Rather than Israel shall want a scourge for their sin, God himself shall raise them up an enemy. Moab had no quarrel but his own ambition; but God meant by the ambition of the one part, to punish the idolatry of the other: his justice can make one sin the execution of another, whilst neither shall look for any other measure from him but judgment. The evil of the city is so his, that the instrument is not guiltless. Before, God had stirred up the king of Syria against Israel; now, the king of Moab; afterwards, the king of Canaan. He hath more variety of judgments, than there can be offences. If we have once made him our adversary, he shall be sure to make us adversaries enough, which shall revenge his quarrel whilst they prosecute their own. Even those were idolaters, by whose hands God plagued the idolatries of Israel In Moab, the same wickedness prospers, which in God's own people is punished. The justice of the Almighty can least brook evil in his own. The same heathen which provoked Israel to sin, shall scourge them for sinning. Our very profession hurts us, if we be not innocent.

No less than eighteen years did the rod of Moab rest upon the inheritance of God. Israel seems as born to servitude: they came from their bondage in the land of Egypt to serve in the land of promise. They had neglected God; now they are neglected of God: their sins have made them servants, whom the choice of God had made free, yea his first-born. Worthy are they to serve those men, whose false gods they had served, and to serve them always in thraldom, whom they have once served in idolatry. We may not measure the continuance of punishment by the time of the commission of sin: one minute's sin deserves a torment beyond all time.

Doubtless Israel was not so insensible of their own misery, as not to complain sooner than the end of eighteen years. The first hour they sighed for themselves, but now they cried unto God. The very purpose of affliction is to make us importunate. He hears the secret murmurs of our grief; yet will not seem to hear us, till our cries be loud and strong. God sees it best to let the penitent dwell for the time under their sorrows: he sees us sinking all the while, yet he lets us alone, till we be at the bottom; and when once we can say, "Out of the depths have I cried to thee;" instantly follows, "The Lord heard me." A vehement suitor cannot but be heard of God, whatsoever he asks. If our prayers want success, they want heart; their blessing is

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according to their vigour. We live in bon. dage to these spiritual Moabites, our own corruptions. It discontents us. but where are our strong cries unto the God of heavens? where are our tears? If we could passionately bemoan ourselves in him, how soon should we be more than conquerors? Some good motions we have to send up to him, but they faint in the way. We may call long enough, if we cry not to him.

The same hand that raised up Eglon against Israel, raised up also Ehud for Israel against Eglon. When that tyrant hath revenged God of his people, God will revenge his people of him. It is no privilege to be an instrument of God's vengeance by evil means. Though Eglon were an usurper, yet had Ehud been a traitor if God had not sent him. It is only in the power of him that makes kings, when they are once settled, to depose them. It is no more possible for our modern butchers of princes, to show they are employed by God, than to escape the revenge of God, in offering to do this violence, not being employed.

What a strange choice doth God make of an executioner! A man wanting of his right hand: either he had but one hand, or used but one, and that the worse, and the more unready. Who would not have thought both hands too little for such a work? or, if either might have been spared, how much rather the left? "God seeth not as man seeth." It is the ordinary way of the Almighty to make choice of the unlikeliest means. The instruments of God must not be measured by their own power or aptitude, but by the will of the agent. Though Ehud had no hands, he that employed him had enabled him to this slaughter.

In human things, it is good to look to the means: in divine, to the worker. No means are to be contemned, that God will use: no means to be trusted, that man will use without him.

It is good to be suspicious, where is least show of danger, and most appearance of favour. This left-handed man comes with a present in his hand, but a dagger under his skirt. The tyrant, besides service, looked for gifts; and now receives death in his bribe: neither God nor men do always give where they love. How oft doth God give extraordinary illumination, power of miracles, besides wealth and honour, where he hates! So do men too oft accompany their curses with presents; either lest an enemy should hurt us, or that we may hurt them. The intention is the favour in gifts, and not the substance.

Ehud's faith supplies the want of his hand. Where God intends success, he lifts up the heart with resolutions of courage and contempt of danger. What indifferent beholder of this project would not have condemned it, as unlikely to speed! to see a maimed man go alone to a great king, in the midst of all his troops; to single him out from all witnesses; to set upon him with one hand in his own parlour, where his courtiers might have heard the least exclamation, and have come in, if not to the rescue, yet to the revenge! Every circumstance is full of improbabilities. Faith evermore overlooks the difficulties of the way, and bends her eyes only to the certainty of the end. In this intestine slaugh- | ter of our tyrannical corruptions, when we cast our eyes upon ourselves, we might well despair. Alas! what can our left hands do against these spiritual wickednesses! But, when we see who hath both commanded and undertaken to prosper those holy designs, how can we misdoubt the success? "I can do all things through him that strengthens me."

When Ehud had obtained the convenient secrecy both of the weapon and place, now with a confident forehead he approaches the tyrant, and salutes him with a true and awful preface to so important an act : I have a message to thee from God." Even Ehud's poniard was God's message: not only the vocal admonitions, but also the real judgments of God, are his errands to the world. He speaks to us in rain and waters, in sicknesses and famine, in unseasonable times and inundations: these are the secondary messages of God; if we will not hear the first, we must hear these to our cost.

I cannot but wonder at the devout revei ence of this heathen prince. He sat in his chair of state: the unwieldiness of his fat body was such, that he could not rise with readiness and ease; yet no sooner doth he hear news of a message from God, but he rises up from his throne, and reverently attends the tenor thereof. Though he had no superior to control him, yet he cannot abide to be unmannerly in the business of God.

This man was an idolater, a tyrant; yet what outward respects doth he give to the true God? External ceremonies of piety, and compliments of devotion, may well be found with falsehood in religion. They are a good shadow of truth where it is; but where it is not, they are the very body of hypocrisy. He that had risen up in arms against God's people, and the true

worship of God, now rises up in reverence to his name. God would have liked well to have had less of his courtesy, more of his obedience.

He looked to have heard the message with his ears, and he feels it in his guts; so sharp a message, that it pierced the body, and let out the soul through that unclean passage: neither did it admit of any answer but silence and death. In that part had he offended, by pampering it and making it his god; and now his bane finds the same way with his sin.

This one hard and cold morsel, which he cannot digest, pays for all those gluttonous delicates, whereof he had formerly surfeited. It is the manner of God to take fearful revenges of the professed enemies of his church.

It is a marvel, that neither any noise in his dying, nor the fall of so gross a body, called in some of his attendants: but that God, which hath intended to bring about any design, disposes of all circumstances to his own purpose. If Ehud had not come forth with a calm and settled countenance, and shut the doors after him, all his project had been in the dust. What had it been better that the king of Moab was slain, if Israel had neither had a messenger to inform, nor a captain to guide them? Now he departs peaceably, and blows a trumpet in Mount Ephraim, gathers Israel and falls upon the body of Moab, as well as he had done upon the head, and procures freedom to his people. He that would undertake great enterprises, had need of wis-dom and courage; wisdom to contrive, and courage to execute; wisdom to guide his courage, and courage to second his wisdom: both which, if they meet with a good cause, cannot but succeed.

CONTEMPLATION IV.—OF JAEL AND SISERA.

It is no wonder if they, who, ere fourscore days after the law delivered, fell to idolatry alone; now, after fourscore years since the law restored, fell to idolatry among the Canaanites. Peace could in a shorter time work looseness in any people. And if, forty years after Othniel's deliverance, they relapsed, what marvel is it, that, in twice forty after Ehud, they thus miscarried? What are they the better to have killed Eglon the king of Moab, if the idolatry of Moab have killed them? The sin of Moab shall be found a worse tyrant than their Eglon. Israel is for every market: they sold themselves to idolatry; God

sells them to the Canaanites: it is no marvel they are slaves, if they will be idolaters. After their longest intermission, they have now the sorest bondage. None of their tyrants were so potent as Jabin, with his nine hundred chariots of iron. The longer the reckoning is deferred, the greater is the sum. God provides on purpose mighty adversaries for his church, that their humiliation may be the greater in sustaining, and his glory may be greater in deliverance.

I do not find any prophet in Israel during their sin; but so soon as I hear news of their repentance, mention is made of a prophetess, and judge of Israel. There is no better sign of God's reconciliation, than the sending of his holy messengers to any people. He is not utterly fallen out with those whom he blesses with prophecy. Whom yet do I see raised to this honour? - not any of the princes of Israel; not Barak the captain; not Lapidoth the husband: but a woman, for the honour of her sex; a wife, for the honour of wedlock; Deborah, the wife of Lapidoth.

He, that had choice of all the millions of Israel, calls out two weak women to deliver his people: Deborah shall judge; Jael shall execute. All the palaces of Israel must yield to the palm-tree of Deborah: the weakness of the instruments redounds to the greater honour of the workman. Who shall ask God any reason of his elections, but his own pleasure? Deborah was to sentence, not to strike; to command, not to execute. This act is masculine, fit for some captain of Israel. She was the head of Israel; it was meet some other should be the hand. It is an imperfect and titular government, where there is a commanding power, without correction, without execution. The message of Deborah finds out Barak the son of Abinoam, in his obscure secrecy, and calls him from a corner of Naphtali to the honour of this exploit. He is sent for, not to get the victory, but to take it; not to overcome, but to kill; to pursue, and not to beat Sisera. Who could not have done this work, whereto not much courage, no skill, belonged? yet, even for this, will God have an instrument of his own choice. It is most fit that God should serve himself where he lists, of his own: neither is it to be inquired, whom we think meet for any employment, but whom God hath called.

Deborah had been no prophetess, if she durst have sent in her own name: her message is from him that sent herself, "Hath not the Lord God of Israel commanded?" Barak's answer is faithful, though condi

tional; and doth not so much intend a refu. sal to go without her, as a necessary bond of her presence with him. Who can blame him, that he would have a prophetess in his company? If the man had not been as holy as valiant, he would not have wished such society. How many think it a perpetua bondage to have a prophet of God at their elbow! God had never sent for him so far, if he could have been content to go up without Deborah: he knew that there was both a blessing and encouragement in that presence. It is no putting any trust in the success of those men that neglect the messengers of God.

To prescribe that to others, which we draw back from doing ourselves, is an argument of hollowness and falsity. Barak shall see that Deborah doth not offer him that cup whereof she dares not begin: without regard of her sex, she marches with him to Mount Tabor, and rejoices to be seen of the ten thousand of Israel. With what scorn did Sisera look at these gleanings of Israel! How unequal did this match seem, of ten thousand Israelites against his three hundred thousand foot, ten thousand horse, nine hundred chariots of iron! And now in bravery he calls for his troops, and means to kill this handful of Israel with the very sight of his spiked chariots, and only feared it would be no victory to cut the throats of so few. The faith of Deborah and Barak was not appalled with this world of adversaries, which from Mount Tabor they saw hiding all the valley below them: they knew whom they had believed, and how little an arm of flesh could do against the God of Hosts.

Barak went down against Sisera, but it was God that destroyed him. The Israelites did not this day wield their own swords: lest they should arrogate anything, God told them before-hand, it should be his own act. I hear not of one stroke that any Canaanite gave in this fight, as if they were called hither only to suffer. And now proud Sisera, after many curses of the heaviness of that iron carriage, is glad to quit his chariot, and betake himself to his heels. Who ever yet knew any earthly thing trusted in, without disappointment? It is wonder if God make us not at last as weary of whatsoever hath stolen our hearts from him, as ever we were fond.

Yet Sisera hopes to have sped better than his followers, in so seasonable a harbour of Jael. If Heber and Jael had not been great persons, there had been no note taken of their tents; there had been no league betwixt king Jabin and them: now

Why did Gideon thrash out his corn? To hide it, not from his neighbours, but his enemies. His granary might easily be more close than his barn. As then Israelites thrashed out their corn to hide it from the Midianites, but now Midianites thrash out corn to hide it from the Israelites. These rural tyrants of our time do not more lay up corn, than curses. He that withdraweth corn, the people will curse him; yea, God will curse him, with them, and for them.

What shifts nature will make to live! O that we could be so careful to lay up spiritual food for our souls, out of the reach of those spiritual Midianites! we could not but live in despite of all adversaries.

The angels, that have ever God in their face, and in their thoughts, have him also in their mouths: "The Lord is with thee." But this which appeared unto Gideon was the Angel of the covenant, the Lord of angels. While he was with Gideon, he might well say, "The Lord is with thee." He that sent the Comforter, was also the true comforter of his church. He well knew how to lay a sure ground of consolation, and that the only remedy of sorrow, and beginning of true joy, is, The presence of God." The grief of the apostles, for the expected loss of their Master, could never be cured by any receipt, but this of the same Angel, “ Behold, I am with you to the end of the world." What is our glory, but the fruition of God's presence? The punishment of the damned is a separation from the beatifical face of God; needs must therefore his absence in this life be a great torment to a good heart: and no cross can be equivalent to this beginning of heaven in the elect, “The Lord is with thee." Who can complain either of solitariness or opposition, that hath God with him; with him, not only as a witness, but as a party? Even wicked men and devils cannot exclude God, not the bars of hell can shut him out. He is with them by force, but to judge, to punish them; yea, God will be ever with them to their cost; but to protect, comfort, save, he is with none but his.

While he calls Gideon valiant, he makes him so. How could he be but valiant, that had God with him? The godless man may

ardly. It pleases God to acknowledge his own graces in men, that he may interchange his own glory with their comfort; how much more should we confess the graces of one another? An envious nature is prejudicial to God. He is a strange man in whom there is not some visible good; yea, in the devils themselves we may easily note some commendable parts of knowledge, strength, agility. Let God have his own in the worst creature; yea, let the worst creature have that praise which God would put upon it.

Gideon cannot pass over this salutation as some fashionable compliment, but lays hold on that part which was most important, the tenure of all his comfort; and, as not regarding the praise of his valour, inquires after that which should be the ground of his valour, the presence of God. God had spoken particularly to him; he expostulates for all. It had been possible God should be present with him, not with the rest; as he promised to have been with Moses, Israel; and yet when God says, "The Lord is with thee," he answers, "Alas, Lord, if the Lord be with us," Gideon cannot conceive of himself as an exempt person; but puts himself among the throng of Israel, as one that could not be sensible of any particular comfort, while the common case of Israel laboured. The main care of a good heart is still for the public; neither can it enjoy itself, while the church of God is distressed. As faith draws home generalities, so charity diffuses generalities from itself to all.

Yet the valiant man was here weak, weak in faith, weak in discourse, whilst he argues God's absence by affliction, his presence by deliverances, and the unlikelihood of success by his own inability-all gross inconsequences. Rather should he have inferred God's presence upon their correction; for wheresoever God chastises, there he is, yea, there he is in mercy. Nothing more proves us his, than his stripes: he will not bestow whipping where he loves not. Fond nature thinks God should not suffer the wind to blow upon his dear ones, because herself makes this use of her own indulgence; but none out of the place of torment have suffered so much as his dearest children. He says not, We are idolaters; therefore the Lord hath forsaken us, because we have forsaken him. This sequel had been as good, as the other was faulty; the Lord hath delivered us unto the Midianites, therefore he hath forsaken us. Sins, not afflictions, argue God absent.