a, so hard were it for thee to
change me. Either then now listen to my counsel, and join the
household of Christ, and so thou shalt gain blessings past man's
understanding, and we shall be fellows with one another by faith, even
as by nature; or else, be well assured, I shall depart thy sonship, and
serve my God with a clear conscience."

Now when the king heard all these words, he was furiously enraged: and,
seized with ungovernable anger, he cried out wrathfully against him,
and gnashed his teeth fiercely, like any madman. "And who," said he,
"is blameable for all my misfortunes but myself, who have dealt with
thee so kindly, and cared for thee as no father before? Hence the
perversity and contrariness of thy mind, gathering strength by the
licence that I gave thee, hath made thy madness to fall upon mine own
pate. Rightly prophesied the astrologers in thy nativity that thou
shouldest prove a knave and villain, an impostor and rebellious son.
But now, if thou wilt make void my counsel, and cease to be my son, I
will become thine enemy, and entreat thee worse than ever man yet
entreated his foes."

Again said Ioasaph, "Why, O king, hast thou been kindled to wrath? Art
thou grieved that I have gained such bliss? Why, what father was ever
seen to be sorrowful in the prosperity of his son? Would not such an
one be called an enemy rather than a father? Therefore will I no more
call thee my father, but will withdraw from thee, as a man fleeth from
a snake, if I know that thou grudgest me my salvation, and with violent
hand forcest me to destruction. If thou wilt force me, and play the
tyrant, as thou hast threatened, be assured that thou shalt gain nought
thereby save to exchange the name of father for that of tyrant and
murderer. It were easier for thee to attain to the ways Of the eagle,
and, like him, cleave the air, than to alter my loyalty to Christ, and
that good confession that I have confessed in him. But be wise, O my
father, and shake off the rheum and mist from the eyes of thy mind,
lift them aloft and look upward to view the light of my God that
enlighteneth all around, and be thyself, at last, enlightened with this
light most sweet. Why art thou wholly given up to the passions and
desires of the flesh, and why is there no looking upward? Know thou
that all flesh is grass and all the glory of man as the flower of
grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away; but
the word of my L