ibi praevaluerat enim fames in terra Gen. 12. v. 10. Cumque prope esset ut ingrediretur Aegyptum dixit Sarae Uxori suae novi quod pulcrasis Muliâ—r Gen. 12. v 11. Et cum viderint te Aegyptii dicturi sunt Uxor illius est interficient me te reservabant Gen. 12. v. 12. Dic ergo obsecro te quod soror mea sis ut bene sit mihi propter te vivat anima mea ob gratiam tui Gen. 12. v. 13. Cum itaque ingressus esset Abram Aegyptum viderâ—nt Aegyptii Mulierem quod esset pulcra nimis Gen. 12. v. 14. in so much as our happy Traveller is enforc'd to take a farther journey and to descend into Egypt where flying from the sythe and weapons of that merciless thing which alwaies takes his enemies by the throat he fals into the hands of an other no less cruell Monster who commonly steals in by the eyes to surprize and suffocate Hearts This man wholy inlightn'd by God and who carried in the bosome of his faithfull moity the purest and most holy flames of his Love beheld a far off the smoak of a most dangerous fire and fearing least his dear Sara should be there either by mishap or force surprised he thought it fit to say unto her Wife we are here on the Confines of Egypt but yet I am afraid lest these souls a thousand times more black than their bodies lay not some blemish on thy chastity I fear lest these Ravens of Egypt should powre down on the beauty of thy Face and make it serve as a prey to their most infamous Loves and afterwards my life as a victim to their sensuality Tell them then I pray thee that thou art my Sister and that I am thy Brother to the end I may escape by this amiable Stratagem All these forecasts were not grounded on a vain fear Et nuntiaverunt principes Pharaoni laudaveâ—unt eam apud illam sublata est Mulier in domum Pharaonis Gen. 12. v. 15. and some erroneous Judgment for scarce were these two Doves of Chaldea these two Turtles and these two chast Lovers entred into Egypt but instantly the Princes of Pharaoh who were the Ministers of his impurities carried away the chast Sara and brought her to Court which was a Seraglio of luxurie and lubricity Mean while what can a chast and couragious Husband say or think who sees before his eyes the rape of his Wife Unfortunate Abraham what wilt thou doe are these the Promises which God so often made thee of filling thee with all his favours and benedictions Ah what can the loss of a Wife make a Man a Father of all People and Nations and is this the recompence of that Faith Obedience and Piety which seemed not to raise up thy Body from the Earth but to Elevate it to the Heavens Behold War on the one side thundering against thee and on the other side Famine pursuing thee and Egypt which hath ravished from thee all the honours pleasures and purest entertainments of life From whence then spring all these misfortunes Most just apprehensions for Worldly Men. Is it perchance because thou hast too suddainly left the way which God had marked out to conduct thee between the arms of a most loving Providence which was able to nourish thee in the midst of desarts and famine It is peradventure because thy vows and Sacrifices were not perfect Or else art thou not charged with the spoyls of thy Family by the excess of an ill regulated Love Or finally hast thou not propos'd to thy self for the end of thy travell the hopes of some gain or trafick Or else that which is apparently more honourable hath not the curiosity of seeing and knowing what is done elsewhere snatched thee out of Caldea to hurry thee into unknown Countries I confess that commonly these are the Western Winds which swell the sayls of those who travell either on Land or Sea But certainly as for Abraham nothing less than such designs Why then will you tell me that it is God who afflicts him and wherefore is that which he doth for his sake so rudely and furiously crossed Ah! my friend whoever thou art who askest this question take not ill what I say unto thee that thou art a stranger and Pilgrim in the Land of God and in the wayes of vertue In a word Triall of Constancy thou knowest not the secrets of a Conduct wholly Divine which is accustomed to employ all the instruments of mis-hap and all the disgraces of fortune to erect trophies unto its dearest friends often war plague and famine maladies affronts falls exiles and all that is most dreadfull in Nature take up armes to assault the life of one predestinated person but afterwards Comets transform themselves into Rainbows Famine changeth its syth into the horne of abundance affronts become honours misfortunes become favours Fine Metamorphoses banishments palaces and all the moments of Dayes and Nights will render themselves celebrious by some new benefit in favour of these happy infortunates Courage then Abraham and no wayes doubt but the fidelity which Sara hath vow'd unto thee will be proportionable to that thou rendrest unto God As for Pharaoh his Hands are bound his Eyes blind-folded and his Heart so full of bitterness and grief as at present he cannot attend to the research of remedies and of his own liberty Lay aside now all thy fears and thou also Sara for thy Heart is a Sanctuary of Peace and a Temple of Love of which God alone Flagellavit autem Dominus Pharaonem plagis maximis domum ejus propter Sarai Vaorem Abram Gen. 12. v. 17. and Abraham keep the Keys Besides these clamours thou hearest and which resound every where are but the forerunners of thy liberty and the witnesses of the vengeance God hath already taken of Pharach and likewise of all the Princes of his Court. In effect this great God Vocavitque Pharao Abram dixit ei Quidnam est quod fecisti mihi nunc igitur ecce conjux tua accipe eam vade Gen. 12. v. 19. who is jealous of the glory of his sent such harsh scourges to Pharaoh and all those who had bin his complices as scarcely had this unhappy Prince the means to see the Face of Sara This disastrous Court is no longer but a Dungeon of Darkness a Galley of Slaves and a large Hospitall of despairing Franticks Every where Violated Chastity the Rights of Mariage and Hospitality dart forth Thunder-bolts The Court of Pharaoh And from the poysoned shafts nothing but lamentable voices and bitter plaints are heard which correspond with the stroaks of a most holy and just severity Ah God! if these salutiferous cryes could be carried upon the wings of the Winds from one Pole to the other to advertise so many Egyptians who are either in the Dust of the World or breath the air of the Court. Cry
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
testifie at least by their sighs and tears the violence and injustice of the slavery in which they had lived for their Clamour having ascended unto heaven he that is always propitious to those who earnestly call upon him shewed them that he had not forgotten the pact and agreement he had made with Abraham Isaack and Jacob. CHAP. III. Of the flaming Bush THE office of a Shepheard was antiently a noble imployment The Apprentiship of Empires And Philo who hath been one of the most faithfull Historians of the first ages called it in expresse termes the prelude to an Empire that is to say to the government of men which ought to be the most humane and most amiable of all others This most wise and learned Authour passed much further for he believ'd that person could be only perfect in the art of ruling who was a good Shepheard and who governing flocks whose conduct is most facil had learnt how a man must behave himself in commanding those whose government is more difficult and important It was then for this cause the first men of the world The first shepheards of the world and the most illustrious persons of the old Testament had this innocent imployment as if God would have them passe this apprentiship to render them capable of ruling this people for whom he had a particular care It was also for the most part in these imployments which have less of Pomp and splendour than sweetness and repose that God who delightes in humility and peace hath chosen humble and peaceable souls to give himself unto them and make them both see and feel that it was his hand which had guided them in the fields and out of the noise and tumults to the end their minds might be better prepared to hear and receive the laws and precepts which he intended to give them and that the night and obscurity of a Country and solitary life Moises autem pascebat oves Gethro soceri sui sacerdotis Madian cumque minasset gregem ad interiora deserti venit ad montem Dci Horeb. Exod. 3. v. 1. Apparuit ei Dominus in flimma ignis de medior rubi videbat quod rubus arderet non conbureretur Exod. 3. v. 2. might serve to raise the luster of that glory and dignity to which he had designed them So when Moses went guiding the sheep of Iethro who was his father-in-Law one day as he was in the thickest part of the desart whether the feeding were better or whether as it is more probable he had a desire to attend more sweetly to contemplation having at length reached the top of Mount Sina called Horeb he saw God in a fiery Bush which neverthelesse was not consumed in the midst of the flames This was no illusion of the Understanding The verity of the Bush the figure of a dream nor any phantasticall image which appear'd to Moses But the second Person of the most holy Trinity or at least some Angell who represented him This fire likewise was a true and real fire produced by a Divine breathing and by an Angelicall hand which without breaking the Laws of Nature was able to draw this fire either out of Wood the Air or those stones which were about this sacred Bush The respect neverthelesse the fire bore unto a matter which it never spares was not naturall there requir'd a Miracle to stay the course of its activity and the rigour of those flames which issued forth of the earth had not left this Wood unconsum'd if He whose least glance inlightens the stars in the heavens without whom the Sun Moon would remain in darkness had not suspended for a while this active conjunction and these fertile and powerfull influences without which creatures have neither life motion nor action Now to understand what this miracle denoted A fair subject of Enâ—gma we must presuppose that Fire hath been always a Symbol of the Divinity not only amongst the Egyptians Grecians Chaldeans and Romans but amongst all other people of the Earth who have not seen any thing more conformable more resembling a most pure Divine flames subtill simple and luminous Nature living only in the splendours and flames which flow from its substance then a most pure subtile simple Element which hath no life but amidst Lights and Ardours naturall to it It being so this Enigma can have no other literal sense than this This fire is the Image of God and the flaming Bush a figure of the Israelites whom these Divine flames kept in a gentle heat where like gold in the Furnace they might be purified but not consum'd They that will otherwise explicate this Picture may say that this is God cloathed with our humane nature the Aeternall Word who is all fire who cast himself amidst the Thorns and Brambles of a weak and mortall nature which could not yet be consumed by the ardours of those flames which incompass it on all sides Others with Rupertus Theodoret and St. Bernard will believe that it was a figure of the blessed Virgin whose Chastity as a fiery bush could not be violated although she had brought forth him who is nothing but Splendour Fire Light and Ardour However it be and what ever can be said of it we must approach neerer unto it with Moses and behold with a holy respect this Stupendious Vision Cernens autem Dominus quod pergeret ad videndum vocavit eum de medio rubi ait Moses Moses qui respondit adsum Exed 3. v. 4. At illâ— ne appropies inquit huc solve calceamentum de â—edibus tuis locus enim in quo stas terra sancta est Exod. 3. v. 5. Et ait Ego sum Deus patris tui Deus Abrabam Deus Isaac Deus Jacob. Exod. 3. v. 6. Abscondit Moises faciem suaâ— non enim audebat aspicere contra Deum Exod. 3. v. 6 I hear already the voice of God who calls this happy solitary person and who in the midst of this flaming Pyle say's unto him Moses Moses Lord what is thy pleasure answers this amiable Sheapheard Behold me ready to doe all that thou shalt command The sight of this Sacred Bush had surprised him and given him a holy Curiosity to approach and see it neer at hand But as he advanced God sayd unto him that the place where he set his Feet was Holy ground that he must put off his shooes and besides He that had spoken to him was the great God of his Father the God of Abraham Isaack and Jacob. At these words Moses remained so much astonished and the sight of this Object ravished him with so sweet a violence as he was inforc'd to veil his Eyes too weak to endure the Splendor and Majesty of God who seeing him so plyable and obedient spake to him as a good Father who feels his heart touched with compassion for the miseries of his poor Children I have Cui ait Vidi
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
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
its bowels to serve as an instrument unto the Justice of its God Witness also that dreadfull tempest which shook the whole Kingdome of Naples Vide Patriarcham and which hapned in the year three hundred fourty and three under the government of Jane the first of that name All these chastisements nevertheless were but light and rather threats than punishments if we compare them with those which in the law of Nature and in the written Law laid desolate the whole Universe or at least the beautifull'st parts thereof Water began and as it hath less respect in its disorders than the rest of Creatures it spared but eight persons who guided into the Ark the relicks of the world Afterwards Fire which hath a more furious and violent nature than Water fell suddenly upon four infamous Cities where it left nothing but ashes and stench Behold the first revenge God took upon sinners and to speak according to the opinion of a Learned Divine of the Primitive Church Jobius mouachus in Bibliotheca Photii These were the first Tremblings of the Earth The third was in the strange punishment of Pharaoh commonly called The Plagues of Egypt which hapned about the time of that famous deluge which drowned in a maner all Greece and those excessive heats which almost consumed the whole Universe The number of these Plagues was Ten a perfect number and which denotes That the punishment was to pass even unto extremity since the offence had passed even unto excess As for the place where these Plagues began Fecit mirabilia in terra Aegypti in campo Taneos Psal 77. the City of Taniz the Metropolitan of Egypt was first strucken with it the disease came first from them as out of a fatal spring which afterwards spred it self with dread and terror over the Lands of that Empire I know not of whose hands God made use in this strange Ministry nevertheless it is most probable That he imployed therein those Spirits of Fires and Flames which are the Instruments of his Wrath and the Executioners of his severest Vengeances I cannot also determine how long they lasted but following the Narration of Moses it is credible That their course was six or seven and twenty days Wherein God manifested his goodness and mercy in the greatest height of his Justice for he might have destroyed all Egypt in an instant and made a dreadful Sepulchre of this infamous Kingdom But he thought good to cast his Darts one after another and to shew That he was not onely a Judge but also a Father and that he had not onely the power and force to punish but also the patience and sweetness to expect and mollifie those who notwithstanding became more and more obstinate as we shall presently see CHAP. IX The Waters of Egypt turned into Blood IT is the ordinary course of the vengeances of Heaven to punish sinners with the same weapons they use to assault it And it is for this cause First Plague Quest 19. in Exod. as Theodoret observes the River Nilus of which Egypt made a Divinity and whose Crocodils she also adored was the first field of battail in which God gave them the first alarm with the first combats upon the waves and Billows of blood which bore the Murtherous colours of so great a number of Innocents as had been drowned therein Solinus c. 35. It may be said that then the Angel whom St. Apocalyp 16. John saw in his Apocalyps powred into the waters of Egypt that mortall viall in which was the bloody water of the wrath and indignation of God The River Nilus saith Artabau increased excessively and its waves seemed to have so much sense as to complain and call for vengeance against the cruelties of Pharaoh as also to recall into his memory that he had spilt more blood than needed to make a great River Now it was not onely of a vermillion colour and purpled Et elevns virgam percusit aquam fluminis coram Pharaone servit ejus quae versa est in sanguinem Exod. 7. v. 21. with some drops of blood which had dyed the surface of Rivers and all ponds but also all the waters of Egypt were turned into blood which was the cause that all fishes dyed therein not finding themselves any longer in their naturall Element This was indeed a Triumph worth of God and of his glory Dixitque Dominus ad Moisen dic Aaron tolle virgam tuam extende manum tuam super aquas Aegypti super fluvios eorum ut vertantur in sanguinem to see Moses at his bare word putting the miraculous Rod into Aarons hand and who having commanded him by order from his God to hold it over the water he no sooner did it but instantly this body though insensible began to have sense in the quarrel of its Master and testified by a change of Nature and by a generall corruption that there is nothing in the World which ought and may not arm it self against creatures when it concernes the interest of their Creator No man ought then to wonder if the water of Nilus and of Egypt takes the form of blood if this blood putrifies and if all the Fishes die therein For God begins on the water to hold his justice-seat and his Throne must be exposed under a bloody Canopy and infectious vapours must be seen to rise under his feet which are as the shadowes of those horrors and crimes which have been commited by this people It is said Et fuit sanguis in totâ terâ—â Aegypti Exod 7. v. 21. Avertitque se ingressus est domum suam nec apposuit coretiam hac vice Exod. 7. v. 22. Feceruntque similiter malefici Aegyptiorum in cantationibus suis Exod. 7. v. 22. Foderunt autem omnes Aegyptii per circuitum fluminis aquam ut biberent Exod. 7. v. 24 Impletique sunt dies septem post quam percussit Dominus fluvium Exod. 7. v. 25. that a Diamond which hardneth under Hammers and Anvils is broken with blood The heart of Pharaoh is harder than the diamond since being in the midst of a kingdome covered over with blood it could not be softned besides he turned his Eyes from this verity and that he might not hear the noise of this tempest he retires into his House there he strives to flatter the wound God nevâ—ly gave him resting satisfied to have seen his inchanters who had done some such like thing but instead of changing water into blood they should have done better to have changed blood into water to quench the thirst of the Egyptians who half dispairing digged pits about the River Nilus to seek for water to drink and who would at least have dyed in this sad affliction if God after seven dayes had not stopt the torrents of his wrath and staied the course of the Rivers of blood which poysoned and choaked that miserable people CHAP. X. The Frogs of Egypt SEven days
themselves immortall But even those who have not born arms but by express order from God and have had no other design in the conduct of their Troops than to conserve his Empire and inlarge the bounds of his Dominions cannot be freed from paying tribute unto death Who could believe that it durst assault Moses and that this great Captain who had hitherto cast terror and dread into the Armies of his Enemies and so often preserved the lives of his Party should be reduced to the point of being necessitated to undergo the last assaults of Nature Who would believe that he must now be treated like the meanest of persons but this usage is very gentle and these assaults do not affright him since he sings in dying and that these last words are no other than Benedictions for his people and Prophecies concerning all that was to happen unto the Children of Israel My children saith he Haec est benedictio qua benedixit Moises bomo Dei filiis Israel ance mortem suam Deut. 33. v. 1. Et ait Dominus dâ— Sinai venit de Seiortus est nobis apparuit de monte Pharan cum eo sanctorum millia In dextera ejus ignea lex Deut. 33. the Lord who came unto us on the top of Mount Sina to hold his first Sessions upon a Throne of Fire and a Tribunal of Flames This beautiful Sun which rose about the Mountain of Seir and whose Rayes stifled all those furious Serpents which persecuted us This King who appeared to us on the Summit of Mount Paran to establish our Judges This God who is always followed by millions of Angels and whose Majesty sufficiently made its self to be felt when he appeared holding in his hands the Law which he gave us amidst the Thunders and Lightnings It is he who hath wrought these miracles of Love Dilexit populos omnes sancti in manu illius sunt qui apprepinquant pedibus ejus accipient de doctrina illius Deut. 33. v. 3. Legem praecepit nobis Moises haereditatem multitudinis Jacob. Deut. 33. v. 4. and prodigies of Goodness and Power in testimony That you are his wel-beloved people and that he hath no common cares and tendernesses for those who are like your selves more peculiarly consecrated unto him The Law which I leave you by his order is then your Inheritance and the fairest possessions which I even now dying leave unto all your Successors I beseech this great God of our Fore-fathers Vivae Ruben non moriatur sit parvus in numero Deut. 33. v. 6. that the Posterity of Ruben may extend it self without limits even beyond time But I cannot divert the shafts of his Justice which will fall on this guilty Race and which shall be always small in number by reason of the incest which hath infected the first of their name Haec est Judae benedictio Audi Domine vocem Judae Et ad populum suum introduc eum Manus ejus pugnabunt pro eo adjutor illins contra adversarios ejus erit Deut. 33. v. 7. Levi quoque ait Perfectio tua doctrina tua viro sancto tuo c. Deut. 33. v. 8. Lord be propitious unto the children of Juda and when this Prince of the Tribes shall march in the head of your troops overthrow all his enemies and by the power of the Arm of the great God of Battels let him enter the Holy Land I expect also from God that his goodness would conserve in the house of Levi the Priesthood of Aaron with the Ornaments and other principal qualities which are as it were the eyes and souls of so holy and so illustrious a Dignity Et Benjamin ait Ammantissimus Domini habitabit confidenter in eo quast in thalamo tota die morabitur inter humeros illius requiescet Deut. 33. v. 12. I leave unto Benjamin all that which the power of the world can neither give nor take away from him It is the affection of a God who hath made choice of his Territories there to build his Temple and ordained his Tribe to extract thence the Kings of the people of Israel It is also as it were in the bosom and on the back of this his Favorite that the Divinity will take repose as in a Bed of Love and will cause his glory to break forth as on a Throne of Honor. As for Joseph Joseph quoque ait de benedictione Domini terra ejus de pomis caeli rore atque abysso subjacente Deut. 33. v. 13. Et super verticem Nazaraei inter fratres sues Deut. 33. v. 16. and his Off-spring the Earth and the Heavens will make an amorous war against each other and will have a secret emulation to fill them with their benefits and he that appeared to me in the flaming Bush will descend as I promise my self from his mercy upon the head of this Nazarite who hath already changed his Prison into a Throne and to whom the envy of his Brethren served but to raise him above themselves and render him the Vicegerent of Pharaoh The happy Line of Zabulon and Issachar Et Zabulon ait Latare Zabulon in exitu tuo Issachar in tabernaculis tuis Deut. 33. v. 18. Populos vocabunt ad montem ibi immolabunt victimas sustiâ—iae c. Deut. 33. v. 19. have no cause to be sad for they will quietly enjoy all the advantages of the traffick they shall exercise on their shores And both of them by words and examples shall teach the other Tribes and invite them to repair unto Mount Sion to render unto God in his Temple the Worship and Honors which are due unto him Lyons have not more courage and strength Et Gad ait benedictus in latitudine Gad quasi leo requievit cepiâ—que brachium verticem Deut. 33. v. 20. than the Children of Gad and in effect they have already given chace to all their enemies and the Amorites have in a maner given them entrance into those vast Possessions of Canaan of which they shall be the masters Those of Dan also are as so many little Lyons Dan quoque ait Dan catulus leonu fluet largiter de Basan Deut. 33. v. 22. like those of Basan the Philistims shall one day become their prey and the City which bears their name shall be as the Spring of Jordan and the Nursing-mother of other Provinces Concerning Naphtali Et Nepthali dixit Nepthali abundantia perfruetur plenus erit benedictionibus Domini mare meridiem possidebit Deu. 33. v. 23. Aser quoque ait benedictus in filiis Aser sit placens fratribus suis c. Deut. 33. v. 24. Habitabit Israel confidenter solus c. Deut. 33. v. 28. Beatus es tu Israel Quis similis tui popule qui salvaris in Domino scutum auxilii tui gladius gleriae tuae negabunt te inimici tui tu corum colla calcabis Deut. 33.