CONTEMPLATION II.—JORDAN DIVIDED.

THE two spies returned with news of the victory that should be. I do not hear them say, The land is unpeopled; or the people are unfurnished with arms, unskilful in the discipline of war; but, "They faint because of us, therefore their land is ours." Either success, or discomfiture, begins ever at the heart. A man's inward disposition doth more than presage the event. As a man raises up his own heart before his fall, and depresses it before his glory; so God raises it up before his exaltation, and casts it down before his ruin. It is no otherwise in our spiritual conflicts. If Satan sees us once faint, he gives himself the day. There is no way to safety, but that our hearts be the last that shall yield. That which the heathens attributed to fortune, we may justly to the hand of God, that he speedeth those that are forward. All the ground that we lose, is given to our adversaries.

This news is brought but over night; Joshua is on his way by morning, and prevents the sun for haste. Delays, whether in the business of God or our own, are hateful and prejudicial. Many a one loses the land of promise by lingering. If we neglect God's time, it is just with him to

cross us in ours.

Joshua hastens till he has brought Israel to the verge of the promised land: nothing parts them now but the river of Jordan. There he stays a time, that the Israelites might feed themselves a while with the sight of that which they should afterwards enjoy. That which they had been forty years in seeking, may not be seized upon too suddenly. God loves to give us cools and heats in our desires; and will so allay our joys, that their fruition hurt us not. He knows, that as it is in meats, the long forbearance whereof causes a surfeit when we come to full feed; so it fares in the contentments of the mind: therefore he feeds us not with the dish, but with the spoon, and will have us neither cloyed nor famished. If the mercy of God have brought us within sight of heaven, let us be content to pause a while, and, upon the banks of Jordan, fit ourselves for our en

sage, not for their rest; for the wilderness, not for Canaan. It were as easy for God to work miracles always; but he knows that custom were the way to make them no miracles. He goes bye-ways but till he have brought us into the road, and then he refers us to his ordinary proceedings. That Israelite should have been very foolish, that would still have said, I will not stir till I see the cloud; I will not eat, unless I may have that food of angels. Wherefore serves the ark, but for their direction? wherefore serves the wheat of Canaan, but for bread? So fond is that Christian, that will still depend upon expectation of miracles, after the fulness of God's kingdom. If God bear us in his arms when we are children, yet when we are well grown, he looks we should go on our feet: it is enough that he upholds us, though he carry us not.

The

He, that hitherto had gone before them in the cloud, doth now go before them in the ark; the same guide in two diverse signs of his presence. The cloud was for Moses', the ark for Joshua's time. cloud was fit for Moses; the law offered us Christ, but en wrapped in many obscurities. If he were seen in the cloud. he was heard from the cover of the ark. Why was it the ark of the testimony, but because it witnessed both his presence and love? and within it were his word the law, and his sacrament the manna. Who can wish a better guide than the God of heaven, in his word and sacraments? Who can know the way into the land of promise so well as he that owns it? and what means can better direct us thither than those of his institution?

That ark, which before was as the heart, is now as the head: it was in the midst of Israel, while they camped in the desert; now, when the cloud is removed, it is in the front of the army; that, as before they depended upon it for life, so now they should for direction. It must go before them on the shoulders of the sons of Levi : they must follow it, but within sight, not within breathing. The Levites may not touch the ark, but only the bars: the Israelites may not approach nearer than a thousand paces to it. What awful respects doth God require to be given unto the testimonies of his presence! Uzzah paid dear, for touching it; the men of BethsheNow that Israel is brought to the brim mesh for looking into it. It is a dangerous of Canaan, the cloud is vanished which led thing to be too bold with the ordinances them all the way: and, as soon as they of God. Though the Israelites were sanchave but crossed Jordan, the manna ceas- tified, yet they might not come near either eth, which nourished them all the way. the mount of Sinai, when the law was deThe cloud and manna were for their pas-livered, or the ark of the covenant, wherein

trance.

Neither was it only for reverence that the ark must be not stumbled at, but waited on afar; but also for convenience, both of sight and passage. Those things that are near us, though they be less, fill our eye; neither could so many thousand eyes see the same object upon a level, but by distance. It would not content God, that one Israelite should tell another. Now the ark goes, now it turns, now it stands; but he would have every one his own witness. What can be so comfortable to a good heart, as to see the pledges of God's presence and favour? To hear of the lovingkindnesses of God is pleasant; but to behold and feel the evidences of his mercy is unspeakably delectable. Hence the saints of God, not contenting themselves with faith, have still prayed for sight and fruition, and mourned when they have wanted it. What a happy prospect hath God set before us of Christ Jesus crucified for us, and offered unto us!

the law was written. How fearful shall | Jordan, that flowed with full streams when their estate be, that come with unhallowed Christ went into it to be baptized, now hearts and hands to the word of the gospel, gives way, when the same God must pass and the true manna of the evangelical sa- through it in state. Then there was use crament? As we use to say of the court, of his water, now of his sand. I hear no and of fire, so may we of these divine in- news of any rod to strike the waters; the stitutions, We freeze, if we be far off presence of the ark of the Lord God the from them; and if we be more near than Lord of all the world, is sign enougn to befits us, we burn. Under the law, we these waves, which now, as if a sinew were might look at Christ aloof; now, under broken, run back to their issues, and dare the gospel, we may come near him: he not so much as wet the feet of the priests calls us to him; yea, he enters into us. that bore it. "What ailed thee, O sea, that thou fleddest, and thou Jordan, that thou wert driven back? Ye mountains, that ye leaped like rams, and ye little hills, like lambs? The earth trembled at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob!" How observant are all the creatures to the God that made them! How glorious a God do we serve, whom all the powers of the heavens and elements are willingly subject unto, and gladly take that nature which he pleases to give them! He could have made Jordan like some solid pavement of crystal, for the Israelites' feet to have trode upon; but this work had not been so magnificent. Every strong frost congeals the water, in a natural force, but for the river to stand still, and run on heaps, and to be made a liquid wall for the passage of God's people, is for nature to run out of itself, to do homage to her Creator. Now must the Israelites needs think, how can the Canaanites stand out against us, when the seas and rivers give us way? With what joy did they now trample upon the dry channel of Jordan, while they might see the dry deserts overcome, the promised land before them, the very waters so glad of them that they ran back to welcome them into Canaan! The passages into our promised land are troublesome and perilous, and even at last offer themselves to us the main hindrances of our salvation, which, after all our hopes, threaten to defeat us: for what will it avail us to have passed a wilderness, if the waves of Jordan should swallow us up? But the same hand that hath made the way hard, hath made it sure; he that made the wilderness comfortable, will make Jordan dry. he will master all difficulties for us; and those things which we most feared, will he make most sovereign and beneficial to us O God! as we have trusted thee with the beginning, so will we with the finishing of our glory! Faithful art thou that hast promised, which wilt also do it!

Ere God will work a miracle before Israel, they have charge to be sanctified. There is a holiness required, to make us either patients or beholders of the great works of God; how much more, when we should be actors in his sacred services! There is more use of sanctification when we must present something to God, than when he must do aught to us.

The same power that divided the Red Sea before Moses, divides Jordan before Joshua, that they might see the ark no less effectual than the cloud; and the hand of God as present with Joshua to bring them into Canaan, as it was with Moses to bring them out of Egypt. The bearers of the ark had need be faithful; they must first set their foot into the streams of Jordan, and believe that it will give way; the same faith that led Peter upon the water, must carry them into it. There can be no Christian without belief in God; but those that are near to God in his immediate services, must go before others, no less in believing, than they do in example.

The waters know their Maker. That

He that led them about, in forty years' journey through the wilderness, yet now leads them the nearest cut to Jericho; he

our spiritual adversaries, it were as impossible for us to be surprised, as for Jericho to be safe. Methinks I see how they called their council of war, debated of all means of defence, gathered their forces, trained their soldiers, set strong guards to the gates and walls; and now would persuade one another, that, unless Israel could fly into their city, the siege was vain. Vain worldlings think their rampires and barricadoes can keep out the vengeance of God; their blindness suffers them to look no further than the means. The supreme hand of the Almighty comes not within the compass of their fears. Every carnal heart is a Jericho shut up; God sits down before it, and displays mercy and judgment in sight of the walls thereof: it hardens itself in a wilful security, and saith, “Tush, I shall never be moved."

will not so much as seek for a ford for their | mon enemy. If we could do but this to passage, but divides the waters. What a sight was this to their heathen adversaries, to see the waters make both a lane and a wall for Israel! Their hearts could not choose but be broken, to see the streams broken off for a way to their enemies. I do not see Joshua hastening through this channel, as if he feared lest the tide of Jordan should return; but, as knowing that watery wall stronger than the walls of Jericho, he paces slowly; and, lest this miracle should pass away with themselves, he commands twelve stones to be taken out of the channel of Jordan by twelve selected men from every tribe, which shall be pitched in Gilgal: and twelve other stones to be set in the midst of Jordan, where the feet of the priests had stood with the ark; that so both land and water might testify the miraculous way of Israel: while it should be said of the one, These stones were fetched out of the pavement of Jordan; of the other, there did the ark rest, while we walked dry-shod the deeps of Jordan of the one, Jordan was once as dry as this Gilgal; of the other, Those waves which drown these stones, had so drowned us, if the power of the Almighty had not restrained them. Many a great work had God done for Israel, which was now forgotten: Joshua therefore will have monuments of God's mercy, that future ages might be both witnesses and applauders of the great works of their God.

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CONTEMPLATION III.-THE SIEGE OF JERICHO.

Yet their courage and fear fight together within their walls, within their bosoms. Their courage tells them of their own strength; their fear suggests the miraculous success of this (as they could not but think) enchanted generation; and now, while they have shut out their enemy, they have shut in their own terror. The most secure heart in the world hath some flashes of fear; for it cannot but sometimes look out of itself, and see what it would not. Rahab had notified that their hearts fainted; and yet now their faces bewray nothing but resolution. I know not whether the heart or the face of a hypocrite be more false; and as each of them seeks to beguile the other, so both of them agree to deceive the beholders. In the midst of laughter, their heart is heavy. Who would not think him merry that laughs? yet their re

think a blasphemer, or profane man, resolutely careless? If thou hadst a window into his heart, thou shouldst see him tormented with horrors of conscience.

JOSHUA begins his wars with the circumcision and passover; he knew that the way Lo keep the blood of his people from shed-joicing is but in the face. Who would not ding, was to let out that paganish blood of their uncircumcision. The person must be in favour, ere the work can hope to prosper. His predecessor Moses had like to have been slain for neglect of this sacrament, when he went to call the people out of Egypt: he justly fears his own safety, if now he omit it, when they are brought into Canaan. We have no right of inheritance in the spiritual Canaan, the church of God, till we have received the sacrament of our matriculation. So soon as our covenants are renewed with our Creator, we may well look for the vision of God for the assurance of victory.

What sure work did the king of Jericho think he had made! He blocked up the passages, barred up the gates, defended the walls, and did enough to keep out a com

Now the Israelites see those walled cities and towers, whose height was reported to reach to heaven, the fame whereof had so affrighted them, ere they saw them, and were ready, doubtless, to say, in their distrust, Which way shall we scale these invincible fortifications? what ladders, what engines, shall we use to so great a work? God prevents their infidelity: "Behold, I have given Jericho into thine hand." If their walls had their foundations laid in the centre of the earth; if the battlements had been so high built, that an eagle could not soar over them; this is enough, "I have given it thee." For, on