Book III.--Of the Harmony of the Fathers of the Old and New Testaments.
Now hath the mother, formerly surnamed
Barren, giv'n birth: [1461] now a new people, born
From the free woman, [1462] joys: (the slave expelled,
Deservedly, with her proud progeny;
5 Who also leaves ungratefully behind
The waters of the living fount, [1463] and drinks--
Errant on heated plains--'neath glowing star: [1464] )
Now can the Gentiles as their parent claim
Abraham; who, the Lord's voice following,
10 Like him, have all things left, [1465] life's pilgrimage
To enter. "Be glad, barren one;" conceive
The promised people; "break thou out, and cry,"
Who with no progeny wert blest; of whom
Spake, through the seers, the Spirit of old time:
15 She hath borne, out of many nations, one;
With whose beginning are her pious limbs
Ever in labour.
Hers "just Abel" [1466] was,
A pastor and a cattle--master he;
Whom violence of brother's right hand slew
20 Of old. Her Enoch, signal ornament,
Limb from her body sprung, by counsel strove
To recall peoples gone astray from God
And following misdeed, (while raves on earth
The horde of robber-renegades, [1467] ) to flee
25 The giants'sacrilegious cruel race;
Faithful in all himself. With groaning deep [1468]
Did he please God, and by deserved toil
Translated [1469] is reserved as a pledge,
With honour high. Perfect in praise, and found
30 Faultless, and just--God witnessing [1470] the fact--
In an adulterous people, Noah (he
Who in twice fifty years [1471] the ark did weave)
By deeds and voice the coming ruin told.
Favour he won, snatched out of so great waves
35 Of death, and, with his progeny, preserved.
Then, in the generation [1472] following,
Is Abraham, whose sons ye do deny
Yourselves to be; who first--race, country, sire,
All left behind--at suasion of God's voice
40 Withdrew to realms extern: such honours he
At God's sublime hand worthily deserved
As to be father to believing tribes
And peoples. Jacob with the patriarchs
(Himself their patriarch) through all his own
45 Life's space the gladdest times of Christ foresang
By words, act, virtue, toil.
Him follows--free
From foul youth's stain--Joseph, by slander feigned,
Doomed to hard penalty and gaol: his groans
Glory succeeds, and the realm's second crown, so
50 And in dearth's time large power of furnishing
Bread: so appropriate a type of Christ,
So lightsome type of Light, is manifest
To all whose mind hath eyes, that they may see
In a face-mirror [1473] their sure hope.
Himself
55 The patriarch Judah, see; the origin
Of royal line, [1474] whence leaders rose, nor kings
Failed ever from his seed, until the Power
To come, by Gentiles looked for, promised long,
Came.
Moses, leader of the People, (he
60 Who, spurning briefly--blooming riches, left
The royal thresholds,) rather chose to bear
His people's toils, afflicted, with bowed neck,
By no threats daunted, than to gain himself
Enjoyments, and of many penalties
65 Remission: admirable for such faith
And love, he, with God's virtue armed, achieved
Great exploits: smote the nation through with plagues;
And left their land behind, and their hard king
Confounds, and leads the People back; trod waves;
70 Sunk the foes down in waters; through a "tree" [1475]
Made ever-bitter waters sweet; spake much
(Manifestly to the People) with the Christ, [1476]
From whose face light and brilliance in his own
Reflected shone; dashed on the ground the law
75 Accepted through some few, [1477] --implicit type,
And sure, of his own toils!--smote through the rock;
And, being bidden, shed forth streams; and stretched
His hands that, by a sign, [1478] he vanquish might
The foe; of Christ all severally, all [1479]
80 Combined through Christ, do speak. Great and approved,
He [1480] rests with praise and peace.
But Joshua,
The son of Nun, erst called Oshea--this man
The Holy Spirit to Himself did join
As partner in His name: [1481] hence did he cleave
85 The flood; constrained the People to pass o'er;
Freely distributed the land--the prize
Promised the fathers!--stayed both sun and moon
While vanquishing the foe; races extern
And giants' progeny outdrave; razed groves;
90 Altars and temples levelled; and with mind
Loyal [1482] performed all due solemnities:
Type of Christ's name; his virtue's image.
What
Touching the People's Judges shall I say
Singly? whose virtues, [1483] if unitedly
95 Recorded, fill whole volumes numerous
With space of words. But yet the order due
Of filling out the body of my words,
Demands that, out of many, I should tell
The life of few.
Of whom when Gideon, guide
100 Of martial band, keen to attack the foe,
(Not keen to gain for his own family,
By virtue, [1484] tutelary dignity, [1485] )
And needing to be strengthened [1486] in the faith
Excited in his mind, seeks for a sign
105 Whereby he either could not, or could, wage
Victorious war; to wit, that with the dew
A fleece, exposèd for the night, should be
Moistened, and all the ground lie dry around
(By this to show that, with the world, [1487] should dry [1488]
110 The enemies' palm); and then again, the fleece
Alone remaining dry, the earth by night
Should with the self-same [1489] moisture be bedewed:
For by this sign he prostrated the heaps
Of bandits; with Christ's People 'countering them
115 Without much soldiery, with cavalry [1490]
Three hundred--the Greek letter Tau, in truth,
That number is [1491] --with torches armed, and horns
Of blowers with the mouth: then [1492] was the fleece,
The people of Christ's sheep, from holy seed
120 Born (for the earth means nations various,
And scattered through the orb), which fleece the word
Nourishes; night death's image; Tau the sign
Of the dear cross; the horn the heraldings
Of life; the torches shining in their stand [1493]
125 The glowing Spirit: and this testing, too,
Forsooth, an image of Christ's virtue was: [1494]
To teach that death's fierce battles should not be
By trump angelic vanquished before
Th' indocile People be deservedly
130 By their own fault left desolate behind,
And Gentiles, flourishing in faith, received
In praise.
Yea, Deborah, a woman far
Above all fame, appears; who, having braced
Herself for warlike toil, for country's sake,
135 Beneath the palm-tree sang how victory
Had crowned her People; thanks to whom it was
That the foes, vanquisht, turned at once their backs,
And Sisera their leader fled; whose flight
No man, nor any band, arrested: him,
140 Suddenly renegade, a woman's hand--
Jael's [1495] --with wooden weapon vanquished quite,
For token of Christ's victory.
With firm faith
Jephthah appears, who a deep-wounding vow
Dared make--to promise God a grand reward
145 Of war: him [1496] then, because he senselessly
Had promised what the Lord not wills, first meets
The pledge [1497] dear to his heart; who suddenly
Fell by a lot unhoped by any. He,
To keep his promise, broke the sacred laws
150 Of parenthood: the shade of mighty fear
Did in his violent mind cover his vow
Of sin: as solace of his widowed life
For [1498] wickedness, renown, and, for crime, praise,
He won.
Nor Samson's strength, all corporal might
155 Passing, must we forget; the Spirit's gift
Was this; the power was granted to his head. [1499]
Alone he for his People, daggerless,
Armless, an ass-jaw grasping, prostrated
A thousand corpses; and no bonds could keep
160 The hero bound: but after his shorn pride
Forsook him thralled, he fell, and, by his death,--
Though vanquisht,--bought his foes back 'neath his power.
Marvellous Samuel, who first received
The precept to anoint kings, to give chrism
165 And show men-Christs, [1500] so acted laudably
In life's space as, e'en after his repose,
To keep prophetic rights. [1501]
Psalmographist
David, great king and prophet, with a voice
Submiss was wont Christ's future suffering
170 To sing: which prophecy spontaneously
His thankless lawless People did perform:
Whom [1502] God had promised that in time to come,
Fruit of his womb, [1503] a holy progeny,
He would on his sublime throne set: the Lord's
175 Fixt faith did all that He had promised.
Corrector of an inert People rose
Emulous [1504] Hezekiah; who restored
Iniquitous forgetful men the Law: [1505]
All these God's mandates of old time he first
180 Bade men observe, who ended war by prayers, [1506]
Not by steel's point: he, dying, had a grant
Of years and times of life made to his tears:
Deservedly such honour his career
Obtained.
With zeal immense, Josiah, prince
185 Himself withal, in like wise acted: none
So much, before or after!--Idols he
Dethroned; destroyed unhallowed temples; burned
With fire priests on their altars; all the bones
Of prophets false updug; the altars burned,
190 The carcases to be consumed did serve
For fuel!
To the praise of signal faith,
Noble Elijah, (memorable fact!)
Was rapt; [1507] who hath not tasted yet death's dues;
Since to the orb he is to come again.
195 His faith unbroken, then, chastening with stripes
People and frenzied king, (who did desert
The Lord's best service), and with bitter flames
The foes, shut up the stars; kept in the clouds
The rain; showed all collectively that God
200 Is; made their error patent;--for a flame,
Coming with force from heaven at his prayers,
Ate up the victim's parts, dripping with flood,
Upon the altar: [1508] --often as he willed,
So often from on high rushed fire; [1509] the stream
205 Dividing, he made pathless passable; [1510]
And, in a chariot raised aloft, was borne
To paradise's hall.
Disciple his
Elisha was, succeeding to his lot: [1511]
Who begged to take to him Elijah's lot [1512]
210 In double measure; so, with forceful stripe,
The People to chastise: [1513] such and so great
A love for the Lord's cause he breathed. He smote
Through Jordan; made his feet a way, and crossed
Again; raised with a twig the axe down--sunk
215 Beneath the stream; changed into vital meat
The deathful food; detained a second time,
Double in length, [1514] the rains; cleansed leprosies; [1515]
Entangled foes in darkness; and when one
Offcast and dead, by bandits'slaughter slain
220 His limbs, after his death, already hid
In sepulchre, did touch, he--light recalled--
Revived.
Isaiah, wealthy seer, to whom
The fount was oped,--so manifest his faith!
Poured from his mouth God's word forth. Promised was
225 The Father's will, bounteous through Christ; through him
It testified before the way of life,
And was approved: [1516] but him, though stainless found,
And undeserving, the mad People cut
With wooden saw in twain, and took away
230 With cruel death.
The holy Jeremy
Followed; whom the Eternal's Virtue bade
Be prophet to the Gentiles, and him told
The future: who, because he brooded o'er
His People's deeds illaudable, and said
235 (Speaking with voice presaging) that, unless
They had repented of betaking them
To deeds iniquitous against their slaves, [1517]
They should be captived, bore hard bonds, shut up
In squalid gaol; and, in the miry pit,
240 Hunger exhausted his decaying limbs.
But, after he did prove what they to hear
Had been unwilling, and the foes did lead
The People bound in their triumphal trains,
Hardly at length his wrinkled right hand lost
245 Its chains: it is agreed that by no death
Nor slaughter was the hero ta'en away.
Faithful Ezekiel, to whom granted was
Rich grace of speech, saw sinners' secrets; wailed
His own afflictions; prayed for pardon; saw
250 The vengeance of the saints, which is to be
By slaughter; and, in Spirit wrapt, the place
Of the saints' realm, its steps and accesses,
And the salvation of the flesh, he saw.
Hosea, Amos, Micah, Joel, too,
255 With Obadiah, Jonah, Nahum, come;
Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai,
And Zechariah who did violence
Suffer, and Malachi--angel himself!
Are here: these are the Lord's seers; and their choir,
260 As still they sing, is heard; and equally
Their proper wreath of praise they all have earned.
How great was Daniel! What a man!
What power!
Who by their own mouth did false witnesses
Bewray, and saved a soul on a false charge
265 Condemned; [1518] and, before that, by mouth resolved
The king's so secret dreams; foresaw how Christ
Dissolves the limbs of kingdoms; was accused
For his Lord's was made the lions' prey;
And, openly preserved [1519] before all eyes,
270 Rested in peace.
His Three Companions, scarce
With due praise to be sung, did piously
Contemn the king's iniquitous decree,
Out of so great a number: to the flames
Their bodies given were; but they preferred,
275 For the Great Name, to yield to penalties
Themselves, than to an image stretch their palms
On bended knees. Now their o'erbrilliant faith,
Now hope outshining all things, the wild fires
Hath quencht, and vanquisht the iniquitous!
280 Ezra the seer, doctor of Law, and priest
Himself (who, after full times, back did lead
The captive People), with the Spirit filled
Of memory, restored by word of mouth
All the seers' volumes, by the fires and mould [1520]
285 Consumèd.
Great above all born from seed
Is John whose praises hardly shall we skill