ge, on whose account it is that we make these
supplications to thee. We beg thou wilt give us those lives which this
wickedness of ours has rendered obnoxious to thy punishment; and this
for his sake who is not himself wicked, nor does his being our father
make us wicked. He is a good man, and not worthy to have such trials of
his patience; and now, we are absent, he is afflicted with care for us.
But if he hear of our deaths, and what was the cause of it, he will on
that account die an immature death; and the reproachful manner of our
ruin will hasten his end, and will directly kill him; nay, will bring
him to a miserable death, while he will make haste to rid himself out of
the world, and bring himself to a state of insensibility, before the sad
story of our end come abroad into the rest of the world. Consider these
things in this manner, although our wickedness does now provoke thee
with a just desire of punishing that wickedness, and forgive it for our
father's sake; and let thy commiseration of him weigh more with thee
than our wickedness. Have regard to the old age of our father, who, if
we perish, will be very lonely while he lives, and will soon die himself
also. Grant this boon to the name of fathers, for thereby thou wilt
honor him that begat thee, and will grant it to thyself also,
who enjoyest already that denomination; thou wilt then, by that
denomination, be preserved of God, the Father of all,--by showing a
pious regard to which, in the case of our father, thou wilt appear to
honor him who is styled by the same name; I mean, if thou wilt have this
pity on our father, upon this consideration, how miserable he will be
if he be deprived of his sons! It is thy part therefore to bestow on us
what God has given us, when it is in thy power to take it away, and so
to resemble him entirely in charity; for it is good to use that power,
which can either give or take away, on the merciful side; and when it is
in thy power to destroy, to forget that thou ever hadst that power, and
to look on thyself as only allowed power for preservation; and that the
more any one extends this power, the greater reputation does he gain to
himself. Now, by forgiving our brother what he has unhappily committed,
thou wilt preserve us all; for we cannot think of living if he be put to
death, since we dare not show ourselves alive to our father without our
brother, but here must we partake of one and the same catastrophe of his
life. And so