CHAPTER IX.

THE LIFE OF ELIEZER.

ELIEZER was steward of Abraham's household, lieutenantgeneral over the army of his servants, ruler over all his master had; the confidence in his loyalty causing the largeness of his commission.

But as for those who make him the founder of Damascus, on no other evidence but because he is called "Eliezer of Damascus," they build a great city on too narrow a foundation. It argues his goodness, that Abraham, if dying without a son, intended him his heir, (a kinsman in grace is nearest by the surest side!) till Isaac, stepping in, stopped out Eliezer, and reversed those resolutions.

The Scripture presents us with a remarkable precedent of his piety, in a matter of great moment: *-Abraham, being to send him into Mesopotamia, caused him to swear that he would faithfully fetch Isaac a wife from his own kindred. Eliezer demurred awhile before he would swear; carefully surveying the latitude of his oath, lest some unseen ambushes therein should surprise his conscience. The most scrupulous to take an oath will be the most careful to perform it: whereas those that swear it blindly, will do it lamely. He objects: "Peradventure the woman shall not be willing to follow me." At last, being satisfied in this query, he takes the oath; as no honest man who means to pay, will refuse to give his bond, if lawfully required. He takes ten camels, (then the coaches of the east-country,) with servants and all things in good equipage, to show a sample of his master's greatness; and, being a stranger in the country, asked direction of him who best knew the way,-God himself. If any object, that his craving of a sign was a sign of infidelity, and unmannerly boldness, to confine God to particulars; yet, perchance, God's Spirit prompted him to make the request, who sometimes moves men to ask what he is minded to give; and his petition seemeth just, because granted.

Rebekah meets him at the well. The lines, drawn from

That the nameless servant (Gen. xxiv.) was this Eliezer, Abraham's steward, is the opinion of Luther, in his Comment on that chapter; RIVET, on the same, Exercit. 111; with many others.

of sanctity; and it is not enough to be unmarried, but to be undefiled.

Though going abroad sometimes about her business, she never makes it her business to go abroad.-Indeed, "man goeth forth to his labour;" and a widow in civil affairs is often forced to act a double part of man and woman, and must go abroad to solicit her business in person, what she cannot do by the proxy of her friends. Yet, even then, she is most careful of her credit, and tender of her modesty, not impudently thrusting into the society of men. O, it is improper for tinder to strike fire; and for their sex who are to be sued to, first to intrude, and offer their company!

VI.

She loves to look on her husband's picture, in the children he hath left her.-Not foolishly fond over them for their father's sake, (this were to kill them in honour of the dead!) but giveth them careful education. Her husband's friends are ever her welcomest guests; whom she entertaineth with her best cheer, and with honourable mention of their friend's and her husband's memory.

VII.

If she can speak little good of him, she speaks but little of him. -So handsomely folding up her discourse, that his virtues are shown outwards, and his vices wrapped up in silence; as counting it barbarism to throw dirt on his memory who hath moulds cast on his body. She is a champion for his credit, if any speak against him. Foolish is their project, who, by raking up bad savour against their former husbands, think thereby to perfume their bed for a second marriage.

VIII.

She putteth her especial confidence in God's providence.Surely if He be "a Father to the fatherless," it must need follow that he is "an Husband to the widow;" and therefore she seeks to gain and keep His love unto her, by her constant prayer and religious life.

IX.

She will not mortgage her [first] husband's pawns, thereby to purchase the good-will of a second.-If she marrieth, (for which she hath the apostle's licence, not to say mandate, "I will that the younger widows marry,") she will not abridge her children of that which justly belongs unto them. Surely, a broken faith to

the former is but a weak foundation to build thereon a loyal affection to a later love. Yet if she becomes a mother-in-law, there is no difference between her carriage to her own and her second husband's children, save that she is severest to her own, over whom she hath the sole jurisdiction. And if her second husband's children, by a former wife, commit a fault, she had rather bind them over to answer for it before their own father, than to correct them herself, to avoid all suspicion of hard using of them.

CHAPTER XI.

THE LIFE OF THE LADY PAULA.

"WHAT?" will some say, "having a wood of widows of upright conversation, must you needs gather one crooked with superstition to be pattern to all the rest? Must Paula be their president [precedent]? whose life was a very mass-book; so that if every point of Popery were lost, they might be found in her practice."

Nothing less. Indeed, Paula lived in an age which was, as I may say, in the knuckle and bending betwixt the primitive times and superstition: Popery being then a-hatching, but far from being fledged. Yea, no Papist (though picking out here and there some passages which make to his purpose) will make her practice, in gross, the square of his own. For where she embraces some superstitions with her left hand, she thrusts away more with her right. I have, therefore, principally made choice to write her Life, that I may acquaint both myself and the reader with the garb of that age in church-matters, wherein were many remarkable passages; otherwise I might and would have taken a far fitter example.

I know, two trades together are too much for one man to thrive upon; and too much for me it is to be an historian and a critic, to relate and to judge. Yet, since Paula, though a gracious woman, was guilty of some great errors, give me leave to hold a pencil in one hand, and a sponge in the other, both to draw her life, and dash it where it is faulty. And let us that live in purer times be thankful to God for our light, and use our

quicker sight to guide our feet in God's paths, lest we reel from one extremity to another.

To come to the Lady Paula's birth: the noblest blood in the world by a confluence ran in her veins. I must confess, the most ancient nobility is junior to no-nobility,-when all men were equal. Yet give others leave to see Moses's face to shine, when he knew it not himself; and seeing Paula was pleased not to know-but to neglect and trample on-her high birth, we are bound to take notice thereof. She was descended from Agamemnon, Scipio, and the Gracchi;* and her husband Toxotius, from Æneas, and the Julian family; † so that in their marriage the wars of the Grecians and Trojans were reconciled.

Some years they lived together, in the city of Rome, in holy and happy wedlock; and to her husband she bare four daughters,-Blesilla, Paulina, Eustochium, and Ruffina. Yet still her husband longed for posterity, like those who are so covetous of a male heir, they count none children but sons; and at last God, who keeps the best for the close, bestowed Toxotius, a young son, upon her.

But, commonly, after a great blessing comes a great cross: scarce was she made a mother to a son, when she was made a widow; which to her was a great and grievous affliction. But as a rub to an overthrown bowl proves a help by hindering it, so afflictions bring the souls of God's saints to the mark, which otherwise would be gone, and transported with too much earthly happiness. However, Paula grieved little less than excessively hereat; she being a woman that, in all her actions, (to be sure to do enough,) made always measure with advantage.

Yet, in time, she overcame her sorrow, herein being assisted by the counsel and comfort of St. Jerome, whose constant frequenting of her, commented upon by his enemies' malice, (which will pry narrowly and talk broadly,) gave occasion to the report, that he accompanied with her for dishonest intents. Surely, if the accusations of slanderous tongues be proofs, the primitive times had no churches but stews. It is to be suspected, that Ruffin, his sworn enemy, raised the report; and if the lady Paula's memory wanted a compurgator, I would be one myself, it being improbable that those her eyes would burn with lust which were constantly drowned with tears. But the reader may find St. Jerome purging himself; § and he who had + IDEM in eâdem Epist., p. 172. § In Epistola quæ

* HIERONYMI Epist. ad Eustoch., p. 185. ERASMUS in Scholia in epitaphium Paulæ, p. 193. incipit, "Si tibi putem," tom, ii. fol. 368,

his tongue and an innocent heart, needed nobody else to speak for him.

It happened that the bishops of the East and West were summoned, by the emperor's letters, to appear at Rome, for the according of some differences in the church: * it seems by this, that the Pope did not so command in chief at Rome, but that the power of congregating synods still resided in the emperor. Hither came Paulinus, bishop of Antioch; and Epiphanius, bishop of Salamine in Cyprus, who lodged at the lady Paula's; and his virtues so wrought upon her, that she determined to leave her native country, and to travel into the East, and in Judea to spend the remainder of her life. The reasons that moved her to remove were, because Rome was a place of riot and luxury, her soul being almost stifled with the frequencies of ladies' visits; and she feared courtesy in her would justle out piety, she being fain to crowd up her devotions to make room for civil entertainments. Besides, of her own nature she ever loved privacy and a sequestered life, being of the pelicans' nature, which use not to fly in flocks. Lastly: she conceived that the sight of those holy places would be the best comment on the history of the Bible, and fasten the passages thereof in her mind. Wherefore, she intended to survey all Palestine, and at last to go to Bethlehem, making Christ's inn her home, and to die there where he was born; leaving three of her daughters, and her poor infant Toxotius, behind her.

For mine own part, I think she had done as acceptable a deed to God, in staying behind to rock her child in the cradle, as to visit Christ's manger, seeing grace doth not cut off the affections of nature, but ripen them; the rather, because Christianity is not nailed to Christ's cross and Mount Calvary, nor piety fastened (as we may say) to the freehold of the land of Palestine. But if any Papist make her a pattern for pilgrimages, let them remember that she went from Rome: and was it not an unnatural motion in her to move from that centre of sanctity?

She, with her daughter Eustochium, began her journey; and, taking Cyprus in her way, where she visited Epiphanius, she came at last to Judea. She measured that country with her travelling, and drew the truest map thereof with her own feet, so accurately that she left out no particular place of importance. At last she was fixed at Bethlehem, where she built one monastery for men, and three for women.. It will be worth our pains

• HIERONYMI Epist. Prædict., p. 172.