This good old man of Gibeah came home late from his work in the fields; the sun was set ere he gave over: and now, seeing this man a stranger, an Israelite, a Levite, an Ephraimite, and that in his way to the house of God, to take up his lodging in the street, he proffers him the kindness of his house-room. Industrious spirits are the fittest receptacles of all good motions; whereas those which give themselves to idle and loose courses, do not care so much as for themselves. I hear of but one man at his work in all Gibeath; the rest were quaffing and revelling. That one man ends his work with a charitable entertainment; the other end their play in a brutish beastliness, and violence. These villains had learned both the actions and the language of the Sodomites: one unclean devil was the prompter to both; and this honest Ephraimite had learned of righteous Lot, both to entreat and to proffer. As a perplexed mariner, that in a storm must cast away something, although precious; so this good host rather will prostitute his daughter, a virgin, together with the concubine, than this prodigious villany should be offered to a man, much more to a man of God.

The detestation of a fouler sin drew him to overreach in the motion of a lesser; which, if it had been accepted, how could he have escaped the partnership of their uncleanness, and the guilt of his daughter's ravishment! No man can wash his hands of that sin to which his will hath yielded. Bodily violence may be inoffensive in the patient; voluntary inclination to evil, though out of fear, can never be excusable yet behold, this wickedness is too little to satisfy these monsters!

Who would have looked for so extreme abomination from the loins of Jacob, the womb of Rachel, the sons of Benjamin? Could the very Jebusites, their neighbours, be ever accused of such unnatural outrage? I am ashamed to say it, even the worst pagans were saints to Israel. What avails it, that they have the ark of God in Shiloh, while they have Sodom in their streets? that the law of God is in their fringes, while the devil is in their hearts? Nothing but hell itself can yield a worse creature than a depraved Israelite; the very means

Yet Lot sped so much better in Sodom, than this Ephraimite did in Gibeah, by how much more holy guests he entertained: there the guests were angels, here a sinful man; there the guests saved the host, here the host could not save the guest from brutish violence; those Sodomites were stricken with outward blindness, and defeated; these Benjamites are only blinded with lust, and prevail. The Levite comes forth; perhaps his coat saved his person from this villany; who now thinks himself well, that he may have leave to redeem his own dishonour with his concubine's. If he had not loved her dearly, he had never sought her so far, after so foul a sin; yet now his hate of that unnatural wickedness overcame his love to her; she is exposed to the furious lust of ruffians, and, which he misdoubteth, abused to death.

O the just and even course which the Almighty Judge of the world holds in all his retributions! This woman had shamed the bed of a Levite by her former wantonness; she had thus far gone smoothly away with her sin; her father harboured her; her husband forgave her; her own heart found no cause to complain, because she smarted not: now, when the world had forgotten her offence, God calls her to reckoning, and punishes her with her own sin. She had voluntarily exposed herself to lust, now is exposed forcibly. Adul tery was her sin; adultery was her death. What smiles soever wickedness casts upon the heart, while it solicits, it will owe us a displeasure, and prove itself a faithful debitor.

The Levite looked to find her humbled with this violence, not murdered; and now indignation moves him to add horror to the fact. Had not his heart been raised up with an excess of desire to make the crime as odious as it was sinful, his action could not be excused. Those hands, that might not touch a carcase, now carve the corpse of his own dead wife into morsels, and send these tokens to all the tribes of Israel; that when they should see these gobbets of the body murdered, the more they might detest the murderers. Himself puts on cruelty to the dead, that he might draw them to a just revenge of her death. Actions notoriously villanous, may justly countenance an extraordinary means o prosecution. Every Israelite hath a part in a Levite's wrong; no tribe hath not his share in the carcase and the revenge.

CONTEMPLATION II.—THE DESOLATION OF BENJAMIN.

THESE morsels could not choose but cut the hearts of Israel with horror and compassion; horror of the act, and compassion of the sufferer; and now their zeal draws them together, either for satisfaction or revenge. Who would not have looked that the hands of Benjamin should have been first upon Gibeah; and that they should have readily sent the heads of the offenders, for a second service, after the gobbets of the concubine! But now, instead of punishing the sin, they patronised the actors; and will rather die in resisting justice, than live and prosper in furthering it!

Surely, Israel had one tribe too many. All Benjamin is turned into Gibeah; the sons not of Benjamin, but of Belial. The abetting of evil is worse than the commission; this may be upon infirmity, but that must be upon resolution. Easy punishment is too much favour to sin; connivance is much worse: but the defence of it, and that unto blood, is intolerable. Had not these men been both wicked and quarrellous, they had not drawn their swords in so foul a cause. Peaceable dispositions are hardly drawn to fight for innocence; yet these Benjamites (as if they were in love with villany, and out of charity with God) will be the wilful champions of lewdness. How can Gibeah repent them of that wickedness which all Benjamin will make good, in spite of their consciences? Even where sin is suppressed, it will rise; but where it is encouraged, it insults and tyrannizes.

It was more just that Israel should rise against Benjamin, than that Benjamin should rise for Gibeah; by how much it is better to punish offenders, than to shelter the offenders from punishment: and yet the wickedness of Benjamin sped better for the time, than the honesty of Israel. Twice was the better part foiled by the less and worse: the good cause was sent back with shame; the evil returned with victory and triumph. O God, their hand was for thee in the fight, and thy hand was with them in their fall! They had not fought for thee, but by thee; neither could they have miscarried in the fight, if thou hadst not fought against them: thou art just and holy in both. The cause was thine; the sin in managing of it was their own. They fought in a holy quarrel, but with confidence in themselves; for, as presuming of victory, they ask of God, not

what should be their success, but who should be their captain. Number and innocence made them too secure: it was just, therefore, with God to let them feel, that even good zeal cannot bear out presumption; and that victory lies not in the cause, but in the God that owns it.

Who cannot imagine how much the Benjamites insulted in their double field and day, and now began to think, God was on their side! Those swords, which had been taught the way into forty thousand bodies of their brethren, cannot fear a new encounter. Wicked men cannot see their prosperity a piece of their curse; neither can examine their actions, but the events. Soon after they shall find what it was to add blood unto filthiness, and that the victory of an evil cause is the way to ruin and confusion.

I should have feared lest this double discomfiture should have made Israel either distrustful, or weary of a good cause: but still I find them no less courageous, with more humility. Now they fast and weep, and sacrifice. These weapons had been victorious in their first assault. Benjamin had never been in danger of pride for overcoming, if this humiliation of Israel had prevented the fight. It is seldom seen, but that which we do with fear prospereth; whereas confidence in undertaking, lays even good endeavours in the dust.

Wickedness could never brag of any long prosperity, nor complain of the lack of payment: still God is even with it at last. Now he pays the Benjamites both that death which they had lent to the Israelites, and that wherein they stood indebted to their brotherhood of Gibeah: and now, that both are met in death, there is as much difference betwixt those Israelites, and these Benjamites, as betwixt martyrs and malefactors. To die in a sin is a fearful revenge of giving patronage to sin. The sword consumes their bodies, another fire their cities, whatsoever became of their souls.

Now might Rachel have justly wept for her children, because they were not; for behold, the men, women, and children of her wicked tribe, are cut off; only some few scattered remainders ran away from this vengeance, and lurked in caves, and rocks, both for fear and shame. There was no difference but life betwixt their brethren and them; the earth covered them both; yet unto them doth the revenge of Israel stretch itself, and vows to destroy, if not their persons, yet their succession, as holding them unworthy to receive comfort by that sex to which they had been so cruel,

both in act and maintenance. If the Israelites had not held marriage and issue a very great blessing, they had not thus revenged themselves of Benjamin: now they accounted the withholding of their wives a punishment second to death. The hope of life in our posterity, is the next contentment to an enjoying of life in ourselves.

They have sworn, and now, upon cold blood, repent them. If the oath were not just, why would they take it? and if it were just, why did they recant it? If the act were justifiable, what needed these | tears? Even a just oath may be rashly taken. Not only injustice, but temerity of swearing, ends in lamentation. In our very civil actions, it is a weakness to do that which we would after reverse; but in our affairs with God, to check ourselves too late, and to steep our oaths in tears, is a dangerous folly. He doth not command us to take voluntary oaths; he commands us to keep them. If we bind ourselves to inconvenience, we may justly complain of our own fetters. Oaths do not only require justice, but judgment; wise deliberation, no less than equity.

Not conscience of their fact, but commiseration of their brethren, led them to this public repentance. "O God! why is this come to pass, that this day one tribe of Israel shall want?" Even the justest revenge of men is capable of pity. Insultation, in the rigour of justice, argues cruelty; charitable minds are grieved to see that done, which they would not wish undone: the smart of the offender doth not please them, which yet are thoroughly displeased with the sin, and have given their hands to punish it. God himself takes no pleasure in the death of a sinner, yet loves the punishment of sin : as a good parent whips his child, yet weeps himself. There is a measure in victory and revenge, if never so just, which to exceed, loses mercy in the suit of justice.

If there were no fault in their severity, it needed no excuse: and if there were a fault, it will admit of no excuse: yet, as if they meant to shift off the sin, they expostulate with God: O Lord God of Israel, why is this come to pass this day?" God gave them no command of this rigour: yea, he twice crossed them in the execution; and now, in that which they entreated of God with tears, they challenge him. It is a dangerous injustice to lay the burden of our sins upon him, which tempteth no man, nor can be tempted with evil; while we so remove our sin, we double it.

A man that knew not the power of an

oath, would wonder at this contrariety in the affections of Israel: they are sorry for the slaughter of Benjamin; and yet they slay those that did not help them in the slaughter. Their oath calls them to more blood: the excess of their revenge upon Benjamin may not excuse the men of Gilead. If ever oath might look for a dispensation, this might plead it: now they dare not but kill the men of Jabesh-Gilead, lest they should have left upon themselves a greater sin of sparing than punishing. Jabesh-Gilead came not up to aid Israel, therefore all the inhabitants must die. To exempt ourselves, whether out of singularity or stubbornness, from the common actions of the church, when we are lawfully called to them, is an offence worthy of judgment. In the main quarrels of the church, neutrals are punished. This execution shall make amends for the former; of the spoil of Jabesh-Gilead shall the Benjamites be stored with wives. That no man may think these men slain for their daughters, they plainly die for their sin; and these Gileadites might not have lived without the perjury of Israel; and now, since they must die, it is good to make benefit of necessity. I inquire not into the rigour of the oath: if their solemn vow did not bind them to kill all of both sexes in Benjamin, why did they not spare their virgins? and if it did so bind them, why did they spare the virgins of Gilead? Favours must be enlarged in all these religious restrictions. Where breath may be taken in them, it is not fit nor safe they should be straitened.

Four hundred virgins of Gilead have lost parents, and brethren, and kindred, and now find husbands in lieu of them. An enforced marriage was but a miserable comfort for such a loss: like wards, or captives, they are taken, and choose not, These suffice not; their friendly adversaries consult for more upon worse conditions. Into what troublesome and dangerous straits do men thrust themselves, by either unjust or inconsiderate vows!

In the midst of all this common lawlessness of Israel, here was conscience made on both sides of matching with infidels. The Israelites can rather be content their daughters should be stolen by their own, than that the daughters of aliens should be given them. These men, which had not grace enough to detest and punish the beastliness of their Gileadites, yet are not so graceless as to choose them wives of the heathen. All but atheists, howsoever they let themselves loose, yet in some

people, did they not remember how far Jacob walked to Padan-Aram? Was it farther from Moab to Bethlehem, than from Bethlehem to Moab? And if the care of themselves led them from Bethlehem to Moab, should not their care of obedience to God have as well carried them back from Moab to Bethlehem? Yet if their wives would have left their idolatry with their maidenhead, the match had been more safe; but now, even at the last farewell, Naomi can say of Orpah, that she is returned to her gods. These men have sinned in their choice, and it speeds with them accordingly. Where did ever one of these unequal matches prosper? The two sons of Elimelech are swept away childless in the prime of their age, and, instead of their seed, they leave their carcases in Moab, their wives widows, their mother childless and helpless amongst in fidels, in that age which most needed comfort. How miserable do we find poor Naomi, which is left destitute of her country, her husband, her children, her friends, and turned loose and solitary to the mercy of the world! Yet even out of these hopeless ruins will God raise comfort to his servant. The first good news is, that God hath visited his people with bread; now, therefore, since her husband and sons were unrecoverable, she will try to recover her country and kindred. If we can have the same conditions in Judah that we have in Moab, we are no Israelites if we return not.

While her husband and sons lived, I hear no motion of retiring home; now these her earthly stays are removed, she thinks presently of removing to her country. Neither can we so heartily think of our home above, while we are furnished with these worldly contentments: when God strips us of them, straightways our mind is homeward.

She that came from Bethlehem under the protection of a husband, attended with her sons, stored with substance, resolves now to measure all that way alone. Her adversity had stripped her of all but a good heart: that remains with her, and bears up her head, in the deepest of her extremity. True Christian fortitude wades through all evils; and, though we be up to the chin, yet keeps firm footing against the stream: where this is, the sex is not discerned; neither is the quantity of the evil read in the face. How well doth this courage become Israelites, when we are left comfortless in the midst of the Moab of this world, to resolve the contempt of all dangers in the way to our home! as, contrarily, nothing

doth more misbeseem a Christian, than that his spirits should flag with his estate, and that any difficulty should make him despair of attaining his best ends.

Goodness is of a winning quality, wheresoever it is; and, even amongst infidels, will make itself friends. The good disposition of Naomi carries away the hearts of her daughters-in-law with her, so as they are ready to forsake their kindred, their country, yea, their own mother, for a stranger, whose affinity died with her sons. Those men are worse than infidels, and next to devils, that hate the virtues of God's saints, and could love their persons well, if they were not conscionable.

How earnestly do these two daughters of Moab plead for their continuance with Naomi; and how hardly is either of them dissuaded from partaking of the misery of her society! There are good natures even among infidels, and such as, for moral disposition and civil respects, cannot be exceeded by the best professors. Who can suffer his heart to rest in those qualities, which are common to them that are without God!

Naomi could not be so insensible of her own good, as not to know how much comfort she might reap to the solitariness, both of her voyage and her widowhood, by the society of these two younger widows, whose affections she had so well tried. Even every partnership is a mitigation of evils: yet, so earnestly doth she dissuade them from accompanying her, as that she could not have said more, if she had thought their presence irksome and burdensome. Good dispositions love not to pleasure themselves with the disadvantage of others, and had rather be miserable alone, than to draw in partners to their sorrow; for the sight of another's calamity doth rather double their own, and, if themselves were free, would affect them with compassion; as, contrarily, ill minds care not how many companions they have in misery, nor how few consorts in good: if themselves miscarry, they would be content all the world were enwrapped with them in the same distress.

I marvel not that Orpah is by this seasonable importunity persuaded to return from a mother-in-law, to a mother in nature; from a toilsome journey to rest; from strangers to her kindred; from a hopeless condition, to likelihoods of contentment. A little entreaty will serve to move nature to be good unto itself. Every one is rather a Naomi to his own soul, to persuade it to stay still, and enjoy the delights of Moab, rather than to hazard our enter