is no lingering when God bids us go. They who had promised rest to their weary limbs, after their return from Achish, in their harbour of Ziklag, are glad to forget their hopes, and to put their stiff joints upon a new task of motion. It is no marvel if two hundred of them were so over-tired with their former toil, that they were not able to pass over the river Besor. David was a true type of Christ: we follow him in these holy wars, against the spiritual Amalekites. All of us are not of an equal strength some are carried by the vigour of their faith through all difficulties; others, after long pressure, are ready to languish in | the way. Our leader is not more strong than pitiful; neither doth he scornfully cashier those whose desires are hearty, while their abilities are unanswerable. How much more should our charity pardon the infirmities of our brethren, and allow them to sit by the stuff, who cannot endure the march? The same Providence which appointed David to follow the Amalekites, had also ordered an Egyptian to be cast_behind them. This cast servant, whom his cruel master had left to faintness and famine, shall be used as the means of the recovery of the Israelites' loss, and of the revenge of the Amalekites. Had not his master neglected him, all these rovers of Amalek had gone away with their life and booty: it is not safe to despise the meanest vassal upon earth. There is a mercy and care due to the most despicable piece of all humanity, wherein we cannot be wanting without the offence, without the punishment of God. : Charity distinguisheth an Israelite from an Amalekite. David's followers are strangers to this Egyptian; an Amalekite was his master his master leaves him to die in the field of sickness and hunger; these strangers relieved him and ere they know whether they might, by him. receive any light in their pursuit, they refresh his dying spirits with bread and water, with figs and raisins; neither can the haste of their way be any hinderance to their compassion. He hath no Israelitish blood in him, that is utterly merciless: perhaps yet David's followers might also, in the hope of some intelligence, show kindness to this forlorn Egyptian. Worldly wisdom teacheth us to sow small courtesies, where we may reap large harvests of recompense. No sooner are his spirits recalled, than he requites his tood with information. I cannot blame the Egyptian, that he was so easily induced to descry these unkind Amalekites to merciful Israelites; those that gave him over unto death, to the restorers of his life; much less that, ere he would descry them, he requires an oath of security from so bad a master. Well doth be match death with such a servitude! Wonderful is the providence of God, even over those that are not in the nearest bonds his own! Three days and three nights had this poor Egyptian slave lain sick and hunger-starved in the fields, and looks for nothing but death, when God sends him succour from the hands of those Israelites whom he had helped to spoil; though not so much for his sake, as for Israel's, is this heathenish straggler preserved. It pleases God to extend his common favours to all his creatures; but, in miraculous preservations, he hath still wont to have respect to his own. By this means therefore are the Israelites brought to the sight of their late spoilers, whom they find scattered abroad, upon all the earth, eating and drinking, and dancing in triumph, for the great prey they had taken. It was three days at least since this gainful foraging of Amalek: and now, seeing no fear of any pursuer, and promising themselves safety, in so great and untraced a distance, they make themselves merry with so rich and easy a victory; and now suddenly, when they began to think of enjoying the booty and wealth they had gotten, the sword of David was upon their throats. Destruction is never nearer, than when security hath chased away fear. With how sad faces and hearts had the wives of David, and the other captives of Israel, looked upon the triumphant revels of Amalek! and what a change do we think appeared in them, when they saw their happy and valiant rescuers flying in upon their insolent victors, and making the death of the Amalekites the ransom of their captivity! They mourned even now at the dances of Amalek; now in the shrieks and death of Amalek, they shout and rejoice. The mercy of our God forgets not to interchange our sorrows with joy, and the joy of the wicked with sorrow. The Amalekites have paid a dear loan for the goods of Israel, which they now restore with their own lives: and now their spoil hath made David richer than he expected: that booty, which they had swept from all other parts, accrued to him. Those Israelites, that could not go on to fight for their share, are come to meet their brethren with gratulation. How partial are we wont to be to our own causes! Even very Israelites will be ready to fall out for matter of profit. Where self-love hath brea a quarrel, every man is subject to flatter his own case. It seemed plausible, and but just to the actors in this rescue, that those which had taken no part in the pain and hazard of the journey, should receive no part of the commodity. It was favour enough for them to recover their wives and children, though they shared not in the goods. Wise and holy David, whose praise was no less to overcome his own in time of peace, than his enemies in war, calls his contending followers from law to equity, and so orders the matter, that, since the plaintiffs were detained, not by will, but by necessity, and since their forced stay was useful in guarding the stuff, they should partake equally of the prey with their fellows: a sentence well beseeming the justice of God's anointed. Those that represent God upon earth, should resemble him in their proceedings. It is the just mercy of our God to measure us by our wills, not by our abilities; to recompense us graciously, according to the truth of our desires and endeavours; and to account that performed by us, which he only letteth us from performing. It were wide with us, if sometimes purpose did not supply actions. While our heart faulteth not, we that, through spiritual sickness, are fain to bide by the stuff, shall share both in grace and glory with the victors. CONTEMPLATION VI.-THE DEATH OF SAUL. THE witch of Endor had half slain Saul before the battle: it is just that they who consult with devils should go away with discomfort. He hath eaten his last bread at the hand of a sorceress ; and now necessity draws him into that field, where he sees nothing but despair. Had not Saul believed the ill news of the counterfeit Samuel, he had not been struck down on the ground with words: now his belief made him desperate. Those actions, which are not sustained by hope, must needs languish, and are only promoted by outward compulsion: while the mind is uncertain of success, it relieves itself with the possibilities of good. In doubts there is a comfortable mixture; but when it is assured of the worst event, it is utterly discouraged and dejected. It hath therefore pleased the wisdom of God to hide from wicked men his determination of their final estate, that the remainders of hope may hearten them to good. Saul discomfited by the Philistines : how should it be otherwise? David consulted with God, and prevailed: Saul with the witch of Endor, and perisheth. The end is commonly answerable to the way it is an idle injustice, when we do ill, to look to speed well. The slaughter of Saul and his sons was not in the first scene of this tragical field: that was rather reserved by God for the last act, that Saul's measure might be full. God is long ere he strikes, but when he doth, it is to purpose. First, Israel flies, and falls down wounded in mount Gilboa: they had their part in Saul's sin; they were actors in David's persecution; justly, therefore, do they suffer with him whom they had seconded in offence. As it is hard to be good under an evil prince, so it is as rare not to be en wrapped in his judgments. It was no small addition to the anguish of Saul's death, to see his sons dead, to see his people flying, and slain before him: they had sinned in their king, and in them is their king punished. The rest were not so worthy of pity; but whose heart would it not touch to see Jonathan, the good son of a wicked father, involved in the common destruction? Death is not partial: all dispositions, all merits, are alike to it. If valour, if holiness, if sincerity of heart, could have been any defence against mortality, Jonathan had survived. Now, by their wounds and death, no man can discern which is Jonathan: the soul only finds the difference which the body admitteth not. Death is the common gate both to heaven and hell; we all pass that, ere our turning to either hand. The sword of the Philistines fetcheth Jonathan through it with his fellows; no sooner is his foot over that threshold, than God conducteth him to glory. The best cannot be happy but through their dissolution; now, therefore, hath Jonathan no cause of complaint: he is, by the rude and cruel hand of a Philistine, but removed to a better kingdom than he leaves to his brother; and at once is his death both a temporal affliction to the son of Saul, and an entrance of glory to the friend of David. The Philistine archers shot at random : God directs their arrows into the body of Saul. Lest the discomfiture of his people, and the slaughter of his sons, should not be grief enough to him, he feels himself wounded, and sees nothing before him but horror and death; and now, as a man forsaken of all hopes, he begs of his armourbearer that death's blow, which else he must, In all likelihood, one self-same day saw to the doubling of his indignation, receive David a victor over the Amalekites, and | from a Philistine. He begs this bloody fa vour of his servant, and is denied. Such an awfulness hath God placed in sovereignty, that no entreaty, no extremity, can move the hand against it. What metal are those men made of, that can suggest or resolve, and attempt the violation of majesty? Wicked men care more for the shame of the world than the danger of their souls. Desperate Saul will now supply his armour-bearer; and as a man that bore arms against himself, he falls upon his own sword. What if he had died by the weapon of a Philistine? so did his son Jonathan, and lost no glory these conceits of disreputation prevail with carnal hearts above all spiritual respects. There is no greater murderer than vain-glory. Nothing more argues a heart void of grace, than to be transported by idle popularity into actions prejudicial to the soul. : Evil examples, especially of the great, never escape imitation: the armour-bearer of Saul follows his master, and dares do that to himself which to his king he durst not; as if their own swords had been more familiar executioners, they yielded unto them what they grudged to their pursuers. From the beginning was Saul ever his own ene my; neither did any hands hurt him but his own and now his death is suitable to his life; his own hand pays him the reward of all his wickedness. The end of hypocrites and envious men is commonly fearful. Now is the blood of God's priests, which Saul shed, and of David, which he would have shed, required and requited. The evil spirit had said, the evening before, "To morrow thou shalt be with me ;" and now Saul hasteth to make the devil no liar: rather than fail, he gives himself his own mittimus. O the woful extremities of a despairing soul, plunging him ever into a greater mischief, to avoid the less! He might have been a patient in another's violence, and faultless; now, while he will needs act the Philistine's part upon himself, he lived and died a murderer: the case is deadly, when the prisoner breaks the jail, and will not stay for his delivery; and though we may not pass sentence upon such a soul, yet upon the fact we may: the soul may possibly repent in the parting; the act is heinous, and such as, without repentance, kills the soul. they had not been more beholden to Saul's sins than their gods, they had never car. ried away the honour of those trophies; instead of magnifying the justice of the true God, who punished Saul with deserved death, they magnify the power of the false. Superstition is extremely injurious to God: it is no better than theft to ascribe unto the second causes, that honour which is due unto the first; but to give God's glory to those things which neither act, nor are, it is the highest degree of spiritual robbery. Saul was none of the best kings; yet so impatient are his subjects of the indignity offered to his dead corpse, that they will rather leave their own bones amongst the Philistines, than the carcase of Saul. Such a close relation there is betwixt a prince and subject, that the dishonour of either is inseparable from both. How willing should we be to hazard our bodies or substance for the vindication either of the person or name of a good king, while he lives to the benefit of our protection! It is an unjust ingratitude in those men which can endure the disgrace of them under whose shelter they live; but how unnatural is the villany of those miscreants that can be content to be actors in the capital wrongs offered to sovereign authority! It were a wonder, if, after the death of a prince, there should want some pickthank to insinuate himself into his successor. An Amalekite young man rides post to Ziklag to find out David, whom even common rumour had notified for the anointed heir to the kingdom of Israel, to be the first messenger of that news, which he thought could be no other than acceptable, the death of Saul; and, that the tidings might be so much more meritorious, he adds to the report what he thinks might carry the greatest retribution. In hope of reward or honour, the man is content to belie himself to David: it was not the spear, but the sword of Saul, that was the instrument of his death; neither could this stranger find Saul, but dying, since the armour-bearer of Saul saw him dead ere he offered that violence to himself: the hand of this Amalekite, therefore, was not guilty; his tongue was. Had not this messenger measured David's foot by his own last, he had forborne this piece of the news, and not hoped to adIt was the next day ere the Philistines vantage himself by this falsehood. knew how much they were victors; then, he thinks the tidings of a kingdom cannot finding the dead corpse of Saul and his but please; none but Saul and Jonathan sons, they begin their triumphs. The stood in David's way: he cannot choose head of king Saul is cut off in lieu of Go- but like to hear of their removal, especially liah's, and now all their idol temples ring since Saul did so tyrannously persecute his of their success. Foolish Philistines! if innocence. If I shall only report the fact Now done by another, I shall go away with but the recompense of a lucky post; whereas, if I take upon me the action, I am the man to whom David is beholden for the kingdom; he cannot but honour and requite me as the author of his deliverance and happiness. Worldly minds think no man can be of any other than of their own diet; and because they find the respects of selflove and private profit so strongly prevailing with themselves, they cannot conceive how these should be capable of a repulse from others. : anointed." It is a just supposition, that every man is so great a favourer of himself, that he will not misreport his own actions, nor say the worst of himself. In matter of confession, men may, without injury, be taken at their words: if he did it, his fact was capital; if he did it not, his lie. It is pity any other recompense should befall those false flatterers, that can be content to father a sin to get thanks. Every drop of royal blood is sacred; for a man to say that he hath shed it, is mortal. O how far different spirits from this of David, are those men which suborn the death of princes, and celebrate and canonize the murderers! "Into their secret, let not my soul come; my glory, be not thou joined to their assembly." CONTEMPLATION VII. ABNER AND JOAB. How merciful and seasonable are the provisions of God! Ziklag was now nothing but ruins and ashes: David might return to the soil where it stood, to the roofs and walls he could not; no sooner is he disappointed of that harbour, than God provides him cities of Hebron: Saul shall die to give him elbow-room. Now doth David find the comfort that his extremity sought in the Lord his God; now are his clouds for a time passed over, and the sun breaks gloriously forth: David shall reign after his sufferings. So shall we, if we endure to the end, find a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give us at that day. But though David well knew that his head was long before anoint How much was this Amalekite mocked of his hopes! While he imagined that David would now triumph and feast in the assured expectation of the kingdom, and possession of the crown of Israel, he finds him rending his clothes, and wringing his hands, and weeping and mourning as if all his comfort had been dead with Saul and Jonathan and yet perhaps he thought, this sorrow of David is but fashionable, such as great heirs make show of in the fatal day they have longed for: these tears will be soon dry; the sight of a crown will soon breed a succession of other passions. But this error is soon corrected; for when David had entertained this bearer with a sad fast all the day, he calls him forth in the evening to execution: " How, wast thou not afraid," saith he, "to put forth thy hand to destroy the anointed of the Lord?" Doubtless the Amalekite made many fair pleas for himself, out of the grounds of his own report. Alas! Saul was before fallen upon his own spear; it was but mercy to kill him that was half dead, that he might die the shorter: besides, his entreaty and importunate prayers moved me to hastened, and had heard Saul himself confidently him through those painful gates of death: had I stricken him as an enemy, I had deserved the blow I had given; now I lent him the hand of a friend; why am I punished for obeying the voice of a king, and for perfecting what himself had begun, and could not finish? And if neither his own wound, nor mine, had despatched him, the Philistines were at his heels, ready to do this same act with insultation, which I did in favour and if my hand had not prevented him, where had been the crown of Israel, which I now have here presented to thee? I could have delivered that to king Achish, and have been rewarded with honour: let me not die for an act well meant to thee, however construed by thee. But no pretence can make his own tale not deadly: Thy blood be upon thine own head, for thine own mouth hath testified against thee, saying, I have slain the Lord's : avouching his succession, yet he will not stir from the heaps of Ziklag, till he has consulted with the Lord. It did not content him, that he had God's warrant for the kingdom, but he must have his instructions for the taking possession of it. How safe and happy is the man that is resolved to do nothing without God! Neither will generalities of direction be sufficient; even particular circumstances must look for a word; still is God a pillar of fire and cloud to the eye of every İsraelite: neither may there be any motion or stay but from him; that action cannot but succeed, which proceeds upon so sure a warrant. God sends him to Hebron, a city of Judah; neither will David go up thither alone, but he takes with him all his men, with their whole households: they shall take such part as himself; as they had shared with him in his misery, so they shall now in his prosperity neither doth he take advantage of their late mutiny, which was yet fresh and green, to cashier those unthank ful and ungracious followers; but pardoning their secret rebellions, he makes them partakers of his good success. Thus doth our heavenly leader, whom David prefigured, take us to reign with him, who have suffered with him. Passing by our manifold infirmities, as if they had not been, he removeth us from the land of our banishment, and the ashes of our forlorn Ziklag, to the Hebron of our peace and glory: the expectation of this day must, as it did with David's soldiers, digest all our sorrows. Never any calling of God was so conspicuous, as not to find some opposites. What Israelite did not know David appointed by God to the succession of the kingdom? Even the Amalekite could carry the crown to him as the true owner: yet there wants not an Abner to resist him, and the title of an Ishbosheth to colour his resistance. If any of Saul's house could have made challenge to the crown, it should have been Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, who, it seems, had too much of his father's blood to be a competitor with David: the question is not, who may claim the most right, but who may best serve the faction neither was Ishbosheth any other than Abner's stale. Saul could not have a fitter courtier: whether in the imitation of his master's envy, or the ambition of ruling under a borrowed name, he strongly opposed David. There are those who strive against their own hearts, to make a side with whom conscience is oppressed by affection. An ill quarrel, once undertaken, shall be maintained, although with blood: now, not so much the blood of Saul, as the engagement of Abner, makes the war. The sons of Zeruiah stand fast to David. It is much how a man placeth his first interest: if Abner had been in Joab's room, when Saul's displeasure drove David from the court, or Joab in Abner's, these actions, these events, had been changed with the persons: it was the only happiness of Joab that he fell on the better side. Both the commanders under David and Ishbosheth were equally cruel: both are so inured to blood, that they make but a sport of killing. Custom makes sin so familiar, that the horror of it is to some turned into pleasure "Come, let the young men play before us." Abner is the challenger, and speeds thereafter; for though, in the matchies of duel, both sides miscarried, yet, in the following conflict, Abner and his men are beaten. By the success of those single combats no man knows the better of the cause: both sides perish, to show how little God liked either the offer or the acceptation of such a trial; but when both did their best, God punisheth the wrong part with discomfiture. O the misery of civil dissension! Israel and Judah were brethren; one carried the name of the father, the other of the son. Judah was but a branch of Israel; Israel was the root of Judah: yet Israel and Judah must fight, and kill each other, only upon the quarrel of an ill leader's ambition. The speed of Asahel was not greater than his courage. It was a mind fit for one of David's worthies, to strike at the head, to match himself with the best. He was both swift and strong; but "the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong." If he had gone never so slowly, he might have overtaken death: now he runs to fetch it. So little lust had Abner to shed the blood of a son of Zeruiah, that he twice advises him to retreat from pursuing his own peril. Asahel's cause was so much better as Abner's success. Many a one miscarries in the rash prosecution of a good quarrel, when the abettors of the worst part go away with victory. Heat of zeal sometimes, in the indiscreet pursuit of a just adversary, proves mortal to the agent, prejudicial to the service. Abner, while he kills, yet he flies; and runs away from his own death, while he inflicts it upon another. David's followers had the better of the field and day. The sun, as unwilling to see any more Israelitish blood shed by brethren, hath withdrawn himself: and now both parties, having got the advantage of a hill under them, have safe convenience of parley. Abner begins, and persuades Joab to surcease the fight: "Shall the sword devour for ever? Knowest thou not, that it will be bitterness in the end? How long shall it be ere thou bid the people return from following their brethren?" It was his fault that the sword devoured at all; and why was not the beginning of a civil war bitterness? why did he call forth the people to skirmish, and invite them to death? Had Abner been on the winning hand, this motion had been thank-worthy. It was a noble disposition in a victor, to call for a cessation of arms; whereas necessity wrings this suit from the over-mastered. There cannot be a greater praise to a valiant and wise commander, than a propension to all just terms of peace; for war, as it is sometimes necessary, so it is always evil; and if fighting have any other end proposed besides peace, it proves |