repent, our want [may by thy goodnels] and Compassion [be mercifully] and speedily [turned into cheapuefs and plenty of all neceffary things. And though we have no merit to deferve fo excellent a favour, yet we beg it for the Lobe,]which we have from,and the kindnefs thou fheweft us upon the account [of Jefus Chrif our Lo20,] by whom we were redeemed, and therefore [to whom, with thee, 1 O Father, our Creator, [and the Holy Ghost] ourComforter,even in our deepest Diftrefs we defire may [be] afcribed [all honour and glo2y] by us on Earth [now], and by Saints and Angels in heaven for ever [and for ever.] Amen. Of the Second Prayer in time of Famine. 5. VI. A though both thefe Prayers relate to the fame fubject,and aim at the fame end: Yet there is difference enough between them to fecure them from the cenfure of being either of them needlefs or Tautology. The former is moft proper to be used, when the judgment is in a leffer degree; this when it is come to the heigth, as it was in the time of Elisha: That Prayer is molt agreeable to a Famine coming by unfeasonable weather, and the more immediate hand of God;tut this when it is the effect of War,and comes by the hand of Man; for fuch was the Samaritan Famine here inftanced in, and this Form fuppofeth us to be punished with like adverfity: So that we fhall premife fomething concerning this kind of Famine here. War is very of ten an occafion of Dearth and Scarcity; first, in the Country; fecondly, in Cities and befeiged places. In the Country, which is the feat of War, there is commonly a great want of Provifions, not only by reafon of that which a multitude of Souldiers eat,but because they do (w) Herodot, in Clio lib. 1. 17. (w) Impius hæc tam culta nevalia miles habebit Barbarus has figeo tes en queis confevimus agros. (*) Τις περὶ τω ὦσιν ἀβλαβῶς, ὡς γεωργίαν ὄντας xoivès övras åæárτων δεργέτας: Die odor. Sicul. 1.2. de Indis. do destroy or take away the fruits of the ground: fo did the Midianites in Canaan, Jud.vi.3 4. giving the Ifraelites leave to fow, and coming up at Harveft_time carried away the profits: fo did Alyattes King of Lydia fpoil the Milefians for eleven years together (u): And this is that of which the Shepheard Malibeus complains in Virgil, Eccl.1. (m): And fo that terrible Army which Joel threatens, chap. ii. 3. was to fcourge the Jews, before whom the land was as the Garden of Eden, and behind them a defolate Wilderness. 'Tis true Diodorus Siculus faith, that the Indians in all their Wars fpared the Husbandmen, and their labours, as being men taking pains for the common Good (x). And fuch a Law there was among the Corinthians, faith Plutarch. Cyrus alfo profeffeth, that he obferved this Rule in all his Wars, as Xenophon relates (y).And fo did the Gothish Prince Totilas fpare all the Italian Peasants, and encourage them to follow their Husbandry fecurely (z). But thefe are rare Inftances; and though it be very juft, yet it is feldom done by those whofe Swords give the Law: thefe do commonly either kill and fpoil the poor Countrymen, or elfe fo affright and difcourage them, that they leave the ground untilled; from whence grievous Famine did enfue in Italy in Bellifariws his Wars, P. Diac. () Zenophon.Inftit. Cyr. 1.5. (z) Agricolis inte. rimper omnem Itali. am nihil mali intu terram lit, fed juffit ect ita ut lib.17. And the like hath happened in our neighbouring Countries as well as in our own. But fecondly, the feverest Famines of all are thofe, which War brings upon befieged places,fuch as was in Samaria here mentioned, of which we shall speak more on the enfuing Prayer,having first prefented a Scheme of the Method thereof. The Analysis of the Second Prayer. A Practical Difcourfe on this Prayer. S.VIII. God merciful Father, who in the time of Elitha,the Prophet,otdœ fuddenly in Hamaria turn great scarcity and dearth into plenty and cheapnels.] (a) Mutatur religio mutatur defca enim alienum eft quod eft qued contra regncolitur, ita alienum lam efuritur. Aug.de temp.ferm.3. Amongst all the Famines recorded in any History there have been none fo terrible and outragious as those of befieged Cities. And this which is here mentioned, when Benbadad had blocked up Samaria, An.mund. 3508.in the Reign of Jeboram,the Son of Abab, was equally remarkable for the fury of it, whilft it remained, and the wonderful removal thereof. The Samaritans were fallen to worship strange and forbidden Gods, and they are forced to eat ftrange and forbidden food (a); they are conftrained to fatiate their hunger with the vile flesh of Affes, which the Law prohibited,Levit.xi.3. And it was but few whose purses could extend to this coftly fare neither, the very head of this contemptible Creature being fold for eighty fhekels, which far exceeds the Rates of the fame difh, which Plutarch faith was fold once in the Perfian Army in a great Famine for fixty drachmas, that is,above forty fhillings of our money, and gives credit to Pliny's Relation of a Mouse at Cafalinum (when Hannibal lay before it) fold for 200 pence, Valer.Max.l.7.cap.6. But the poorer Samaritans were glad to eat the macerated Pulfe, which were taken out of the Crops of those doves, which could fly abroad into the fields to feed, about the fourth part of a quart of this forry chear being the purchase of five fhekels. fhekels. And the records of all Ages give us divers Parallels: The Athenians befieged by Sylla boiled and eat their old fhoes; the Souldiers of Petellina in Italy eat the Leather off from their fhields before they would yield to the Carthaginians: Dogs and Horfes, Cats and Vermine have been the best food of many in this Case, and of fome of those in our Fathers days, who held out fome ftrong places in the Quarrel of our bleffed Martyr K.CHARLES. The Famine at Saguntum was fo intollerable, that the furvivers chofe to burn themselves in a great fire made on purpose,rather than endure it. But the faddeft Circumitane e of this Samaritan Famine was the Mother's eating her own Child, 2 King. vi. 29. Which though it were fo inhumane that we shrink at the very mention; yet the direful hunger of belieged places hath forced the neceffitous thereunto. The Inhabitants of Calaguria, fhut up by Cn. Pompey, began to eat their Wives and Children.Plut. And the Roman Ladies themfelves devoured their own Children, when befieged by Vitiges, the Gothish King, as S. Datius Arch-Bilh.of Millain relates. P. Diacon.l.17. And S. Augustine affirms, that he had not only heard of this barbarous eating Children often, but known it in his own time (b); and in the Sermon of his above-cited, he thus fets it forth. Alas! how bunger makes them devour their Piety, and change their own off-spring into food? the cruellest Parricide must be committed, before they can have this horrid feaft Take, O unhappy Mother, thy wretched Son into thy bowels, that lately fprung from thence, and be the Grave and Monument to thy own Child, &c. Serm. de temp.3. But I will not enlarge on this fad Subject, only if it be any cafe to our Sufferings to hear of others in (b) Quod malum aliquoties accidiffe & wetus teftatur hiftoria, noftrorum tem porum infalicia exp rimenta docuerunt. Civ. Dei 1,22.c.20. ว |