of his brethren upon earth, may be admitted to the kingdom of Israel.

I hear no praise of the lawful issue of Gilead; only this misbegotten son is commended for his valour, and set at the stern of Israel. The common gifts of God respect not the parentage or blood, but are indifferently scattered where he pleases to let them fall. The choice of the Almighty is not guided by our rules: as in spiritual, so in earthly things, it is not in him that willeth. If God would have men glory in these outward privileges, he would bestow them upon none but the worthy.

Now, who can be proud of strength or greatness, when he sees him that is not so honest, yet is more valiant, and more advanced? Had not Jephthah been base, he had not been thrust out; and if he had not been thrust out from his brethren, he had never been the captain of Israel. By contrary paces to ours, it pleaseth God to come to his own ends: and how usually doth he look the contrary way to that he moves? No man can measure the conclusion of God's act by his beginning. He that fetches good out of evil, raises the glory of men out of their ruin. Men love to go the nearest way, and often fail. God commonly goes about, and in his own time comes surely home.

The Gileadites were not so forward to expel Jephthah, as glad to recal him. No Ammonite threatened them, when they parted with such a helper: now, whom they cast out in their peace, they fetch home in their danger and misery. That God who never gave aught in vain, will find a time to make use of any gift that he hath bestowed upon men. The valour of Jephthah shall not rust in his secresy, but be employed to the common preservation of Israel. Necessity will drive us to seek up all our helps, even those whom our wantonness hath despised. How justly are the suits of our need upbraided with the errors of our prosperity! The elders of Gilead now hear of their ancient wrong, and dare not find fault with their exprobration: "Did ye not hate me, and expel me out of my father's house? how then come ye now to me in time of tribulation?" The same expostulation that Jephthah makes with Gilead, God also at the same time makes with Israel: "Ye have forsaken me, and have served other gods; wherefore should I deliver you any more? Go, and cry unto the gods whom ye have served." As we, so God also finds it seasonable to tell his children of their faults, while he is whipping them. It is a safe and wise course, to make much

of those in our peace, whom we must make use of in our extremity; else it is but just that we should be rejected of those whom we have rejected.

Can we look for any other answer from God than this? Did ye not drive me out of your houses, out of your hearts, in the time of your health and jollity? Did ye not plead the strictness of my charge, and the weight of my yoke? Did not your wilful sins expel me from your souls? What do you now, crouching and creeping to me in the evil day? Surely, O God, it is but justice, if thou be not found of those which were glad to lose thee! It is thy mercy if, after many checks and delays, thou wilt be found at last. Where an act cannot be reversed, there is no amends but confession; and if God himself take up with this satisfaction, "He that confesses shall find mercy," how much more should men hold themselves well paid, with words of humility and deprecation!

Jephthah's wisdom had not been answerable to his valour, if he had not made his match beforehand. He could not but know how treacherously Israel had dealt with Gideon. We cannot make too sure work, when we have to do with unfaithful men. It hath been an old policy to serve ourselves of men, and, after our advantage, to turn them up. He bargains, therefore, for his sovereignty, ere he win it: "Shall I be your head?" We are all naturally ambitious, and are ready to buy honour even with hazard. And if the hope of a troublesome superiority encouraged Jephthah_to fight against the forces of Ammon, what heart should we take in the battles of God, against spiritual wickednesses, when the God of heaven hath said, "To him that overcomes, will I give power over nations, and to sit with me in my throne?" O that we could bend our eyes upon the recompense of our reward! how willingly should we march forward against those mighty Ammonites! Jephthah is noted for his valour, and yet he treats with Ammon, ere he fights. To make war any other than our last remedy, is not courage, but cruelty and rashness. And now, when reason will not prevail, he betakes himself to his sword.

As God began the war with Jephthah. in raising up his heart to that pitch of fortitude; so Jephthah began his war at God, in craving victory from him, and pouring out his vow to him. His hand took hold of his sword, his heart of God; therefore he, whom the Old Testament styles valiant, the New styles faithful; he who is com. mended for his strength, dares trust in none

with judgment. We have all opened our mouths to God, in that initial and solemn vow of Christianity. O that we could not go back! So much more is our vow obligatory, by how much the thing vowed is more necessary

Why was the soul of Jephthah thus troubled, but because he saw the entail of his new honour thus suddenly cut off? he saw the hope of posterity extinguished in the virginity of his daughter. It is natural to us to affect that perpetuity in our succession, which is denied us in our persons: our very bodies would emulate the eternity of the soul. And if God have built any of us a house on earth, as well as prepared us a house in heaven, it must be confessed a favour worth our thankfulness; but as the perpetuity of our earthly houses is uncertain, so let us not rest our hearts upon that, but make sure of the house which is eternal in the heavens.

Doubtless the goodness of the daughter added to the father's sorrow: she was not more loving, than religious; neither is she less willing to be the Lord's than her father's; and, as provoking her father to that which he thought piety, though to her own wrong, she says, "If thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord, do with me as thou hast promised." Many a daughter would have dissuaded her father with tears, and have wished rather her father's impiety, than her own prejudice; she sues for the smart of her father's vow. How obsequious should children be to the will of their careful parents, even in their final disposition in the world, when they see this holy maid willing to abandon the world upon the rash vow of a father! They are the living goods of their parents, and must therefore wait upon the bestowing of their owners. They mistake themselves which think they are their own. If this maid had vowed herself to God, without her father, it had been in his power to abrogate it; but now that he vowed her to God without herself, it stands in force. But what shall we say to those children, whom their parents' vow and care cannot make so much as honest,-that will be no other than godless, in spite of their baptism and education? what but that they are given their parents for a curse, and shall one day find what it is to be rebellious?

All her desire is, that she may have leave to bewail that which she must be forced to keep, her virginity. If she had not held it an affliction, there had been no cause to bewail it; it had been no thank to undergo it, if she had not known it to be a cross.

Tears are no argument of impatience; we may mourn for that we repine not to bear. How comes that to be a meritorious virtue under the gospel, which was but a punishment under the law? The daughters of Israel had been too lavish of their tears, if virginity had been absolutely good. What injury should it have been, to lament that spiritual preferment which they should rather have emulated!

While Jephthah's daughter was two months in the mountains, she might have had good opportunity to escape her father's vow; but as one whom her obedience tied as close to her father, as his vow tied him to God, she returns to take up that burden which she had bewailed to foresee. If we be truly dutiful to our Father in heaven, we would not slip our necks out of the yoke, though we might, nor fly from his commands, though the door were open.

CONTEMPLATION II.-SAMSON CONCEIVED.

Or extraordinary persons, the very birth and conception is extraordinary: God begins his wonders betimes, in those whom he will make wonderful. There was never any of those which were miraculously conceived, whose lives were not notable and singular. The presages of the womb and the cradle, are commonly answered in the life: it is not the use of God to cast away strange beginnings. If Manoah's wife had not been barren, the angel had not been sent to her. Afflictions have this advantage, that they occasion God to show that mercy to us, whereof the prosperous are incapable. It would not beseem a mother to be so indulgent to a healthful child, as to a sick. It was to the woman that the angel appeared, not to the husband; whether for that the reproach of barrenness lay upon her more heavily than on the father; or for that the birth of the child should cost her more dear than her husband; or, lastly, for that the difficulty of this news was more in her conception than in his generation. As Satan lays his batteries ever to the weakest; so, contrarily, God addresseth his comforts to those hearts that have most need: as, at the first, because Eve had most reason to be dejected, for that her sin had drawn man into the trangression; therefore the cordial of God most respecteth her: "The seed of the woman shall break the serpent's head."

As a physician first tells the state of the disease with its symptoms, and then prescribes; so doth the angel of God first tell

the wife of Manoah her complaint, then her remedy: "Thou art barren." All our afflictions are more noted of that God which sends them, than of the patient that suffers them: how can it be but less possible to endure any thing that he knows not, than that he inflicteth it not? He saith to one, Thou art sick; to another, Thou art poor; to a third, Thou art defamed; Thou art oppressed, to another. That all-seeing eye takes notice from heaven of every man's condition, no less than if he should send an angel to tell us he knew it. His knowledge, compared with his mercy, is the just comfort of all our sufferings. O God, we are many times miserable, and feel it not! thou knowest even those sorrows which we might have; thou knowest what thou hast done: do what thou wilt.

"Thou art barren." Not that the angel would upbraid the poor woman with her affliction; but therefore he names her pain, that the mention of her cure might be much more welcome. Comfort shall come unseasonably to that heart which is not apprehensive of his own sorrow. We must first know our evils, ere we can quit them. It is the just method of every true angel of God, first to let us see that whereof either we do, or should complain, and then to apply comforts: like as a good physician first pulls down the body, and then raises it with cordials. If we cannot abide to hear of our faults, we are not capable of amend

ment.

If the angel had first said, “Thou shalt conceive," and not premised, "Thou art barren," I doubt whether she had conceived faith in her soul, of that infant which her body should conceive: now his knowledge of her present estate makes way for the assurance of the future. Thus ever it pleases our good God to leave a pawn of his fidelity with us; that we should not distrust him in what he will do, when we find him faithful in that which we see done.

It is good reason that he, which gives the son to the barren mother, should dispose of him, and diet him, both in the womb first, and after in the world. The mother must first be a Nazarite, that her son may be so. While she was barren, she might drink what she would; but now, that she shall conceive a Samson, her choice must be limited. There is a holy austerity that ever follows the special calling of God. The worldling may take his full scope, and deny his back and belly nothing; but he that hath once conceived that blessed burden, whereof Samson was a type, must be strict and severe to himself: neither his tongue,

nor his palate, nor his hand, may run riot. Those pleasures which seemed not unseemly for the multitude, are now debarred him. We borrow more names of our Saviour than one: as we are Christians, so we are Nazarites. The consecration of our God is upon our heads, and therefore our very hair should be holy. Our appetites must be curbed, our passions moderated, and so estranged from the world, that in the loss of parents, or children, nature may not make us forget grace. What doth the looseness of vain men persuade them that God is not curious, when they see him thus precisely ordering the very diet of his Nazarites? Nature pleads for liberty, religion for restraint; not that there is more uncleanness in the grape, than in the fountain; but that wine finds more uncleanness in us, than water; and that the high feed is not so fit for devotion, as abstinence. Who sees not a ceremony in this command? which yet carries with it this substance of everlasting use, that God and the belly will not admit of one servant; that quaffing and cramming is not the way to heaven. A drunken Nazarite is a monster among men. We have now more scope than the ancients: not drinking of wine, but drunkenness with wine is forbidden to the evangelical Nazarite; wine, wherein is excess.

that ever Christians should quench the Spirit of God with a liquor of God's own making that they should suffer their hearts to be drowned with wine, and should so live, as if the practice of the gospel were quite contrary to the rule of the law!

The mother must conceive the only giant of Israel, and yet must drink but water; neither must the child touch any other cup. Never wine made so strong a champion, as water did here. The power of nourishment is not in the creatures, but in their Maker. Daniel and his three companions kept their complexion, with the same diet wherewith Samson got his strength; he that gave that power to the grape, can give it to the stream. O God, how justly do we raise our eyes from our tables unto thee, which can make water nourish, and wine enfeeble us!

Samson had not a better mother than Manoah had a wife; she hides not the good news in her own bosom, but imparts it to her husband. That wife hath learned to make a true use of her head, which is ever ready to consult with him about the messages of God. If she were made for his helper, he is much more her's. Thus should good women make amends for their first offence; that as Eve no sooner had

use.

When I see the strength of Manoah's faith, I marvel not that he had a Samson to his son: he saw not the messenger, he heard not the errand, he examined not the circumstances; yet now he takes thought, not whether he should have a son, but how he shall order the son which he must have; and sues to God, not for the son which as yet he had not, but for the direction of governing him when he should be. Zechariah had the same message, and, craving a sign, lost that voice wherewith he craved it. Manoah seeks no sign for the promise, but counsel for himself; and yet that angel spake to Zachary himself; this only to the wife of Manoah: that in the temple, like a glorious spirit; this in the house, or field, like some prophet or traveller: that to a priest; this to a woman. All good men have not equal measures of faith: the bodies of men have not more differences of stature, than their graces. Credulity to men is faulty and dangerous; but, in the matters of God, is the greatest virtue of a Christian. Happy are they that have not seen, yet believed. True faith takes all for granted, yea, for performed, which is once promised.

He, that before sent his angel unasked, will much more send him again upon entreaty those heavenly messengers are ready both to obey their Maker, and to relieve his children. Never any man prayed for direction in his duties to God, and was repulsed: rather will God send an angel from heaven to instruct us, than our good desires shall be frustrate.

Manoah prayed; the angel appeared again, not to him, but to his wife. It had been the shorter way to have come first to the man, whose prayers procured his presence. But as Manoah went directly and imme

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and about to him; and will make her the means to bear the message to her husband, who must bear him the son: both the blessing and the charge are chiefly meant to her. It was a good care of Manoah, when the angel had given order to his wife alone for the governing of the child's diet, to proffer himself to his charge: "How shall we order the child?" As both the parents have their part in the being of their children, so should they have in their education; it is both unreasonable and unnatural in husbands to cast this burden upon the weaker vessel alone: it is no reason that she, which alone hath had the pain of their birth, should have the pain of their breeding. Though the charge be renewed to the wife, yet the speech is directed to the husband; the act must be her's, his must be the oversight: "Let her observe all I commanded her." The head must overlook the body; it is the duty of the husband to be careful that the wife do her duty to God.

ness.

As yet Manoah saw nothing but the outside of a man, and therefore offers the angel an answerable entertainment, wherein there is at once hospitality and thankfulNo man shall bring him good news from God, and go away unrecompensed How forward he is to feast him, whom he took for a prophet! Their feet should be so much more beautiful that bring us news of salvation, by how much their errand is better.

| That Manoah might learn to acknowledge God in this man, he sets off the proffer of his thankfulness from himself to God, and (as the same angel which appeared to Gideon) turns his feast into a sacrifice. And now he is Manoah's solicitor to better thanks than he offered. How forward the good angels are to incite us unto piety! Either this was the Son himself, which said, "It was his meat and drink to do his Father's will," or else one of his spiritual attendants, of the same diet. We can never feast the angels better, than with our hearty sacrifices to God. Why do not we learn this lesson of them, whom we propound to ourselves as patterns of our obedience? We shall be once like the angels in condition; why are we not, in the meantime, in our dispositions? If we do not provoke and exhort one another to godliness, and do care more for a feast than a sacrifice, our appetite is not angelical, but brutish.

It was an honest mind in Manoah, while he was addressing a sacrifice to God, yet not to neglect his messenger: fain would