fearful Israelites shall cut the throats of these confident Philistines. Doubt and resolution are not measures of our success: a presumptuous confidence goes commonly bleeding home, when an humble fear returns in triumph. Fear drives those Israelites which dare show their heads out of the caves unto Saul, and makes them cling unto their new king. How troublesome were the beginnings of Saul's honour! Surely, if that man had not exceeded Israel no less in courage than in stature, he had now hid himself in a cave, who before hid himself in the stuff. But now, though the Israelites ran away from him, yet he ran not away from them. It was not any doubt of Saul's valour that put his people to their heels; it was the absence of Samuel. If the prophet had come up, Israel would never have run away from their king. While they had a Samuel alone, they were never well till they had a Saul; now they have a Saul, they are as far from contentment, because they want a Samuel: unless both joined together, they think there can be no safety. Where the temporal and spiritual state combine not together, there can follow nothing but distraction in the people. The prophets receive and deliver the will of God; kings execute it. The prophets are directed by God; the people are directed by their kings. Where men do not see God in his ordinances, their hearts cannot but fail them, both in their respects to their superiors, and their courage in themselves. Piety is the mother of perfect subjection. As all authority is derived from heaven, so it is thence established. Those governors that would command the hearts of men, must show them God in their faces. No Israelite can think himself safe without a prophet. Saul had given them good proof of his fortitude, in his late victory over the Ammonites; but then proclamation was made before the fight, through all the country, that every man should come up after Saul and Samuel. If Samuel had not been with Saul, they would rather have ventured the loss of their oxen, than the hazard of themselves. How much less should we presume of any safety in our spiritual combats, when we have not a prophet to lead us! It is all one, saving that it savours of more contempt, not to have God's seers, and not to use them. He can be no true Israelite, that is not distressed with the want of a Samuel. As one that had learned to begin his rule in obedience, Saul stays seven days in Gilgal, according to the prophet's direction; and still he looks long for Samuel, which had promised his presence: six days he expects, and part of the seventh; yet Samuel is not come. The Philistines draw near ; the Israelites run away; Samuel comes not; they must fight; God must be supplicated: what should Saul do? Rather than God should want a sacrifice, and the people satisfaction, Saul will command that which he knew Samuel would, if he were present, both command and execute. It is not possible, thinks he, that God should be displeased with a sacrifice: he cannot but be displeased with indevotion. Why do the people run from me, but for want of means to make God sure? What would Samuel rather wish, than that we should be godly? The act shall be the same; the only difference shall be in the person. If Samuel be wanting to us, we will not be wanting to God; it is but an holy prevention to be devout unbidden. Upon this conceit he commands a sacrifice. Saul's sins make no great show, yet are they still heinously taken; the impiety of them was more hidden and inward from all eyes but God's. If Saul were among the prophets before, will he now be among the priests? Can there be any devotion in disobedience! O vain man! what can it avail thee to sacrifice to God against God? Hypocrites rest only in formalities; if the outward act be done, it sufficeth them, though the ground be distrust, the manner unreverence, the carriage presumption. What, then, should Saul have done? Upon the trust of God and Samuel, he should have staid out the last hour, and have secretly sacrificed himself and his prayers unto that God which loves obedience above sacrifice, Our faith is most commendable in the last act: it is no praise to hold out until we be hard driven. Then, when we are forsaken of means, to live by faith in our God, is worthy of a crown. God will have no worship of our devising: we may only do what he bids us, not bid what he commands not. Never did any true piety arise out of the corrupt puddle of man's brain: if it flow not from heaven, it is odious to heaven. What was it that did thus taint the valour of Saul with this weakness, but distrust? He saw some Israelites go; he thought all would go: he saw the Philistines come; he saw Samuel came not his diffidence was guilty of his misdevotion. There is no sin that hath not its ground from unbelief; this, as it was the first infection of our pure nature, so is it the true source of all corruption: man could not sin if he distrusted not. The sacrifice is no sooner ended, than Samuel is come. And why came he no sooner? He could not be a seer, and not know how much he was looked for; how troublesome and dangerous his absence must needs be: he that could tell Saul that he should prophesy, could tell him that he would sacrifice; yet he purposely forbears to come, for the trial of him that must be the champion of God. Samuel durst not have done thus, but by direction from his Master. It is the ordinary course of God to prove us by delays, and to drive to exigents, that we may show what we are. He that anointed Saul, might lawfully from God control him. There must be discretion, there may not be partiality, in our censures of the greatest. God makes difference of sins, none of persons. If we make difference of sins according to persons, we are unfaithful both to God and man. Scarce is Saul warm in his kingdom, when he hath even lost it. Samuel's first words, after the inauguration, are of Saul's rejection, and the choice and establishment of his successor. It was ever God's purpose to settle the kingdom in Judah. He, that took occasion by the people's sin to raise up Saul in Benjamin, takes occasion by Saul's sin to establish the crown upon David. In human probability the kingdom was fixed upon Saul and his more worthy son. In God's decree it did but pass through the hands of Benjamin to Judah. Besides trouble, how fickle are these earthly glories! Saul doubtless looked upon Jonathan as the inheritor of his crown; and behold, ere his peaceable possession, he hath lost it from himself. Our sins strip us not of our hopes in heaven only, but of our earthly blessings. The way to entail a comfortable prosperity upon our seed after us, is our conscionable obedience to God. CONTEMPLATION VIII.-JONATHAN'S VICTORY AND SAUL'S OATH. It is no wonder if Saul's courage was much cooled with the heavy news of his rejection. After this he stays under the pomegranate-tree in Gibeah: he stirs not towards the garrison of the Philistines. As hope is the mother of fortitude, so nothing doth more breed cowardliness than despair. Every thing dismays that heart which God nath put out of protection. Worthy Jonathan, which sprung from Saul, as some sweet imp grows out of a crab-stock, is therefore full of valour, because full of faith. He well knew, that he should have nothing but discouragements from his father's fear; as rather choosing therefore to avoid all the blocks that might lie in the way, than to leap over them, he departs secretly, without the dismission of his father, or notice of the people; only God leads him, and his armourbearer follows him. O admirable faith of Jonathan, whom neither the steepness of rocks, nor the multitude of enemies, can dissuade from so unlikely an assault! Is it possible, that two men, whereof one was weaponless, should dare to think of encountering so many thousands? O divine power of faith, that in all difficulties and attempts makes a man more than men, and regards no more armies of men than swarms of flies! There is no restraint to the Lord, saith he, to save with many, or by few. It was not so great news that Saul should be amongst the prophets, as that such a word should come from the son of Saul. If his father had but so much divinity, he had not sacrificed. The strength of his God is the ground of his strength in God. The question is not, what Jonathan can do, but what God can do, whose power is not in the means, but in himself. That man's faith is well underlaid, that upholds itself by the omnipotency of God. Thus the father of the faithful built his assurance upon the power of the Almighty. But many things God can do, which he will not do. How knowest thou, Jonathan, that God will be as forward, as he is able, to give thee victory? For this, saith he, I have a watch-word from God out of the mouths of the Philistines: "If they say, Come up, we will go up: for God hath delivered them into our hands. If they say, Tarry till we come to you, we will stand still." Jonathan was too wise to trust unto a casual presage. There might be some farfetched conjectures of the event from the word. We will come to you, was a threat of resolution: Come you to us, was a challenge of fear; or, perhaps, Come up to us, was a word of insultation from them that trusted to the inaccessibleness of the place, and multitudes of men. Insultation is from pride; pride argued a fall: but faith hath nothing to do with probabilities, as that which acknowledgeth no argument but demonstration. If there had not been an instinct from God of this assured warrant of success, Jonathan had presumed instead of believing, and had tempted that God whom he professed to glorify by his trust. There can be no faith where there is no promise; and where there is a promise, there can be no presumption. Words are voluntary; the tongues of the Philistines | were as free to say, Tarry, as Come. That God, in whom our very tongues move, overruled them so, as now they shall speak that word which will cut their own throats. They knew no more harm in Come, than Tarry; both were alike safe for the sound, for the sense but he that put a signification of their slaughter in the one, not in the other, did put that word into their mouths, whereby they might invite their own destruction. The disposition of our words is from the providence of the Almighty. God and our hearts have not always the same meaning in our speeches. In those words which we speak at random, or out of affectation, God hath a further drift of his own glory, and perhaps our judgment. If wicked men say, Our tongues are our own, they could not say so but from Him whom they defy in saying so, and who makes their tongue their executioner. No sooner doth Jonathan hear this invitation, than he answers it. He, whose hands had learned never to fail his heart, puts himself upon his hands and knees to climb up into this danger: the exploit was not more difficult than the way; the pain of the passage was equal to the peril of the enterprise, that his faith might equally triumph over both. He doth not say, How shall I get up? much less, Which way shall I get down again? But, as if the ground were level, and the action dangerless, he puts himself into the view of the Philistines. Faith is never so glorious, as when it hath most opposition, and will not see it. Reason looks ever to the means, faith to the end; and, instead of consulting how to effect, resolves what shall be effected. The way to heaven is more steep, more painful. O God, how perilous a passage hast thou appointed for thy labouring pilgrims! If difficulties will discourage us, we shall but climb to fall. When we are lifting up our foot to the last step, there are the Philistines of death, of temptations, to grapple with. Give us but faith, and turn us loose to the spite either of earth or hell. Jonathan is now on the top of the hill; and now, as if he had an army at his heels, he flies upon the host of the Philistines: his hands, that might have been weary with climbing, are immediately commanded to fight, and deal as many death-blows to the amazed enemy. He needs not walk far for this execution; himself and his armourbearer, in one half acre's space, have slain twenty Philistines. It is not long since Jonathan smote their garrison in the hill of Geba: perhaps from that time his name and presence carried terror in it; but sure, if the Philistines had not seen and felt more than a man in the face and hands of Jonathan, they had not so easily grovelled in death. The blows and shrieks cannot but affect the next, who, with a ghastly noise, run away from death, and affright their fellows no less than themselves are affrighted. The clamour and fear run on, like fire in a train, to the very foremost ranks : every man would fly, and thinks there is so much more cause of flight, for that his ears apprehend all, his eyes nothing. Each man thinks his fellow stands in his way: and therefore, instead of turning upon him which was the cause of their flight, they bend their swords upon those whom they imagine to be the hinderers of their flight: and now a miraculous astonishment hath made the Philistines Jonathan's champions and executioners. He follows and kills those which helped to kill others; and the more he killed, the more they feared and fled, and the more they killed each other in the flight: and, that fear itself might prevent Jonathan in killing them, the earth itself trembles under them. Thus dot.. God at once strike them with his own hand, with Jonathan's, with theirs, and makes them run away from life, while they would fly from an enemy. Where the Almighty purposes destruction to any people, he needs not call in foreign powers; he needs not any hands or weapons but their own; he can make vast bodies die by no other death than their own weight. We cannot be sure to be friends among curselves, while God is our enemy. The Philistines fly fast, but the news of their flight overruns them, even unto Saul's pomegranate-tree. The watchmen discern afar off a flight and execution. Search is made; Jonathan is found missing: Saul will consult with the ark. Hypocrites, while they have leisure, will perhaps be holy; for some fits of devotion they cannot be bettered. But when the tumult increased, Saul's piety decreases. It is now no season to talk with a priest: withdraw thine hand, Ahaiah; the ephod must give place to arms; it is more time to fight, than to pray: what needs he God's guidance, when he sees his way before him? He, that before would needs sacrifice ere he fought, will now, in the other extreme, fight in a wilful indevotion. Worldly minds regard holy duties no further than may stand with their own carnal purposes: very easy occasions shall interrupt them in their religious intentions; like unto children, | spear: full well had he deserved this unwhich, if a bird do but fly in their way, cast their eye from their book. But if Saul serve not God in one kind, he will serve him in another; if he honour him not by attending on the ark, he will honour him by a vow: his negligence in the one is recompensed with his zeal in the other. All Israel is adjured not to eat any food until the evening. Hypocrisy is ever masked with a blind and thankless zeal. To wait upon the ark, and to consult with God's priest, in all cases of importance, was a direct commandment of God; to eat no food in the pursuit of their enemies, was not commanded: Saul leaves that which he was bidden, and does that which he was not required. To eat no food all day was more difficult than to attend an hour upon the ark: the voluntary services of hypocrites are many times more painful than the duties enjoined by God. In what awe did all Israel stand of the oath, even of Saul! It was not their own vow, but Saul's for them; yet, coming into the wood, where they saw the honey dropping, and found the meat as ready as their appetite, they dare not touch that sustenance, and will rather endure famine and fainting, than an indiscreet curse. Doubtless, God had brought those bees thither, on purpose to try the constancy of Israel. Israel could not but think that which Jonathan said, that the vow was unadvised and injurious; yet they will rather die than violate it. How sacred should we hold the obligation of our own vows, in things just and expedient, when the bond of another's rash vow is thus indissoluble! There was a double mischief followed upon Saul's oath-an abatement of the victory, and eating with the blood: for, on the one side, the people were so faint, that they were more likely to die than kill; they could neither run nor strike in this emptiness: neither hands nor feet can do their office, when the stomach is neglected. On the other, an unmeet forbearance causes a ravenous repast. Hunger knows neither choice, nor order, nor measure: the one of these was a wrong to Israel: the other was a wrong done by Israel to God; Saul's zeal was guilty of both. A rash vow is seldom ever free from inconvenience. The heart that hath unnecessarily entangled itself, draws mischief either upon itself or others. Jonathan was ignorant of his father's adjuration; he knew no reason why he should not refresh himself, in so profitable a service, with a little taste of honey upon his : sought dainty. And now, behold, his honey is turned into gall: if it were sweet in the mouth, it was bitter in the soul; if the eyes of his body were enlightened, the light of God's countenance was clouded by this act. After he heard of the oath, he pleads justly against it, the loss of so fair an opportunity of revenge, and the trouble of Israel; yet neither his reasons against the oath, nor his ignorance of the oath, can excuse him from a sin of ignorance in violating that which first he knew not, and then knew unreasonable. Now, Saul's le sure would serve him to ask counsel of God as before Saul would not inquire, so now God will not answer. Well might Saul have found sins enough of his own, whereto to impute this silence. He hath grace enough to know that God was offended, and to guess at the cause of his offence. Sooner will a hypocrite find out another man's sin than his own; and now he swears more rashly to punish with death the breach of that which he had sworn rashly. The lots were cast, and Saul prays for the decision: Jonathan is taken. Even the prayers of wicked men are sometimes heard, although in justice, not in mercy. Saul himself was punished not a little in the fall of this lot upon Jonathan. Surely Saul sinned more in making this vow, than Jonathan in breaking it unwittingly; and now the father smarts for the rashness of his double vow, by the unjust sentence of death upon so worthy a son. God had never singled out Jonathan by his lot, if he had not been displeased with his act. Vows rashly made, may not be rashly broken. If the thing we have vowed be not evil in itself, or in the effect, we cannot violate it without evil. Ignorance cannot acquit, if it can abate our sin. It is like, if Jonathan had heard his father's adjuration, he had not transgressed; his absence at the time of that oath cannot excuse him from displeasure. What shall become of those, which may know the charge of their heavenly Father, and will not? which do know his charge, and will not keep it? Affectation of ignorance, and willing disobedience, are desperate. Death was too hard a censure for such an unknown offence. The cruel piety of Saul will revenge the breach of his own charge, so as he would be loath God should avenge on himself the breach of his divine command. If Jonathan had not found better friends than his father, so noble a victory had been recompensed with death. He, that saved Israel from the Philistines, is saved by Israel from the hand of his father. Saul hath sworn Jonathan's death; | last, one sin, which perhaps we make no account of, shall pay for all. : the people, contrarily, swear his preservation his kingdom was not so absolute, that he could run away with so unmerciful a justice; their oath, that savoured of disobedience, prevailed against his oath, that savoured too strong of cruelty. Neither doubt I but Saul was secretly not displeased with this loving resistance; so long as his heart was not false to his oath, he could not be sorry that Jonathan should live. BOOK XIII. CONTEMPLATION 1. SAUL AND AGAG. GOD holds it no derogation from his mercy to bear a quarrel long, where he hates. He, whose anger to the vessels of wrath is everlasting, even in temporal judgment revengeth late. The sins of his own children are no sooner done, and repented of, than forgotten; but the malicious sins of his enemies stick fast in an infinite displea sure. "I remember what Amalek did to Israel, how they laid wait for them by the way, as they came up from Egypt." Alas, Lord! (might Amalek say) they were our forefathers; we never knew their faces, no, nor their names; the fact was so far from our consent, that it is almost past the memory of our histories. It is not in the power of time to raze out any of the arrearages of God. We may lay up wrath for our posterity. Happy is that child whose progenitors are in heaven; he is left an inheritor of blessing, together with estate whereas wicked ancestors lose the thank of a rich patrimony, by the curse that attends it. He that thinks, because punishment is deferred, that God hath forgiven or forgot his offence, is unacquainted with justice, and knows not that time makes no difference in eternity. The Amalekites were wicked idolaters, and therefore could not want many present sins, which deserved their extirpation. That God, which had taken notice of all their offences, picks out this one noted sin of their forefathers for revenge: amongst all their indignities, this shall bear the name of their judgment; as in legal proceedings with malefactors, one indictment found gives the style of their condemnation. In the lives of those which are notoriously wicked, God cannot look beside a sin; yet when he draws to an execution, he fastens his sentence upon one evil, as principal, others as accessories, so as. at the The paganish idolatries of the Amalekites could not but be greater sins to God, than their hard measure to Israel; yet God sets this upon the file, while the rest are not recorded: their superstitions might be of ignorance; this sin was of malice. Malicious wickednesses, of all others, as they are in greatest opposition to the goodness and mercy of God, shall be sure of the payment of greatest vengeance. The detestation of God may be measured by his revenge: 66 Slay both man and woman, both infant and suckling, both ox and sheep, camel and ass" not themselves only, but every thing that drew life, either from them, or for their use, must die. When the God of mercy speaks such bloody words, the provocation must needs be vehement. Sins of infirmity do but mutter; spiteful sins cry loud for judgment in the ears of God. Prepensed malice, in courts of human justice, aggravates the murder, and sharpens the sentence of death. What, then, was this sin of Amalek, that is called unto this late reckoning? what, but their envious and unprovoked onsets upon the back of Israel: this was it that God took so to heart, as that he not only remembers it now by Samuel, but he bids Israel ever to remember it, by Moses : "Remember how Amalek met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of you, all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary." Besides this, did Amalek meet Israel in a pitched battle openly, in Rephidim; for that God paid them in the present. The hand of Moses, lifted up on the hill, slew them in the valley. He therefore repeats not that quarrel; but the cowardly and cruel attempts upon an impotent enemy, stick still in the stomach of the Almighty. Oppression and wrong, upon even terms, are not so heinous unto God, as those that are upon manifest disadvantage: in the one, there is a hazard of return; in the other, there is ever a tyrannous insultation. God takes still the weaker part, and will be sure therefore to plague them which seek to put injuries on the unable to resist. This sin of Amalek slept all the time of the judges: those governors were only for rescue and defence; now, so soon as Israel hath a king, and that king is settled in peace, God gives charge to call them to account: it was that which God had both threatened and sworn, and now he chooses out a fit season for the execution. As we use to say of winter, the judgments of God do |