Now therefore swear unto me here by God that thou wilt not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son's son: [but] according to the kindness that I have done unto thee, thou shalt do unto me, and to the land wherein thou hast sojourned.
Ver. 23. Swear unto me here by God, &c.] This visit, we see, was more of fear than of love: there can be no hearty love, indeed, but between true Christians. Kings, then, have their cares, crowns their crosses: thistles in their arms, and thorns in their sides. This made one cry out of his diadem, O vilis pannus ,& c. And Canutus set his crown upon the crucifix. Frederick, the Elector of Saxony, is said to have been born with the sign of a cross upon his back. a And the next night after that Rodulphus Rufus was crowned emperor of Germany, anno Dom. 1273, over the temple, where the crown was set upon his head, a golden cross was seen to shine, like a star, to the admiration of all that beheld it. b These were the same emperor's verses concerning his crown imperial: -
“ Nobilis es fateor, rutilisque onerata lapillis:
Innumeris curis sed comitata venis;
Quod bene si nossent omnes expendere, nemo
Nemo foret, qui te tollere vellet humo .”
a Scultet. Annal.
b Dan. Pare., Hist. Profan. Medulla., 723, 728.