abstaining from that treasure which was | anathematized to God: and one of them is broken; as in the entrance to paradise, but one tree was forbidden, and that was eaten of. God had provided for our weakness in the paucity of commands; but our innocency stands not so much in having few precepts, as in keeping those we have. So much more guilty are we in the breach of the one, as we are more favoured in the number. They needed no command to spare no living thing in Jericho; but to spare the treasure, no command was enough. Impartiality of execution is easier to perform, than contempt of these worldly things; because we are more prone to covet for ourselves, than to pity others. Had Joshua bidden save the men, and divide the treasure, his charge had been more plausible, than now to kill the men and save the treasure; or, if they must kill, earthly minds would more gladly shed their enemies' blood for a booty, than out of obedience, for the glory of their Maker. But now it is good reason, since God threw down those walls, and not they, that both the blood of that wicked city should be spilt to him, not to their own revenge; and that the treasure should be reserved for his use, not for theirs. Who but a miscreant can grudge that God should serve himself of his own? I cannot blame the rest of Israel, if they were well pleased with their conditions; only one Achan troubles the peace, and his sin is imputed to Israel. The innocence of so many thousand Israelites is not so forcible to excuse his one sin, as his one sin is to taint all Israel. A lewd man is a pernicious creature: that he damns his own soul, is the least part of his mischief; he commonly draws vengeance upon a thousand, either by the desert of his sin, or by the infection. Who would not have hoped that the same God, which for ten righteous men would have spared the five wicked cities, should not have been content to drown one sin in the obedience of so many righteous? But so venomous is sin, especially when it lights among God's people, that one drachm of it Is able to infect the whole mass of Israel. I do not find them in any disorder. After that the law hath brought us under the conduct of the true Jesus, our sins are more rare, and ourselves are more conscionable. While we are under the law, we do not so keep it, as when we are delivered from it: our Christian freedom is more holy than our servitude. Then have the sacraments of God their due effect, when their receipt purgeth us from our old sins, and makes our conversation clean and spiritual. That Little did Joshua know that there was any sacrilege committed by Israel. sin is not half cunning enough that hath not learned secrecy. Joshua was a vigilant leader, yet some sins will escape him. Only that eye which is every where, finds us out in our close wickedness. It is no blame to authority that some sins are secretly committed: the holiest congregation or family may be blemished with some malefactors. It is just blame, that open sins are not punished: we shall wrong government, if we shall expect the reach of it should be infinite. He therefore, which, if he had known the offence, would have sent up prayers and tears to God, now sends spies for a further discovery of Ai; they return with news of the weakness of their adversaries; and, as contemning their paucity, persuade Joshua that a wing of Israel is enough to overshadow this city of Ai. The Israelites were so flushed with their former victory, that now they think no walls or men can stand before them. Good success lifts up the heart with too much confidence; and, while it dissuades men from doing their best, ofttimes disappoints them. With God, the mean can never be too weak; without him, never strong enough. It is not good to contemn an impotent enemy. In this second battle the Israelites are beaten. It was not the fewness of their assailants that overthrew them, but the sin that lay lurking at home. If all the host of Israel had set upon this poor village of Ai, they had been all equally discomfited: the wedge of Achan did more fight against them, than all the swords of the Canaanites. The victories of God go not by strength, but by innocence. O righteous people of Israel, that had Doubtless these men of Ai insulted in but one Achan! How had their late cir- this foil of Israel, and said, Lo, these are cumcision cut away the unclean foreskin the men, from whose presence the waters of their disobedience! How had the blood of Jordan ran back; now they run as fast of their paschal lamb scoured their souls away from ours. These are they, before from covetous desires! The world was well whom the walls of Jericho fell down; now mended with them, since their stubborn they are fallen as fast before us. And all murmurings in the desert. Since the death their neighbours took heart from this vicof Moses, and the government of Joshua,tory. Wherein, I doubt not but, besides the punishment of Israel's sin, God intended | thought he might have lain as close in all the further obduration of the Canaanites: that throng of Israel, as the wedge of gold like as some skilful player loses on purpose lay in his tent. The same hope of secrecy, at the beginning of the game, to draw on which moved him to sin, moved him to the more abetments. The news of their confidence in his sin: but now, when he overthrow spread as far as the fame of their saw the lot fall upon his tribe, he began to speed; and every city of Canaan could say, start a little; when upon his family, he Why not we as well as Ai? began to change countenance; when upon his household, to tremble and fear; when upon his person, to be utterly confounded in himself. Foolish men think to run away with their privy sins, and say, Tush, no eye shall see me; but, when they think themselves safest, God pulls them out with shame. The man that hath escaped justice, and now is lying down in death, would think, My shame shall never be disclosed; but, before men and angels, shall he be brought on the scaffold, and find confusion as sure as late. But good Joshua, that succeeded Moses, no less in the care of God's glory than in his government, is much dejected with this event. He rends his clothes, falls on his face, casts dust upon his head, and, as if he had learned of his master how to expostulate with God, says, "What wilt thou do to thy mighty name?" That Joshua might see God took no pleasure to let the Israelites lie dead upon the earth before their enemies, himself is taxed for but lying all day upon his face, before the ark. All his expostulations are answered in one word: "Get thee up; Israel hath sinned." I do not hear God say, Lie still, and mourn for the sin of Israel. It is to no purpose to pray against punishment, while the sin continues. And though God loves to be sued to, yet he holds our requests unseasonable, till there be care had of satisfaction. When we have risen, and redressed sin, then may we fall down for pardon. Victory is in the free hand of God, to dispose where he will; and no man can marvel, that the dice of war run ever with hazard on both sides: so as God needed not to have given any other reason of this discomfiture of Israel, but his own pleasure; yet Joshua must now know, that Israel, which before prevailed for their faith, is beaten for their sin. When we are crossed in just and holy quarrels, we may well think there is some secret evil, unrepented of, which God would punish in us; which, though we see not, yet he so hates, that he will rather be wanting to his own cause, than not revenge it. When we go about any enterprise of God, it is good to see that our hearts be clear from any pollution of sin; and when we are thwarted in our nopes, it is our best course to ransack ourselves, and to search for some sin hid from us in our bosom, but open to the view of God. The oracle of God, which told him a great offence was committed, yet reveals not the person. It had been as easy for him to have named the man, as the crime. Neither doth Joshua request it; but refers that discovery to such a means, as whereby the offender, finding himself singled out by the lot, might be most convinced. Achan What needed any other evidence, when God had accused Achan? Yet Joshua will have the sin out of his mouth, in whose heart it was hatched: "My son, I beseech thee, give glory to God." Whom God had convinced as a malefactor, Joshua beseeches as a son. Some hot spirit would have said, Thou wretched traitor! how hast thou pilfered from thy God, and shed the blood of so many Israelites, and caused the host of Israel to show their backs, with dishonour, to the heathen? Now shall we fetch this sin out of thee with tortures, and plague thee with a condign death. But, like the disciple of Him whose servant he was, he meekly entreats that which he might have extorted by violence: "My son, I beseech thee.” Sweetness of compellation is a great help towards the good entertainment of an admonition: roughness and rigour many times harden those hearts, which meekness would have melted to repentance. Whether we sue, or convince, or reprove, little good is gotten by bitterness. Detestation of the sin may wel stand with favour to the person; and these two not distinguished, cause great wrong, either in our charity or justice; for either we uncharitably hate the creature of God or unjustly affect the evil of men. Subjects are, as they are called, sons to the magis trate. All Israel was not only of the family, but as of the loins of Joshua. Such must be the corrections, such the provisions of governors, as for their children; as again, the obedience and love of subjects must be filial. God has glorified himself sufficiently, in finding out the wickedness of Achan; neither needs he honour from men, much less from sinners. They can dishonour him by their iniquities; but what recompense can they give him for their wrongs? Yet Joshua says, "My son, give glory to God." Israel should now see, that the tongue of Achan did justify God in his lot. The confession of our sins doth no less honour God, than his glory is blemished by their commission. Who would not be glad to redeem the honour of his Redeemer with his own shame? stealth. Magistrates and judges must pace slowly and sure in the punishment of offen. ders. Presumptions are not ground enough for the sentence of death; no, not, in some cases, the confessions of the guilty. It is no warrant for the law to wrong a man, that he hath before wronged himself. There is less ill in sparing an offender, than in punishing the innocent. Who would not have expected, since the confession of Achan was ingenuous, and his pillage still found entire, that his life should have been pardoned? But here was, Confess and die: he had been too long sick of this disease, to be recovered. Had his confession been speedy and free, it had saved him. How dangerous it is to suffer sin to lie fretting into the soul, which, if it were washed off betimes with our re The lot of God, and the mild words of Joshua, won Achan to accuse himself, ingenuously, impartially. A storm, perhaps, would not have done that which a sunshine had done. If Achan had come in uncalled, and, before any question made, out of an honest remorse, had brought in his sacrilegious booty, and cast himself and it at the foot of Joshua, doubtless Israel had prospered, and his sin had carried away par-pentance, could not kill us! In mortal ofdon; now he hath gotten thus much thank, that he is not a desperate sinner. God will once wring from the conscience of wicked men their own indictments; they have not more carefully hid their sin, than they shall one day freely proclaim their own shame. Achan's confession, though it were late, yet was it free and full: for he doth not only acknowledge the act, but the ground of his sin: "I saw, and coveted, and took." The eye betrayed the heart, and that the hand, and now all conspire in the offence. If we list not to flatter ourselves, this hath been the order of our crimes. Evil is uniform; and, beginning at the senses, takes the inmost fort of the soul, and then arms our own outward forces against us. This shall once be the lascivious man's song, "I saw, and coveted, and took;" this the thief's, this the idolater's, this the glutton's and drunkard's: all these receive their death by the eye. But, O foolish Achan, with what eyes didst thou look upon that spoil, which thy fellows saw and contemned! Why couldst thou not before, as well as now, see shame hid under that gay Babylonish garment, and a heap of stones covered with those shekels of silver? The over-prizing and overdesiring of these earthly things, carries us into all mischief, and hides from us the sight of God's judgments. Whosoever desires the glory of metals, or of gay clothes, or honour, cannot be innocent. Well might Joshua have proceeded to the execution of him, whom God and his own mouth accused: but, as one that thought no evidence could be too strong, in a case that was capital, he sends to see whether there was as much truth in the confession, as there was falsehood in the fences, the course of human justice is not stayed by our penitence. It is well for our souls that we have repented; but the laws of men take not notice of our sorrow. I know not whether the death or the tears of a malefactor, be a better sight. The censures of the church are wiped off with weeping, not the penalties of laws. Neither is Achan alone called forth to death, but all his family, all his substance. The actor alone doth not smart with sacrilege: all that concerns him is enwrapped in the judgment. Those that defile their hands with holy goods, are enemies to their own flesh and blood. God's first revenges are so much the more fearful, because they must be exemplary. CONTEMPLATION V.THE GIBEONITES. THE news of Israel's victory had flown over all the mountains and valleys of Canaan; and yet those heathenish kings and people are mustered together against them. They might have seen themselves in Jericho and Ai, and have well perceived it was not an arm of flesh that they must resist ; yet they gather their forces and say, Tush, we shall speed better. It is madness in a man not to be warned, but to run upon the point of those judgments wherewith he sees others miscarry, and not to believe till he cannot recover. Our assent is purchased too late, when we have overstayed prevention, and trust to that experience which we cannot live to redeem. Only the Hivites are wiser than their fellows, and will rather yield and live. Their intelligence was not diverse from the rest; all had conally heard of the miI raculous conduct and success of Israel: but their resolution was diverse. As Rahab saved her family in the midst of Jericho, so these four cities preserved themselves in the midst of Canaan; and both of them by believing what God would do. The efficacy of God's marvellous works is not in the acts themselves, but in our apprehension: some are overcome with those motives which others have contemned for weak. Had these Gibeonites joined with the forces of all their neighbours, they had perished in their common slaughter; if they had not gone away by themselves, death had met them. It may have more pleasure, it cannot have so much safety, to follow the multitude. If examples may lead us, the greatest part shuts out God upon earth, and is excluded from God elsewhere. Some few poor Hivites yield to the church of God, and escape the condemnation of the world. It is very like, their neighbours flouted at this base submission of the Gibeonites, and, out of their terms of honour, scorned to beg life of an enemy, while they were out of the compass of mercy; but, when the bodies of these proud Jebusites and Perizites lay strewed upon the earth, and the Gibeonites survived, whether was more worthy of scorn and insultation? If the Gibeonites had stayed till Israel had besieged their cities, their yieldance had been fruitless: now they make an early peace, and are preserved. There is no wisdom in staying till a judgment come home to us; the only way to avoid it, is to meet it half way. These is the same remedy of war and of danger. To provoke an enemy in his own borders is the best stay of invasion; and to solicit God betimes, in a manifest danger, is the best antidote for death. I commend their wisdom in seeking peace; I do not commend their falsehood in the manner of seeking it: who can look for any better of pagans! But as the faith of Rahab is so rewarded, that her lie is not punished, so the fraud of these Gibeonites is not an equal match of their belief, since the name of the Lord God of Israel brought them to this suit of peace. Nothing is found fitter to deceive God's people, than a counterfeit copy of age. Here are old sacks, old bottles, old shoes, old garments, old bread. The Israelites, that had worn one suit forty years, seemed new clad in comparison of them. It is no new policy, that Satan would beguile us with a vain colour of antiquity, clothing falsehood in rags. Errors are never the older for their patching. Corruption can do the same that time would do: we may make age as well as suffer it. These Gibeonites did tear their bottles ana shoes, and clothes, and made them naught, that they might seem old: so do the false patrons of new errors. If we be caught with this Gibeonite stratagem, it is a sign we have not consulted with God. The sentence of death was gone out against all the inhabitants of Canaan. These Hivites acknowledge the truth and judgments of God, and yet seek to escape by a league with Israel. The general denunciations of the vengeance of God enwrap all sinners; yet may we not despair of mercy. If the secret counsel of the Almighty had not designed these men to live, Joshua could not have been deceived with their league. In the generality there is no hope. Let us come, in the old rags of our vileness, to the true Joshua, and make our truce with him: we may live, yea, we shall live. Some of the Israelites suspect the fraud; and, notwithstanding all their old garments and provisions, can say, "It may be, thou dwellest amongst us." If Joshua had continued this doubt, the Gibeonites had torn their bottles in vain. In cases and persons unknown, it is safe not to be too credulous. Charity itself will allow suspicion, where we have seen no cause to trust. If these Hivites had not put on new faces with their old clothes, they had surely changed countenance when they heard this argument of the Israelites, "It may be, thou dwellest among us; how then can I make a league with thee?" They had, perhaps, hoped their submission would not have been refused, wheresoever they had dwelt: but, lest their neighbourhood might be a prejudice, they come disguised; and now hear, that their nearness of abode was an unremoveable bar of peace. It was quarrel enough that they were Canaanites: God had forbidden both the league and the life of the native inhabitants. He that calls himself the God of peace, proclaims himself the God of hosts: and not to fight where he hath commanded, is to break the peace with God, while we nourish it with men. Contention with brethren is not more hateful to him, than leagues with idolaters. The condition that he hath set to our peace, is our possibility and power: that falls not within the possibility of our power, which we cannot do lawfully. What a smooth tale did these Gibeonites tell for themselves, of the remoteness of their country, the motives of their journey, the consultation of their elders, the ageing of their provisions by the way: that it might seem not only safe, but deserved on their parts, that they should be admitted to a peace so far sought, and purchased with so much toil and importunity. Their clothes and their tongues agreed together; and both disagree from the truth. Deceit is ever lightly wrapped up in plausibility of words; as fair faces oftentimes hide much unchastity. But this guile sped the better, because it was clad with much plainness: for who would have suspected, that clouted shoes and ragged coats could have covered so much subtilty? The case seemed so clear, that the Israelites thought it needless to consult with the mouth of the Lord. Their own eyes and ears were called only to counsel; and now their credulity hath drawn them into inconvenience. There is no way to convince the Gibeonitish pretences of antiquity, but to have recourse to the oracle of God. Had this been advised with, none of these false rags had shamed the church of God. Whether in our practice or judgment, this direction cannot fail; whereas what we take upon the words of men, proves ever either light or false wares. : The facility of Israel had led them into a league, to an oath, for the safety of the Gibeonites and now, within three days, they find both their neighbourhood and deceit. Those old shoes of theirs would easily hold to carry them back to their home. The march of a great army is easy; yet within three days the Israelites were before their cities. Joshua might now have taken advantage of their own words, to dissolve his league; and have said, Ye are come from a far country; these cities are near these are not therefore the people to whom we are engaged by our promise and oath; and if these cities be yours, yet ye are not yourselves. Erewhile ye were strangers; now ye are Hivites born, and dwelling in the midst of Canaan: we will therefore destroy these cities near hand, and do you save your people afar off. It would seem very questionable, whether Joshua needed to hold himself bound to this oath ; for fraudulent conventions oblige not; and Israel had put in a direct caveat of their vicinity: yet dare not Joshua and the princes trust to shifts, for the eluding their oath, but must faithfully perform what they have rashly promised. Joshua's heart was clear from any intention of a league with a Canaanite, when he gave his oath to these disguised stran gers: yet he durst neither repeal it himself, neither do I hear him sue to Eleazar the high-priest to dispense with it, but takes himself tied to the very strict words of his oath, not to his own purpose. His tongue had bound his heart and hands, so as nei. ther might stir; lest, while he was curious of fulfilling the word of God, he should violate the oath of God. And if the Gibeonites had not known these holy bonds indissoluble, they neither had been so importunate to obtain their vow, nor durst they have trusted it, being obtained. If either dispensation with oaths, or equivocation in oaths, had been known in the world, or at least approved, these Gibeonites had not lived, and Israel had slain them without sin. Either Israel wanted skill, or our reservers honesty. The multitude of Israel, when they came to the walls of these four exempted cities, itched to be at the spoil. Not out of a desire to fulfil God's commandment, but to enrich themselves, would they have fallen upon these Hivites: they thought all lost that fell beside their fingers. The wealthy city of Jericho was first altogether interdicted them: the walls and houses either fell or must be burnt, the men and cattle killed, the goods and treasure confiscate to God. Achan's booty shows, that that city was both rich and proud; yet Israel might be no whit the better for them, carrying away nothing but empty victory: and now four other cities must be exempted from their pillage. Many an envious look did Israel therefore cast upon these walls; and many bitter words did they cast out against their princes, the enemies of their gain, whether for swearing, or for that they would not forswear. But, howsoever, the princes might have said, in a return to their fraud, We swore indeed to you, but not to the people; yet, if any Israelite had but pulled down one stone from their walls, or shed one drop of Gibeonitish blood, he had no less plagued all Israel for perjury than Achan had before plagued them for sacrilege. The sequel shows how God would have taken it; for when, three hundred years after, Saul (perhaps forgetting the vow of his forefathers) slew some of these Gibeonites, although out of a well-meant zeal, all Israel smarted for the fact, with a three years' famine, and that in David's reign, who received this oracle from God: "It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites." Neither could this wrong be expiated, but by the blood of Saul's seven sons, hanged up at the very court gates of their father. |