When king Abenner saw this, though late and loth, he came to his
senses, and renounced his false gods with all their impotence and vain
deceit. Again he called an assembly of his chief counsellors, and
brought to light the thoughts of his heart. As they confirmed his
words (for the day-spring from on high had visited them, the Saviour
who had heard the prayer of his servant Ioasaph), it pleased the king
to signify the same to his son. Therefore on the morrow he wrote a
letter to Ioasaph, running thus:
"King Abenner to his well-beloved son Ioasaph, greeting. Dearest son,
many thoughts have been stealing into my soul, and rule it with a rod
of iron. I see our state vanishing, like as smoke vanisheth, but thy
religion shining brighter than the sun; and I have come to my senses,
and know that the words which thou hast ever spoken unto me are true,
and that a thick cloud of sin and wickedness did then cover us, so that
we were unable to discern the truth, and recognize the Creator of all.
Nay, but we shut our eyes, and would not behold the light which thou
didst enkindle more brightly for us. Much evil did we do unto thee,
and many of the Christians, alas! did we destroy; who, strengthened by
the power that aided them, finally triumphed over our cruelty. But now
we have removed that dense mist from our eyes, and see some small ray
of truth, and there cometh on us repentance of our misdeeds. But a new
cloud of despair would overshadow it; despair at the multitude of mine
offences, because I am now abominable and unacceptable to Christ, being
a rebel and a foeman unto him. What, then, sayest thou, dearest son,
hereto? Make known to me thine answer, and teach me that am thy father
what I should do, and lead me to the knowledge of my true weal."
When Ioasaph had received this letter, and read the words therein, his
soul was filled with mingled joy and amazement. Forthwith he entered
his closet, and falling on his face before the image of his Master,
watered the ground with his tears, giving thanks to his Lord and
confessing him, and tuning lips of exultation to sing an hymn of
praise, saying:
"I will magnify thee, O God, my King, and I will praise thy name for
ever and ever. Great art thou O Lord, and marvellous-worthy to be
praised, and of thy greatness there is no end. Who can express thy
noble acts, or show forth all thy praise, who hast turned the hard rock
into a standing water and the flint-stone into a springing well? For
behold this my father's flinty and more than granite heart is at thy
will melted as wax; because thou art able of these stones to raise up
children unto Abraham. I thank thee, Lord, thou lover of men, and God
of pity, that thou hast been, and art, long-suffering towards our
offences, and hast suffered us until now to go unpunished. Long have
we deserved to be cast away from thy face, and made a by-word on earth,
as were the sinful inhabiters of the five cities, consumed with fire
and brimstone; but thy marvellous long-suffering hath dealt graciously
with us. I give thanks unto thee, vile and unworthy though I be, and
insufficient of myself to glorify thy greatness. And, by thine infinite
compassions, I pray thee, Lord Jesu Christ, Son and Word of the
invisible Father, who madest all things by thy word, and sustainest
them by thy will; who hast delivered us thine unworthy servants from
the bondage of the arch-fiend our foe: thou that wast stretched upon
the Rood, and didst bind the strong man, and award everlasting freedom
to them that lay bound in his fetters: do thou now also stretch forth
thine invisible and almighty hand, and, at the last, free thy servant
my father from that cruel bondage of the devil. Show him full clearly
that thou art the ever living true God, and only King, eternal and
immortal. Behold, O Lord, with favourable and kindly eye, the
contrition of my heart; and, according to thine unerring promise, be
with me that acknowledge and confess thee the Maker and protector of
all creation. Let there be a well of water within me springing up, and
let utterance be given unto me that I may open my mouth, and a mind
well fixed in thee, the chief corner-stone, that I, thine unprofitable
servant, may be enabled to preach to my father, as is right, the
mystery of thine Incarnation, and by thy power deliver him from the
vain deceit of wicked devils, and bring him unto thee his God and Lord,
who willest not the death of us sinners, but waitest for us to return
and repent, because thou art glorified for ever and ever. Amen."
When he had thus prayed, and received fulness of assurance that he
should not miscarry in his desire, he took courage by the tender mercy
of Christ, and arose thence, with his royal bodyguard, and arrived at
his father's palace. When it was told unto his father, "Thy son is
come," he went forth straightway for to meet him, and embraced and
kissed him lovingly, and made exceeding great joy, and held a general
feast in honour of the coming of his son. And afterward, they two were
closeted together.
But how tell of all that the son spake with his father, and of all the
wisdom of his speech? And what was that speech but the words put into
his mouth by the Holy Ghost, by whom the fishermen enclosed the whole
world in their nets for Christ and the unlearned are found wiser than
the wise. This Holy Spirit's grace and wisdom taught Ioasaph to speak
with the king his father, enlightening him with the light of knowledge.
Before now he had bestowed much labour to drag his father from
superstitious error, leaving nothing unsaid and nothing undone to win
him over, but he seemed to be twanging on a broken string, and speaking
to deaf ears. But when the Lord looked upon the lowliness of his
servant Ioasaph, and, in answer to his prayer, opened the closed gates
of his father's heart (for it is said, he will fulfil the desire of
them that fear him, and will hear their cry), then the king easily
understood the things that were spoken; so that, when a convenient
season came, through the grace of Christ, this son triumphed over those
evil spirits that had lorded it over the soul of his father, and clean
freed him from their error, and made the word of salvation clearly
known unto him, and joined him to the living God on high.
Ioasaph took up his tale from the beginning, and expounded to his
father great and marvellous things which he knew not, which he had
never heard with the ears of his heart; and he told him many weighty
sayings concerning God, and showed him righteousness: to wit that there
is no other God in heaven above, nor in the earth beneath, except the
one God, revealed in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And he
made known unto him many mysteries of divine knowledge; and amongst
them he told him the history of creation, visible and invisible, how
the Creator brought every thing out of nothing, and how he formed man
after his own image and likeness and endowed him with power of
free-will, and gave him Paradise to his enjoyment, charging him only to
abstain from one thing, the tree of knowledge; and how, when man had
broken his commandment, he banished him out of Paradise; and how man,
fallen from union with God, stumbled into these manifold errors,
becoming the slave of sins, and subject unto death through the tyranny
of the devil, who, having once taken men captive, hath made them
utterly forget their Lord and God, and hath persuaded them to serve him
instead, by the abominable worshipping of idols. So our Maker, moved
with compassion, through the good-will of the Father, and the
co-operation of the Holy Ghost, was pleased, for our sakes, to be born
of an holy Virgin, Mary, the mother of God, and he, that cannot suffer,
was acquainted with sufferings. On the third day he rose again from
the dead, and redeemed us from our first penalty, and restored to us
our first glory. When he ascended into the heavens, from whence he had
descended, he raised us up together with him; and thence, we believe
that he shall come again, to raise up his own handiwork; and he will
recompense every man according to his works. Moreover Ioasaph
instructed his father concerning the kingdom of heaven that awaiteth
them that are worthy thereof, and the joy unspeakable. Thereto he
added the torment in store for the wicked, the unquenchable fire, the
outer darkness, the undying worm and whatsoever other punishment the
servants of sin have laid up in store for themselves.
All these things set he forth in many words, which bore witness that
the grace of the Spirit was dwelling richly within him. Then he
described the uncharted sea of the love of God towards mankind, and how
he is ready to accept the repentance of them that turn to him; and how
there is no sin too great for his tender mercy, if we will but repent.
And when he had confirmed these truths by many an example, and
testimony of Scripture, he made an end of speaking.