prouide for order in so confused a companie of prisoners then might it well become Christians not onely to doe the same but to goe a little beyond them and regard the welfare of their soules also both during their imprisonment and before the time of their execution As that godly Captaine Ioshua did to Achan chap. 7. My sonne saith he giue glorie to God confesse thy sinne and disburden thy conscience that though thy hodie be punished and destroyed for a season yet thy soule may bee saued in the day of the Lord. A pitifull thing to consider that such should be left to themselues to fulfill the measure of their sinne till death approcheth and not to be laboured nor dealt with about the most weightie matter of their saluation Which thing would moue vs more then it doth but that we see so little care had by many Ministers to teach painfully their people who walke at libertie and are well paid for their labour In this verse it is shewed though not so cleerely that all doe see and vnderstand it at the first view how Samson sitting in the irksome prison in paine of body but greater of mind did think of his euil course and frō what estate he was falne and what miserie he was in and repented for it after due consideration of it as the prodigall sonne did But ye will aske how that appeareth that we may rest perswaded of it seeing it may bee doubted of as well as of any other part of the storie I answere seeing it is not so cleere in this verse I will say the more about it fetching light heereto from other Scripture And first in this verse thus much may be gathered that the holy Ghost setting downe this growing of his haire againe giueth vs this to learne by it that it was a manifest token that hee returned to the estate of a Nazarite againe also for it being a common thing for the haire to grow againe there was no other end of mentioning it which was the most perfect seruing of God and that we may know hee could neuer haue done except he had repented Secondly it appeareth to be so by his prayer to God afterward vers 28. whereby we vnderstand that he beleeued in him euen as Ionah did the like in the Whales bellie For as the Apostle saith How can we call vpon him in whom we beleeue not And if he beleeued then hee also repented for faith and repentance cannot bee separated The third proofe of his repentance is that he was a Nazarite of Gods owne ordinance and therefore the elect of God and one that must of necessity returne againe after his fall or else he could not haue been one of the Lords as it is certaine he was being a Nazarite The fourth is the testimony that is giuen of him in the Epistle to the Hebrewes where hee is reckoned among them who liued and died in faith And now that it is proued that he repented let vs make our benefit of that his example In him therfore as in a glasse we may see the vnspeakable mercy of God to great sinners for who in all likelihood would haue said that hee should haue come to repentance whom wee haue heard to haue so odiously so long and so many waies gone from God and to haue followed his owne wicked lusts But hee being one of Gods elect it was impossible that hee should perish though hee must needs sustaine much woe in this present world euen as we haue heard he did Which also is to be said of Dauid Salomon and Ionah with other And as such an one is to be pitied much whom God hath called and reclaimed from his old bad course to faith and amendment of life when we see him afterward to wallow in the filthie mire of his former euill life againe for wee know his punishment is like to bee most fearefull and heauie so the offending party must know that such an one should as Manasses did by the tribulations that hee fell into bee broken hearted and repent and beleeue and should haue no peace vntill he can do so And therefore iustly are all such to bee complained of who hauing so faire warnings from God when they haue fallen are not for all that brought home againe and humbled So then the consideration of this point ought little to nourish the conceit of presuming to offend God vpon hope of impunity They that plead this and the like example of Samson Dauid Salomon and others such do shew that they sinne with boldnesse and presumptuously beare themselues vp in hope of forgiuenesse because those forementioned seruants of God obtained it who sinned not of presumption as these doe who reason thus neither do they know therefore that they shall finde the like mercy in their need For how monstrous and irregular a conclusion is it for him whom the loue of God should keepe from sinning to presume to sin because God loueth him and will neuer dampe him Thou that makest such conclusions feare that mercy belongs not vnto thee But know it for certaine though thou hast thought thy selfe sure of saluation hauing sought after it and hast begun to reforme thy selfe yet if thou degenerate and offend wilfully for thy vnauoidable errours and weakenesses I speak not of the Lord shall fill thy life thy soule and conscience with such perplexity and distresse that thou shalt neuer enioy good day after thy satisfying of thy rebellious will and if thou die so whosoeuer thus sinnest thou neuer wert a sonne and beloued of God but a bastard and counterfeit Doe we not see what death hath befallen such impudent cosoners as being vile and base borne claime to themselues the names and inheritances of great persons dead long since as if they were yet liuing The like penalty and far greater shall lie vpon thee oh foule imposter and deceiuer that pleadest the name of a regenerate one being an arrant deceiuer and hypocrite But to returne as for the better sort let them often coole and quench the dart of such a tentation with this that as sweet as liberty seemes God will finde a way to make it bitter enough ere he leaue them though hee meane not to cast them off witnesse heereof be this famous example of Samson And on the other side if they haue thus fallen let them follow the example of this man in his repentance and so doing let them apprehend him and comfort by his recouery for to that end the Scriptures were written in their owne particular case And beware they lest the diuell who is euer an accuser in the end though a tempter in the beginning draw them to runne further and deeper in because they haue already aduentured so farre And so hauing escaped both rockes of bold or secure or of desperate proceeding in sinne they shal be encouraged to seeke till they finde mercy the which lamentable it is to see few doe though
trouble so many waies wee nestle not our selues here below in any earthly delights so that we be vnwilling to heare of any change but rather looke for it and be armed against it and so the smart that commeth thereby shall not sting and astonish vs as otherwise it will And secondly seeing God seeth it meete in his wisdome to exercise vs with many afflictions he seeing that we haue need of them and all to the end that so he may the better hold vs vnder it is most absurd that we should in any sort seeke to fulfill the lusts of our hearts whereby wee multiply and bring further trouble vpon our liues The other thing therefore which we may note here by Gedeon is this how soone our faith is ouerwhelmed by affliction For though the Angell prooued it to him to his good contentment that he was the man which should deliuer Israel out of the oppression of the Midianites yet as though no such thing had been spoken to him nor beleeued by him by and by as soone as he perceiued that he was an Angell with whom he spake he thinking before that he was but a man of God behold how he is troubled afresh Although these two about which he was troubled were contraries to wit the promise of God in the first which hee doubted of and his feare in this last by seeing his Angell In the which to stay a while seeing it is the point now in hand we know he could not deliuer Israel as he was told and beleeued he should if he must die before the time came And yet not considering what he said he affirmed resolutely hee should die when yet Israel was not deliuered euen so are we much dazled and vnsetled by affliction Much like to Martha when her brother Lazarus was dead and Iesus was come thither she came mourning to him and said Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not been dead but now I know also said she that whatsoeuer thou askest of God he will giue it thee Wherein she testified that he could if it pleased him raise him vp againe And yet marke when Iesus after that went to the graue to raise him from death and bad them take away the stone Martha stood by forgetting what she had said before and answered Iesus as not belieuing that he could be raised to life O Lord it is too late he stinketh alreadie for he hath been dead foure daies And who doth not find it to be true which I haue said namely that faith which is well grounded and worketh now with comfort by loue shall easily be found to languish and waxe faint through doubting and feare if affliction come in the way to trie vs For why we are so prone to vnbeliefe that if we doe not at the first triall alwaies shew and bewray it which yet oft times we doe yea before the trouble come when we see but a likelihood of it we shall at least doe it if we be long held vnder the affliction and especially if it be any great matter as some sore losse paine or the like So that it is not without especiall cause that we are commanded by the Apostle not only to bee rooted but also to bee confirmed and to abound in faith with thanksgiuing Let vs consider to this end that it is but the fruit of our corruption thus to feare and doubt when wee should beleeue and to reason against Gods promises affirming that they cannot be performed when wee see likelihood of the contrary yea though we doe it not with any bad meaning as neither Gedeon did here yet it is our great sinne to offer God such dishonour let vs striue rather to beate downe our foolish feares and passions seeing it is most like and we are sure to speede the worst thereby and in that we giue place to our passions we shall do it to our cost although we repent for it Our Sauiour seeing Martha in that sudden feare and distrust checkes her saying Did I not say vnto thee if thou couldest belieue thou shouldest see the glory of God As if he should say Looke to my word looke not to the vnlikelihood Manoahs wife was stronger then Gedeon or her husband in the like case If God would haue slaine vs saith she he would not haue said we should haue a sonne and so ought Gedeon to haue reasoned God will not kill me now seeing I must deliuer Israel for these are contraries and thus when Manoahs wife saw that one of them must needs be false she rather confuteth her husband then the message of the Angell and concludeth doubtlesse we shall liue and not die for the word of God is more worth the resting vpon then our owne conceits And thus it should bee with vs that we be not alwaies off and on now carried with full saile of faith and by and by cast downe as if we had neuer been the men this ficklenesse is vnbeseeming vs. Men wish that it were alwaies alike with them and yet find the contrary because they kept not their eie fixed vpon the promise daily renewing their hold therein stedfastly as at any time before they did considering that as the Sun is alway the same whither it be ouer cast with cloudes or shine forth clearely so is Christ Iesus yesterday and to day and the same for euer vnchangeable in himselfe if wee change not our perswasion of him through vnbeliefe In this verse it is shewed that while Gedeon was thus perplexed with feare the Lord comforted him that hee being free from it might the better goe about that which was appointed him For we know what a dangerous hindrance to faith feare is And therefore what hart could hee haue to belieue that hee should worke such a deliuerance who feared death euery minute of an howre And the Angell put away his feare by promising him good successe and quietnesse of mind and that he should not dye This is the great goodnesse of God that he will not long leaue his faithfull people in pinching feare and pensiue heauines but in good time deliuereth them least they should be too much cast downe and discomforted And so the Scriptures testifie that God would not haue people left in troublesome passions as feare or sorrow which how troublesome they are our experience teacheth Ioshua was sore troubled when the people of Israel fell before the men of Ay but God soone put him out of it So likewise the good women in the Gospell were sore afraid by reason of the earthquake and the appearing of the Angell but he bid them not to be afraid euen as here he saith to Gedeon Peace be to thee Thus it were meet for all poore troubled consciences to mark diligently how comfortably God speaketh to them as that they should put away their needlesse ad hurtfull feares and griefes for the which cause the Lord willeth with a doubling his words Esay 40. 1.
thereof fit for the people and that out of the bad as well as the good euen as well as out of other Scripture which all haue not learned to doe neither haue attained vnto and therefore doe oft times offer violence to the Scriptures by making allegories of them and so wresting them to another sense then the holy Ghost hath made of them without which manner of handling them they can draw none or little matter out of the most examples in the stories of them and so beside that their doctrine is not soundly gathered so they giue too fearefull suspition to the ignorant that such parts of the Scripture are barraine and drie while they doe by such shifts and yet indirect so hardly draw matter and doctrine out of them when yet it is certaine and cleere that they are full of sound instruction But to come to my purpose I will now set downe some generall things before I enter into the text which may giue some light to the better vnderstanding of the whole book such as I gather partly by obseruing laying together that which I read in it comparing one thing with another and partly out of that learned and reuerend Father Master Peter Martyr whose workes neither the most priuate men can vnderstand nor many Ministers though they may vnderstand them can come by neither if they can shall they finde there that which shall be much for their simpler hearers benefit And first let the reader marke how this booke agreeth with all the former from Genesis to the end of Ioshua and what is the summe of them and this Concerning the booke of Genesis after mention is made in the beginning of it of the creation of the world and the generations to the flood it doth afterward shew how God chose his people out of Abraham and his posteritie and how they were sent into Egypt to auoid the famine In Exodus these things are the principall how the people of God multiplied and increased in the land of Egypt till there rose a King who cruelly oppressed and vexed them sore and how they were deliuered out of the bondage which they were in there by Moses and how they had lawes giuen them to gouerne them And this last point is the summe of Leuiticus also The booke of Numbers declareth their diuers resting places in the desert and their goings forward toward the land of Canaan In Deuteronomy Moses being to depart out of this world and to leaue the people doth most faithfully repeate the law to the generation which came after the former and which then liued I meane to the posteritie of Abraham Then came Ioshua and led the people into the promised land and diuided the land of the Amorites and Canaanites which partly was subdued and gotten out of their hands and partly remained to be conquered he I say diuided it amongst the twelue tribes according to the commandement of God after he had brought them ouer Iordan slaine many of the Kings of Canaan and possessed their cities and grounds in that countrey This is the summe and contents of the booke of Ioshua After his death to come to our purpose the Lord gouerned his people the Hebrewes being placed in that land by Iudges whom to that end he indued with excellent gifts and by them deliuered and kept the people out of the hands of their enemies who as yet did all the daies of the Iudges remaine in great numbers to vex them But to vnderstand better the meaning of the word Iudges a materiall point in this booke to be vnderstood though to iudge signifie to know the cases of such as contend and be at variance and to giue sentence of iudgement betwixt men yet these Iudges mentioned in this booke had not that office neither were called Iudges in that respect But as the word signifieth also to reuenge and to redeeme out of bondage thus did those Iudges deliuer and redeeme the people as in this booke is at large declared I speakâ— not of Samuel who is said after to iudge them also by deciding controuersies and ciuill causes But these Iudges had that office assigned them of God to deliuer the people as I haue said out of their enemies hands and so to iudge them and therefore were called by that name of Iudges and this booke that intreateth of them and their acts throughout is called The booke of Iudges And briefly to lay out the state and condition that these people the Hebrewes then liued in whereby the office of the Iudges may the better be vnderstood they hauing not yet conquered the land were occupied as at their first entrance into it and after Ioshuas death a while in subduing it and their enemies but afterward they suffered them to remaine and become tributaries to them and were thereby as God saw it meete and as need required in great perill and miserie by them and then because they were his people lest they should haue been vtterly destroyed these Iudges were raised vp by him without the election of men to rescue and deliuer them But afterward when they were at rest and peace God gouerned them not by those Iudges therefore Iphtah when he was desired would not raigne ouer them neither had they authoritie ouer them but he vsed the help of someother excellent persons fit by their vertues and gifts for that purpose and they ruled the people but the Iudges as I said were stirred vp by the Lord in great dangers brought vpon them by their enemies to be helpers and deliuerers vnto them and to keepe them in peace afterward while they lined So that these Iudges were not chosen by succession as Kings neither by the voyces of the people but were raised vp by God as wee haue heard indifferently as well out of one tribe as another and how meane and vnfit soeuer they were before for that purpose God did furnish them by and by after he had stirred them vp with most excellent gifts for that end to the which he appointed them And it went farre better with the people while they were vnder them then it did afterward when they would needs haue a King to raigne ouer them For they did alwaies deliuer the people of Israel out of the calamitie with which they were oppressed whereas their Kings did sometimes waste them and bring them into captiuitie and were the most part of them Idolaters And although vnder the Iudges the people were somtimes oppressed grieuously by strangers and especially vnder Samson by the Philistims for why we must know their horrible sinnes deserued it and prouoked God to deale with them in that manner yet they were neuer led into captiuitie while they liued with them Againe there were few of the Kings good men in Israel not one the Iudges for the most part were all such A good testimonie whereof we haue in the Epistle to the Hebrewes where we thus reade of the commendation of them The time would be too short
this time after Iosuahs death and they are to the eight verse and then for that which that tribe had done before his death in the rest of the verses to the 21. The first part of the Chapter To come to the meaning of the first 7. verses seeing they lie together after the death of Ioshua who had bin their guide and had gone before them the children of Israel saw that they must make warre with the forraine nations for vnto that day the whole land though it was promised and deuided amongst them was not yet wonne by them nor conquered but in the lot and inheritance of euery tribe there were the Canaanites their enemies still dwelling and remaining And seeing they knew they must be driuen out by force and strong hand as God had commanded therefore they doubted not whether they should goe out against them to warre or no but which tribe should first begin and goe before and gouerne the rest And the thing was of such waight that they went to the Lord about it and asked of him by the high Priest before the propitiatory and Mercy seat as the manner then was in doubtfull cases which of their tribes should begin the battaile And so they had an answere from him to their satisfaction who should goe vp before them and in that their attempt God prospered them for he had promised so to do And Iudah sought helpe of Simeon his brother and neighbour tribe who consented readily so to doe and they prospered in that their attempt and had victory ouer the Canaanites as is set downe together with the destruction of Adonibezek their King Thus much for the meaning of these 7. verses in some generall manner Now we haue the meaning of these verses it remaineth that we drawe from thence such instructions as are afoarded vs out of them beginning with these two former here set downe and first out of the first verse In that this people was now constrained to looke about them and now Ioshua was dead to doe that themselues for their peace and quiet which hee was wont to doe for them wee are taught that when chiefe speciall persons are taken away who were wont to beare the burden for many other then they who were left behinde must put forth themselues and take the more paine and be put to greater plondges then they were before Oh it is a great ease if men could consider it aright when they haue others to beare the brunt for them while they them selues may as it were sit in peace while our Sauiour Christ was conuersant with his disciples on earth he sheilded them prouided for them euery way and bare off the blowes from their shoulders As when the Pharisies cauilled with them whereby they might easily haue bin discouraged he tooke their part they being too weake and defended them So he said to Peter a litle before his ascention When thou wast young thou girdest thyselfe and wentest whither thou wouldest but when thou art old another shall girde thee and leade thee whither thou wouldest not When Kings gouerne wisely and conscionably the people sit vnder their vine and figtree as it was said they did that liued in the dayes of Salomon when hee had about him Nathan the Prophet Zadok the Priest Benaiah a most worthy Counseller with such like Also when people are setled vnder faithfull and able teachers who watch for their soules they liue as it were in a corner of heauen if they can see who obediently sit at their feete to heare them And so I may say of children who haue their prouident and godly parents to regard their welfare they know not what sorrow and trouble meane for the glory of children are their fathers And of other inferiours while they haue their good friends and gouernours about them who seeth not that they be priuiledged and prouided for aboue others but when all these faile then beginneth the woe and sorrow of all those whom they leaue behinde them which in the vnwelcome parting of couples in mariage the husband from the wife or she from her husband where true loue was betwixt them is daily seene and proued to the deepe sorrow of the longest liuer of both Al this which I haue said should what on such as are so backed by others to weigh the great goodnes of God in giuing them such helpes and to yeild them due reuerence loue and obedience in the Lord and to be more carefully giuen to euery good worke while they haue so great incouragements But because the inioying of such is made so common a matter and a thing of no great reioycing while they liue with them for according to the prouerbe we best know what a good thing is worth when wee feele the want of it therefore it were good for them to suppose oft times and to put the case that such worthy helpes and friends are taken from them and what they should then doe being left without them for as the vine wanting his raile to prop it vp runneth on the ground and waxeth wilde and vnfruitfull so inferiours being destitute of their godly superiours waxe degenerate and grow out of kinde lying open to mischiefe as Saul did after Samuels death But to speake the truth the more is the pitie this is rare and hardly to bee found that such take any great good by those helpes while they inioy them vnlesse it be in things temporary for their ease maintenance and seeking of liberty to the flesh neither when they forgoe them haue grace to bewaile the losse of them in any other respect then that which is earthly neither doe they looke to stand vp as they ought in the want and roome of them with care and confidence to become lightes and good examples and to keepe themselues from euill as they were kept some of them no doubt by their good friends before Such prouide ill for themselues seeing as it was with this people of Israel heere when Ioshua was dead that they had a great losse and were constrained now to looke better about them then they needed to doe before euen so they hauing now the like befalne them must now take the burden on themselues which was borne by others for them before The which being so men should make this vse of such changes to prouide and learne to want their good helpes and friends before hand and arme themselues as Iob did to looke for their change when they see they must needs forgoe them They should also acknowledge daily with hearty thankes to God what a benefit they haue of them while they inioy them and doe all good that they may by the helpe of them Which they cannot doe but they must of necessitie feele the losse of them to be very great and see that they must now lay their shoulders to the burden and therefore labour to be the fitter to beare and vndergoe it and to want them
although we may be assured that God is iust yet wee must not condemne them but leaue him to God Now to speake a little of the Canaanites because they escaped long being so great offenders yet in that they were met withall at last it teacheth vs that as God will not alwaies suffer his rods to lie on the backe of the righteous so neither will he suffer the wicked to escape and goe vnpunished but he will bee reuenged on them in his due time yea and that quickly whereas they yet thinke the cleane contrary and imagine that if they bee not punished as soone as they haue trespassed they shall neuer come to any reckoning and therefore they merrily promise themselues and say Doubtlesse the bitternesse of death is passed and thinke that God will neither doe euill nor good Nay they begin to applaud themselues in their wicked doings as wee may see in the Psalme where the Lord himselfe chargeth them for it Therefore this and the like Scripture commeth in fit season to be vrged vpon all such that though they cry peace peace and cast the remembrance of punishment behind their backes yet God will set it before their faces yea and make them smart as if they were stung with adders and hornets their sinne will most certainely finde them out Haman after all his cruelty and malice was powred out against Gods people with great ioy notwithstanding also the Kings countenancing and backing of him therein had yet a snare set for him at a sumptuous banquet and by the prayers of the faithfull receiued iust punishment for his doings when he little looked for any such matter Iezabell being suffered to goe forward in her murthers and spirituall whoredomes along time not sparing the Lords faithfull Prophet Elias but threatned death to him also when she was in the middest of her pride braying boldly against the Lords auenger Iehu comming to doe execution vpon her was cast downe out at the window by her owne Eunuches in great disgrace her braines being squashed against the stones till she was made dogges meate and doung for all her former glory The same I might say of infinite other who scorned to heare of any thing or iudgement to be comming against them who yet were made as vnlike to the persons they were before in their iollitie as if they had neuer bin they as the rich man in the Gospell and the Epicure euen as if one should see a goodly palace with all the rich furniture thereof to be burned vnto ashes But alas what is our speaking of such things to a new generation risen vp after them as farre gone as they in their iniquities yea adding to them also other sinnes both strange and fearefull Are any made wise by former examples though they come not short of them in their abominations that I say no more but they haue one thing or other to wash away the remembrance of such workes of God or to tush at them who tell them that they shall be like them in their punishments And if they bee scared at any time with feare of Gods iudgements it is with them but as it is with theeues when there is hue and crie after them then they giue in but if it bee past they peepe out of their holes and fall to their trade a fresh til they be found out and taken and so doe these But I will turne away from this kinde of people as fearing that I doe but lose my labour about them I will bestow my words where I haue more hope to preuaile and doe good by them I am not ignorant that right worthy and good Christians doe sometime fall into this disease and are rocked a sleepe with them before mentioned in some particular falles that when they haue found sweetnes in some baites of sinne and haue so farre forgot themselues that they are snared by the deceitfulnes thereof they haue begun to thinke that it is good being for them there and to continue still in so doing and they are loath to be diseased they loue not to thinke for the time behold to what point the best may easily be brought that God will come against them for their so being disguised This is more then with the fiue wise virgins to begin to nodde nay it is with the Church in the Canticles to fall a sleepe doubtlesse this is as dangerous an estate for godly Christians as it is vnbeseeming them But what of this some perhaps will say what doth the punishment of the Canaanites concerne these I answere it concernes them very much For though they are not seated nor saped in sinne as they and their like of whom I haue spoken already and therefore are not in danger to be punished like to them yet is their sinne great for that they haue bin tenderly regarded of the Lord and haue set this loue more sweet then the hony combe and haue been aduanced to honour greater then Princes to be sonnes and daughters to the Lord almighty yea and they haue sworne with Dauid and therefore should performe it to keepe his righteous iudgements now then for them to looke backe onely to Sodome and to giue place to their euill lusts but so farre as to take liking of and please themselues in any vnfruitfull workes of darkenes so as they could be content still to solace themselues therein it is in them periury against God treachery and in itselfe sinne for such persons to commit most fearefull and horrible And if they espie it not betimes which they ought to haue preuented and shunned at the first entrance into it God will rouse them out of it to their cost with terror and abashment especially if they haue fallen so oftentimes and haue experience what woe it hath brought them in times past before they could rise vp againe and in what a torment and hell they lay before they could returne And yet I would haue no man take me thus as though I thought that a man truly conuerted to God can alwaies be in one and the same state of libertie to serue God or holde the same measure of grace at all times or as though he might not possibly yea easily through his euill heart which in great part remaineth lusting after euill and rebellious against God as though he might not I say be easily carried after the euill which at an other time he wholly abhorreth and hath victory ouer I doe not deny but this may be and is with the best but to nourish these ill desires and to delight in them and so to be in danger to commit the sinne which hath drawen the heart to bee made drunken with it whether it be whoredome reuenge vniust dealing c. for so it may come to passe this I say changeth his sweet life into sowernes and to shew the danger of such boldnes further it doth vtterly disguise him and make him and
his owne head Hereof it is that if we thus tell them which is the very truth that their sinne hath found them out they haue no eares to heare vs and if we waroe the like offenders before their punishment commeth that God wil after the same manner be auenged of them yet they will not beleeue vs till hee visit them in some such heauie manner indeed and then with Iosephs brethren they begin to say We remember our sinne this day that euen as other haue done to vs so wee haue done to other before and as this cruell King Adonibezek sayd here Seuentie Kings thumbs haue I cut off c as I haue done so God hath rewarded me And this men shall come to either in Gods fauour to their amendment or in his displeasure to their hardning and confusion And therfore it were wisedome to confesse it in time while wee may bee taught and told of it for all mens consciences will crie out to them that it is true that they haue by word or deed iniuried other before they haue receiued such measure themselues but if they had not in that kind and particular manner offended yet they are sure they haue done it some other way so that they haue iust cause if they wel waigh it and looke to Gods hand therein to beare all such indignities as they count them as are offered them both with meekenesse and contentedly And were it not that God dealt thus with men they would neuer acknowledge nor dislike the sinne which they are guiltie of but suffer it to lie secret in them and worke them a mischiefe Whereas yet it being ferreted out by such iudgements of God they cannot but confesse it especially when they bee in any great feare and danger of death And for vs who are now warned if wee haue had our part in this sin that with the common sort wee haue smitten others with our tongue or wronged or intended euill any way against them learne wee with great regard to put a speedy end thereto by repentance lest God awake and preuent vs by some such like iudgement againe as we haue caused to other and to this end put wee these two lessons in practise neither in heart word or deed offer we any hard or vnequall measure to any man and if any offer it to vs if it be possible that it may be without our great hurt let vs quietly and meekely passe by it and make no great matter of it for the time shall come wherein we shall wish wee had done so and not haue laid that so neere our heart which might more easily haue been passed by of vs. But in saying God hath rewarded him it is to be noted that he an heathen Idolater could see so farre as to ascribe to God his affliction Whereby we may see that very bad men doe acknowledge God to be the striker and punisher of them But where should he learne it for though it did him no good to acknowledge it yet it is that which many who haue been baptized doe not come to but curse and ban rage and fret in their afflictions crying out of their ill fortune as they call it so farre are they from resting in the iustice of God and to say hee hath done righteously Also as they ascribe to chance and fortune their calamities so doe they runne for helpe to Witches and Sorcerers when they be oppressed with them which is greatly to the conuicting of them For why should not they much more see the hand of God when they are visited if Heathens haue seene so farre as to ascribe to God their troubles and to confesse their sinne as this Adonibezek did here This not onely checketh such as I haue mentioned but laieth hard to their charge also that make some shew of goodnesse who yet doe harden their hearts vnder their afflictions and will not know Gods waies though they see well enough that they suffer for their euill deeds neither will relent nor feare his iudgements though they cannot deny that they are due to them for their deierts More particularly such as this Heathen King was shall rise in iudgement against such professors as will not see their crueltie vnmercifulnesse their vncleannesse which they nourish in themselues their oppressions also and iniuries they doe to their neighbours though they bee most clearely laid before them When yet Pharaoh and other such haue especially when Gods hand was heauie vpon them acknowledged that the Lord had done it For euen the wickedest mans owne conscience sometimes accuseth him that hee doth euil and ought not these much more we haue farre greater light to tremble when they haue so grossely offended say Against thee against thee O Lord we haue done this euill And especially when they know what danger they be in thereby and what heauie plagues hang ouer their heads for the same Although such must goe further then so euen to tell it to themselues that God will not be at one with them vnlesse they acknowledge their faults also and submit themselues to him as his word teacheth howsoeuer it shall please him to correct them and withall to resolue in all conditions of their liues whatsoeuer to indeuour and be readie to obey him Also this should teach vs when we receiue indignities at mens hands yet to looke to God who set them a work against vs as Dauid said of Shemei and not as the dog doth to catch the stone and leaue the smiter And though they haue wronged vs willingly yet if wee considered that the Lord did it we should the lesse be mooued or offended with the instrument whereas we on the other side beate our braines and straine our selues al that we can to pursue them and seeke to be reuenged on them whom yet the Lord will sufficiently punish for the wrong they haue done For example wee are so out of quiet for a word spoken against vs as if it were treason when in the meane while we doe not once thinke how we haue prouoked the Lord to stirre vp such ill persons against vs. Adonibezek we see here would not asscribe it to the Israelites but saith it was God that did thus vnto him Furthermore here by this that we heare his crueltie thus laid out by his owne mouth that he had played the tyrant against many and those no meaner persons then Kings to cut off the thumbs of their hands and feete and not to some few of them but euen seuentie persons wee see what a raging furie this vice of crueltie is and to what depth of euil it carrieth men that do not wisely consider the foulenesse and shamefulnesse of it For whereas one man should be sociable with another yea with strangers if occasion be offered seeing euery one is our neighbour this crueltie cutteth of all fellowship nay all libertie of inioying such benefits of peace goods or the like So that the cruel man is farre
lately executed in France vpon a popish and base fellow which imbrued his hands in the blood of his Soueraigne So wilfull and common murtherers to be hanged vp in chaines to the view of all for the vnnaturall killing of their neighbour or companion And so it is meete that other malefactors should be dealt withall according to their wicked waies and according to the commandement of God that euil may be taken away from the land as it was said of Ioab Our lawes haue well prouided for many such and if it pleased our Gouernours to thinke well of it that Atheists Blasphemers and Adulterers might haue their share among the rest according to their deserts the case would bee much better with vs by many degrees at this day And this be said by occasion of the first question From the second and the answer of Adonibezek glorying in his crueltie and subduing so many Kings vnder him for his pleasure as the Philistines when they listed called in Sampson out of the prison his eies being put out to make them passe time it giues occasion to vs to consider the excessiue pride lust and other badnesse of people this present age not being behind any of the former therein that when God hath brought them out of their swadling cloutes after they came naked into the world wherein they were like to haue miscarried a thousand times before they were able to runne about being so shiftlesse and vnable to helpe themselues that I say no more in this place of their misery besides yet they are no sooner out of the shell as we vse to say nor come to man estate but they shew themselues to the world as plaiers on the stage no lesse disguised in their stomacks behauiour and qualities then many of them be in their apparell And especially if they be great and borne to any thing it is admirable to see what profanenesse licentiousnesse riot gaming and such like intemperance is euery where to be seene in them who for their owne pleasure care not how they dominere ouer their inferiours who are vnder them and ripen them a pace who are about them in all kinde of euill For what else for the most part is to bee learned in such seruice and how they seeke to match their equals in any Italienate fashions and disguised carriage of themselues and to desire to rise vp to the higher places of their betters chiefly to this end that they may haue more libertie to doe euill that as this tyrant tooke pleasure in his kind in the sins which he liked which yet was no admirable thing in him who was an Heathen Idolater euen so doe men in this age who liuing vnder the Gospel should blush to heare it not seeke what pleaseth God who hath set them vp but their owne pleasure And it is so vsuall and common among many of the greater sort that it is taken vp among the meaner also in so much that many of them degenerate from their profession thereby and become little better then brutish but a greater number of them to bee sure doe little honour it in their liues which I say rather to comfort and incourage them who haue no fellowship with them in their vnfruitefull works of darkenesse then in hope to doe good to many of the other offenders THE FOVRTH SERMON VPON THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THE BOOKE OF IVDGES VERS 8. Now the children of Iudah had fought against Ierusalem and had taken it and smitten it with the edge of the sword and had set the citie on fire VERS 9. Afterward also the children of Iudah went downe to fight against the Canaanites that dwelt in the mountaine and toward the South and in the low countrie VERS 10. And Iudah went against the Canaanites that dwelt in Hebron which Hebron before time was called Kiriath-Arbah and they slew Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai VERS 11. And from thence hee went to the inhabitants of Debir and the name of Debir in old time was Kiriath-Sepher THese verses and the other that follow to the 17. verse are repeated out of the book of Ioshua chiefly out of the 15. chapter and are brought hither to this end that we may vnderstand that the Tribe of Iudah possessed Ierusalem while Ioshua was yet aliue and therefore they might the easilier and better bring Adonibezek thither prisoner And the things that are here repeated out of Ioshua are partly these in the foure verses which I haue now read namely the taking of Ierusalem Hebron and Debir and their fighting against the Canaanits that dwelt in the mountaines and partly those things following afterward to the 16. verse as shall be shewed when I come vnto them And that they are here repeated is manifest hereby for that it is declared in that Chapter of Ioshua that the King of Ierusalem was then taken and was brought into the hands of the people of God and that the children of Iudah dwelt there with the Iebusites In the 17. verse the holy storie returneth to set downe what Iudah and Simeon did further at this time as he began to declare before from verse 4. to the 8. That which concerneth Hebron and Debir shall be set downe in their place Now this repetition out of the booke of Ioshua here brought in vnto the 17. verse for the 16. is a short interlaced story of the Kenites this repetition I say is here brought in lest the Reader should be troubled as though the same things which are mentioned here had been now done after the death of Ioshua which are set downe there to haue been in his lifetime And this is done that there might be no stumbling nor offence thereat we may therfore note out of all these verses in generall the great care that the holy Ghost had in setting downe the Scriptures freeing them from errour and making one to agree with the other so that if men were able to discerne they might euer see it to be so It is true indeed that many things in them are hard to be vnderstood which the wicked peruert as S. Peter saith to their owne destruction but where care is ioyned with gifts of knowledge which gifts some attaine to there may bee seene a most sweet agreement betwixt them and no one either to iarre with another or any one to be friuelous or absurd as some are bold to affirme but seuen times tried in the fire and pure and holy as the Psalmist saith and therefore to all good vses of knowledge and confuting of error or practise in life and comfort profitable For though all Scripture is not alike but some plaine and some obscure yet first they are plainest which are more necessarie for faith and life and they that haue obscuritie in them serue to exercise and sharpen our vnderstanding rather and to prouoke an appetie in vs to diligence and care for attaining the true meaning of them then to driue vs from in reading them To
in marriage whereby very great hurt and detriment must needs fall out both to Church and commonwealth But herein I meane in parents prouiding for their children as farre as my knowledge reacheth there is for the most part no great fault to bee found although indeed there are some vnnaturall and hard harted men from whom little or nothing can be wrong though ability faile them not till they must leaue their goods to bee scrambled for by their children with much strife and contention seeing they could neuer bee brought to dispose of them in any reasonable sort while they liued But to leaue these and come againe to the other their fault is twofold otherwise though the most of them be not to be charged this way as I haue said The one is that they get much of their wealth by ill meanes which they leaue richly to their children at their death or bestow it as they please vpon them in their life The other is that they oft put all out of their owne hands into their childrens to preferre them in marriage and setting them vp so high they bring themselues as low These two euils are very common and require good looking to for the amending of them For the first it is a sweet comming in of their goods to them which they wring from others by oppression extorsion violence or fraud it is I say sweet in the comming in but as bitter it shall bee to the full at the going out The Lord hath set vs our bounds that wee should in no wise offer others that measure which we are vnwilling should be offered to vs againe which rule though I am perswaded that Preachers may teare their tongues to the stumpes before they shall bring many to be guided by yet some I hope wil submit themselues vnto it But in all dealings there are so many waies found out to vphold mens estates or to augment them and the greatest pretence is for their children that they will heare nothing if it be spoken to perswade to equitie and innocency which make the practisers thereof bold as a Lion and to the trying of their doings whither they be good or no. Such and so many kinds of deceiuings and cruell dealings there are practised as by Executors in detaining the goods committed to their fidelity to be put to good vses such rackings of mens rents that they neuer regard how the tenant with all his toile may in any poore sort be maintained but they are forced by necessitie to leaue their farmes and some to run cleane away Such exactions in their loanes till they fill the prisons with them who cannot pay their vnreasonable demands whereas they should looke for no benefit thereby but that only which might stand with the benefit of them that vse and imploy the stocke And to giue a taste of the rest by these who are occupied in greater dealings for who can recken vp all to come to smaller matters who almost deales iustly in them But ioynting there is one of another in two penny dealings as pinching in measures and waights to get a groat or a shilling or in the whole bargaine with the like so that such gaine is more sweete to them then all the rest which they may lawfully take for their commodities as it is in the Prouerb stollen things though they be but waters are sweet But by this conceiue of the rest This shal suffice to say of the first sinne of parents about prouiding for their children that I say nothing of the great hurt they doe themselues hereby for while they are thus greedily set to seeke commoditie for their children they bereaue themselues of knowledge and grace yea and they waxe very sloathfull and negligent in vsing the meanes to increase both and that also beside the omitting the doing of good to others By this meanes leauing no blessing as Caleb did but a curse to their posteritie who must pay the shot full dearely for all those commings in of vnrighteous Mammon Better it is to be the beast then the child of such parents The second fault of parents followeth that is to put themselues out of all euen house and home as they say and that for the preferring of their children to great mariages little else being respected of them wherein though they deale ill in the former to the loading and burdening of their consciences yet in this latter they prouide most vnwisely for themselues and their bodily estate and maintainance and thereby it must needs goe the worse with their soules True it is indeed their children gaine wel by the bargaine if all other things be sutable in their match as religion in both parties and good liking betwixt them for that very cause that they be both heires of the promise but what wisdome is that in the parents to depriue themselues and many poore neighbours of the benefit which they might and by good right ought to haue inioyed by keeping their estate especially the greatest part of it in their owne hands and to thrust their heads vnder their childrens wings to lift vp them and pluck downe themselues when yet for the most part their children are very vnfit for it But be they as they may be I meane fit enough to vse that estate yet they hauing once obtained a right in al and being put into possession thereof how vnmeet is it that the parents must be beholding to them for that which they haue to liue with all And yet that shall be with grudging enough yeelded vnto them especially after a while For they deale with them as flatterers do with their benefactors when they haue sucked what they can then vnthankfully they cast them off and turne them ouer perke nay more then that if their parents haue kept any thing in their owne hands to relieue themselues some children are neuer well till they haue vnder some colourable shew of reason wound euen that from them into their owne hands or if they cannot then their death is longed for that so they may haue all So that their old age is tedious and irksome to them wherein they should looke for most kindnesse and quietnes at their childrens hands and the greatest respect and regard to be had of them For their occupyings I deny not but when age hath made them vnfit for labour or ouerseeing their commodities it may be conuenient to yeeld them into their childrens hands those I meane which in all respects shall be thought meetest for the same but vpon good conditions yet that their parents may be well dealt with by them and keepe the chiefe hold in their owne hands for the time And these two dangers being wisely auoided by parents I freely affirme that they ought to prouide for their children as I haue said when they bestow them in marriage wherein yet this must bee obserued of them that they straine themselues the further to do them good and more good as they haue shewed
And if we be not sufficient of our selues hereunto then take wee aduice of those that be wiser then we For the which purpose Salomon saith Without counsell thoughts come to naught but in the multitude of counsellors there is stedfastnesse So we must bee sure that speciall care bee vsed as I haue said that when great and waighty businesse is imposed vpon vs all possible regard be had to see it well brought to passe and gone about This lesson being ill learned of Peter Christs beloued Apostle may warne vs by the exceeding danger that befell him thereby to put it better in practise For when Christ told him of a most waighty matter namely that hee should denie him Peter most sleightly regarded it answering rashly without consideration that he so little feared that which Christ told him of that he was ready to goe to prison and to death with him and so resting in his bold answere and deceiueable confidence that he had of his owne strength for want of aduised deliberation he fell into the sinne that his Master foretold him off and by a very small occasion denied him indeed and so his example is set downe and left to vs to learne wisedome thereby Moses did otherwise and farre better for when he was told that he must be sent to Pharaoh by the Lord to doe his message vnto him which seemed to him ouer difficult and waighty yet considering thereof aduisedly when he saw it was imposed vpon him by the Lord hee stouped to it fitted himselfe for it accordingly and well discharged it and prospered And let these two examples bee duely weighed and regarded of vs though contrary the one to the other and the more vrge vs to practise this doctrine and otherwise let vs not maruell that we thriue not in our waighty attempts if God be not reuerently harkened vnto in his watchword and warnings and as it is most meet duely attended vpon of vs. And this for the generall Now particularly let this teach vs that in doing those actions which specially tend to the glory of God we haue an eye also to the good of our brother Let vs carrie our selues so in our zeale toward God that in the meane season wee neglect not dutie toward men neither cause our loue towards our brethren to bee called into question This is to build in heauen and pull downe as fast vpon earth Ehud heere did farre otherwise It was highly commendable in Paul and became him well that he desired King Agrippas conuersion without enioyning him with that benefit his owne bands And it becommeth vs to be so wisely feruent in Gods cause that yet wee would not willingly hazard the safety liberty credit wealth and welfare of others by our zeale and suffering for it nay rather if there because redeeme their freedome by our owne damage and detriment Many are of this preposterous opinion that because they thinke themselues strong enough to vndergoe trouble and reproch for the Gospell and a good cause therefore they looke that all other zealous persons should doe so too and are ready to censure them sharpely who are not as they themselues seeme to be not regarding their weaknesse who not finding themselues fit to beare the burthen should bee pitied in that behalfe or else they thinke that it is a discredit to their good cause to suffer for it alone and thus they winde them into a dangerous snare with themselues by drawing them to promise and vndertake that which they be vnfit for Whereas we reade that some of the ancient and some of our late Martyrs who wisely and charitably tendring the peace and good of their weake brethren resolued to beare the brunt themselues and counselled them to prouide for their conscience by flight from persecution if they felt not themselues fit to goe vnder it For the rest looke in the next Sermon THE ONE AND TWENTIETH SERMON WHICH IS THE FIFTH ON THE THIRD CHAPter of the booke of IVDGES OF Ehud it followeth still of his conueying away the men when the Present was deliuered that all inconuenience might bee auoided on both parts of whom let vs learne not onely to bee warie that wee bewray not secrets vndiscreetly to any which hee wisely preuented by sending them away and therefore much more not to many But also as he did so let vs doe it agreeing with the rule of charity namely that if danger trouble or sorrow must needs ensue and follow by doing such things which wee goe about and must needs take in hand yet let our care be that the trouble bee no more to any then it must needs be nor the danger or heauines take hold of no more then must of necessity haue their part therein As Ehud saw the burthen lay vpon him hee might if hee would haue laid it vpon other beside himselfe but that in no wise hee would doe but sent the rest of the company home that they might be out of danger Which thing I well remember our Sauiour also most carefully practised and that with no lesse tender loue and kindnesse toward his weake Disciples For when the Priests and Iewes with their band of souldiers came to apprehend and take him they telling him when he demanded of them whom they sought that they sought him hee answered them If ye seeke me let these meaning his Disciples goe their way and the reason of that speech was that they might escape danger Much like to both these examples was the doing of the Shunamite in the second booke of the Kings For when her child was dead which the Prophet Elisha obtained of God for her shee hauing none before and shee knowing and beleeuing that it should be restored to life againe vnto her when she had talked with the Prophet and made her moue and complaint vnto him which shee saw shee might doe and yet returne home againe the same day what did shee thinke wee Surely this shee locked vp the dead child in the Prophets chamber which shee had perswaded her husband to build for him in their owne habitation to rest at when hee passed by and made his death knowne to none lest trouble and sorrow should thereby haue been caused to the whole family and neighbours thereabout and by faith had the child restored aliue vnto her againe The griefe and care for it must needs light on her and she sustained it her selfe and would haue no other to sorrow for it or be troubled about it But our sinne about this thing is great that when wee might with a little trouble to our selues free and ease many other yet wee raise and procure it to other also yea and wee bee not satisfied vnlesse they smart as well as we So farre are we off from regarding other and from seeking their peace who would liue peaceably by vs. As for example it is commonly to be seene how many rough and boysterous husbands grieue and disquiet both wise and family
feare that God doth not marke vs for his enemies Which miserable condition the vnbeleeuers are alwaies in vnlesse they be hardened which is far worse as I said before for if his anger be kindled but a little as it is euer toward them a great deale happie are they that feare him I would not therefore bee a bad person if there were any way to shun it euen for this cause whereas yet all the terrors heere are but a glimps of those that follow afterwards And contrarily why should not the godly be content to beare some hardnesse heere seeing they are freed from the greatest terrours if they know their liberties both heere and heereafter But somewhat like this I spake of in Eglons example before Now I should proceed to speake of Barak hauing begun with Debora and said of her that which is occasioned by the text but I should haue no time thereto in this sermon therefore an end heere THE TWENTIE SIXE SERMON ON THE FOVRTH CHAPTER OF THE BOOKE OF IVDGES WE haue heard of Deboras message to Barak in the two former verses Now followeth Baraks answere to her message in this eighth verse If saith hee thou wilt goe with me I will goe else not This answere of his seemes to yeeld little to Gods commandement sent to him by Deboras ministery neither to ascribe any thing to Gods promise and therefore shewes how he profited not by those two strong peswasions to leade to duty mentioned before but proues that hee ascribed more to her presence then to Gods promise which what could it be lesse then a great blemish in him as may bee seene by his amending his fault afterwards Whose faith is so highly renouned among the worthies in the epistle to the Hebrues Beside she was offended with him for his so answering and therefore it was doubtlesse infidelity in him If it bee asked why then is hee afterward so highly commended for his faith I answere that when the message came first to him the thing enioyned him from God by Deboras message seemed to be most full of difficulty For he was commanded to make commotion and to rebell against him that was King ouer them to wit this Iabin who was very great and mighty he was also charged to gather an armie of men together though hee was but a priuate man himselfe These things therefore for him to take in hand and that against such a fierce and strong captaine as Sisera was it made him afraid to set vpon such a worke and especially while he was vnexperienced in so great a triall and difficulty and this was the cause why hee could not beleeue except shee went with him that God would deliuer him with his men of warre into his hand But afterward weighing better the commandement of God and his promise God by his spirit assisting him hee beleeued the words of Debora and obeyed and so obtained the victory by faith as it is said in the forementioned place to the Hebrues And how vsually this falleth out and commeth to passe euen to the godly that at the first they doe stagger and doubt and beleeue not by and by and that through the strong reliques of the old Adam there is no man of God but hath proofe and yet for all that afterward they being strengthened by the spirit of God recouer themselues againe and beleeue confidently This is apparent in Dauid euen after he had beleeued saying O Lord wash mee throughly cleanse me for I am wholly filthy And againe Create in me a new spirit as if the old had been vtterly lost Also in Moses when he was first commanded to goe to Pharaoh how fearefull he was at the hearing of the message and how hee shrunke backe but afterward how boldly did he execute the same and deliuer it vnto him Euen so the best of vs when we heare of the death of our deare friends or of great losses that are befallen vs also at the beginning of great sicknesse and paine arresting vs oh how doe we faint and distrust that we shall neuer submit our selues and yeeld obediently to them though God command vs straitly to doe so while we cast both our eyes on the burthen and crosse that is on the the things that are seene as the Apostle speaketh and while wee are not yet come to our selues to looke vp to God with confidence and to things not seene but eternall But when we weigh how they come from him that loueth vs and therefore cannot intend our hurt we then submit our selues to God and stay vpon him for grace to go vnder all and waite patiently for a good issue And because our hearts arise oft times against our brethren when we see these weakenesses in them and begin to iudge and thinke too hardly of them for the same the Lord therefore letteth vs sometimes see the same or other such in our selues that so wee may learne to beare with the infirmities of them And when wee haue experience of this it causeth vs to bewaile tenderly the weaknesses that we see in our brethren and with the spirit of meeknesse helpe to hold them vp rather then by and by to censure them ouer sharply for the same And it is to be deepely bewailed to see how farre off many are from duty in this behalfe though otherwise religious and such as loue the truth frō their herts are ouercome with deadly cōceits against their brethrē when they see they haue fallen by infirmity are strongly incensed against them leaue thē to themselues neuer telling them of it kindly as if they see thē ouercome of impatience teastinesse anger or if their zeale feruency in seruing God be slaked abated or that they be offensiuely taken vp of and carried away with the world These and the like I confesse are rust causes to raise griefe in vs and are much to be disliked of vs when we espy them in such as be well thought of by vs and they are blemishes in them not to be borne with or allowed but yet for all that when wee shall see such things in them wee must beware that wee censure them not too hardly for who hath giuen vs authority to iudge them crying out vncharitably that there is no religion in them For though it cannot bee denied but that the diuell hath by watching his opportunitie got aduantage ouer them yet they being not vntractable but only deceiued in their so offending and yet in other parts of their liues they holding their care to please God and labouring to keepe a good conscience we must not for some one such weaknes fall by and by to such hard iudging of them and to depart from them which is vtterly against charitie and dutie but to think that there being so many snares to intangle men it may easily enough be so with them as wee may see it to be with our selues if we be not blinded with
world scoffed at Noah his building the Arke till the flood came and then his former preaching terrified them In like manner I say if we walked in our innocencie with vprightnes and reuerence among men the Lord would worke astonishment in the wicked and reprobates and the very godlinesse of his people should conuince and amase the beholders and contemners as Pharaos troopes were when they said The Lord fighteth against vs for Israel The next verses I referre to be handled in the next Sermon THE THIRTIE ONE SERMON ON THE FIFTH CHAPTER OF THE BOOKE OF IVDGES NOw to goe forward these two next verses are the sixth and seuenth wherein is set downe their late receiued fauour of God as in the two former verses his loue of old to their fathers hath been spoken of In these two to the end that this their deliuerance by the Lord may be seene to be the greater and his loue to them she laieth out the desolation that they were in before the victorie that one contrarie might the better be seene by the other The holy Ghost therefore sheweth in what afflicted state the Church of God was by reason of their sinne and that from the death of Ehud till Debora got the full victorie For though Shamger and Iael did worthily and valiantly in their place yet Israel was sore oppressed after the death of the one and before the great act of the other so as passage by the high waies traffique iudgement and habitation in their villages were intercepted vntill now and Israel was constrained to keepe themselues in strong and well fenced Cities vnlesse they would become a prey to the Canaanites And this oppression continued by Iabin till Debora was raised vp by God and till her gouernment began Of Iael we reade not of any great thing that she did before neither is it like that she had done any because she had peace with Iabin and Sisera also fled to her as to a trustie friend and therefore it is like that she is named with Shamger for honour sake because shee liued in these troublesome and dangerous times and because shee did one worthy peece of seruice afterwards And heere by these calamities of the people of Israel and the desolation that they had been in when all good liberties and pleasant things were taken from them it is right worthie our consideration to thinke what a fauour of God it is that together with the true preaching of the Gospell all the forementioned commodities are enioyed of vs namely outward peace in the land and that we may dwell safely vnder our vine and figge tree and may eate of the fat and drinke of the sweet that wee may safely trauell and passe throughout all places and countries of this dominion by the protection of good lawes and that we haue exchange of our commodities with the benefit of good neighbourhood and husbandry to the preseruation of our liues and the maintaining of our families c. All these this people had been depriued of whereas the want of any of them would soone driue vs to complaine heauily and cry out Oh we do little consider how deepely yea how infinitely wee are bound to to the Lord for these liberties and for the great good wee may reape and enioy thereby And yet these many good things which the Lord hath vsually bestowed vpon vs and daily doth blessed bee his holy name therefore wee thinke because all the land enioyeth them as well as our selues wee owe no speciall duty of acknowledging them more then we see the most doe which is not worth the speaking of nay we looke for them by due and good right and which is worst of all many do spend them wastfully and to the maintaining and encreasing of diuers sinnes among them which we durst not do if wealth and quietnesse were wanting so truly the Wise man speaketh of one of them the rich mans riches are his strong city and as an high wall in his imagination And in a word we haue so little leisure to thinke of God his goodnesse that by abusing his benefits wee hast to bring vpon our selues the same misery which these were in vnder and especially after this Shamgar and before God stirred vp this Debora among them Oh how doe we prouoke our good God to cast vs into some fore calamities as they heere were in that we might cry to him by feeling the smart thereof as some daily doe whom God would haue to bee examples to the rest lest many should tast of their diet but fearefull it is for all this to see how few are the better for all the iudgements of God that bee vpon themselues or that they behold others for the same sinnes which they both commit boldly but runne on till their course come to suffer yet worse and heauier things at Gods hands for them But while wee cannot amend it in others let vs bewaile it in them which is a right property of true loue praying also for them and for our owne parts let this example of these their calamities so many and grieuous as haue been spoken of cause vs to account of Gods goodnesse so highly in withholding them from vs that they may make vs fruitfull thereby in euery good worke especially seeing wee haue many other good encouragements thereto and also for that when wee want them we say wee can doe little good without them But now in that she addeth Till I euen I Debora arose we must take it farre otherwise then it soundeth not ascribing her words to a passion of womanish impotencie and boasting much lesse to a contempt of Barak who was the instrument of the victorie as well as her selfe but to the heauenly exaltation of her spirit lifted vp pathetically to praise the Lord for the great deliuerance wrought by her as we see the like in Dauid in the Psalmes Paul and others And this deliuerance being wrought by Debora teacheth that al the forementioned calamities being remoued from the people by her their gouernour at that time it teacheth I say what great things the Lord worketh by the Magistrate and gouernour as he did by her shee being at that time the same to the people euen their Iudge in Israel But indeed this is done especially when they are zealous for Gods matters and doe their duties in their places and haue the spirit and affection of her euen to be mother like vnto the people who as shee gaue counsell to her inferiours as a mother to her children being a Prophetesse and deliuered them from their enemies being their Iudge So they being set ouer them as guides and Magistrates should bee vnto them who are committed to their charge euen like minded to her to wit to haue care that they may be taught though they be themselues no Prophets by such as are furnished of God to that purpose and with a motherly care to protect them from iniurie and wrong and to
turne the edge of the sword against their enemies And thus much of Gods mercies of old and lately shewed on his people as in these 4. verses hath been declared But it followeth Vers 8. They chose new gods then was warre in the gates Was there a shield or speare seene among the forty thousands of Israel 9. Mine heart is set on the gouernours of Israel and on them that are willing among the people praise ye the Lord. 10. Speake ye that ride on white Asses ye that dwell by Middin and that walke by the way 11. For the wife of the archers appeased among the drawers of water there shall they rehearse the righteousnesse of the Lord his righteousnesse towards his townes then did the people of the Lord goe downe to the gates THe holy story hauing set downe the peoples deliuerance out of their great calamity and oppression from Siseras army goeth on in this eighth verse and sheweth the cause why they were cast vpon them and that was for their idolatry by meanes whereof it is said they had no heart to take vp weapon no not any of them throughout all the tribes against their enemies In the next three verses all sorts are stirred vp and called to praise God that tooke benefit by the victory and deliuerance as shall bee particularly shewed when I shall come vnto them by the order of the text Now to begin with the eighth verse Barak and Debora vtter this in this part of their song that then the warre began to oppresse the Iewes and the enemies to besiege their cities and gates where they held their iudgement seates when they had turned to idolatry so that this was the cause of their grieuous punishment By the which we may see how greatly God is displeased with men when they will runne after the sins that they haue been forewarned of and commanded to take heede of euen the sinnes which his soule abhorreth as Israel had oft times been admonished of this Idolatry The Lord will not put it vp at their hands And who can denie but that it standeth with most sound reason that when men who are but vile wormes shall thus boldly kicke vp their heele against their maker they should smart for it and not be suffered to commit such insolencie against him vnpunished And therfore he gaue vs examples hereof in the Apostate Angels which kept not their place that he set them in and therefore that he threw them downe for their disobedience and in our first parents whom hee draue out of Paradise when they hauing so great liberty as they might haue eaten of any fruit in the garden except one tree yet counted all little in respect of that which was forbidden them and stood on thornes till they had cast behinde them the commandement of God and eaten of that forbidden fruit also Now if God spared not the Angels and our first parents who were innocent before that their fall what may other offenders looke for whose sinnes are as the haires of our head in number And in that he dealeth not thus with wilfull transgressors at this day it is not for that he should be vniust or carnall in so doing but he beareth much with them as all may easily see and is patient toward them to this end that be may thereby bring them to repentance which if any abuse they pay for all their boldnesse in the end in so much that hee who speedeth best shall haue small cause to brag of his winnings And yet he shoaleth out some one of an hundred heere and there not many indeed in comparison of those who haue offended in that kind whom he striketh by and by with deadly blowes and setteth him on the stage to publish as it were by his wofull example to all the rest though he bare longer with some other for the cause before alleaged what he might doe to them yea and in perfect iustice execute vpon them And therefore let all that are wise take warning while they hold a good course to continue it and they that are out of it hast speedily vnto it and let none tempt God boldly to doe that which he forbiddeth for he will not be mocked they shall pay deare for their so doing And yet though God spare them from outward warre and iudgements for a time yet as the Prophet Esay speaketh that there is no peace to the vngodly so they may be sure they shall haue warre with him in their minds And let all praise God to whom he giueth an heart to shunne the euill and sinnes of the time in which they liue And for the idolatry of the Church of Rome I may say most of the Papists doe wilfully and malitiously erre against the truth and some for their pompe and bellie and many doe it of meere superstition and blind deuotion and custome as they receiued it of their forefathers seeing they that least offend therein among the rest doe put Christ out of office in their seruice they giue him and honour him as their King but with a crowne of thornes and a scepter of a reed in his hand bee it knowne vnto them that their damnation sleepeth not their wee is at hand And that they may partly gather by the vncomfortable yea fearefull death of many Papists and great masters and maintainers of popery who for all the boldnes in their life time whereby they beare out matters yet when they must die some cry out they are vndone other cry out of their religion and but for the hardnesse of their hearts it would be seene in more of them And no maruell seeing they try not their estate what it is This being obserued that the greatest offenders among them shall smart most But yet this I will say that for all their deuotion and fast cleauing to the Church of Rome if it please God that if they might bee brought to heare the sermons of learned and religious preachers and to admit of their conferences many of them would renounce that trumpery as standing vpon rotten props and embrace the truth of the Gospell stablished so strongly And further in that it is said that they could not take vp a weapon against their enemies no they had no heart to handle shield or speare because of their sinne as idolatry and other enormities it plainely shewes that mens sinne turneth euery thing out of course against them and contrary to the nature vse and end for the which it is created and appointed of God euen as this people durst not take weapon in hand to fight for their liues their consciences accusing them that God would be against them Wherefore is the weapon ordained but for a mans defence against his enemie and why hath God giuen courage to man but that at such a time I meane of warre and other necessity it might be put to vse But behold heere was neither of both imployed or set a worke any more then if
reuiued and refreshed thereby and how dead in good duties wee are and vnprofitable our consciences being Iudges without them And it is well if here by this we winde out of all poisoned baites that are laid for vs. And this of the first of the foure parts of the Chapter I haue spoken in this former part of this verse and somewhat also before in other Chapters that is of the peoples sinne The second part of the Chapter NOw it followes the second that is of the punishment that followed their sinne and how they cried to the Lord vnder it in these sixe verses Their punishment was seuen yeeres oppression by the Midianites as in this verse is to be seene and the manner of their oppressing them is set downe in the fiue verses following And for their oppression by the Midianites let it teach vs that it was iust because they had sinned For God scourgeth men iustly and not without their due desert Man suffereth for his sinne as the Prophet Ieremy saith So that if any should thinke they are hardly handled being punished of God let them proue themselues without sinne or else let them hold their peace Nay I will yeeld more then so to them let them be able but to proue this that they haue only offended through infirmitie and not rather wilfully and of knowledge and they shall either be freed altogether from great vexations in their liues or else they shall freely and without constraint confesse that God hath dealt iustly yea mercifully in so visiting of them rather then that he hath done them any wrong Thus much for this and that God will punish when men prouoke him by their transgressions as we may here learne I haue in other places shewed The manner of the Midianites oppressing the people of Israel was the spoiling them of their victuall namely corne and cattell for the space of seuen yeeres without which they could not liue Their corne they destroied when they had sowen their fields And they were driuen to make them cabins in the hollow places of the earth vnder the hils and rocks where they had holes and creuises to let in light to defend themselues from them and in the fields and lower parts of the earth they made them dennes and darke places not fit for habitation but in which they might safely lay their goods and substance to hide them from the Midianites They made also high towers and strong from which they might see a farre off which could not be beaten down easily and these shifts they were faine to make For their enemies were as grashoppers on the face of the earth and their camels and other beasts to destroy the fruites of the Israelites were almost without number What these Midianites were and of what stocke they came it is not necessarie to inquire seeing it is not set downe though some writers say that they had their beginnings thus that one of Abrahams sonnes which he begat of his wife Ketura builded a citie beyond Arabia in the South in the desert of the now called Saracens and called the name of it Midian or Madian and the people of it were called Midianites or Madianites and were supposed to be they of whom the Kenites came These brought with them the Amalakites and men of the East to helpe them This was a grieuous and sore affliction to be thus driuen to extremities for want of food And yet no other then was long before threatned among many other to come vpon them for their apostacie and idolatrie For what though we heare of no consuming of the people of Israel in battell yet beside that it could not be but that many of them were slaine by so long and violent assaulting them so what death is more cruell then by liuing to be famished and what miserie in this life greater then to be to seeke of foode where it can hardly be come by and yet that which is to bee reserued and had is scarcely fit to preserue life Here therefore by the contrary wee may see what a benefit of God this is when in a land and in cities townes and villages all people may be fed fit for their condition when there is no inuasion of forraine enemies to spoile and destroy the fruits of the earth whereby the inhabitants are preserued nor any famine by any other iudgement of God and when there is no iust cause of complaining in our streetes We know in the great famines that are mentioned in the Scriptures yea and in smaller famines in our owne remembrance what crying and lamentations there haue been In the daies of Abraham Isaac and chiefly of Iacob when they were forced to send into Egypt for corne In the time of Elimelek and Naomi when they were driuen from their dwelling in Bethelem Iuda to goe and soiourne in the land of Moab for want of food and after in the daies of Ioram King of Israel when the men had no other way to preserue their liues but by eating that which was against nature yea and yet they could hardly come by it and when the women did eate their own children as also in the last besieging of Ierusalem by the Romans And to what end speake I this but that we should lift vp our hearts and more feruently and oft be thankfull to God for this one benefit of plentie although who seeth not that it is indeed but one of many yea of infinite other which wee receiue And why doth God this Euen to the end men may follow their callings diligently and conscionably with cheerefulnes and with the same minde walke in the feare of the Lord continually And therefore the euill example in life that in the abundance of Gods earthly blessings doth flow euery where in drunkennesse and all lasciuiousnes doth draw vpon men greater plagues then wants and famine are and that is leanenes of soule blindnes vnbeliefe hardnesse of heart and impenitencie which if we had the spirit of the Prophets wee should deeply bewaile But to leaue such I adde this that for the quickning vp of the best it were fit for them when they grow to a meane and common esteeming of these benefits of God to suppose with themselues and put the case that they were in want and penurie euen in the state of this people of God by the oppression of the Midianites or the like As that when they haue sowne their seede it should be spovled before their faces so that they should not eate of it and that the prouision which they haue made for their liues should be carried away by enemies or taken from them and they famished for want of it it would make them better to value and prize such benefits and yeeld to the Lord a more holy and fruitfull vse of them Whereas commonly men doe not so till they be driuen to it by wants and decay in their substance then they can say Oh what plentie of Gods benefits
we once enioyed Another thing in these verses is to be marked that we bring double vexation vpon our selues by sinning against the Lord and by seeking to haue our will against the word of God The one is this the affliction that is sent vpon vs for sinne as here the stirring vp of the Midianites against the people of Israel for their transgression or any other as losse of their goods diseases ieopardie of their liues c. The other vexation is that which proceedeth from the former and that is of many sorts as may be liuely seene in this present storie and namely in these verses For what toile time and cost beside the disquietnes that went therewith were they driuen to bestow that I may include much in few words to defend or to saue themselues from the vtmost hurt and danger which was wrought and intended against them what shifts were they faine to make to preserue their liues and saue their goods out of their enemies hands which yet when they had done what they could they were not able to doe If they had been only hurt by them in their cattell corne and other commodities and had sustained that onely for their punishment it had been a deare paying for their pleasure that they took in their sinne but when they were in this bondage that they could doe nothing else but watch and ward for their liues and to build and botch digge and delue and beate their braines to deuise how to hide their commodities from them what sorrow vpon sorrow and one vnquietnes vpon another did they heape vpon their heads till they lost all the welfare of their liues in a manner and made them more wearisome and vnwelcome then death it selfe Is this the fruite of sinne and the good that it bringeth to the committers thereof And yet if I should lay out the fruit of the sinne of Cain Esau Absolon and other who could not be staied from the committing of it what better thing could I say of it or what better fruite could I proue it yeeldeth to the committers of it So that as the baite is pleasant which the poore fish biteth at but it being caught by the hooke bringeth paine torture and wearying of it selfe to saue the life so is it with him that will needes taste of the pleasure of sinne as I haue said And if this be the great good that it intendeth against such as follow one kinde or other of it with tooth and naile who also lie sucking to draw pleasure out of it as a childe doth by the breast then let them all be taken and condemned for fooles who are masters in that profession and are vpholders of that trade and occupation Yea let them bee reckoned in the number of them of whom the prouerbe speaketh The foole beleeueth euery thing And againe O ye fooles how long will ye loue foolishnesse For why they haue chosen a way that seemeth pleasant but the issues thereof are the way of death They doe most certainly take more paine to goe to hell then the righteous doth to heauen And as their reuolting brought vpon them this miserie so let all those who haue falsified their promise and broken their solemne couenant to God of seeking more zeale greater fruitfulnes watchfulnes and care let them I say also feare that their euill conscience wil draw vpon them one accusation and trouble after another and that the further they decline the greater sorrow they bring vpon themselues Some haue been brought to that point that they haue made question whether they might lay violent hands vpon themselues to auoid the terror of minde Further also obserue here what shifts they chuse to make rather then they would seeke to God by humiliation and repentance for release They loue their freedome well who hauing their citie besieged by the enemie till extreame famine compell them to eate dogges cats and such vermine as is noisome to nature yet chuse to endure such difficulties rather then yeeld And so doubtlesse they loue their lusts well who suffer themselues to bee made such slaues and drudges to them as these here were rather then they would abandon them and returne to the Lord with vnfained renouncing of them Alas they must leaue them with shame and double repentance at length when they haue wearied themselues as these did but till their owne rod hath made them smart who may tell them of the vnfruitfulnes of their toilesome trade Toilesome I may truly say both considering with what great adoe they bring their sinne to ripenes and perfection and then what shifts they vndergo to winde themselues out of the woe and miserie which in stead of fruite their sinne brings vpon them It is a good piece of the life of an adulterer first to compasse and fulfill his vncleane lusts and when he hath done to couer and keepe himselfe from shame and to make faire weather of it againe And so the thriftlesse spend-good what adoe makes he to scrape together somwhat to maintaine his riotous humour and when he is brought to beggerie then he must cast about him afresh how hee may defray that and auoid the gallowes or a base and wretched life In a word it is true which Salomon saith in Ecclesiastes To the sinner God giueth paine he giues him sowre sauce to his sweete meate painfull seruice to his sweet lusts And yet without Gods speciall goodnesse neither of these shall preuaile with a lewd person to pull him from the loue and liking of them though they cost him so deare and though he beare and bring foorth with paine and the sweate of his face There will be found an Hiel to build Iericho though hee knew it will cost him and his neuer so dearly Therefore they are happie whom God hath entertained into his house and holds them vnder his gouernment because neither is his word tedious to them nor his commandements grieuous while they are doing them and as for any trouble which can befall them after for their so doing first know that it can not sting them being borne for a good cause and they shall goe vnder it without disquiet be vpholden in it by grace and after count it great ioy in that they suffered The people of Israel we haue heard in the former verses did kindly shew in their doings the nature and disposition of sinful and wicked persons who little trust to God in their troubles they forgot him and did flie for succour and refuge to earthly helpes and staies as towers dennes and other munition and defence forsaking him but the holy storie sheweth in this verse that none of them all preuailed neither did they preserue them And although by their shifting they saued their liues and got and saued that foode which with much adoe kept them from staruing yet who seeth not the miserie which for all that they indured in extreame pouertie bondage and feare Euen so wee must know
benefits to them as the other did and deliuerances and chargeth them with disobedience also Out of these words wee may see it is a fit time for preaching to worke when men are inwardly stung with smart of their afflictions as it appeareth these were when the man of God was sent to preach vnto them for then mâ—n will suffer themselues more easily to be reproued for their sinnes and will cause themselues as they see cause and the word is receiued into their hearts more readily whereas they are otherwise most commonly hardned and hate to be reproued And yet further then men come prepared to our daily and ordinarie preaching it profiteth them nothing The danger is this that they are like to quench the spirit after and to dull the edge of such good beginnings of grace in them which will most certainly come to passe if they be not carefull to stirre them vp daily Men while they haue elbow roome thinke that the preacher yea God himselfe must be beholding to them for their hearing but when God hath them cooped in a narrow compasse his roddes being held ouer them then the Preacher is welcome yea sought to earnestly and God is plied with confessions and prayers We see it though with griefe and haue too great experience of it in the practise of the secure and irreligious sort who though they mind not God all the yeere long yet fall to prayer and deuotion when some great thundring lightning and tempest doth astonish them and when the likelihood of death is vpon them His word they heare daily without any great reuerence but his terrible workes seene and felt though but seldome make them hide themselues in corners for feare By whose example we see what need the Lord hath to bore eares into our soules by terror and amasing iudgements as Iob speakes chap. 33. because his word is wound about mens fingers and made but as the confused noise of many waters and as a sound beating the aire going in at one eare and out as fast at the other Let not such boast themselues as are spared except they applie themselues to the hearing of Gods voyce by the Minister who can skill to doe his message with more regard and earnestnes for either the more is behind if they belong to God and they must haue somewhat to quicken their appetite thereto and to make it sinke deeply into their hearts and worke vpon them powerfully for their good or else woe be vnto them the Lord in all likelihood hath cast them off and taketh no pleasure in them and greatly it is to be feared that when affliction shall come vpon them yet by reason of that their former vnbeliefe and contempt of instruction they shall doe them little good The thing that they should doe is this when the Lord laieth his hand vpon them let them examine themselues touching their affection to the word and how little they were moued by it in the time of their health prosperitie and so they may easily finde that their blockishnesse and carelesse or vnprofitable hearing their deadnes fulnes of stomacke and such like with earthlinesse wearinesse wandring drowzinesse c. haue caused the Lord to send such trials vpon them be they inward or outward as might grinde off their flat and blunt edge and set on a sharper and keener vpon them that with desire and meeknes they may embrace the word and finde it sauourie to their taste till it haue wrought vpon them as it ought that is euen to cast them into the mould of it And this let such know that if their afflictions tame them not nor meeken their spirits vnder the hand of God but that they fight against him as Pharao did and will not see and vse well this season which is offered them that if they be deliuered once againe out of them they may haue sound preaching in all high reuerence let them know I say that their case is wofull and desperate For as the Lord saith in the like case by his Prophet O people how shall I intreate thee or what shall I doe vnto thee So he may say vnto them for he hath no other physicke then his word mercies and chastisements If none of all them can breake the heart there is no helpe nor hope that if he should vse extraordinary courses which they are not to looke for that hee should preuaile any more with them then he did with the Priests who going against their consciences in bringing Christ to his death were no more moued with his resurrection Therefore they are wisest who put not the Lord to this extremitie but hearken to him when he speaketh and offereth them faire by the voyce of his messengers and deferre not till affliction as a second warning be sent vnto them lest then also they be found alike vnprouided and being hardned lest God should not vouchsafe them that mercie to mollifie soften them as the truth is they who tempt him so farre by presumption doe not easily recouer themselues though God doe visit them by his corrections or iudgements but rather for the most part go further from him and increase their rebellion But whether these men cried out being forced thereto by their many and sore afflictions or no this is sure that when the man of God had deliuered his message to them and had shewed them their vnthankfulnes to God for their many deliuerances and had conuicted them of their disobedience they did then crie out in token of their great griefe for their offending God as their fathers before had done Here not to repeate the same things which I noted before out of the like words vttered at Bochim this is to be marked that the Lord here sent his messenger as he did there to call the people to consideration of themselues and their doings and we see what need they had thereof All generations declare what they are and to what wrack and ruine they come who are not helped and that in due time and season with this wholesome instruction from God that the righteous smiting them they may not fall into the hands of the vngodly to be rung about by them to their vtter shame and reproch and so fall into the iawes of the diuell to be vndone without recouerie And when the Lord dealeth so graciously with any as that they may enioy this benefit of sound teaching let them beware that they harden not their hearts at the hearing of it the oftner they heare the happier it is for them but with meekenes receiue it that it may bring foorth fruite in them plentifully euen to eternall life The Prophet who was sent vnto them puts them first in minde of Gods benefits and many deliuerances from their enemies The next thing here to be considered of vs out of these words in the 8. and 9. verses beside that which we haue heard by the like occasion is this that we record
returne to the storie wee haue heard how two and twentie thousand were sent backe and that there were but ten thousand left to goe against more then an hundred thousand and yet that the Lord said that euen they were too many this teacheth that he would haue vs to learne to depend on him without meanes if hee see it to be expedient to be so but not otherwise and by those which are very weake and yet he would haue vs to be perswaded that he regardeth and seeketh our good euen when hee doth so But of this before He said moreouer to Gedeon that hee would trie these ten thousand for him and shew him who were fit that he himselfe might see it For men are dull and dimme eyed to behold Gods secret power and will to doe them good if he giue them not eyes of faith to behold them And why should it seeme strange that the Lord should doe more then wee can see and if wee shall see no likelihood thereof his power and goodnesse is the more to bee admired and magnified who sheweth it so manifestly in our weakenesse euen when men see not how As who saw that mightie Pharaoh Sisera and the Midianites here spoken of were like to be brought to such a downfall as they were but it was enough that God had said it And therefore our Sauiour Matth. 4. tels vs Man liueth not by bread onely but by the word of God and in like manner man thriues not by his wit prouidence care onely but by the blessing of God No his rising early and his late going to bed and eating the bread of sorrow shall not auaile to maintaine him if God plucke backe his hand from blessing it His apparell heates him not of it selfe but by the power of the word and promise Indeede the outward meanes men see taste and handle and therefore in a grosse manner rest in them and discerne no superiour power of God in them much lesse beleeue that it can worke without them so that if meanes faile of health safetie and successe they giue ouer hope especially if they see that some great outward barre and let stops their way whereas yet the three children tell the King of Babel That they beleeue the God whom they serue can deliuer them not onely without meanes but contrarie to meanes Doubtlesse in the Scripture wee haue a watchword giuen vs of this sinne euen in the matters of saluation it selfe For although none but the seede of Abraham ordinarily were elected and saued though extraordinarily some were before the comming of Christ yet they who onely relied vpon these outward meanes heard this spoken to them Say not within your selues we haue Abraham to our father for God is able of stones to raise vp children vnto Abraham But because men separate in the matter of happinesse the true meanes appointed by God from the end they desire I meane faith repentance humiliation from election and saluation it is iust with God also to meete with them in kinde and to separate their carnall ends I meane wealth prosperitie and the like from the meanes which they vse vnlawfully and to his dishonour And further in that Gedeon was told that hee must take none but those whom God appointed and those hee must take it teacheth vs that Gods word must direct vs in all our actions both for peace and warre be the same neuer so meane and base and that whatsoeuer face wee set on matters yet if that be not the light to our steps we walke but in darknesse Now then we who take in hand so many things in the day and so throughout our life how can wee chuse but serue him after our owne fantasies if wee haue not that light plentifully dwelling in vs to guide vs Wherein it is no hard thing to see that God hath much against vs and that oft times when we be at the best seeing no man call tell the errors of his actions and life or how oft hee offendeth So that if hee should looke straightly what is done amisse who should be able to stand before him Here I will stay for this time THE FORTIE SIXE SERMON ON THE SEVENTH CHAPTER OF THE BOOKE OF IVDGES HEere the Lord shewes Gedeon who they were that should goe with him to the warre when they were led to the waters and those were three hundred which lapped water out of their hands for these were industrious and fit for their businesse more then the other that drunk kneeling downe who were like to haue been an vnprofitable burden to the rest by their multitude and might haue giuen aduantage to their enemies by their vnreadinesse and delay if occasion should haue been offered And the thing that the Lord teacheth vs hereby is this that although he wil haue none to trust in themselues yet he would haue them ingenuous and industrious men fit for that which they are imployed about which thing is requisite in all callings and businesse for men to bee willing diligent and skilfull about that they professe and take in hand that with good conscience all may be performed so the contrary of Christians is to be auoided whether minister magistrate or priuate person the husband diligent handed the wife huswifely none lazie idle carelesse But of this I spake more in the story of Othoniel and Caleb before chap. 1. Here the Lord saith that by those three hundred men hee would deliuer Israel which was another strong confirmation of Gedeons faith for by this he was perswaded to obtaine that which hee had already begun to belieue And this ought to bee well marked of vs as the thing which wee haue great need off For who can so stedfastly belieue as he ought and hold constant therein but by daily and continuall meanes the Lord doth much reuiue and quicken our faith to hold on our hope and confidence which two graces wee must haue well setled in vs and as faith is strengthened in vs so are these two The excellencie of hope is seene in the epistle to the Corinths in these words God who hath deliuered vs from so great a death and doth deliuer vs in him we hope also that he will deliuer vs. The Price and worthines of the other is to be seene clearely in the Epistle to the Hebrewes thus Cast not away your confidence for it hath great recompence of reward these two faith and confidence make their whole life sweet and ioyfull who had them both as Dauid who said of confidence which is the fruit of faith My heart is fixed I will sing and giue thanks The vse hereof is this that wee looke well to it that wee find our part in these by oft hearing and all manner of repetitions and experience of Gods promises concerning his fauour from time to time toward vs and therewith to marke our often faintings doubts and feares yea and that about one and the same action
applied to Magistrates Parents Schoolemasters and other superiors namely step-mothers and such as haue rule ouer poore orphanes or any other whom it little becommeth to excuse their own corruption by the fault or desert of the partie guiltie who though hee haue but his due yet the punisher being no fit person to reuenge by his intemperate heate may deserue a greater punishment at Gods hand euen of a murtherer in heart of his brother And we see the effect of such seueritie is to make the partie corrected to contemne it and waxe desperate not penitent which is the peruerting of the right end of correction By Gedeons shewing of these Princes to the men of Succoth and Penuel to their shame and astonishment who thought they had been farre enough out of their hands and therefore scoffed at his pursuing and following after them I say by this wee may note how God oft times turneth the taunts flouts threatnings curses and iniuries which the wicked doe vexe Gods children withall he turneth them to their owne shame and euill and to the comfort of his owne people so abused and wronged by them as here these mocked Gedeon liuing and walking according to the life of faith and going about the Lords worke carefully who now hauing ouercome the Midianites thereby these wicked mockers are put to shame and paine yea and to death also And in like manner it fell out to Shemei when he had cursed Dauid to Zenacherib scorning at Ezechia for trusting in his God yea and for blaspheming God himselfe also to the Pharisees who scorned Christ vpon the Crosse but after his resurrection were abashed and to Haman deadly hating Mordecai the faithfull seruant of God Now if this appeare thus often times euen heere in this world how much more at the comming of the solemne and great day when God shall iudge them For when they see the Lord with draw himselfe from his people neuer so little wherein hee doth no more then he did to his only sonne in whom he was well pleased oâ— behold them in some disgrace and abasement in the world then they insult and crow ouer them as the Babylonians and cursed Edomites did ouer the Iewes in captiuitie but when as beyond expectation they see them deliuered yea and that the Lord graceth them giues them fauour restores them to libertie and blesseth them with many benefits then I say they turne their scornes into admiration and are ashamed of their vnreasonable disgracing them But further if besides this the Lord shall pluck themselues downe and humble them by the like afflictions then they wish themselues in their case euen with the hardest and worst conditions So that we haue good cause abundantly to be contented to seeke to liue by faith in the sonne of God trusting in and cleauing to him and his word aboue all other things esteeming our selues farre more rich thereby euen when wee are counted most foolish and vile of the scornefull world then they in their florishingest estate and condition for why we rest on God and waite by hope hauing him on our side and are not disappointed they cast all as the desperate Dicer on blinde hope likelihoods and haphazard and so are deceiued of their expectation They haue a time of boasting and glorying which deceiueth them and maketh them thinke that their iollitie and prosperitie will last alwaies when yet it changeth as the weather and continueth not in one estate and they haue no wisedome to consider it or their end which shall be worst of all Gods people haue a time of mourning but the end shall be reioycing as here Gedeon bringeth before his vpbraiders Zeba and Zalmunna with triumph and glorie And with this we may also see that the euill which they either doe not once dreame of or which they thinke to be farre off from them and make a mocke of it is neere vnto them According to that which the Apostle saith to the Thessalonians When men crie peace peace then commeth sudden destruction vpon them euen as the sorrow of a woman at her trauell Chorah and his companie Benadad with many other are examples hereof So that there is no heed to be taken how iocond they be when they be aloft or haue their hearts desire neither neede any to be afraid at the beholding of their greatnes for why euen while it abideth it is departing and while it standeth it is in falling for when they be at their best and greatest there is a greater then they who is working their ouerthrow But who is warned by others woe But of this briefly because often Gedeon hauing well shamed these men of Succoth and Penuel doth to them now as he had threatned verse 7. and 9. that is he toâ—e the flesh of the men of Succoth with thornes and cast downe the tower of the men of Penuel euen their strong hold that they gloried in he cast it downe I say to the ground and slew them And might not both these punishments haue been auoided thinke we Yes and so had been but for their owne sinne I meane their vndutifulnes boldnes stout and sturdie stomacks and their slinesse hoping if Midian had preuailed to haue gained by their vnnaturall dealing with their brethren denying bread vnto them Oh therefore how lamentable is it to see how men bring shame sorrow and destruction vpon themselues by their wicked qualities and bad behauiour as wilfulnes proud stomackes crueltie currish and vnkinde dealings and such other without the which they might haue enioyed their peace and welfare euen to their hearts desire and good contentment yea and the fauour of God also for it is nothing but mens sin that keepeth many good things from them and heapeth many contrarie euils vpon them As Achan by stealing Dathan by rebelling against Gods faithfull seruant Moses and Israel by oft reuolting from God and falling from their couenant whereof this booke is too plaine a proofe against them So some among vs are vndone by their idlenes vnthriftinesse and needlesse spending some by their vnfaithfulnes and deceitful dealing lose their credit and being no more trusted come to naught some by their oppression sundry waies are on their death bed so terrified that whereas by making restitution of a shilling noble or a pounds valew while it should haue been done it might haue brought great ease to them they would now in their terror restore ten for one and yet cannot be quieted neither So some for adultrie are brought to shame and to worse should bee if they had their due and other by spitefull malicious and reuenging spirits make themselues odious to all and they procure small ioy to themselues And to adde something touching the particular sinne of these men which was politike shifting and subtelty in playing the Newters while the battell depended in an vncertaintie of issue this I say that of all other kind of offenders these slie and wily
take euery occasion to increase their sinne euen by occasion thereof that if any of their name haue been noted aboue other for some bad qualitie as stoutnesse and stomacke bragging and boasting pot-companionship or such like oh they must vphold the name though it be but a shaddow as Absoloms pillar and so be sutable to their name if it occasion them euill and to keepe aliue the bad practizes and course of them that bare that name before them Euen so names more aduisedly and wisely giuen to children as I haue taught in another place are good occasions to prouoke them to their duties Besides we may see what men get who are of any good note by entring into so neere a league and hauing so inward acquaintance with such dames and mates which though it were in single and lawfull marriage yet it threatens as farre as man may iudge an extinguishing of the good sparkles of grace in them that are so matched Which should cause the seruants of God to linke themselues in marriage with women more like to themselues in religion and good behauiour And for them for whom it is too late to giue this warning vnto who are too many let them yet receiue and imbrace this instruction that is giuen them in the second place that is to say how they take counsell of such wiues or ill companions in cases doubtfull and and dangerous as are malicious high-minded quarrellers contentions waspish couetous and gripers or in a word voide of true religion Sampson may be an example to all both of hearkning too farre to such and so Gedeon may be also and likewise of opening and telling that secret which is not meet to be imparted vnto them which Sampson did to his great reproch and abasement But here an end of this seeing of both these last points I haue intreated purposely before out of the former histories THE FIFTIE FIVE SERMON ON THE EIGHTH CHAPTER OF THE BOOKE OF IVDGES Verse 32. So Gedeon the sonne of Ioash died in a good age and was buried in the sepulcher of Ioash his father in Ophrah of the father of the Ezrites 33. But when Gedeon was dead the children of Israel turned away and went a whoring after Baalim and made Baal berith their God 34 And the children of Israel remembred not the Lord their God which deliuered them out of the hands of all their enemies on euery side 35. Neither shewed they mercie on the house of Ierubbaal or Gedeon according to all the goodnesse which he had shewed vnto Israel NOw together with the Chapter the holy story maketh an end of Gedeons acts and maketh mention of his death and buriall and sheweth what the people of Israel did afterwards In this verse it is said he died in a good age For seeing some of his faults haue been spoken of to leaue them so would haue bred some doubts he hauing done many good things therefore his end is here set downe to shew that both hee had the blessing of old age granted him and also that it was blessed with many good things by God vnto him The same that is said of him is said of Abraham that he should die in a good old age Which speech here applied to Gedeon and affirmed of him though it be not to be drawne so farre as to prooue he died godly but onely noteth fulnesse of daies and prosperitie in this life yet it is cleare that he died so and obtained eternall life after in that he is reckoned among the faithfull in the Epistle to the Hebrewes Which is to good purpose to bee set downe he being though a godly man yet blemished that thereby we may know he repented By this we are taught that we must stablish our faith hope and other graces of God begun in vs at our first conuersion that wee may bee rooted grounded and setled therein as the Apostle willeth the Colossians and that so the neerer we are the graue the more glorious and fruitful our profession may be and in our age we may more flourish then in our youth which is a thing not easily found nor obtained Therefore the Apostle Saint Peter also exhorteth saying Take heed that ye be not led away from your stedfastnesse and sheweth how that may be like to be euen by the error of the wicked For by beholding how they walk who haue no feare of God at all and by harkning to their subtill counsell and poisoned perswasions we shall find to our cost that there is no small force to draw vs after their cursed example wheras we were in a good course before If Gedeon so mightily and oft assisted and helped did yet fal in such manner as we haue heard what may we look for in so many and so variable cases through out our whole liues It is well seene in this age what need they haue to profit by this doctrine who ranne well sometime as the Galathians did but yet haue suffered themselues to be letted so that they obey not the truth which they began and professed commendably to doe Many faults both to the wounding of the conscience and the offence of men prouoke God daily in his owne children and make faith to seeke and hope to waxe faint for that we doe not labour carefully to bring forth fruit plentifully thereof and to hold out with all possible endeuour the profession of our hope with ioy And if we haue trode awry and begun with the wise virgins to slumber yet through due and continuall attending vpon God and daily and oft repairing and drawing neere to him wee should not sleep therein but make haste speedily to come home againe vnder the Lords wing and protection where only true safety and good being is to be â—ound and that the rather seeing the poore chicken and bird void of reason after the least straying longs by by after the damme and to be vnder her wing and say wee therefore euery one with the Prophet to the Lord O forsake me not ouer long and euer and anone looke wee that all be well with our soule that there be peace betwixt God and vs and that our faith and repentance waxe not stale nor loathsome to vs. And make wee no haste to rush into shamefull and reprochfull sinnes for neither is the burthen and shame of them easily borne nor the getting out of them and the recouering of our selues againe from vnder such bondage easily obtained when wee be once fallen into them whereof by many occasions much hath been before spoken And hereafter the long mentioning of Gedeons acts followes his death To teach vs that to be the end of all flesh whether the life be short or long as Dauid also witnessed in other words saying I goe the way of all the world And great incouragement wee haue to prepare and haste for death if wee haue learned aright to dye seeing with our being with Christ
to iniquitie and when they haue seene such workes of God to be shewed on his enemies then euer after to bee more firme in their couenant keeping with God These things being thus brought about to the killing of so many of the men of Shechem a thing so vnlikely in their first making of Abimelech king it shall not be amisse to consider a little of it the spoile of the men being so great and yet so small likelihood thereof till the Lord sent an euill spirit betwixt Abimelech and them Who would haue said in the time of their agreement and loue that was betwixt them that they should haue growne to this point to become vtter enemies and while they were so neerely ioyned and knit together in amitie and friendship that they could be thus alienated and at the vttermost defiance one with the other They who were promised by Abimelech to be aboue all other respected and preferred who would haue said that they of all other should be hardliest handled yea destroyed But wee must vnderstand that there were two causes hereof and the one rising from the other The one was this their loue was wicked and cursed and bound together with rotten bands The other was this that the wrath of God burning like fire brake and consumed these bands whereby hee raised an euill spirit betwixt them to the destroying each of other And let all that are wise bee instructed hereby that where men are as these were companions and friends in euill and that they are not linked together by the feare of God and the loue of goodnesse that their fellowship will not hold long what likelihoods and shewes soeuer there be of the continuance thereof And the more euils that it is compact and framed of the deadlier and more violent shall the breach of it be If it be not accompanied with wicked practises as theirs here was yet euen the secret moths of selfe-loue priuy pride and the seeking of commoditie therby being the grounds of this agreement and fellowship euen they wil consume it as the moth doth the garment It is a worke of great difficultie for the best intended loue euen betwixt good Christians to be held firme and kept vnbroken and there must be renuings of couenants oft times betwixt them and all little enough the diuell so sets in to raise and make diuision among brethren For why It is a good note of their welfare and happinesse to be knit together in brotherly loue So saith our Sauiour Hereby shall men know that ye are my Disciples in that yee loue one another But if men be brethren in euill as if they be more neerely knit together because they both ioyne in a bad cause ye haue heard Gods sentence of such agreement alreadie it shall surely come to naught as this betwixt Abimelech and the men of Shechem did now vnlikely soeuer it shall seeme to be so in the time of their peace and loue And the same I say of their fellowship who are both of them vnreformed although it bee not for ill ends and purposes entred into by them And let this which I haue said make vs wise in seeking loue and friendship one with another But here the occasion being fitly offered I end THE SIXTIETH SERMON ON THE NINTH CHAPTER OF THE BOOKE OF IVDGES NOw followeth the further destruction of these men of Shechem For when their citie was destroyed they fled to a double fort which was their castle for the strength of it euen the house of their god Baal-berith as they called him with whom they had made a couenant and therefore hoping that there they should haue been safe And these were the chiefe and wise men of the citie And Abimelech hearing of it came and destroyed both them and their Temple In that these hoped there to finde ease and defence by the holinesse as well as the strength of the place wee may see that when men haue no religion nor acquaintance with God how wise and great soeuer they be what poore shifts they haue to prouide for their safetie euen to thinke that the holinesse of the place their gods of wood or stone or the reliques of Saints or some such rotten props shall free them from their troubles and feares No although they should seek to the true God in their haste which is much liker to worke their good yet their hearts being farre from him and they without confidence in him that he would helpe them euen that seeking of theirs should not be able to deliuer them But all these are bruised reedes and spiders webs much like the helpe that Baals Priests obtained by calling on him whom for their deceiuing of the people in such a manner Elias caused to be slaine Euen such helpe doth the wilful generation of Papists and Seminaries at their death in their greatest need obtaine themselues and their superstitious votaries whom they haue deluded and brought into the snare with them Of whom one a principall ring-leader at his death was constrained to renounce the opinion of merit and humane satisfactions for sinne although he was loth to haue that gap opened to the people for shame whom they had so grossely seduced Another yet liuing and of greaterreckoning in the Popish Church Better I meane is forced to confesse that for the auoiding the perill of vainglorie and carnall presumption it is the safest of all to repose a mans whole confidence in the onely mercie of God in Christ Iesus And by this we see that howsoeuer for sinister ends they suppresse the truth and abuse their sillie Proselites yet when they are coÌ„pelled by the force of their conscience or the terror of death to put away lying and equiuocating which few of them attaine to but dye in hardnes of hart wherein they liued but wheÌ„ it fâ—lleth out otherwise theÌ„ they confesse renounce their coÌ„ceits as bruised reeds to be vnable to support theÌ„ which as it is commonly vnprofitable to themselues so yet it should serue to deterre others from venturing and resting so boldly vpon their vngrounded assertions To omit other there was a third of long and great account and reckoning among people of that religion whom I visiting vpon the death-bed was an eare witnesse with sixe or seuen other of that place then present also that the partie then shortly after deceasing renounced the dunghill stuffe of that religion and reckoned all Poperie as a deceitfull trade and particularly the chiefe points thereof who yet had long been a stiffe and stout defender and maintainer thereof Oh therefore blessed are the people whose God is the Lord Iehouah and who know him the onely true God and whom he hath sent Iesus Christ for this is eternall life But as these men of Shechem here were slaine in the Idolatrous Temple of their Idoll Berith for their blindnes and putting their confidence therein so shall all be serued that rest on such proppes that is to say they shal be
set them to the hold to burne it But good enough for him and thus will men toile and indanger themselues for their pleasure and profit in most base manner though it come to nothing but that they soone lose all as hee did So doe all sorts of men for a poore liuing which yet they oft faile of notwithstanding Whereas in the meane while godlinesse which is the great riches lieth dead by them and by no perswasions can they be brought to seeke after that with the least delighting therein whilest yet God alloweth them time and trauell enough for things meet and necessary For example how duly come they to Sermons and to the Lords Supper though they might reape no small benefit thereby and so doe they accordingly sit wearie and sleepie at the preaching of the word when they be there And yet the most part of men these two actions with prayer being excepted shew not so much resemblance of religion in their whole life beside But oh that euen Gods faithfull seruants did not grow many of them to the like point shewing much vnto wardnesse at the Word and Sacrament when yet they haue approched to both with great reuerence and chearefulnesse in former times If men be asked how they can endure such toile and paines as they take for the world while they be so cold in duties to heauen ward their answere is Man is borne to labour and the world is hard If we labour not we shall neither haue food nor rayment This makes them as the Psalmist saith to rise earely sit vp late fare full hardly and all for a poore liuing Ah poore soules and what when they haue got it not to speake of this how many waies they offend God in getting it and yet they are oft times disappointed of that which they seeke either by their leaud spending it or Gods curse vpon it but I say What when they haue it Doe ye not see that at the solemne day of death when they count all their great gains and fruit of their labor that their soule is yet vnprouided for Was all their life little enough to feed and clothe their bodie and thinke they vpon so short a warning to prouide for their soule Is not a soule of much more value then a body is nay then a world And yet in getting saluation for the soule which the bodie shall fare the better for also yea euen here it shall bee the better able to doe earthly labour with chearefulnesse and without vexation who will put his finger in the cold water for it Who thinks not euery little time bestowed that way toylesome and tedious More particularly to giue all diligence to obtaine faith and repentance as we are commanded how vnwelcome is the charge thereof vnto vs which yet is easilier obtained and with more assured successe if wee so seeke it as if wee would find and is a more durable possession and of more necessary and daily vse and farre more pretious gaine and that which exceeds the riches of Princes without it Vpon the death-bed al this is confessed and yet not once in a whole quarter thought of while men haue life and strength because they want heart and will thereto And generally let all learne this by the men of Shechem how they ioyne themselues to the acquaintance of wicked men for hope of gaine pleasure or preferment for God will meet with and recompence such as they deserue at one time or other As here may be seene where Abimelech for his great promises was repaired and cleaued vnto but what got they in the end who did so Nay while they sought much what did they not lose of that which they had euen to their very liues themselues So they that intend that and seeke commoditie at the hands of such doe as I said in the last point saue one euen bring themselues into bondage to them if they haue any conscience to accuse them For beside this that they are taken vp with such thoughts to wit what gaine they shall get by them after which manner the diuell occupieth them to draw their minds from being better imployed beside this I say it must needs goe ill with them if they professe the Gospell and seeke to keepe a good conscience when they shall consider that by such as Papists Libertines prophane and bad liuers they be held in hope and flattered where the more they get the more they lose and they are then in best case when they haue least to doe with them But alas the most suspect not the seruitude that such labour to bring them into for the borrower is a seruant to the lender and much more the receiuer to the giuer while they hunt for the precious soule of him whose benefactors they would seeme to bee aiming at this marke especially some of them euen to make them the children of hel as fully as themselues be And yet which is farre worse they being so neere lincked in fellowship with them they are so bewitched by their enchaunting and intising words that they cannot tell how to bring themselues backe againe out of the Maze wherein they are I grant such make shift to digest those things till the day of their visitation come but then they be at their wits end Verse 50. Then Abimelech went to Theber and besieged Tebez and tooke it 51. But there was a strong Tower within the Citie and thither fled all the men and women and all the chiefe of the Citie and shut it to them and went vp to the top of the Tower 52. And Abimelech came vp vnto the Tower and fought against it and went hard vnto the doore of the Tower to set it on fire 53. But a certaine woman cast a peece of a milstone vpon Abimelech his head and brake his braine pan 54. Then Abimelech called hastily his Page that bare his harnesse and said vnto him draw thy sword and slay me that men say not of me a woman slew him and his Page thrust him through and he died 55. And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead they departed euery man vnto his owne place 56. Thus God rendered the wickednesse of Abimelech which he did vnto his father in slaying his seuentie brethren 57. Also all the wickednesse of the men of Shechem did God bring vpon their heads so vpon them came the curse of Iotham the sonne of Ierubbaal THus we haue heard how God punished the men of Shechem for their sinne against Gedeons sonnes Now how Abimelech was also plagued for the same that the prophecy of Iotham might bee verified vpon them both is laid foorth in these words and followeth vnto the end To the former two mischiefes that Abimelech wrought against the men of Shechem in that he destroyed their Citie and the people that were in it and their strong place and hold that the rest resorted to for safetie and burnt it to these I say the holy story addeth
will giue good successe both in mercies and deliuerances But I haue handled this point at large in this historie before In this Scripture is set downe that this wofull instrument had his deadlie wound and by what meanes euen in a base manner by a woman breaking his skull by throwing downe vpon him a peece of a mil-stone where wee may further note by Gods cutting off this cursed instrument Abimelech in the middest of his iolitie and before hee had done any more mischiefe that the prosperitie of the wicked is both short and vncertaine when and how it shall come to an euil end Which although I noted in general before out of the short time of his reigne yet a little I wil adde thereto by this present occasion here offered Now this their speedy taking downe is wrought by the Lord not only by the many waies that he hath to meet with and to punish them but also because they are euer putting the Lord as it were in fresh remembrance by their renewed and continued prouokings of him what hee oweth them And in the meane while he is not idle when he is still and patient toward them for hee knoweth and appointeth the time and the meanes to subuert them So the Psalmist saith Though the wicked flourish like a greene Bay tree yet a little while and his place shall haue no resemblance of such a one to haue been there and hee shall bee no more found Behold this verified in Zimry with his Cosby in Chorah the Rich man mentioned in the Scriptures and in many other in our owne experience who while they prosper are decaying but they that abide and remaine in the power of faith hope and patience as of Gods seruants is required and are thorowly set a worke in them they shall see good daies and be well liking and yet euen they also if they withdraw themselues from their confidence and will giue themselues to liue by eye-sight as other doe they shall see the Lord can soone change his course and their sorrowes will bee exceedinglie multiplied like other mens Dauids feet had well nigh slipt when hee beheld the present flourishes of the vngodly til God drew him out of his own fancie into the Lords Sanctuarie and taught him this wisdome to compare them with himselfe as well in one part of their estate as another and the bitternesse of their end and reward with the plausiblenesse of their iollity when they are in their flower and their slipperinesse when they are at the best Therefore as in a picture such as will throughly view it take not some note of the knee or foote or any one part of it but the whole for otherwise they should see nothing to any purpose so view wee the whole course of Gods dealing with the wicked as well the ending as the beginning and his proceeding with them and thereby our hastinesse in desiring their dainties will be abated full soone and our opinion changed as Dauids also was in iudging the bad to be happie after that he had better considered their end Lay we also sure hold on this that as the time and terme of the wicked is stinted and appointed so say we of the Lords dealing with our selues Yet a little while and he that commeth will come and not tarrie to bring our full redemption Furthermore we see here in that Abimelech had his deaths wound and after was slaine that he had not his will on the people of Thebez as he had on the other but as he suffered him to destroy the men of Shechem which fled to the Hold of their God Baal-Berith so yet he saued the men of Thebez and their wiues who betooke themselues to the Tower that was therein for shelter Wherein we may note that God doth oft times plague them whose iniquity is manifest as the sinne of these men of Shechem was when other who haue not sinned in the like manner though they be not yet religious are spared and borne with as these men of Thebez were The reason is the sinne of the one sort is manifest and grieuous and cannot be hid and crieth for vengeance the other either through ignorance or for that they haue not so wittingly or grossely offended are borne with that they may come to repentance And yet this is no excuse to them who liue in the light of the Gospell and haue knowlege if they liue and abide vnrepentant though they be not grosse offenders Neither on the other side haue they any cause to flatter themselues whose sinnes are notorious though they be not by and by cut off The vse of this doctrine is in this respect to incourage them who doe but walke in the way of the vngodly but stand not stiffely to maintaine their euill doings that seeing God giueth them time to repent and beareth with them they should not harden their hearts but take all occasions to turne vnto him And for such as are not fit to heare this doctrine but goe forward in euill they may euer feare that Gods vengeance is comming Now he being brought to bee past all hope of life by the blow the woman gaue him we see that hee who sought such glory as to be made King yea and obtained it also though most vniustly euen he did yet come to such shame and reproch as hee counted it as to be slaine by a woman and not so much as by the meanest man of warre Neither did it serue Abimelechs turne any whit at all that the last stroke was giuen him by a Page hauing had his deadly wound by the woman before onely it bewraied his pride which encreased the shamefulnesse of his foile And yet for him to be slaine by a Page was it such an honour to a great King so valiant and victorious as Abimelech now thought himselfe being in the top of his hopes and hauing brought vnder his enemies Therefore where God will set his brand of shame vpon a man it is but folly for him to striue against him or to elude him It was as confidently giuen out that Abimelech was slaine by the hand of a woman as that Sisera was dispatcht by Iael as for the Page hee slew as we may say a dead man in a mockery If this verifie not the saying God resisteth the proud what doth When men that haue carried thēselues aloft and borne their heads on high as the tall Cedars being terrors to their inferiors especially of the more religious sort are thus brought to shame as he was is it not notable to see them as much abased in their death below the meanest as they aduanced themselues aboue the greatest before It is reported of a Pope that he entred in like a Fox ruled like a Lion and died like a Dogge if he had also been buried as that proud Iehoijkon or Iezabel like an Asse what could haue been added to his shame and yet a liuing
Lion to be made a dead dogge is basenesse enough Therefore we may clearely see by this that the seeking of glory as Salomon saith is no glory but the glory of such is their shame For although for a time it may hold and last yet in a short time it shall vanish and end with reproch whatsoeuer else goe with it And so it is generally in all pride and vaineglory as I noted out of Gaals example before it shall end with shame and contrarily the humble and lowly in mind shall be exalted For there can not one tittle of Gods word fall to the ground but it must be verified to the comfort of the one and the iust rewarding of the other In this verse let vs further see for the Lord would not giue him the honor to be slaine in warre what he did when he had his deaths wound doth he crie for mercy was that as it ought to haue been thought vpon And yet the most past grace will lightly desire that he may haue three words before he die for then though it be to small purpose he thinks to aske mercy but the glory that this monster had hunted after in his life-time that was all that hee regarded euen now at his wofull end as his words testifie to wit That it might not be said that a woman slew him declaring thereby that he more feared infamy then damnation The multitude of desperate wretches that die in all ages with as little hope of saluation as hee did maketh it lesse to be considered and bewailed but what is more fearefull then to thinke a man should go to hell so apparantly and as it were visibly Where wee are to obserue that such as mens thoughts and affections are in their life time such they bee commonly at their death They loued not blessing saith the Prophet and therefore it is farre from them in their need so it is said elsewhere they sought not after God neither desired acquaintance with his waies while they liued and therfore God ordinarily suffereth them not to begin to doe it at their end They remembred not their maker in the daies of their youth neither shall they haue grace to doe it at their death but as they are mercilesse so God iustly recompenceth them with iudgement without mercy in their latter yeeres And the like we reade of Saul But yet for all this is one of a thousand thinke we of such as he was perswaded to repentance in the time of his iolitie nay doth not one follow anothers course to condemnation daily and from age to age And such as haue their libertie to aske three words before they die how vse they it what come they to but euen to worse then nothing Euen as Abimelechs few words did Let it not be said that a woman slew me And so their three words are vsed as Saul vsed his at his death Draw out thy sword and thrust me through And as that wicked man mentioned in the booke of Monuments who when he was haled violently on a bridge by his Horse into the riuer being put in minde of his three words he said thus Horse and man to the diuell A notorious adulterer there was a few yeeres agone who also had poysoned many youthes by his vncleane conuersation and lewd example and tongue he liued till he was threescore yeere old to resemble him to the sinner whom Salomon speakes of Eccles 7. neuer could hee bee brought to sauour or taste either preaching or praying which yet hee saw many zealously did round about him he might haue spend fiftie pound land by the yeere by his marriage but being visited by God in a strange manner and losing his maintenance by the death of his wife his bodie â—ore plagued with paine and diseases when he lay like a lazer in a barne for thither he was thrust through pouertie and there he died now to come to the point for the which I alleaged this example hee being moued by such as came to him when they saw in what miserie hee lay to call vpon God hee answered with fearefull oathes Is this a time to pray The which seeing he was neuer acquainted with in all his life wee see hee was farre off from it shunned and lothed it at his death by Gods righteous iudgement And as wee haue heard that it is commonly so with the vilest persons at their death as it hath been in their life so it were good wisedome for vs to seeke the Lord while he may be found in the daies of our youth lest if we should not goe about it till death it should not bee a sound turning to God but in mood and passion by violence and in feare onely gone about and who knoweth not that late repentance is dangerous And so let them reioyce and blesse God who haue made the Lord chiefe with them in their young yeeres and haue counted his seruice perfit freedome such shall not neede to feare that God will frowne vpon them and forsake them in their age or at their death but as many haue done shall reioyce most for this that they made the Gospell their solace in their life time and Gods fauour their portion and ioy and would not for all the riches of the vngodly haue done otherwise for so they should haue been then vtterly to seeke how to be saued Oh one sweete fruite of a godly life beside many other enioyed before is a most Christian and comfortable death so saith the Psalmist Marke the end of the righteous and ye shall see that the end of such a man is peace As for Abimelechs Page he was as he had been trained by him one fit to serue him onely in euill Like master like man such an one as hath many followers of which sort of hangbies few vnder such masters as themselues be few of them are I say found to come to good But both of them desperate rash murtherous and fraught with such sinnes as commonly accompanie these Yea and yet such hold vp their heads in the world for whom who seeth not but that the prison is fitter where they may be kept from doing mischiefe rather then to commit many lewd parts at libertie abroad But seeing such are past admonition taking let theÌ„ that are teachable learne to take such seruants to be neere at hand to them who may in danger giue aduice to them if need be as Naamans seruants did to the preseruing of his health rather then to be as too many are that is to say furtherers of their vtter vndoing or death And such as deserue well as Ioshuas and the seruants of Cornelius were let them I say be well incouraged and rewarded which are to be reioyced in of their masters when the other being intertained but to their owne and their masters vndoing or great detriment shall load both themselues and them with their bellies full of shame and sorrow Of this argument I spare
not crie vnfainedly at the first but for the smart they felt but hauing the repulse of God and they seeing that they preuailed not thereby they did after set themselues to seeke the Lord and to repent in the truth of their hearts as is shewed afterwards and that they did not at their first seeking to him come in true repentance it appeareth by the Lords reiecting of their cries and his bidding them goe to their gods whom they had serued for helpe which hee would not haue done if they had turned to him in truth for hee is full of compassion and readie to receiue those that are of an vpright heart And by this wee may see that many men when they are in extremities confesse their sinnes to God as Saul when hee feared the losse of his kingdome and crie to him when yet it is otherwise hardly wrung from them neither doe it they sincerely and yet I will not say that they here or that all other such of whom I speake doe it in hypocrisie but this I say that in their need and hast they crie onely they consider not that God looketh for truth at their hands neither resolue afterwards to looke aboue all things to keepe their couenant with God neither therefore indeed doe so but like Ahab bow for the time as a bulrush and afterward forgetting through carelesnes and negligence what they said or promised whereas they who in truth and vnfainedly repent and turne to God looke duly and constantly to their promise that they made to him as Dauid did who said I haue sworne and will performe it to keepe thy righteous iudgements And there had need to be no lesse in them that couenant with God a man would thinke vnlesse they will boldly and grossely shew that they despise him and helpe to fill the Church with reuolters as they were that we reade of in the Psalme The vse of which I repeate not but referre the Reader to the places before mentioned Verse 11. And the Lord said vnto the children of Israel Did not I deliuer you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites and from the children of Ammon and from the Philistims 12. The Zidonians also and the Amalekites and the Maonites did oppresse you and ye cried vnto me and I saued you out of their hands 13. Yet ye haue for saken me and serued other gods wherefore I will deliuer you no more 14. Goe and crie vnto the gods which yee haue chosen let them saue you in your tribulation IN these verses it followeth what God said to them in these their cryings to him When the people had called vpon God and began as it seemed to repent God answered them indeed but sharpely and roughly as appeareth in the text whether by the high Priest or by some Prophet But why he so hardly reproued them the reason was to awake them further and to bring them to sound and constant repentance to the which they were not yet come vnto As if he should haue said to them Yee seeke to be deliuered but ye doe it to the end that ye being set at libertie may returne to your old byas againe and follow your lusts and serue strange gods But who could haue thought that you would hereafter saith the Lord to them haue reuolted from me Did you not call vpon me at other times and were heard Is this the first and when I deliuered you yet he haue forsaken me as is to bee seene this day for the marke ye stil beare of it and haue cast me behind your backs I deliuered you from the Egyptians Ammorites Ammonites and other and in stead of the thanks ye by and by forsooke me and fell to serue strange gods O horrible Thus therfore the Lord as we haue heard now casteth them in the teeth with their doings And namely with their Idols as if he should haue said yee see now what your gods as you call them are able to doe for you For if they could haue helped you I see that you would neuer haue sought to me I will not therefore deliuer you and if you seeke to them ye see they cannot Briefly to end this their state being thus laid open by the Lord before them I note or rather repeate out of the whole answere which the Lord makes them heere that it is not so easie a matter for men to deceiue him who knoweth their hearts and the guile falsehood and flattery that is in them as to beguile men who in charitie do as they ought iudge the best of them by that which they heare and see To heare some men in their good pangs either when some great blessing befalles them or when they are held vnder by some great affliction as by the feare of death and kept vpon the racke or when they haue heard some powerfull Sermon which hath searched them to the quicke or when they behold the great workes of Gods power as thunder lightning winds and tempest by sea or land or when they see Gods hand vpon other men or to be heauy vpon themselues any other way vpon such occasions I say to heare the speeches and see the behauiours of some men what words of thanksgiuing of trembling of admiration nay what confessions and prayers breake from them with earnest couenants and vowes of repentance I say to heare these things at such times would make a simple-hearted Christian crie out as amazed and not feare boldly to affirme God be glorified doubtlesse these persons are throughly changed and truly penitent and God is in them of a truth surely Saul is become a Prophet of God and thus in their simplicitie doe many iudge of such by occasion of that which they see in them and who except they bee well experienced should not say the like in that case and cursed are they that deceiue such yet thus they speake of them till they are afterward as much astonished to see the contrary in them Thus wee see they deceiue men whereas the Lord as wee may see in this example will not nor cannot bee so easily deluded by them neither wil so soone be satisfied with these their speeches but still waiteth for the truth and vprightnesse of such as vtter them and giues no credulous eare vnto them but doth more then suspect them for he calles them to further proofe of their soundnes and affection towards him and expostulateth with them for that he finds it not so with them Saul as I said fearing his kingdome confessed the sin which was laid to his charge 1. Sam. 15. But the Lord professed for all that he had reiected him chap. 16. So the people in Deuteronomy being in feare and strongly possessed thereof in all hast protested they would obey the Lord in all things which Moses should tell them from the mouth of God But the Lord smelt them and found them out presently for thus he saith to Moses This people saith
of them seeke to get out of that plunge they doe most certainely perish vtterly without any recouery being throwne into that gulfe that is bottomlesse where is weeping and gnashing of teeth And although such ill disposed persons dye not alwaies by companies and multitudes as they did heere and at the flood in Noahs time and as it commeth often to passe according to the occasions that are offered and therefore it is the lesse marked yet he that obserueth it shall finde that they who bewray that they are not vpright harted but dissemblers and hollow and that they haue no fauour in the Gospell and good things and by their behauiour speech and companie doe testifie their bad liues I say such as obserue it shall find that now one and then another and some by one iudgment and some by another shall verifie that which I say namely how such pine and wanse away secretly in ignorance or impenitencie or bee arested apparently with such visitations of God as in which they testifie the same See my notes vpon the ninth chapter in the death of Abimelech and the men of Shechem The second part of the Chapter Vers 7. And Iphtah iudged Israel sixe yeeres then died Iphtah the Gileadite and was buried in one of the cities of Gilead 8. And after him Ibzan of Bethlehem iudged Israel 9. Who had thirtie sonnes and thirtie daughters which he sent out and tooke in thirtie daughters from abroad for his sonnes And he iudged Israel seuen yeere 10. Then Ibzan died and was buried at Bethlehem 11. And after him iudged Israel Elon a Zebulonite and he iudged Israel tenne yeeres 12. Then Elon the Zebulonite died and was buried in Aijalon in the countrey of Zebulon 13. And after him Abdon the sonne of Hillel the Pirathonite iudged Israel 14. And hee had fortie sonnes and thirtie nephewes that rode on seuentie asse colts and he iudged Israel eight yeeres 15. Then area Abdon the sonne of Hillel the Pirathonite and was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim in the mount of the Amalekites IN these verses following is contained the time of the reigne of Iphtah and diuers other that were Iudges in Israel together with their death and buriall in their owne cities where they dwelt and aboad in their life time Wherein that which is said in common of them both I wil speake of ioyntly as of the time how long they gouerned and of their death and buriall for they are all set downe alike Other things herein contained I will seuerally note as occasion shall be offered in the text And first of the time of their being Iudges ouer the people It is said Iphtah had that place sixe yeere Ibzan seuen yeeres Elon tenne and Abdon eight All which being but one and thirtie were a small number for foure to enioy the place one after another Whose office as it was to deliuer the people out of the hands of their enemies so doubtlesse they did if there were cause by their being in bondage or else they kept them in peace that they were not oppressed nor brought vnder of their enemies at al. And that was a great fauour of God to Israel that they changing their Gouernours so oft yet they are not said betwixt the time of the one and the other to haue been in their enemies hands which when it was so is expresly set downe in the former examples and stories Thus the Lord hath blessings of all sorts for his Church is not willing to change them into punishments till our abuse of them turne them to our owne bane And as these 31. yeeres of peace vnder foure gouernours were granted to Israel so it was their owne sinne and reuolt from God which brought vpon them so long or a longer time of warre and disquiet the Lord could haue allowed them their peace without interruption if they could haue serued him in it without vnsetling and wearinesse And as he dealt with them so would he with vs also who as he hath vndeseruedly continued our peaceable daies euen in the times of our late change a worke of his most worthy to be had in remembrance so he would haue freed vs from plagues and dearth also but in that he hath allaied our peace with such domestical punishments as these late yeeres haue witnessed wee may thanke our selues and marueile that they haue been no sorer for doubtlesse hee hath therein remembred mercie in iudgement Our peace is from him our troubles wherewith it is accompanied are caused by our selues and farre more bitter should the cup be if we were made to drink it as we haue tempered it but the Lord in mercie holds back from vs confusion and bondage to our enemies which hee inflicted often vpon these Israelites But more particularly this teacheth that it is a great mercy of God when in the change of Princes and Gouernours there falleth not out some great detriment and hurt to the people especially when the changes are often For that is counted a punishment as Salomon saith For the transgression of the land there are many Princes and the state of the Common wealth if it bee in peace and prosperous is then like to change to the contrary It caused Dauid when he heard of the death of Saul who was not very commendable in his time yea although hee knew that hee himselfe should succeed him it caused him I say to mourne with a great lamentation saying Ye daughters of Israel mourne for Saul how much more would he haue done so if he had been religious and godly The same I say of inferiour Magistrates who helpe to vphold and countenance the Gospell and doe maintaine peace in their precincts and corners where they dwell The losing of them is with great danger besides feare of worse to follow and of faithfull Preachers the like may be said also though there be many instructers yet there are not many fathers the taking away of them therefore will not be without much cause of griefe also for who knoweth what shall follow The vse is to stirre vs vp to thankfulnes for Gods goodnesse to vs and our land in respect of the late peaceable succession and present prosperitie and health of our Soueraigne which indeed all are willing to take part in but few take the paines to consider how much they owe to God for such a benefit as this which as a knot containes in it all the particular blessings which we enioy as infolded in it Much lesse doe they weigh that ouer-ruling power of God which swept downe as a cobweb the long contriued plots of the Popish practisers for a forreine gouernment and defeated in a moment and derided their hopes by setting the crowne vpon the head of the true apparent Heire our gratious Soueraigne without the least contradiction of so many enemies The sensuall abuse of this blessing hath now caused the Lord to abate somewhat of this his fauour by abridging vs of
a part of our hoped welfare in the death of our late enioyed noble Prince The which among other vses ought to teach vs first to bee earnest suters to God for the long life and prosperitie of the young Prince secondly to teach vs sobrietie that seeing there fall out such changings in our liues so that no man knowes what shall come to passe what troubles may fall out in our daies therefore to set our affections on things not subiect to change euen to furnish our selues with knowledge and grace whereby wee may bee fitted for the best estate while wee liue and after death to enioy durable honour Of Iphtah to say a little particularly when hee had so many and great troubles for the short time of his abiding in his place as three are set downe at large his dangerous battaile with the Ammonites the vnlooked for forgoing of his only daughter and this bitter prouoking of him by the Ephramites this teacheth besides that which hath bin said hereof before vers 2. what great afflictions they haue who are of calling and high place in the world who in comparison of many thousands are thought by their wealth to haue a little paradise in this life and doe indeed enioy many outward priuileges aboue other and what then may the life of meaner persons be accounted but a vale of miserie And especially the liues of such I may say who are in penurie and want with many other calamities which accompanie it and yet haue no hope of saluation neither which were able not a little to asswage the force and anguish of such tribulations All which I speake to shew how great the madnes of men is and that of all sorts and conditions who for all their daily and manifold afflictions which cannot be expressed are yet so wedded glued to this world as that they are not fit to heare of a departure from hence no nor to bee brought to a sober and moderate vse of it nor by the strongest perswasions to looke after and waite for immortalitie so as they may enioy it Now let all iudge how little cause they haue to doe so It might bee thought a benefit that the long life of man is so shortned from nine hundred yeeres to scarse halfe nine score if men duly weighed how euill they are as old Iacob told Pharao Few and euill haue the daies of thy seruant been But oh at what a rate would most men buy the lengthening of their miserie a madnesse so much the more extreame because they want that which might much allay the vanitie and vexation that falleth out in their life I meane faith and grace Others on the other side meeting with much yea and that stinging trouble in their liues oft times waxe discontented desperate and wearie of liuing and yet without all willingnes to dye saue through a necessitie of their owne making thinking thereby to auoide that which they encrease thereby A third sort lay all their miseries vpon their pouertie whereas alas if they had the best estate and happinesse vpon earth Iphtah might teach them that they should be neuer the neerer their desire for they may haue sorrow and vexation enough for all their wealth Now of the death and buriall of them I say this as they all died with all other vnto this day so it liuely admonisheth that it is the way by which all that yet remaine must goe and who knoweth how soone that wee may mind and prouide for it And as they were buried in the places where they dwelt as Iphtah in one of the cities of Gilead c. so we should submit our selues thereto with such other abasements as accompany it though flesh rebell against them and this wee should willingly doe for the hope of the glorious resurrection But of death and buriall before Thus much therfore be said of the Iudges ioyntly Now this is seuerally said of Ibzan that he had thirtie sonnes whom hee liued to marrie and thirtie daughters whom he also bestowed in marriage for so long hee liued together with them And this is set downe to shew that the great number of children is reckoned as then it was for one of the great blessings of God Therefore the Lord promised to Abraham his friend that his seed should be multiplied as the starres of heauen and as the sand of the sea And so sung the Prophet in the Psalme Thy wise shall be as the fruitfull vine on the sides of thine house and thy children like the oliue plants round about thy table and then he addeth this Loe thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord calling it not onely a blessing but more then common And it doth the more condemne the vnthankfulnesse of them who doe what they can to auoid that blessing and doe of purpose shunne the occasion of hauing their part in it by marrying with full purpose and resolution where they may be sure they can haue no children Whose fault may be the lesse if it be of simple ignorance but else it may be reckoned as a companion with theirs who grudge and murmur for that they haue so many children which ariseth partly of distrust in Gods prouidence partly fearing that they shall not haue wherewith to nourish them partly of pride who see they must pull downe their countenance for because of the number of them and cannot set foorth themselues with the wealthiest of their condition to braue it iollily in the world for that they be plucked downe with such a companie of brats as they terme them And yet as bad as these sorts are farre more grosse and barbarous are they high or low Minister or people who rather then their countenance should in the least manner be abated by mariage and multitude of children do not only liue in continuall whordome zodomie and such like vnnaturall and filthie vncleannesse but are glad though most vniustly and in dissimulation they doe it to be counted and numbred amongst them that liue chast which sinne shal bring the swifter damnation to them They are loth to abase themselues as they count it by stooping to Gods ordinance but God hath many waies to pull them down and make them stoop as I haue noted in the former chapter though they escape it one way and time yet hee meeteth with them another for fornicators and adulterers God wil iudge as the Author to the Hebrewes saith and the experiments thereof are infinit in all kinds of iudgements by scripture and experience both of old and daily Although what neede wee goe farre That which they shunne by their auoiding marriage the most pull vpon themselues by the contrary course as I haue said Now what remaineth but that they who haue and count children a blessing endeuour carefully to make them the children of God also that so they may be to them a double blessing Which is done of few especially as the case requireth that is with
them yea looke what affections he worketh in such as he will bring to the certaintie and assurance of saluation the like he preserueth and nourisheth in the beleeuer for the encreasing of grace and the inabling him to his seruice in better manner He suffereth them not to sit still or take their ease till these gifts drop into their mouthes nor to be indifferent whether they attaine and come by them or no but he causeth them to giue themselues no rest till they bee satisfied from time to time with the good things that they desire And in this sense and respect it is verified which is heere said All whom God will be serued by hee will furnish them with gifts for that purpose as he did here Samson The second part of the Chapter WE haue heard in the former verse how Samson was led and strengthned by the spirit of God now it followeth to see how that grace was set aworke in him and first in going about his mariage to the which he was led by God to make it with a Philistim woman for it had otherwise been vnlawfull which being spoken of throughout this whole Chapter following I will lay foorth in this manner referring all things about it to these foure points First how he sought his wife in these 4. next verses Secondly how he went to agree with her and receiue her and what fell out by the way to the tenth verse Thirdly what was done in their meeting at the mariage which is set down in the eleuenth verse and this to the twentieth And lastly what followed the mariage feast and namely that hee paied the Philistims the apparell and linnen and how hee tooke occasion by somewhat done there to begin to vexe the Philistims and this to the end of the Chapter Concerning the first his seeking of a wife was thus Hee going to Timnah a towne of the Philistims he saw a woman there whom he liked and he desired his father and mother that she might be giuen him but they as it is no marueile seeing they feared God disliked that he should deale with one that was an Idolater Neuerthelesse hee was earnest for her they not knowing then that God had moued him to take a wife there to the end that hee might seeke an occasion thereby against the Philistims who at that time were Lords ouer Israel Now in that Samson was growne vp to yeeres fit for mariage and yet the people of Israel were still in subiection to the Philistims and lay vnder oppression by them as they were before he was borne wee may see cleerely that they were long held vnder of that calamitie And so it commeth to passe oft times that as it is long before God punisheth so it is long before he cease punishing of his children And that we may not much marueile at it we may know that he doth so first that his correction may in some measure recompence the abuse of his patience And secondly that hee may frame vs aright to his minde and liking which is hard to doe at his first afflicting of vs and long ere it be wrought in vs because of our vntowardnes For a little affliction and short doth not commonly search vs deeply nor bring vs very readily vpon our knees and therefore such great sores must haue deepe tents by longer continuance of the paine and smart Some wee reade of to haue been afflicted twelue yeeres some eighteene in the Gospell as this peoples forefathers were long vnder the Moabites and the Canaanites and sore vexed by them so famines haue bin continued three seuen and more yeeres which how vncomfortable grieuous and stinging they haue been we may easily gather by that which we sustained some few yeeres since who saw the third yeere of famine to hold and continue much more pinching and oppressing then the former two neither was it seene of the wise how a fourth yeere could haue been borne if it should haue been cast vpon vs without staruing and famishing to death of a great number of the people so sore was the want of bread To speake of particular mens calamities in which also they haue lien long it were endlesse and infinite Let the vse of this doctrine to all of vs both persons and companies be not to make full account of present or speedie riddance from any crosse by the which we are held vnder and yet not to despaire though we haue suffered long not being relieued and eased but abide patiently and pray the more feruently for God before we shall fall into extremitie will certainly come with helpe though we know not how and not tarrie More of this the reader may finde in the former Chapters as 13. 1. and others Now to proceed It is said in this second verse that Samson going downe to Timnah saw there a woman of the daughters of the Philistims whom in the next verse it is said he desired might be his wife But before I proceede further a doubt ariseth about this attempt of his whether he did well or no for this action of his being in it self against the law of God on the one side namely to take a stranger and an Idolater to wife his parents also being godly and disliking it and on the other side he himselfe being led by the spirit of God and renowned in the Epistle to the Hebrewes among the faithfull of worthie memorie these I say thus considered breeds a question how he could not onely like such a thing but go forward with it and bring it to passe and in all the time not once calling himselfe backe For though it be not to be denied but a godly person may possibly slippe into a sinne wittingly yet either he shall see his fault by and by and dislike it before he proceed to other duties saying in repentance What haue I done as some did by the lamentable example of Ananias and his wife feare or at least repent when it shall be brought to his remembrance some good time after as Dauid did But neither of these we reade to haue been done of Samson as though he had been either void of conscience which hee was not or as if God had priuiledged him in that action yea and which maketh the question and doubt the greater his parents themselues who first withstood him and disliked his attempt therein did afterward consent and his father went with him to the woman and was at his mariage feast what shall we say then hereunto I answere This thing came of the Lord that Samson might thereby haue occasion to vexe the Philistims And though the marrying with an vncircumcised woman was generally forbidden yet the Lord giuing him a personal charge so to doe who is aboue his law and not tyed to it he offended not therein As both the whole story following doth proue where we may see that God not onely brought it not against him afterward as a sinne as he
be we not remoued from our stedfast confidence in him for he that hath said it will also doe the same But this point commeth often to hand Of this water Samson drunk and was reuiued againe being neere to death before as in this verse appeareth Whereby wee may see these two things One that thirst is a most deadly and intollerable paine as wee may well see by the thirst that our Sauiour complained of on the crosse for it is reckoned as one part of his paine And as thirst is so is hunger by either of which to dye is as a lingering so a most wearisome and grieuous death Like vnto the which seeing there are many other kindes of death wee may see from how many deaths and those most painfull God keepeth vs. For we might easily miscarrie both this way as Samson was like to doe and by infinite other waies if God did but hold backe his helping hand Which is the more to condemne our blockish vnthankfulnes who neuer or seldome reckon vp as daily we should such benefits and deliuerances among other neither are thankfull for them And seeing hunger and thirst are so biting and painfull and nakednesse like both we must be pitifull to such distressed people and moued with bowels and compassion toward them remembring Christs words I was hungrie and ye gaue me meate c. The other thing heere is what a small refreshing did preserue Samsons life euen a little water in so homely a manner prouided for him as wee see here mentioned did comfort and reuiue him What should this teach vs but that wee should marke how many comfortable refreshings wee enioy from God in comparison of the which this was meane and small without the which we should haue been much distempered in our bodies and thereby vnquiet and vnsetled in our mindes also as meate in our hunger drinke in our thirst rest after wearinesse case and asswagement of paine and diseases All which while we be pinched with them doe better teach vs how much the freedome from them is to be accounted of Oh a little intermission from the paine of the stone the anguish and extremitie of the gowre or the like diseases how doe wee price it euen farre aboue much treasure that cannot be valued O then when we bee free from all kinds thereof for a season yea and loden with benefits also on the other side to make out liues comfortable both grace and other good things which makes them all sauory what thinke we should wee yeeld vnto the Lord for them Therefore Samson gaue a name to that place also as he did before to the other according to the occasion offered to testifie his thankes to God for hearing his prayer by sending him water in his exceeding thirst in which he was neer vnto death The doctrine out of this place hath been taught before sundry times and last of all out of the 17. verse Onely this I wish might bee annexed to the doctrine of thankesgiuing that it bee continued and specially for that great deliuerance from the feare of euerlasting torment that it bee continued all our life long As in the song of Zacharias wee are taught that God will giue grace thereto And great reason there is that wee should doe so seeing wee reape and enioy the fruit thereof all our life long But this other thing out of this place I will not omit and that from the name of the place which hee gaue For hee calling it the fountaine of him that prayed meaning which God extraordinarily prouided for him when he prayed to him in his thirst it teacheth vs not onely what rare effects and fruites spring of feruent prayer as S. Iames saith that feruent prayer auaileth much and as we finde that thereby wee obtaine grace against daily sinne and corruption but also when such fruit is obtained of God by vs it should well appeare as it did by Samsons leauing a memoriall of his thankfulnesse in the place So much more should we who doe not once but oft yea and that in one day receiue many blessings as effects of our prayers from God wee should I say let those places bee witnesses of our remembring Gods kindnesse there so plentifully shead vpon vs. That if such places could speak they should be well able to testifie that we had not been barren nor silent in yeelding praises vnto him there And this not our houses onely and chambers should witnes but our gardens the fields yea and the high waies by which we haue so often passed safely without danger should do the like Now for the shutting vp of the Chapter the holy story addeth this that for the space of twentie yeeres while the people were vnder the dominion of the Philistims Samson did continue in his place iudging Israel that is helping them and vexing the other whereby wee may gather that although the Israelites were not freed out of their hands altogether yet they had many great calamities kept from them by meanes that Samson was euer in the way and at hand to crosse and disquiet them And therein we are to marke that the Lord hauing oft deliuered his people and yet seeing them to reuolt from him after and not to bee better for it hee holds them vnder now the longer and yet he lessened their bondage and made it the more tolerable by the helpe they had by Samson We may hereby learne that seeing we when we haue liberty peace and other blessings and also inlargements from affliction doe not yeeld to the Lord the fruit that is answerable to so great kindnesse of his and that also looked for at our hands but wee forget it and wax vnprofitable yea and grieue the Lord with our returning to our old euill course againe therfore he doth the longer and the straitlier hold vs vnder with one crosse and trouble after another and wee either haue not so good meanes to come out of them as he would else giue vs or we profit not by them as some of his worthie seruants doe neither enioy sweet and comfortable daies as wee might doe and that with his good liking for all the which wee may thanke our selues And it is his great mercy that it is no worse with vs. But take we heed that we tempt not God still in such manner that while hee looketh for grapes wee bring forth wild grapes that wee lie not in our sinnes which we cannot be ignorant that they doe much displease him for God will not be mocked As he left heere vpon this people a long continued bondage so will hee deale with vs as hee hath done heretofore namely that although he haue taken the heauie yoke of bondage from the necke of his people in this land I meane subiection to Idolatry and Poperie yet hee will leaue matter of sorrow enough by scattering the most part in ignorance and without good and diligent teachers and
sottishly vnto them as hee was vexed almost to the death to heare her to tell him she must forsake him and could not loue him if his hart was no more toward her then she saw which yet she spake but in grosse dissembling All bondage is grieuous but what is greater then bondage to an whore when a man cannot but cling to her and be at her lure whose heart is false toward him and seeketh his destruction We must take heed that we rest not in the best things that are subiect to change but much more that wee hang not our securitie vpon deceitfull pleasures especially of all other vpon a wicked alluring woman whō rather then Samson would once thinke of forgoing behold he shameth not to abandon God conscience and all not to speake of the outward mischief that ensued And surely if this be true of Samson who sinned against conscience all this while what shall we say of them who commit secret filthines with greedines and yet without remorse What a death is it to them think we to be pluckt by violence from their old acquaintance which by custom is become as the poore mans lambe whom Nathan describes to Dauid euen as his sonne Therefore when men haue liued a long time in a lewd course without let how welcome is death to them that makes an vtter separation betweene them and their lusts which liued before in as streight league and vnion as the soule and body together Oh bondage vnspeakable to bee inwardly linked to the loue of that which can neither be enioied but with extreame miserie nor forgone but with intollerable vexation Let this be one motiue among others to humble the sinner before God and to shew him how out of measure sinfull his corrupt nature is as also to teach him not so eagerly to pursue his lusts except he will bring a world of sorrow vpon himselfe when the time of forsaking them is come For what though at the last cast many a man renounces the old courses of vngodlines and repents him yea and is ashamed of his doings this is when the conscience is terrified by some violent feare or griefe not while hee hath his will and prospereth in his euil And yet alas who seeth not that these terrors when they seaze vpon any for we must not think they seaze vpō al many dying sots as they liued without feeling for the most part vanish away and come to nothing so that those great penitents if they get vp and recouer their maladie how far doe they put from them the remembrance of the former trouble and shew that it was distastfull vnto them and forced them in the bitternes thereof to say any thing but now they are at libertie they returne againe as naturally to their byas as the stone falleth downward Oh therefore pray and labour that it may bee good which ye set your hearts on and delight in being accounted of you as most precious for the end else will be more bitter in the parting then euer the loue was in enioying Loue the best things and feare not to exceed measure for besides the vnspeakable and sound ioy they affoord this they also yeeld euen a perpetuitie they shall neuer bee pulled away as our Sauiour saith this ioy shall no man take from you Now he was so wrought on by her that as wise as hee thought himselfe in purposing that shee should neuer know that which shee sought at his hands yet because he gaue place to his wicked affections he was not onely snared and in danger as before but now told all vnto her to wit that there neuer came rasor on his head but if his lockes were cut off he should lose his strength which was as much as if he had told her how they might take his life from him and bring all shame and sorrow vpon him as they did in deed and yet more then this hee might though to small effect haue said to her to wit beside all this euill which I shall sustaine hereby I doe also set the Lord against me to depriue me of his grace and all this for thy sake for thus much doubtlesse he suffered for her By which so many good obseruations arise as a wise man may be to seek with which to begin first But briefly of two or three One is this that we shall not need to complaine of the hurt and wrong that other doe vnto vs which how common it is all places doe witnesse for none are greater enemies to vs then our selues Were hee not a monster of men that should offer but the one halfe of this vnto vs that Samson did to himselfe as here may be seene But behold all this and no lesse doe some nay very many offer to themselues We storme rage and crie out of other if they hold but a little of our due from vs and much more if wee sustaine greater hurt by them whereas we by our sinnes worke our owne woe and yet through blind self-loue we are neuer angrie with our selues when yet wee could finde in our hearts to pursue others vnto death Oh rend we our hearts for our sins and be deeply displeased with our selues for them All these Philistims could not haue done Samson the mischiefe which he did himselfe by his owne folly or rather madnesse But if they had attempted any such matter against him as to make him infamous as hee made himselfe would he not streight haue reuenged it Nay did hee not reuenge it in the sequell But to leaue him who sinned not in reuenging and come to our selues who is he that dare but iustly reproue vs for a fault be it neuer so grosse but he shall haue our badge and liuerie presently and we thinke him our enemie and watch our season to be euen with him as Esau dealt with his brother Iacob And yet so farre is a louing reproofe from hurting vs that if wee were the men wee should be it might keepe the hurt we speake of from lighting vpon vs and be as a precious balme vnto our heads Well then will a wise man say I see these men are i alous of themselues and their owne hurt if they can endure no other to touch them but they will flee in his face they will be long enough it is to be hoped ere they wrong themselues willingly Indeede the reason is sensible but the proofe is most preposterous For that man that will not take the losse of a penny at anothers hand without storming will spend many a pound to haue his wicked desire satisfied nay he will vndoe himselfe and strip himselfe of all he hath and yet thinke neuer the worse of himselfe when hee hath done nay no man may tell him of it neither Therefore if we will preuent outcries and late repentance for time to come for there is a time when such fooles crie out I am lost I haue vndone my selfe let vs
honoured for the great workes that he did among them not only preferred a murtherer before him and vniustly got liberty of Pilate to crucifie him being Lord of glory but also railed and spitted on him and most shamefully reuiled and mocked him in the middest of his agonies and indeed herein they resemble their father the diuell who then most insulteth when hee hath a man vnder but the Lord is alway nearest to his as he was to Ionah in their extremities Now although God for his euill doing doe iustly punish such an one yet we should be moued with some pitie toward him and not to adde vexation to such as God smiteth And therefore wee reade that the Lord afflicting Israel for their iust deserts by sending them through the long and vast wildernesse yet when the King of Edom would needes vexe them also by for bidding them passage through his coasts was displeased with him And therefore the Prophet Amos writeth thus For three transgressions of Edom and for foure I will not be intreated neither turne to him and addeth that as the reason because he did pursue his brother with the sword and did cast off all pitie toward him And for that cause saith hee will not leaue him vnpunished The vse is to vs to beware of all crueltie and especially if it be mixed with enuie for which cause Salomon saith Anger is cruell and wrath is raging but who can stand before enuie Thus Dauid prayes against him who pursued the man whom God afflicted saying Let his daies be few and his prayer be turned into sinne because he remembred not to shew mercie but he persecuted the poore man and him that was contrite in his heart c. But these things wee reade and despise as if God would be mocked See more of this in other places of this booke and by name vpon the fourth verse of the first chapter And here consider againe notwithstanding such disguising of Samson as wee haue now heard and that he was thus brought into an high degree of shame contempt and miserie whereby it might be thought that he was no better then an abiect and castaway yet consider we I say that he was euen now reclaimed from his forementioned sinnes and reconciled to God againe as I said before and say it againe that none may mistake me in so saying and by that which I haue set downe of his repentance God sheweth how deare he was to him for all that hath been said of his fall not that he had merited by his patience in the prison forgiuenes of his sinnes but he acknowledged them there beleeued the pardon of them and as it became a godly man he repented as before hath been proued else these had turned him quite off from God This did greatly extenuate and asswage his miserie ouer it was with him before he thus turned to God So that the Lord who prouided for Ionahs body the shelter of a gourd lest the extremitie of the heate of the Sunne might haue added affliction to his disquieted minde euen hee I say did much more gratiously preuent this poore prisoner his seruant with mercie and fauour against the time that his enemies grew to the height of their malice lest it might otherwise haue been intollerable Yea and hereby the Lord animated him to beare the indignitie the more quietly because his strength was now also renewed and thereby he knew God had called this despitefull rabble together to be auenged of them Heereby let vs learne that whatsoeuer men haue been in their euill liues heretofore and howsoeuer they haue brought vpon their own heads much misery thereby yet there is much comfort to bee taken in them both by themselues and by others when they haue truly renounced and cast from them the workes of darkenesse to haue no more fellowship in them but do shelter themselues vnder Christs wing as the poore chicken vnder the hen that he may couer and remit them And this only is able to make them hold vp their heads when so many sorrowes and troubles doe otherwise oppresse them But oh then how happie and sweet is this vniting of vs to Christ by faith when we are so resolued that we may abide in his loue that wee carefully seeke to enioy and preserue it and doe wisely decline other things which doe make that benefit seeme farre lesse gainfull and beautifull vnto vs then it is It is truly said by Salomon that it is the wounded spirit which makes the trouble waighty and the spirit of a man free and cheerefull through a good conscience and supported by God which beares him vp in his affliction And howsoeuer the proofe hereof is sweetest in affliction sent vpon vs in our innocency yet it hath place also euen in crosses which are drawne vpon vs for some sinne when wee haue humbled our selues truly for them and haue not delayed to seeke reconciliation with his Maiesty for them For then a man recouereth his particular confidence in God and seeth that his affliction hauing done that for which it came shall speedily bee remoued and a supply of patience giuen the whilest to vndergoe the triall Therefore oh fooles that cause God thus to punish them but double fooles who abuse their correction and lie vnder it impenitent for these shall need no Philistims to adde sorrow vpon sorrow seeing they make their burthen double and treble by their sin aggrauated and by a conscience hardened against God Vers 26. Then Samson said to the seruant that led him by the hand Leade me that I may touch the pillers that the house standeth vpon and that I may leaue to them 27. Now the house was full of men and women and there were all the Princes of the Philistims also about the roofe were three thousand men and women that beheld while Samson played 28. Then samson called vnto the Lord and said O Lord God I pray thee think vpon me O God I beseech thee strengthen mee at this time onely that I may bee at once auenged of the Philistims for my two eyes 29. And Samson laid hold on the two middle pillers whereupon the house stood and on which it was borne vp on the one with his right and on the other with his left 30. Then said Samson Let mee lose my life with the Philistims and hee bowed him with all his might and the house fell vpon the Princes and vpon all the people that were therein So the dead which he slew at his death were moe then they which he had slaine in his life 31. Then his brethren and all the house of his father came downe and tocke him and brought him vp and buried him betweene Zorah and Eshtaol in the scpulchre of Manoah his father now he had iudged Israel twentie yeeres NOw it followeth in the end of this third part of the Chapter to consider the issue of this their dealing with Samson and that is
his ministery empaireth and spendeth his strength and health can be said to be the procurer of his owne vntimely death for he hath spent his strength in his calling to which end God gaue it him And as Paul said he was ready to be bound and to die for the Lord Iesus so Samson said let me lose my life with the Philistims He runneth not rashly to death but followeth his vocation and if death come therewith vnto him he yeelds to it willingly and the rather because he had brought this necessity vpon himselfe by his owne sinne and hee could no otherwise pursue Gods enemies then with hazard of his owne life Euen as valiant souldiers who seeke not death but yet looke for no other The vse of this to vs is this that as wee should abhorre the least sinne this way yea the very speech or thought intending and seeking our owne death so yet it is our duty to walke in the estate in the which God hath set vs in such wise that we be not onely ready fit and willing to die but also if God will in our faithfull discharge of our duties meet with vs by death as hee did with the Apostles then to bee readie to yeeld to it and to remember That hee who loseth his life for Gods sake shall finde it And therefore let neither our life nor any thing we haue be thought too good for him who requires it And though all lose not their liues yet many doe forgoe other commodities which were not commendable in them if it were not for Gods cause Very Heathens when they spake according to their light saw it to be vnnaturall for men to deuoure themselues And as the souldier may not disranke himselfe or forsake his station without his Emperours permission who hath set him in his place so neither ought any to destroy his owne life and soule by wilfull death but waite the time that God hath appointed Indeed the Heathen saw not thus much that a man might not auoide apparant perill of violent death whether by an incurable disease as one of them starued himselfe to death to free himselfe from the stone or by the pursuit of their enemies This they made themselues erroneously beleeue to be magnanimity and the waiting for death in that case cowardise And like to them are many brutish people among vs who in some great distresse of mind or shame which their owne sinne hath brought vpon them bereaue themselues of their liues like Iudas and Abimelech And others being crossed but in a small matter are ready to wish themselues as deepe in the ground as they are high too And euen Christians often forget themselues and haue this pang vpon them to curse the day of their birth and to desire death I doubt not but many doe it in rashnesse for if death came and offered it selfe they would recant but howsoeuer it bee both this rashnesse and the other madnesse is vtterly vnbeseeming Christians and a token of an vnsauorie heart little seasoned with the doctrine of confidence and patience And if a wise man weigh it there is more cowardlinesse in preuenting trouble or crosses by violence then enduring them patiently And let such as the diuell hath woond in withall so farre as to worke vpon their melancholy and terrours of conscience or weaknesse of nature by such dangerous tentations as these to drowne hang stab themselues abusing the Scripture and such examples as this of Samson to that end let such I say bee fenced well against his malice by this instruction answering with our Sauiour in the like case Auoide Satan I dare not tempt the Lord my God But to returne a little to Samson It is so farre off from equitie to condemne that last act of his in losing his life with the Philistims that it was far to be preferred before his other annoying of them and euen his greatest auengings of them For he slew many more of them now at his death then he did in his life And was therein a liuely figure of our Sauiour Christ who though he destroyed the workes of the diuell in his life euen as hee came to the same end and foiled him shrewdly many waies yet at his death he triumphed ouer him led him captiue Both their acts I meane Samsons and Christs doe shew as in a glasse what we all should doe namely endeuour to doe the best good at our death which shall the better bee done if we lay for it in our life For liue well and dye better because wee ratifie and confirme all the good we did while we liued when we iustifie it at our death And this is one fruite and peece of honour that a good life receiueth that a good death followeth it Oh therefore begin wee betimes to feare God and as we are commanded remember we our maker in the daies of our youth and let it not bee tedious to vs to nourish those good beginnings that our last end may be like both or else an hundred to one that we shall haue small cause to reioyce in our end that I say no more And the like in this particular may bee said of the death of the righteous which is said of Samson yea and much more And it affoordeth no small encouragement to al such as are faithfull in the work of the Lord I meane in rooting out and destroying the enemies of their owne soules especially the corruption of their nature and the fleshly lusts which issue frō thence Their watchfulnes and diligence in suppressing them ought to be daily their prayers constant their faith in Gods almightie power to which nothing is impossible as armour ought continually to be exercised in the assaulting of their concupiscence and the fruites thereof And though they yeeld not at the first because they are strong and mightie yet hauing receiued their deadly blow at first by the death of Christ they shal decay sensibly and at death be quite abolished as the walles of Iericho fell downe the seuenth day of the compassing thereof Thus Samson dieth with the Philistims but in a most contrary and vnlike manner For they dyed in riot idolatrie crueltie and impenitencie but he in faith and as Stephen did in calling vpon the name of the Lord. So let it be well laid for and looked to that though wee must dye with the bad yet we may in no wise dye as they doe And so the outward manner of death though in paine disease and kinde of death it bee one and the same to vs and them as the Wise man saith to wit As the foole dyeth so dyeth the wise yet all that can iudge will say that wee must not measure the godlines and happy estate of men by outward things though they fall out alike to both And by this let vs beware that we feare not death with the wicked who say in token thereof we must dye but waite wee for
it saying Come Lord Iesus come quickly reioycing to thinke we shall dye This is a priuiledge bestowed vpon the faithfull who prouide to dye in faith as the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrewes saith of the Patriarkes and among the rest of Samson to wit that God putteth a difference betwixt their death and the death of other though the world cannot discerne it in the generall and common abasement of the body and flesh yet I deny not but sometimes this difference appeareth also euen in the manner of dying For though some are so bereft of sense and reason by the force of their disease and others by Gods disposing so of them that euen the best are either much disguised in their sicknesse or at least giue no great testimonie of that excellent grace which is in thē yet in the grace they liued therein they die and vsually and for the most part it may be obserued that a well passed life bringeth a good death and oft times sheweth plentifull and apparant signification of confidence comfort and spirituall triumph in death which it is impossible to finde in the other Witnesse hereof is the death of the Martyrs a thing at this day much sticking in the stomacke of the Papists if they would speake the truth compared with the desperate or diffident death of their Iesuites and Seminaries I instance in these because they arrogate most to themselues in their sufferings for the Catholike cause as they call it But as for other bad persons except deeply deluded wee shall behold in them manifest signes of distrust feare impatience and the best is crying out of their dangerous estate Therefore let this be a comfort to all such as hold their purpose entire of cleauing to the Lord in beleeuing his promises and obeying his will that as their dying may differ from the vngodly so they in Gods account shall differ though their death differ not A great stay to them against temptation to the contrary and against the base and common condition of their bodies and the dishonour thereof lying on their death-bed laid by the walles or in the graue He that hath put first a difference between them and others by faith purifying their hearts and then by his precious account that hee maketh of them shall eminently testifie that difference after he hath raised them out of their vilenes and ignominie and clothed them with incorruption and glorie And lastly to make an end with Samson we haue seene in this story how grieuously he fell and withall that he turned againe to the Lord and called vpon him and was heard To gather the story therfore into a short summe according to my vsuall maner of dealing in cōtinued histories let vs learne that if at any time we haue sinned against the Lord more willingly and wittingly then by meere infirmity in our ordinary course of life we vse to doe for Gods seruants though they attaine not to that measure of grace in the seruice of God that they desire yet neither doe they oft or commonly goe against their knowledge and smother it but yet the diuell that layeth a snare for them and lyeth in wait continually to catch them therein may easily and is like sometime to finde them worse prouided Here therefore if it fall out that they be taken in such a trippe and outstraying and met withall by God in pursuing them let them not lie still as the horse in the mire as making light of their sinne and putting the due consideration of it farre from them but as soone as they can labour they to come to themselues againe and consider seriously from whence they are fallen how it is with them in that estate and how they are estranged from God and giue no rest to themselues till with the prodigall sonne they resolue with broken hearts to goe againe to their father who is their refuge and say We haue sinned receiue vs graciously and so God who offereth to raise vp such as are fallen will with the father of the prodigall receiue and welcome them ioyfully And so with Samson and others who haue slidden as he did let them renue their couenant more strongly with the Lord that it may hold firme for the time to come euen to death as his did against all sinne and especially that which hath foiled them most lest it returne back more strongly vpon them as waters which were ill stopped And lastly let them returne againe humbly and penitently for mercie and it shall be according to their faith granted them But I trow they are most happie who feeling and finding how sweete the Lord is and how gainfull his seruice is will prouide as they are taught to abide constantly in his loue as hee willeth them to doe not putting the matter vpon a venture nor vrging the Lord to such a sharp manner of discipline through their boldnesse as this of Samson was all this I say they will doe and that gladly also except they long for woe and stand vpon thornes till they haue brought sorrow vpon themselues and doubled at least their owne labour and trouble in recouering their welfare againe By this verse it appeareth that at this strange spectacle of the casting downe the house vpon the Philistims and their Princes the rest of them were so amazed that they suffered the kinsmen of Samson to come thither and carrie him backe againe vnto their land and inheritance and to burie him there Which if they had considered aduisedly they would haue taken them and the rest being vnder their power and haue put them to the most cruell death as the Gibeonites desired of Dauid certaine of the kindred of Saul to be hanged vp to reuenge themselues on him on Saul I meane who slew sundrie of them contrary to the league that Ioshua made with them which was that they should not dye but cut wood and draw water for the seruice of the Tabernacle Thus wee see God sometimes appalles the wicked so as his people may fare the better by it as by casting them to the ground who sought Christ to take him wee see hee might easily haue escaped their hands if he would and that he had seene it expedient And euen so by their feares or multitude of businesse as also many other waies the Lord putteth his hooke in the nostrils of the wicked so that they desist and leaue off from molesting and vexing his faithfull seruants though it be sore against their will euen as Saul was called away from pursuing Dauid when he was in great danger But if the Lord should reuenge their wrongs vpon their aduersaries as hee seeth it not alwaies expedient to do he should make a riddance of the wicked from the earth and so the innocent and righteous should not haue their faith and patience tried by them as hee hath appointed them to be But seeing he is patient toward them therefore they should be
much afraid to goe on in their cruell course against them as wee see the Priests by the counsell of Gamaliel thought good and saw cause to be ruled by him in letting the Apostles goe who had before intended most cruelly against them what was it that hindred them from their purpose but this that they feared that the Lord would haue resisted them who indeed so terrified them that hee constrained them to let them alone Thus as well as by the death of some that are maliciously minded against the faithfull other of their companie are so astonished and appalled that they desist from their wicked attempts and are in such feare that for the time they cannot tell what they may doe Thus to conclude God easeth the shoulders of his seruants many waies as wee see of the burthens that oppressed them and many other waies that cannot be expressed and not in the least manner by taking their oppressors away in the middest of their florishing and crueltie that wee may see he knoweth how to deliuer his and sheweth accordingly in due season that he doth not forget them and all to this end that they may not faint from their good beginnings nor be discouraged in any good course but hold it alwaies best to depend vpō him as Israel by Pharaos drowning and Shushan and the Prouinces by Hamans abasement with the like found it And though in some hot and fierie trials this be hard for the faithfull to go vnder yet after they haue borne the brunt they would not for any good haue done otherwise But of the sundrie waies whereby God vseth to succour his and ioynt their enemies I haue in another place discoursed at large Therefore thus much be said of this point and of the whole history of Samson THE SEVENTEENTH CHAPTER Vers 1. And there was a man of mount Ephraim whose name was Micah 2. And he said vnto his mother The eleuen hundred shekels of siluer that were taken from thee about which thou cursedst and spakest of also in mine eares Behold the siluer is with me I tooke it And his mother said Blessed bee thou of the Lord my sonne 3. And when he had restored the eleuen hundred shekels of siluer to his mother his mother said I haue wholly dedicated the siluer vnto the Lord from my hand for my sonne to make a grauen Image and a molten Image now therefore I will restore it vnto thee 4. Yet herestored the money vnto his mother and his mother tooke two hundred shekels of siluer and gaue it to the founder who made thereof a grauen Image and a molten Image and they were in the house of Micah 5. And the man Micah had an house of gods and made an Ephod and Teraphim and consecrated one of his sonnes who became his Priest 6. In those daies there was no King in Israel but euery man did that which was right in his owne eyes IN this Chapter before I enter into the handling of it as I vse to do in the other I must stay a while and say somthing for the satisfying of the reader and that not onely about this Chapter but also all the other that follow to the end of the booke That which I meane is this Whereas it may be by the ignorant thought that the things mentioned in these fiue Chapters following were done in order of time after those things which goe before I finde by conference of Scriptures that they were not neither can it be that they should But it appeareth that the acts set downe in them were done long before And because it may seeme strange which I say I neither will nor dare affirme it barely because any other man saith so but I will shew my reasons out of the Scripture I affirme therfore that the things that are said to haue been done in these Chapters following were done before the times of any of the Iudges or at the least at the end and after the death of Othniel mentioned in the first Chapter or in that vacation of those eighteene yeeres vnder Eglon while there was no Iudge in Israel And they may not inconueniently bee reckoned to the second Chapter and the eleuenth verse and those that follow it which doe mention the horrible wickednesse of the people of Israel after Ioshua was dead and the chiefe rulers who ouerliued him My reasons that these things were done before the times of the Iudges or thereabout are these The first is that it is said in the next Chapter that the Tribe of Dan being a populous tribe did inlarge their borders at that time which if it should be vnderstood to follow the storie of Samson in the former Chapter a reckoning being duly made must be full three hundred yeeres from the diuision of the land Against the which therefore as nothing like to be so that in the 19. of Ioshua is opposed where it is said as here it is that the border of the children of Dan was at that time lesse then sufficed therefore the children of Dan went vp and fought against Laish euen then and taking it smote it with the edge of the sword and enioyed it for their inheritance and dwelt in it So that if they of Dan then tooke it it followeth that the story in the next Chapter where they are said then to haue taken it is to bee referred to that time mentioned in Ioshua 19. which was three hundred yeeres before and not to the time following immediatly after Samson according to the order of the Chapter as it is set And this is my first reason why these fiue Chapters follow not the order of time as they be placed Another reason why these Chapters cannot bee vnderstood to bee set downe according to the order wherein they stand and the time in which they are thought to haue been done to wit immediately after Samson but are to bee referred to the former times that were three hundred yeeres before another reason for it I say is this that Ionathan the Leuite mentioned in these two Chapters is said to haue been the nephew of Manasseh the son of Moses and the sonne of Gershom nephew to Moses who were dead well nigh three hundred yeeres before the death of Samson and therefore vnlike or rather impossible that he should liue after Samson Thirdly whereas the acts of these fiue Chapters followed one another at the same time it is manifest that at the war of the Beniamites chapter 20. Phineas the sonne of Eliazar the sonne of Aaron ministred before the Lord at that time and asked counsell of him if they should go against Beniamin to warre And the same Phineas aboue three hundred yeeres before the death of Samson appeased the wrath of God by thrusting through Zimri and Cosby in their tent while the people of Israel were on the other side Iordan and were not as yet come into the land of Canaan Therefore the acts mentioned