Adam the perfectest man, Samson the strongest man, Solomon the wisest man, were betrayed with the flattery of their helpers. As there is no comfort comparable to a faithful yoke-fellow, so woe be to him that is matched with a Philistine.

It could not but much discontent Samson, to see that his adversaries had plowed with his heifer, and that upon his own back; now therefore he pays his wager to their cost. Ascalon, the city of the Philistines, is his wardrobe; he fetches thence thirty suits, lined with the lives of the owners. He might, with as much ease, have slain these thirty companions, which were the authors of this evil; but his promise forbade him, while he was to clothe their bodies, to unclothe their souls; and that Spirit of God, which stirred him up to revenge, directed him in the choice of the subjects. If we wonder to see thirty throats cut for their suits, we may easily know, that this was but the occasion of that slaughter, whereof the cause was their oppression and tyranny. David slew two hundred Philistines for their foreskins; but the ground of this act was their hostility. It is just with God to destine what enemies he pleases to execution. It is not to be expostulated, why this man is stricken rather than another, when both are Philistines.

CONTEMPLATION IV.

SAMSON'S VICTORY.

I CAN no more justify Sampson in the leaving of his wife, than in the choosing her: he chose her, because she pleased him, and, because she despised him, he left her. Though her fear made her false to

That

him in his riddle, yet she was true to his bed. weak treachery was worthy of a check, not a desertion. All the passions of Samson were strong like himself; but (as vehement motions are not lasting) this vehement wind is soon allayed: and he is now returning with a kid to win her that had offended him, and to renew that feast which ended in her unkindness. Slight occasions may not break the knot of matrimonial love, and if any just offence have slackened it on either part, it must be fastened again by speedy reconciliation.

Now Samson's father-in-law shows himself a Philistine, the true parent of her that betrayed her husband; for no sooner is the bridegroom departed, than he changes his son: what pretence of friendship soever he make, a true Philistine will soon be weary of an Israelite. Samson had not so many days' liberty to enjoy his wedding, as he spent in celebrating it. Marriage hath been ever a sacred institution, and who but a Philistine would so easily violate it? One of his thirty companions enjoys his wife, together with his suit, and now laughs to be a partner of that bed, whereon he was an attendant. The good nature of Samson, having forgotten the first wrong, carried him to a proffer of familiarity, and is repulsed; but with a gentle violence, "I thought thou hadst hated her." Lawful wedlock may not be dissolved by imaginations, but by proofs.

Who shall stay Samson from his own wife? He that slew the lion in the way of his wooing, and before whom thousands of the Philistines could not stand, yet suffers himself to be resisted by him that was once his father-in-law, without any return of private violence.

Great is the force of duty, once conceived, even to the most unworthy. This thought (I was his son) binds the hands of Samson, else how easily might he that slew those thirty Philistines for their suits, have destroyed this family for his wife? How unnatural

are those mouths, that can curse the loins from which they are proceeded, and those hands that dare lift up themselves against the means of their life and being!

I never read, that Samson slew any but by the motion and assistance of the Spirit of God: and the divine wisdom hath reserved these offenders to another revenge. Judgment must descend from others to them, since the wrong proceeded from others by them. In the very marriage God foresaw and intended this parting, and in the parting this punishment upon the Philistines. If the Philistines had not been as much enemies to God as to Samson, enemies to Israel in their oppression, no less than to Samson in this particular injury, that purpose and execution of revenge had been no better than wicked. Now he, to whom vengeance belongs, sets him on work, and makes the act justice when he commands, even very cruelty is obedience.

It was a busy and troublesome project of Samson, to use the foxes for his revenge: for not without great labour, and many hands, could so many wild creatures be got together, neither could the wit of Samson want other devices of hostility: but he meant to find out such a punishment, as might in some sort answer the offence, and might imply as much contempt as trespass. By wiles, seconded with violence, had they wronged Samson, in extorting his secret, and taking away his wife: and what other emblem could these foxes tied together present unto them, than wiliness combined by force, to work mischief.

These foxes destroy their corn, before he which sent them destroy the persons. Those judgments which begin in outward things, end in the owners. A stranger that had been of neither side, would have said, What pity is it to see good corn thus spoiled! If the creature be considered apart from the owners, it is good; and therefore if it be mis-spent, the abuse

reflects upon the maker of it; but if it be looked upon with respect to an ill master, the best use of it is to perish. He therefore that slew the Egyptian cattle with murrain, and smote their fruit with hail-stones; he that consumed the vines of Israel with the palmerworm, and caterpillar, and canker-worm, sent also foxes, by the hand of Samson, into the fields of the Philistines. Their corn was too good for them to enjoy, not too good for the foxes to burn up. God had rather his creatures should perish any way than serve for the lust of the wicked.

There could not be such secrecy in the catching of three hundred foxes, but it might well be known who had procured them. Rumour will swiftly fly of things not done, but of a thing so notoriously executed, it is no marvel if fame be a blab. The mention of the offence draws in the provocation: and now the wrong to Samson is scanned and revenged; because the fields of the Philistines are burned, for the wrong done to Samson by the Timnite in his daughter, therefore the Philistines burn the Timnite and his daughter. The tying of the fire-brand between two foxes was not so witty a policy, as the setting of a fire of dissension betwixt the Philistines. What need Samson be his own executioner, when his enemies will undertake that charge? There can be no more pleasing prospect to an Israelite, than to see the Philistines together by the ears.

If the wife of Samson had not feared the fire for herself, and her father's house, she had not betrayed her husband; her husband had not thus plagued the Philistines: the Philistines had not consumed her and her father with fire: now she leaps into that flame which she meant to avoid. That evil which the wicked feared, meets them in their flight. How many, in a fear of poverty, seek to gain unconscionably, and die beggars! How many, to shun pain and danger, have yielded to evil, and in the long

run have been met in the teeth with that mischief which they had hoped to have left behind them! How many, in a desire to eschew the shame of men, have fallen into the confusion of God! Both good and evil are sure paymasters at the last.

He that was so soon pacified towards his wife, could not but have thought this revenge more than enough, if he had not rather wielded God's quarrel than his own; he knew that God had raised him up, on purpose to be a scourge to the Philistines, whom as yet he had angered more than punished. As if these therefore had been but flourishes before the fray, he stirs up his courage, and strikes them both hip and thigh with a mighty plague. That God, which can do nothing imperfectly, where he begins either mercy or judgment, will not leave till he have happily finished. As it is in his favours, so in his punishments, one stroke draws on another.

The Israelites were but slaves, and the Philistines were their masters; so much more indignantly therefore must they needs take it, to be thus affronted by one of their own vassals: yet shall we commend the moderation of these pagans. Samson, being not mortally wronged by one Philistine, falls foul upon the whole nation: the Philistines, heinously offended by Samson, do not fall upon the whole tribe of Judah, but, being mustered together, call to them for satisfaction from the person offending. The same hand of God, which wrought Samson to revenge, restrained them from it. It is no thank to themselves,. that sometimes wicked men cannot be cruel.

The men of Judah are by their fear made friends to their tyrants, and traitors to their friend; it was in their cause that Samson had shed blood, and yet they conspire with the Philistines to destroy their own flesh and blood. So shall the Philistines be quit with Israel, that as Samson by Philistines revenged himself of Philistines, so they of an Israelite by the hand