suppressed it will rise but where it is incouraged it insults tyrannizes It was more iust that Israel shold rise against Beniamin then that Beniamin should rise for Gibeah by how much it is better to punish offenders then to shelter the offenders from punishing And yet the wickedness of Beniamin sped better for the time then the honestie of Israel Twise was the better part foyled by the lesse and worse The good cause vvas sent backe with shame the euill 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 haue miscarried in the fight if thou hadst not fought against them Thou art iust holy in both The cause was thine the sinne in managing of it vvas their owne They fought in an holy quarrell but with confidence in themselues for as presuming of victorie they aske of GOD not what should be their success but who should be their Captaine Number innocence made them too secure It was iust therefore with GOD to let them feele that euen good zeale cannot beare out presumption And that victory lyes not in the cause but in the God that ownes it VVho cannot imagine hovv much the Beniaminites insulted in their double field and day And now beganne to think God was on their side Those swords which had bin taught the way into fortie thousand bodies of their brethren cannot feare a new incounter Wicked men cannot see their prosperity a peece of their curse neither can examine their actions but the euents Soone after they shall finde what it was to adde bloud vnto filthinesse and that the victory of an euill cause is the way to ruine and confusion I should haue feared least this double discomfiture should haue made Israel either distrustfull or weary of a good cause but still I finde them no lesse courageous with more humilitie Now they fast weepe and sacrifice these weapons had been victorious in their first assault Beniamin had neuer been in danger of pride for ouer comming if this humiliation of Israel had preuented the fight It is sildom seen but that which we do with feare prospereth wheras confidence in vndertaking layes euen good indeauours in the dust Wickednesse could neuer brag of any long prosperitie nor complaine of the lacke of payment Still GOD is euen with it at the last Now hee payes the Beniaminites both that death which they had lent to the Israelites and that wherein they stood indebted to their brotherhood of Gibeah And novv that both are metre in death there is as much difference betwixt those Israelites and these Beniaminites as betwixt Martyrs and malefactors To die in a sinne is a fearefull reuenge of giuing patronage to sinne The sword consumes their bodies another fire their Cities vvhat-soeuer became of their soules Now might Rachel haue iustlie wept for her childrē because they were not For behold the men women and children of her wicked Tribe are cut off onely some few scattred remainders ran away from this vengeance and lurked in caues and rocks both for fear and shame There was no difference but life betwixt their brethren and them the earth couered them both yet vnto them doth the reuenge of Israel stretch it self and vowes to destroy if not their persons yet their succession as holding them vnwoorthy to receiue any comfort by that sexe to which they had bin so cruell both in act and maintenance If the Israelites had not held marriage issue a very great blessing they had not thus reuenged themselues of Beniamin Now they accounted the vvith-holding of their wiues a punishment second to death The hope of life in our posteritie is the next contentment to an inioying of life in our selues They haue sworn and now vpon cold bloud repent them If the oath were not iust why wold they take it and if it were iust why did they recant it If the act were lustifiable what needed these tears Euen a iust oath may be rashly taken not onely iniustice but temerity of swearing ends in lamentation In our very ciuill actions it is a weaknes to do that which we would after reuerse but in our affaires with GOD to check our selues too late and to steepe our oathes in teares is a dangerous folly He doth not commaund vs to take voluntary oathes he commaunds vs to keepe them If wee bind our selues to inconuenience we may iustly cōplain of our owne fetters Oaths doe not onely require iustice but iudgment wise deliberation no lesse then equity Not conscience of their fact but commiseration of their brethren led them to this publique repentance O God why is this come to pass that this day one Tribe of Israel shall want Euen the iustest reuenge of men is capable of pittie Insultation in the rigor of iustice argues crueltie Charitable mindes are grieued to see that done which they would not wish vndone the smart of the offender doth not please thē which yet are throughly displeased with the sin and haue giuen their hands to punish it GOD himselfe takes no pleasure in the death of a sinner yet loues the punishment of sin As a good Parent whips his child yet weepes himselfe There is a measure in victorie and reuenge if neuer so iust which to exceed leeses mercie in the sute of Iustice If there were no fault in their seueritie it needed no excuse and if there were a fault it will admitte of no excuse yet as if they meant to shift off the sinne they expostulate with God O Lord God of Israel why is this come to passe this day GOD gaue them no commaund of this rigour yea he twise crost them in the execution and now in that which they intreated of God with teares they challenge him It is a dangerous iniustice to lay the burden of our sinnes vpon him which tempteth no man nor can be tempted with euill whiles we would so remooue our sinne we double it A man that knew not the power of an oath wold wonder at this contrarietie in the affections of Israel They are sory for the slaughter of Beniamin and yet they slay those that did not helpe them in the slaughter Their oath calls them to more bloud The excess of their reuenge vpon Beniamin may not excuse the men of Gilead If euer oath might looke for a dispensation this might plead it Now they dare not but kill the men of Iabesh Gilead least they should haue left vpon themselues a greater sin of sparing then punishing Iabesh Gilead came not vp to ayde Israel therefore all the inhabitants must die To exempt our selues whether out of singularitie or stubbornness from the common actions of the Church when wee are lawfully called to them is an offence woorthy of iudgement In the maine quarrels of the Church neutralls are punished This execution shal make amends for the former of the spoile of Iabesh
this fire After all the ayring in the Desert Michaes mother will smell of Egypt It had been better the siluer had been stoln then thus bestowed for now they haue so imployed it that it hath stoln away their harts from GOD and yet while it is molten into an Image they thinke it dedicated to the Lord If Religion might be iudged according to the intention there should scarce be any idolatry in the world This woman loued her siluer enough and if shee had not thought this costly piety worth thanks shee knew which way to haue imploied her stocke to aduantage Euen euill actions haue oft-times good meanings and those good meanings are answered with euill recompences Many a one bestows their cost their labour their blood and receiues torment in steed of thanks Behold a superstitious son of a superstitious mother She makes a God and hee harbours it Yea as the streame is commonly broader then the head he exceedes his mother in euill He hath an house of Gods an Ephod Teraphin that he might be complete in his deuotion he makes his sonne his Priest and feoffes that sinne vpon his sonne which he receiued from his mother Those sinnes vvhich nature conuayes not to vs wee haue by imitation Euery action and gesture of the Parents is an example to the child and the mother as she is more tender ouer her sonne so by the power of a reciprocall loue she can worke most vpon his inclination Whence it is that in the history of the Israelitish Kings the mothers name is commonly noted and as ciuilly so also morally The birth followes the belly Those sonnes may blesse their second birth that are deliuered from the sinnes of their education Who cannot but thinke how far Micha ouer-lookt all his fellow Israelites and thought them profane and godlesse in comparison of himselfe How did hee secretly clap himselfe on the breast as the man whose happinesse it was to ingross religion from all the tribes of Israel and little can imagine that the further hee runs the more out of the way Can an Israelite be thus Paganish O Micha how hath superstition bewitched thee that thou canst not see rebellion in euery of these actions yea in euery circumstance rebellion What more Gods then one An house of Gods beside Gods house An Image of siluer to the inuisible GOD An Ephod and no Priest A Priest besides the family of Leui A Priest of thine owne begetting of thine own consecration What monsters dooth mans imagination produce when it is forsaken of God It is wel seen there is no King in Israell If God had been their King his lawes had ruled them If Moses or Ioshua had been their King their sword had awed them If any other the courses of Israel could not haue been so headlesse We are beholden to Gouernment for order for peace for religion Where there is no King euery one will bee a King yea a God to himselfe VVee are worthy of nothing but confusion if we blesse not GOD for authoritie It is no maruell if Leuites wandred for maintenance whiles there was no King in Israel The tithes and offerings were their due if these had been paid none of the holy Tribe needed to shift his station Euen vvhere royall power seconds the claime of the Leuite the iniustice of men shortens his right What should becom of the Leuites if there were no King And what of the Church if no Leuites No King therefore no Church How could the impotent childe liue without a Nurse Kings shall be thy nursing fathers and Queens thy nurses saith God Nothing more argues the disorder of any Church or the decay of religion then the forced stragling of the Leuites There is hope of growth when Micha rides to seek a Leuite but vvhen the Leuite comes to seek a seruice of Micha it is a signe of gasping deuotion Micha was no obscure man all Mount Ephraim could not but take notice of his domesticall Gods This Leuite could not but heare of his disposition of his mis-deuotion yet vvant of maintenance no lesse then conscience drawes him on to the danger of an idolatrous patronage Holiness is not tyed to any profession Happie were it for the Church if the Clergy could be a priuiledge from leudnesse When need meets with vnconscionableness all conditions are easily swallowed of vnlawfull entrances of wicked executions Ten shekels and a sute of apparell and his diet are good wages for a needy Leuite Hee that could bestow eleuen hundred shekels vpon his puppets can afford butten to his Priest so hath hee at once a rich Idoll and a beggerlie Priest Whosoeuer affects to serue God good cheape showes that hee makes GOD but a stale to Mammon Yet was Micha a kinde Patron tho not liberall Hee calls the young Leuite his father and vses him as his sonne what he wants in means supplies in affection It were happy if Christians could imitate the loue of Idolaters towards them which serue at the Altar Micha made a shift vvith the Priesthood of his owne sonne yet that his heart checks him in it appeares both by the change his contentment in the change Now I knowe that the Lord will be good to mee seeing I haue a Leuite to my Priest Therefore whiles his Priest was no Leuite hee sees there was cause why GOD should not bee good to him If the Leuite had not comne to offer his seruice Michaes sonne had been a lawfull Priest Many times the conscience runnes away smoothly with an vnwarrantable action and rests it selfe vpon those grounds which afterward it sees cause to condemne It is a sure way therfore to informe our selues throughly ere we settle our choice that wee be not driuen to reuerse our acts with late shame and vnprofitable repentance Now did Micha beginne to see some little glimpse of his own error He saw his Priesthood faultie he saw not the faults of his Ephod of his Images of his Gods yet as if he thought all had been well when hee had amended one hee sayes Now I know the Lord will be good to mee The carnall hart pleases it selfe with an outward formalitie and so delights to flatter it selfe as that it thinks if one circumstance be right nothing can be amisse Israel was at this time extremely corrupted yet the spyes of the Danites had taken notice euen of this young Leuite and are glad to make vse of his Priesthood If they had but gone vp to Shilo they might haue consulted with the Arke of God but worldly minds are not curious in their holy seruices If they haue a God an Ephod a Priest it suffices them They had rather inioy a false worship with ease then to take paines for the true Those that are curious in their diet in their purchases in their attire in their contracts yet in Gods businesses are very indifferent The author of lyes sometimes speakes truth for an aduantage from his mouth this flattering Leuite speakes
vp himselfe must needes thinke Hee that can raise fire out of a stone can raise courage and power out of my dead breast He that by this fire hath consumed the broth and flesh can by the feeble flame of my fortitude consume Midian Gideon did not so much doubt before as now he feared We that shall once liue with and bee like the Angels in the estate of our impotencie thinke we cannot see an Angel and liue Gideon was acknowledged for mighty in valour yet he trembles at the sight of an Angel Peter that durst draw his sword vpon Malchus and all the traine of Iudas yet feares when he thought he had seene a spirit Our naturall courage cannot be are vs out against spirituall obiects This Angel was homely familiar taking vpon him for the time a resemblance of that flesh wherof he would afterwards take the substance yet euen the valiant Gideon quakes to haue seen him How awfull and glorious is the God of Angels when he will be seen in the state of heauen The Angel that departed for the wonder yet returnes for the comfort of Gideon It is not the wont of God to leaue his children in a maze but hee brings them out in the same mercy which led them in and will magnifie his grace in the one no lesse then his power in the other Now Gideon growes acquainted with God and interchanges pledges of familiarity He buildes an Altar to God and God conferres with him and as he vses where he loues imployes him His first task must be to destroy the god of the Midianites then the Idolaters thēselues Whiles Baals Altar groue stood in the hill of Ophrah Israel should in vaine hope to preuaile It is most iust with God that iudgment should continue with the sin and no less mercy if it may remoue after it Woldst thou fain be rid of any iudgment Inquire what false Altars groues thou hast in thy heart down with them first First must Baals Altar be ruined ere Gods be built both may not stand together The true GOD will haue no societie with Idols neither will allow it vs. I doe not heare him say That Altar groue which were abused to Baal consecrate now to me but as one whose holy ielousie wil abide no worship till there be no idolatry hee first commands down the monuments of superstition and then inioynes his owne seruice yet the wood of Baals groue must be vsed to burne a sacrifice vnto God When it was once cut down Gods detestation their danger ceased The good creatures of God that haue beene profaned to Idolatry may in a change of their vse bee imployed to the holie seruice of their Maker Though some Israelites vvere penitent vnder this humiliation yet still many of them persisted in their wonted Idolatry The very houshold of Gideons father were still Baalites and his neighbours of Ophrah were in the same sin yea if his father had been free what did he with Baals groue and Altar He dares not therfore take his fathers seruants thogh he tooke his bullocks but commaunds his owne The Master is best seene in the seruants Gideons seruants amongst the Idolatrous retinue of Ioash are religious like their Master yet the mis-deuotion of Ioash and the Ophrathites was not obstinate Ioash is easily perswaded by his sonne and easily perswades his neighbours how vnreasonable it is to plead for such a god as cannot speak for himselfe to reuenge his cause that could not defend himselfe Let Baal plead for himselfe One example of a resolute onset in a noted person may doe more good then a thousand seconds in the proceeding of an action Soone are all the Midianites in an vprore to lose their god They need not now be bidden to muster themselues for reuenge hee hath no religion that can suffer an indignitie offered to his God Gideons Preparation and Victorie OF all the instruments that GOD vsed in so great a worke I finde none so weake as Gideon who yet of all others was stiled valiant naturall valour may well stand with spirituall cowardise Before he knew that he spake with a God he might haue iust colours for his distrust but after God had approoued his presence and almighty power by fetching fire out of the stone then to call for a watery signe of his promised deliuerance was no other then to poure water vpon the fire of the spirit The former triall God gaue vnwished this vpon Gideons choice and intreatie The former miracle was strong enough to cary Gideon through his first exploit of ruinating the idolatrous groue and Altar but now when he saw the swarme of the Midianites and Amalekites about his eares he calls for new ayde and not trusting to his Abiezrites and his other thousands of Israel hee runnes to God for a further assurance of victorie The refuge was good but the manner of seeking it sauours of distrust There is nothing more easie then to be valiant when no perill appeareth but when euills assaile vs vpon vnequall tearms it is hard and commendable Not to be dismaied If GOD had made that proclamation now which afterwards was commaunded to be made by Gideon Let the timorous depart I doubt whether Israel had not wanted a Guide yet how willing is the Almighty to satisfie our weak desires What tasks is he content to bee set by our infirmitie The fleece must be wet and the ground dry the ground must be wet and the fleece dry Both are done that now Gideon may see whether hee would make himselfe hard earth or yeelding vvoll God could at pleasure distinguish betwixt him and the Midianites poure down either mercies or iudgement where he lists and that hee was set on worke by that God which can commaund all the Elements and they obey him Fire Water Earth serue both him and when he will his And now when Gideon had this reciprocall proofe of his insuing successe he goes on as hee vvell may harnessed with resolution and is seene in the Head of his troupes and in the face of the Midianites If we cannot make vp the match with God when wee haue our owne asking wee are worthie to sit out Gideon had but thirty thousand souldiers at his his heeles the Midianites couered all the vally like Grashoppers and now whiles the Israelites thinke We are too few God sayes The people are too many If the Israelites must haue looked for victory from their fingers they might well haue said The Midianites are too many for vs but that God whose thoughts and words are vnlike to mens sayes They are too many for mee to giue the Midianites into their hands If humane strength were to be opposed there should haue needed an equalitie but now God meant to giue the victory his care is not how to get it but how not to lose or blemish the glory of it gotten How ielous God is of his honour Hee is willing to giue deliuerance to Israel but the
to him out of his obscure Beer to see the fire out of this bramble to consume those trees The view of Gods reuenge is so much more pleasing to a good heart then his owne by how much it is more iust and full There was neuer such a patterne of vnthankfulness as these Israelites They which lately thought a Kingdome too small recompence for Gideon and his sonnes novv thinke it too much for his seede to liue and take life away from the sonnes of him that gaue thē both life and liberty Yet if this had bin some hundred of yeers after when time had worne out the memory of Ierub-baal it might haue borne a better excuse No man can hope to hold pase with Time The best names may not think scorne to be vnknowne to following generations but ere their Deliuerer vvas cold in his coffin to pay his benefits which deserued to be euerlasting with the extirpation of his Posteritie it was more then sauage VVhat can bee looked for from Idolaters If a man haue cast off his God hee will easily cast off his friends When religion is once gone humanitie will not stay long after That which the people were punished afterwards for but desiring he inioyes Now is Abimelec seated in the throne which his Father refused and no riuall is seene to enuy his peace But how long will this glory last Stay but three yeeres and ye shall see this bramble withered and burnt The prosperitie of the wicked is short and fickle a stolne Crowne tho it may looke faire cannot be made of any but brittle stuffe All life is vncertaine but wickednes ouer-runnes nature The euill spirit thrust himselfe into the plot of Abimelechs vsurpation and murder wrought with the Sechemites for both and now God sends the euill spirit betwixt Abimelec and the Sichemites to work the ruine of each other The first could not haue been without God but in the second GOD challenges a part Reuenge is his where the sinne is ours It had bin pitty that the Sichemites should haue been plagued by any other hand then Abimelecs They raised him vniustly to the Throne they are the first that feele the weight of his scepter The foolish Bird limes herself with that which grew from her owne excretion vvho wonders to see the kinde Peasant stung with his owne snake The breach begins at Shechem His own Countrimen flie off from their promised allegeance Tho all Israel should haue faln of from Abimelec yet they of Shechem shold haue stuck close It was their act they ought to haue made it good How should good Princes be honoured when euen Abimelecs once settled cannot be opposed vvith safety Now they begin the reuolt to the rest of Israel Yet if this had been done out of repentance it had bin praise-worthy but to be done out of a trecherous inconstancie was vnworthy of Israelites How could Abimelec hope for fidelity of them whom he had made and found Traytors to his fathers bloud No man knowes how to be sure of him that is vnconscionable He that hath bin vnfaithful to one knowes the way to be perfidious and is onely fit for his trust that is worthy to be deceiued vvhereas faithfulnesse besides the present good laies a ground of further assurance The friendship that is begun in euil cannot stand wickednes both of it owne nature and through the curse of God is euer vnsteddy and thogh there be not a disagreement in hell being but the place of retribution not of action yet on earth there is no peace among the wicked whereas that affection which is knit in God is indissoluble If the men of Shechem had abandoned their false God with their false King and out of a serious remorse desire of satisfaction for their idolatry bloud had opposed this Tyrant preferd Iotham to his throne there might haue bin both warrant for their quarrel and hope of success but now if Abimelec be a wicked Vsurper yet the Shechemites are Idolatrous Traytors How could they thinke that God wold rather reuenge Abimelecs bloody intrusion by them then their trechery Idolatry by Abimelec Whē the quarrel is betwixt God Satan there is no doubt of the issue but when one diuel fights with another what certenty is there of the victory Though the cause of God had bin good yet it had bin safe for them to looke to thēselues the vnworthiness of the agent many times curses a good enterprise No sooner is a secret dislike kindled in any people against their Gouernours then there is a Gaal ready to blow the coales It were a wonder if euer any faction should want an Head As contrarily neuer any man was so ill as not to haue some fauorers Abimelec hath a Zebul in the midst of Shechem Lightly all treasons are betrayd euen with some of their owne His intelligence brings the sword of Abimelec vpon Shechem who now hath demolished the City sown it with salt Oh the iust successions of the reuenges of God! Gideons Ephod is punished with the bloud of his sonnes the bloud of his sons is shed by the procurement of the Shechemites the bloud of the Shechemites is shed by Abimelec the bloud of Abimelec is spilt by a woman The retaliations of God are sure and iust make a more due pedigree then descent of nature The pursued Shechemites flie to the house of their god Berith now they are safe that place is at once a fort and a sanctuary VVhether should we fly in our distresse but to our GOD And now this refuge shall teach them what a God they haue serued The iealous God whom they had forsaken hath them now where he would reioyces at once to be reuenged of their god them Had they not made the house of Baal their shelter they had not died so fearfully Now according to the prophecie of Iotham a fire goes out of the bramble and consumes these Cedars and their eternall flames begin in the house of their Berith the confusion of wicked men rises out of the false Deities vvhich they haue doted on Of all the Conspirators against Gideons sonnes only Abimelec yet suruiues and his day is now comming His success against Shechem hath filled his hart with thoughts of victorie He hath caged vp the inhabitants of Tebez within their tower also and what remaines for them but the same end with their neighbours And behold while his hand is busie in putting fire to the dore of their tower which yet was not hie for then he could not haue discerned a woman to be his Executioner a stone from a vvomans hand strikes his head His paine in dying was not so much as his indignation to know by whom he died rather wil he die twise then a woman shal kill him If God had not known his stomack so big he had not vexed him with the impotency of his Victor God findes a time to reckon with wicked men for all the arrerages
that bring vs newes of saluation by how much their errand is better That Manoah might learn to acknowledge God in this man hee sets off the proffer of his thankfulnes from himselfe to God and as the same Angel which appeared to Gideon turnes his feast into a sacrifice And now he is Manoahs solicitor to better thanks than hee offered How forward the good Angels are to incite vs vnto pietie Either this was the Sonne himself which said It was his meat and drinke to doe his Fathers will or else one of his spirituall attendance of the same diet Wee can neuer feast the Angels better then with our harty sacrifices to God Why do not we learne this lesson of them whom wee propound to our selues as the patterns of our obedience We shall be once like the Angels in condition why are wee not in the meane time in our dispositions If wee doe not prouoke and exhort one another to godlinesse and doe care more for a feast then a sacrifice our appetite is not Angelicall but brutish It was an honest minde in Manoah whiles hee was addressing a sacrifice to God yet not to neglect his messenger faine would he know whom to honour True pietie is not vnciuill but whiles it magnifies the authour of all blessings is thankfull to the meanes Secondary causes are woorthy of regard neither need it detract any thing from the praise of the agent to honor the instrument It is not onely rudeness but iniustice in those which can bee content to heare good newes from God with contempt of the bearers The Angell wil neither take nor giue but conceales his very name from Manoah All honest motions are not fit to be yeelded to good intentions are not alwayes sufficient grounds of condiscent If wee doe somtimes aske what we know not it is no maruell if wee receiue not what wee aske In some cases the Angel of God tells his name vnasked as Gabriel to the Virgin heere not by intreaty If it were the Angel of the couenant he had as yet no name but Iehouah if a created Angel hee had no commission to tell his name a faithful messenger hath not a word beyond his charge Besides that hee saw it would bee of more vse for Manoah to know him really then by words Oh the bold presumption of those men which as if they had long soiourned in heauen and been acquainted with all the holy Legions of spirits discourse of their orders of their titles when this one Angels stoppes the mouth of a better man then they with Why doost thou aske after my name which is secret Secret things to God reuealed to vs and our children No word can be so significant as actions The act of the Angel tels best who hee was Hee did wonderfully wonderfull therefore was his name So soon as euer the flame of the sacrifice ascended hee mounted vp 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 Gideons 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 whiles the Angel of God vouchsafed to perfume himselfe with that holy smoke carry the sent of it vp into heauē Manoah belieued before and craued no signe to assure him God voluntarily confirmes it to him aboue his desire To him that hath shall be giuen Where there are beginnings of faith the mercy of GOD will adde perfection How doe we thinke Manoah and his wife looked to see this spectacle They had not spirit enough left to looke one vpon another but in steed of looking vp cheerefully to heauen they fall downe to the earth on their faces as weak eyes are dazeled with that which should comfort them This is the infirmitie of our nature to be afflicted with the causes of our ioy to be astonished with our confirmations to cōceiue death in that vision of God wherein our life happiness consists If this homely sight of the Angell did so confound good Manoah what shal become of the enemies of God whē they shall be brought before the glorious Tribunall of the God of Angels I maruell 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 giue spirituall comfort to her husband The reason was good and irrefragable If the Lord were pleased to kill vs hee would not haue receiued a burnt offring from vs God will not accept gifts where he intēds punishment and professes hatred The sacrifice of the vvicked is an abomination to the Lord If wee can finde assurance of Gods acceptation of our sacrifices wee may be sure hee loues our persons If I incline to wickednes in my hart the Lord will not heare mee but the Lord hath heard mee Sampsons marriage OF all the Deliuerers of Israel there is none of whom are reported so many weakenesses or so many miracles as of Sampson The newes which the Angell told of his conception and education was not more strange then the newes of his owne choice hee but sees a daughter of the Philistims and falls in loue All this strength beginnes in infirmitie One maid of the Philistims ouer-comes that Champion which was giuen to ouercome the Philistims Euen hee that was dieted with water found heat of vnfit desires As his bodie was strong notwithstanding that fare so were his passions without the gift of continencie a lowe feed may impaire nature but not inordination To follow nothing but the eye in the choice of his vvife was a lust vnworthy of a Nazarite This is to make the sense not a Counsellor but a Tyran Yet was Sampson in this verie impotencie dutifull Hee did not in the presumption of his strength rauish her forceably Hee did not make vp a clandestine match without consulting his Parents but he makes sute to them for consent Giue mee her to wife As one that could be master of his owne act tho not of his passion and as one that had learned so to be a sutor as not to forget himselfe to bee a sonne Euen in this deplored state of Israel children durst not presume to be their own caruers how much less is this tolerable in a wel-guided and Christian Common-wealth Whosoeuer now dispose of themselues without their Parents they doe wilfully vn-child themselues and change naturall affection for violent It is no maruell if Manoah and his wife were astonished at this vnequall motion of their son Did not the Angell thought they tell vs that this child should be consecrated to God and must he begin his youth in vnholy wedlock Did not the Angel say that our sonne should beginne to
and when vpon the triall of a false answer hee saw so apparent trechery yet wilfully betrayes his life by her to his enemies All sinnes all passions haue power to infatuate a man but lust most of all Neuer man that had drunke flagons of wine had lesse reason then this Nazarite Many a one loses his life but this casts it away not in hatred of himselfe but in loue to a strumpet We wonder that a man could possibly be so sottish yet we our selues by tentation becom no lesse insensate Sinful pleasures like a common Dalilah lodge in our bosoms we knowe they aime at nothing but the death of our soule we wil yeeld to them die Euery willing sinner is a Sampson let vs not inuey against his senselesnes but our owne Nothing is so grosse vnreasonable to a well disposed minde which tentation will not represent fit and plausible No soule can out of his owne strength secure himselfe from that sin which he most detesteth As an hood-winkt man sees som little glimmering of light but not enough to guide him so did Sampson who had reason enough left him to make triall of Dalilah by a crafty mis-information but not enough vpon that tryall to distrust and hate her hee had not wit enough to deceiue her thrise not enough to keepe himselfe from being deceiued by her It is not so great wisedom to proue thē whom wee distrust as it is folly to trust them whom wee haue found trecherous Thrise had he seene the Philistims in her chamber ready to susprise him vpon her bonds and yet will needs be a slaue to his Traytor Warning not taken is a certaine presage of destruction and if once neglected it receiue pardon yet thrise is desperate VVhat man would euer play thus with his owne ruine His harlot bindes him and calls-in her executioners to cut his throat hee rises to saue his owne life and suffers them to carry away theirs in peace Where is the courage of Sampson Where his zeale Hee that killed the Philistims for their clothes Hee that slew a thousand of them in the field at once in this quarrell now suffers them in his chamber vnreuenged Whence is this His hands were strong but his hart was effeminate his harlot had diuerted his affection Whosoeuer slackens the raines to his sensuall appetite shall soone grow vnfitte for the calling of GOD. Sampson hath broke the greene withies the new ropes the woofe of his haire yet still suffers himselfe fettered with those inuisible bonds of an harlots loue and can indure her to say How canst thou say I loue thee when thy hart is not with mee thou hast mocked me these three times Wheras he should rather haue said to her How canst thou challenge any loue from me that hast this thrise sought my life Or canst thou thinke my mocks a sufficient reuenge of this trecherie But contrarily he melts at this fire and by her importunate insinuations is wrought against himselfe Wearinesse of solicitation hath won some to those actions which at the first motion they despised like as wee see some sutors are dispatcht not for the equity of the cause but the trouble of the prosccution because it is more easie to yeelde not more reasonable It is more safe to keepe our selues out of the noyse of suggestions then to stand vpon our power of deniall Who can pitty the losse of that strength which was so abused who can pitty him the loss of his locks which after so many warnings can sleepe in the lappe of Dalilah It is but iust that he should rise vp from thence shauen and feeble not a Nazarite scarce a man If his strength had lyen in his hair it had been out of himselfe it was not therefore in his locks it was in his consecration whereof that haire was a signe If the razor had come sooner vpon his head he had ceased to be a Nazarite and the gift of God had at once ceased vvith the calling of GOD not for the want of that excretion but for the want of obedience If God withdrawe his graces when hee is too much prouoked who can complain of his mercie He that sleeps in sin must looke to wake in losse and weakeness Could Sampson thinke Though I tell her my strength lies in my haire yet shee will not cut it or though shee doe cut my haire yet shal I not lose my strength that now hee rises and shakes himselfe in hope of his former vigor Custome of successe makes men confident in their sins and causes them to mistake an arbitrary tenure for a perpetuity His eyes were the first offenders which betrayed him to lust and now they are first pull'd out and he is ledde a blind captiue to Azzah where hee was first captiued to his lust The Azzahites which lately saw him not without terror running lightly away with their gates at mid-night see him now in his owne perpetuall night struggling with his chaines and that he may not want paine together with his bondage hee must grind in his prison As hee passed the street euery boy of the Philistims could throw stones at him euery woman could laugh and shout at him and what one Philistim doth not say whiles he lashes him vnto bloud There is for my brother or my kinsman whom thou slewest Who can look to runne away with a sinne when Sampson a Nazarite is thus plagued This great hart could not but haue broken with indignation if it had not pacified it selfe with the conscience of the iust desert of all this vengeance It is better for Sampson to bee blinde in prison then to abuse his eyes in Sorek yea I may safelie say hee was more blinde when he saw licentiously then now that hee sees not Hee was a greater slaue when hee serued his affections then now in grinding for the Philistims The losse of his eyes showes him his sin neither could hee see how ill hee had done till hee saw not Euen yet still the God of mercy lookt vpon the blindness of Sampson and in these fetters enlargeth his heart from the worse prison of his sinne His haire grew together with his repentance his strength with his haire Gods merciful humiliations of his owne are sometimes so seuere that they seeme to differ little from desertions yet at the worst he loues vs bleeding when we haue smarted enough wee shall feele it VVhat thankfull Idolaters were these Philistims They could not but knowe that their bribes and their Dalilah had deliuer'd Sampson to them and yet they sacrifice to their Dagon and as those that would be liberall in casting fauors vpon a senselesse Idol of vvhom they could receiue none they cry out Our God hath deliuered our enemy into our hands Where vvas their Dagon when a thousand of his clients were slaine with an asses iaw There was more strength in that bone then in all the makers of this God and yet these vaine Pagans say Our
but such entertainement with the Iebusites Whither are the posteritie of Beniamin degenerated that their Gibeah shold be no lesse wicked then populous The first signe of a settled godlesnesse is that a Leuite is suffered to lie without doores If God had been in any of their houses his seruant had not been excluded Where no respect is giuē to Gods messengers there can be no Religion Gibeah was a second Sodome euē there also is another Lot which is therefore so much more hospitall to strangers because himselfe was a stranger The Host as well as the Leuite is of mount Ephraim Each man knows best to commiserate that euil in others which him selfe hath passed thorough All that professe the Name of Christ are Countrimen and yet strangers heere belowe hovv cheerefully should we entertaine each other when we meet in the Gibeah of this inhospitall world This good old man of Gibeah came home late from his work in the fields the Sunne was sette ere he gaue ouer And now seeing this man a stranger an Israelite a Leuite an Ephraimite and that in his way to the house of GOD to take vp his lodging in the street hee proffers him the kindness of his house-roome Industrious spirits are the fittest receptacles of all good motions whereas those which giue themselues to idle and loose courses do not care so much as for themselues I heare of but one man at his worke in all Gibeah the rest were quaffing and reuelling That one man ends his worke in a charitable entertainement the other end their play in a brutish beastlinesse violence These villaines had learn'd both the actions and the language of the Sodomites One vncleane diuell was the prompter to both this honest Ephraimite had learnt of righteous Lot both to intreat and to proffer As a perplexed Mariner that in a storme must cast away something although precious so this good Host rather will prostitute his daughter a virgin together with the concubine then this prodigious villany should be offered to a man much more to a man of God The detestation of a foule sinne drew him to ouer-reach in the motion of a lesser which if it had been accepted how could he have escaped the partnership of their vncleanenesse and the guilt of his daughters rauishment No man can wash his hands of that sinne to which his will hath yeelded Bodily violence may be inoffensiue in the patient voluntary inclination to euill tho out of feare can neuer be excusable yet behold this wickednesse is too little to satisfie these monsters Who would haue looked for so extreame abhomination from the loynes of Iacob the wombe of Rachel the sons of Beniamin Could the very Iebusites their neighbors be euer accused of such vnnaturall outrage I am ashamed to say it Euen the worst Pagans vvere Saints to Israel VVhat auailes it that they haue the Arke of GOD in Shiloh while they haue Sodom in their streets that the law of God is in their sringes whiles the diuell is in their harts Nothing but hell it selfe can yeeld a worse creature then a depraued Israelite the very meanes of his reformation are the fuell of his wickednes Yet Lot sped so much better in Sodom then this Ephraimite did in Gibeah by how much more holy guests hee entertained There the guests were Angels here a sinfull man There the guests saued the host heere the host could not saue the guest from brutish violence Those Sodomites vvere striken with outward blindnes and defeated These Beniamites are onely blinded with lust and preuaile The Leuite comes forth perhaps his coat saued his person from this villany who now thinks himselfe well that hee may haue leaue to redeeme his owne dishonour with his concubines If hee had not loued her deerely he had neuer sought her so farre after so foule a sinne Yet now his hate of that vnnaturall wickednesse ouercame his loue to her She is exposed to the furious lust of barbarous ruffians and which hee misdoubted not abused to death Oh the iust and euen course which the Almightie Iudge of the world holds in all his retributions This woman had shamed the bed of a Leuite by her former wantonnesse shee had thus farre gone smoothly away with her sinne her father harbourd her her husband forgaue her her owne hart found no cause to complaine because shee smarted not now vvhen the world had forgotten her offence GOD calls her to reckoning and punishes her with her owne sinne She had voluntarily exposed herselfe to lust now is exposed forceably Adultery was her sinne adultery was her death VVhat smiles soeuer wickedness casts vpon the heart vvhiles it solicites it vvill owe vs a displeasure and prooue it selfe a faithfull Debter The Leuite looked to find her humbled with this violence not murdered and now indignation moues him to adde horror to the fact Had not his heart been raised vp with an excess of desire to make the crime as odious as it was sinfull his action could not be excused Those hands that might not touch a carcass now carue the corps of his owne 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 Himselfe puts on cruelty to the dead that hee might draw them to a iust reuenge of her death Actions notoriously vilanous may iustlie countenance an extraordinarie meanes of prosecution Euery Israelite hath part in a Leuits wrong No Tribe hath not his share in the carcasse and the reuenge The Desolation of Beniamin THese morsels could not chuse but cut the harts of Israel with horror and compassion horror of the act and compassion of the sufferer and now their zeale drawes them together either for satisfaction or reuenge VVho would not haue looked that the hands of Beniamin should haue been first vpon Gibeah and that they should haue readily sent the heads of the offenders for a second seruice after the gobbets of the concubine But now insteed of punishing the sinne they patronize the actors and will rather die in resisting iustice then liue and prosper in furthering it Surely Israel had one Tribe too many all Beniamin is turned into Gibeah the sonnes not of Beniamin but of Belial The abetting of euill is worse then the commission This may bee vpon infirmitie but that must be vpon resolution Easie punishment is too much fauour to sinne conniuence is much worse but the defence of it and that vnto bloud is intollerable Had not these men been both wicked and quarrellous they had not drawne their swords in so foule a cause Peaceable dispositions are hardly drawne to fight for innocence yet these Beniaminites as if they were in loue with villany and out of charitie with GOD will be the wilfull Champions of lewdness How can Gibeah repent them of that wickednesse which all Beniamin will make good in spight of their consciences Euen where sinne is
haue the more children but barren Annah hath the most loue How much rather could Elkanah haue wished Peninnah barren and Annah fruitfull but if she should haue had both issue and loue she had been proud and her riuall despised God knowes how to disperse his fauours so that euery one may haue cause both of thankfulnesse and humiliation whiles there is no one that hath all no one but hath some If enuie and contempt were not thus equally tempered some would be ouer hauty and others too miserable But now euery man sees that in himselfe which is worthy of contempt and matter of emulation in others and contrarily sees what to pittie and dislike in the most eminent and what to applaud in himselfe and out of this contrarietie arises a sweete meane of contentation The loue of Elkanah is so vnable to free Anna from the wrongs of her riuall that it procures them rather The vnfruitfulnesse of Anna had neuer with so much despight beene laid in her dish if her husbands heart had been as barren of loue to her Enuie though it take aduantage of our weakenesses yet is euer raised vpon some grounds of happines in them whom it emulates It is euer an ill effect of a good cause If Abels sacrifice had not beene accepted and if the acceptation of his sacrifice had not beene a blessing no enuie had followed vpon it There is no euill of another wherein it is fit to reioyce but his Enuie and this is worthy of our ioy and thankfulnesse because it showes vs the price of that good which wee had and valued not The malignitie of enuie is thus well answered when it is made the euill cause of a good effect to vs when God and our soules may gaine by anothers sinne I do now finde that Anna insulted vpon Peninnah for the greater measure of her husbands loue as Peninna did vpon her for her fruitfulnesse Those that are truely gracious know how to receiue the blessings of God without contempt of them that want and haue learned to bee thankefull without ouerlinesse Enuie when it is once conceiued in a malicious heart is like fire in billers of Iuniper which they say continues more yeares then one Euery yeare was Anna thus vexed with her emulous partner and troubled both in her praiers and meales Amidst all their feastings shee fed on nothing but her teares Some dispositions are lesse sensible and more carelesse of the dispight and â—â—â—ties of others and can turne ouer vnkinde vsages with contempt By how much more tender the heart is so much more deeply is it euer affected with discurtesies As waxe receiues and retaines that impression which in the hard clay cannot be seen or as the eie feeles that mote which the skin of the eie-lid could not complain of Yet the husband of Anna as one that knew his dutie labours by his loue to comfort her against these discontentments Why weepest thou Am not I better to thee then ten sonnes It is the weaknesse of good natures to giue so much aduantage to an enemie what would malice rather haue then the vexation of them whom it persecutes Wee cannot better please an aduersarie then by hurting our selues This is no other then to humor enuie to serue the turne of those that maligne vs and to draw on that malice whereof we are weary whereas carelesnesse puts ill will out of countenance and makes it withdraw it selfe in a rage as that which doth but shame the author without the hurt of the patient In causelesse wrongs the best remedie is contempt She that could not finde comfort in the louing perswasions of her husband seeks it in her prayers She rises vp hungry from the feast and hyes her to the Temple there shee powres out her teares and supplications Whatsoeuer the complaint be here is the remedie There is one vniuersall receit for all euills prayer When all helps faile vs this remaines and whiles wee haue an heart comforts it Here was not more bitternesse in the soule of Anna then feruencie shee did not onely weep and pray but vow vnto God If God will giue her a sonne she will giue her sonne to God backe againe Euen nature it selfe had consecrated her son to God for he could not but be borne a Leuite But if his birth make him a Leuite her vow shal make him a Nazarite dedicate his minoritie to the Tabernacle The way to obtaine any benefit is to deuote it in our hearts to the glory of that God of whom wee aske it by this meanes shall God both pleasure his seruant and honour himselfe Whereas if the scope of our desires be carnall wee may be sure either to faile of our suite or of a blessing Ely and Anna. OLd Ely sits on a stoole by one of the posts of the Tabernacle where should the Priests of God be but in the Temple whether for action or for ouer-sight Their very presence keeps Gods house in order and the presence of God keeps their hearts in order It is oft found that those which are themselues conscionable are too forward to the censuring of others Good Ely because hee markes the lips of Annah to moue without noyse chides her as drunken and vncharitably misconstrues her deuotion It was a weake ground whereon to build so heauie a sentence If she had spoken too loude and incomposedly hee might haue had some iust colour for this conceit but now to accuse her silence notwithstanding all the teares which he saw of drunkennesse it was a zealous breach of charitie Some spirit would haue been enraged with so rash a censure when anger meets with griefe both turne into furieâ— but this good woman had been inured to reproches and besides did well see the reproofe arose from mesprison and the mesprison from zeale and therefore answers meekly as one that had rather satisfie then expostulate Nay my Lord but I am a woman troubled in spirit Hely may now learne charitie of Annah If she had been in that distemper whereof he accused her his iust reproofe had not been so easily digested Guiltinesse is commonly clamorous and impatient wheras innocence is silent and carelesse of misreports It is naturall vnto all men to wipe off from their name all aspersions of euill but none doe it with such violence as they which are faultie It is a signe the horse is galled that stirs too much when he is touched Shee that was censured for drunken censures drunkennesse more deeply then her reprouer Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial The drunkards stile begins in lawlesuesse proceeds in vnprofitablenesse ends in miserie and all shut vp in the denomination of this pedegree A sonne of Belial If Hannah had been tainted with this sinne she would haue denied it with more fauour and haue disclaimed it with an extenuation What if I should haue been merrie with wine yet I might bee deuout If I should haue ouer-ioyed in my sacrifice to God one cup of