And faithfully keep the Lawes and Commandements God hath given us let us listen once more unto the last words of Moses and of our Prophet who speaks both to them and us My dear Children I have nothing else to say Et dixit ad eos Ponite corda vestra in omnia verba quae ego testificor vobis heaie ut mandetis ea siâ—â—iâ— vestris custodire facere implere universa quae scripta sunt legis hujus Deut. 32. v. 46. Quia non in cassâ—â— praecepta sunt vobis sed ut singuli in eis viverent quae facientes longo perseveretis tempore in terra ad quam Jordane transmisso ingredimini possidendam Deut. 32. v. 47. and ask of you before my death but that you would seriously consider what I have delivered to you and that you would deeply imprint it both in your own and your Childrens hearts to the end you may all practise and accomplish it for these Lawes have not been established in vain but to the end they may keep you if you keep them and that they may conserve you with bonds of peace and love in this blessed Land into which you are going after your passage over Jordan CHAP. XLIX The Death of Moses at the sight of the holy Land IN fine after forty years of travell behold us with the people of Israel upon the Confines of the Land of Promise All our enemies are vanquished our Chains are broken the Sea hath suspended its billows to make us a passage the bitternesses of Mara are changed into delights the Heavens have rained down nothing but Manna on our deserts and totall Nature hath wrought miracles to serve us But alas we know not what will be the issue of all these happy accidents and of these admirable prodigies for the Aspects of this amiable Intelligence which have been as it were our starrs amidst so many obscurities and these arms which have been so often lifted up towards Heaven for our safety after they had conducted and delivered us amidst so many dangers are now even ready me-thinks to languish and decay In truth the Judgements of God are frightfull Abysses and it were to lose our selves to enter into them with other lights than those of Faith and Love All our fairest designs are sometimes but the draughts and Images of a dream where our proudest hopes meet only with a Tomb. Have we not seen Conquerours who having measur'd by their Triumphs the richest parts of the Universe banish'd into some corner of the Earth and into the Gates of some Cities where they scarce found any Sepulchre Behold the period of their Combats the end of their Triumphs and the Occident of all these Stars which shined not but amongst Laurels Behold them in lamentations in bloud and under some Cypress tree which formeth the funestous Crown of their ambition and the Tomb of their memory Is this the fatall end of their desires the subject of their tears and the period of their projects At least if their Children were their heirs and if these dolefull issues could open them a passage and give them some entrance into the Empires of honour and immortality after which they had so long sighed they would receive this consolation that their death had been the life of others and that in dying they had rendred
v. 29. his portion shall be filled with all sorts of Benedictions and his Children under their jurisdiction shall behold Lands even from West to South In fine Asher shall be blessed in himself and his generations which have received as for their share the art of gaining hearts with divers others Favors without which the most illustrious Qualities and attractive Charms shall be but a specious subject of Contempt and Misery O Israel chosen people of God predestinated Nation Children of so many Saints are you not then most happy in having a God over your heads who sees the Heavens the Air and the Clouds rouling under his feet from whence he hath so often shot Thunderbolts against your enemies It is then by the Magnificence and Power of this thundring Arm and from these victorious hands you are going to become masters of Canaan and so long as you shall remain faithful to the Lord who hath taken you into his protection you shall be in him as in a Sanctuary of Peace and in a Fort before which all the Arms of the World and Hell are but as so many small peeces of straw and some breath of wind and smoke which vanish in a moment It is enough for me to leave you in the arms of so absolute a Monarch so merciful a Father and so prudent a Governor Farewel then Israel farewel my dear Children farewel my poor people I go hence whither this great God calls me I have lived too long on Earth amongst men and in a world which is but a valley of Miseries and Calamities Ascendit ergo Moises de campestribus Moab super montem Nebo c. Deut. 34. v. 1. Let us approach unto Heaven where the source of all happiness resides let us ascend the Mountain of Abarim and the top of Nebo where we shall behold the Stars at a nearer distance and where at least with our eyes we shall mark out the period of our desires and hopes It is thither God leads Moses Dixitque Dominus ad eum baec est terra pro qua juravi Abraham Isaac Jacob dicens Semini tuo dabo eam Vidisti eam ocubis tuis non transibis ad illam Deut. 34. v. 4. Mortuusque est Moises servus Domini in terra Moab jubente Domino Deut. 34. v. 5. Et sepelivit eum in valle terrae Moab contra Phagor c. Deut. 34. v. 6. and where he shews him in a moment all the Holy Land which he had promised to Abraham Isaac and Jacob for their children O God What grief and pleasure all at once What theatre of death and of life what subject of hope and despair and what spectacle unto a good heart which had so long sighed after these rewards Why were then so many prodigies so many voyages so many troubles and so many combates needful to obtain at last but the sight of those Palms which he shall never gather Moses dies when he should but begin to live and scarce had he seen what he had so much desired but at the same instant God shuts his eyes and the gates of Canaan What sweet severity what amiable rigor and what sad command Moses dies and this incomparable Prophet who deserved after his death to be placed amongst the Stars of the Firmament is interred neer to Mount Phogor in the Valleys of Moab carrying with him no other title saving that he hath been the Servant of God But this is sufficient and all other Epitaphs are at least for the most part but reliques of some vanity There are no Ciphers but these which neither time nor eternity can efface and though a thousand of them should be written and engraven on Marble and Brass with the rayes of the Sun and with Iron and Diamantine Gravers yet they will either soon or late lose their lustre Worms bear no respect the putrification of Sepulchres devours the fairest bodies and Time hath nights and shades which impallidate all the Stars of the day Let Atheists Libertines and Infidels seek out other Epitaphs where they please for my part it is enough for me to be a servant of so great a God After this Let us go Children of Saints let us go with Moses upon Mount Abarim in the Valleys of Moab into the Tomb and even into the Center of the infernal parts we shall finde every where life repose glory and immortality Never shall we be surprised having this Pasport and if the Holy Land of this World by mishap be forbidden us all the Gates of Sion and Jerusalem which is in Heaven will be opened for us O Heaven O Earth of the living O Jerusalem my dear Country when shall we be on those high Mountains where under our feet we shall behold Times and Seasons Winter and Summer Sun and Moon Air Sea and Earth as well as Life and Death with all their train When shall we be in the Arms and Bosom or at least at the Feet of this Prince whom we serve And when shall we go by the opening of his Wounds even into his Heart which is our Land of Promise Courage then Christians All is sweet to him who loves and to serve is sufficient to gain a Crown But it is God alone whom we must love and in so sweet and delicious a Bondage we ought to live and die O Life O Death O Love O Servitude To live for God to die in God to love nothing but God and to serve no other Master These are the qualities of a most blessed Soul and this is to begin on Earth that which shall never end in Heaven Behold my dear Reader the end of the Law and the first courses of our Holy History However our voyage hath been long enough to take some little breath expecting till we can follow Joshua into the Land of Promise and pass even to the Court of David and of the first Kings of Judea Mean while if by mishap I have never so little gone out of the way which was marked out to me by the invisible Lights of Faith I publickly profess that my Pen hath betrayed my Heart and that I submit all my thoughts and words unto the infallible Sense of the Church with promise upon the least advertisement I shall receive from the Wise freely to disavow all which shall have caused my deviations ERRATA Emendanda PAg. 3. Line 33. read liveless p. 5. l 16. r. ardors p. 142. l. 13. r. now l. 14. r. not p. 204. l. 15. r. pondred p. 207. l. 1. t. Laws FINIS A TABLE of the principal Matters contained IN THIS TOME A. AAron his Embassie into Egypt 267 The assurances he gave unto the people of Israel that God had heard their clamors 322 His fear whilst Joshua pursued the Amalekites 332 The Altar he erected unto the Golden Calf 359 The excuse for his Idolatry 362 Abandonment most happy 140 Abel the Picture of Meekness 27 His imployment in guiding his Fathers flocks ibid. The sacrifice which he
that their Hearts can desire They possess the Monarchy of the Universe for their Inheritance and Government Their Empire extends over all out-bounds and limits the Winds doe not blow but at their pleasure the Rivers and Streams doe not Rowl along but at their Command Praesit piscibus mariâ— volantibus Coeli universaeque terrae omnique repâ—ili quod movetur in terra Gen. 1. v. 16. the Birds doe not tune their Warbling Notes but to afford them delight the Lions themselves and the Leopards dare not roar in their presence All is in Peace all in Joy and all in a pleasing silence devoid of Fear and Apprehension Their Bodies are neither subject to Weariness nor the Butchery of any tormenting Maladies Their Paradise knows neither Anxiety grief nor pain In that place no sound was ever heard of those frightfull terms whose thought alone is able to raise strange Commotions in our Hearts The mind cannot there be diverted by those sad thoughts which are inventive to bring us Torment In a word they are as it were the Gods of the Terrestiall Paradise and partake in a manner of all the delights which can be tasted in Heaven CHAP. V. The Disasters and Banishment of Adam and Eve ADam and Eve are happy but how long will this happiness endure Doth Adam remember that he is a Man and a Man of Earth Doth Eve well understand that her Sex is more Light more frail and lesse constant Adam art thou Ignorant that nothing is more flattering and more cunning than a woman when her mind is excited by some passion Audax est ad omnia quaecunque odit vel amat famina et artificiosa est nocere cum vult Valerius in Epist ad Rufum Cum invisa est mulier se odâ—sse ait Cum amat amari cum suratur se compilari queritur Nicephor Gregorius Just l. 7. One must will what shee wils and even the force and reason of the wisest men are often obliged to give way unto her Beware then Adam of this Woman for my own part I imagin to have in a manner seen her behind a Tree and to my thinking I have heard her speak unto a serpent Behold how she comes wholy affrighted Adam advance and observe a little what ayles her And if thou desirest to know the truth believe the contrary of what she shall tell thee Eve from whence doest thou come Disunion the first misfortune of the World and why doest thou leave him all alone who is the heart of thy heart and the soul of thy soul Where can be the Members without the Head and the Head without the Members What doest thou not know that I am to be witness of all thy Actions and that I must give an account unto God for what thou shalt doe what fruit is this that thou hold'st in thy hand Ah my Son Sed et serpens erat callidior Gen. 3. v. 1. my Friend my dear Husband would you did but know what hath happened since I was absent from you Not far from hence I met a Serpent of a Prodigious and extraordinary shape A diabolicall serpent he also spake to me contrary to the use of Beasts For my part I did believe that he was a Prodigy of Heaven Cui respondit mulier de fructu lignorum quae sucrunt in Puradiso vesâ—imur Gen. 3. v. 2. De fructu vero ligni quod est in Medio Paradisi praecepit nobis Deus ne comedemus et ne tangeremus illud ne fâ—rte moriemur Gen. v. 3. Dixit autem serpens ad mulierem nequaquam marte moriemini Gen. v. 3. c. 4. Scit enim Deus quod in quocunque die comederitis de eo aperientur oculi vestri et eritu sicut dis scientes bonum et malum Gen. 1. v. 5. Vidit igitur mulier quod bonum esset lignum ad vescendum et pulcrum oculis aspectuque delectabile tulit de fructu illius et comedit Gen. 3. v. 4. and an Angel which God sent me under the form of a Serpent He shewed me the Tree of life and promised me that if I would eat of it's fruit I should become like unto God and have a perfect knowledge of Good and Evill I told him that God had forbid it us uppon pain of death But he protested to me that on the contrary this fruit had the Juyce of Life and Immortality For my part I have gather'd it I have eaten of it and I intreat you to taste as little of it as you please O God! how eloquent is the malice of a woman and what powerfull charmes and perswasions hath she Her lips and Mouth distill at once both Honny Poyson her Tongue shoots forth Arrowes of Death and Life her very Lookes are so many Lightnings which she mingleth with the dartes of her Passions This is that which destroyed the Angel of the Terrestriall Paradise the Monarch of the World and the Father of all Mankind He chose rather to disobey God than contradict his Wife He resolv'd to be rather a complice in her Disloyalty Deditque viro suo et comedit Gen. 3. v. 6. Et aperti sunt oculi amborum cumque cognovissent se esse nudos consuerunt folia ficus et fecerunt sibi perizomata Gen. 3. v. 7. Abscondit se Adam et uxor eius à facie Domini Dei Gen. 3. v. 6. than to take revenge of it It was from his own Wife's hand he took this fatall Apple which would choak his Posterity O wretch what hast thou done open a little thine Eies and blush rather at the sight of this Crime than of thy Nakedness Adam what hast thou done why doest thou hide thy self Hast thou swallowed down that bit which hath since infected all of us Proud man thou thoughtst to be free but thou now bearest the shackles of an eternall captivity Thy weakness could not deny that to thy wife which God had reserved to himself And thou hast done for the love of a foolish Woman what the Eternall Wisedom had so expresly forbidden thee Blind and disloyall Man thou gavest more credit to a Serpent which deceived thee than to God and truth which can never fail Art thou not ashamed to have committed this Sacrilege which made thee submit to the allurements of a Woman against the Decree which God himself hath published Adam where art thou God calls thee Vocavitque Dominus Deus Ad met dixit ei ubies G. n. 3. v. 5. thou must Answer thou must appear in vain is it to seek out shades and groves to oppose the Word who gives speech to the Dum and those Eles whose least glances make the day to break in the darkest dungeons and greatest obscurities Adam behold this lightning which teares the cloudes and is about to imprint upon thy Spirit the difference between Grace and Sin thou shalt discern what thou now art and what thou wert before and all the future disasters which
without hearing one another and cry'd out when it was not in no mans power to help them Behold the Enterprises and Designs of the World Behold the Structure of the Gyants of the Earth and the Sanctuary of their Pride Men are wont to build with much trouble they raise Towers they Flanck Bulwarks they strive to render themselves impregnable or rather unaccessable by inferior people they have also cemented their Wals with their purest Bloud and a thousand poor Husbands as many Widdows and six times as many Orphans must needs have bin swallowed up under these foundations What comes of all this The Roof is not yet layd when a Wind and Tempest riseth which must carry them away The sweat and tears of the Workmen over whom they tyrannized are ready to make the whole Body of the Fabrick to shake under sad ruins what ever happen the Masters and Tyrants shall never enter into it or if they doe it shall be but to enclose therein the anxieties of their old age as in a dolefull prison Yes those great Buls of Brass shal be the first Furnaces of those cruell Phalarisses and those imaginary Theaters of their Grandeurs shall serve but as a Scaffold on which their Glory and Honour shal be immolated Vanity of this VVorld Phantasms of the World glory of a few dayes Phantasms of the Earth seeming beauties Men what doe you think and why I beseech you so many Houses so many Castles Cities and Villages cast your Eyes on the Tower of Babel and dread at least the fate of the like disaster Finally then make your VVils Ingrave your Epitaphs seek out six or seaven Foot of Earth and from henceforth think only on erecting your Tombs Goe consult your Ancestors your Fathers and Masters cast your selves at their Feet enter into their Sepulchers search into the bottom of their Monuments and be not affrighted to behold so many ravell'd Crowns so many broken Scepters and so much Purple serving only to cover VVorms Imitate those many Princes and great Ladies who have commanded their Coffins to be made when they were in perfect health and who often descended into them to learn during life what must happen after death At least doe like Philip of Macedon Advertisement of Philip of Macedon who every Day at his waking had a Page to remind him what he was and what he should quickly be Homo mortalu morti subditus I assure my self that these practices will suddenly alter your designs and that your most serious thoughts will at length rather entertain themselves on Death than Life and rather on a Sepulcher than on a Family The end of the first Book THE HOLY HISTORIE FIRST TOME ABRAHAM and ISACK SECOND BOOK CHAP. I. Abrahams departure out of his Territories and his entry into the Fields of Moreth where he erected an Altar and where God appeared to him the second time THe Genius of Philosophers had reason to say That the most dreadfull and difficult Trade of the VVorld was to govern Men. In my opinion nevertheless it is not impossible to meet with Kings capable of this Government provided their Crown Scepter and Empire exceed not the bounds and limits of Nature and of a purely Politick and Civil Life which follows the Conduct of Men and Laws And if by the Government of men this ravishing Spirit understood the Orders Idea's and designs which are needfull to guide men amidst the Accidents and by-ways of a Moral Supernatural and wholy Divine Life I say and maintain that it is not an employment proper for Men but only the Office and Function of the most wise and most holy Providence of God It was also as I believe the opinion of Aristotles Master Plato in pluribus locis for I heretofore took pleasure to remark in his most charming and true Idea's that Man was in this Life as in an Army The marvellous State of Man that the Destinies were his ranks Occasions his weapons his Enemies all sorts of disasters his Confederates misfortunes and finally for conclusion that he was in the World as in a Field of Battail in which God was to him a King Master Captain and Soveraign Governour Pythagoras was then mistaken when he said that God ruled not the sublunary VVorld to wit Men but by the assistance of two great Powers which are Counsell and Fortune or Destiny It is God who governs us it is his Hand which guides us his Eye which conducts us and it is his powerfull Finger which hath Ingraven his Laws not in Tables of Brass or Marble but in the Center of Hearts and Souls Philo differed not in opinion as I imagin when he said that Man bears his Master within himself which is nothing else but an internall Light which is the Signet of our Souls the Spirit of our Spirits the Life of Reason and according to the Hebrew Text Vexilla super nos limen vultus tui Text. Hebr. a Standard sparkling with Heavenly Lights Finally it is in the midst of these Lights that the Voice of the Holy Ghost and the VVord of the Word is heard and Imprints it self in the Soul with the most resplendent and luminous Rays that can enter our Spirits Now it was by the Favour The calling of Abraham and Splendor of these conquering Lights and victorious Voices that Abraham was chosen amongst Men as the Person who would be the most obedient most faithfull Cyril lib. 3. cont Jul. Apost Ex medio deceptorum ereptus ad lucâ— verae agnitionis Dei vocatus est and most conformable to the VVill of God It was saith St. Cyril about the time when Ninus held the Reigns of the Assyrian Empire and when the World was buryed in the darkest obscurities of Infidelity that this Angell was drawn out of the Errors of Night to adore the Verities of the Day It was as one may imagin even according to the History of Moyses either during a most Heavenly sleep or in an Exstatick awaking or finally by means of an Angell cloathed with an humane Body that Abraham heard distinctly the Voice of God which said unto him Abraham it is time to leave thy Country and Kindred and to abandon thy Fathers House Follow me then Egredere de terra tua de cognatione tua de Domo Patris tui veni in terram quam monstrabo tibi Gen. 12. v. 1. and repair unto a Land and under a Clymat which I will shew thee every where I will be thy Star thy Pole and my Eye shall serve as Guide and Torch to conduct thee to the Haven and Landing-place Well then Abraham get thee out of thine own Countrey leave all thy Friends and break those many tyes which Blood hath woven in thy Veins and Heart The Milk thou hast suck'd is from henceforth no other than poyson the Nourishment thou hast receiv'd from thy Parents doth but sustain thy Body and stifle thy Soul In fine the Light and
know a Heart and so many divine experiments upon poor Mortals so that the whole Sacrifice of Abraham was but a stratagem of Gods Providence and a Master-piece of Abrahams and Isaacks Obedience The Altar of Moria which was to be the Scaffold of Death became the Theater of Life and his Pile served but to make a Bonfire of Joy and a triumph of the fidelity which Abraham and Isaack testified unto God Besides I know not who was most astonished the Father or the Son however it were Abraham unbound his Isaack and then they both together adored the admirable contrivances of Gods goodness who did tear out a Mans Heart to put his own in the place of it A Divine Stratagem and who commands us to give him a mortall and perishable life that he may place us in the fruition of one eternall and immortall It is sufficient for this God of Clemencie and mercie to see Men at his Feet he is content with that Sacrifice which the Heart offers to him and he will have neither Bloud nor Murther presented on his Altars It satisfies him to immolate his only Jesus for the ransom of Mankind His Death gives us Life and the least drop of his sacred Veins is able to wash away all the stains of the Universe Stay then Abraham Levavit Abraham oculos suos viditque post tergum arietem inter vepres haerentem cornibus quem assumens obtulit Holccaustum profilio the blow is reserved for some other not for thy Son and it only belongs to the Eternall Father to offer the Sacrifice in verity the figure whereof hath preceded No it shall not be Isaack thou must immolate but this Ram which thou seest in this Bush surrounded with Brambles and Crowned with thorns take him and burn this Victim till a Man-God come in Isaacks place It is enough for me saith God unto Abraham to know that thou lovest me and I can now no longer doubt after so long and sensible tryals It is the Hand and not the Mouth which hath given me the assurance of it It is also rather by effects than complements that I try thy fidelity O God of Hearts it is then in verity that Hearts must be Sacrificed to thee Fathers and Mothers if God will have your Children make a free gift of them if God be content with you offer your selves unto him My God! I will even now then consecrate my Heart to thee I renounce at present all those things I may not Love with thee I present unto thee the Sacrifice of my humiliated Spirit and I refuse no pain if thou ordainest it for me Burn Sacrifise and spare neither Health Honor Riches Children nor Friends I am even content to Immolate my Isaack to thee that is my Soul my Affections and my Life provided I may Live with thee and Love thee in Glory and Eternity CHAP. XII The Death of Sara A Certain person holily curioius went heretofore examining all that is dispers'd in Nature I asked saith he of the Sun whether he were a God and he answered me no in regard he was subject to Eclipses Circumvolutions Vicissitudes Gen. 22. v. 13. and a thousand periods which keep him in a perpetuall mutation Inconstancy of created things I intreated the Moon to tell me whether she were a Divinity and she protested to me no by reason of Exiles Defections Retrogradations Ascendants Conjunctions Separations Elevations and falls to which she is lyable All the rest of created Nature will confess the same if we interrogate her in particular upon this verity God only can say I am God and I neither can nor doe change because I am God He is in the midst of the World as the immoveable Center in a Circle about which all is in motion he is as a Rock upon the Ocean who beholds the Waves and Billows rowling under his Feet without inconstancy and astonishment He is pleased nevertheless to see those he loves in the Flux and Reflux of a thousand accidents which teach them that their fortunes hopes affections and delights may alter every moment that the most smiling prosperities often swim amidst tears the clearest and most serene dayes are followed sometimes by the obscurest and most dusky Nights Bodies for Companions have their own Shadows Roses are mixed with Thorns and even the Life of Man never Ends but in Death To see Abraham Sara and Isaack after their deliverance and the tryals God had of their fidelity would not one have believed them almost immortall and exempted from all the miseries of life Tunc est tentatio fiaienda quando finitur pugna tunc finienda est pugna quando post hanc vitam succedit pugnae secura victoria S. Prosper lib. 3. de cont vitae And yet scarce were they returned to their own home but Abraham and Isaack met with a new occasion of grief for the Death of Sara And no wonder saith St. Prosperus since the Life of Man is a War without truce and since we ought not to hope or expect Peace but in the Tomb. And indeed as Hildebert hath well noted it is not without reason that these storms succeed one another Attende miscrias hominis intuere cineres vectigalia peccati sunt S. Hild. Ep. 56. and that usually one vapor draws others by reason the Earth since the contagion of the terrestriall Paradise hath been a fatall source of Miseries and Calamities which took their birth from the first sin of our unfortunate Parents who left unto their Children for an inheritance and punishment a chain wrought with all sorts of infelicities This yoak then is common to all Men and there is no person whom God hath not subjected to the Laws of this sad Captivity The strictest unions must break the sincerest friendships must have an end and even Mariages themselves of which God was the sacred knot must at length make a Tragick Divorce upon a Bed which is the most common Theater of the blind furies of Death We ought to confess nevertheless that it is a spectacle able to excite the Constancy of a good Courage when we shall behold this unmercifull Murdress which snatcheth away Daughters out of their Mothers Bosoms and Sons in the sight of their Fathers and Wifes between the Arms of their Husbands In such a case if Nature had not some tenderness she would be unnaturall and we must have Hearts of Marble not to be touched with some sense of grief and pitty Abraham had then just cause to testifie by his tears the regret he had for his dear Sara's Death Vixit autem Sara centum viginti septem annis Gen. 23. v. 1. And surely since he lost so rare a blessing well might he disconsolatly bewayl it This mourning was not yet blameable and he was very carefull not to doe like those who bury all their affections in the preparation of a Funerall pomp and who have but a shadowed meen or else not being able
sufficiently to disguise their looks strive to hide under the Veils and shadows of a Bed or dark Chamber the shame of their insensibility Abraham shed more tears from his Heart Et mortua est in civitate Arbee quae est Hebron in terra Chanaan venitque Abraham ut plangeret fleret eam Gen. 23. v. 2. than by his Eyes and in rendring all duties to Nature and his Wife he most amply satisfied God and his own piety while he was a Pilgrim and stranger in the Land of Canaan Sara being Dead in the City of Hebron he went directly into the place where his Wifes Body reposed There he offered up his Prayers unto God and kiss'd a thousand times these amiable reliques watering them from time to time with his tears All those who assisted this Holy Man might well perceive the tears which distilled from his Eyes and hear the groans which issued forth of his Mouth But God alone knows the Acts of resignation He presently intreated Ephron to sell him a double Cave which was close by the vale of Mambre to interr Sara in that place Ephron is willing to grant what he asketh but being at last as it were inforced to take a sum of Money for the purchace of his Land Abraham became Master of the Field and Grot in which he laid the Body of his dear moity It is in this monument where the most generous Woman of her time reposeth Atque ita sepelivit Abrahum Saram uxorem suam in spelunca 〈◊〉 duplici Gen. 23. v. 19. And under this Rock of Diamond will be found a Diamantine Heart in the Body of Sara who was a perfect pattern of Constancy and Fidelity CHAP. XIII The Mariage of Isaack with Rebecca and the Death of Abraham THe World is a Theater on which very different actions are seen There Voluptuousness smiles and Grief hath tears in its Eyes Hope flies in the imbaulmed Air and Despair plungeth it self into an Abyss of Gall and poyson Love and Sweetness catch Men in Nets wrought by the Hands of the Graces and on the contrary Hatred and Envy assasinate the Hearts of Men with inchanted Darts A Bloody Amphitheater In fine whilst Life is fowing on all sides Death mows down all before her Behold the common objects of the World pleasures sorrows hopes despairs loves envies furies flatteries Mariages solemnities life death birth a Chaos of disorder a Labyrinth of unions and divorces which make the course of this life but a list and Theater where all we can imagine is to be seen Have we not beheld all this in the life of Abraham This poor Man then was in the Hands of God and Providence as a feather in the Air which serves for sport unto the Winds and as a Planet in the Heavens which never rests or as a Wheel in the Water which is alwaies turning and in a continuall motion God led him out of Chaldea Mesopotamia Canaan and Egypt from thence he causeth him to return unto the Cunanites where he stays for some time in the City of Sichem sometime in that of Hebron afterwards in Gerara and then in Bershabe and again in Hebron as if he could not live but in Travelling during whose Voyages Heaven is pleased to afford him a thousand Combats and as many occasions of Victory In fine after the deliverance of his Son â—rat antem Abraliam senex dierumqtie multorum c. Gen. 2â— v. 1. â—orrvaque ad servom seniorem Domus suae qui praeerat omnibus quae Dabebat pone manum tuum sulter sâ—mur meum Gen. 24. v. 2. Vt adjurem teper Dominum Deum Caela terrae ut non accipias uâ—oâ—em filio meo de filithus Chananaeorum inter quos habito Gen. 24. v. 3. Sed ad terram cognationem meam praficisearis inde accipias uâ—â—orem filio meo Isaac Gen. 24. v. 4. and the death of his Wife he feeling himself wholy broken with old age and upon the point of following the happy Lot of Sara resolved to seek a Wife for Isaack and for that end he calls one of the most faithfull Servants of his House called Eliezer and having commanded him to lay his Hand under his Thigh he conjured him by the name of God to seek a match for his Son in the Land of Haram as if this Country had inherited from Cham its first Lord the malediction which Noah had fulminated against him Which being done this wise Embassador chosen amongst the Domesticks of Abraham began his journey to execute the designs and Commission of his Master Posuitergo servus manum subsemore Abraham Domini sus c. Gen. 24. v. 9. Tult quc decem Camelos degrege Domini sui â—biit ex omnibus honis esus portans secum profâ—â—tusque pervexit in Mesopotamiam ad urse em Nachor Gen. 24. v. 10. and departing from Bershabe he went directly to Mesopotaneia carrying with him ten large Camels loaden with the rarest and most magnificent presents which were in Abrahams House Behold him then in the City of Nachor meditating with himself upon all the readiest and most facile means to expedite what had bin given him incharge What will he doe First he departs out of the City and repayring where Women in their turns were wont to draw Water Cumque Camelos fecisset accumbere extra op illum juxta puteuÌ„ aquae c. Gen. 24. v. 11. he there rests his Camels expecting untill Heaven should offer the opportunity he desired During this expectation he offered up his prayers unto God saying Lord God of Abraham Dominus meus Demini met Abraham occurre obsecro milu hodie fac miseâ—â—cordiam cum Domino meo Abraham Gen. 24. v. 12. Ecce ego sto prope fontem aquae filiae habitatorum hujus Civitatis egredientur ad hauriendam aquam Gen. 24. v. 13. Igitur puella cui ego dixero inclina hydriam tuam ut bibaÌ„ illa responderit bibe quin Camelis tuis dabo potum ipsa est quam praeparasli servo tue Isaac c. Gen. 24. v. 14. Nec dum intra se verba compleverat ecce Rebecca egrediebatur habens bydriam in scapula sua Gen. 24. v. 15. Occurritque ei ser vus ait pauxillum aquae mihi ad bibendum praebe de hydria tua Gen. 24. v. 17. Quae respondit bibe Domine mi c. Gen. 24. v. 18. Ipse autem contemplebatur eam tacitus c. Gen. 24. v. 21. cast I beseech thee some propitious and favourable look upon the designs of my Master Great God take pitty of Abraham thy faithfull Servant it is by his appointment I am in these territories I expect here but the hour when the Maid shall come to draw Water out of this Fountain If then My God thou dost give me this advice I resolve to entreat the first which shall approach it to afford me some Water to drink if she grant me
Mouth and Heart He calls Heaven to witness and protests that Bethel is the Temple of God where the most glorious rayes of his Majesty are seen Ah saith he how venerable is this place and how full of a holy terror It is the gate of Heaven and if Jacob could live a hundred Thousand years he would have no other God than he that appeared to him Besides more authentically to seal his confession and promise he powred oyl out of a Bottle which he carried for his provision Surgens ergo Jacob manâ— tulit lapidem quem supposuerat â—piti suo exerit in titulum sundens oleum desuper and annointed therewith the stone which during the Night had served him for a Pillow Behold in truth strange mysteries but I would willingly have demanded of God the explication of them if I had been in Jacobs place I know neverthelesse that some have thought that it was a figure of the Temporall Generation of the Word who descended from Abraham even unto Joseph and Mary and who ascends from Joseph and Mary unto Adam and God himself It is the Incarnation of the Word whereby God descends on Earth and Meâ—mount up to Heaven A picture of the Incarnation As God he is impassible in the bosome of his Father and mortall in the Womb of his Mother Subject to time and death It is God united unto Man who rests on this sacred wood and it is hâ— who sends his Angels as his Nuncios and Embassadours St. Austin frames another sense upon this Enigma and he conceives that this Ladder was a draught of the life and death of Jesus Christ Isaack represents God the Father Jacob is the Image of the Son The image of the life and death of Jesus Aug. ser 79. de temp and the Angels which ascend and descend are the Apostles and preachers who Elevate themselves unto God by their Thoughts and stoop even to the grossest understandings by means of their Words These two Explications to speak the truth are most Sublime But St. Basill expounding the three and thirty Psalm gives an other explanation which will be more profitable This Ladder saith he is the Exercise The description of a perfect Soul or rather the picture of a Soul which raiseth her self unto the highest pitch of Perfection First to the end God may descend into this Soul The forsaking of Creatures and that this Soul may ascend unto God shee must forsake the Earth and renounce the World This is the first step Secondly shee ought to make a generous divorce from all Creatures and even efface out of her memory all their Footsteps and all the species of her dearest affections Thirdly Contempt of the World shee must have nothing but Contempt and disdain for that which before shee adored At the fourth step shee must resolve to trample over her Friends and all her kindred Estimation of God that is to say shee must preferr God before them and boldly reject their designs when they are opposite unto the Will of God The fift step passeth even unto Death Extreme Mortification for the Soul ought lesse to esteem Life than her God and if God suffers her to live Longer her life is but a Living Death which finds its Tomb in her Nothing It is for this consideration shee remains in a most profound Humility Annihilation of oâ—â— selves and in a most inflamed Charity which communicats her flames and zeal not onely to her Friends but also to her Enemies In fine Union of the soul God is present at the top of the Ladder united unto the Soul and it is upon her he reposeth and is united to her and she to him Philo and Origen have yet layd some other touches on this picture many also have since laboured therein But having perused all their works and collected all their opinions I think that Gods design was to manifest unto Jacob in this vision the care his Divine providence took of him The Ladder of Divine Providence Jacobs Ladder then was a most lively draught of the wise conduct of Almighty God concerning Jacob and of the Universall Government of the World which is in the Hands of the Divinity The Bounds and Limits of this Empire are infinite Huic ex alto cunesa tuenti nulla terrae mole resistunt Non nox atâ—is nulubus obstat Vno cernit mentis erictu quae sint quae fueriat quae veniantque Boet. lib. de cons and his Scepter extends it self over the Earth and over the Heavens where he absolutely resides and beholds all the events like a Sun saith Boetius which penetrates every where and guides all Creatures by means of his splendor The two sides of the Ladder represent Power and Sweetness which are as the Hands of the Divine Providence which goes mounting and descending from Heaven to Earth by divers steps that is to say by divers sweet and admirable walks and ways through which the World is insensibly guided unto the period and term proposed to it God nevertheless rests himself on the top of this Ladder and from thence deputes his Angels and Embassadours which are as St. Gregory saith the Ministers of the Divine Providence It is then in the Company of these most Heavenly Spirits that Jacob is on his way to renew his Journey unto Mesopotamia In fine Ego sum Dominus suÌ„ Dominus Deus Abraham Patris tui Deus Isaac terram in qua dormis tibi dabo semini tuo Gen. 28. v. 13 Eritque semen tuuÌ„ quasi pulvis terrae Dilat aberis ad occidentem orientem septentrionem meridiem Gen. 28. v. 14. Et ero custos tuus quocunque perrexeris reducam te in terram hanc nec dimittam nisi complevero universa quae dixi Gen. 28. v. 15. under the protection of the Divine Providence Jacob pursues his design and this was the promise made him during his Vision Yeas Jacob saith God I am the Lord of thy Progenitors Abraham and Isaack and I will bestow the Land where thou reposest on thy self and all thy Children I will multiply them as grains of Sand which are upon the Earth and their Progenie shall extend as far as the four Corners of the Universe I my self will be thy Guardian during all thy voyages and will bring thee back to thine own House Thou mayst be affur'd of it Jacob and constantly believe that God speaketh unto thee and that his Providence will never abandon thee untill he hath accomplished his Oath and promises O God! what happiness for Jacob and for all those who live under the favour of thy Providence what Peace in a Soul when God is the primum mobile or first mover of all his Actions what assurance when we walk in the way his increated wisdom hath marked out to us with his own Hand and enlightned with the purest rayes of his Eyes My Soul is it true Ah! if
is my Sons garment it is the garment of my Joseph Ah my Son Mournfull complaint of Jacob. my Joseph it is not so much thy death I deplore as the loss I procured to my self during thy life by sending thee too soon out of my house And besides by what more strange kind of death couldst thou be taken from me At least if I had been a witness of this sad accident and if thy body had remained with me I should have had this chast pledge to charm my sadness If some sickness had carried thee away in my presence I should have rendred thee all the duties which a father cannot deny a sonne I should have kissed thy mouth I should have closed thine eyes I should have received thy last words and sighes I should possess in a Tomb the ashes of a Phaenix and I might have erected on his Sepulcher a Pile and Altar to enlighten my hopes and entertain my vows But I snatch'd away thy life before thy death I lost thee during thy life and my excessive compliance hath been the cause of it My son I have lost thee I have slain thee and I know not where is thy Tombe O Heaven O God! Alas at least had the toyles of his journey left him at the foot of some Tree or had he been buried in some corner of the Earth I should enjoy the contentment to seek him out and I should comfort my self in possessing but a part of my son with the loss of the other But O the most disconsolate and the most unhappy of all fathers I can have nothing of my Joseph but this bloudy garment the rest hath been devoured by some Tyger or Lyon and the same sweetness hath no other Tombe but the belly of a wild beast Yes surely it was a wilde Beast and a cruell Monster which devoured my Joseph It was the Envy of his Brethren which gave them Talons Clawes and Teeth It was this merciless passion which stript him of his garment cast him into the Well and shamefully sold him Behold the Domestick Monster which will never be made tame behold the bloudy beast which lives onely upon the flesh and heart of its like In fine it is envy against which fathers and mothers must be alwaies armed and which they ought to banish for ever out of their families for as much as First it is a Cantharides The nature and qualities of Envy which fastens upon the fairest flowers and seeks out Milk and Hony to spread its venome on them Secondly it is lesse reasonable by how much it hath more of Reason For being found onely amongst men it renders them more inhumane than beasts which cannot be moved by these tragick instigations Thirdly the furies of Envy are so shamefull as they seek alwayes to pass under the colour of some other passion Fourthly its breath though stinking fastens on virtue but the stings of it are as honourable to that person who bears them as infamous to him that causeth them Fifthly it hath the eyes of an Owl which are dazled at the sight of the fairest lights and which cannot endure the splendor of a most luminous day Basilius in Homil. de Invid Sixthly it hath more cruell tallons and teeth than Tygers and Dragons for it spares neither parents friends nor benefactors Seventhly its nourishment repose and delight are in bitterness and acerbity Hence it proceeds that the mouth and heart of it are still infectious Eighthly it is a Viper which draws death upon it self in giving life unto her young and tears its own belly to produce some venemous Serpent Ninthly it is a Camelion which converts it self into a thousand colours and every moment changeth its skin least we discern its nature and inclination In fine it is a monstrous Cerberus which hath the heart and head of all the most dreadfull Animals under heaven It is the Ape which in the time of Augustus entred the Temple of Ceres the Owl which flew even over the Altars of Concord The Dragon with two heads which devasted part of the Universe and which having exhaled his venome upon the Cradle of the world will never cease till he hath vomited forth the remainder of his rage in the tombe CHAP. II. The Combats of Joseph for defence of his Chastity IT is true that Envy is a ravenous beast But yet what ever we may say its furies are not to be compared with those of Love when it hath once broken the chains wherewith God and Nature fastned it It is this Devill which disturbs Families arms Provinces ruines States desolates Paradise and peoples Hell It is a flaming Torch which inkindles fires even in the midst of water a Northern wind which raiseth a Thousand Tempests a Lightning which consumes mens Spirits and in fine it is a Passion ever blind yet covered over with Eyes which serve it as gates by which it useth to steal in under perfidious Baits and inchanting Looks Deadly shafts It was for this reason the prophane painted their Loves with darts of death which they cast at each other and which as a Grecian sayd were as so many glances which they wantonly gave one another though their Eyes ought to be veiled But Love hath insolence enough to lift up the Scarfe which covers its Eyes or at least it sees notwithstanding this veil and commonly it mingles shafts and glances to commit Sacrileges and Murthers This homicide layes ten Thousand Snares he is alwayes watchfull and there is no Dove this Vulture assaults not as soon as she appears and when by mishap he hath seized on her I know not by what Inchantment and by what Spells the heart of this unfortunate prey is taken But it seems in an Instant to become a Furnace and that the flames inkindled therein issuing through the Eyes may change the Earth into a Pyle Franciseas Valeriota lib. 2. obser These are insulphur'd Vapours firy Smoaks dreadfull Exhalations dark Shadows Idols and unchast Images Arist lib. de somno vigilia at the sight whereof the Eyes are dazeled and Reason becomes blind Then Piety is but Idolatry Disorders of Love all duties become scorns Complacences Trecheries Empires Servitudes Liberty Bondage Loves-alurements Snares Thrones Precipices and a Chaos where houses are overthrown Temples prophan'd and all Lawes confounded what horror what disorder what abomination even women who ought to be a Refuge of honour Horrible Chaos and a Sanctuary of purity Mulier amissa pudicicitia null em flagitii respuiâ— Cor. Jac. often serve as a retreat unto the fondest affections and there is no faith no Sacrament no modesty they doe not violate when once their hearts have escaped through their Eyes The wife of Putiphar Enritque eum Putiphar de manu Ismaelitarum Gen. 39. v. 1. to whom Joseph was sold by the Ismaelites made it sufficiently appear when she was so impudent as to attempt the Chastity of her Servant This Female wolf had onely
Eyes to gaze on this Lamb Post multos itaque des injecit domina sua occulos suoâ—in Joseph Gen. 39. v. 7. all her gestures and motions were artifices to intrap him and she would have willingly preferred the inthrallment of Joseph before the Command over her Husband All her bonds of Marriage were but Chains which kept her in Captivity and the most just and most holy Lawes imposed on her a Yoak which rendred all the duties of sidelity which Wives owe unto their Husbands insupportable to her She yet wanted not dexterity to dissemble her Passion in her Husbands presence and herein Love is usually most disloyall and deceitfull for though all its fires be violent impetuous sharp and sparckling yet if the object which inkindles them be not present they prove but ashes coldnesses and frozen Nights under which this Traitor useth to hide his Torch Pernitious study Then all Actions are studied all gestures counterfeits all discourses falshoods and all that appears outwardly seems to have no other design than to deceive the heart To this effect we seek out suborned Messengers retirements for assigned meetings blind dumb and deaf witnesses secret Intelligences inchanted gifts invisible pretences painted and Sacrilegious devotions Nights without dayes and hours which are only marked out upon shadows for the light of the Sun the noise of a Bell too apparent impiety too visible presents too violent solicitations indiscreet confederates publick places and Friends or unfaithfull Servants might discover the secret It is a strange thing that we can hardly trust our selves and that the Tongue dares not speak a word or at least if she speaks it is but after she hath pondered all her discourses Wherefore the Eyes are the first solicitours of evill and then their silence hath an Eloquent voice which is yet not heard but by those that are Confederates It is no wonder then Qui nequaquam acquiescent operi nesario dixit c. Gen. 39. v. 9. if Joseph heard not this unchast language when his Mistris spake to him more from her Eyes than her Mouth This Impudent creature cast a thousand glances on him But the heart of Joseph was a piece of Marble which could not be pierced all the Flames of this Egyptian woman fell into a dead Sea and all her lightnings found nothing but water which instantly quenched them Wee must passe then further Et ait dormi mecum Gen. 39. v. 7. and see whether the Mouth peradventure will have more powerfull perswasions than the Eyes This shamelesse woman is so much inraged as to declare her design O God! what Insolence what Fury and what Frenzies when once the mind is possest with Love but there are two sorts of loves and that which is Son of the Earth is very weak when opposed to that which is born in Heaven Courage then Joseph it is a Woman who assaults and sollicites you she is light be you constant she hath stratagems be you prudent she is bold be you generous she runs fly away she Flatters disdain her she asks refuse her Joseph what do you say For my part saith he Victorious Innocence I neither can nor will consent unto a womans Lascivious desires nor submit unto her will preferring it before that of my Master and I should not be what I am if I forfeited the quality of a faithfull Servant and of a person to whom the honour and remembrance of the favours I have received from him is a thousand times more pretious than life If I have been sold it was onely for my Innocency and the chains of my Captivity could never force the constancy an Hebrew ought to have in the way of virtue I am Jacobs son and my actions shall never bely my birth I am a Servant Ecce Dominus meus omnibus mihi traditis c. Gen. 39. v. 8. Nec qâ—icquam est qued non in mea sit potestate vel non tradiderit miht propter te quomodo trgo possum hoc malum faeere peccare in Deum meâ—m Gen. 39. v. 9. I ought to dye for fidelity your Husband trusts me with all his Goods and with all his Wealth which the favour of the King and his own merits have bestowed on him he reserved onely to himself the soly Enjoying you It is not for me then to ravish from him what is his due by so many titles Command me with Justice and I will serve you with sincerity perform all that you ought and I will omit no part of my duty to you Keep your self within the lawes of Marriage and leave me in the duties of my condition I should be ungratefull if I abused the favours of my Master I should be a theef if I stole away his fairest goods and no death could be cruell enough to punish me if I shouâ—d attempt on that which is more dear to him than life All your flames can find in me but a heart of water and ice and all your tyes cannot inthrall the liberty of my mind and your rigors will never mollifie a soul on which God hath inprinted his love and fear Know then that I would rather choose to dye free from blame than to live a complice in your distoyalty I prefer my bondage if it be innocent before all unjust Powers and what misfortune soever befall me I shall be too happy if I remain innocent It was in the power of my brethren to sell my body but they could not ingage my soul I may serve without prostituting my self and my glory will ever be illustrious enough if I shall doe no dishonourable act and unworthy of my Extraction In fine I adore a God who hath most pure eyes and should all creatures be blind it satisfies me that he be the witness of my actions I reverence all his decrees and if all the Judges of the world could authorise vice it would comfort me to have a God alwaies armed to punish them How can you wish me then to bring Adultery into your Family and to change your bed Angelicall Resolution which ought to be the Altar of your glory into an infamous Pile No no Madam either leave honour to me with life or take from me my life and leave me my honour Is not this â—o speak like and Angel and to have the sentiments of those spirits who live in flames without being consumed and amidest lightnings without being dazeled Neverthelesse it is little considerable to assault an impudent love by bare words we must have other weapons in our hands to encounter it and the victory is never certain untill we have either publickly decry'd or banish'd it We must cry out Murther in like occasions we must call for witnesses use threats and at least triumph by a generous flight or by a prudent retreat There are some Passions which flye when they are pursued Very different Nature of Passions and like shadows never fasten themselves unto bodies There are some who have
and the whole body is in a Palpitation In fine after this Commotion Eclips of Reason in Wine and during this Eclips the understanding remains in so obscure a night as it knows not it self This Fountain of the day brings forth nothing but Thunderbolts its Torch is extinguished its Lights are confus'd and its lightnings are but stinking Exhalations which rise from the Lees of Wine Now this comes to pass because Reason though most pure and spirituall Arist. lib. 3 de anim 19. lib. 1. de anim p. 63. depends on gross and terrestriall Images which reside in the Fancie and being disquieted represent unto the mind nothing but Phantasms and a Picture of Illusions Then Man ceaseth to be a man since he is devoid of Reason Aug. Serm. 23. de vitanda â—â—rietate He is in a state inferiour to Beasts who satisfie their appetites without stifling them It is then more probable that Joseph was not Inebriated at his Feast but with the pleasure and joy he had to see himself in the midst of his Brethren Without doubt also his Guests were so violently transported with the honour they received from him as they became as it were drunk with it Torrente voluptatis tuae potabis eos psal 59. But the drunkenness of the one and the other was but an extasie and a delicious Rapture neer resembling that of the blessed Souls which are in Heaven Inebriabuntur ab ubertate domus tuae psal 35. and swim in an Ocean of glory and in the torrents of Delights whereof God himself is the Fountain when he goes as it were melting and distilling himself into their Chast breasts in such sort as they become even Inebriated with him Comedâ—stis nos estis satiati bibistis non estis inebriati Agg. 1. But their drunkenness is but a most holy and just satiating which shall endure so long as God is God that is to say during all Eternity O my Soul hast thou not then a desire to goe unto this Sacred Feast Wilt thou not break thy chaines and get loose from thy Captivity to come unto this Joseph when shalt thou see this Brother and when shalt thou sit at Table with him to drink by his side and receive from his most amiable hand the portion of thy Felicity O God what inebriation of Love what excesse of delights I think it long till I come unto this Banquet where that delitious wine is tasted which useth to bring forth Virgins and where our Joseph or Brother our Lord our God is seen without veil or Cloud CHAP. VIII Joseph known by his Brethren AT Banquets saith Aristides it often happens that Water is chang'd into Wine that Wine is mingled with Blood and that over-heated Blood begets inflamations Feasts of death which are never extinguished but with life It is with the point of a knife and upon plates or Napkins sentences of death and decrees of condemnation are written At least it is there where oftentimes as a Polititian hath observed passions are inkindled Envie is fed Treasons are nourished and liberty takes all the advantages to doe Mischief Neverthelesse there are feasts where sweetness Praecepit autem Joseph dispensatori Domâ—s sâ—â—â— c. Gen. 44. v. 1. Scy hum autem mâ—um argâ—nteum pâ—â—tium quod dedit triâ—â—ci ponâ— in ore facti juniorâ—â— Gen. 44. v. 2. Theodoretus Quaest 105 in Genesim peace and the most Innocent pleasures furnish out all the Services Such doubtlesse was the feast Joseph made for his Brethren for though it was there where he resolved to deceive them and to make them believe they were Theeues Yet his design was very just and he had no other intention than by a stratagem of Love and by an Artifice of prudence to try the tendernesse and inclinations they had for Benjamin However this Amorous dissumulation and this wise experiment much disquieted them Iamque urbem exierant processerunt paululum tune Joseph acceâ—sito dispensatore domus Surge inquit persequere viros apprehensis dicite quare reddidistis malum pro bone Gen. 44. v 4. Scyphus quem furat estis ipse est in quo bibit dominus meus in quo augurari solet-Gen 44. v. 5. and theâ— were extremely surprised when they were accused for Theefes by his order who before had treated them as Brethren Scarce were they gone out of the Citty but Josephs Steward stayd them by direction from his Master and said unto them Ah! Theeves that you are are you not ashamed to have rendred ill to those who have done you good Where have you then put the Cup you have Stoln from us and in which my Master useth to Drink and to foretel what will happen Alas Answered they what doe you say Qui responderunt quare sic loquitur dominus noster ut servi tui tantum flagitui commiserint Gen. 44. v. 7. â—â—cuniam quam invenimus in summitate saccorum reportavimus ad te c. Gen. 44. v. 8. Apud quemcumque fuerit inventum servâ—rum tuorum quem quaeris moâ—iatur Gen. 44. v. 9. Qui dexit eis fiat juxta vâ—stram fententiam Gen. 44. v. 10. Quos serutatus inciptens â maiore usque ad minimum invenit Scyphnm in sacco Benjamin Gen. 44. v. 12. For what persons doe you take us And in truth doe you believe that wee intended to doe you wrong doe you not know how hetherto wee have demen'd our selves And that wee brought back all the money which was found in our Sacks when wee returned out of Egypt How could it possibly happen that at this time wee should robb you Surely wee have nothing else to allege but onely intreat you that if any of us be found guilty you would put him to death without other form of process Well then I am content replyed this man let it be done as you desire Then fearching them from the highest to the Lowest he met at last with Josephs Cup in Benjamins sack O God! what astonishment and what surprise Accidents are sometimes so unexpected and misfortunes so convincing that Innocence it self hath cause to wax pale and to have some apprehension Moreover there are certain Vices so foul and infamous as it is enough to be Suspected to render us miserable and wee passe for Criminals when wee are but accused What is it then to be convinced of it and to have the earnest of our Crime in our own hands shall wee not passe for Homicides when wee are found holding a dagger in our hands all alone neer a deadbody which swims in his own blood May wee not also be accused of Theft and be thought the authors of it when wee are taken with a purse newly cut and with goods which have been lost The Children of Jacob had then cause enough to be frighted and their misfortune was inexcusable Thus like dispairing men they found no consolation but in their grief At illi
ego dabo voâ—is omnia bona Aegypti ut comedatis medullam terrae Gen. 45. v. 18. Praecipe etiam ut tollent plaustra terra Aegypti ad subvectiâ—nem parvulorum suorum accongugum Gen. 45. v. 19. Singulis quoque proferri iussit binas stolas Benjamin vero dedit trecentâ—s argenteos cum quinque stolis optimis Gen. 45. v. 22. and conceal their malice his intention is not to confound but rather to incourage them Neverthelesse what ever he did the whole Court knew immediatly that his Brethren were come The very noise of it flew even to the Eares of Pharao who together with all the Servants of his house expresseth an unspeakable joy But to the end this joy might be universall his pleasure was that Joseph should command his Brethren to return into Canaan and bring unto him their Father with his whole Family that they may live at their ease in the best part of Egypt Now to the end this might be done with the most conveniency he ordained Chariots to be made ready for them and horses provided for their wives Children and for the most commodious transportation of all the Moveables of their Family Joseph forgot nothing which Pharao gave him in Charge When they were even ready to depart he commanded that two sutes of apparell should be brought for every one and over and above five hansome garments for Benjamin Tantumdem pecuniae vestium mittens patri suo Gen. 45. v. 23 Dimisit ergo fratres suos proficiscentibus ait Ne irascamini in via Gen. 45. v. 24 with three hundred peeces of Silver without omiting Jacob to whom he sent the like present After this he sent them back chiefly recommending unto them Peace and Love O God! what pleasing departure what amiable Sepuration when they leave Joseph to return unto Jacob. Ah! how delicious is it to meet with the Heart of a Brother in the armes of a judge And to goe directly from a brother unto a Father to reunite the Father unto his Son and to live in so well-united and holy a community O my Joseph An amiable relation of Joseph to Jesus my Jesus and my Saviour discover unto mee that face so full of Majesty and those delicious Looks which make the Paradise and felicity of Angels Ah! my Jesus since Joseph was your jmage treat me as he treated his Brethren and appear not unto mee as an incensed judge who contrives the sentence of my death but as a well-beloved Brother I confesse that I have betraid you that I have sold you and that I sought to deprive you of life But you are my Brother my Joseph and my Saviour O my Jesus pardon me Alas I am ravished at the sight of your Grandeurs and of the glory which invirons you I should not hope for the happiness to see your Tomb changed into a Throne your Crosse serving as an Instrument to raise unto you a Trophy of honour I did not expect to see you a Soveraign in the Egypt of the World But behold me now a Captive and Criminall at your feet Behold me wholly confounded and trembling O my Jesus take pitty then on me and say onely that it is you that are my Jesus and my Brother afterwards I will goe from you unto your Father and mine and then I will come with him before you to live forever with him and you CHAP. IX Jacob's going down into Egypt and the honourable entertainment he there received from Pharaoh THere are few Palaces and Houses like that of this inchanted Iland which Fables describe where the courses of the Planets are alwaies Regular where the Air is free from Clouds Fire from Smoak the Ocean from Tempests and the Earth from Concussions The Felicity of this World is a great Clock raised upon many Wheels and a body form'd of divers members where there is alwaies some diforder Love hatred aversions envy hope defires Felicity subject to alteration terrors shame choler jealousies despites and rage joyn with the Soul and Body with Parents and Friends with place and seasons with Elements and all naturall beings to keep a poor man alwaies floating and alwaies wavering like a Reed or as a Bark which is in the midst of the Sea at the mercy of winds and storms Above all it is a common saying saith Pythagoras that grief and pleasures make the fairest and most deformed faces in the world These two Passions are on the Earth what the Sun and Moon are in the Heavens They cause day and night Spring and Winter but we have more frequently Snows than Dewes And most Men seem to be born under a frightfull Climate where the night lasts three and twenty hours and where the Sun very seldome appears Besides it is often doubtfull whether it be the Sun or Moon we behold We are so accustomed to darkness as we know not whether we take the twylight of the evening for the Aurora Blindness of most men and day for night Sorrows and afflictions cast so many clouds over our mind as the eyes are dazeled and the first draughts of pleasure which appear to us are in appearance but the Idea of some Dream and a shadowed light in the depth of the night Jacob never believed he should ever see Joseph again Incredulous Love and after a night of three and Twenty years he had surely no ground to hope for the return of the Sun his eyes and spirit were so well acquainted with the rigours of Death that he no longer minded the sweets of life In fine having in a manner made him dye so often he did not expect they would make him revive in restoring to him his Joseph who was the life of his heart and the sight of his eyes Nevertheless Et nunciaverunt ei dicentes filius tuus vivit ipse dominatur in omni terra Aegypti Quo audito Jacob quasi de gravi somno evigilans tamâ—n non credebat eis Gen. 45. v. 26. Illi è contra referebant omnem ordinem rei Cumque vidisset plaustra unite sa qâ—ae misâ—rat revivil spiritus ejus Gen. 45. v. 27. Et ait Sufficit mihi si adhuc Joseph filius meus vivit vadam videbo illum ante quam morior Gen. 45. v. 28. his Children return out of Egypt and assure him that Joseph is alive and that he is very powerfull in the Land of Pharaoh Jacob could not believe it and as a man who suddenly awaked after a long sleep he took all that was said to him for the Image of a Dream In fine when he perceived that they constantly persisted in relating orderly to him all that had passed and on the other side seeing all the Baggage they had brought he began to come unto himself and as if this happy news had restored him his Speech and life he began to cry out It satisfieth me that Joseph is living Ah! I will goe unto him and at least see him once more
we only consider the durance thereof and very long if we would contemplate the misfortunes contracted at his birth never to forsake him But as the setting Sun useth to dissipate the Clouds which had obscured it in the day and as sometimes wind rain and a tempest cease in the evening so Jacob at the end of his life began to enter into a calm and to enjoy fair weather It was in the City of Heros Joseph verò patri fratribus suis dedit possessionem in Agypto in optimo terrae loco Ramesses ut pâ—aeceperat â—harao Gen. 47.11 as the Septuagint have expounded it or els in Ramasses which is upon the Land of Gessen where Jacob made his last abode and where he found at last a haven after all his miseries as we are going to see CHAP. X. The last words of Jacob. ALas there is nothing eternall amongst created things and nothing which begins not to wax old assoon as it begins to live Life and Deathare inseparable companions which follow each other at a neer distance and tread even upon the same steps God himself saith Tertullian Roc stipulata est Dei vox hoc spopandit omnt quod nascitur c. Tertul. lib. de an cap. 30. is as it were ingaged thereunto by his word and all creatures at their birth are obliged unto it by promise at the very instant they enter into the world Life notwithstanding hath no regular periods and though he that made every thing with weight and measure hath shut up Creatures in the circle of Ages yet he hath not prescribed them equall limits but there are some who make their voyages longer or shorter than others However in vain is it to stray and take by-wayes For we must either in the morning at noon or in the evening arrive at our Lodging and after a thousand and a thousand windings at our finall resting place It is there said Calisthenes where Fathers and Children Calesthenes M.S. young and old wise men and fools the strong and weak and even the demi-Gods find themselves confused with Plants and beasts Death said a Favourite of Justinian pitcheth every where his tents and we as often hear mournfull Ditties under Velvet Canopies and in Ballisters of Ivory as under Pavillions of coarse Cloth and Cottages thatch'd with straw We see in Town ditches and under the dust of Battells Captains lying amongst Souldiers We behold under merciless blades and amongst Scymiters people lying with their Magistrates And at best there are but some Stones some Ciphers and Epitaphs which distinguish them Death then is more just and civill than birth The last hath Complacences for some and rigours for others but the first is indifferent towards all and we see at her feet Scepters amongst Scyths with this Inscription The Motto of Death Nemini parco I spare no man Death suffers not its self to be corrupted by favour it is on the River of oblivion and all the bodyes he ferries over in his Boat are naked not to appear different one from the other It was for this reason as the incomparable Picus of Mirandula said Most important advice Wise men during their lives and especially upon the approach of death ought to perform such actions as their memory might be immortall to the end if Death be common to them the manner of dying might be peculiar The Phoenix is no lesse subject unto death than Owles but Owles dye in the night and in a hollow place of some rotten Tree Whereas the Phoenix expires in the rayes of the Sun and upon a pile of Cinnamon and Musk. The Swan is no more exempt from it than the Raven But the Raven dyes craking upon some carrion and the Swan singing upon the bank of some fair River Jacob who as the Father of Nations seemd to have right unto Immortality was yet no more immortall than Esau but their death will be very different For Esau dyes suddenly like a Raven and an Owl but Jacob a far off saw his hours approching like a Phoenix and as a Swan which sings according to the common saying when he is breathing his last He was a hundred forty and seven years old when he perceived the arrivall of that moment which was to finish the course of his life Factique sunt omnes dies vitae illius Centum quadraginta septem annorum Gen. 47. v 28. Cumque appropinquare cerneret diem mortis suae vocavit filium suum Joseph dixit ad eum Si inveni gratiam in conspectu tuo pone manum tuam sub femoâ—e meo facies mihi misericordiam vâ—ritatem ut non sepelias me in Aegypto Gen. 47. v. 29. Sed dormiam cum patribus meis auseras me de terra hac condasq in sepulchno majorum meorum Gen. 47. v. 30. Rupertus hic Then this happy Patriark commanding Iosephs presence said unto him My Son it is time for me to dye there is no appeal I goe whither Abraham and Isaack are gone before and you shall come thither after me Mean-while I prithee if thou lov'st me put thy hand under my thigh and assure me that after my death thou wilt transport my body out of Egypt into Chanaan to bury it in the Sepulcher of my fore Fathers This is all I ask and all the favour I expect from thy love and goodness Iacob had reason to desire to be carried into Chanaan and laid in the monument of his Ancestors for this was the Land promised to his Children and which was to be one day consecrated by the worship of God and by the presence of the Messias As for the the Oath to which he oblig'd Ioseph it did not proceed from any distrust of his affection and fidelity Adoravit Isâ—ael Deum conversus ad lectuli caput Gen. 47. v. 31. Ribera in c. 11. ad Heb. Abulensis Et alii hic His ita transactis nunctatum Joseph quod aegrotaret pater fuus qui assumptis dâ—oobus filiis Manasse Ephraim ire perrexit Gen. 48. v. 1. but it was only done to the end that if Pharaoh should hinder him from rendring this duty unto his Father he might answer he was engaged thereto by Oath After this protestation Jacob adored God first turning his head towards the beds side where Joseph stood and directly towards the East because it was in this place they were accustomed to offer Sacrifices and erect Altars or rather to cast some look towards the Land of promise on which he had already placed all his hopes and desires Afterwards Jacob chancing to fall sick the news of of it was presently brought unto Joseph who immediatly took with him his two Sons Manasses and Ephraim to see him once more that they might receive his last Benediction Dictumque est Seni Ecce filius tuns Joseph venit ad te Qui confortatus sedit in lectulo Gen. 48. v. 2. Et ingresso ad se ait Deus
is but Air which spreds it self to an Infinity others will follow Democritus who adored no other god than Fire or else Anaximander who had no other Divinity but the Stars or Diogenes who ascribed unto him a Body of Wind animated with Reason or Chrysippus who fastned him to a cruel destiny or Parmenides who made him to be a Circle to surround the Heavens or Stratonicus who sacrificed all his Loves unto Nature or Epicurus who amazed himself to form a god of Atoms And in fine some others would side with Varro Cleanthes and Anaxagoras or some other Dreamers who never knew the true God of Moses and though his Name be ineffable and his Essence incomprehensible yet we cannot be ignorant of his Power and Goodness CHAP. VII The Obduration of Pharaoh 's Heart NAture cannot give unto men Finite Power of Nature but what is within her sphere and as her power is finite so she can onely give them finite and limitted Presents God alone to whom all is possible can onely bestow Favors on us which are not common and it belongs onely unto him to convert Glass into Silver Straws into Gold and to make Gods of Men if he so please He did it once by uniting two Natures in one and the same Subject and making God Man who is God no less than himself But without speaking of this Mystery which is not to be parallel'd was but once done God hath been often pleased to make men gods to whom without communicating his Nature he hath imparted to them his most illustrious qualities and cheifly the power he hath over all created things which is properly to make gods on earth or at least men who are Demi gods In this maner Saint Basil was the god of the Emperor Valens Saint Ambrose of the Empress Justinia Saint Athanasius and Saint Hillary of Constantine and in the first Ages Elias of King Achab but this glorious Title was given unto Moses by a particular privilegeâ— Dixitque Dominus ad Moisen Ecce constitui te Deum Pharaonis Aaron frater tuus erit Propheta tuus Exod. 7. v. 1. Fecit itaque Moises Aaron sicut praeceperat Dominus Exod. 7. v. 6. when God from his own mouth established him for the God of Pharaoh and when at the same time he gave him his Brother for a Prophet Presently after this God and this Prophet I mean this Moses and his Brother who were instructed what to do and concerning what was to happen returned unto Pharaoh and there Moses shewed him prodigies which were evident tokens of the power God had given him First Tulitque Aaron virgam coram Pharaone servis ejus quae versa est in colubrum Exod. 7. v. 10. Vocavit autem Pharao sapientes maleficos secerunt etiam ipsi per incantationes Aegyptiacas arcana quadâ—m similiter Exod 7. v. 11. Projeceruntque finguli virgas suas quae versae sunt in dracones Exod. 7. v. 12. having cast upon the ground the Rod he carried in his hand it became spotted with Scales and changed into a Serpent which after a thousand little windings extended it self at its full length and walked in the presence of Pharaoh who being surprised therewith and not knowing the cause of this prodigious change assembled the wise men of Egypt that is to say the Inchanters and Magitians who had a minde to do the same that Moses did And in effect after some Charms shewed Dragons into whose shape God had permitted them to Metamorphise their Wands that it might appear what Magick could do and how it deceives us by its Inchantments as also to try the Constancy and Faith of Moses and the Hebrews who were present and to teach us That the Devil is but an Ape who imitates and counterfeits Truth Sed devoravit virga Aaron virgas corum Exod. 7. v. 12. In fine God permitted it to confound these Magitians for all their prodigies and all their little Serpents were instantly devoured by that of Moses Such is commonly the end and success of the Inventions and Master-peeces of the Devil the beginning is always fair the appearances have splendor but they are but false Stars formed in a Cloud Ciphers ingraven on Sand and in a word Phantasms and Idols which have nothing real but falshood or at least what lasts but for a time Histories are filled with examples which prove this verily But to express what seems to me most important upon this matter God as I have said often permits prodigious effects unto Cheaters and false Prophets for those reasons I newly touched But that which astonisheth me the most Prodigious effects of Divine Providence is that he often times and justly makes use of them to harden hearts and to blind certain spirits who are dazeled with the rayes of the Sun and shut their eyes against the splend ours of this beautifull Planet to follow the smoak of a Torch of Sulphure and Rosin carried by a Diabolical hand and by some infernal spirit Is it not a strange blindness Dreadfull obstinacy and a frightful obstinacy when the voice of a Devill is preferred before that of an Angell and when more belief is given unto the illusions of an Inchanter than unto the words and Actions of a God and a Prophet Pharaoh saw Moses Et Clevans Virgam percussit aquam Fliminis coram Pharaone servis ejus quae versa est in sanguinem Exod. 1. v. 20. Et pisces qui erant in slumine mortui sunt Exod. 7. v. 21. who changed his Rod into a Serpent and this Serpent taking the form of a Rod. He sees the waters of Nilus and Egypt which being strucken by it are converted into bloud and all the Fishes which dye therein He persists notwithstanding in his first design and in stead of humbling himself under the Omnipotent hand of God under the Rod of Moses and at the sight of these bloudy waves which glided along the River Nilus and had caused the death of Fishes as it were to advertise men of the like disaster he amuzed himself with the illusions of some Inchanters who flattered him by shewing him some Prodigie or rather some false Mask drawn over these truths However it be this miserable wrerch became like a Rock which derides a storm Pittifull state of an obdurate heart like a Diamond which cannot be broken and like that famous Buckler which bore for devise I cannot be pierced Hee was an insensible Colossus who had Eyes and saw not Hands and not able to use them Feet though he could not walk and who had a Heart invironed with blunted Arrows and Darts which could make no breach Behold the true picture of Pharaoh's heart The picture of Pharaoh's heart which became so insensible amidst the Thunder-bolts which God darted at it that at last it remain'd as cold as Marble and as hard as Brasse which all the waters of the Sea could not soften This
is the Lamentable state of a hardned Soul where we must observe that God was the cause of it as Moses said not by fastning his heart with the Chains of a fatall necessity nor by captivating it under the power of Devils and of the Hell it self of this life But first in permitting this obduration and leaving the bridle free to him who afterwards like a wild and unruly Colt had no other guide but his own giddiness fury and impetuositie Secondly in staying the course of these Victories and Conquering Graces which create an amorous tyranny in us and onely granting him but some fruitless favours without which a man would not have the power either to undertake or desire what is necessary for his salvation Thirdly in giving him Possessions Glory Empire and forces which were like so many Bulwarks in which this miserable wretch lives in security Fourthly God hardned him by the Miracles wherewith he solicited his faith who following the malice of a corrupted and pernitious Will was dazeled at the sight of them and by over-slight wounds which did but tickle the rage and fury of this resolved spirit in stead of exciting him unto penance and imprinting in him some sence of Love Obedience and Respect Now from hence spring the frightfull sequences Frightfull sequence of obduration and the sad appertenances of the obduration of those who become Rebellious to the Lights of Heaven first they shut their Eyes and stop their Ears not to see or hear when it concerns their salvation Secondly they triumph in evill and iniquities are their most pleasing delights Thirdly the ordure of their crime cannot be cleansed Scriptum stylo ferreo in ungue adamantino Jerem. 17. and their sin is like that of Judas ingraven with an Iron Pen upon a Diamantine lamen Fourthly the so are shameless people Frons meretricis facta est tibi noluisti erubescere Jerem. c. 3. Considera opera Dei quod nemo possit corrigere quem ille despexerit Eccles. 7. and whose foreheads have less sense of modesty than that of common strumpets Fifthly they are incorrigible and though God strike them they yet deride all his chastisements and then all the Counsells of men all the complaints of their friends and even the shame which reflects on their Parents and family cannot move them Sixthly they are full of contempts disdains coldnesses and funestous railleries Seventhly they reside in the depth of the Abysse into which they strive to draw all those that reach out their hands to help them Eighthly all their habits are so inveterate that we may sooner change the skin of a Leopard and the colour of a Negro than the least of their humours Whence it comes that the measure of their iniquities is full and after these persons have passed even into the last degree of blindnesse and impiety they abandon themselves unto the desires of their hearts Cor durum est quod nee compunctione scinditur uec pietate mollitur nec movetur precibus nec cedit minis quin etiam flagell is duratur magis Cor durum est ingratum ad beneficia ad consilia infidum ad judicia saevum vnverecundum ad turpia inpavidum ad pericula inhumanum ad bumana temerarium ad divina praeteritorum obliviscens praesentium negligens futurorum improvidum c. Bern. lib. de consider ad Eugenium and their reason becomes a slave to all the motions of their Concupiscence In fine saith St. Bernard if any one will have an Epitomy of all these miseries and a picture to the life of an obstinate inflexible and obdurate spirit let him represent unto himself a heart which cannot be divided by the salutiferous waters of Compunction nor heated by the flames of a holy Love nor touch'd by the darts of Piety nor made flexible by the allurements of an amiable entreaty nor even affrighted by the horrours of the most dreadfull threats He is ungratefull for the greatest favours he derides the Counsells which are given him he contemns the Judgements of the best understandings he forgets what is past he neglects present things and cannot foresee what will befall him This impudent person is never ashamed even in the most infamous Actions all dangers which make others tremble render him more bold and his insolence passeth yet farther for he is timerarious even in what concerns God and hath no more fear of him than reverence towards men whence it proceeds that he would never cease to sin if he did not first cease to live and these terrors would never end if Death did not set some bounds thereunto Alas what Death what Life what Man what Devill or at least what heart of Man and Devill can be imagined in so detestable a condition My God! give me then rather the heart of a Tyger than so hard a heart to the end if I cannot love thee with the heart of a man I may take revenge on my self with the heart of a beast and make my heart the prey of my liberality But if thy goodness cannot endure such a butchery give me O God of my heart a heart the most loving that ever was Then will I immolate it to thee and thou shalt be the Master of it for all eternity At this instant then I Sacrifice my purest affections to thee At this instant I will obey thy commands and break for this cause with all creatures This is to provoke too long the wrath of a Judge to irritate the clemency of a Father and to heap together a train of miseries a treasure of anger and indignation We must not then expect till the measure be full till we be in the bottome of the Abysse and covered with the dreadfull obscurities of night in which the torches of Love are extinguished and the Lights of hope eternally put out In fine my God burn break and consume my heart for I choose rather to offer unto thee the flames and ashes thereof than to see it insensible and incapable of loving thee CHAP. VIII The Plagues of Egypt THe Law of Grace is not a Law of injustice where all things are permitted and where Vice remains unpunished Witness the Cities which have been swallowed up in a night and where the Elements have as it were conspired to consume places which served for retreats unto all sorts of impurities Witness the Inundation of Ashes the flames of Sulphure which issued forth of Mount Vesuvius about the year four hundred seventy and seven in which Europe was almost absorpt for punishment of the Crimes wherewith it had been polluted Vesuvius Campaniae mons exusta evomuit viscera necturnis que in die tenchris omnem Europae faciem minuto contexit pulvere and whose flames could not be washed away but by a deluge of fire a rain of Ashes and a Hail-storm of Flints which was seen as Salvian relates to come out of the bottome of this Mountain as if it had rent it self and vomited forth
and resembled Tombs in which they were imprisoned Their punishment saith the Wiseman was suitable to the horror of those crimes where with they were poluted in the obscurity of Caves and Subterranean places where they thought to shun the sight of him whose eyes illuminate the purtest Clarities of the Heavens In this dreadful state they were terrified by Specters which flew before their eyes they had sometimes the use of their sight to be affrighted by these tenebrous Phantasms every where they were in fear and followed by terrors which troubled their guilty Consciences They also heard dreadful noises which made them even die with fear Cum sit enim timida nequitia dâ—t testimoniunt condemnationis semper enim praesumit saeva perturbata conseientia Sap. 17. v. 10. Aliquando monstrorum â—xagâ—tabantur timore c. Sap. 17. v. 14. Et ignis quidem nulla vis poterat illis lumen praebere nec siderum limpidae slammae illaminare poterant illam noctem horrendam Sap. 17. v. 5. Apparebat autem illis subitaneus ignis timore plâ—nus timore pereulsi illius quae non videbatur faciei aestimabant deteriora esse quae vidâ—bantur Sap. 17. v. 6. Et magicae a tis apposici erant derisus sapientiae gloriae correptio cum contumelia Sap. 17. v. 7. Illienim qui promittebant timores perturbationes expellere so ab anima languente bi cum derisu pleni timore languebant Sap. 17. v. 8. and the hideous shapes which were presented to them amongst these dreadful noises so lively affrighted them that for their last remedy they desired nothing but Death This horrid night could not be dissipated by the Rayes of the Sun and Moon and notwithstanding the fires which were kindled on all sides nothing but black vapors appeared which were so sensible that men might even feel them but the Lightnings which from time to time withdrew these black veils represented to them such strange forms that they then imagined to see what had never been The most Learned were the most confounded and the Diabolical Art of Inchanters found real matter for Humiliation This infamous and proud Art appeared but meer folly and the Errors of it better discovered themselves in that night than in all the precedent days The deceipt of the Magicians was never more shamefully decryed For all the promises they had made to free Egypt from all sorts of diseases were changed into confusion The prodigious effects whereof they published themselves to be Masters appeared chiefly in their astonishment which was so excessive that they scarce knew themselves And as their eyes saw nothing but Specters and Phantasms their ears heard nothing but the cryes and roarings of Beasts which contributed to their affrightment In vain was it for them to shut their eyes against all these Visions their fancies were too full of these shaâ—â—ows and they were in a maner constrained to see all the objects wherewith the imagination could be disquieted Behold the dreadful state wherein these infortunate people remained during the excess of so horrid an obscurity which lasted for the space of three days and that which ought to appear more strange was That amongst these tenebrous Exhalations and these shadows of Hell their mindes were even darkned and their understandings became no less blinde than their eyes Briefly they suffer both in Body and Soul such Convulsions and tortures as cannot be expressed Vna enim catena tenebrarum omnes erant colligati sive spiritus sibilans aut vis aquae decurrentis nimium Sap. 17. v. 17. Aut sonus volidus praecipitatarum petrarum c. Sap. 17. v. 18. All that were shut up in this Labyrinth resembled Gally-slaves tied by a chain of darkness which held them as fast as if it had been of Iron In this slavery they were tied by invisible enemies which the Wiseman describes under the figure of a Whirl-wind which grumbleth in the Air or of a rapid torrent which makes a Sea of the Fields or of a Rock which cleaves and is broken into shivers by the violence of a storm with a dreadful noise which continues until it fall into the bottom of some precipice Now all this was but a rough draught and a sign of the horrors which after the expiration of some ages and revolutions of the Sun and days were to produce a night which shall never enjoy light and a general eclipse which shall endure for all Eternity Then all the Evening and Morning Stars shall be veiled and the Inhabitants of Egypt the obstinate Souls and the hardned Hearts shall feel nothing but animated Shafts and killing Darts which the Eye of a just Vengeance shall cast in the midst of darkness to mark out these destroying Ciphers and Characters with more reason than they were heretofore ingraven on the Gates of the Prison of a certain person whom a sad and furious despair had transported to kill himself after he had exercised all manner of cruelty on his own body O night without day O death without life evill without remedy torment without end eternall darknesse But the Israelites Sanctis autem tuis maxima erat lux horum quidem vocem audiebant quia non ipsi eadem passi erant magnificabunt te Sap. 18. v. 1. the Children of light and they that walked amongst the splendours of virtue and sanctity shall have no share in this great obscurity they shall enjoy an ever-shining brightness and whilst the Egyptians shall houle like dispairing men in the Abysse of their darkness they shall magnifie the ineffable grandures and the most powerfull bounties of him who is able at the same time to reward the innocent and punish the guilty and causeth the Sun to rise under the feet of Saints whilst he inkindles his lightnings and comets over the heads of the wicked Such will be the great day and night full of horrour and miserie in which light shall apparently decay and ashes and dust shall ascend even as high as the heavens there to form more beautifull and radiant planets than those which at present expresse their Pomp with so much magnificence and splendor O my God! be thou then the Sun of my Soul that I may goe alwaies increasing from one light unto an other and that I may never be invelop'd in this night with the Egyptians but that I may without limit without measure and without obstacle enjoy those blessed aspects and those luminous glances which make the day of dayes and of eternity CHAP. XVI The Death of the First-born of Egypt WE must acknowledge that the Philosopher who called Death the Center of punishments Timocles and the last extremity of all evills had as just reason as that Prince who after he had sought out all wayes to terrifie his people who had taken up armes against him resolv'd at last to have one great Skeleton carried in triumph which held a Hand of Justice and a Sith after which
and the sounding of Trumpets an Herauld was so clothed in black and covered with a large cipres veil wrought with Thunderbolts and crowned darts who proclamed that this Queen was unpittifull and that she intended speedily to make a horrid Sepulchre of a great kingdome But this funerall pomp was not fully ended when the most mutinous and most seditious appear'd who ask'd pardon and esteemed themselves more happy to fall into the hands of a king who might chastise them without depriving them of life than of a Queen who cannot punish but with death It was I beleeve for the same reason Togaris the Physician of Leon the Armenian cured all the maladies and pains which extended not unto the dissolution of the body and soul In effect there is nothing so terrible and dreadfull as death and God himself hath never erected more tragick Theaters than when he would cause this cruell Tyrant to march which makes all the Catastrophes of life and after many combats and actions at last destroyes creatures without any possibility of their foreseeing the place or moment of their destruction Hear then it is where after a war of all the Elements Warr of all the Elements and a duel of totall nature against the Egyptians these miserable wretches will find at length a revenging hand which is ready to cut off the first fruits of their Mariage and the most amiable delights of their family Methinks I hear the Herauld already pronouncing the sentence and condemning the first-born of Egypt unto death It is Moses who speaks or rather our Lord by his mouth For he is but the Eccho of his voice and the instrument of his most holy and severest decrees To thee Egypt Media nocte ingrediar in Aegyptum Exod. 11. v. 4. Et morietur omne primogenitum in terra Aegyptiorum à primogenito Pharaonis qui sedet in solio illius usque ad primogenitum ancillae quae est ad molam omnia primogenita jumentorum Exod. 11. v. 5. and to thee Pharaoh God will manifest by this blow that he is thy God that is to say not only most good but most just and most powerfull behold the last of dart of his wrath which is ready to be cast upon thy Palace and upon thy Empire and then a sad necessity and an extreme disafter will oblige thee to doe by constraint what thou oughst to doe through sweetness when all Egypt shall be buried in a profound sleep The Angel of God shall goe into all houses and his revenging Sword will have no more respect for him who should one day ascend a Throne and bear the Crown of a King than for the meanest of thy vassals or beasts of which he shall choose the Prince to Sacrifice unto his indignation But who could have ever painted out to us a face covered over with so many horrours if after the first colours which have been laid Moses the most learned and prudent of men had not been pleased to add some touches of his pencill unto this dreadfull image Cum enim quietum silentium con incret emnia nox in suo cursu medium iter haberet Sap. 18. v. 14. Omnipotens sermo tuus de caelo à regalibus sedibus durus debellator in mediam exterminii terram prosiluit Sap. 18. v. 15. Gladius acutus insimulatum imperium portans stans replevit omnia murte usque ad caelum attingebat stans in ter ram Sap. 18. v. 16. It was even in the midst of the Night saith Solomon that this ineffable Word to whom all is possible descended from the height of the Impyreall Heaven and thundred over this abominable Land which was chosen as the Theatre on which the bloody spoyles of the rage and obstinacy of Egypt were to be seen It carried a two edged-Sword which transpierced on every side without pitty and this Sword was no other than this irrevocable decree which was as soon executed as pronounced in Egypt filling the whole Country with horrours desolations and deaths The exterminating Angel went from dore to dore and when any one dore was found whose Threshold was not sprinckled with the innocent blood of the Lamb he entered and having drawn the curtains and search'd the beds in which the first born of Egypt reposed he made upon their lives a bloody proof of Gods indignation and wrath In fine There was no family in which they deplored not some Infant slain by this merciless Executioner of Gods Decrees This punishment was so universal Neque enim erat do mus in qua non faceret mortuus Exod. 12. v. 30. that both Lord and Vassal mourned for the same accident and therein the usage of the people differed not from that of their King So that such as remained alive could not receive consolation from any person since all had need thereof and they could not rest satisfied even with rendering the last duties unto their dead so disconsolate they were and their own grief joyned with that of their Allies Friends and their neerest Kinred did scarce permit them to be attentive to their own misery A more general and sensible desolation was never seen for all this great and flourishing Empire did swim in tears and almost in a moment all its hopes were seen extinguished in blood Besides all these disasters hapned for no other cause than for not having believed what was denounced to them and confirmed by so many exemplary and prodigious Chastisements wherewith they had been lately afflicted Vrgebantque Aegyâ—tis populum â—exire de terra velociter dicentes Omnes moriemur Exod. 12. v. 33. It must be granted then that all these tribulations and punishments were the inevitable effects of the Finger of God in this last misfortune whereby the Egyptians saw themselves deprived of their Eldest sons they could not deny but that the Israelites were under the Protection of the Almighty and from that time they promised to consent unto their departure Behold the degrees Degrees of Vengeance by which Vengeance goes ascending even unto the height we see some marks of it in the Clouds which never break in pieces before they cast forth some Lightnings which carry the first tidings of the approaching storm Indications of a Tempest are also seen upon the Sea and there is no description in all Nature of Gods Justice and Wrath which hath not its peculiar place to arrive unto excess and which doth not first give some wound before it giveth death But also when Threats have proved fruitless and the Darts thrown by a gentle hand served onely to invenome the disease and inflame the wound Patience and Mercy which are the faithful companions of Justice retire and instantly the Heart from whence a great stream of Milk was seen to issue converts it self into a torrent of Gall and the Hand which held Palms and Crowns Darts nothing but Lightnings and Thunder-bolts Divine Justice resembleth that Dragon in the Indies which first casts the
hath not beheld this admirable effect and this great stroak of thy arm which hath reduced into ashes and dust the insupportable boldness of all our enemies To this effect thou hast caused the astonishing terrours of thy dreadfull wrath to march before thee Et in multitudine gloriae tuae deposuisti adversarios tuos misisti iâ—am tuam quae devoravit eos ficut slipulam Exod. 15. v. 7. Et in spiritu furoris tui congregatae sunt aquae c. Exod. 15. v. 8. Flavit spiritus tuus operuit eos mare c. Exod. 15. v. 10. thou hast raised storms and tempests as the Messengers of thy indignation and the spirit of thy holy furies hath suspended the billows and heaped torrents upon torrents to swallow up this insolent Nation Those waves which had been a little before volatile and inconstant were now without motion and they all made a dreadfull Vacuum to give us passage But these dungeons of Ice when our adversaries were so blinded and presumptuous as to follow us melted on their heads and when they thought to inclose our Camp all the waves tumbled down and made of them but a horrid shipwrack A more strange and Universall Shipwrack was never seen For all the winds were dis-inchained and the Sea being let loose made but a great Sepulchre and a deep Abyss to inclose them Art thou also O my God! this Lord of terrours and full of Majesty whom Angels and men adore and whom all tongues cannot praise but by silence and whom all understandings are not able to comprehend but by extasie and astonishment Subwersi sunt quasi plumbum in aquis vehementibus Exod. 15. v. 10. Behold then these proud men in the bottome of the Ocean as leaden bodyes behold all these murtherers who would make us pass through the points of their Swords dying stifled in the water and swimming perchance in their own tears and bloud The hand of God Extendisti manum tuam devoravit eos terra Exod. 15.12 whose magnificences are holy and terrible hath given them a mortall wound and death in the Abysses hath devoured them My God! Dux fuisti in misericordia populo quem redemisti portasti eum in fortitudine tua habitaculum sanctum tuum Exod. 15. v. 13. These are thy ineffable bounties and thy sweet mercies which have conducted this distressed people whom thou hast delivered and carried as it were upon thy shoulders and by the strength of thy arm into this holy Sanctuary this Land of Promise and this Country of Abraham Isaack and Jacob where one day Altars and Temples shall be seen built to thine honour This then will be a happy passage for us Irruat super eos formido pavor in magnitudine brachii tui fiant immobiles quasi lapis donec pertranseat populus tuus Domine Exo. 15. v. 16 and for other Nations a passage of horrour and amazement Grant then O Lord that at the entry into this desert our enemies may conceive such a horrour as may render them insensible and unable to hurt us untill we are on the Land of Promise and in our Country where thou wilt plant us as flowers of Paradise and as so many slips of immortality Tune conturbati sunt principes Edom robustos Moab obtinuit tremor obriguerunt â—mnes habitatores Chanaan Exod. 15. v. 15. Our Conquerours are already vanquished and all strangers are affrighted The Philistians already groan all the Princes of Edom are astonished Fear hath seized on the minds of the most Couragious and the Inhabitants even of Chanaan are become as bodyes without Soul or resentment Fill them then with fear and terrour Dominus regnabit in aeternum ultra Exod. 15. v. 18. whilst we shall advance with joy and delight into thy Sanctuary Meanwhile reign in the Ages of Ages and if it may be even beyond Eternity For in fine Pharaoh is no more and of all that he ever was there scarce remains so much as the memory of it and none but Mariners shall find some remnants of him upon the shoar and peradventure some prints of those Chariots which shall be seen upon this sand where he intended to erect his Trophey his Throne and his fairest hopes When Moses and the Israelites had made an end of this Canticle Sumpsit autem Maria prophetissa soror Aaron tympanum in manu sua egressaeque sunt omnes mulieres post eam cum tympanis choris Exod. 15. v. 20. Mary the Sister of Aaron appeared like an Aurora which after a Tempestuous night takes her horn to sound the return of the Sun and calm and the retreat of the Starrs and the storm This vertuous Dame having heard her Brother and the Israelites who had ended their Musick began another Consort in which she was accompany'd by Wifes and Daughters who answered the accents of her voice But such a Feast was never seen for all of them had certain little Drums at their girdles which they beat dancing and singing according to the manner of the Hebrews with a zeal and modesty worthy of this Sex which hath for its share purity and devotion These are the two wheeles of their triumphant Chariot Impiety tam'd the two arms which they used to overthrow the impiety and insolence of men and tyrants These are the two eies of their Souls the Suns of their bodies and the two greatest powers they can have even in their weakness An impudent wicked woman hath but the name of a woman she is a monster in nature and a spectre which hides under a human skin the Soul of a Maegera But also when they have these two illustrious qualities they are living miracles and prodigies of beauty The portions of Piety and Modesty where the Angels themselves abide with a chast and amorous respect For piety gives luster and attractives unto their Souls and modesty imprints all sorts of Charms on their faces then chiefly when these two Vertues are neither childish affected savage rude fantastick light proud indiscreet feigned troublesome babling stupid malicious nor insolent but generous solid complacent sweet stay'd constant humble prudent reall condescending moderate ingenious and without any mixture of Gall and Poison Then will they be Syrens from whom nothing ought to be feared and who may sing upon the banks of the shore like Halcions in the midst of the Sea they may be seen in assemblies and meetings where their hearts and most pure voyces will say with the Sister of Aaron and Moses and after the defeat of a lascivious and impious Devill of whom Pharaoh was the figure Well then my faithfull Companions Quibus praecinebat dicens Cantemus Domino gloriosè enim magnificatus est equum ascensorem ejus dejecit in mare Evod. 15. v. 21. let us sing victory let us sing together you chast Virgins of Judea happy Daughters of Sion holy Souls let us sing Canticles of joy in
which they usually invelop themselves even in the same fire It is allmost impossible that the World can ever enjoy a perfect peace so long as there shall be men for peace it self is very often the mother of warr repose which gives truce unto the soul raiseth in it a thousand thoughts and passions which arm themselves at the beating of the first Alarm and advance into the field upon the first occasion God himself marcheth in the head of battalions and I know not whether it be not for this cause he Calls himself the great God of Hostes well doe I know that he always presides there making use of them to reward some and to punish others and to the end we may take notice that war is one of his scourges and that there be always invisible weapons resembling so many torches which he lights and extinguisheth according to his good pleasure In fine it is a most infallible verity that victory in war though wavering and inconstant in its own nature remains in the hand of God and it is a Bird which cannot take its flight but to that part which is assign'd it by his most holy Providence The Israelites had a powerfull motive to know this verity in the first war they were enforced to maintain against the Amalekites after their passage over the Red Sea This people had for their King and general the son of Eliphas called Amaleck of Esau's race Venit autem Amalec pugnavit contra Jsrael in Raphidim Exod 17. v. 8. of whom they had as it were inherited an implacable hatred against Jacob and the Hebrews who descended from him This was the motive of their taking up arms besides their fear seeing this great multitude led by Moses who marched towards the Land of Promise as if the happy moment were come in which the Benediction which Jacob had in a manner forced from Esau was to be accomplished Methinks when I cast my eyes upon these mutinous troops which forraged the Country and pursu'd the Hebrews with so much fury and animosity I see an army of hobgoblins which are commonly called the inciters of Flesh and Blood which have no sooner perceiv'd a soul out of the Lands of Egypt and out of the empire of carnall and mundane pleasures but they presently take the field to assault her and to disturb her entry into the happy Land which was promised her and into some holy retreat But we must fear nothing since we need but lift up our hands to Heaven like Moses and implore the assistance of that great Intelligence who never abandons those who are inroled under his Standard and fight valiantly for the honour of his name Cumque levaret Moises manus vincebat Israel sin autem paululum remisisset superabat Amalec Exod. 17. v. 11. Yes at the same time that this great Captain lifted up his Arm towards God to implore his aid and to give him a sign that he only expected the victory from him the people of Israel became Conquerors but if he chanced never so little to let down his Hand these poor people would be lost and overcome by Amaleck O God The efficacy of prayer what victory Kings Captains Soldiers entire Legions are defeated by the ejaculations sighs and prayers of one single man what efficacy of Prayer It is Theater where death finds life a Throne where weakness takes force and Majesty a Field where Laurels and Palms are reaped a Sea which hath alwaies prosperous gales and an Air where Graces and Angels incessantly fly Prayer is not only as St. Ephraim saith the monument and Sepulcher of dying men the Sanctuary of the Afflicted the Advocate of Criminals the Seal and Character of purity the Nurse of temperance the Bridle of impatience the Conserver of peace but the Standard also of War and the Soul of all our triumphs who will wonder then if the Amalekites be defeated since Moses who was the most devout ardent zealous and holy Man upon Earth made his most humble supplications unto God for this purpose Manus autem Moisi erant graves c. Exod. 17. v. 12. Aaron autem Hur sustentabant manus eius ex utraque parte Exod. 17. v. 13. But I fear lest the forces of his Spirit might weaken those of the Body and that at last his Arms and Hands stretched out towards Heaven might suffer themselves to follow their naturall propension towards the Earth I assure my self that Hur and Aaron had the same apprehension for behold them on the top of a little Hill Hur on the one side and Aaron on the other supporting the victorious Hands and the conquering Arms of Moses Fugavitque Josue Amalec populum eius in ore gladii Exod. 17. v. 13. whilst Josua pursued and put to the Sword both Amaleck and his Amalekites who discerned in their flight and by their defeat that it was more than a humane Hand which had assailed and vanquished them Behold then the victories of Heaven and Crowns wrought by the Hand of God who will have the whole World to know that there are for his Soldiers Laurels and Palms in his Hands and on the contrary Thunderbolts and Lightnings to dart against his enemies Non ego ó Imperator victus sum sed tuipse prodidisti victoâ—iam qui contra Deum aciem instruere non desinis Deum sequitur victoria ad eos accedet quibus se Deus dacem praebet Theo. lib. 4. hist c. 29. Trajan was not ignorant of this when having been sent by Valens to conduct troops which were defeated under his command he had the courage to say unto him at his return That he had not been vanquished but rather the person that sent him and who was so temerarious as to raise troops against him whose steps are alwaies followed by those of victory The Emperour Theodorus had the same thoughts when having received news in a full Theater and in the midst of the sports used in the Circus that a certain Tyrant his enemy had been overcome commanded all that were present to follow him Niceph. lib. 4. c. 7. to render thanks unto God as unto the Author of this prosperous success France also knows the glorious victory which Clotarius gained after a troublesome and domestique War Gregorius Turon lib. 4. c. 16. 17. by the help of prayer In fine not to search further into former ages and to dis-inter so many Princes who have been either Conquerors or Conquered by this kind of Arms we need but cast our eyes upon the victories of our incomparable Lewis and amongst others on that of the Isle of Ree where like an other Moses he lifted up his Hands unto Heaven in the Chapel of Saumeur and then like Josua he pursued his enemies even to the destruction of their Ships and even into the bosom of the proudest and most rebellious City in the World where at last he might justly say unto his France what God said
fruits or abortions of Adultery and Fornication shall be seen in the same fire CHAP. XXXII Against the unjust usurpation of other mens goods THou shalt not Steal The seventh Commandement Non furtum facies Exod. 20. v. 15. Alas how many unknown Theeves are there in Country Houses and Cities That wise Senator who said that Gibbetts and Gallowes were onely for the miserable spake truth The spoils made by a Vulture or a Wolf in one hour are greater than all those petty thefts which a thousand Flyes can commit in a year Yet more Flyes are taken in an hour than Wolves in many years There are some Fishes in the Sea which take and devour others but are scarce ever taken themselves There are others which seize on all and part with nothing What pitty would it be if the Planets should draw up all the humors of the Earth without letting fall one single drop of dew Motto of the Hook Capior ut capiam There are some also who bear for their Devise that Motto of the Hook I suffer not my self to be taken but that I may take others And yet themselves are the first who cry out theeves This sport would be passable if we were not obliged to restore all that we have taken detained or unjustly required But restitution is unto theft what the shadow is to the Body and a Man must either restore in this World if he be able or be eternally damned This is a strange dilemma let Men think of it what they please CHAP. XXXIII Condemnation of false witnesses and Lyars THou shalt not bear false witness against thy Neighbour The eight Commandement Non loqueris contra proximum tuum salsum testimonium I have seen certain antient aenigmaes where the tongue was painted on a Throne in the form of a Queen who carryed life and death in her Hand In effect there needs but a good word to save the lives of a thousand Innocents and a bad one to render them all culpable War Plague Famine and the scourges of Heaven and Earth have never committed so many Murthers and given so many wounds as this little mischievous two-edged Knife It is this Murthering blade with which Brothers and Sisters cut one anothers Throats The Mouth of a Lyar of an Hypocrite of an Impostor of a Backbiter of a False witness of a Flatterer of a Traitor and a Calumniator was for this reason most justly called an Arcenal out of which all the arms of death and all the instruments of misery are taken It is also a fatall source out of which issue a thousand poysonous streams which flow as well over Cities as Villages The whole World is subject unto these cruel inundations which raise tempests in the midst of Hearts and drown the most holy amities There are also dead waters which are sometime more dangerous than the most impetuous torrents and the most Rapid Rivers There are some who scoff play the buffoons and bite when they smile We ought to fear nothing so much as those remedies of Empericks which have a sugured out-side and a little leaf gold wherewith they cover a poysoned pill You shall sometimes see also these kind of people using criminall complyances and flattering the disease when we see them and irritating it when they think themselves unknown But nevertheless God hath mortall hatreds for these little Tyrants who wage War against the first verity and above all he will cause the excess of his anger to be felt by those who daily set to sale the reputation of others and to such as will bid the most These are certain little Pigmie Spirits which desire to become Gyants by debasing others Sunt homicidi interfectores fratrum sunt homicidi detractores eorum S. Clem. Ep. 1. And since St. Clement after St. Peter saith that there are two sorts of Murthers the one by the Hand and the other by the Tongue I may stile as well those who commit the last as well as the first Murtherers Executioners Assassins and Canibals which cat more raw than rosted flesh and live only upon the honours goods and lives of other Men But since God is the same Verity it is unto him we ought to remit the sentence and condemnation of these accursed Tongues for the other World although it be the most usuall course of his Justice and Providence to cause even in this World truth to shine forth and to ingrave it with sensible lights on the foreheads and in the consciences of Criminals CHAP. XXXIV The Tomb of Concupiscence THou shalt not covet thy Neighbours Wife nor any thing that is his The two last Commandements Non concupisces domum proximi tui nec desiderabis uxorem ejus Exod. 20. v. 17. Some there are who imagin that it is sufficient to have a vermillion colour upon their Cheeks and for the rest it little imports what they have upon their Bodies These are Sepulchers outwardly white and inwardly inwardly eaten with Worms fair and clear waters but impoisoned bodyes cloathed in Sattin and Velvet but eaten with Cankers and ordures And such are those who figure to themselves that it is enough for them to put no man to death and not publickly to ravish Maids to make a prey of their lubricity but otherwise that it is lawfull to bear a cut throat in their hearts and to make their souls a retreat for all sorts of impurity where like so many Harpees they devour at least by their unjust desires all that their eyes behold These are strange Maximes whereof the Devils themselves have been the first Authors but it is a brutish Ignorance and a stupid blindness not to discern that both good and evill proceeds from the heart and that our desires are like so many Western gales which may cause fair dayes and as many Northern Winds which occasion foul and stormy weather But a worldly and libertine soul will tell me that there is much trouble in it and that we must be blind deaf dumb and leprous not to feel the wounds of those darts which passe suddenly through our senses and I will answer her that we must be Turks and no Christians to give up our selves for a prey and for a mark unto all the shafts which the World Flesh and Hell use to shoot at us But I confess that it is very difficult never to be surprised yet it is sufficient First if it be possible never to give the least occasion thereunto Secondly to avoid dangers namely when they are discovered Thirdly we must often replace in our minds a Hell a death a life and a Jesus who dyed onely to preserve us from them Fourthly we must alwayes remain in a diffidence of our selves and place all our hopes on God Fiftly we must have alwayes arms in our hands not to be surprized by this roaring Lion who both day and night walks round about us Sixthly the prize we expect and the victory which shall crown our Combats is no
Behold Quamobrem misu Dominus in populum igneos serpentes ad corum plagas mortes plurimorum Num. 21. v. 6. Venerunt ad Moisen atque dixetunt Peccavimus quia locuti sumus contra Dominum te Ora ut tollat à nobis serpentes Oravitque Moises pro populo Num. 21. v. 7. the complaints and murmurings which even scorched the Sands of Arabia as with a breath of fire and flames which was no other than the Spirit of God which immediately produced there an infinite number of Serpents whose bitings were so cruel and ardent that one would have believed they had been so many coals or some kinde of wilde-fire applied to the flesh of these miserable wretches if those Vipers and Scorpions had not been seen which spared no man causing with their Teeth upon these infamous Bodies such stinging pains and fiery wounds that it brought them even unto dispair And I believe it would have reduced these guilty persons into Ashes if they had not at least acknowledged their sin and obtained some remedy more than humane by the mediation of Moses Now this Remedy was no other than a great Brazen Serpent which God commanded Moses to make Et locutus est Dominus ad cum Fac serpentem aeneum posuit eum pro signo auem cum percussi aspicerent sanabantur Num. 21. v. 8 9. and erect in the desart upon which they had no sooner cast their eyes but they were instantly cured though it were but a sign and mark of that hand which had erected this Trophy of his Power and the Image of his Goodness to the end the Remedy might be the more conformable to the disease and that such as had been punished by Serpents after they had vomitted all the venome out of their serpentine mouths might have at least this counter-poison which was as it were inclosed within this miraculous Serpent Now all this was but a most lively figure of Jesus Christ fastned on the Cross who bore all the most bloody marks and the most shameful appearances of a sinner although he were Purity and Innocency it self which can receive no stain of sin The Brass whereof the Serpent was formed and which amongst all other Metals hath I know not what more solid qualities and less subject unto corruption denoted nothing else but the Divinity of Jesus Christ and his Eternity We may also observe with Saint Austin upon this Figure some marks of the resplendency and glory of the Cross which carried its light and splendor even unto the shadows of Gentilism and Idolatry where its Trophies and Power have appeared notwithstanding the rage and fury of the most dreadful Tyrants In fine if this Brazen Serpent bore certain colours of fire who sees not that it was a very evident token of Love and Charity which passed even into the bosom of a Father to seek a Son and into the flames of a Sanctuary to seek a God to convert him into a man of Fire which descended not on Earth but to inflame him with the amorous ardors of his infinite Charity O God! O Love What goodness what flames where hath such a prodigy and miracle of Love been ever seen A God takes upon him the form of a sinner represented by this Serpent and was pleased by his death to cure those who have been the torturers and persecutors of his life Alas my poor heart Art thou not one of those who have murmured against God Have not these languishments and vexations which thou canst not conceal in his service provoked him to render thee a prey unto those Vipers which are commonly nourished in the fire of concupiscence and are often born on the sands of the Desart and in the retirement of the most pleasing solitudes to flie afterwards into the greatest Assemblies and into the heart of the World where thou must perish of wounds amongst the dead unless some Moses in thy favor address himself unto him who hath created thee to save and not to damn thee O my Jesus O my Saviour Grant me then this favor that I may cast mine eyes upon thy Cross and on thy Self to the end If any deceiptful Serpent hath infected me with his bitings and inkindled some ardors and flames in my veins in beholding you I may burn onely with those of thy Holy Love CHAP. XLVII The last Actions of Moses TO make a relation of the last Actions performed by Moses I must imitate Geographers and Painters who contract upon their Canvas strokes and lines to form an Epitomy of the Heavens Elements and the greatest Bodies in nature nevertheless I could not undertake so hard a task if the design thereof had not been marked out even by his hand of whom I pretend to speak But since I must here onely work upon the original and draw some copy of it it is enough for me to do like those Apprentices who study to express at least in a rough draught the rarest Ideas of their Master The Pencil then of Moses must finish this Picture and there is no person I believe who may not know that his hand and pen have followed the tracts of his Spirit and that there was but one Moses who could worthily describe and publish the commands of God whose instincts he so justly followed as to see and hear him it was apparent that God animated his sentiments who spoke by his mouth who wrought by his hands and who became as it were the soul of his soul so intimately was he united to him and all his actions This appeared during the whole course of this great Patriarcks life but chiefly near his end and namely when he saw himself even upon the point of leaving this beloved people of whom he had been the Prince Father The Testament of Moses Prophet and Law-giver He must resolve then to give them his last words and take his last farewel he must declare all his desires and draw his last will to the end it might be afterwards engraven upon Stones and that at least every seven years there might be made a general publication thereof as also that Kings might themselves read it before their Election to learn from thence the Laws and Precepts which are as it were the souls of Princes and the principal wheels of Empires Now this Testament was no other than Deuteronomy Hieronimus in prologo Galleato August Q. 49. Theod. hic Q. 1. Athanas in Synop. Quadragessimo anno undecimo mense prima die mensis locutus est Moises ad filios Israel omnia quae praeceperat illi Dominus ut disceret eis Deut. 1. v. 3. Trans Jordanem in terra Moab Deut. 1. v. 5. which as Saint Jerome saith is as it were the Second Law or rather according to the opinion of Theodoret Saint Austin and Saint Athanasius a repetition of the first which was published on Mount Sina and amply set forth in Exodus Leviticus and the Book of Numbers It was about the fortieth year
let the memory of the Favors conferred on thee and the hope of a future good incite thee let not so many benefits be forgotten and let the hand from whence they flow oblige thee eternally to preserve them in thy remembrance Are not these words worthy the zeal of Moses and these flames powerful enough to inkindle love or to reduce hearts harder than Diamonds into Ashes But this Exhortation seemed to them too general and for this reason he descended more to particulars and commanded First Not to immolate any more their Victims nor to present their desires in Woods and upon Mountains but in some place which God had chosen and appointed for this purpose Secondly He made an Edict in which it was decreed That they who should be so bold as to teach and introduce any Forein and Sacrilegious Worships should be presently put to death and publickly stoned without exception either of kinred or friends in case by mishap they were guilty Thirdly He makes mention of particularities which concerned the maner which was to be observed in the common use of these Animals which might be eaten and there he remarks some duties touching the Tenths to which they were obliged From thence he proceeded to the Jubile which was celebrated every seventh year after which the Jews gave mutually a general acquittance of all the debts they had contracted and at that time all servants were set free in such sort that their Masters were even obliged to give them a Viaticum Sed dabis viaticum de gregibus c. Deut. 15. v. 14. Tribus vicibus per annum apparebit omne masculinum tuum in conspectu Demini Dei tui in leco quem elegerit in soâ—emnitate azymorumin solemnitate hebdomadarum in solemnitate tabernaculorum Deut. 16. v. 16. Veniesque ad sacerdotes Levitici generis ad judicem qui suerit illo tempore c. Deut. 17. v. 9. Et dixeris constituam super me regem sicut habent omnes per circaituÌ„ nationes Deut. 17.14 Non habebunt sacerdotes Levitae omne qui de eadem tribu sunt partem haereditatem cum relique Israel Deut. 18. v. 1. Nec incantator nec qui pychones consultat divinos c. Deut. 18. v. 11. Prophetam suscitabe eos c. Deu. 18. v. 18. Haec erit lex bomicidae fugientis cujus vita servanda est Qui percusserit proximum suam nesciens c. Deut. 19. v. 4. Si quis autem odio habens proximum suum c. Deut. 19. v. 11. Mittent seniores civitatis illius arripient eum de loco effagaii c. Deut. 19. v. 13. Non stabit testis unus contra aliquem c. Deut. 19. v. 15. which was as a general salery due unto the toils of their service Fourthly Having spoken concerning the Offerings which was to be made of the first-born he makes a new publication of the Feast of Easter of Pentecost and of the Tabernacles which were to be celebrated in a designed place and where the Male-children were bound to be present Presently after he made a decree of death against Idolaters and commanded all the people to repair unto their Priests in Legal matters and to consult them in their doubts and concerning the differences which had reference to the Law Then about the end of the same Chapter he commanded the people of Israel to chuse a King of their own Nation and described the Qualities which were requisit for this Dignity Fifthly He ordains by his order that the Priests and Levites should have onely the Victims Offerings and Tenths for their share in Canaan Afterwards he made a Publick Act prohibiting any Consultation with Diviners and Sorcerers and promised them a Prophet who should declare to them all the Commands of God Sixthly Moses enjoyned that three Towns should be designed for Refuge and which might serve as a Sanctuary for those who should by mishap kill a man against their will that if it were done voluntarily the Author thereof was to be banished and drawn from these Towns first to be put into the hands of his adversaries and afterward punished with exemplary death As for false witnesses whose tongues are as much or more to be feared than the hand of a murtherer they were all condemned unto that kinde of punishment which chasticeth proportionably to the crime and demands in rigor life for life and such a punishment as punctually suites with the offence of the criminal Seventhly Si exieris ad bellum contra hostes tuos videris equitatus currus c. Deut. 20. v. 1. He passes to Laws and Customs which were to be observed in War and in a concealed Murther in which case the offending-party was bound to make some expiation of his crime and receive at least some immunity and favor from his Judges which consisted particularly in a Publick Oath and in a general Protestation made before them As concerning the disobediences of such Children as were refractory to their Fathers commands Si genuerit homo filium contumacem protervum qui non audiat patris matris imperium coercitus obedire contempserit Deu. 21. v. 18. Apprehendent eum ducent ad seniores civitatis illius ad portam judicii Deut. 21. v. 19. no other punishment was to be inflicted on them than Death after they had been first put into the hands of the most Antient of the people who having heard the report examined the fact and confronted the witnesses were obliged to leave them unto the mercy of the people to stone them to death which was also observed concerning Adulterers who to this end were led out of the City with those that were to be stoned Eightly Ammonites Moabites ctiam post decimam generationem non intrabunt ecclestam Domini in aeternum Deut. 23. v. 3. He frames a brief Catalogue of some Ecclesiastical Laws and chiefly of such persons as were forbidden entrance into the holy places amongst which were the Ammonites the Idumeans the Moabites and the Egyptians even to the Tenth Generation Ninthly Si acceperit homo uxorem habuerit eam non invenerit gratiam ante oculos ejus propter aliquam soeditatem scribet lil ellum repudii dabit in manu illius dimittet eam de domo sua Deut. 24. v. 1. Non deerunt pauperes in terra habitationis tuae idcirco ego praecipio tibi ut aperias manumfratri tuo egeno pauperi qui tecum versatur in terra Deut. 15. v. 11. Upon just reasons he permitted the Hebrews to separate themselves from their Wives and exhibite on this occasion a Bill of Divorce in which they set down the causes of their repudiation Tenthly He prescribed them Laws and Motives which were to invite them unto mercy and compassion towards the poor which certainly is so agreeable unto Reason and fastned to Nature That a man must be more than infensible
Jesus How sweet is thy yoke and how reasonable is thy Will Anathema to all those who refuse obedience to thy most holy commands whilst these faithful servants shall enjoy those Favors and Benections which thou from all eternity hast reserved for thy Elect. CHAP. XLVIII The last Canticle of Moses WHen once we give up our selves as a prey unto Vices the longest period of our lives commonly serves but to weave the largest Web of misery but also when years pass away in virtuous actions they are but miraculous courses the moments whereof are illustrious and their events most happy And it is for this cause I believe that the Wiseman compared the life of the good to the Sun which produceth nothing but Beauties and Lights whereas the life of the wicked is tenebrous bringing forth nothing but Lightnings and Obscurities Now if ever the life of any person hath been full of glory prosperity and happiness though daily intermixt with afflictions and disquiets it was that of Moses of whom we may justly say what heretofore Carthage did of certain Captains That all the days of his life and all his actions had something I know not of Divine and transcending the capacity of man Nevertheless all the prodigies and miracles he wrought would have been but streams which lose themselves in running and clarities which vanish after some sparklings if his death had not been the Image of his life and even the moment God chose to manifest to him the particular care he took of his people in giving him Josua for a Successor and assuring him that after his death they should enter into those happy Countries they had so long expected To this effect God descended in the Pillar of the Cloud as on his Throne Apparuitque Dominus ibi in Columna nubis c. Deut. 31. v. 15. and spake familiarly unto Moses concealing nothing from him of all that was to come Was not this an admirable Colloquy God alone with Moses and Josua as to ratifie the choise of the one and to discharge his heart into the bosome of the other Moses saith he Dixitque Dominus ad Moysen Ecce tu darmies cum patribus tuis populus iste consurgens fornicabitur post Deos alienos in terra ad quam ingreditur ut habitet in ea thi derelinquet me irritum faciet foedus quod pepegi cum eo Deut. 31. v. 16. Et irascetur furor meus contra eum in die illo derelinquam eum c. Deut. 31. v. 17. this people for whom I had so much tenderness and love and which thou hast conducted with so much labour and zeal shall shortly enter into the Land I have so long promised them But whilst thou shalt enjoy the repose of thy forefathers these miserable wretches will become fornicators and adhere unto Idols and shamefully break that faith they have so often sworn to me I shall be inforc'd to immolate them unto my severest rigours and as so many victims to sacrifice them to my just indignation to the end in the height of their miseries they may know at last that I have abandoned them and besides all their misfortunes and punishments are but the lamentable effects of their crimes and the inevitable darts of that fury they have provoked Behold the cause Nunc itaque scribite vobis Canticum istud docete filios Israel ut memoriter teueant ore decantent c. Deut. 31. v. 19. why God commanded Moses to compose a Canticle which conteins a description of the Miracles he had done in favour of the people of Israel which ever since the Hebrews have stiled an abridgement of the Law and which as in effect we shall immediatly see is a Summary of the rarest wonders God hath ever done for men and namely for these ingrates unto whom Moses made the first recital thereof enjoyning all of them to learn the same and never to forget it Stop your course saith he you beautifull Planets which move in the day over our heads and march under our feet whilst we are at rest and under the shade Sun who incessantly dost run upon this azure and luminous Chariot Audite caeli quae loquor audiat terra verba oru mei Deut. 32. v. 1. and thou Moon whose so various revolutions are made in a list of Diamonds and Saphirs stand still awhile and listen to this discourse Heaven and Earth I call you for witnesses of my words and it is unto you I address my voice to the end if men doe not hear me you may be more sensible and frame at least some Consort to cause this Canticle of honour and praise to resound Let my words produce in my mouth Concrescat ut pluvia doctrina mea slaat ut ros clequium meum quasi imber super herbam quasâ— stillae super gramina Deut 32. v. 2. Quia nomen Domini invocabo date magnificentiam Deo nostro Deut. 32. v. 3. and in your hearts what water doth in the bosome of the Earth rain upon herbs and dew upon fruits and flowers to the end Virtue may there spring again and that some profit of my discourse may appear in your souls Render then unto God the praises you owe him and exalt his name whilst I shall invoke it and cause the memory of his benefits to resound in all places Is it not true that his works are perfect Dei perfectasunt opera omnes via ejus judicia Deus fidelis absque ullae iniquitate justus rectus Deut. 32. v. 4. and that with weight and measure he hath made all that is visible to our eyes What can be added unto the most beautifull draughts of his Goodness Power Wisedome and Sanctity He is most just most Good most holy most Wise most Powerfull and all the beauties which have any spelndour are but the marks and tracts of such as reside in him as in their Fountain Have you never contemplated his designs and the effects of his Divine Providence which hath ordered the Planets in their Orbs the Elements in their spaces and all bodyes in their temperaments and under those Lawes which best suit with their essence Should not the whole Universe be converted into mouths and tongues to praise him into Spirits to admire him into Hearts to love him What meaneth this great preparation and all this pomp to which honours and congratulations are rendred and to which so many applauses are given unless to shew some rayes of light which have been drawn by his own hand and form'd by his sole word But O horrour and abomination Peceaverunt ei non filii ejus in sordibus generatio prava atque perversa Deut. 32. v. 5 all these discourses are unprofitable for his own Children deride his Paternall goodness and you your selves to whom I direct my speech are so blind and barbarous as to repay all his benefits with contempt and disloyaltie Is this then
themselves immortall But even those who have not born arms but by express order from God and have had no other design in the conduct of their Troops than to conserve his Empire and inlarge the bounds of his Dominions cannot be freed from paying tribute unto death Who could believe that it durst assault Moses and that this great Captain who had hitherto cast terror and dread into the Armies of his Enemies and so often preserved the lives of his Party should be reduced to the point of being necessitated to undergo the last assaults of Nature Who would believe that he must now be treated like the meanest of persons but this usage is very gentle and these assaults do not affright him since he sings in dying and that these last words are no other than Benedictions for his people and Prophecies concerning all that was to happen unto the Children of Israel My children saith he Haec est benedictio qua benedixit Moises bomo Dei filiis Israel ance mortem suam Deut. 33. v. 1. Et ait Dominus dâ— Sinai venit de Seiortus est nobis apparuit de monte Pharan cum eo sanctorum millia In dextera ejus ignea lex Deut. 33. the Lord who came unto us on the top of Mount Sina to hold his first Sessions upon a Throne of Fire and a Tribunal of Flames This beautiful Sun which rose about the Mountain of Seir and whose Rayes stifled all those furious Serpents which persecuted us This King who appeared to us on the Summit of Mount Paran to establish our Judges This God who is always followed by millions of Angels and whose Majesty sufficiently made its self to be felt when he appeared holding in his hands the Law which he gave us amidst the Thunders and Lightnings It is he who hath wrought these miracles of Love Dilexit populos omnes sancti in manu illius sunt qui apprepinquant pedibus ejus accipient de doctrina illius Deut. 33. v. 3. Legem praecepit nobis Moises haereditatem multitudinis Jacob. Deut. 33. v. 4. and prodigies of Goodness and Power in testimony That you are his wel-beloved people and that he hath no common cares and tendernesses for those who are like your selves more peculiarly consecrated unto him The Law which I leave you by his order is then your Inheritance and the fairest possessions which I even now dying leave unto all your Successors I beseech this great God of our Fore-fathers Vivae Ruben non moriatur sit parvus in numero Deut. 33. v. 6. that the Posterity of Ruben may extend it self without limits even beyond time But I cannot divert the shafts of his Justice which will fall on this guilty Race and which shall be always small in number by reason of the incest which hath infected the first of their name Haec est Judae benedictio Audi Domine vocem Judae Et ad populum suum introduc eum Manus ejus pugnabunt pro eo adjutor illins contra adversarios ejus erit Deut. 33. v. 7. Levi quoque ait Perfectio tua doctrina tua viro sancto tuo c. Deut. 33. v. 8. Lord be propitious unto the children of Juda and when this Prince of the Tribes shall march in the head of your troops overthrow all his enemies and by the power of the Arm of the great God of Battels let him enter the Holy Land I expect also from God that his goodness would conserve in the house of Levi the Priesthood of Aaron with the Ornaments and other principal qualities which are as it were the eyes and souls of so holy and so illustrious a Dignity Et Benjamin ait Ammantissimus Domini habitabit confidenter in eo quast in thalamo tota die morabitur inter humeros illius requiescet Deut. 33. v. 12. I leave unto Benjamin all that which the power of the world can neither give nor take away from him It is the affection of a God who hath made choice of his Territories there to build his Temple and ordained his Tribe to extract thence the Kings of the people of Israel It is also as it were in the bosom and on the back of this his Favorite that the Divinity will take repose as in a Bed of Love and will cause his glory to break forth as on a Throne of Honor. As for Joseph Joseph quoque ait de benedictione Domini terra ejus de pomis caeli rore atque abysso subjacente Deut. 33. v. 13. Et super verticem Nazaraei inter fratres sues Deut. 33. v. 16. and his Off-spring the Earth and the Heavens will make an amorous war against each other and will have a secret emulation to fill them with their benefits and he that appeared to me in the flaming Bush will descend as I promise my self from his mercy upon the head of this Nazarite who hath already changed his Prison into a Throne and to whom the envy of his Brethren served but to raise him above themselves and render him the Vicegerent of Pharaoh The happy Line of Zabulon and Issachar Et Zabulon ait Latare Zabulon in exitu tuo Issachar in tabernaculis tuis Deut. 33. v. 18. Populos vocabunt ad montem ibi immolabunt victimas sustiâ—iae c. Deut. 33. v. 19. have no cause to be sad for they will quietly enjoy all the advantages of the traffick they shall exercise on their shores And both of them by words and examples shall teach the other Tribes and invite them to repair unto Mount Sion to render unto God in his Temple the Worship and Honors which are due unto him Lyons have not more courage and strength Et Gad ait benedictus in latitudine Gad quasi leo requievit cepiâ—que brachium verticem Deut. 33. v. 20. than the Children of Gad and in effect they have already given chace to all their enemies and the Amorites have in a maner given them entrance into those vast Possessions of Canaan of which they shall be the masters Those of Dan also are as so many little Lyons Dan quoque ait Dan catulus leonu fluet largiter de Basan Deut. 33. v. 22. like those of Basan the Philistims shall one day become their prey and the City which bears their name shall be as the Spring of Jordan and the Nursing-mother of other Provinces Concerning Naphtali Et Nepthali dixit Nepthali abundantia perfruetur plenus erit benedictionibus Domini mare meridiem possidebit Deu. 33. v. 23. Aser quoque ait benedictus in filiis Aser sit placens fratribus suis c. Deut. 33. v. 24. Habitabit Israel confidenter solus c. Deut. 33. v. 28. Beatus es tu Israel Quis similis tui popule qui salvaris in Domino scutum auxilii tui gladius gleriae tuae negabunt te inimici tui tu corum colla calcabis Deut. 33.