CONTEMPLATION II.

OF JORDAN DIVIDED.

THE two spies returned with news of the victory that should be. I do not hear them say, their land is unpeopled; or the people are unfurnished with arms; unskilful in the discipline of war; but, "They faint because of us, therefore their land is ours." Either success, or discomfiture, begins ever at the heart. A man's inward disposition doth more than presage the event. As a man raises up his own heart before his fall, and depresses it before his glory, so God raises it up before his exaltation, and casts it down before his ruin. It is no otherwise in our spiritual conflicts. If Satan see us once faint, he gives himself the day. There is no way to safety, but that our hearts be the last that shall yield. That which the heathens attributed to fortune, we may, justly, to the hand of God, that he speedeth those that are forward. All the ground that we lose, is given to our adversaries.

This news is brought but over-night: Joshua is on his way by morning, and prevents the sun for haste. Delays, whether in the business of God or our own, are hateful and prejudicial. Many a one loses the land of promise by lingering. If we neglect God's time, it is just with him to cross us in ours.

Joshua hastens till he have brought Israel to the verge of the promised land: nothing parts them now but the river of Jordan. There he stays a time, that the Israelites might feed themselves awhile with the sight of that which they should afterwards enjoy. That, which they had been forty years in seeking, may not be seized upon too suddenly. God loves to give us cools and heats in our desires; and will so allay our joys, that their fruition hurt us not. He knows, that

as it is in meats, the long forbearance whereof causes a surfeit, when we come to full feed; so it fares in the contentments of the mind: therefore he feeds us not with a dish, but with the spoon, and will have us neither cloyed nor famished. If the mercy of God have brought us within sight of heaven, let us be content to pause awhile, and, upon the banks of Jordan, fit ourselves for our entrance.

Now, that Israel is brought to the brim of Canaan, the cloud is vanished which led them all the way; and, as soon as they have but crossed Jordan, the manna ceaseth which nourished them all the way. The cloud and manna were for their passage, not for their rest; for the wilderness, not for Canaan. It were as easy for God to work miracles always; but he knows that custom were the way to make them no miracles. He goes by-ways but till he have brought us into the road, and then he refers us to his ordinary proceedings. That Israelite should have been very foolish, that would still have said, I will not stir till I see the cloud; I will not eat, unless I may have that food of angels. Wherefore serves the ark, but for their direction? wherefore serves the wheat of Canaan, but for bread? So fond is that Christian, that will still depend upon expectation of miracles, after the fulness of God's kingdom. If God bear us in his arms when we are children, yet when we are well grown, he looks we should go on our own feet; it is enough that he upholds us, though he carry us not.

He that hitherto had gone before them in the cloud, doth now go before them in the ark; the same guide in two diverse signs of his presence. The cloud was for Moses, the ark for Joshua's time; the cloud was fit for Moses; the Law offered us Christ, but enwrapped in many obscurities. If he were seen in the cloud, he was heard from the cover of the ark. Why was it the ark of the testimony, but because it witnessed both his presence and love; and within it were his word the Law, and his sacrament the manna?

Who can wish a better guide, than the God of heaven, in his word and sacraments? Who can know the way into the land of promise so well as he that owns it? and what means can better direct us thither, than those of his institution?

That ark, which before was as the heart, is now as the head; it was in the midst of Israel, whilst they camped in the desert: now, when the cloud is removed, it is in the front of the army; that as before they depended upon it for life, so now they should for direction. It must go before them on the shoulders of the sons of Levi; they must follow it, but within sight, not within breathing. The Levites may not touch the ark, but only the bars; the Israelites may not approach nearer than a thousand paces to it. What awful respects doth God require to be given unto the testimonies of his presence! Uzzah paid dear for touching it; the men of Beth-shemeth for looking into it. It is a dangerous thing to be too bold with the ordinances of God. Though the Israelites were sanctified, yet they might not come near either the mount of Sinai, when the Law was delivered, or the ark of the covenant, wherein the Law was written. How fearful shall their estate be, that come with unhallowed hearts and hands to the word of the Gospel, and the true manna of the evangelical sacrament! As we used to say of the court, and of fire, so may we of these divine institutions. We freeze, if we be far off from them; and if we be more near than befits us, we burn. Under the Law we might look at Christ aloof; now, under the Gospel, we may come near him; he calls us to him; yea, he enters into us.

Neither was it only for reverence, that the ark must be not stumbled at, but waited on afar; but also for convenience, both of sight and passage. Those things that are near us, though they be less, fill our eye; neither could so many thousand eyes see the same object, upon a level, but by distance. It would not

content God, that one Israelite should tell another. Now the ark goes, now it turns, now it stands; but he would have every one his own witness. What can be so comfortable to a good heart, as to see the pledges of God's presence and favour? To hear of the loving-kindnesses of God is pleasant; but to behold and feel the evidences of his mercy, is unspeakably delectable. Hence the saints of God, not contenting themselves with faith, have still prayed for sight and fruition, and mourned when they have wanted it. What a happy prospect hath God set before us of Christ Jesus crucified for us, and offered unto us!

Ere God will work a miracle before Israel, they have charge to be sanctified. There is a holiness required, to make us either patients or beholders of the great works of God; how much more, when we should be actors in his sacred services! There is more use of sanctification, when we must present something to God, than when he must do aught to us.

The same power, that divided the red sea before Moses, divides Jordan before Joshua, that they might see the ark no less effectual than the cloud; and the hand of God as present with Joshua to bring them into Canaan, as it was with Moses to bring them out of Egypt. The bearers of the ark had need be faithful; they must first set their foot into the streams of Jordan, and believe that it will give way; the same faith that led Peter upon the water, must carry them into it. There can be no Christian without belief in God; but those, that are near to God in his immediate services, must go before others, no less in believing, than they do in example.

The waters know their Maker. That Jordan, that flowed with full streams when Christ went into it to be baptized, now gives way, when the same God must pass through it in state. water, now of his sand. to strike the waters; the

Then there was use of his I hear no news of any rod presence of the ark of the

Lord God, the Lord of all the world, is sign enough to these waves, which now, as if a sinew were broken, run back to their issues, and dare not so much as wet the feet of the priests that bore it. "What ailed thee, O sea, that thou fleddest, and thou, Jordan, that thou wert driven back! Ye mountains, that ye leaped like rams, and ye little hills, like lambs! The earth trembled at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob." How observant are all the creatures to the God that made them! How glorious a God do we serve! whom all the powers of the heavens and elements are willingly subject unto, and gladly take that nature which he pleases to give them. He could have made Jordan like some solid pavement of crystal, for the Israelites' feet to have trod upon; but this work had not been so magnificent. Every strong frost congeals the water, in a natural course but for the river to stand still, and run on heaps, and to be made a liquid wall for the passage of God's people, is for nature to run out of itself, to do homage to her Creator, Now must the Israelites needs think, how can the Canaanites stand out against us, when the seas and rivers give us way? With what joy did they now trample upon the dry channel of Jordan, while they might see dry deserts overcome, the promised land before them, the very waters so glad of them that they ran back to welcome them into Canaan? The passages into our promised land are troublesome and perilous; and even, at last, offer themselves to us the main hindrances of our salvation; which, after all our hopes, threaten to defeat us: for what will it avail us to have passed a wilderness, if the waves of Jordan should swallow us up? But the same hand, that hath made the way hard, hath made it sure; he that made the wilderness comfortable, will make Jordan dry: he will master all difficulties for us; and those things, which we most feared, will he make most sovereign and beneficial to us. O God, as we have trusted thee with the begin