when we came to buy corn, thou affordedst
us great plenty of food, and gavest us leave to carry so much home to
our family as has preserved them from perishing by famine. Nor is there
any difference between not overlooking men that were perishing for want
of necessaries, and not punishing those that seem to be offenders,
and have been so unfortunate as to lose the advantage of that glorious
benefaction which they received from thee. This will be an instance of
equal favor, though bestowed after a different manner; for thou wilt
save those this way whom thou didst feed the other; and thou wilt hereby
preserve alive, by thy own bounty, those souls which thou didst not
suffer to be distressed by famine, it being indeed at once a wonderful
and a great thing to sustain our lives by corn, and to bestow on us that
pardon, whereby, now we are distressed, we may continue those lives.
And I am ready to suppose that God is willing to afford thee this
opportunity of showing thy virtuous disposition, by bringing us into
this calamity, that it may appear thou canst forgive the injuries that
are done to thyself, and mayst be esteemed kind to others, besides those
who, on other accounts, stand in need of thy assistance; since it is
indeed a right thing to do well to those who are in distress for want
of food, but still a more glorious thing to save those who deserve to be
punished, when it is on account of heinous offenses against thyself;
for if it be a thing deserving commendation to forgive such as have
been guilty of small offenses, that tend to a person's loss, and this
be praiseworthy in him that overlooks such offenses, to restrain a man's
passion as to crimes which are capital to the guilty, is to be like the
most excellent nature of God himself. And truly, as for myself, had it
not been that we had a father, who had discovered, on occasion of the
death of Joseph, how miserably he is always afflicted at the loss of
his sons, I had not made any words on account of the saving of our own
lives; I mean, any further than as that would be an excellent character
for thyself, to preserve even those that would have nobody to lament
them when they were dead, but we would have yielded ourselves up to
suffer whatsoever thou pleasedst; but now [for we do not plead for mercy
to ourselves, though indeed, if we die, it will be while we are young,
and before we have had the enjoyment of life] have regard to our father,
and take pity of his old a