Genesis 20:4

But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?

Ver. 4. But Abimelech had not come near her.] Being hindered by sickness. Gen 20:17 Well might St Ambrose call sickness the shop of virtues. a When men are fastened to their beds, and their bones made to rattle in their skin, lust will be laid asleep, and little leisure left for luxury. b This made King Alfred pray God to send him always some sickness, whereby his body might be tamed, and he the better disposed and affectioned to Godward. If it be painful to the vine to bleed, it is worse to wither. Better be pruned to grow, than cut up to burn. Otho tertius, Imperator, dictus miraculum mundi, amoribus periit. c How much happier he that sang, Periissem nisi Periissem .

Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?] For he knew that whole nations had smarted for the sins of their rulers; this sin of adultery especially, as we read of Shechem, Troy, &c. How were the Greeks plagued for the rape of Chrysis! and the Lacedemonian commonwealth utterly overturned by Epaminondas in the battle of Leuctra, for a rape committed upon the two daughters of Scedasus by a couple of Spartan gentlemen, travelling to Delphi! This might make Abimelech afraid lest, for his fault, wrath should fall upon his people also.

a Morbos virtutum officians vocat Ambros .

b Nuper me amici cuiusdam languor admonuit opimos esse nos dum infirmi sumus. - Plin., epist. xxvi. lib. vii.

c Manl., loc. com., p. 667.