he know whom to honour. True piety is | not uncivil, but, while it magnifies the author of all blessings, is thankful to the means. Secondary causes are worthy of regard; neither need it detract any thing from the praise of the agent, to honour the instrument. It is not only rudeness, but injustice in those which can be content to hear good news from God, with contempt to the bearers. The angel will neither take nor give, but conceals his very name from Manoah. All honest motions are not fit to be yielded to; good intentions are not always sufficient grounds of condescent. If we do sometimes ask what we know not, it is no marvel f we receive not what we ask. In some cases, the angel of God tells his name unasked, as Gabriel to the virgin here, not by entreaty. If it were the angel of the covenant, he had as yet no name but Jehovah; if a created angel, he had no commission to tell his name; and a faithful messenger hath not a word beyond his charge. Besides that he saw it would be of more use for Manoah, to know him really, than by words. O the bold presumption of those men, which (as if they had long sojourned in heaven, and been acquainted with all the holy legions of spirits) discourse of their orders, of their titles, when this one angel stops the mouth of a better man than they, with "Why dost thou ask after my name, which is secret?" "Secret things belong to God; revealed, to us and our children.' No word can be so significant as actions. The act of the angel tells best who he was: he did wonderfully; Wonderful, therefore, was his name. So soon as ever the flame of the sacrifice ascended, he mounted up in the smoke of it, that Manoah might see the sacrifice and the messenger belonged both to one God, and might know both whence to acknowledge the message, and whence to expect the performance. Gideon's angel vanished at his sacrifice, but this in the sacrifice; that Manoah might at once see both the confirmation of his promise, and the acceptation of his obedience, while the angel of God vouchsafed to perfume himself with that holy smoke, and carry the scent of it up into heaven. Manoah believed before, and craved no sign to assure him; God voluntarily confirms it to him above his desire: "To him that hath, shall be given." Where there are beginnings of faith, the mercy of God will add perfection. How do we think Manoah and his wife looked to see this spectacle? They had not spirit enough left to look one upon another; but, instead of looking up cheerfully to heaven, they fall down to the earth upon their faces; as weak eyes are dazzled with that which should comfort them. This is the infirmity of our nature, to be afflicted with the causes of our joy, to be astonished with our confirmations, to conceive death in that vision of God, wherein our life and happiness consist. If this homely sight of the angel did so confound good Manoah, what shall become of the enemies of God, when they shall be brought before the glorious tribunal of the God of angels. I marvel not now, that the angel appeared both times rather to the wife of Manoah: her faith was the stronger of the two. It falls out sometimes, that the weaker vessel is fuller, and that of more precious liquor. That wife is no helper, which is not ready to give spiritual comfort to her husband. The reason was good and irrefragable: "If the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt-offering from us." God will not accept gifts where he intends punishment, and professes hatred: "The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to the Lord." If we can find assurance of God's acceptation of our sacrifices, we may be sure he loves our persons. If I incline to wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear me but the Lord hath heard me. -SAMSON'S MARRIAGE. CONTEMPLATION III. —§ Or all the deliverers of Israel, there is none of whom are reported so many weaknesses, or so many miracles, as of Samson. The news which the angel told of his conception and education was not more strange than the news of his own choice: he but sees a daughter of the Philistines, and falls in love. All this strength begins in infirmity. One maid of the Philistines overcomes that champion, which was given to overcome the Philistines. Even he that was dieted with water, found heat of unfit desires. As his body was strong, notwithstanding that fare, so were his passions; without the gift of continency, a low feed may impair nature, but not inordination, To follow nothing but the eye in the choice of his wife, was a lust unworthy of a Nazarite: this is to make the sense not a counsellor but a tyrant. Yet was Samson in this very impotency dutiful: he did not, in the presumption of his strength, ravish her forcibly; he did not make up a clandestine match, without consulting with his parents, but he makes suit to them for consent: "Give me her to wife;" as one that could be master of his own act, though not of his passion, and as one that had learned so to be a suitor, as not to forget himself to be a son. Even in this deplored state of Israel, children durst | not presume to be their own carvers: how much less is this tolerable in a well guided and Christian commonwealth? Whosoever now dispose of themselves without their parents, they do wilfully unchild themselves, and change natural affection for violent. not be too peremptory in their denial. It It is no marvel if Manoah and his wife were astonished at this unequal motion of her son. Did not the angel (thought they) tell us, that this child should be consecrated to God; and must he begin his youth in unholy wedlock? Did not the angel say, that our son should begin to save Israel from the Philistines; and is he now captivated in his affections by a daughter of the Philistines? Shall our deliverance from the Philistines begin in an alliance? Have we been so scrupulously careful that he should eat no unclean thing, and shall we now consent to a heathenish match? Now, therefore, they gravely endeavour to cool this intemperate heat of his passion with good counsel; as those which well knew the inconveniences of an unequal yoke: corruption in religion, alienation of affections, distraction of thoughts, connivance at idolatry, death of zeal, dangerous under-a treacle of a viper; and rather appointed minings, and lastly, an unholy seed. Who can blame them, if they were unwilling to call a Philistine daughter? I wish Manoah could speak so loud, that all our Israelites might hear him: "Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all God's people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines?" If religion be any other than a cipher, how dare we not regard it in our most important choice? Is she a fair Philistine? Why is not this deformity of the soul more powerful to dissuade us than the beauty of the face or of metal to allure us? To dote upon a fair skin, when we see a Philistine under it, is sensual and brutish. Affection is not more blind than deaf. In vain do the parents seek to alter a young man, not more strong in body than in will. Though he cannot defend his desires, yet he pursues them: "Get her, for she pleases me." And although it must needs be a weak motion that can plead no reason but appetite, yet the good parents, since they cannot bow the affection of their son with persuasion, dare not break it with As it becomes not children to be forward in their choice, so parents may violence. to fetch good out of Samson's evil, than to approve that for good in Samson, which in itself was evil. When Samson went on wooing, he might have made the sluggard's excuse," There is a lion in the way;" but he that could not be stayed by persuasion, will not by fear. A lion, young, wild, fierce, hungry, comes roaring upon him, when he had no weapon but his hand, no fence but his strength. The same providence that carried him to Timnah, brought the lion to him. It hath been ever the fashion of God to exercise his champions with some initiatory encounters: both Samson and David must first fight with lions, then with Philistines; and he, whose type they bore, meets with that roaring lion of the wilderness in the very threshold of his public charge. The same hand that prepared a lion for Samson, hath proportionable matches for every Christian: God never gives strength, but he employs it. Poverty meets one like an armed man; infamy, like some furious mastiff, comes flying in the face of another: the wild boar out of the forest, or the bloody tiger of persecution, sets upon one; the brawling curs of heretical pravity, or contentious neighbourhood, are ready to bait another: and by all these meaner and brutish adversaries, will God fit us for greater conflicts. It is a pledge of our future victory over the spiritual Philistines, if we can say, My soul hath been among lions. Come forth now, thou weak Christian, and behold this preparatory battle of Samson. Dost thou now think God deals hardly with thee, in matching thee so hard, and calling thee forth to so many frays? What, dost thou but repine at thine own glory? How shouldst thou be victorious, without resistance? If the parents of Samson had now stood behind the hedge, and seen this encounter, they would have taken no further care of matching their son with a Philistine; for who, that should see a strong lion ramping upon an unarmed man, would hope for his life and victory? The beast came bristling up his fearful mane, wafting his raised stern, his eyes sparkling with fury, his mouth roaring out knells of his last passage, and breathing death from his nostrils, and now rejoicing at so fair a prey. Surely, if the lion had had no other adversary than him whom he saw, he had not lost his hope; but now he could not see that his Maker was his enemy: "The spirit | of the Lord came upon Samson." What is a beast in the hand of the Creator? He that struck the lions with the awe of Adam, Noah, and Daniel, subdued this rebellious beast to Samson. What marvel is it if Samson now tore him, as if it had been a young kid? If his bones had been brass, and his skin plates of iron, all had been one: "The right hand of the Lord bringeth mighty things to pass." If that roaring lion, that goes about continually seeking whom he may devour, find us alone among the vineyards of the Philistines, where is our hope? Not in our heels; he is swifter than we: not in our weapons; we are naturally unarmed: not in our hands, which are weak and languishing: but in the Spirit of that God by whom we can do all things. If God fight in us, who can resist us? There is a stronger lion in us, than that against us. Samson was not more valiant than modest; he made no words of this great exploit. The greatest performers ever make the least noise. He that works wonders alone could say, "See thou tell no man ;" whereas those whose hands are most impotent, are busiest of their tongues. Great talkers show that they desire only to be thought eminent, whereas the deepest waters are least heard. But, while he concealed this event from others, he pondered it in himself; and when he returned to Timnah, went out of the way to see his dead adversary, and could not but recall to himself his danger and deliverance. Here the beast met me; thus he fought; thus I slew him! The very dead lion taught Samson thankfulness; there was more honey in this thought than in the carcass. The mercies of God are ill bestowed upon us, if we cannot step aside to view the monuments of his deliverances: dangers may be at once past and forgotten. As Samson had not found his honeycomb, if he had not turned aside to see his lion; so we shall lose the comfort of God's benefits, if we do not renew our perils by meditation. Lest any thing should befall Samson, wherein is not some wonder, his lion doth more amaze him dead than alive; for lo! that carcass is made a hive, and the bitterness of death is turned into the sweetness of honey! The bee, a nice and dainty creature, builds her cells in an unsavoury carcass; that carcass, that promised nothing but stench and annoyance, now offers comfort and refreshing, and, in a sort, pays Samson for the wrong offered. O the wonderful goodness of our God, that can change our terrors into pleasure, and can make the greatest evils beneficial! Is any man, by his humiliation under the hand of God, grown more faithful and conscionable? There is honey out of the lion. man by his temptation or fall become more circumspect? There is also honey out of the lion. There is no Samson to whom every lion doth not yield honey. Every Christian is the better for his evils; yea, Satan himself, in his exercise of God's children, advantageth them. Is any Samson doth not disdain these sweets, because he finds them uncleanly laid his diet was strict, and forbade him anything that savoured of legal impurity; yet he eats the honeycomb out of the belly of a dead beast. Good may not be refused, because the means are accidentally evil. Honey is honey still, though in a dead lion. Those are less wise and more scrupulous than Samson, which abhor the graces of God, because they find them in ill vessels. One cares not for the preacher's true doctrine, because his life is evil; another will not take a good receipt from the hand of a physician, because he is given to unlawful studies; a third will not receive a deserved contribution from the hands of a usurer. It is a weak neglect not to take the honey, because we hate the lion. God's children have right to their Father's blessings where- | Somewhat of kin to these savage Philisoever they find them. The match is now made; Samson (though a Nazarite) hath both a wedding and a feast. God never mislikes moderate solemnities in the severest life; and yet this bridal feast was long, the space of seven days. If Samson had matched with the best İsraelite, this celebration had been no greater; neither had this perhaps been so long, if the custom of the place had not required it. Now I do not hear him plead | his Nazaritism, for a colour of singularity. It is both lawful and fit, in things not prohibited, to conform ourselves to the manners and rites of those with whom we live. That Samson might think it an honour to match with the Philistines, he, whom before the lion found alone, is now accompanied with thirty attendants: they called them companions, but they meant them for spies. The courtesies of the world are hollow and thankless; neither doth it ever purpose so ill, as when it shows fairest. None are so near to danger, as those whom it entertains with smiles. While it frowns, we know what to trust to; but the favours of it are worthy of nothing but fears and suspicion. Open defiance is better than false love. Austerity had not made Samson uncivil: he knows how to entertain Philistines with a formal familiarity; and that his intellectual parts might be approved answerable to his arms, he will first try masteries of wit, and set their brains on work with harmless thoughts: his riddle shall oppose them, and a deep wager shall bind the solution; thirty shirts and thirty suits of raiment: neither their loss nor their gain could be much, besides the victory being divided into thirty partners: but Samson's must needs be both ways very large, who must give or receive thirty alone. The seven days of the feast are expiring, and yet they, which had been all this while devouring of Samson's meat, cannot tell who that eater should be from whence meat should come. In the course of nature, the strong feeder takes in meat, and sends out filthiness; but that meat and sweetness should come from a devouring stomach, was beyond their apprehension. And as fools and dogs used to begin in jest and end in earnest, so did these Philistines; and therefore they force the bride to entice her husband to betray himself. Covetousness and pride have made them impatient of loss; and now they threat to fire her and her father's house, for recompense of their entertainment, rather than they will lose a small wager to an Israelite. stines, are those choleric gamesters, which if the dice be not their friend, fall out with God, curse (that which is not) fortune, strike their fellows, and are ready to take vengeance upon themselves: those men are unfit for sport, that lose their patience together with their wager. I do not wonder that a Philistine woman loved herself and her father's family more than an Israelitish bridegroom; and if she bestowed tears upon her husband, for the ransom of them, Samson himself taught her this difference, "I have not told it my father or my mother, and should I tell it thee?" If she had not been as she was, she had neither done this to Samson, nor heard this from him: matrimonial respects are dearer than natural. It was the law of Him that ordained marriage (before ever parents were), that parents should be forsaken for the husband or wife: but now Israelitish parents are worthy of more entireness than a wife of the Philistines; and yet whom the lion could not conquer, the tears of a woman have conquered. Samson never bewrayed infirmity but in uxoriousness. What assurance can there be of him that hath a Philistine in his bosom! Adam the most perfect 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 ploughed 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 their 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 than another, when both are Philistines. CONTEMPLATION IV. —SAMSON'S VICTORY. I CAN no more justify Samson 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 him in his riddle, yet she was true to his bed. That 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 a 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 emblems could these foxes tied together present unto them, than wiliness, combined with 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 it is to see good corn thus spoiled! If the creature be considered apart from the owners, it is good; and therefore if it be mispent, 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 hailstones; he that consumed the vines of Israel with the palmer-worm, and caterpillar, and cankerworm, 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 secresy 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. L |