whole World an Ocean without shoars without bottom without Haven and without limit I represent unto my self the liquid firmament all-inflamed with his wrath and indignation who intends to alter the whole State of Nature I firmly believe that amidst this storm Thunder upon Thunder and a thousand Claps were heard which served to arm the Heavens the Planets and the Clouds It is probable that the Night and the Winds were mixed together and I cannot doubt but that Hell and Earth did also conspire to increase the horror of so dismall and universall a Punishment Mean while where are you the unhappy Inhabitants of the City of Enos Gyants of what use is your Mass of Body and those vast dimensions which have only serv'd to make you fall from a higher pitch and rendred your ruin more remarkable Poor Heirs of Cain Children of Men Effeminate Spirits wanton Souls where are you The Heavens fall on your Heads the Air stifles you the Water swallows you up and the Earth vanisheth away Fathers Mothers Children Husbands and VVives Brothers and Sisters Kindred Friends where are you and where are your Monsters and Prodigies of Allyance I behold I behold your Towers buryed under the VVaves I hear your cryes your sighs and your voices notwithstanding the Tempest In fine your floating Bodies and your dying Souls acknowledge but too late the Excess of your Sins Ah Sin Sin these are thy Spoyls and this is the Tempest thou hast raised Sin do'st thou discern the State into which thou hast reduc'd the World the Air the Earth and the Heavens Sin do'st thou at lâ—st acknowledge that thou art the Origin of this Disaster and of all these Calamities O God! Factúmque est diluvium quadragenta diebus super terram mul iplicatae sunt aquae chvave unt arcam in subleme à terra Gen. 7. v. 17. Vehementer enim inundaverunt amâ—ia repleverunt in superfiâ—e terrae porrò arca fercbatur super aquas Gen. 7. v. 18. Et aquae praevaluerunt nimis super terram opertique sunt omnes montes excelsi sub universo Caelo Gen. 7. v. 19. Is it possible that those Fires and Thunders were to punish Sin Is it possible that so many Streams so many Rivers and so many Seas are needfull to Efface his Image Must all the Elements weep forty Dayes and as many Nights And in fine must all Nature be in Mourning or rather in Triumph Since every where she erects Trophies and Mountains of Water to swallow up the most shamefull and most Insolent of all Vices I mean that which a Chast and Christian Mouth dares scarcely Name During this Triumph and Mourning Noah stears his Vessell his Family and Troops upon the Billows This holy man enjoyes a Calm and sayles securely over these Storms and Billows He beholds the Day in the midst of Might And the Tempest which sinks the whole world even as low as Hell lifteth him up even as high as the Heavens Range then O Noah Range upon the waters of the Deluge and expect the day and moments when God shall land thee in the Haven And thou O Ark that carryest the world and its Spoyls behold how the Sea makes a halt at thy approach and keeps back its Suspended waves as it were out of complacency and an orderly respect Holy house of God Fortunate Sanctuary of all mankind float on without oares or sayles float on for it is the Spirit of God and the hand of the justest of men which directs and guides thee In effect scarce were the Forty dayes expired Recordatus autem Dâ—us Noë cunctorumque animantium omnium jumentorum quae crant cum co in area adduxit spiritum super terram imminutae sunt aquae Gen. 8. v. 1. Et clausi sunt sontes abyssi et caâ—aroctae caeli et probibitae sunt pluviae decaelo Gen. 8. v. 2. Reversaeque sunt aquae de terra euâ—â—es redeuntes caeperunt minui Gen 8. v. 3. Requieviâ—que aâ—ca mense scptimo vigesimo septimo die mensis supermontes Armeniae Geâ— 8. v. 4. At vero aquae ibant decrescebant usque ad decimum mensem Decimo enim mense aparuerunt cacumina montium Gen. 8. v. 5. Cumque transissent quadraginta dies aperiens Neë fenestram arca quam fecerat dimisit corvum Gen. 8. v. 6. Qui egredichatur non revertebatur donec siccarentar â—quae super terram Gen. 8. v. 7. â—â—nisit quâ—que columbam post cumâ—â— videyet si sam cessassent aquae super faciem terrae Gen. 8. v. 8. when in an Instant the Heavens dryed up their sources the air appeared most serene and the great drops of Rain were turned into Pearls and dew as it were to give notice of the return of the Sun and Morning which should begin to spread every where a Calm together with the Day In a word God remembred the hower and Moment which he had promised unto Noah to restrain and stop all his Torrents The Earth at the same time impatient of bearing a burthen which was not naturall to her rose up on all sides and in her emotion forc'd the waters to make a thousand Fluxes and refluxes which sufficiently testified the violence of these two Elements At length after seaven Monthes contest and conflict this wandring Iland which carried Noah and his family landed upon the Mountaines of Armenia expecting till the tenth Moneth when the other Hils shew'd their heads and tops Forty dayes after which this most Holy and wise Pilot who had almost spent a whole year in the pleasing obscurites of his prison still victorious and trumphant resolv'd at last to open its window to give flight and passage to a Crow which indeed went forth but never returned For he entertained himself on Stincking Carkases and Carrion finding there his Nourishment and repose There needed then a purer and more faithfull Messenger Noah chose a Dove a mongst all the Birdes that she might discover whether the waters were quite retired But this innocent Creature and amiable Spye finding no â—resting place clean enough returned presently into the Ark and advertis'd Noah that the waters of the Deluge were not wholely decreased Quae euÌ„ non invenisset ubi requiesceret pes ejus reversa est ad eum in arcam aquae enim erant super universam terram extenditque manum apprehensam intulit in arcam Gen. 8. v. 9. Expectatis autem ultra septem diebus aliis ruâ—sum dimisit columbam ex arca Gen. 8. v. 10. At illa venit ad eum ad vesperam portans ramum olivae virentibus foliis in ore suo Intellexit ergo Noë quod cessassent aquae super terram Gen. 8. v. 11. Expectavitque nihilominus septem alios dies emisit columham quae non est reversa ultra ad eum Gen. 8. v. 12. It was this newes that obliged Noah to expect yet the space of Seaven dayes after which he took the Dove
the one before the bad qualities which appeared in the other and so her fraud was more full of mystery than malice Her Artifices then were innocent and her intentions very just and holy when she disguised Jacob to deceive Isaack and frustrate Esau of the blessing he expected Goe then my Son saith she and make choice amongst our flocks of the two fattest Kids you shall find I will so dress them that I will make them serve for your Fathers repast to the end having fed on them he may bless you before his death But what replyed Jacob Mother you know that my Body is not Hairy like my Brothers I am fearfull then lest my Father touch me and believing I intend to mock him lay on me his malediction Can we wish more Respect Candor and Piety in a Son towards his Father Surely this did not agree with the comportments and bad humours of so many Children who daily sell their Fathers and Mothers for some slight interests The World is full of Sons Daughters Kindred and such brutish persons who treat the Authors of their Life as their Servants and Handmaids A dangerous Malediction But doe they well understand that the lightnings and thunderbolts which are formed in the Ayr cause less dangerous spoils than the furious Darts which issue out of the Mouth of an Incensed Father Doe they know that Fathers and Mothers are impowred to thunder out the tempests of their Malediction and that they have as many or more killing shafts than Death to punish the Insolence and presumption of their Children Jacob would never have been so adventurous as to undertake an action which might irritate the goodness of Isaack if Rebecca had not relieved him in his fear and if she had not made appear to him that her Wiles were very just Ad quem mater in me sit ait ista maledictio fili mi tantum audi vocern meam pergens asser quae dixi Gen. 27. v. 13. and her design most Innocent Ah! saith she my Son leave unto me this fear I will preserve thee from this danger thou apprehendest and if any ill chance to happen I wish it may fall on me doe then boldly what I shall say unto thee She presently apparelled him in Esau's Garments Et vestibus Esau valde bonis quos apud se habebat domi induit eum Gen. 27. v 15. Dedâ—que pulmentum panes quos coxerat tradidit Gen. 27. v. 17. Quibus illatis dixit pater mi at ille respondit audio quis es tu fili mi Gen. 27. v. 18. Dixitque Jacob Ego sum primogenitus tuus Esau feci sicut praecepisti mihi surge sede comede de venatione mea ut benedicat mibi anima tua Gen. 27. v. 19. Rarsumque Isaac ad filium suum quomodo inquit tam cito invenire potuisti fili mi qui respondit voluntas Dei suit c. Gen. 27. v. 20. Dixitque Isaac Accede huc ut tangam te fili mi c. Gen. 27. v. 21. Accessit ad patrem palpato eo dixit Isaac vox quidem vox Jacob est sed manus sunt Esau Gen 27. v. 22. Et non cognovit eum quia pilosae manus similitudinem majoris expresserant benedicens ergo illi ait Ecce odor filii mâ—â— sicut odor agri pleni cui benedixit Dominus Gen. 27. v. 27. covered his Neck and Hands with Skins which had some resemblance of his Brothers and gave him such Bread and Meat as she knew would be pleasing to Isaacks tast Jacob presents them unto his Father who hearing his voice asked if he were Esau he answered that he was his Eldest Son and that having exactly performed all his commands he besought him to eat of the Venison he had prepared for him But what said Isaack to him how couldst thou take and provide it in so short a time Jacob answers it is God who hath so dispos'd it and made it as it were fall into my Hands If it be so approach my Son and give me thy Hands that I may touch them and feel whether thou art my Son Esau or not Jacob obeyed and after Isaack had touched him he saith unto him surely this is the voice of Jacob I hear but if I be not deceived these are the Hands and Hair of Esau I feel Notwithstanding this doubt Isaack gave his benediction to Jacob and made good cheer of all he had presented to him Imagin whether Rebecca stood not watching to observe all that passed I represent unto my self that she incourag'd Jacob with Gestures and Signs which made up a good part of this action The time must needs seem long unto her out of the fear she might have lest Esau should come in and disturb the course of Divine providence and the conduct of her prudent designs Make haste then Isaack and doe quickly what God inspires thee thy Bed is the Altar on which God will have Jacob consecrated and it is the Table of a mysterious repast and the Theater of the prudence and dexterities of Love It was then neither Rebecca nor Jacob that guided this enterprise But God who from all eternity had chosen Jacob for his Eldest Son It is a great advantage when those favours which arrive to us are presents from Heaven and an illustrious Prerogative when our fortunes are established by the decrees of God These are adorable decrees and mysterious obscurities dazeling clarities and dark verities which must be penetrated to discover that light which is inveloped under the secrets of the Divinity Isaack is blind Rebeca sees but the shadows of a mysterie which was reveal'd to her Jacob is in doubt whether what he doth will come to pass Esau runs and beats the Bushes whilst an other takes the Prey It is God nevertheless who instructs Rebecca who inspires Isaack and directs Jacob. Behold also how all succeds agreeable to his own desires and those of his Mothers Approach my son saith Isaack Dixit ad eum accede ad me da mihi osculum fili Gen. 27. v. 26. Accessit osculatus est eum Gen. 27. v. 27. Statimque ut sensit vestimentorum illius fragrantiam benedicens illi ait ecce odor filii mei sicut odor agripteni cui benedixit Dominus Gen. 27. v. 27 Det tibi Deus de rore caeli de pinguedine terrae abundantiam frumenti vini Gen. 27. v. 28. Et serviant tibi populi edorent te Tribus esto domiâ—us fratrum tuorum incurventur ante te filii matris tuae qui matedixerit tibi sit ille maledictus qui beâ—â—dixcrit tibi benedictionibus repleatur Gen. 27. v. 29. and bestow a kisse on thy poor father Presently Jacob leaps on his neck embraceth him huggs him and lays his eyes his lipps and mouth on him I know not why the Mother did not cast her self between them both as the knot of so tender and holy an Amity But perchance
27. v. 39. Erit benedictio tua c. Gen. 27. v. 40. and from henceforth his Brethren shall be his Servants It is in vain for Esau to tear his Heart with a thousand sighs it is to no purpose for him to lament and roar like a Lion His sorrows and roarings may well excite some pitty in his Fathers Soul But this poor old Man hath no other thing to give him but some drops of the Dew and at best but some humid and clammy vapours which fatten the Earth For as concerning Heaven that hath already powred forth its favours upon Jacob where note that the benediction which had been given him was very different from that of Esau for Jacob had first received Riches and the abundance of the Goods of the Earth Secondly an Empire over Nations Thirdly a Principality amongst his Brethren And lastly a particular favour which put him intirely under the protection of Heaven whereas Esau as I said received for his share but some Acres of ground fertile indeed but only in the corruptible goods of Corn Rain and Dew whereas Jacob had all sorts of benedictions aswell in Earth as in Heaven These are presents for Worldly and Earthly Men drops of Water Exhalations Vapors and a little smoak Behold the favours of Esau behold the height of his benedictions and the portion of a Younger Brother who is rejected After this let us ask why the most impious persons in the World are sometimes the richest the most happy and the most powerfull or at least in appearance and to the Eyes of Flesh and Bloud Let us inquire whence comes it that Atheists are Crowned with Roses Lillys and Gilly-flowers when Christians walk upon Bryars and Thorns what a shame will it be to see Vice watered with Nectar whilst Vertue is beaten with a storm of Hail My God! Blessings of this World permit me then to expostulate with thee to this purpose if Esau be rejected why dost thou bestow on him some Goods in this World Alas what can be the happiness of this Life A thick Cloud of Rain Lands smoking with Ordures Straw Hey Feathers and Wind whereas the Elect enjoy Peace Hope Love Pleasure God and Paradise for all Eternity But who will assure us that we are in the fortunate List of those predestinated Persons whose Elder Brother Jacob is what Angell will tell us whether we be not lost Children who have Esau for our Captain Ah God! I have bewayled my sins but I fear my tears have not cleansed my Heart I have cast forth cryes sighs and sobs but my doubt is I have not been heard I know not how far my benediction reacheth and whether some-body hath not supplanted me In fine am I Jacob or Esau shall I be saved or condemned Lawfull apprehensions what will befall me after death And for what hath God ordained me even before my birth O Abyss of Gods Judgements O the Gulf of horror and darkness O God what precipice for hope what shadows for faith and what blindnesses for love Surely there would remain nothing for us but a sad despair if we had not learnt of the Wise man Sap. 1.12 13.11.16 God desires our salvation that God for his part wills not the destruction of any but the salvation of all It is then from thee O Esau and from thee O Israel perdition commeth For God Ozâ—e 13. Timoth. 2. as the Apostle saith desires that every one should be saved and adhere unto the knowledge of truth Behold the end of his love of our Creation and of his Incarnation In the second place Sufficient Graces though God bestowes those favours on some which he denies to others and though he hath shewed more of them to Jacob than to Esau yet he imparts unto all sufficient grace for salvation as Saint James affirmeth And truly how can he refuse Graces unto those for whom he hath given his Blood and why should he not afford assistance unto Man for whom he hath given up his life and all his Interests In fine no person either ought or can despair Foresight of merits For God hath predestinated the good with foresight of their merits he hath reprobated the wicked by the prescience of their sins Let us hope then my Soul let us hope in God Well grounded hopes who is good and would save us It is enough for us to have him for our Father and that he hath given us his Son for our Brâ—â—â—er It is sufficient that our Election depends on his Grace since he gives it us with all sufficiencie O God! what assurance what pledge and what caution A Son towards a Father a God of God and who issueth not out of God but to pacifie our troubles and mediate our salvation Ah! who will not hope having a Jesus for his Saviour whose pretious blood runs not but to fill hearts and to swell the courage with hope of Paradise Fair motives of Conscience What haven may we not attain when we are guided by a God and swim upon his tears upon his sweat and blood Woe then unto those who will not make use of these advantages and woe unto such as shall despair of salvation My God I hope to be one of those who shall behold thee face to face in Heaven it is the hope in which I will live and die I desire that it may live even in my Sepulchre flourish even in my Ashes and afterwards take its flight on the eternall hills and on the mountains of Sion My God! it is of thy goodness I hope for this grace it is by the merits of thy Son and his intercession Eternall Father be thou my Judge Jesus be thou my Advocate and refuge This being so the tragick Judgement of the unhappy lot of Esau doth not affright me This poor unfortunate had a Father who was blind a Mother who was averse and a brother who supplanted him And we have a Father who sees all a Mother who wishes us all sorts of blessings and a Brother who dyes willingly to give us life My God Almost happy abandonment I resign then my lot into thy hands and I expect my fortune from thy disposure I expect my God thy benediction give it me then for thy Sons sake give it me O my amiable Jesus and put me in the rank of those Elect of whom thou art King that I may be under thy Empire for all Eternity CHAP. V. Jacobs Ladder IT was vanity doubtless which ingraved this stately Elegy upon the Sepulchre of Phericides the Syrian A stately Epitaph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Laert. Here lyes Wisedome in its highest perfection For to say truly this Inscription cannot be set but upon the Throne of God in whose sight the wisedome of men is but folly Wisedome is not then to be found in a Tomb in the depth of the Earth nor in the Abysses of the Ocean nor in the vacuum of the Ayr but above the Clouds
are to fall on thy Self and thy Posterity I was heretofore thy Father now I am thy Judge I treated thee as my Son and at present I cannot look uppon thee but as a Slave and Fugitive And my Spirit that chast Dove and that sacred Phoenix which lives and breathes onely by Love must transform it's self into a cruell Vulture to tear thy heart Adam what answerest thou Alas hast thou no pittie on thy Self and all thy Children But doest thou not happily lay the blame upon thy Wife who hath so cruely deceived thee Womam doest thou see the periods and progresse of thy sin Doest thou discern the offence thou hast committed and the effect of thy Levity Doest thou hear thy Husband who accuses thee And on whom wilt thou dischardge thy self It is a strange thing that Sinners instead of sobbs and tears Blind Sinners to wash away the staines which their Souls have Contracted still seek out new precipices into which they feel themselves as it were carried by their own Blindness Adam layes the fault on his Wife Dixitque Adam mulier quam dedisti mihi sociam dedit mihi de ligno comedi Gen. 3. v. 12. Et dixit Dominus Deus ad mulierem quare hoc fecisti quae respondit serpens decepit me et comedi Gen. 3. v. 13. August lib. 11. ad lit c. 3. Gregor lib. Mor. c. 23. v. 16. the Woman accuseth the Serpent and instead of accusing themselves to sweeten the Indignation of the Judge they make excuses to inkindle his Wrath and to render themselves unworthy of Pardon Ah! how far more prudently had both of them done cryed out St. Austin if with bended Knees on the ground with tears in their Eyes with sighes from their Hearts and confession from their Mouthes they had said unto God Lord take pitty on us and upon all our poor Children It was for this saith St. Gregory God called them and his voice as it were sollicited them to humble them by the amorous accents of his paternall Clemency But alas they are wholy insensible they cannot acknowledge their offence wherefore no Clemency no Pardon Go then Serpent accursed of God Et ait Dominus Deus ad serpentem quia fecisti hoc Meledictus es inâ—er omnia Animaliâ— et bestias terrae super pectus tuum gradteris et terram comedes cunctâ—s dicbus vitae tuae Gen. 3. v. 14. â—â—imicitias penam inter te et mulierem et semen tuum et semen illius ipsa conteret caput tuum et tu insidiaberis calcaneo ejâ—s Gen. 3. v. 15. go creep upon the Earth and with Shame trayl thy bodie and thy Scales byting the Earth with thy Teeth It is thou that hast unhappily seduced the first of Woman-kind and therefore War shal be eternally inkindled between Thee and the Woman There shal be immortall hatreds between the Children of Women and all Serpents The Woman shall crush Thee under her feet and Thou shalt set snares for her wheting thy Tongue and thy poysonous shafts to dart them at her by meanes of thy Little and scarce discerned pathes As for thee O Woman Mulieri â—uoque dixit mutiplicabo erumaas tuas et conceptus tuos in dolore paries filios et sub viri potestate eris et ipse dominahitur tibi Gen. 3. v. 16. who wert the Origin and source of Evill know that thy miseries shall dayly find deplorable increases Moreover thou shalt conceive with pain and shalt not bring forth thy fruit but amidest the throws of a painfull Labour In fine thou shall be under the Command of Man And he shall be not onely thy Master but sometimes thy Tyrant As for thee O Man remove far from this sacred aboad Adae vero dixit quia audisti vocem uxoris tuae et comedisti de ligno ex quo praeceperam tibi ne comederes maledicta terra in opere tuo in laboribus commedes ex ea cunctis diebus vitae tuae Gen. 3. v. 17. Spinos tribulos germinabit tini et comedes herbam terrae Gen 3. v. 18. go seek thy Bread at the price of thy Sweat and blood go follow the Plow and Cart to be the Companion of Beasts and to Cultivate the Earth which thy pride hath swollen up with windes and covered with Thorns Brambles and Bryers Go whether thou pleasest but know that thy life shall be but a large course of misfortunes and a disastrous list where thou must continually wrastle with all Creatures and be the fatall Mark of all sortes of accidents and mis-haps which in fine will give thee no repose till thou shalt return into the Bosome of the Earth In sudore vultus tui vesceris pane donec revertaris in terram de qua sumptus es Gen. 3. v. 19. because thou art but Earth Ashes and Dust and untill thou shalt be there consum'd and reduced unto the self same thing of which thy Body is formed Behold thy Lillyes Ejecitque Adam et collocavit ante Paradisum voluptatis Cherubin et stammeum gladium atque versatilem ad costodiendam vâ—am ligni vitae Gen. 3. v. 24. thy Roses and the harvest of thy Posterity Scarce were these destroying Thunder-bolts darted upon the head of Adam and Eve and consequently on all mankind but an Angel invironed with fire and Flames seized on the gate of Paradise and shut it for ever against these miserable and Exiled persons Alas why would not the Earth have rather swallowed them up and why would not that beautifull garden which had bin the Throne of their Innocence become at least the Sepulcher of their Sin What! was it necessary that the fower great Rivers which flowed out of the Terrestriall Paradise to water the Earth should serve to transport from East to West A dolesfull inheritance and from North to South the memory of this disaster and the shamefull portions of so sad an inheritance But what I hear some Pelagian who laughes and gently whispers in mine Ear that I relate fables and Romances I likewise feel my heart demanding of me how and for what reason it came to passe that the sin of our first Parents should become Hereditarie and that it should be as it were transmitted from branch to branch and from father to son by veines and Chanels of blood Aug. lib. 1. Reb. cap. 9. et al bi which nature hath cut and broken in every Individuall person Pelagians I send you back to your Master and to the school of that incomparable Doctor who hath so often shewn you the truth To thee my heart I will make answer or rather for solution of thy doubts ask of thee whence doth it arise Very clear compansoâ—s that the birds of the day inherit from their Fathers and Mothers certain Horrors which make them fly at the least noat of the birds of Night Whence comes it that the skins of Sheep though dead break in peeces at the
being able to strangle them nor put a Halter about their Necks or a Poniard into their Bosoms casts every where the Darts of its Tongue and sends forth words a thousand times more cruell and pernicious than the murthering Knife which Cain plunged into the throat and Heart of Abell CHAP. VIII Remedies against Envie BUt what will any remedy serve for all these Franticks and all these Cyclops whose Hearts are ever-flaming Furnaces and where Jealousy continually forgeth Chains and Irons O God! O Heaven O Laws Justice Sanctity Soveraign Powers of the World Physicians to our Maladies Arbitrators of our lives It is you whose sweetly rigorous hands can both ordain remedy and give health It is you then I implore and of whom I crave assistance It is you Fathers and Mothers who in your Houses ought to be Judges of all the differences which arise between your Sons and Daughters and first of all you ought to know the naturall disposition of your Children to the end that if some Cain be found amongst them you may timely suppress him Spare then neither Fire nor Steel Hunger nor Thirst Disdains nor Rebukes seek out even Domestique Prisons It is much better for them to feel the Essayes of your Paternall rigours than to fall afterwards into the blind hands of Justice And it is far more gentle that you your selves upon the first Symptoms of Evill should take the pains to apply a Costick to them or give them a stroak with your Lancet than after too much remisness to see them take a sharp Razer cutting in pieces the Heart and all the Members of your other Children Doe not say that he is beautifull he is tender he is the Eldest or Youngest Son for after all though he be your Son the rest are likewise yours and you cannot be a Father if you are not a Judge common to them all As for those visible Angels which God hath placed in Sacred Mansions like the Cherubin of the Terrestriall Paradise there to Watch and Govern It is enough for them to know where the Evill is that they forthwith apply some Remedy I pass then farther and speaking both in generall and in particular to all the Heirs of Cain and to all those whom a Bloudy Jealousy armeth against their Brethren or against their Sisters I conjure them frequently to meditate on this verity that the mischief they doe unto others can afford them no benefit and that when they raise designs and Trophies on the Ruin of others they are but Crowns of Straw and Feathers where instead of finding Mountains and Elevations they meet with Precipices and Abysses in which they will destroy themselves In fine what delights and contentments can an envious Person have whose Eyes are destroy'd by the purest lights and to whom Acclamations and Songs of Victory are distastfull and whose Heart Swims alwaies in bitterness and poyson What Pain What Torment And what punishment to resemble a Man accurs'd of God! to walk as a fugitive and banish'd person upon Thorns and Bryers what peace can one have who makes War against God his Friends and himself and when both Night and Day he is seen amongst his Brothers Ghosts amongst Spectres and Fantasmes amongst the Stings and Remorces of a guilty Conscience what hope of good when one is assured that after the having passed away some Months some Days or rather some Years in the City of Enoch and amidst some slight Clarities of the East he shall goe end his life in a Bed leave his Body in a Sepulcher and lose all the pleasures all the Blessings and all the lights of his Soul in the shades of Night and of the setting Sun where no Day shall be seen but amidst the Lightnings Flames and Thunders of a God provok'd to an holy indignation CHAP. IX The Building of the Ark and the Deluge ITt is a Maxim amongst Philosophers that Beauty is to Love what the Soul is to the Body and it is she saith St. Denys that gives wings to the inconstant subtil and penetrating Bird which passeth by the Eyes Ears and Mouth to advance directly to the Heart to make like an other Phaenix a Pyle upon the flames and fires of our desires and wils It was perhaps for this cause Socrates called the Beauty which spreads its attractives on the Body An amorous Tyranny by reason this imperious Step-dame is accustomed to captivate all those that abide under the Empire of her Looks Plato in his Timeus had almost the very same conceptions as Socrates when he said That the Colours and Lustre which give light unto the shade and revive the Body and Face have a flame which flows insensibly from matter and form to infire the Souls of all Spectators Elianus lib. 22. It was this mixture saith Elianus of Charms and Splendors issuing out of the Eyes and Mouth of a Maid beautifull as the day The power of beauty which so much surprised a certain Knight called Dioxipus that although he had gained famous victories in the Olympick games and was in the midst of Glory and Triumph loaden with the Palms and Lawrels he had so often watered with his sweat and bloud he was yet constraind to make a stand in the presence of all the people acknowledging his own weakness and confessing that the beauty of a Lady had vanquished him whom the strength of Man was never able to overcome I adde to these thoughts Dulcem illecebram carum venenum Greg. Naz. Orat. 13. that of St. Gregory Nazianzen who hath tearms and words no less eloquent than true to express that the beauty of the Body is a deceiptfull allurement and a most pleasing poyson which passeth from one Sex to another and conveys it self so far into the veins that afterwards it cannot be drawn forth but with Death These are verities which have bin proved from the cradle of the World by Examples and accidents which have caused too Tragick and Publick Ruins to be called in question Cumque cepissent homines multiplicare super tecram filias procreassent Gen. 6. v. 1. Amongst others the first and most exemplar was the Deluge which happened unto the World one thousand six hundred and fifty six years or near upon after the Creation by reason the Inhabitants of the City of Enos and the Children of Adam being multiplyed by strange increases and in respect their bodies being fortified and become like so many Collossusses of impiety these Lascivious Gyants went every where like impetuous Torrents Videntes filii Dei filias hominum quod essent pulcrae acceperunt sibi uxores ex omnibvs quas elegerant Gen. 6. v. 2. which nothing could stop but a brutish beauty upon which they entertained their Eyes and loves with an execrable Liberty I have a horror to relate it but it is true that the World was then but an Infamous retreat where all Sexes without Order Law or respect breaking all the Lines and Degrees of Bloud and Alliances were
Brightness of Heaven cannot be seen amidst the Shades and Smoak of thy Country But what must poor Abraham leave himself O my God! why dost thou oblige him to forsake his beloved Chaldea and why wouldst thou have him separate himself from his Kindred and Friends He is in a flourishing City and thou perchance wilt lead him into some solitary place or desart He lives in Glory and Honour and possibly thou intendest to reduce him into a state of Scorn and Contempt He wants nothing at Home and it may come to pass that every thing will fayl him amongst Strangers These motives are too weak to break the Desires and Designs of a Soul which God courteth It is a delicious thing to leave the streams for their source and to forsake our selves to give our selves unto our Maker The World and Chaldea are but a poynt in comparison of the Firmament and all the Elements in respect of the Impyreall Heavens are but a heap of vapours and a Globe of exhalations To this I adde that the most peopled Cities and Provinces are frightfull Dens liveless Bodies and most solitary Desarts if God be not there and on the contrary the most dreadfull Solitudes and least inhabited Grots become Courts and Palaces as soon as God and his Spirit reside therein Finally all Reposes are Disquiet all Peace is but War all Honours are Contempts Parents are Traitors Brothers Envious Friends Deceivers Houses and Beds Sepulchers and Life is but a Death or at best but a long and dolorous sickness unless God be the Loadstone of our Hearts the highest pitch of our Glory and the Center of all our affections for he shall then be our Father our Brother and our Friend and in his bosome we shall find our Countrey Parents pleasures and delights without bitterness and without any mixture of those passions which are still arm'd to besiege our Hearts Abraham understood all these verities from the very morning of his vocation and at the first overture of the favours which God imparted to him he took a Staff in his Hand and became a Pilgrim in the World sufficiently discovering that the life of Man is but a Pilgrimage and that a Man shall first or last reach the Port. It was nevertheless hard for him as I believe to take his Wife for a Companion in his voyages to adopt his Nephew for his Son and to bring away all his Goods and Baggage before his Kindred could have notice of it Then God knowes what Noise what Tumult what Astonishment in the whole Family and amongst his Allyes God knowes whether Friends appear'd troublesome and whether the most indifferent strove in this case to expresse their passion Let every one represent unto himself what may befall him and what is wont to surprise all those that depart out their Country and are oblig'd to forsake their Friends They imagin that even Iron stones trees and beasts look upon them with the Eyes of Compassion and that what ever hath least of animation assumes Voices and Tongues to testify their regret and bid them adieu A poor Soul hath then very sensible convulsions and amidst so violent and sweet assaults it is almost impossible to remain a Conquerour It is in vain to advertise him that it is God who speaks unto him that it is an Inspiration from Heaven which presseth him and that they are the Graces of Paradise which will triumph over Nature and Hell Notwithstanding these thoughts and inspirations the Sun doth not rise but to present unto him a thousand Portraictures of those whom he hath left behind The Moon and Starrs shew him by Night and in sleep nothing but the Images of those whom he hath abandoned and he awakes a Thousand times with sighes from his Heart and teares in his Eyes to imbrace the Shadows and Phantasmes of his dearest Friends This is that at last which makes him often renounce his good purposes and take truthes for Illusious and Darkness for rayes of light Alas what Shame and Cowardise This poor man is not gone a Musket-shot from the City and scarce hath lost the sight of his steeple but he presently reassumes his former wayes and returns with an intent to build his Tower or rather his Tomb on his Chimney's Harth Abraham was far more couragious and the rayes which God darted into his heart made not onely more lively but more constant Impressions therein For immediatly he begins his journey he goes on without prefixing any Limit to himself he obeyes a single voice and followes a guide who having once spoken disappeares Let any one stay him that will his heart ceaseth not continually to fly his spirit sees an object which is invisible and leaving what he hath he is assur'd to find what is promised him Is not this a strange resolution and will not these generosities be thought too blind in a worldly mind No truely these thoughts will never fall into a Soul which knows the force and power of a vocation wholy divine such as was that of this incomparable Man Faciam te in gentem magnam benedicam tibi magnificabo nomen tuum eriâ—que benedictus Gen. 12. v. 2. chosen to be the father of Nations and in whose person God blessed all people and generations Well then are not the first effects of this vocation great Prodigyes It is peradventure for this reason Gregory Nazianzen tearms the vocation of holy Souls a grace S. Greg. Naz. orat 3. ac orat 20 orat 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zozomenus lib. 2. c. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which hath nothing Common in Nature and this is that which induced Zozemenus to call it a Convicing Revelation and whose lightning is like a Thunder-bolt which carries away all that stands before it Whatever it be the vocation of Abraham was a stroak from Heaven and one of the fairest conquests God hath ever made over hearts March then Abraham Carry with thee that happy Sara who makes up the moity of thy self and till God shall please to give thee Children let Lot be the Son and be thou a Father to him Farwell then for ever dear Land of Chaldea And you Lot Abraham and Sara goe joyfully unto Canaan They are already gon Pertransivit Abraham terram usque ad locum Sichem usque ad vallem illustrem Gen. 12. v. 6. and I see them departing out of the Territories of Sichem to advance directly unto the plaines of Moreth It was in this famous plain and in this delightfull vally which divides the Mountaines of Gelboa from that of Hermon Borcardus 1. Paral. c. 7. Aparuit autem Dominus Abram dixit ei semini tuo dabo terram hanc Gen. 12. v. 7 where the more languishing and lesse rapid waves of Jordan are seen There God a second time appeared to Abraham and there also he gave him both the promise and possession of the land of Canaan for himself and his posterity Admirable magnificence Is
Ait illi tolle filtum tuum unigenitum queÌ„ diligis Isaac vade in terram visionis atque ibi offeres cum in Holocaustum super unum montium quem monstravero tibi Gen. 22. v. 2. this only Son and this Amiable Child on whom you fix all your hopes and all your most solid contentments Abraham it is time to restore unto me the depositum I gave you he is mine I lent him to you but now demand him back and I command you to immolate him unto me take him then without further delay and from this instant goe whither I shall conduct you Is it not unto God alone the absolute power of command belongeth and is it not the duty of Abraham to be silent and to perform without reply what God commands But what I beseech you would a passionat Father say upon this occasion would he not have some ground to say if he had the same cause as Abraham Alas Lord The Speech of a passionat Father who speaks for Abraham where are the advantagious promises thou hast so often made me Hast thou lost the remembrance of Abraham Sara and Isaack Dost thou not take me for some other or at least if thou lookest upon me as a Father why dost thou enjoyn me to perform so rigorous an office I hambly beseech thee my God Semel beâ—tus es Deus Psal not to forget thy words and thy own self remember that thy Mouth is as unchangeable as thy Heart and that it is an injury unto the immutability of thy Essence to alter the least of thy Decrees How can we then believe that the Sacrifice of humane Bodies are detestable in thy sight if thou dost command them whither will Innocency goe to seek life if thou Judgest an Innocent to death what incouragement shall we have to serve thee if thou thus treatest thy Servants what attractives will creatures have to love thee if Massacres be the pleages of thy Love for my part I am afraid lest the strongest spirits may revolt and that the weak be scandalized at the instability of thy oaths thou hast swern by thy self that my Isaack should be a spring of Grace and behold how thou dryest it up even when it is upon the point of becomming an Ocean of Benedicities My God! what shall I say unto my Son when he shall intreat me to tell him the cause of his death How shall I tye his hunds when he shall imbrace me and if I have the Heart of a Father to love him how can I have armes to kill him Ah! surely no Man shall ever perswade me that a God who is the anther of Nature will command me a streak which appears to me so unnaturall and should I assent Sara would even snatch the weapon out of my hand she would rather offer her self to serve as a Victim than give way to the Sacrifice of her Son Let us then no longer think of it O my God my Eyes would be dimmed with tears at the sight of my Ifaack my Heart would burst into a thousand pieces at the lest dart of his affection and my Hands could never be cleared of this stain if I had once sullied them in the bloud of my Son My God permit me rather to Sacrifise unto thee the Remnant of my old age and receive rather this Soul which I have upon my Lips and which is but too weary of the World But as for Isaack suffer a flower to grow which thou hast planted with thine own hand and according to thy promises water it with thy Benedictions What! An Abraham to Massacre an Isaack A Father the most Cordiall and the most affectionate of the World to kill the most amiable and the most accomplished Son that hath ever been A Father who for the space of a hundred years hath expected a Son to lose him in a moment The preparation for his Mariage was already in my thoughts and they shew me an Altar a Pile and a Sepulcher for his Nuptiall Bed What rigour more inhumane what Laws more barbarous And what command more cruell can we figure to our selves My God pardon me it is visible to me that I have erred but grief even extorts these Blasphemies and my Tongue betrayes my Heart I will speak then from benceforth with more respect Give me I beseech thee the Eyes of a Tyger the Teeth of a Wolf and the Soul of a Lion if thou wilt have me devour this Lamb blind me lest I behold this Fore-head this Face and these Eyes on which my Love hath ingraven his Picture Lord I acknowledge my fault for having so often begged him of thee my vows have been over-violent my desires too importune and I still feel an over-ardent fire in my Bosom cast then into it a Deluge of Wormwood to stiflle such sweet ardors However if thou dost command me to be the Executioner of thy severest Judgements and if thou absolutely desirest I should strike off my Isaacks head and that I should bury him in the fire I beseech thee instead of a Sword put a Thunderbolt into my Hands to the end at the same instant I shall give him the stroak of death I may soe him invironed with the flames of thy severest Justice Without doubt this would be the discourse of a Father whose Soul should be agitated with various passions and the most part of these resentments are more proper for a Man whose Eyes Nature Bloud the World and Infidelity had snut against the purest lights of Heaven than for Abraham who never followed other Torch than that of Divine Providence Never then were such Sacrilegious Complaints and shamefull murmurs heard to issue forth of his Mouth as daily proceed from Fathers and Mothers who have nothing but worldly respects and no other care but to erect upon the Cradle of their Children all the Trophies of their desires and hopes Abraham wils but what God wils The resignation of Abraham and instead of following the Motives of Reason and humane discourses he abandons himself into the arms of a perfect Obedience and of that Faith which shewed him Life even in the Bosom of Death He was ready to immolate Isaack and the Love he had for his God made him wish to himself a Destiny like that of his Son This Man saith Origen was not astonished at the voice of so harsh a Command he refused nothing and took Counsell of no living Soul resting content to obey his God This Just Patriarch saith St. Zenon preferred the Love of the Creator before that of the Creature And albeit a naturall resentment tore his very Bowels and Heart yet at the same time his Soul did Swim in the delights of a passion which hath nothing in it but Supernaturall so that two Loves offered two Sacrifices the one Immolated the Father the other Sacrifised the Son O Love The Empire of Love Love delicious Tyrant adorable Conqueror Independent Monarch how powerfull are thy Darts when God casts
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
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
this favour by this Sign I shall presently believe that it is doubtless she whom thy holy Providence hath appointed for Isaacks Spouse Scarce had Eliezer ended this Coloquie when a Maid called Rebecca appeared fair and chast as the Day who carryed under her Arm and Earthen Pitcher to take up Water Eliezer presented himself humbly beseeching her to afford him some drink to which Rebecca presently assented performing all that Curtesie and Charitie required The holy Scripture observes that Eliezer very seriously contemplated all the actions of Rebecca as being a Myrrour in which he was to discern the marks of Gods conduct concerning Abraham and Isaack In fine Pollquam autem biberunt Cameli protulit vir inaures aureas appendentes ciclos duos armill as toticem poudo ciclorum decem Gen. 24. v. 22. Dixitque ad eam cujus es filia indica miht est in domo Patris tui locus ad manendum Gen. 24. v. 23. Cueurrit itaque puella nunttavit in domum matris suae omnia quae audierat Gen. 24. v. 28. Habebat autem Rebecca fratrem nomine Laban qui festinus egressus est ad hominem ubi erat sons Gen. 24. v 29. Et intreduxit eum in hospititem c. Gen. 24. v. 32. this prudent Man chose a fit time to present unto Rebecca some Eare-rings and Bracelets Afterwards he informed himself of the conveniences which were in the House of this Maids Parents who spake unto him Being then well instructed concerning the alliances of Rebecca and what was in her House seeing also that all corresponded with his desires he threw himself on the ground to render thanks unto his God and to adore his ineffable goodness toward Abraham Mean while Rebecca hastens to her Parents to bring them the first news of what had passed whereof her Brother whose name was Laban having taken notice he went presently unto the Well from whence Rebecca came Finding Eliezer he most affectionatly intreated him to visit his Fathers House and having conducted him thither he immediatly gave Hay and Straw to his Camels afterwards he washed his Feet as also the Feet of those who came with him Then Eliezer took occasion to publish the Commission which had been given him and the artifices he had used to bring them to a Head and to understand whether it were the will of God that Rebecca should be Isaacks Wife Eliezer could not doubt it and Rebecca but too much testified by her silence that her desires consented thereunto Bathuel and Laban were also of this opinion Respondernntque Laban Bathuel à Domino egressus est sermo c. Gen. 24 v. 50. Quod cum audisset puer Abraham c. Gen. 24. v. 52. Prolatisque vasis argenteis c. Igitur Rebecca puellae illius asconsis Camelis c. Gen. 24. v. 61. and therefore they were to dispose themselves to the commands of God The promise then of Mariage being given on both sides Eliezer made presents to Rebecca and her Brethren after this there was nothing but Feasts and adieus to the kindred of this new promise briefly some Days must be spent in rendring those duties which Honour and Nature required At last Rebecca took leave of her Mother and Brethren she with Eliezer and his servants got up upon Camels and they advanced with the best diligence they could to arrive at Abrahams House Isaack who was alwaies in expectation Eo tempore deambulavit Isaac c. Gen. 24. v. 62. Cumque elevasset oculos vidit Camelos Gen. 24. v. 63. Rebecca quoque conspecto Isaac descendit de Camelo Gen. 24. v. 64. Servus autem cuncta quae gesserat narravit Isaac Gen. 14. v. 66. Qui introduxit eam in tabernaculum Sarae matru suae c. Gen. 24. v. 67. Abraham verò aliam duxit uxorem nomine Ceturam Gen. 25. first received the news of Rebecca's arrivall I leave to your thoughts what Joy what kisses and what embraces However it were Rebecca is brought into the same apartment which Sara had while she lived and immediatly the Mariage of Isaack with Rebecca was accomplished according to the Ordinances of Heaven and the desires of Abraham who after this Mariage took a Wife called Ketura by whom he had six Children who served to carry their Fathers Name and Bloud through numerous Generations Moreover amongst all their Children Isaack is the Master of the House and Heir to all the possessions of Abraham I leave men to think as they please in what Ocean of delights Abrahams Heart did Swim Deditque Abraham cuncta quae possederat Isaac Gen. 25. v. 6. seeing all the Graces wherewith God had filled him I am astonished why he dyed not a thousand times for Joy at the sight of Isaack and his dear Wife who had no affections but for God for him and for the generall good of his family But Abraham must render unto nature the ordinary tribute due unto her Et deficiens mortuus est in senectute bona provect aeque aetatis plenus dierum Gen. 25 v. 8. Sepâ—lierurt eum Isaac Ismael filiiâ—fui Gen. 25. v. 9. This happy old Man this Father of all the faithfull this King of Nations this incomparable Patriark having lived like a Pilgrim upon Earth was obliged at last to arrive at the Haven and to dye in the arms of Isaack and Ismael who buried him in the same place where his Wife was interred End of the second Book THE HOLY HISTORIE FIRST TOME JACOB and ESAU THIRD BOOK CHAP. I. Their Birth THere are many Causes Fernelius Path. lib. 6.3.17 according to the saying of Physicians which may hinder the fruitfulness of a Woman There needs but an accident and too violent too obstinate and sharp a Malady to corrupt the humors to burn and to dry up all the vitall Spirits and make a cruell havock in the principal parts of the Body where obstructions skirrusses Impostumes and distempers which divert the course of Generation are form'd This is that which rendred the most illustrious Women of the old Testament Barren And Rebecca amongst others was so for the space of nineteen years Theodoretue 74. q. â— Gen. as Theedoret hath well observed but by a particular disposition of the Divine Providence which would manifest unto all men that the multiplication of the Children of Israel was not so much the work of Nature as of Grace This hindred not Isaach from being much astonished seeing Gods promises to him unaccomplished yet his Constancy was not shaken but he appeared alwaies the worthy Son of Abraham These Verbal ejaculations of his Mouth were agreeable to the sentiments of his Soul and he had no other Weapons to assault Heaven and render it favourable and propitious than Prayers and Vows which he incessantly presented unto God in the behalf of his Wife who never ceased on her part to demand the Birth of a Son where it is to be noted with St. Thomas
death What ever happens Jacob shall be vanquisner For Heaven is on his side and the supplanting of Esau shall rather proceed from the Hand of God than that of Jacob. It is not then the office of Jacob to supplant his Brother and to ruin the fortune of his most intimate friends They that contrive such designs are not the Imitators of Jacob but the Disciples of Cain Jacob followed only the Instinct of the Divine Providence Supplanting Brothers and Brothers for the most part regard nothing but humane prudence and blind interests which convey Impiety into their Souls Treasons into their Mouths Venom into their Hearts and Weapons into their Hands to assault bloud and nature and to confound all Humane and Divine Laws But alas what strife what victory what triumph when the Crowns we gain are but Roses staind with Bloud and Laurels which wither in a moment and transform themselves into eternall Thorns It is not for this prize Jacob so ught in his Mothers Womb but he assaults and supplants Esau for the purchase of Immortall Crowns CHAP. II. The Education of Esau and Jacob and the shamefull sale he made of his right of Primogenture SCarce hath the return of the Sun chased away Night and Darkness but the Aurora shews on its Horizon Image of Mans life what the Day would be at high Noon and in its Evening It is an Image of Mans Life who usually at his Birth gives assured marks what he will be even till death he bears on his Forehead and Body saith Pythagoras a Divine Impression which is even against his will the visible Character of his Soul and Disposition In vain is it for him to feign and dissemble his Eyes are living Myrrours in which all the Cogitations of his Heart are discovered the Horoscope as we see by daily experience is formed not only of Men but also of Children and oft times the very Cradles and Swath-bands give out Oracles touching their adventures and destinies We need not be over-much versed in Physiognomy Assured marks of our disposition to foretell what Esau would prove for in his Birth he gave so many evident signs as we cannot be ignorant of his future inclinations Totus in morem pellis hispidus Gen. 25. v. 25. His Body Hairy like a Bear could not be animated but by the soul of a Beast his Eyes his Hair his Skin and all that appears exteriourly was too frightfull and ardent to be the Element of Meekness and Humanity In fine from his very Child-hood all his inclinations seemed so brutish that we cannot wonder if he being in the flower of his age Quibus adultis factus eâ—t Esaii pergnarus venandi homo agricola Gen. 25. v. 27. his most usuall entertainments and most serious exercises were to ramble over the Fields and lead a savage Life which besides the exercises of Tilling the Earth and Hunting which of themselves are commendable gave him but the imployment of a Wolf or a Vulture Jacob on the contrary had onely the qualities of a Dove Jacob autem Vir simplex halitabat in cabernaculis Gen. 25. v. 27. and his Heart had less Gall than a Lamb. He went scarce ever out of the House and shewed so much simplicity sweetness and moderation as but to see him a Man was constrained to Love him Notwithstanding Isaack had more violent inclinations towards his Eldest Son Isaac amabat Esâ—ii to quod de venaniouibus ejus vesceretur and herein Interests were more prevalent than Reason For this Love was onely grounded upon Esau's constant custom in bringing him every Day some piece of Venison The Love of Rebecca Et Rebecca deligehat Jacob. Gen. 25 v. 28. who preferred Jacob before Esau was then more wise and considerable This prudent Woman saith St. Cyril had no passion but for the goodness and virtue which shined in the behaviour of her Son she accorded her Heart to the Words of God and most tenderly Loved him to whom God promised more Favours that is to say as Procopius observes this virtuous Mother framed her Will unto the impulses of Heaven and her inclinations followed the assistance of this Intelligence which is the Dart and stimulation of the purest affections We must grant then that Isaack had thoughts somewhat too humane toward Esau But Rebecca was a good Mother who rendred unto Jacob those duties which his sweet disposition deserved and as soon as he came into the World she had inclinations suitable to the goodness which appeared in him and endeavoured with her Milk to infuse into his manners all that could render him most amiable and accomplished It is also particularly from Mothers as heretofore said one of the seaven Sages of Greece that Good and Evill flows into the Souls of those to whom they give Suck Hence it ariseth that Nurses are sought out with so much care in the Houses of Great Men Advantage of good Education for fear lest by some defect of Nature the Milk become corrupted and converted into poyson This happens but too often and experience teacheth us that Children from the Breast suck their most Malignant inclinations and afterwards as Child-hood which is most susceptible of good and evill is usually spent under the wings of Mothers so we ought not to wonder if they be the sources from whence Spring those humours which are generated with Education Such was the belief of the Romans seeing the Cruclties of their Emperor Caligula Dio Cassius who was Nursed by a Woman who had a Beard like a Man and who had nothing sweet in her but her Milk And on the contrary France acknowledged the blessing of the Sanctity of Lewis the Ninth whom his Mother Blanch had made as it were to suck Virtue with his Milk There are no Palaces no Cortages no Houses in the World where wee shall meet with families and communities without seeing examples and proofs of this verity Moreover we must not imagin that Fathers are therfore more exempt from those Duties which Education requireth Oblation of Fathers and Mothers than Mothers For they can equally cause Vices to flow into the Souls of their Children It will proceed saith St. Parentes sensimus paricidas Cypr. de lapsis Cyprian from Fathers and Mothers that their Children shall complain in the Day of Judgement and cry out upon the Brink of the Abyss that their Parents have been their Murtherers Isaack then would have deserved more commendation if he had had less indulgent affections and less interressed towards Esau But I will believe that if Rebecca should have presumed to reveal the secrets wherewith God had intrusted her by the means of some good Inspirations he would have had like her more affection for the Younger than the Elder Brother However it were the Liberty Isaack gave to Esau of running all the Day long through Woods and Forrests was the occasion which brought him to his first misfortune Coxit
and under the veiles of the Divinity Jacob. c. 3. It comes from heaven as the Apostle St. James affirms and there its Origine and Source is to be found Baruch v. 3. as the Prophet Baruch assureth It issues out of hearts and out of the most intimate secrets of our souls Diodorus as the Sun and light from the obscurest nights and it was peradventure for this reason the Egyptians drew the picture of Osiris the Husband of Isis who presided over Wisdome like a Sun Wisdome like the Sun whose rayes were as so many eyes which penetrated the darkest obscurities In like manner also in the most holy Pictures of the Old Testament Wisdome was represented as a good Mother and as a brave Mistresse which kept an Academy and changed men into Planets full of brightness I know not whether this were not the reason Artemidorus lib. 26. c. 36. as Artemidorus believed which heretofore moved Fathers and Mothers to call their children Suns having no cleerer termes to flatter their wisdome and the excellencie of their wits However it be divine Wisdome is a Sun which is alwaies in his high Noons and at the same instant inlightens the evening and morning that is to say the future and past time as well as the present These wayes though oblique goe alwaies straight and soon or late bring us to the Haven The course of Wisdome It was this wise Conducter which lead Abraham in all his Pilgrimages And it is she at present as the Wiseman himself assures us who taketh her Jacob by the hand and diverts him insensibly from the Abyss into which Esau's despair intended to lead him Haec prosugum irae fratris justum deduxit per vias rectas Sap. c. 10. It was this wisdome saith Solomon which freed an Innocent from the rage and fury of a Brother who contrived his death To this effect it casts some streams of light into Rebeccas soul who presently knew the designs which Esan had on Jacob. Afterwards this prudent woman went to find out Isaack and remonstrated to him that it was not time to marry Jacob but that he must needs permit him to take a wife out of the Land of Chanaan Isaack though blind clearly discerned what his wife pretended Vocavit itaque Isaac jacob benedixit cam praecepique ei dicens Genes 28. v. 1. Vade presiciscere in Meseâ—r tamtam Syriae ad domum Bathâ—â—l patras matris tuae accipe tibi indâ— uxorem de siliabus Laâ—â—an evunculitui Gen. 28. v. 2. And then feeling some touches of this wise hand which managed the whole business he commanded Jacobs presence to give him his blessing and to express unto him his trouble to see him depart out of his house before his death But nevertheless since time pressed him for his Mariage it was most convenient to take the way of Mesopotamia to obtain one of Labans daughters for his wife Goe then my dear Child Deus autem omnipoeens benediâ—a tibi c. Gen. 28. v. 3. Et det lib. benedicâ—â—anes Abrahae semini tuo post te c. Gen. 28.5.4 said this good old man goe and let the God of Abraham be thy guide during thy whole voyage For my part I beseech him to augment on thee the benedictions I have most willingly given thee Above all I beg of him to multiply thy off-spring and to put thee in possession of the Country where thou shalt be as a stranger or Pilgrim Farewell then my most dear Son A sensible Separation farewell all my Joy and all the Love of my house which said he kisseth him he embraces him he waters him with his tears Nevertheless Rebecca to whom all moments were longer than Dayes endevoured speedily to draw him thence that she might put him in the Equipage of a Traveller and give him her farwell lest Esan should disturb the departure and the design of this voyage It was indeed a tryall of constancy for this poor Mother when shee must leave this Son but at last shee had him adieu and brought him on his way after shee had spoken to him some few words which issued lesse from her Mouth than from her Heart I wonder how the Father Mother and Son did not die upon this sad Separation But the Wisedom of God who was as the wheel of all these Motions knew how to moderate the excesse of her grief by the hopes of that good which would arise from thence Neverthelesse to speak truth these combats were very rigorous and there needed an Isaack a Jacob and a Rebecca to accomplish this resolution In fine the wise Providence of God expects Jacob at his resting place and intends by the favour of the Night visibly to discover the manner of his conduct and the model of his government Jacob is gon then from Bershabè and travels all alone under the protection of Heaven Igitur egressus Jacob de Bersabee pergebat Hatam Gen. 28. v. 10. Cumque venisset ad quendam locum vellet in es requiescere post solis occubitum tulit de lapidibus qui jacebant supponens capiti suo dormivit in codem Loco Gen. 28. v. 11. and with this confidence that God would never abandon him But what Behold Night already founding the retreat and shuting up all passages to our Pilgrim He beheld the Sun stealing from his Eyes and the Moon giving no light but to discover to him on the Plains of Bethel a bed of Earth and some stones to serve him for a Bolster Poor Jacob What Bed what Bolster what Night and what Inn Without doubt here is the place where long since God appeared unto Abraham and it is this so famous Bethel where he saw the Land of Promise Besides it is in the Night God discloseth his lights The voice of God in silence it is amidst silence wee hear his voice and in solitude he useth to reveal his secrets Repose then Jacob and spend all the Night in security since God hath ben pleased to Assign you this Lodging O happy retreat O pleasing Night O delicious bed O divine Repose Jacob is faln a sleep Viditque in somnis scalam stantem super terram cacumine illius tangens caelum Anâ—â—lâ—s quoque dei asceadentes per eum Gen. 28. v. 12. Et Donanum innio um scalae Gen. 28. v. 13. Cumque vigilasset Jacob de sumno aiâ— v◠è Domiâ—uâ—â—st in â—oco â—sto non est 〈◊〉 alâ—us nist domus Dâ—i po ta caeli but God who always watcheth shewed him a Prodigious Ladder which touched the Earth with one end and the Heavens with the other Angels by turns descended and ascended this Ladder and on the top God himself appeared as it were supported by it But behold indeed a strange Spectacle upon a Theater of Sanctity I am not astonished if after Jacob had taken his rest he awaked at this vision bearing God in his
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
her considerable by her fruitfulness and by the birth of four Sons Videns autem Dominus quòd despiceret Liam aperuit vulvam ejus Genes 29. v. 31. Quae conceptum genuit silium vocavitque nomen ejus Ruben Gen. 29. v. 31. Rursúmque concepit peperit filium vocavitque nomen ejus Simeon c. Genes 29. v. 23. the first of which was called Ruben the second Simeon the third Levi and the fourth Judas which were the four principall causes of Rachels envying Leah It is the vice of great souls to be touched with envy and the effect of an unworthy melancholy to seek good from anothers mishap It is no wonder then if women for the most part are subject unto these abominable motions but I am astonished at the violence of this passion when it transports men even unto despair Rachel will dye Cernens autem Rachel quâ—d insoecunda essâ—t ci maâ—â—to sua da miht liberos c. Gen. 30. v. 1. Câ—i iâ—aâ—us respondit Jacob Nâ—m pro Deo ego sum c. Gen. 30. v. 3. Ingressâ— ad se viâ—o concepit peperit filium Gen. 30 v. 5. Et idâ—iâ—co apellavit nâ—mâ—n esus Dan. Gen. 30. v. 6. Rursumque Bala concipiens peâ—erit alterum Gen. 30. v. 7. Vocavitque eum Nephthali Gen. 30. v. 8. shee saith if no children be given her What man I beseech you can bestow a favour which God hath reserved to himself was not this then a means to make Jacob dye seeing that his wife asked that which lay not in his power to give her It was requisit neverthelesse that the goodness of God should aleviate the grief of this sad Mother giving unto her handmaid two Sons one of which was called Dan and the other Nepthalim God immediatly after shewed the same favour to the Handmaid of Leah who brought forth Gad and Asser After which Leah her self conceived of Jsachar then of Zebulon and at last of a Daughter called Dina. It was by the means of these generations God began to accomplish the Promise he had made to Abraham Isaack and Jacob And it was out of these first springs issued a thousand and a thousand streams of this blood of Patriarcks which was to overflow the fairest Lands of the Universe Recordatus quoque Dominus Rachelis exatedivit eam aperuit vulvam ejus Gen. 30. v. 22. Quae concepit peperit filium Gen. 30. v. 23. 〈◊〉 vocavit nomen ejus Joseph Gen. 30. v. 24. At that time Jacob saw the time approching during which he had tyed himself to serve his Father-in-Law Laban Rachel neverthelesse was troubled at her barrenness But at length God heard her prayers and made her the Mother of a Son whose birth effaced all the marks of her shame and dishonor This Joseph this miraculous Infant was the delight of his parents the glory of Rachel the love of Jacob the wish and desire of both the support of his family the King of all his brethren the Saviour of his people and the master-peece of the graces and favours of God CHAP. VII The reward Jacob received for his services and his departure out of Mesopotamia WHen Jacob had finished his fourteen years of service he began to long for liberty Nato autem Joseph dixit Jacob socero suc dimitte me ut revertar in patriam ad terram meam Gen. 30. v. 25. and for his own country where he had never lived under the command of a Master and Father-in-Law but under the tuition of a Father and Mother who had always treated him not as a Servant but as their Child Hee intreated then Laban to give way unto his retirement But as interest is the first inciter of all passions Laban immediatly felt his Heart assaulted with all sorts of Motions In fine Ait illi Laban Inveniam gratiam in conspectu tuo c. Gen. 30. v. 27. the hope he had that Jacobs presence would every day increase the blessings and Graces of Heaven upon his family he invites Jacob to remain some small time with him To which Jacob freely accorded well foreseeing the trouble he should have in his journey being burthened with Women and Children too weak and young to resist the incommodities of travell He condescended then to the desire of Laban Dixitque Loban quid tibi daâ—o At ille ait nibil volo sed si feceris quod postulo iterum â—ascam custodiam 〈◊〉 tua Gen. 30. v. 31. Gyraomnes greges tuos separa cunctas ves vaâ—ias sparso velâ—â—â—e quodcumque fâ—râ—â—m maculosum varIumque suerit tam in ovibus quam in capris erit merces mea Gen. 30. v. 32. tollens ergo Jacob virgas populeas virides amygdalin as c. Gen. 30. v. 37. upon condition he might have the government of his flocks and Herds and that he would distribute them in such sort as from thenceforth all the beasts which were found spotted should be his and those which should be of one single colour were to be Labans The agreement is made to the Content and liking of both parties but disunion and Iealousie arose quickly on Labans part seeing his own flocks barren and on the contrary those of Jacob very fruitfull This was as Theodoret believ'd a miraculous artifice of divine Providence which incited Jacob to place white and green wands before the Eyes of his flocks when they were in copulation which caused various impressions and effects conformable to the desires of Jacob Posuitque eas in canalibus ubi essundebatur aequa ut cum venissent greges ad bibendâ—m ante oculos haberent virgas in aspectu earum coreiperent Gen. 30. v. 38. Arist lib. 3. de Hist anim Varro in Solino and agreeable to the picture which an Angel had represented to him I conceive neverthelesse absolutely speaking that such productions are not above the power of Nature It is the opinion of all Philosophers and amongst others of Aristotle who affirms that in Antandria there are two great Rivers in one of which the beasts which drink of it grow white and in the other become black In like manner the River Seamander breeds golden colours And in the red Sea there is a fountain as Varro observes which changeth every thing into Carnation It is then no impossible thing for the imagination to produce like effects and to form in Bodyes what the Sun doth in the clouds and Painters in their pictures These are draughts of the Soul which in the strict Union shee hath with the Body is the source of its Actions and Motions Portraicts of the Soul so that she labors therein as a Workman doth upon his Matter and a Designer upon the Platform which he contrived And truly if a Carver can shape upon Marble and Brass the intelligible form and the Idea which is in his Fancy and Reason What disorder can there be if the Sensitive Soul the Fancy of Animals
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
duodecim inquiunt fratres sumus servo tuo c. Gen. 42. v. 13. who presently knowing them began to treat them as strangers saying to them they were Spies and that their whole design was to Inform themselves concerning the weakest parts of the Country God knows whether they were astonished hearing this discourse but nothing availed them to say that they all were Ten brothers and the Children of Jacob and that for the rest they sought nothing but peace and the honour to live and die in the quality of his most humble servants No No said Joseph you are deceivers and besides your coming down into this Country was to no other purpose then to Spy out those places and parts by which Egypt might be the more easily assaulted and surprised To this they could not answer the second time but that they were twelve Brothers his servants Children of the same Father who retained but one with him and that the other dyed three and Twenty years before Did I not say well Hoe est ait quod lacutus sum exploratores estis Gen. 42. v. 13 Jam nunc experimentum vestri capiam per salutem Pharaonis non egrediemini hinc donec veniat frater vester minimus Gen. 42. v. 16. Vos autem eritis in vinculis donec probentura quae dixistis Gen. 42. v. 16. replyed Joseph that you were all Spies I shall have immediatly certain proofs thereof for I swear by the life of Phâ—ro that you shall not depart hence till the arrivall of the youngest of your Brethren Send then speedily some one of you to bring him Mean while you shal be bound and Fettered untill I shall have some assurance touching what you have said unto me Behold them with Irons on their feet Chains on their hands officers leading them to prison This is the place where the justice of God hath long since expected them there shall they see the Ghoast of his innecent body pursuing Them then shall they hear the Ecche of that voyce which called them in the Feilds and cryed out to them from the bottom of the pit Alas Tradidit ergo illos custodiae tribus diebus Gen. 42. v. 17. Where are my Brethren and how have they used me At least they will have the Leasure for the Space of three dayes to recall into their minds the dreadfull design they heretofore had to kill their own Brother They will find the Image of the pit in the obscurity of a Dungeon In fine they can expect nothing but death or at least a perpetuall Captivity when they shall remember they sould their own blood The third day Neverthelesse Joseph Commanded their release out of prison Die autem tertio eductis de carcere ait sacite quae dixi vinetis Deum enim timeo Gen. 42. v. 18. Frater vester ligetur unus in carcere c. Gen. 42. v. 19. Et fratrem vestrum minimum ad me adducite Gen. 42. v. 20. and promised to grant them their lives if they would perform what he had said unto them Yes said he I swear by the great God whom I dread that you shall not die if you obey me and if you shew a desire to love the peace which I seek It is sufficient then that one of you be kept in prison the rest may carry into their Country what they have bought upon condition that they will speedily bring hither the youngest of all who remains behind as you have said At this demand these poor wretches sighed bitterly and then looking upon one another they began to say with a lamentable voice In truth all these misfortuns have justly befallen us Et locuti sunt ad invicem merito haec patemur quiae peccavimus in fratrem nostrum c. Gen. 42. v. 21. God is just and doubtlesse it is the blood of Joseph which riseth up against us and earnestly cals upon the rigours of his adorable vengeance Wee must then acknowledge our selves too insensible and too unnaturall towards him his teares his sighes and the Innocence of his age ought to have mollified us if wee had not had pittilesse hearts and Souls harder then Marble Ah God what have wee done From whence at one time arrive to us so many Miseries During this discourse Joseph seemed not to hear them Nesciebant autem quod intelligeret Joseph ex eo quid per interpretem loqueretur ad eos Gen. 42. v. 23. Avertitque se parumper flevit Gen. 42. v. 24. For he onely spake to them by the mouth of an Interpreter But his eyes had much adoe to dissemble the resentments of his heart He was even constrained to turn aside his head to shed some tears which without doubt were ready to betray him But God who would have him passe for the Judge of his brethren did not permit that clemency should induce him to doe any thing unworthy of the office he exercised And truly when Judges are seated on their Throns they ought to know neither Parents nor Friends It is for this respect Justice ought to wear a vail over her Eyes least nature and interests of Blood and affection should dazle her This Canopy which is spread over her bed is of Skie-colour and sodered with Stars by reason shee took her birth in the Heavens and to the end shee should act nothing but by the favour of these most pure lights Joseph then must execute what he had begun if God hath ordained him to be the Judge of his Brethren and if they be culpable he ought not to consider them as Brethren but as criminals This he doth Tollensque Simeon bigans illis praesentibus Gen. 42. v. 23. and without making himself known but in quality of the Vice-King of Egipt he stayd Simeon and Manacled his hands in the prefence of the rest Afterwards as they were ready to depart Jussit ministris ut implerent corum saccos tritico reponerent pecunias singulorum insaceulis suis datis supra cibrariis in viâ—n Gen. 42. v. 25. he secretly commanded his servants speedily to fill all their sacks with Corne and in the Mouth of them to leave the Money they had brought and also what they might need for the expence of their journey This was done without their heeding it For their minds as well as their eyes were busied on Simeon to whom from time to time they adress'd some sighs in testimony of the regret they had to leave him alone in prison and for an hostage At last they departed and having layed the Corn they had bought upon Asses At illi portantes frumenta in asinis suis prosecti sunt Gen. 42. v. 26. Apertoque unus sacco ut daret jumento pabulum in diversorio contemplatus pecumam in ore sacculi Gen. 42. v. 27. Dixic fratribus suis Reddita est mibi picunia en habetur in sacco Gen. 42. v 28. Et obstupifacts turbatique mutuò dixerunt c. Gen. 42. v.
28. Venerontque ad Jacob patrem suum in terram Chanaan c. Gen. 42 v. 29. Locutus est nobis Dominus terrae dure c. Gen. 42. v. 30. His aictus oùm frumenta effunderent singult reperierunt in ore saccorum ligatas pecunias exterritisque simut omnibus dixit pater Jacob Absque lioeru me esse fecistis Joseph non est super Simeon tenetur in vinculis Benjamin auferetis in me haec omnia mala râ—â—ederunt they presently began their journey but scarce were they arrived at their first nights lodging when one of them having opened his Sack found there his Money he called his Brethren and told them what had happened to him whereupon being all astonished they said to one another Alas what design hath God on us and whence arrive to us all these adventures From thence holding on their journey they went directly unto Chanaan to find Jacob to whom they related what had passed and how they had been harshly received by the Governour of Egypt who notwithstanding all the assurances they had given him of their designs and innocence had taken them for Spies but at last he permitted them to return and likewise to carry with them the provision they had bought upon condition nevertheless speedily to bring unto him the youngest amongst them who as they said was left alone at home to Solace the discommodities and old age of their Father Doing this he promised them that Simeon should be released and that they should have liberty to continue their traffick and commerce in Egypt Upon this they opened their Sacks where having found all their Money they remained very much astonished but chiefly Jacob was as much or more surprised then his Children Whereupon he could not contein himself from saying to them Ah poor wretches that you are you have reduced me into such an estate as I am now left without a Child Joseph is no more and if what you say be true Simeon is detain'd in prison not content with this you will also take my Benjamin from me O God what calamities all at once â—las on what side shall I turn me and where may I find some consolation Joseph is no more Simeon is a Captive and you will carry away my Benjamin who is the support of my life and the delight of my heart Poor Father that I am whither shall I goe Famine besiegeth me my Children betray me the Powers of the world combine against me old Age oppresseth me and death pursues me Cui respondit Ruben Duos filtos meos interfice si non reduxero illum tibi Trade illum in manu mea ego cum tibi restituam Gen. 42. v. 37. At ille non descendet inquit filius meus vobiscum frater ejus mortuus est ipse solus remansit Si quid ei adversi acciderit in terra ad quam pergitâ—s deducetis canos meos cum doloread inferos Gen. 42. v. 38. Jacob whither wilt thou goe Father saith Ruben doe not afflict your self For my part I have but two Children I leave them with you in Benjamins place and if I bring him not back put them to death No saith Jacob I will never consent that Benjamin shall goe with you for already his brother is dead and if by accidents some mishap befall this poor Child which is left me I might even dye for grief and my ashes would for ever complain of you Behold the Picture of mans life in this world drawn to the life in the person of Jacob. His birth was in the midst of Combats his youth hath been a Duel with his own Brothers Scarce had he attain'd the age of a Man when God himself was pleased to assault him Afterwards his Children prov'd the strongest enemies of his old Age and he saw executioners in his own Family Alas what will he doe O God will you have Benjamin also will you commind Jacob to immolate this Victim and must he goe into Egypt and leave his Father who lives only by him O world how disloyall art thou Fathers and Mothers what Children have you and where doe you place all your hopes all these Eldest Sons whom you breed up so deliciously will deceive you This Joseph whom you Idolatrise will prove a torment to you and even in despight of you this so beautifull Perfidiousness of the world so sweet so amiable and so accomplish'd Benjamin must leave you first or last to goe amongst the Egyptians But what must Jacob also resolve to leave Benjamin how will you have him live if his heart be taken from him And is not the removing him from a person who placed on him all his hopes and the support of his Life a condemnation unto Death CHAP. VII Jacob resolves to send Benjamin into Egypt IN the world there are inexorable Caves and fatall necessities which can hardly be avoided We must often swim over the arms of the Sea not to perish in the midst of the Ocean Fatall necessities and some there are who resolve rather to dye stifled with smoak than to fall into a flaming fire Nothing is to be preferred before life next unto God and Honour and we usually give what we have to preserve it It is for this reason with our hands we keep off the Darts which are thrown at our hearts and there is no part of the body which serves not for a Buckler when life is to be saved In fine the fear of Death is a blind passion which knowes neither Friends nor Children Jacob then must suffer his Benjamin to depart but it is not without much grief and without fighting many battells with a Love so Cordial and an affection a Father ought to have for a Child so worthy to be beloved He must dye then of Famin or Benjamin must depart But it is not enough that the rest return and this dear Child remain with his Father No Dixit Jacob ad filios suos Revertimins emitte nobis pauxillum escarum Gen. 43. v. 2. Consumptisque cibis quos ex Aegipto detulerant Gen. 43. v. 2. Respondit Judas Denunciavit nobis vir ille attestatione dicens c. Gen. 43. v. 3. Si ergo vis eum mittere nobiscum pergemus pariter ememus tibi necessaria Gen. 43. v. 4. go then my Children saith Jacob return into Egypt to buy us something for our sustenance for nothing is left of all that you brought us Father replyed Judas you know that we told you that the Governour of Egypt hath forbidden us to return into his presence if we doe not bring him our little Brother If you will permit him then to goe thither we will all accompany him and buy all things necessary We are ingaged by promise and oath to bring him or never more to come into Egypt What promise and what ingagement Answers Jacob you have then Conspired to undoe me Dixit eis Israel in meam hoc fecistis miseriam Gen. 43. v. 6.
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
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
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
against all this Nation This was also the cause why the Amenophits newly ascended on the Throne of Pharaoh fearing to be carried away with his people by this Inundation established merciless Officers which used the Hebrews like Gally-slaves giving them neither truce nor repose in their painful and dishonorable imployments wherein they would have perished with hunger thirst and toyl if God had not preserved and rendred them as I have said more vigorous and strong than before This was the cause Dixit autem Rex Aegypti obstetricibus Hebraeorum c. Exod. 1. v. 15. Praecipiens eis Quando obstetricabitis Hebraeas tempus pâ—rtus advenerit si masculus suerit interficite eum si foemina reservate Exod. 1. v. 16. Timuerunt antem obstetrices Deum non fecerunt juxtà praeceptum Regis Aegypti sed conservabant mares Exod. 1. v. 17. Quae responderunt non sunt Hebraeae sicut Aegyptiae mulieres ipsae caim obstetricandi habent scientiam priusquam veniamus ad eas pariunt Exod. 1. v. 19. why this yong Tyrant resolved to stifle children issuing forth of their Mothers Wombs and to force away Fruits even in their Bud because he could not destroy their Fathers and since these Trunks were too deeply rooted to be pluck'd up To this effect he caus'd the Midwives of Egypt to be brought before him and commanded them cunningly to kill all the Male-children of the Hebrews and to save all the Femals when they should assist their Mothers at their Labors but God did not permit so horrid a cruelty For these women no less good than prudent detested so execrable and brutish a design and notwithstanding all the edicts and threats of Pharaoh they resolved to preserve the Male-children though with the danger of their own lives Whereupon being interrogated they answered That the women of Judea were not like the Egyptians and that they knew the art of their discharging their Womb without calling any one to their aid Some other expedient must be found publikely to thunder out a fury which could not be concealed All Passions have degrees and ways to arrive unto excess and amongst others Fury is a Ball of Fire and riseth from the bottom of the Water which is inkindled in the Cloud and afterwards grown great it thundreth it lightneth and at length makes a hideous noise to reduce into ashes all that it encounters There is nothing more furious than a Tyrannical power which fears some danger It is a Lyon which casts himself against Javelins it is a Dragon which flies into the midst of Flames a Tyger which seeks his life and prey in the bosom of Death and a Comet which apprehends least these shining vapors and these beautiful Exhalations which form its Diadem may finde their last dissolution It is no wonder then if Pharaoh fearing the Israelites Praecepit ergo Pharao omni populo suo dicens Quidquid masculini sexus natum fuerit in flumen proficite quidquid faeminini reservate Exod. 1. v. 22. and failing in his project of stifling them in their Mothers Wombs resolved for the execution of this cruel Design to make use of the most merciless of all the Elements which will one day demand Justice and complain for having been the Instrument of so many Cruelties The River Nilus will raise her Waves and her bloody Billows will accuse this detestable Pharaoh who commanded his Subjects to drown all the Male-children which should be born of the Israelites and suffer the Females to live as uncapable of prejudicing him and from whom the Egyptians might reap some benefit This Decree then is published in all places and it is executed at the cost of the lives of these poor Infants It was indeed a strange spectacle to see the World drowned under the waters of the deluge but Husbands at least had the company of their Wives Fathers and Mothers held their Children by the hand Servants of both Sexes followed their Masters and Mistresses and enjoyed this consolation being all Criminals to receive a common punishment and not to survive one another But here Innocents must be condemned to die and Nurses are constrained to drown their Infants or at least to see them violently taken from their Bosoms to be swallowed up by the Water before they had tasted their Milk or felt the sweetnesses of Life Every where desolate Mothers and despairing Fathers were heard who looked upon Egypt as the Sepulchre of their Families and of the name of Israel But God remembred his promise and permitted not this Nation which in number was to equal the Sands of the Sea to serve for food unto Fishes and unto the Waters of Nilus This sage Conductor of the people whom he had taken into his protection Egressus est post haec vir de domo Levi accepit uxorem stirpis suae Exod. 2. v. 1. Quae concepit peperit filium videns eum elegantem abscondit tribus mensibus Exod. 2. v. 2. Cumque jam celare non â—osset sumpsit fiscellam scirpeam linivit eam bitumine ac pice posuitque intus infantulum exposuit eum in carecto ripae flumivis Exod. 2. v. 3. in despight of Pharaoh's Edicts raised up a Levite called Aaron who took a wife out of the same Tribe of Levi who was delivered of a son incomparably beautiful and who as a Sun was to pass through the Water without wetting himself His Mother hid him for the space of three moneths but this springing Star casteth forth so many lights as at last she conceived her self unable any longer to conceal them in her house and feared lest some body might chance to discover and extinguish them Now to the end this disaster might not happen she resolved to expose him on the Banks of Nilus unto the mercy of the Waves in a Basket made of Bulrushes which she daubed with Bitumen and Pitch with all the affection and industry a Mother could have for a Son Behold Stante procul sorore ejus considerante eventum rei Exod. 2. v. 4. Ecce descendebat filia Pharaonis ut lavaretur in flumine puellae ejus gradiebantur per crepidinem alvei Quae cum vidisset fiscellam in papyrione misit unam è samulabus suis allatam aperiens cernensque in est parvulum vagientem miserta ejus ait De infantibus Hebraeorum est hic Exod. 2. v. 5. 6. the tryal of Love and an abandonment which would have appeared inhumane had not merciless necessity inforced it and if this prudent Mother who with horror looked on the Tomb of her Son had not placed her eldest Daughter as a Sentinel who with her eyes and spirit conducted her Brother who floted in this little Vessel when behold Pharaoh's Daughter coming with some Attendants which descending on the Bank of the River perceived this Cradle which stopt on some Moorish ground At the same time an happy curiosity incited her to send one of her
Maids to see what it was I know not who was this fortunate Handmaid which had this Commission but she brought unto her Mistress the little Vessel in which was inclosed the Honor and Prosperity of the people of Israel Yet at first there onely appeared a childe weeping in its swadling clothes and whose bare aspect moved compassion in this good Princess who perceived that it was an effect of her Fathers Edicts Câ—i soror pueri Vis inquit ut vadam vocem tibi mulierem Hebraeam c. Exod. 2. v. 8. and some remnant of Egypts misfortune The Sister then of this found Infant who expected nothing less than such an incounter asked whether they would think it fit for her to bring a Nurse for him Respondit Vade Perrexit puella c. Exod 2. v. 8. Ad quam locuta fiâ—ià Pharaonis Accipe ait puerum istum c. Exod. 2. v. 9. To which the Princess having willingly condescended she ran instantly to finde the Mother of the childe who came as unknown to present her self and to whom presently the Daughter of Pharaoh gave the charge of nursing up this Infant O God! How profound are thy thoughts and how impenetrable are they to ignorant and frantick souls When will the day come when thou wilt withdraw the veil which hides from us so many secrets Children of men poor Egyptians blinde people Will you never open your eyes to follow the light of this sage Intelligence which governs the World under his Laws Is it not the part of a Fool to endeavor to stop the course of this Primum mobile which moves the Heavens and makes all the Elements to quake Is it not to oppose Feathers unto the Waves of the Sea and to the Thunders of the Air Is it not to be more brutish and less sensible than Beasts which follow the instinct and conduct of their Creator It is then in my Dominion saith this Lord all Beasts of the Forests abide they are all mine Sovereign Empire and it is in my bosom where I see every year the beauty of the Fields displaying it self It is I who bear Riches and Honors in my hands and who place Diadems upon the heads of Kings All Temples then must be demolished and all Altars rased where we adore casual Destinies and frightful Fortunes which yield nothing but smoke obscurity dread and terror For my part Confidence in God I had rather float in a Cradle of Bulrushes and land at a good Haven having God for my Pilot his Providence for my Helm his Power for my Mast Hopes for my Sails his Love for my Cordages Faith for my Anchors his Favor for my sweet Gales and good Works for my Oars than to bury my self alive in the midst of an Abyss led by Pharaoh and followed by an Army which hath neither Assurance nor Hope but on the Wings of the Winds always light and mutable in an Element ever perfidious amongst unskilful men and a thousand hazards which blow in the Sails and govern the Stern during the course of so dangerous a Navigation O my Saviour I am but an Orphan abandoned by Father and Mother forsake me not be thou my guide upon the Billows and in the Tempests of this life my Watch-Tower in the midst of the Night and my secure Haven during the storm O my most sweet and most amiable Redeemer do not abandon me since I am thine both by Nature and Grace at least place me under the protection of thy Mother of thy Daughter and of the Eldest Sister thou hast given me It is enough for me to live in the favor of Mary it sufficeth me to enjoy the least of her regards to be eternally happy Let us steer then O my Soul Let us steer against the current of the Water Pharaoh loseth his labor in despight of Egypts rage of Hell and of all the Infernal Spirits soon or late thou wilt land in the fortunate Iland where thou shalt be received into the Arms of the Queen of Heaven Yes Desireable Lot my Soul if thou dost dedicate thy self unto thy God I promise thee a Fortune as glorious as that of this little Infant which was exposed on the River Nilus and who under the amiable conduct of his Sister Mary hapned to fall into the lap of a Queen who adopted him for her Son Where observe I beseech you Quem illa adoptavit in bocum filii vocavitque nomen ejus Moises dicens Quia de aquis tuli eum Exod 2. v. 10. That it was this Royal Mouth which for a sign she had prese rved him from the Waters gave him this fair name of Moses and caused him to be educted and taught at Court with cares worthy of a wise Princess and a good Mother It was in this Noble School he learnt all the Arts and Sciences which were then current in Egypt that is to say Geometry Arithmetick Astronomy Musick and the most hidden Mysteries of the Hierogliphick in which were found all the rarest Secrets of naturall Philosophy Theology and Policy Clement Alexandrinus also believed that he then learn't Physick and the Civill Law Philo adds over and above that they called thither Masters out of Greece as the best versed in the Liberall Sciences and Chaldeans came by her appointment to teach him the way how to foretell things to come by the aspect of the Planets as also Assyrians to teach him their Ciphers and Characters In fine it is most certain that God poured his most beautifull Lights into his mind and it was this great Master who taught him the Command over Passions and chiefly Meekness Love Affability Liberality greatness of Courage and all the Vertues requisite for a person who was to be Governour of the people of Israel and the Lieutenant Generall of the Armies of the Omnipotent God CHAP. II. The Zeal of Moses and his Marriage with the Daughter of the Prince of Madian THe fairest Vertues would be but bodyes without a Soul Planets without light Excellency of Zeal and its Source and extinguished Torches if these generous ardors and those bright irradiations which we call by the name of Zeal and will give motion light and splendour unto the most holy Actions were taken from them God himself was pleased to take upon him the name of Zelot and when he appeared unto the Prophet under the shape of a man having one half of his body in a flame of fire this was but an Image of the Zeal which inflames him And it is for this cause as I believe Sophonius said that the world shall be devoured by the fire of this Divine Zeal Now it is out of this Furnace that Angels and Men have drawn vigorous flames which inkindled in their hearts a Zeal which all the waters of the Deluge could not have quench'd Viditque afflictionem corum â—â—rum Aegyptiacum percutientem quendam de Hebraeis fratribus suis Exod. 2. v. 11. Cumque circumspexisset
unto Moses after the destruction of Amaleck Let what passed at this time be written in Annales Dixit autem Dominus ad Moisen scribe hoc ob monimentum in libro trade auribus Josue delebo erim memoriam Amalec sub caelo Exod. 17. v. 14. and let it be engraven upon all Marbles Amaleck is vanquished and men never shall more speak of him but to remember his loss and misfortune After which Moses erected an Altar for an eternall monument Edificavitque Moises altare vocavit nomen ejus Dominus exaltatio mea dicens Exod. 17. v. 15. Quia manus solii Domini bellum Domini erit contra Amalec à generatione generationem Exod. 17. v. 16. which he consecrated unto God as unto him who had been a Standard in this War and a Trophy after his Combats Amongst which he had cast down the Throne of Amaleck and effaced his name and memory for all eternity After this let any one be so rash and senseless as to attaque God and his servants to suffer themselves to be transported at the first sight and at the first assault of an impudent Love of a Carnall affection of a violent pleasure of a deceiptfull beauty of a charm'd imagination of a contagious desire of a brutish satisfaction of a mortall envy and of so many passions which use to pursue those who forsake the World and Egypt and which like Amaleck and the Amalekites are destroyed by the least shafts of courage and virtue but chiefly of piety and confidence in God The which may be easily acquired and preserved with that Saint who hath made and doth make every Day so many Saints by this cogitation Here on Earth there are momentary pleasures Sanctus Franciscus Modica hic voluptas sed postea poena aeterna modicus hic labor sed postea gloria aeterna multorum vocatio paucorum electio omnium retributio aeternitatem cogita and afterward eternall torments There are afflictions and difficulties in the World which end almost assoon as they begin and in Heaven there is a repose and glory which shall be immortall Many are called but few chosen and yet all shall be rewarded according to their deserts Think then on Eternity CHAP. XXIII Moses is visited in the Desart where he Creates Judges and Magistrates SCarce are there any Creatures in this World which are not fastned by some tyes But amongst others men are there as it were in a Dungeon or Gally where nevertheless some have Irons and Chains about their Necks Feet and Hands Captivity of Creatures others have but Bonds of Silk and very often of bloud which detain them like so many Andromedes upon a Rock or like ravenous Birds upon a heap of Carrion from which they cannot rise to elevate themselves into the Ayr. Amongst this number are those who swear not but by their country and by those little Gods the Antients plac'd neer the Chimny Corners or at the Beds Feet as their domestick Tutelaries and the Genius of a Closet or House I place also in this road all those who have servile amities and blind passions for trifling things unworthy to be regarded by a generous and couragious Spirit who nevertheless you shall very often see amusing themselves in the chase of Flyes handling a Spindle or carrying a Distaff like Sardanapalus amongst a few disdainfull Dames which inslave him by a thousand Childish â—oyes There are other Chains which though lawfull are yet often more dangerous not to be broken but with violences which cannot be practised upon our selves without a most particular grace Now such are all the tyes which nature hath woven in our Hearts and in our Veins and which so powerfully fasten a Father and Mother unto their Children an only Brother to his Sister a Servant to his Master and two faithfull friends to each other that nature were almost obliged unto a miracle to require of her this separation Nevertheless it is a necessity which can almost admit of no delay and from which a man cannot be exempted when he resolves to serve God and obey his most holy will He is not yet so rigorous as not to permit the exercise of those duties which every condition requireth provided it be done with order and according to the rule of prudence and piety For in such a case he being the Author of nature as he is he is so far from destroying her as on the contrary he will preserve her but above all he will be first serv'd And this is what Moses did when he was commanded to obey God and to go from Madian into Egypt to sollicite his affairs and to negotiate for his people with Pharaoh For he left his Wife and Children and what he had most dear in the world to go with his brother Aaron Cumque audisset Jethro sacerdos Madian cognatus Moysi omnia quae secerat ei Dâ—us c. Exod. 18. v. 1. Tulit Sephoram uxorem Moysi quam remiserat Exod. 18. v. 2. Et duos filios esus Exod. 18 v. 3. Cumque intrasset tabernaculum Exod. 18. v. 7. Narravit Moyses cognato suo cuncta quae fecerat Dominus Pharaoni c. Exod. 18. v. 8. Laetatusque est Jethro super omnibus bonis quae fecerat Dominus Israëli Exod. 18. v. 9. Obtulit ergo Jethro cognatus Morsi holocausta hostias Deo veneruntque Aaron omnes seniores Israël ut comederent panem cum eo coram Deo Exod 18. v. 12. Altera autem die sedit Moyses ut judicaret populum qui assistebat Moysi â mane usque ad vesperam Exod 18 v. 13. Quod cum vidisset cognatus ejus omnia scilicet quae agebat in populâ— ait quid est hoc a â—od facis in plebe c. Exod. 18. v. 14. but when his Orders were executed and when Pharaoh and Egypt Amaleck and the Amalekites were exterminated and the Israelites conducted even unto Mount Sina after so many Miracles wrought for their sake behold Jethro the Priest of Madian appearing who brought back Moses Wife and two Sons whom he had left behind when he took his Journey into Egypt He received him with very great affection and having brought him unto his Tent he related to him all the particulars of what had passed and the Prodigies God had wrought by his hand Jethro then manifested an unspeakable joy and immediatly rendred thanks unto God who had freed them all from the tyranny of Egypt and the power of Pharaoh freely confessing that the God of Israel was the God of Gods whose goodness power Justice and Majesty had made themselves to be seen and felt by his enemies In testimony whereof he took from the hand of Moses a Victim and Sacrifice which he offered with a most perfect faith and a most holy piety Then the Banquet followed at which all the Antients of the people were present with an intention to celebrate this Feast in honour of their God The next
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
mean consolation Seventhly we must play the Philosophers studying the qualities of our desires and temptations to the end having discovered the Nature of the disease we may apply such remedies as are proper for it Eighthly we must withdraw our selves from objects For these are lights which dazle neer at hand and afar off have scarce any luster at all Ninthly we must dry up the spring of our desires and concupiscences mortifying our bodyes and reducing our souls to such a condition as we might desire nothing but what is good and honest Tenthly we may sometime discover the error of our desires and fancies and contemplate that with horror which we desire with so much passion And we shall perceive as well as Raymundus Lullius that all is but a Canker an Ulcer an infectious and stinking dunghill covered over with a bit of Taffaty or some small piece of fine Holland In fine we ought to be well employed and to imitate that brave Captain who commanded his Army to march alwayes in Battell-aray either in time of Peace or War and even upon his own lands that he might not be surprized CHAP. XXXV An Abridgement of the Law THe Law of God and Moses then both in generall and in particular forbids all sorts of persons of what Condition Sex Age or Country they either are or may be First all Idolatrie Infidelity contempt of Sacred things Magick-Art Sorceries Divinations Superstious Worships mistrusts of Gods goodnesse Presumption of their own forces Languishment Tepidities Hypocrisies Irreverences Sacrileges and Impieties Secondly Swearing without necessitie Blasphemies false Oaths Execrations Derision of holy things and words of Scripture as also of all that God hath either said done or revealed Thirdly on Holy-dayes all exercises of labour and Commerce or any other employment whatsoever if it be not of necessitie or if it may divert us from the holy entertainments of Piety and the repose we ought to have on those great dayes when surely labour would be yet less Criminall in the sight of God than the impieties and Irreverences which are very often used in the most Sacred places and during the divine Service of Almighty God Fourthly Disdains contempts abandonments ingratitudes hatreds and disobedience towards Fathers and Mothers Kindred and Superiours As also the excessive liberty we give unto our Servants Children and Domestiques Fifthly Quarrels Enmities Aversions Wranglings Violences Extortions Treacheries Injustices Vexations unjust Duels Mutilations of members Poisonings Murthers Aborsions Hatreds Outrages cruelties towards our Neighbours and our selves by some violent passion which may pass even unto death or at least to the desire of it Sixthly Fornications Adulteries Incests Rapes Deflowrings Clandestine Marriages Sacrileges Pollutions the ill use of Marriage and so many other abominable things and unworthy of a man which make Sepulchres in Houses Laystalls in beds and a great Sodome of the whole World where without punishment is seen all that leads unto impudicity as dishonest thoughts impure words wanton glances kisses touchings Pictures Statues Images Books Letters Playes Ballads Satieties and Feastings wherewith amidst good Wine and good chear very often Love-charms and poisons are mingled Seventhly Thefts Robberies Plundrings Correspondency with Theeves Counterfeiting of Seals Keys Letters Schedules Wills Bonds deceiptfull Purchases false Aequisitions false Sales false Mony Frauds Surprises Usurpations of the goods of the Church Symonie Usurie Delays of payment crafty devises in Law Superfluous expences Cheats Extortions and the barbarous usage of the Poor Eighthly false Depositions Calumnies defamatory Libells Lyes Impostures Perfidiousness Dissimulations Flatteries and Treasons Ninthly Enterprises and designes against Marriage dishonest Plots which are done by words gestures signs allurements by Epistles with desires more becomming a Devill than a man In fine the passion of Possessing other mens goods wrongfully and contrary to Justice which seems to be born with men and to dy with them if it be not stifled with the ashes of the Sanctuary and of Sina otherwise we shall find inflamed fire-brands of Hell which will never be quench'd but punish our sins for all eternity CHAP. XXXVI The antient Policies AFter God had given unto Moses the Morall Lawes which are ingraven in hearts by the finger of Nature C. 2. q. 104. a. 1. he added those which according to Saint Thomas have a certain mutuall relation in order to man and which of themselves cannot oblige but only by reason God hath so ordained it This then to speak properly concerns the Policie and government of people in Common-wealths or else of servants in Families which would be but a Labyrinth of disorders an Abyss of confusions a Tower of Babel and little Babylonians if they had no Lawes which are as it were the Mothers of Peace Mistresses which watch day and night to instruct reprehend and direct those who chance to fail in their duty An excellent with heretofore compared them to those little Mercuries which were placed at the corners of streets but this is not enough The excellencie of Lawes for they are the Soul of the Universe the spirit of the World the Eyes of the Body the Interpreters of Reason the Oracles of Justice the Angels of the great Councell the Governesses of Cities silent Voices Thunders which lowdly roar against Criminals the Armes of the Innocent and the Intelligences which settle order in Heaven Aeternitas mundi ex obedientiâ ad intelligentiam matricem Apud Mathiam de Vienna Philost l. 1. c. 6. before they bring it on Earth as some Disciples of Plato have observed And it is peradventure for the same reason that the Babylonians as Philostratus affirms built Palaces where they us'd to administer Justice in form of a Heaven where the stones were no other than Saphires and the Arches of immoveable Clouds beset with Stars which would have been taken for those of the Empyreall Heaven if they had had as much motion as splendor and light In fine God is the principall Intelligence who sets all things in order His Lawes establish order in the World and this generall order which may be discernd even in the bosome of Nature Dixit praeterea Dominus ad Moysem haec dices filiis Israël c. Exod. 20. v. 22. Responditque omnu populus una voce Omnia verba Domini quae locutus est faciemus Exod. 24. v. 3. Et mane consurgens aedificavit altare ad radices montis duodecim titulos per duodecimtribus Israël Exod 24. v. 4. Misitque Juvenes de filiis Isâ—aël obtulerunt holocausta immolaveruntque victimas pacificas Domino vitulos Exod. 24. v. 5. Tulit itaque Moyses dimidiam partemâ—sanguinis misit in crateras partem autemresâ—duam fudit super altare Exod. 24. v. 6. Assumensque volumen foederis lâ—git audiente populo qui dixerunt Omnia quae lacutus est Dominus faciemus c. Exod. 24. v. 7. Ille verò sumptum sanguinem respersit in populum ait hic est sanguis foederts quod pepigit Domintes
offered unto God 28 His murthers by Cain 30 Abraham 52 His vocation 53 The difficulties of his voyage 60 The agreement he made with his Father-in-law Lot 65 His Charity towards Pilgrims 78 His martyrdom for three days 107 His discourse to his son Isaac 109 The advertisement which he gave him that he was to be the victim of his sacrifice 110 His farewel to the world 60 Adam and his Creation 10 His fear and shame at the sight of God in the Terrestrial Paradise 21 He lays the fault on his wife 22 His disaster and banishment 23 Advantage by good education 128 Advertisement very remarkable of Philip of Macedon 51 Advice to fathers and mothers 267 Advice to publick persons 386 Affections very regular 150 Africa tormented by Grashoppers 289 Agar chased out of Abrahams house 73 Alexius his affection towards his father 348 Amalekites overcome by the prayers of Moses 330 St. Ambrose his authority over the Empress Justina 269 Anastasius the Emperor leaveth the Empire of Greece to be religious 58 Animals their production 7 Antandria marvellous in her Rivers 156 Apparition of God unto Moses and the advertisement he gave him 266 Apprentiship of Empires 257 Lawful apprehensions 139 Very just apprehensions for worldly men 62 Ark of the Old Testament 370 Ark of the Testament a figure of the divinity 186 Insolent artifice of Putiphers wife 185 Artifice of Rebecca in the preference of Jacob before Esau 133 Admirable artifices of God to try the fidelity of Abraham 97 Art of digging very difficult 236 Aurelian and his Crowns of bread 81 Altar of Holocausts 373 Mysterious answers 136 B. St. Basil the power he had with the Emperor Valens 269 Banishment of Adam and Eve 19 Banishment of Agar and Ismael 94 Baltilda leaves France and became a religious woman 59 Cruel battery of Putiphers wife against the chastity of Joseph 182 Beauty its power and tyranny pleasing and deadly poison 37 Benediction of God upon all Nations and Generations in the person of Abraham 57 Deceiptful Benedictions of this world 136 Benediction of the twelve Patriarks 236 Flaming Bush 257 The reality of fire which burnt it without consâ—ming it 258 First-born of Egypt their death and destruction 294 Blindness of Isaac 230 Building of the Ark 40 Supplanting Brethren 125 Bones springs of the bodies motions 12 Birds their production 6 C. Cain his affection fastned to the Earth 27 His execrable insolence 30 His troubles and exiles 32 First Canticle of Moses 313 Second Canticle of Moses 404 Ignominuous captivity of Creatures in the world 335 Charlemain son of Charls Martel leaves France to live out of way on Mount Soracte 58 Doleful Catastrophies 312 Ridiculous Ceremonies 221 Ceremonies of the Old Testament 368 Certainty most uncertain 130 Charity her Antiparistasis 361 Chastity her victories and triumphs 349 Circumcision the command thereof 75 Circumcision corporal figure of that which is to be in the spirit of Grace ibid. Circumcision sign of peace 76 Circumcision Image of Faith ibid. Mark of distinction ibid. Sequence of original sin ibid. Clotarius his victories which he gained by the means of prayer 333 Combat of Joseph in defence of his chastity 177 Combats natural to man 326 Mournful complaint of Jacob 174 Fruitless complements 98 Consort of creatures 8 Condemnation of false witnesses and lyers 351 Divine condescendency 81 Confidence in God 28 Conscience of sinners an inseparable Officer 200 Inflexible courage 162 Courage the definition of it according to St. Thomas 59 Course of Wisdom 142 Creation of the World 4 Cremona beaten by a Hail-storm 287 Cyreneans necessitated to make war against Grashoppers 289 Complaint of Rebecca in the paines of child-bearing 123 Rigorous clemency 203 D. Deliverance of Joseph 190 Deluge and the time when it hapned 41 Devil of Egypt 181 Disasters of gluttony 129 Disorders of love 178 Design of God in the preference of Jacob before Esau 134 Disobedience first misfortune of Adam 21 Disunion the first misfortune of the World 20 Duty of children towards their parents 347 Diamond how it is broken 278 Dina carried away by Sichem Prince of the Sichemites 163 Dioxipus vanquished by the beauty of a great Lady Diversity of depositions 27 Duel of grief and love 106 Decrees against the usurpation of other mens goods 350 Death of Abraham 117 Darkness of Egypt 290 Departure of the people of Israel out of Egypt 299 Decree concerning the Creation of men 10 Departure of the people of Israel out of Egypt 303 Dreams of Joseph which he revealed to his brethren 167 Dreams their destinction according to Chrysippus 168 E. Eclipse of reason in Wine 48 Edict against blasphemers 345 Equality sometimes dangerous 74 Egypt the Sepulchre of the name of Israel 249 State Elogy 141 Empire of Love 102 Empire of Souls 162 Sovereign Empire of God 251 Envy its desolations 32 Its resemblance with those bloody Birds of prey which are seen near the North Pole 33 Remedies against it 35 Its nature and qualities 175 Esau his nature and humor 126 The love he had to hunting 128 He sells his birth-right to his brother Jacob for a mess of pottage 129 He marrieth against the will of his Parents 130 Marvellous estate of man 16 Eternity all is short to him who meditates on it 153 Eve her Creation 17 Her disaster and banishment 19 Her discourse to Adam to deceive him 20 Her malediction 23 End of the deluge 44 Epitomy of the Law 354 Eagles a handsom mark of their affection 339 Ermine and her Motto ibid. Extraction of great men is commonly a fair subject of miseries 135 F. Fruitfulness of women the causes which hinder it 121 Felicity subject to alteration 123 Feasts of death 214 Memorable feast of the Hebrews 299 Fire symbol of the Divinity 310 Firmament formed in the midst of waters 5 Enigmatical Figures 136 Inviolable Fidelity 187 Fountain of Horeb 326 Fountain of the Red Sea which changeth every thing into Carnation 156 Firing of Sodom 89 Frogs of Egypt 279 Flyes of Egypt 281 Fishes their production 6 Fopperies of Idolaters and Turks 341 G. Government of Joseph in Egypt 194 Graces of God always sufficient 139 Gregory the thirteenth the Picture he caused to be made of Peace and Justice 68 Goodness of God towards men 15 Ineffable goodness 85 Golden Calf the adoration thereof 359 God Creator 1 God repents to have made man 39 God hidden under the habit of the poor 152 God never tempteth 97 God hath no need of a name why 261 God sporteth with Jacob 148 H. Hook and the motto thereof 350 Heliopolis City of the Sun in Egypt 197 Heraclius Patriark of Jerusalem an excellent answer made by him to Henry King of England 364 St. Hilary his power over the Emperor Constantius 269 Homicides their sentence of death 348 Homicides of two kindes 352 Honors rendred to Joseph by the command of Pharaoh 196 Different humors of Jacob and Esau 126 Happiness of Divine Providence 195 Wel-grounded hopes
139 Hail plague of Egypt 286 Wretched Harvest of worldly men 152 Hail-storm in Constantinople 268 Hardness of Pharaohs heart 269 Hardness of heart a woful estate 271 Grashoppers of Egypt 289 I. Jacob and Esau 121 Figure of the Christian and Jewish people 116 Jacob Esau 's elder brother and how 137 His agreement with his father-in-law Laban 155 Jacob resolves to send Benjamin into Egypt 207 His descent into Egypt to see his son Joseph 223 The answer he made to Pharaoh concerning his age 229 His death and last words 231 Idols and their subversion 344 Detestable Idolatry of amorous persons 39 Jethro the counsel he gave to Moses to establish Judges for deciding differences between the people of Israel 337 Atheistical ignorance 85 Images of Jesus Christ anciently painted in Temples and Houses in the form of a Lamb 27 Image of a generous courage 69 Image of Gods judgement 86 Image of the lives of men 126 Image of the life and death of Jesus Christ 145 Image of Chastity 184 Image of the World 198 Imagination the effects and properties thereof 156 Unnatural impudence of Cham 48 Inconstancy of created things 113 Dreadful incertainty 135 Incarnation its draught and picture 144 Innocence secured 170 Innocence victorious 179 Inhumanity more than brutish 220 Joseph born of Rachel 154 Joseph sold by his brethren 165 Joseph known by his brethren 214 His lamentations for the death of his Father Jacob 242 Joshua his victories over the Amalekites 332 Isaac his birth 93 The discourse he held with his father asking him where was the victim of his Sacrifice 108 His submission and obedience 109 His mariage with Rebecca 116 Most exact Justice 83 Judges a fair example for them ibid. Judas the brother of Joseph made a speech to him in the name of his brethren 216 Judgements of God incomprehensible 290 Prodigious increase of the people of Israel 247 Jacobs Ladder 141 Jacobs wrestling with the Angel 159 K. Kings of France true successors of Abraham 80 L. Laban is grieved for the barrenness of his flocks 156 His agreement with Jacob and his return unto Mesopotamia 157 Lesson to husbands and wives 17 Leah considerable for her fruitfulness 154 Dangerous liberty 29 Liberality cannot be without freedom 79 Liberality portraict of the Divinity ibid. Liberty of holy Souls 80 Liberty of Esau cause of his misfortune 128 Laws their excellency 357 Their establishment 368 Lot delivered out of the hands of his enemies by the means of Abraham 70 Luxury destruction of souls and canker of body 64 Love its effects and properties 3 Love architect of the world ibid. Gods love never idle 73 Incredulous love 224 Ladder of divine providence 146 Lots wife transformed into a pillar of Salt 89 Irreparable loss 184 Life of man a war without truce 159 Life and death inseparable companions 231 M. Magicians of Pharaoh and their enchantments 270 Admirable magnificence of God 58 Malediction of parents dangerous 132 Malediction of God on the Serpent 23 Malediction of Noah on his son 48 Malice of an eloquent woman 20 Manna of the desart 320 The time when it was to be gathered 323 Mariages subject to many disasters 123 Mariage of Isaac with Rebecca 116 Assured marks of our disposition 126 Martyrdom of love 103 Mixture of fortune 166 Excellent meditation 298 Pleasing Metamorphosis 63 Murther of Abel 27 Michael the Emperor quits his Empire to enter into a religious life 58 Mirror of Essences the motto thereof 29 World error of some Philosophers touching the beginning thereof 8 Monarchy of Adam and Eve over the Univers 19 The world is a Theatre 116 Extreme mortification 145 Motives which induced God to create the world 1 Motives of Conscience 140 Powerful motives to divert the brethren of Joseph from wicked designs 172 Moses 246 His birth and education ibid. His learning 252 His zeal and mariage with the daughter of the Prince of Madian 253 His fear at the sight of the flaming Bush 257 His Commission concerning the deliverance of the people of Israel 260 The certain marks of his power 263 He excuseth himself for accepting the Commission which God gave him 265 The threats God used to him 266 His Embassie into Egypt 267 He is visited in the desart where he creates Judges and Magistrates 334 His last Actions 385 His Testament 386 His last Canticle 402 Mysteries hidden under the Paschal Lamb 300 Man necessary for the world 9 Men eloquent when it concerns their own praise excellent conceptions upon this subject 10 Man the sport of the gods 148 Honest man what he is 163 N. Nature of God beneficent 320 Nature her power limited 269 Nembrod cheif contriver of the Tower of Babel his spirit and disposition 49 Noah his obedience to the command of God 41 His going out of the Ark and his sacrifice on the Hills of Armenia 44 Names Chariots of Essences 74 O. Obligation of fathers and mothers 128 Dreadful obstinacy 271 Oeconomy of the humane body 12 Opinion of Hesiod touching the Creation of the World 8 Original sin 15 Ornaments of the Sanctuary 369 P. Peace and Purity inseparable companions 65 Terrestrial Paradise 16 Paradise first habitation of man 16 Passions their different nature 181 Patience very awful 84 Persecution of modesty 184 Perfidiousness of the world 206 Plague of Egypt 284 Natural causes of the plague 285 Pharaoh King of Egypt makes Joseph his Lieutenant by reason of the truth of his predictions 196 Command of Pharaoh concerning the murther of all the male-children of the Hebrews 248 Pharaoh swallowed up in the Red Sea 304 Plagues of Egypt 275 Antient Policy 356 Portraict of the Justice of God 86 Predictions of Joseph 192 Efficacious prayers 122 Prevision of merits 137 Proclaming of Joseph by his Brethren 172 Promulgation of the Law on Mount Sina 343 Paternal Prudence 169 Punishment of Adam 14 Shameful pusillanimity 69 Putipher his over-great credulity 186 The impudence of his wife and her attempt upon the chastity of Joseph 178 Paschal Lamb 299 Planets the beginning of their courses 5 Pillar of Fire and Clouds 379 Picture of Hell 91 Picture of Fortune 194 Pains of women in child-bearing 23 Prayer the power and effects thereof 122 R. Rachel and her sterility 154 Radegond a despiseth France to become religious 59 Ramerus King of Aragon follows the same destiny ibid. Amiable resemblance between Joseph and Jesus Christ 222 The recompence of Jacob for his services 155 Pitiful reliques of sin 26 Remorse of Conscience 32 Remedies against Envy 35 Reproaches of God to Cain 28 Very just resentments 77 Rosignation of Abraham 101 Angelical resolution of Joseph 181 Rock and its motto 102 Ruben his affection towards his brother Joseph 173 Rivers their bounds and limits 5 River of Charity 80 S. Sacrifices very different of Abel and Cain 28 Sacrifices of Aaron consumed by fire from Heaven 376 Sanctification of the Sabhath 346 Sarah her death 113 How long she lived 115 Scamander i'ts properties effects