Contemplations, THE FIFTH VOLUME. By IOS. HALL. D. of D.  
LONDON, Printed by E. G. for Nathaniel Butter. 1620.   

Contemplations UPON THE OLD TESTAMENT.  
The 14th. Book.  


Saul in David's Cave.  
Nabal and Abigail.  
David and Achish.  
Saul and the Witch of Endor.  
Ziklag spoilt and revenged.  
The Death of Saul.  
Abner and joab.     

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE, AND MY SINGULAR good Lord, PHILIP Earl of MONGOMERY, one of the Gentlemen of his Majesty's Bedchamber, and Knight of the most honourable Order of the Garter.  
Right Honourable:  
AFter some unpleasing intermissions, I return to that task of Contemplation, wherein only my soul findeth rest. If in other employments I have endeavoured to serve God and his Church, yet in none (I must confess) with equal contentment. Me thinks Controversy is not right in my way to Heaven; how ever the importunity of an adversary may force me to fetch it in: If Truth oppressed by an erroneous teacher cry (like a ravished virgin) for my aid, I betray it, if I relieve it not; when I have done, I return gladly to these paths of peace. The favour which my late polemical labour hath found (beyond merit) from the learned, cannot divert my love to those wrangling studies. How earnestly doth my heart rather wish an universal cessation of these arms; that all the Professors of the dear name of Christ might be taken up with nothing, but holy and peaceable thoughts of devotion; the sweetness whereof hath so fare affected me, that (if I might do it without danger of misconstruction) I could beg even of an enemy this leave to be happy. I have already given account to the world, of some expenses of my hours this way, & here I bring more; which if some reader may censure as poor, none can censure as unprofitable. I am bold to write them under your Honourable Name, whereto I deeply obliged; that I may leave behind me this mean, but faithful Testimony, of mine humble thankfulness to your Lo: and your most honoured and virtuous Lady. The noble respects I have had from you both, deserve my prayers, & best services, which shall never be wanting to you and yours,  
From your Honours sincerely devoted in all true duty. IOS. HALL..   
Contemplations.  

SAUL in DAVID'S Cave.  
IT was the strange lot of David, that those whom he pursued, preserved him from those whom he had preserved; The Philistims, whom David had newly smitten in Keilah, call off Saul from smiting David in the wilderness, when there was but an hillock betwixt him and death: Wicked purposes are easily checked, not easily broken off. saul's sword is scarce dry from the blood of the Philistims, when it thirsts anew for the blood of David; and now in a renewed chase, hunts him dryfoot thorough every wilderness: The very desert is too fair a refuge for innocence; The hills and rocks are searched in an angry jealousy; the very wild goats of the mountains were not allowed to be companions for him, which had no fault but his virtue. Oh the seemingly-unequall distribution of these earthly things; Cruelty and oppression reigns in a palace, whiles goodness lurks among the rocks and caves, and thinks it happiness enough to steal a life.  
Like a dead man, David is fain to be hid under the earth, and seeks the comfort of protection in darkness: and now the wise providence of God leads Saul to his enemy without blood; He, which before brought them within an hills distance without interview, brings them now both within one roof; so as that whiles Saul seeks David and finds him not, he is found of David unsought. If Saul had known his own opportunities, how David and his men had interred themselves, he had saved a triple labour, of chase, of execution, and burial, for had he but stopped the mouth of that cave, his enemies had laid themselves down in their own graves: The wisdom of God thinks fit to hide from evil men, & spirits, those means and seasons, which might be (if they had been taken) most prejudicial to his own: We had been oft foiled; if Satan could but have known our hearts: sometimes we lie open to evils, and happy it is for us that he only knows it, which pities in steed of tempting us.  
It is not long, since Saul said of David (lodged them in Keilah) God hath delivered him into mine hands, for he is shut in, seeing he is come into a City that hath gates and bars; but now contrarily God delivers Saul (ere he was ware) into the hands of David, and without the help of gates and bars, hath enclosed him within the valley of the shadow of death: How just it is with God, that those who seek mischief to others, find it to themselves; and even whiles they are spreading nets, are ensnared; Their deliberate plotting of evil, is surprised with a sudden judgement.  
How amazedly must David needs look, when he saw Saul enter into the cave, where himself was? what is this (thinks he) which God hath done? Is this presence purposed, or casual; is Saul here to pursue, or to tempt me? Where suddenly the action betrays the intent, and tells David that Saul sought secrecy and not him. The superfluity of his maliciousness brought him into the wilderness, the necessity of nature led him into the cave: Even those actions wherein we place shame, are not exempted from a providence. The fingers of David's followers itched to cease on their Master's enemy; and that they might not seem led so much by faction, as by faith, they urge David with a promise from God; The day is come whereof the Lord said unto thee, Behold I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand, and thou shalt do to him, as it shall seem good to thee. This argument seemed to carry such command with it, as that David not only may, but must imbrue his hands in blood, unless he will be found wanting to God and himself, those temptations are most powerful, which fetch their force from the pretence of a religious obedience: Whereas those which are raised from arbitrary and private respects, admit of an easy dispensation.  
If there were such a prediction, one clause of it was ambiguous; and they take it at the worst: Thou shalt do to him as shall seem good to thee: that might not seem good to him, which seemed evil unto God. There is nothing more dangerous then to make construction of God's purposes out of eventuall appearances, If carnal probabilities might be the rule of our judgement, what could God seem to intent other then saul's death in offering him naked into the hands of those whom he unjustly persecuted? how could David's soldiers think that God had sent Saul thither on any other errand, then to fetch his bane, and if Saul could have seen his own danger, he had given himself for dead, for his heart guilty to his own bloody desires could not but have expected the same measure which is meant: But wise and holy David not transported either with misconcert of the event, or fury of passion, or solicitation of his followers dares make no other use of this accident than the trial of his loyalty, and the inducement of his peace; It had been as easy for him to cut the throat of Saul as his garment; but now his coat only shall be the worse, not his person; neither doth he in the moyming of a cloak seek his own revenge, but a monument of his innocence. Before Saul rend samuel's garment, now David cutteth saul's; both were significant; The rending of the one, signified the Kingdom torn out of those unworthy hands; the cutting of the other, that the life of Saul might have been as easily cut off.  
Saul needs no other monitor of his own danger, than what he wears. The upper garment of Saul was laid aside, whiles he went to cover his feet; so as the cut of the garment, did not threaten any touch of the body, yet even this violence offered to a remote garment strikes the heart of David, which finds a present remorse for harmefully touching, that which did once touch the person of his master, Tender consciences are moved to regret at those actions, which strong hearts pass over with a careless ease. It troubled not Saul to seek after the blood of a righteons' servant; there is no less difference of consciences than stomaches; Some stomaches will digest the hardest meats, and turn over substances, not in their nature edible, whiles others surret of the lightest food, and complain even of dainties: Every gracious heart is in some measure scrupulous, and finds more safety in fear, then in presumption: And if it be so straight as to curb itself in from the liberty which it might take in things which are not unlawful, how much less will it dare to take scope unto evil: By how much that state is better, where nothing is allowed, then where all things; by so much is the strict and timorous conscience better than the lawless. There is good likelihood of that man which is any way scrupulous of his ways; but he which makes no bones of his actions, is apparently hopeless.  
SINCE David's followers pleaded God's testimony to him as a motive to blood. David appeals the same God for his preservation from blood. The Lord keep me from doing that thing to my master the Lords anointed; and now the good man hath work enough to defend both himself and his persecuter, himself, from the importunate necessity of doing violence, and his master from suffering it. It was not more easy to rule his own hands, then difficult to rule a multitude: David's troop consisted of malcontents, all, that were in distress, in debt, in bitterness of soul were gathered to him: Many if never so well ordered, are hard to command, a few if disorderly, more hard; many and disorderly must needs be so much the hardest of all, that David never achieved any victory like unto this, wherein the first overcame himself, than his soldiers.  
AND what was the charm, wherewith David allayed those raging spirits of his followers? No other but this; He is the Anointed of the Lord. That holy oil was the Antidote for his blood; Saul did not lend David so impearceable an Armour, when he should encounter Goliath, as David now lent him in this plea of his unction. Which of all the disconted outlaws that lurked in that cave, durst put forth his hand against Saul, when they once heard, He is the Lords anointed: Such an impression of awe hath the divine providence caused his Image to make in the hearts of men, as that it makes traitors cowards; So as instead of striking they tremble; How much more lawless, than the outlaws of Israel are those professed Ringleaders of Christianity; which teach and practise, and encourage, and reward, and canonize the violation of majesty. It is not enough for those who are commanders of others to refrain their own hands from evil, but they must carefully prevent the iniquity of their heels, else they shall be justly reputed to do that by others, which in their own person they avoided; the laws both of God and man, presuppose us in some sort answerable for our charge: as taking it for granted, that we should not undertake those raynes, which we cannot manage.  
There was no reason David should lose the thankes of so noble a demonstration of his loyalty; Whereto he trusts so much, that he dares call back the man by whom he was pursued; and make him judge whether that fact had not deserved a life. As his act, so his word and gesture imported nothing but humble obedience, neither was there more meekness than force in that seasonable persuasion; Wherein he lets Saul see the error of his credulity, the unjust slanders of maliciousness, the opportunity of his revenge, the proof of his forbearance, the undeniable evidence of his innocence; and after a lowly disparagement of himself, appeals to God for judgement, for protection.  
So lively and feeling oratory did Saul find in the lap of his garment, and the lips of David, that it is not in the power of his envy, or ill nature to hold out any longer. Is this thy voice my son David, and Saul lift up his voice and wept, and said: Thou art more righteous than I; He, whose harp had wont to quiet the frenzy of Saul, hath now by his words calmed his fury; so as now he sheds tears in steed of blood: and confesses his own wrong, and David's integrity; And (as if he were new again entered into the bounds of Naioth in Ramath) he prays, and prophesies good to him, whom he maliced for good; The Lord render thee good for that thou hast done to me this day; for now behold I know that thou shalt be king. There is no heart made of flesh, that some time or other relents not, even flint and marble, will in some wether stand on drops. I cannot think these tears and protestations feigned. Doubtless Saul meant as he said, and passed through sensible fits of good and evil: Let no man like himself the better for good motions; the praise and benefit of those guests is not in the receipt, but the retention.  
Who, that had seen this meeting, could but have thought all had been sure on David's side? What can secure us if not tears, and prayers and oaths? Doubtless David's men which knew themselves obnoxious to laws and creditors, began to think of some new refuge, as making account this new pieced league would be everlasting; they looked when Saul would take David home to the court, and dissolve his army, and recompense that unjust persecution with just honour; when behold in the lose, Saul goes home, but David and his men go up unto the hold. Wise David knows Saul not to be more kind, then untrusty; and therefore had rather seek safely in his hold, then in the hold of an hollow and unsteedy friendship. Hear are good words but no security, which therefore an experienced man gives the hearing, but stands the while upon his own guard. No charity binds us to a trust of those, whom we have found faithless; Credulity upon weak grounds after palpable disapointments, is the daughter of folly: A man that is weatherwise, though he find an abatement of the storm, yet will not stir from under his shelter whiles he sees it thick in the wind, distrust is the just gain of unfaithfulness.   

Nabal and Abigail.  
IF innocency could have secured from saul's malice, David had not been persecuted; and yet under that wicked King, aged Samuel dies in his bed. That there might be no place for envy, the good Prophet had retired himself to the Schools. Yet he that hated David, for what he should be, did no less hate Samuel for what he had been. Even in the midst of saul's malignity, there remained in his heart impressions of awfulness unto Samuel: he feared, where he loved not. The restraint of God curbeth the rage of his most violent enemies, so as they cannot do their worst. As good husbands, do not put all their corn to the oven, but save some for seed, so doth God ever in the worst persecutions.  
SAMVEL is dead, David banished, Saul tyranizeth, Israel hath good cause to mourn; it is no marvel if this lamentation be universal. There is no Israelite that feeleth not the loss of a Samuel. A good Prophet is the common treasure, wherein every gracious soul hath a share That man hath a dry heart, which can part with God's Prophet without tears.  
NABAL was according to his name foolish; yet rich and mighty. Earthly possessions are not always accompanied with wit and grace. Even the line of faithful Caleb will afford an ill-conditioned Nabal. Virtue is not like unto lands inheritable. All that is traduced with the seed, is either evil, or not good. Let no man brag with the jews, that he hath Abram to his father; God hath raised up of this stone, a son to Caleb.  
ABIGAIL (which signified her father's joy) had sorrow enough to be matched with so unworthy an husband; If her father had meant, she should have had joy in herself, or in her life, he had not disposed her to an husband (though rich) yet fond and wicked; It is like he married her to the wealth, not to the man. Many a child is cast away upon riches. Wealth in our matches, should be as some grains or scruples in the balance, superadded to the gold of virtuous qualities, to weigh down the scales; when it is made the substancc of the weight, and good qualities the appendance, there is but one earth poised with another; which, wheresoever it is done, it is a wonder, if either the children prove not the parent's sorrow, or the parents, theirs.  
NABALS' sheep-shearing was famous; Three thousand fleeces must needs require many hands; neither is any thing more plentiful commonly than a Churl's feast: What a world was this, that the noble Champion & Rescuer of Israel, God's Anointed, is driven to send to a base Carl for victuals? It is no measuring of men by the depth of the purse, by outward prosperity. Servants are ofttimes set on horseback, whiles Princes walk on foot. Our estimation must be led by their inward worth, which is not alterable by time, nor diminishable with external conditions.  
ONE rag of a David is more worth, than the wardrobes of a thousand Nabals. Even the best deservings may want. No man may be contemned for his necessity; perhaps he may be so much richer in grace, as he is poorer in estate; neither hath violence or casualty more impoverished a David, than his poverty hath enriched him. He, whose folly hath made himself miserable, is justly rewarded with neglect; but he, that suffers for good, deserves so much more honour from others, as his distress is more. Our compassion or respect must be ruled, according to the cause of another's misery.  
ONE good turn requires another; in some cases not hurting is meritorious: He that should examine the qualities of David's followers must needs grant it worthy of a fee, that Nabals' flocks lay untouched in Carmel; but more, that David's Soldiers were Nabals Shepherds; yea, the keepers of his shepherds, gave them a just interest in that sheep-shearing feast, justly should they have been set at the upper end of the table. That Nabals' sheep were safe, he might thank his Shepherds; that his Shepherds were safe, he might thank David's Soldiers; It is no small benefit that we receive in a safe protection; well may we think our substance due, where we own ourselves. Yet this churlish Nabal doth not only give nothing to David's messengers, but which is worse than nothing, ill words; Who is David, or who is the son of Ishai; There be many servants now a days, that break away from their Masters▪ David asked him bread, he gives him stones. All Israel knew, and honoured their Deliverer; yet this Clown, to save his victuals, will needs make him a man, either of no merits of ill; either an obscure man, or a Fugitive. Nothing is more cheap than good words; these Nabal might have given, and been never the poorer; If he had been resolved to shut his hands, in a fear of saul's revenge, he might have so tempered his denial, that the repulse might have been free from offence: But now his foul mouth doth not only deny, but revile. It should have been Nabals glory, that his Tribe yielded such a Successor to the Throne of Israel; now in all likely hood, his envy stirs him up to disgrace that man, who surpassed him in honour and virtue, more than he was surpassed by him in virtue and ease; Many an one speaks fair, that means ill, but when the mouth speaks foul, it argues a corrupt heart; If with S. james his verbal benefactors, we say only, Depart in peace, warm yourselves, fill your bellies, we shall answer for hypocritical uncharitableness, but if we rate & curse those needy souls, whom we ought to relieve, we shall give a more fearful account of a savage cruelty, in trampling on those whom God hath humbled. If healing with good words be justly punishable, what torment is there for those that wound with evil.  
DAVID, which had all this while been in the school of patience; hath now his lesson to seek; He, who had happily digested all the railing and persecutions of a wicked Master, cannot put off this affront of a Nabal, Nothing can assuage his choler, but blood; How subject are the best of God's Saints to weak passions, and if we have the grace to ward an expected blow of temptations, how easily are we surprised with a sudden foe. Wherefore serve these recorded weaknesses of holy men, but to strengthen us against the conscience of our infirmities? not that we should take courage to imitate them in the evil, whereunto they have been miscarried; But we should take heart to ourselves, against the discouragement of our own evils.  
THE wisdom of God hath so contrived it, that commonly (in societies) good is mixed with evil; wicked Nabal hath in his house a wise and good servant, a prudent and worthy wife; That wise servant is careful to advertise his Mistress of the danger; his prudent Mistress is careful to prevent it.  
THE lives of all his family were now in hazard: she dares not commit this business to the fidelity of a messenger, but forgetting her sex, puts herself into the errand; Her foot is not slow, her hand is not empty; According to the offence she frames her satisfaction; Her husband refused to give, she brings a bountiful gift; her husband gave ill words, she sweetens them with a meek and humble deprecation; Her husband could say, Who is David? she falls at his feet, her husband dismisses David's men empty, she brings her servants laden with provision; as if it had been only meant to ease the repelled messengers of the carriage, not to scant them of the required benevolence; No wit, no art could device a more pithy and powerful Oratory: As all satisfaction, so hers, gins with a confession, wherein she deeply blameth the folly of her husband: She could not have been a good wife, if she had not honoured her unworthy head; If a stranger should have termed him fool in her hearing, he could not have gone away in peace: Now to save his life, she is bold to acknowledge his folly: It is a good disparagement that preserveth. There is the same way to our peace in heaven; the only means to escape judgement, is to complain of our own vileness; she pleadeth her ignorance of the fact, and therein, her freedom from the offence; she humbly craveth acceptation of her present, with pardon of the fault; she professeth David's honourable acts and merits; she foretells his future success and glory; she lays before him the happy peace of his soul, in refraining from innocent blood. David's breast, which could not through the seeds of grace, grow to a stubborness in ill resolutions, cannot but relent with these powerful and feasonable persuasions; and now, in steed of revenge, he blesseth God for sending Abigail to meet him; he blesseth Abigail for her council, he blesseth the council for so wholesome efficacy, and now rejoiceth more in being overcome with a wise and gracious advice, than he would have rejoiced in a revengeful victory.  
A good heart is easily stayed from sinning, and is glad when it finds occasion to be crossed in ill purposes; Those secret checks which are raised within itself, do readily conspire with all outward retentives; It never yielded to a wicked motion, without much reluctation, and when it is overcome, it is but with half a consent; whereas perverse and obdurate sinners, by reason they take full delight in evil, and have already in their conceit swallowed the pleasure of sin, abide not to be resisted, running on headily, in those wicked courses they have propounded, in spite of opposition; and if they be forcibly stopped in their way, they grow sullen and mutinous. David had not only vowed, but deeply sworn the death of Nabal, and all his family, to the very dog that lay at his door; yet now he praiseth God, that hath given the occasion and grace to violate it. Wicked vows are ill made, but worse kept. Our tongue cannot tie us to commit sin. Good men think themselves happy, that since they had not the grace to deny sin; yet they had not the opportunity to accomplish it. If Abigail had fit still at home, David had sinned, and she had died: Now her discreet admonition hath preserved her from the sword, and diverted him from bloodshed. And now, what thankes, what benedictons hath she for this seasonable Council. How should it encourage us to admonish our brethren; to see that if we prevail, we have blessings from them; if we prevail not, we have yet blessings from God, and thankes of our own hearts.  
How near was Nabal to a mischief, and perceives it not? David was coming at the foot of the hill to cut his throat, while he was feasting in his house without fear; Little do sinners know, how near their jollity is to perdition. Many time judgement is at the threshold, whiles drunkenness and surfeit are at the board. Had he been any other then ● Nabal, he had not sat down to feast, till he had been sure of his peace with David; either not to expect danger, or not to clear it, was sottish; So foolish are carnal men, that give themselves over to their pleasures, whiles there are deadly quarrels depending against them in Heaven. There is nothing wherein wisdom is more seen, then in the temperate use of prosperity. A Nabal cannot abound, but he must be drunk and surfeit; Excess is a true argument of folly: We use to say, that When drink is in, wit is out; but if wit were not out, drink would not be in.  
It was no time to advice Nabal, while his reason was drowned in a deluge of wine. A beast or a stone is as capable of good council, as a Drunkard. Oh that the noblest Creature should so fare abase himself, as for a little liquor, to lose the use of those faculties, whereby he is a Man. Those that have to do with drink or frenzy, must be glad to watch times; So did Abigail, who the next morning presents to her husband, the view of his faults, of his danger, He than sees how near he was to death, and felt it not. That worldly mind is so apprehensive of the death that should have been, as that he dies, to think he had like to have died; Who would think a man could be so affected with a danger past, and yet so senseless of a future, yea imminent? He that was yesternight as a beast, is now as a stone; he was then overmerry, now dead and lumpish; Carnal hearts are ever in extremity. If they be once down, their desection is desperate, because they have no inward comfort, to mitigate their sorrow; What difference there was betwixt the disposition of David and Nabal? How oft had David been in the valley of the shadow of death, and feared no evil? Nabal is but once put in mind of a death that might have been, and is stricken dead.  
It is just with God, that they who live without grace, should dye without comfort; neither can we expect better, while we go on in our sins. The speech of Abigail smote Nabal into a qualm; that tongue had doubtless oft advised him well, and prevailed not; now, occasions his death, whose reformation it could not effect; she meant nothing but his amendment; God meant to make that loving Instrument the means of his revenge: she speaks, and God strikes; within ten days, that swoon ends in death. And now Nabal pays dear for his uncharitable reproach; for his riotous excess; That God, which would not suffer David to right himself by his own sword, takes the quarrel of his Servant into his own hand, David hath now his ends without sin; rejoicing in the just executions of God, who would neither suffer him to sin in revenging, nor suffer his adversary to sin unrevenged.  
Our loving God is more angry with the wrongs done to his servants, than themselves can be, and knows how to punish that justly, which we could not undertake with wronging God, more than men have wronged us. He that saith, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, repays ofttimes when we have forgiven, when we have forgotten; and calls to reckoning after our discharges; It is dangerous offending any favourite of him, whose displeasure and revenge is everlasting.  
How fare God looks beyond our purposes? Abigail came only to plead for an ill husband; and now God makes this journey a preparation for a better; So that in one act, she preserved an ill husband, and won a good one for the future; David well remembers her comely person, her wife speeches, her graceful carriage; and now, when modesty found it seasonable; he sends to sue to her, which had been his suppliant; she entreated for her husband, David treats with her for his wife; her request was to escape his sword, he wisheth her to his bed; It was a fair suit to change a David for a Nabal; to become David's Queen, in steed of Nabals' drudge; she that learned humility under so hard a Tutor, abaseth herself no less when David offers to advance her; (Let thine handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord) None are so fit to be great, as those that can stoop loewst: How could David be more happy in a wife; he finds at once piety, wisdom, humility, faithfulness, wealth, beauty? How could Abigail be more happy in an husband, then in the Prophet, the Champion, the Anointed of God? Those marriages are well made, wherein virtues are matched, and happiness is mutual.   

David and Achish.  
GOOD motions that fall into wicked hearts, are like some sparks that fall from the flint and steel, into wet tinder; lightsome for the time, but soon out. After saul's tears and protestations, yet is he now again, in the wilderness with three thousand men to hunt after innocent David: How invincible is the charity and loyalty of an honest heart? The same hand that spared Saul in the cave, spares him sleeping in the field; The same hand that cut away the lap of his master's garment; carried away his spear; that spear, which might as well have carried away, the life of the owner; is only born away for a proof of the fidelity of the bearer. Still Saul is strong, but David victorious, and triumphs over the malice of his persecutor; Yet still the victor flieth, from him whom he hath overcome; A man that sees; how fare Saul was transported, with his rancorous envy, cannot but say, that he was never more mad than when he was sober; For even after he had said (Blessed art thou my son David, thou shalt do great things and also prevail;) yet still he pursues him; whom he grants assured to prevail; what is this but to resolve to lose his labour in sinning? and in spite of himself to offend? How shameful is our inequality of disposition to good? We know we cannot miss of the reward of well-doing, and yet do it not; whiles wicked men cast away their endeavours upon those evil projects, whereof they are sure to fail; sin blinds the eyes and hardens the heart, and thrusts men into wilful mischiefs, how ever dangerous, how ever impossible; and never leaves them till it have brought them to utter confusion.  
THE overlong continuance of a tentation, may easily weary the best patience: and may attain that by protraction, which it could never do by violence; David himself at last gins to bend uncler this trial; and resolves so to flee from Saul, as that he runs from the Church of God; and whiles he will avoid the malice of his master, joins himself with God's enemies. The greatest Saints upon earth, are not always upon the same pitch of spiritual strength; He that sometimes said (I will not be afraid for ten thousand, now says, I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul) He had wont to consult with God, now he says thus in his own heart; How many evident experiments had David of God's deliverances; how certain and clear predictions of his future Kingdom; how infallible earnest was the holy oil, wherewith he was anointed, of the crown of Israel? And yet (David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul:) The best faith, is but like the twilight, mixed with some degrees of darkness, & infidelity; We do utterly misreakon the greatest earthly holiness, if we exempt it from infirmities, It is not long since David told Saul, that those wicked enemies of his, which cast him out from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord, did as good as bid him; Go serve other Gods, yet now is he gone from the inheritance of God, into the land of the Philistims; That Saul might seek him no more, he hides himself out of the lists of the Church, where a good man would not look for him: Once before had David fled to this Achish, when he was glad to scrabble on the doozes, and let his spittle fall upon his beard, in a semblance of madness, that he might escape, yet now in a semblance of friendship, is he returned to save that life, which he was in danger to have lost in Israel; Goliath the Champion of the Philistims, whom David slew, was of Gath; yet David dwells with Achish King of the Philistims in Gath; Even amongst them whose foreskins he had presented to Saul, by two hundreds at once, doth David choose to reside for safety: Howsoever it was a weakness in David, thus by his league of amity to strengthen the enemies of God, yet doth not God take advantage of it for his overthrow, but gives him protection, even where his presence offended; and gives him favour where himself bore just hatred; Oh the infinite patience and mercy of our God, who doth good to us for our evil, and in the very act of our provocation upholdeth, yea, blesseth us with preservation.  
Can Saul have rightly considered it, he had found it no small loss and impairing to his kingdom, that so valiant a Captain, attended with six hundred able soldiers, and their families should forsake his land, and join with his enemies; yet he is not quiet till he have abandoned his own strength: The world hath none so great enemy to a wicked man, as himself; his hands cannot be held from his own mischief; he will needs make his friends, enemies; his enemies, victors, himself, miserable.  
DAVID was too wise, to cast himself into the hands of a Philistim King, without assurance; What assurance could he have but promises? Those, David had from Saul abundantly, and trusted them not; He dares trust the fidelity of a Pagan, he dares not trust the vows of a King of Israel; There may be fidelity without the Church, and falsehood within: It need not be any news to find some Turks true, and some Christians faithless.  
EVEN unwise men are taught by experience, how much more they, who have wit to learn without it? David had well found, what it was to live in a Court; He therefore, whom envy driven from the Court of Israel, voluntarily declines the Philistim Court; and sies for a country-habitation; It had not been possible for so noted a stranger, after so much Philistim-bloud shed, to live long in such eminency, amongst the press of those, whose sons, or brothers, or fathers, or allies, he had slaughtered, without some perilous machination of his ruin; therefore he makes suit for an early remove: (For why should thy servant dwell in the chief City of the Kingdom with thee?) Those that would stand sure, must not affect too much height, or conspicuity; The tall Cedars are most subject to winds and lightnings, whiles the shrubs of the valleys stand unmoved; Much greatness doth but make a fairer mark for evil; There is true firmness and safety in mediocrity.  
How rarely is it seen, that a man loseth by his modesty? The change fell out well to David of Ziklag, for Gath; Now he hath a City of his own; All Israel, where he was anointed, afforded him not so much possession: Now the City, which was anciently assigned to judah, returns to the just Owner; and is by this means entailed to the Crown of David's Successors. Besides, that now might David live out of the sight, and hearing of the Philistim Idolatries, and enjoy God no less in the walls of a Philistim-City, then in an Israelitish wilderness; withal, an happy opportunity was now opened to his friends of Israel, to resort unto his aid; the heads of the thousands that were of Manasseh, and many valiant Captains of the other Tribes, fell daily to him, and raised his six hundred followers to an army, like the Host of God. The deserts os Israel could never have yielded David so great an advantage: That God, whose the earth is makes room for his own everywhere; and oft times provideth them a foreign home, more kindly than the native; It is no matter for change of our soil, so we change not our God; If we can every where acknowledge him, he will no where be wanting to us.  
It was not for God's Champion to be idle; no sooner is he free from saul's sword, than he gins an offensive war against the Amalekites, Girzites, Geshurites: He knew these Nations branded by God to destruction; neither could his increasing army be maintained with a little▪ By one act therefore, he both revenges for God, and provides for his Host. Had it not been for that old quarrel, which God had with this people, David could not be excused from a bloody cruelty, in killing whole Countries, only for the benefit of the spoil: Now his Soldiers were at once, God's Executioners, and their own Foragers. The intervention of a command from the Almighty, altars the state of any act; and makes that worthy of praise, which else were no better than damnable. It is now justice, which were otherwise murder; The will of God is the rule of good; what need we inquire into other reasons, of any act or determination, when we hear it comes from Heaven?  
How many hundred years had this brood of Canaanites lived securely in their Country; since God commanded them to be rooted out, and now promised themselves the certainest peace? The Philistims were their friends, if not their Lords; The Israelites had their hands full, neither did they know any grudge betwixt them and their neighbours, when suddenly the sword of David cuts them off, and leaves none alive to tell the news.  
THERE is no safety in protraction; with men, delay causeth forgetfulness, or abates the force of anger; as all violent motions are weakest at the furthest; but with him, to whom all times are present, what can be gained by prorogation? Alas, what can it prevail any of the cursed seed of Canaan, that they have made a truce with Heaven, and a league with Hell? Their day is coming, and is not the further off, because they expect it not.  
MISERABLE were the straits of David; while he was driven, not only to maintain his army by spoil, but to colour his spoil by a sinful dissimulation; He tells Achish, that he had been roving against the South or judah, and the South of the jerahmelites, and the South of the Kenites; either falsely, or doubtfully, so as he meant to deceive him, under whom he lived, and by whom he was trusted: If Achish were a Philistim, yet he was David's friend, yea his Patron; and if he had been neither, it had not becomne David to be false. The infirmities of God's children never appear, but in their extremities. It is hard for the best man, to say, how far he will be tempted. If a man will put himself among Philistims, he cannot promise to come forth innocent.  
How easily do we believe that which we wish; The more credit Achish gives unto David, the more sin it was to deceive him. And now the conceit of this engagement, procures him a further service. The Philistims are assembled to fight with Israel; Achish dares trust David on his side; yea, to keep his head for ever; neither can David: do any less than promise his aid against his own flesh: Never was David, in all his life, driven to so hard an exigent: never was he so extremely perplexed; For what should he do now▪ To fight with Achish, he was tied by promise, by merit▪ Not to fight against Israel, he was tied by his calling, by his unction; Not to fight for Achish, were to be unthankful; To fight against Israel, were to be unnatural; Oh what an inward battle must David needs have in his breast, when he thinks of this battle of Israel, and the Philistims; How doth he wish now, that he had rather stood to the hazard of saul's perfecution, then to have put himself upon the favour of Achish; He must fight on one side, and on whether side soever he should fight, he could not avoid to be treacherous; a condition worse than death, to an honest heart; which way he would have resolved, if it had comen to the execution, who can know, since himself was doubtful? either course had been no better then desperate. How could the Israelites ever have received him for their King, who in the open field, had fought against them? And contrarily, if he would have fought against his friend, for his enemy; against Achish for Saul, he was now environed with jealous Philistims; and might rather look for the punishment of his treason, than the glory of a victory.  
HIS heart had led him into these straits; the Lord finds a way to lead him out: The suggestions of his enemies do herein befriend him; The Princes of the Philistims (whether of envy, or suspicion) plead for David's dismission, (Send this fellow back, that he may go again to his place, which thou hast apppointed him, and let him not go down to the battle, lest he be an adversary to us.) No advocate could have said more, himself durst not have said so much. Oh the wisdom, and goodness of our God, that can raise up an adversary to deliver out of those evils, which our friends cannot; That by the sword of an enemy, can let out that apostume, which no Physician could tell how to cure: It would be wide with us sometimes, if it were not for others malice.  
There could not be a more just question, than this of the Philistim Princes, What do these Hebrews here? An Israelite is out of his element, when he is in an army of Philistims: The true servants of God are in their due places, when they are in opposition to his enemies. Profession of hostility becomes them better than leagues of amity.  
YET Achish likes David's conversation and presence so well, that he professeth himself pleased with him, as with an Angel of God; How strange it is to hear, that a Philistim should delight in that holy man, whom an Israelite abhors, and should be loath to be quit of David, whom Saul hath expelled. Terms of civility be equally open to all religions, to all professions: The common graces of God's children, are able to attract love from the most obstinate enemies of goodness; If we affect them for by-respects of valour, wisdom, discourse, wit, it is their praise, not ours, But if for divine grace and religion, it is our praise with theirs.  
SUCH now was David's condition, that he must plead for that he feared, and argue against that which he desired: (What have I done? and what hast thou found in thy servant, that I may not go, and fight against the enemies of my Lord the King?) Never any news could be more cordial to him then this, of his dismission; yet must he seem to strive against it, with an importunate profession of his forwardness to that act, which he most detested.  
One degree of dissimulation draws on another; those which have once given way to a faulty course, cannot easily, either stop or turn back; but are in a sort forced to second their ill beginnings, with worse proceed. It is a dangerous and miserable thing, to cast ourselves into those actions, which draw with them a necessity, either of offending, or miscarriage.   

Saul and the Witch of Endor.  
EVEN the worst men may sometimes make head against some sins. Saul hath expelled the Sorcerers out of the land of Israel; and hath forbidden magic upon pain of death. He that had no care to expel Satan out of his own heart, yet will seem to drive him out of his kingdom. That we see wicked men oppose themselves to some sins, there is neither marvel, nor comfort in it: No doubt Satan made sport at this edict of Saul; what cares he to be banished in sorcery, whiles he is entertained in malice? He knew and found Saul his; whiles he resisted; and smiled to yield thus fare unto his vassal: if we quit not all sins, he will be content we should, either abandon or persecute some.  
Where is▪ no place for holy fear, there will be place for the servile; The graceless heart of Saul was astonished at the Philistims; yet was never moved at the frowns of that God, whose anger sent them, nor of those sins of his, which procured them. Those that cannot fear for love, shall tremble for fear: and how much better is awe then terror? prevention than confusion? There is nothing more lamentable to see a man laugh when he should fear; God shall laugh when such a ones fear cometh:  
Extremiry of distress, will send even the profanest man to God; like as the drowning man, reacheth out his hand to that bow, which he contemned whiles he stood safe on the bank; Saul now asketh counsel of the Lord; whose Prophet he hated, whose priests he slew, whose anointed he persecutes; Had Saul consulted with God when he should, this evil had not been; but now, if this evil had not been; he had consulted with God; The thank of this act is due, not him, but to his affection; A forced piety is thankless, and unprofitable; God will not answer him neither by dreams, nor by vrim, nor by Prophets. Why should God answer, that man by dreams, who had resisted him waking? Why should he answer him by vrim, that had slain his Priests? Why should he answer him by Prophets, who hated the Father of the Prophets, rebelled against the word of the Prophets?  
It is an unreasonable unequality to hope to find God at our command, when we would not be at his; To look that God should regard our voice in trouble, when we would not regard his, in peace.  
Unto what mad shifts are men driven by despair? If God will not answer, Satan shall; (Saul said to his servants, seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit) If Saul had not known this course Devilish, why did he decree to banish it, to mulct it with death? yet now against the stream of his conscience, he will seek to those whom he had condemned; There needs no other judge of saul's act then himself; had he not before opposed this sin, he had not so heinous sinned in committing it; There cannot be a more fearful sign of an heart given up to a reprobate sense, then to cast itself wilfully into those sins, which it hath proclaimed to detest. The declinations to evil are many times insensible, but when it breaks forth into such apparent effects, even others eyes may discern it; What was Saul the better to foreknow the issue of his approaching battle? If this consultation could have strengthened him against his enemies, or promoted his victory, there might have been some colour for so foul an act; Now, what could he gain, but the satisfying of his bootless curiosity; in foreseeing that, which he should not be able to avoid?  
Foolish men give a way their souls for nothing; The itch of impertinent and unprofitable knowledge, hath been the hereditary destroyer of the sons of Adam and Eve; How many have perished to know that which hath procured their perishing? How ambitious should we be to know those things, the knowledge whereof is eternal life.  
Many a lewd office are they put to; which serve wicked masters; one while saul's servants are set to kill innocent David; another while, to shed the blood of God's Priests; and now they must go seek for a Witch: It is no small happiness to attend them, from whom we may receive precepts and examples of virtue.  
Had Saul been good, he had needed no disguise; Honest actions never shame the doers; Now that he goeth about a sinful business, he changeth himself; he seeks the shelter of the night, he takes but two followers with him; It is true, that if Saul had comen in the port of a King, the Witch had as much dissembled her condition, as now he dissembleth his; yet it was not only desire to speed, but guiltiness that thus altered his habit; such is the power of conscience, that even those who are most affected to evil, yet are ashamed to be thought such as they desire to be.  
Saul needed another face to fit that tongue, which should say (Conjecture to me by the familiar spirit, and bring me up whom I shall name unto thee;) An obdurate heart can give way to any thing:  
Notwithstanding, the peremptory edict of Saul, there are still Witches in Israel: Neither good laws nor careful executions, can purge the Church from Malefactors; There will still be some that will jeopard their heads upon the grossest sins; No garden can be so curiously tended, that there should not be one weed left in it. Yet so fare can good statutes, and due inflictions of punishment upon offenders, prevail that mischievous persons are glad to pull in their heads; and dare not do ill, but in disguise and darkness. It is no small advantage of justice, that it affrights sin, if it cannot be expelled; As contrarily, woeful is the condition of that place, where is a public profession of wickedness.  
This Witch was no less crafty than wicked; she had before (as is like) bribed Officers to escape indictment, lurk in secrecy; and now she will not work her feats without security; her suspicion projects the worst; (Wherefore seekest thou to take me in a snare, to cause me to dye?) Oh vain Sorceress, that could be wary to avoid the punishment of Saul, careless to avoid the judgement of God; Can we forethink what our sin would cost us, we durst not, but be innocent: This is a good and seasonable answer for us, to make unto Satan, when he solicits us to evil (Wherefore seekest thou to take me in a snare, to cause me to dye?) Nothing is more sure than this intention in the tempter, than this event in the issue; Oh that we could but so much fear the eternal pains, as we do the temporary, and be but so careful to save our souls from torment, as our bodies.  
No sooner hath Saul sworn her safety, than she addresseth her to her sorcery; Hope of impunity draws on sin with boldness; were it not for the delusions of false promises, Satan should have no Clients. Can Saul be so ignorant, as to think that Magic had power over God's deceased Saints, to raise them up; yea, to call them down from their rest? Time was, when Saul was among the Prophets. And yet now, that he is in the impure lodge of Devils, how senseless he is, to say, Bring me up Samuel? It is no rare thing, to lose even our wit and judgement together with graces; How justly are they given over to sottishness, that have given themselves over to sin?  
The Sorceress (it seems) exercising her conjurations in a room apart, is informed by her Familiar, who it was that set her on work; she can therefore find time, in the midst of her exorcisms, to bind the assurance of her own safety, by expostulation, She cried with a loud voice, Why hast thou deceived me, for thou art Saul,) The very name of Saul was an accusation; Yet is he so far from striking his breast, that doubting lest this fear of the Witch, should interrupt the desired work, he encourages her, whom he should have condemned; (Be not afraid;) He that had more cause to fear, for his own sake, in an expectation of just judgement, cheers up her, that feared▪ nothing but himself: How ill doth it become us, to give that counsel to others, whereof we have more need and use in our own persons?  
As one that had more care to satisfy his curiosity, than her suspicion, he asks, What sawest thou? Who would not have looked, that saul's hair should have stared on his head, to hear of a spirit raised? His sin hath so hardened him, that he rather pleases himself in it, which hath nothing in it but horror; So far is Satan content to descend to the service of his servants, that he will approve his feigned obedience to their very outward senses; What form is so glorious, that he either cannot, or dare not undertake? Here Gods ascend out of the earth; Elsewhere Satan transforms him into an Angel of light; What wonder is it, that his wicked Instruments appear like Saints in their hypocritical dissimulation? If wec will be judging by the appearance, we shall be sure to err: No eye could distinguish betwixt the true Samuel, and a false spirit. Saul, who was well worthy to be deceived, seeing those grey hairs, and that mantle, inclines himself to the ground, and bows himself; He that would not worship God in Samuel alive, now worships Samuel in Satan; and no marvel; Satan was now become his refuge in stead of God; his Vrim was darkness, his Prophet a Ghost: Every one that consults with Satan, worships him, though he bow not, neither doth that evil spirit desire any other reverence, then to be sought to.  
How cunningly doth Satan resemble, not only the habit and gesture, but the language of Samuel, Wherefore hast thou disquieted me, and wherefore dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is gone from thee, and is thine enemy? Nothin is more pleasing to that evil one, then to be solicited, yet in the person of Samuel, he can say, Why hast thou disquieted me? Had not the Lord been gone from Saul, he had never comen to the devilish Oracle of Endor, and yet the counterfeiting spirit can say, Why dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is gone from thee? Satan cares not how little he is known to be himself; he love's to pass under any form, rather than his own.  
The more holy the person is, the more carefully doth Satan act him, that by his stale he may ensnare us. In every motion it is good to try the spirits, whether they be of God; Good words are no means, to distinguish a Prophet from a Devil; Samuel himself, whiles he was alive, could not have spoken more gravely, more severely, more divinely, than this evil Ghost, For the Lord will rend thy Kingdom out of thy hand, and give it thy neighbour David, because thou obeyedst not the voice of the Lord, nor executedst his fierce wrath upon the Amalekites, therefore hath the Lord done this unto thee this day: When the Devil himself puts on gravity and religion, who can marvel at the hypocrisy of men? Well may lewd men be good Preachers, when Satan himself can play the Prophet; Where are those Ignorants, that think charitably of charms and spells, because they find nothing in them, but good words? What Prophet could speak better words, than this Devil in samuel's mantle? Neither is there at any time so much danger of that wicked spirit, as when he speaks best.  
I could wonder to hear Satan preach thus prophetically, if I did not know, that as he was once a good Angel, so he can still act what he was; Whiles Saul was in consultation of sparing Agag, we shall never find that Satan would lay any block in his way; Yea, than he was a prompt Orator, to induce him into that sin; now that it is past & gone; he can lad Saul with fearful denunciations of judgement; Till we have sinned, Satan is a Parasite, when we have sinned, he is a Tyrant: What cares he to flatter any more, when he hath what he would? Now his only work is to terrify, and confound, that he may enjoy what he hath won; How much better is it serving that Master, who when we are most dejected with the conscience of evil, heartens us with inward comfort, and speaks peace to the soul, in the midst of tumult?   

Ziglag spoilt and revenged.  
HAD not the King of the Philistims sent David away early, his wives, & his people and substance, which he left at Ziglag had been utterly lost; Now Achish did not more pleasure David in his entertainment, then in his dismission. Saul was not David's enemy more in the persecution of his person, then in the forbearance of God enemies; Behold, thus late doth David feel the smart of saul's sin, in sparing the Amalekites; who, if God's sentence had been duly executed, had not now survived, to annoy this parcel of Israel.  
As in spiritual respects, our sins are always hurtful to ourselves, so in temporal, ofttimes prejudicial to posterity; A wicked man deserves ill of those, he never lived to see.  
I cannot marvel at the Amalekites assault made upon the Israelites of Ziglag; I cannot but marvel at their clemency; how just it was, that while David would give aid to the enemies of the Church, against Ifrael; the enemies of the Church should rise against David, in his peculiar charge of Israel: But whilst David, roving against the Amalekites, not many days before, left neither man nor woman alive, how strange is it, that the Amalekites invading and surprising Ziglag (in revenge) kill neither man nor woman? Shall we say that mercy is fled from the breasts of Israelites, and rests in heathens? Or shall we rather ascribe this to the gracious restraint of God, who having designed Amalek to the slaughter of Israel, and not Israel to the slaughter of Amalek, moved the hand of Israel, and held the hands of Amalek; This was that alone, that made the heathens take up with an un-bloody revenge; burning only the walls, and leading away the persons. Israel crossed the revealed will of God, in sparing Amalek; Amalek fulfils the secret will of God in sparing Israel.  
It was still the lot of Amalek, to take Israel at all advantages; upon their first coming out of Egypt, when they were weary, weak, and unarmed, then did Amalek assault them: And now, when one part of Israel was in the field against the Philistims, another was gone with the Philistims against Israel; the Amalakites set upon the coasts of both; and goes away laded with the spoil: No other is to be expected of our spiritual adversaries, who are ever readiest to assail, when we are the unreadiest to defend.  
It was a woeful spectacle for David and his Soldiers, upon their return to find ruins and ashes in steed of houses, and in steed of their families, solitude; Their city was vanished into smoke, their households into captivity; neither could they know whom to accuse, or where to inquire for redress; whiles they made account that their home should recompense their tedious journey with comfort, the miserable desolation of their home doubles the discomfort of their journey; what remained there but tears and lamentations? They lifted up their voices, and wept, till they could weep no more▪ Hear was plenty of nothing but misery and sorrow. The heart of every Israelite was brimful of grief; David's run over; for besides that his cross was the same with theirs, all theirs was his alone; each man looked on his fellow as a partner of affliction, but every one looked upon David as the cause of all their affliction; and (as common displeasure is never but fruitful of revenge) they all agree to stone him as the author of their undoing, whom they followed all this while, as the hopeful means of their advancements.  
Now David's loss is his least grief; neither (as if every thing had conspired to torment him) can he look beside the aggravation of his sorrow and danger; Saul and his soldiers had hunted him out of Israel; the Philistim Courtiers had hunted him from the favour of Achish; the Amalekites spoiled him in Ziglag; yet all these are easy adversaries in comparison of his own; his own followers are so fare from pitying his participation of the loss, that they are ready to kill him, because they are miserable with him. Oh the many and grievous perplexities of the man after Gods own heart; If all his train had joined their best helps for the mitigation of his grief, their cordials had been too weak, but now the vexation that arises from their fury, and malice, drowneth the sense of their loss, and were enough to distract the most resolute heart; why should it be strange to us, that we meet with hard trials, when we see the dear anointed of God thus plunged into evils?  
What should the distressed Son of Ishai now do? whether should he think to turn him? to go back to Israel he durst not; to go to Achish he might not; to abide amongst those waste heaps he could not; or if there might have been harbour in those  walls, yet there could be no safety to remain with those mutinous spirits. (But David comforted himself in the Lord his God;) oh happy and sure refuge of a faithful Soul; The earth yielded him nothing, but matter of disconsolation, and heaviness; he lifts his eyes above the hills, whence cometh his salvation; It is no marvel that God remembered David in all his troubles; Since David in all his troubles, did thus remember his God; he knew that though no mortal eye of reason; or sense could discern any evasision from these intricate evils, yet that the eye of divine providence had descried it long before; and that though no humane power could make way for his safety, yet that the overruling hand of his God, could do it with ease; His experience had assured him of the fidelity of his Guardian in heaven; and therefore he comforted himself in the Lord his God.  
In vain is comfort expected from God, if we consult not with him. Abiathar the Priest is called for; David was not in the court of Achish, without the Priest by his side; nor the Priest without the Ephod; Had these been left behind in Ziglag, they had been miscarried with the rest, and David had now been hopeless. How well it succeeds to the great, when they take God with them in his Ministers, in his ordinances? As contrarily, when these are laid by, as superfluous, there can be nothing but uncertainty of success, or certainty of mischief. The presence of the Priest and Ephod, would have little availed him without their use; by them he asks counsel of the Lord in these straits. The mouth and ears of God, which were shut unto Saul, are open unto Saul, are open unto David; no sooner can he ask, than he receives answer; and the answer that he receives is full of courage and comfort. (Fellow, for thou shalt surely overtake them, and recover all) That God of truth, never disappointed any man's trust. David now finds, that the eye which waited upon God, was not sent away weeping.  
David therefore, and his men, are now upon their march after the Amalekite: It is no lingering, when God bids us go; They which had promised rest to their weary limbs, after their return from Achish, in their harbour of Ziglag, are glad to forget their hopes, and to put their stiff joints unto a new task of motion; It is no marvel, if two hundred of them were so overtyred, with their former toil, that they were not able to pass over the river Besor. David was a true type of Christ. We follow him in these holy wars, against the spiritual Amalekites. All of us are not of an equal strength; Some are carried by the vigour of their faith, through all difficulties; Others, after long pressure, are ready to languish in the way; Our Leader is not more strong than pitiful; neither doth he scornfully cashier those, whose desires are hearty, whiles their abilities are unanswerable; How much more should our charity pardon the infirmities of our brethrens; and allow them to sit by the stuff, who cannot endure the march?  
The same Providence, which appointed David to follow the Amalekites; had also ordered an Egyptian to be cast behind them. This cast servant, whom his cruel Master, had left to faintness and famine, shall be used as the means of the recovery of the Israelites loss; and of the revenge of the Amalekites. Had not his Master neglected him, all these rovers of Amalek, had gone away with their life and booty; It is not safe to despise the meanest vassal upon earth. There is a mercy and care due to the most despicable piece of all humanity; wherein we cannot be wanting without the offence, without the punishment of God.  
Charity distinguisheth an Israelite from an Amalekite. David's followers are strangers to this Egyptian; an Amalekite was his Master; His Master leaves him to dye (in the field) of sickness and hunger; these strangers relieved him: and ere they know, whether they might by him receive any light in their pursuit, they refresh his dying spirits with bread and water, with figs and raisins; Neither can the haste of their way be any hindrance to their compassion; He hath no Israelitish blood in him, that is utterly merciless; Perhaps, yet David's Followers might also, in the hope of some intelligence, show kindness to this forlorn Egyptian. Worldly wisdom teacheth us, to sow small courtesies, where we may reap large harvests of recompense: No sooner are his spirits recalled, than he requites his food with information. I cannot blame the Egyptian, that he was so easily induced, to descry these unkind Amalekites, to merciful Israelites; those that gave him over unto death, to the restorers of his life; much less, that ere he would descry them; he requires an oath of security, from so bad a Master; Well doth he match death with such a servitude; Wonderful is the Providence of God; even over those, which are not in the nearest bonds, his own; Three days, and three nights, had this poor Egyptian Slave lain sick and hunger-starved in the fields, and looks for nothing but death, when God sends him secure from the hands of those Israelites, whom he had helped to spoil; though not so much for his sake, as for Israel's, is this heathenish Straggler preserved.  
It pleases God, to extend his common favours to all his creatures; but in miraculous preferuations; he hath still wont to have respect to his own. By this means therefore, are the Israelites brought to the sight of their late spoilers, whom they find scattered abroad, upon all the earth, eating, and drinking, and dancing in triumph, for the great prey they had taken.  
It was three days at least, since this gainful foraging of Amalek; and now, seeing no fear of any Pursuer, and promising themselves safety, in so great and untraced a distance, they make themselves merry with so rich and easy a victory; and now suddenly, when they began to think of enjoying the beauty and wealth they had gotten; the sword of David was upon their throats. Destruction is never nearer, than when security hath chased away fear. With how sad faces and hearts, had the wives of David, and the other Captives of Israel, looked upon the triumphal revels of Amalek; and what a change, do we think, appeared in them, when they saw their happy and valiant Rescuers, flying in upon their insolent Victors, and making the death of the Amalekites, the ransom of their captivity; They mourned even now at the dances of Amalek; now in the shrieks and death of Amalek, they shout and rejoice; The mercy of our God forgets not to interchange our sorrows with joy, and the joy os the wicked with sorrow.  
The Amalekites have paid a dear loan for the goods of Israel, which they now restore with their own lives; and now their spoil hath made David richer than he expected; that booty which they had swept from all other parts accrued to him.  
Those Isralites that could not go on to fight for their share, are comen to meet their brethren with gratulation. How partial are we wont to be unto our own causes? Even very Israelites will be ready to fall out for matter of profit: where self-love hath bred a quarrel, every man is subject to flatter his own case. It seemed plausible, and but just to the actors in this rescue, that those which had taken no part in the pain, and hazard of the journey, should receive no part of the commodity. It was favour enough for them to recover their wives & children, though they shared not in the goods. Wise and holy David (whose praise was no less, to overcome his own in time of peace, than his enemies in war) calls his contending followers from law to equity, and so order the matter, that since the plaintiffs were detained not by will, but by necessity; and since their forced stay, was useful in guarding the stuff, they should partake equally of the prey with their fellows. A sentence well-beseeming the justice of God's anointed. Those that represent God upon earth, should resemble him in their proceeding. It is the just mercy of our God, to measure us by our wills not by our abilities; to recompense us graciously, according to the truth of our desires, and endeavours; and to account that performed by us, which he only letteth us from performing. It were wide with us, if sometimes purpose did not supply actions. Whiles our heart faulteth not, we that through spiritual sickness are fain to abide by the stuff, shall share both in grace and glory with the victors.   

The death of Saul.  
THe Witch of Endor, had half slain Saul before the battle: It is just, that they who consult with devils, should go away with discomfort: He hath eaten his last bread, at the hand of a Sorceress: and now necessity draws him into that field, where he sees nothing but despair. Had not Saul believed the ill news of the counterfeit Samuel, he had not been struck down on the ground with words: Now his belief made him desperate; Those actions which are not sustained by hope; must needs languish: and are only promoted by outward compulsion: Whiles the mind is uncertain of success, it relieves itself with the possibilities of good: in doubts there is a comfortable mixture: but when it is assured of the worst event, it is utterly discouraged, and dejected. It hath therefore pleased the wisdom of God to hide from wicked men, his determination of their final estate, that their remainders of hope, may hearten them to good;  
In all likelihood on selfsame day, saw David a victor over the Amalakites, and Saul discomfited by the Philistims; How should it be otherwise? David consulted with God, and prevailed; Saul with the Witch of Endor and perisheth; The end is commonly answerable to the way; It is an idle injustice when we do ill to look to speed well. The slaughter of Saul and his sons, was not in the first scene of this Tragical field, that was rather reserved by God, for the last act, that Saules measure might be full: God is long ere he strikes, but when he doth, it is to purpose; First, Israel flees and falls down wounded in mount Gilboa; They had their part in saul's sin: they were actors in David's persecution: justly therefore do they suffer with him, whom they had seconded in offence. As it is hard to be good under an evil Prince, so it is as rare, not to be enwrapped in his judgements: It was no small addition to the anguish of saul's death, to see his sons dead, to see his people fleeing, and slain before him; They had sinned in their King, and in them▪ is their King punished. The rest were not so worthy of pity; but whose heart would it not touch to see jonathan, the good Son of a wicked Father, involved in the common destruction. Death is not partial: All dispositions, all merits are alike to it: If valour, if holiness, if sincerity of heart could have been any defence against mortality, jonathan had survived: Now by their wounds and death, no man can discern which is jonathan; The soul only finds the difference, which the body admitteth not; Death is the common gate both to heaven and hell; we all pass that, ere our turning to either hand: The sword of the Philistims, fetcheth jonathan through it with his fellows: no sooner is his foot over that threshold, than God conducteth him to glory: The best cannot be happy but through their dissolution; Now therefore hath jonathan no cause of complaint, he is by the rude and cruel hand of a Philistim, but removed to a better Kingdom, than he leaves to his brother: and at once is his death both a temporal affliction to the Son of Saul, and an entrance of glory to the friend of David.  
The Philistim-archers shot at random: God directs their arrows into the body of Saul; Lest the discomfiture of his people, and the slaughter of his sons should not be grief enough to him, he feels himself wounded, and sees nothing before him but horror and death; and now as a man forsaken of all hopes, he begs of his armorbearer that deaths-blow, which else he must (to the doubling of his indignation) receive from a Philistim. He begs this bloody favour of his servant, and is denied: Such an awefulnes hath God placed in sovereignty, that no entreaty, no extremity, can move the hand against it: What mettle are those men made of, that can suggest or resolve, and attempt the violation of majesty? Wicked men care more for the shame of the world, than the danger of their soul: Desperate Saul will now supply his armorbearer; and as a man that bore arms against himself, he falls upon his own sword. What if he had died by the weapon of a Philistim? So did his Son jonathan, and lost no glory: These conceits of disreputation prevail with carnal hearts above all spiritual respects: There is no greater murderer than vainglory: Nothing more argues an heart void of grace, then to be transported by idle popularity into actions prejudicial to the Soul.  
Evil examples, especially of the great never escaped imitation; the armour-bearer of Saul follows his master: and dares do that to himself, which to his King he durst not: as if their own swords had been more familiar executioners, they yielded unto them, what they grudged to their pursuers. From the beginning was Saul ever his own enemy, neither did any hands hurt him but his own: and now his death is suitable to his life: his own hand pays him the reward of all his wickedness, The end of hypocrites, and envious men is commonly fearful: Now is the blood of God's Priests, which Saul shed, and of David, which he would have shed, required, & requited. The evil spirit had said the evening before, To morrow thou shalt be with me: and now Saul hasteth to make the devil no liar: rather than fail, he gives himself his own mittimus: Oh the woeful extremities of a despairing Soul, plundging him ever into a greater mischief, to avoid the less. He might have been a patiented in another's violence, and faultless; now whiles he will needs act the Philistims part upon himself, he lived and died a murderer; The case is deadly, when the prisoner breaks the jail, and will not stay for his delivery: & though we may not pass sentence upon such a Soul, yet upon the fact we may: the Soul may possibly repent in the parting, the act is heinous, and such as without repentance, kills the Soul.  
It was the next day, ere the Philistims knew how much they were victors; then finding the dead corpses of Saul and his Sons, they begin their triumphs: The head of King Saul is cut off in lieu of Goliahs', and now all their Idol temples ring of their success; Foolish Philistims, If they had not been more beholden to saul's sins, than their Gods, they had never carried away the honour of those trophies: In steed of magnifying the justice of the true God, who punished Saul with deserved death, they magnify the power of the false: Superstition is extemely injurious to God: It is no better than theft, to ascribe unto the second causes that honour which is due unto the first: but to give God's glory to those things which neither act, nor are, it is the highest degree of spiritual robbery.  
Saul was none of the best Kings: yet so impatient are his subjects of the indignity offered to his dead corpse, that they will rather leave their own bones amongst the Philistims, than the carcase of Saul. Such a close relation there is betwixt a Prince and subject, that the dishonour of either is inseparable from both: How willing should we be to hazard our bodies or substance foe the vindication either of the person, or name of a good King, whiles he life's to the benefit of our protection: It is an unjust ingratitude in those men, which can endure the disgrace of them, under whose shelter they live; but how unnatural is the villainy of those miscreants, that can be content to be actors in the capital wrongs offered to sovereign authority:  
It were a wonder, if after the death of a Prince, there should want some Pickthank, to insinuate himself into his Successor: An Amalekite young manrides' post to Ziklag, to find out David, whom even common rumour had notified for the anointed heir to the Kingdom of Israel; to be the first messenger of that news, which he thought could be no other than acceptable; the death of Saul: and that the tidings might be so much more meritorious, he adds to the report, what he thinks might carry the greatest retribution: In hope of reward, or honour, the man is content to belly himself to David: It was not the spear, but the sword of Saul, that was the instrument of his death: neither could this stranger find Saul, but dying, since the Armour-bearer of Saul saw him dead, ere he offered that violence to himself: The hand of this Amalekite therefore was not guilty, his tongue was: Had not this messenger measured David's foot, by his own last, he had forborn this piece of the news; and not hoped to advantage himself by this falsehood: Now he thinks; The tidings of a Kingdom cannot but please: None but Saul and jonathan stood in David's way: He cannot choose, but like to hear of their removal: Especially, since Saul did so tyrannously persecute his innocence. If I shall only report the fact done by another, I shall go away but with the recompense of a lucky Post; whereas, if I take upon me the action, I am the man, to whom David is beholden for the Kingdom: he cannot but honour and requite me, as the author of his deliverance and happiness. Worldly minds think no man can be of any other, than their own diet; and because they find the respects of self-love, and private profit, so strongly prevailing with themselves, they cannot conceive, how these should be capable of a repulse from others.  
How much was this Amalekite mocked of his hopes: whiles he imagined, that David would now triumph, and feast in the assured expectation of the Kingdom, and possession of the Crown of Israel, he finds him renting his clothes, and wring his hands, and weeping, and mourning: as if all his comfort had been dead with Saul and jonathan: and yet perhaps he thought: This sorrow of David is but fashionable, such as great heirs make show of in the fatal day they have longed for; These tears will soon be dry; the sight of a Crown will soon breed a succession of other passions: But this error is soon corrected: For when David had entertained this Bearer, with a sad fast all the day: he calls him forth in the evening to execution: (How wast thou not afraid (saith he) to put forth thy hand, to destroy the Anointed of the Lord:) Doubtless, the Amalekite made many fair pleas for himself, out of the grounds of his own report: Alas, Saul was before fall'n upon his own spear. It was but mercy to kill him, that was half dead, that he might die the shorter: Besides, his entreaty and importunate prayers, moved me to hasten him, through those painful gates of death: had I stricken him as an enemy, I had deserved the blow I had given; now I sent him the hand of a friend: why am I punished for obeying the voice of a King? and for perfiting what himself begun, and could not finish: And if neither his own wound, nor mine, had dispatched him, the Philistims were at his heels, ready to do this same act with insultation, which I did in favour: and if my hand had not prevented them, wherehad been the Crown of Israel, which I now have here presented to thee: I could have delivered that to King Achish, and have been rewarded with honour: let me not dye for an act well meant to thee, how ever construed by thee: But no pretence can make his own tale not deadly. (Thy blood be upon thine own head, for thine own mouth hath testified against thee saying, I have slain the Lords Anointed.) It is a just supposition, that every man is so great a Favourer of himself, that he will not misreport his own actions, nor say the worst of himself: In matter of confession, men may without injury be taken at their words: If he did it, his fact was capital, If he did it not, his lie: It is pittyany other recompense should befall those false flatterers, that can be content to father a sin, to get thankes. Every drop of royal blood is sacred: For a man to say that he hath shed it, is mortal. Of how fare different spirits from this of David, are those men, which suborn the death of Princes, and celebrate and canonize the murderers. Into their secret, let not my soul come, my glory, be thou not joined to their assembly.   

Abner and Joab.  
HOw merciful and seasonable are the provisions of God? Ziglag was now nothing but ruins and ashes: David might return to the soil where it stood, to the roofs and walls he could not: No sooner is he disappointed of that harbour, than God provides him Cities of Hebron: Saul shall dye to give him elbowroom: Now doth David find the comfort that his extremity sought in the Lord his God: Now are his clouds for a time passed over: and the Sun breaks gloriously forth: David shall reign after his sufferings. So shall we, if we endure to the end, find a Crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge, shall give us at that day: But though David well knew that his head was long before anointed, and had heard Saul himself confidently avouching his succession: yet he will not stir from the heaps of Ziglag, till he have consulted with the Lord: It did not content him, that he had Gods warrant for the kingdom, but he must have his instructions for the taking possession of it: How safe and happy is the man that is resolved to do nothing without God? Neither will generalities of direction be sufficient; even particular circumstances must look for a word: still is God a pillar of fire, and cloud to the eye of every Israelite: neither may there be any motion or stay but from him; That action cannot but succeed, which proceeds upon so sure a warrant:  
God sends him to Hebron a city of judah: Neither will David go up thither alone, but he takes with him all his men with their whole households: they shall take such part as himself: As they had shared with him in his misery, so they shall now in his prosperity: Neither doth he take advantage of their late mutiny (which was yet fresh and green) to cashier those unthankful, and ungracious followers, but pardoning their secret rebellions, he makes them partakers of his good success. Thus doth our heavenly leader (whom David prefigured) take us to reign with him who have suffered with him: passing by our manifold infirmities, as if they had not been, he removeth us from the land of our banishment, and the ashes of our forlorn Ziklag, to the Hebron of our peace, and glory: The expectation of this day must (as it did with David's soldiers) digest all our sorrows.  
Never any calling of God was so conspicuous, as not to find some opposites: What Israelite did not know David, appointed by God to the succession of the kingdom? Even the Amalekite, could carry the Crown to him as the true owner: yet there wants not an Abner to resist him, and the title of an Ishbosheth to colour his resistance: If any of saul's house could have made challenge to the Crown, it should have been Mephibosheth the Son of jonathan: Who, it seems had too much of his Father's blood to be a competitor with David: the question is not who may claim the most right, but who may best serve the faction; Neither was Ishbosheth any other than Abners' stale: Saul could not have a fit Courtier: whether in imitation of his master's envy, or the ambition of ruling under a borrowed name, he strongly opposeth David: there are those who strive against their own hearts, to make a side, with whom conscience is oppressed by affection: An ill quarrel once undertaken shall be maintained, although with blood: Now, not so much the blood of Saul, as the engagement of Abner makes the war. The Sons of Zeruiah stand fast to David: It is much, how a man placeth his first interest: If Abner had been in joabs' room, when saul's displeasure driven David from the Court, or joab in Abners', these actions, these events had been changed with the persons: It was the only happiness of joab that he fell on the better side:  
Both the Commanders under David and Ishbosheth were equally cruel: both are so enured to blood, that they make but a sport of kill▪ Custom makes sin so familiar, that the horror of it, is to some turned into pleasure. (Come let the young men play before us.) Abner is the Challenger, and speeds thereafter: for though in the matches of duel both sides miscarried, yet in the following conflict, Abner and his men are beaten: By the success of those single combats no man knows the better of the cause: Both sides perish, to show, how little God liked either the offer, or the acceptation of such a trial, but when both did their best, God punisheth the wrong part with discomfiture.  
Oh, the misery of civil dissension: Israel and judah were brethren: One carried the name of the Father, the other of the Son: judah was but a branch of Israel, Israel was the root of judah: yet judah and Israel must fight, and kill each other; only upon the quarrel of an ill leaders ambition. The speed of Asahel was not greater than his courage: It was a mind fit for one of David's worthies, to strike at the head, to match himself with the best: He was both swift and strong: but the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong: If he had gone never so slowly, he might have overtaken death: now he runs to fetch it. So little lust had Abner to shed the blood of a Son of Zeruiah, that he twice advices him to retreat from pursuing his own peril: asahel's cause was so much better as Abners' success: Many a one mis-carries in the rash prosecution of a good quarrel, when the Abettors of the worst part go away with victory. Heat of zeal, sometimes in the undiscreet pursuit of a just adversary, proves mortal to the agent, prejudicial to the service.  
Abner, whiles he kills, yet he flies, and runs away from his own death, whiles he inflicts it upon another: David's followers had the better of the field and day; The Sun, as unwilling to see any more Israelitish blood shed by brethren, hath withdrawn himself: and now both parts having got the advantage of an hill under them, have safe convenience of parley: Abner begins, and persuades joab to surcease the fight (Shall the sword devour for ever? Knowest thou not, that it will be bitterness in the end? How long shall it be, ere thou bid the people return from following their brethren?) It was his fault, that the sword devoured at all: and why was not the beginning of a civil war bitterness? why did he call forth the people to skirmish, and invite them to death? Had Abner been on the winning hand, this motion had been thankworthy: It is a noble disposition in a Victor, to call for a cessatum of arms: whereas necessity wrings this suit from the overmastered. There cannot be a greater praise, to a valiant and wise Commander, than a propension to all just terms of peace: For war, as it is sometimes necessary, so it is always evil; and if fight have any other end proposed besides peace, it proves murder. Abner shall find himself no less overcome, by joab in clemency, than power; He says not, I will not so easily leave the advantage of my victory: since the dice of war run on my side, I will follow the chase of my good success: Thou shouldest have considered of this before thy provocation: It is now too late, to move unto forbearance: but, as a man that meant to approve himself equally free from cowardice, in the beginning of the conflict, and from cruelty in the end; he professeth his forwardness, to entertain any pretence of sheathing up the swords of Israel; and swears to Abner, that if it had not been for his proud irritation, the people had in the morning before ceased from that bloody pursuit of their brethren: As it becomes public persons to be lovers of peace, so they must show it upon all good occasions: letting pass no opportunity of making spare of blood.  
Ishbosheth was (it seems) a man of no great spirits, for being no less than forty years old, when his father went into his last field against the Philistims, he was content to stay at home; Abner hath put ambition unto him; and hath easily raised him to the head of a faction, against the anointed Prince of God's people. If this usurped Crown of saul's son, had any worth or glory in it, he cannot but acknowledge, to owe it all unto Abner, yet how forward is unthankful Ishbosheth to receive a false suggestion against his chief Abettor: (Wherefore hast thou gone in, to my father's Concubine?) He that made no conscience of an unjust claim of the Crown, and a maintenance of it with blood, yet seems scrupulous of a less sin, that carried in it the colour of a disgrace; The touch of her, who had been honoured by his father's bed, seemed an intolerable presumption, and such as could not be severed from his own dishonour: Self-love sometimes borrows the face of honest zeal. Those, who out of true grounds, dislike sins, do hate them all indifferently, according to their heinousness; hypocrites are partial in their detestation; bewraying ever most bitterness, against those offences, which may most prejudice their persons and reputations.  
It is as dangerous as unjust for Princes, to give both their ears and their heart to misgrounded rumours of their innocent followers: This wrong hath stripped Ishbosheth of the Kingdom; Abner in the mean time cannot be excused from a treacherous inconstancy; If saul's son had no true title to the Crown, why did he maintain it; If he had, why did he forsake the cause and person? Had Abner out of remorse, for furthering a false claim taken off his hand, I know not wherein he could be blamed, except for not doing it sooner; But now to withdraw his professed allegegeance, upon a private revenge, was to take a lewd leave of an ill action: If Ishbosheth were his lawful Prince, no injury could warrant a revolt; Even betwixt private persons, a return of wrongs is both uncharitable, and unjust, how ever this go currant for the common justice of the world, how much more should we learn from a supreme hand, to take hard measures with thankes? It had been Abuers duty, to have given his King a peaceable and humble satisfaction, and not to fly out in a snuff. If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place, for yielding, pacifieth great offences; now, his impatient falling, although to the right side, makes him no better then traitorously honest.  
So soon as Abner hath entertained a resolution of his rebellion; he persuades the Elders of Israel to accompany him in the change: & whence doth he fetch his main motive, but from the Oracle of God? (The Lord hath spoken of David, saying, By the hand of my servant David, will I save my people Israel, out of the hand of the Philistims, and out of the hand of all their enemies;) Abner knew this full well before, yet then was well content to smother a known truth for his own turn, and now the publication of it may serve for his advantage, he wins the heart of Israel, by showing God's Charter for him, whom he had so long opposed: Hypocrites make use of God for their own purposes; and care only to make divine authority a colour for their own designs; No man ever heard Abner godly till now; neither had he been so at this time, if he had not intended a revengeful departure from Ishbosheth: Nothing is more odious, then to make religion a stalking horse to policy.  
Who can but glorify God in his justice, when he sees the bitter end of this treacherous dissimulation: David may upon considerations of state, entertain his new guest with a feast; and well might he seem to deserve a welcome, that undertakes to bring all Israel to the league and homage of David: but God never meant to use so unworthy means, for so good a work. joab returns from pursuing a troop, and finding Abner dismissed in peace and expectation of a beneficial return follows him, and whether out of envy, at a new rival of honour, or out of the revenge of Asahel, he repays him both dissimulation and death; God doth most justly by joab, that which joab did for himself most unjustly, I know not (setting the quarrel aside) whether we can worthily blame Abner for the death of Asahel, who would needs after fair warnings, run himself upon Abners' spear: yet this fact shall procure his payment for worse. Now is Ishbosheth's wrong revenged by an enemy; we may not always measure the justice of God's proceedings, by present occasions; He needs not make us acquainted, or ask us leave when he will call for the arrearages of forgotten sins.   

Contemplations UPON THE HISTORY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.  
THE FIFTEENTH BOOK:  


Vzzah and the Ark  
David with Mephibosheth & Ziba.  
Hanun and David's Ambassadors  
David with Bashsheba and Vriah  
Nathan and David  
Amon and Thamar  
Absaloms' return and Conspiracy.     

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE MY VERY GOOD LORD, WILLIAM Lord Burleigh All grace and happiness.  
Right Honourable,  
THere are but two Books wherein we can read God; The one is his word, his works the other; This is the bigger volume, that the more exquisite. The Characters of this are more large, but dim; of that, smaller but clearer. Philosophers have turned over this, and erred; That, Divines and studious Christians, not without full and certain information. In the works of God we see the shadow, or footsteps of the Creator, in his word we see the face of God in a glass. Happiness consists in the vision of that infinite Majesty: and if we be perfectly happy above in seeing him face to face, our happiness is well forward below, in seeing the lively representation of his face in the glass of the Scriptures. We cannot spend our eyes too much upon this object; For me, the more I see, the more I am amazed, the more I am ravished with this glorious beauty: With the honest lepers, I cannot be content to enjoy this happy sight alone; there is but one way to every man's felicity; May it please your Lordship to take part with many your Peers in these my weak; but not unprofitable Contemplations; which shall hold themselves not a little graced with your Honourable name; Whereto, together with your right noble and most worthy Lady, I have gladly devoted myself; to be  
Your Lordships in all dutiful observance IOS: HALL..   

Vzzah and the Ark removed.  
THe house of Saul is quiet, the Philistims beaten, victory cannot end better than in devotion; David is no sooner settled in his house at jerusalem, than he fetcheth God to be his guest there; the thousands of Israel go now in an holy march, to bring up the Ark of God, to the place of his rest: The tumults of war afforded no opportunity of this service; only peace is a friend to religion, neither is peace ever our friend, but when it is a servant of piety: The use of war is not more pernicious to the body, than the abuse of peace is to the Soul; Alas, the riot bred of our long ease, rather drives the Ark of God from us; so the still sedentary life, is subject to diseases, and standing waters putrify. It may be just with God, to take away the blessing which we do so much abuse, and to scour off our rust with bloody war, etc.  
The Ark of God had now many years, rested in the obscure lodge of Abinadab, without the honour of a Tabernacle. David will not endure himself glorious, and the Ark of God contemptible, his first care is to provide a fit room for God; in the head of the Tribes, in his own city; The chief care of good Princes, must be the advancement of religion; What should the deputies of God rather do, then honour him whom they represent? It was no good that Israel could learn of Philistims; Those Pagans had sent the Ark back in a new cart; the Israelites saw God blessed that conduct, and now they practise it at home: But that which God will take from Philistims, he will not brook from Israel; Aliens from God are no fit patterns for children: Divine institution had made this a carriage for the Levites, not for Oxen: Neither should those Sons of Abinadab have driven the cart, but carried that sacred burden. God's businesses must be done after his own forms, which if we do with the best intentions alter, we presume:  
It is long, since Israel saw so fair a day as this, wherein they went in this holy triumph to fetch the Ark of God; Now their warlike trumpets are turned into Harps and Timbrils; and their hands in steed of wielding the Sword and Spear, strike upon those musical strings whereby they might express the joy of their hearts; here was no noise but of mirth, no motion but pleasant: oh happy Israel that had a God to rejoice in, that had this occasion of rejoicing in their God, and an heart that embraced this occasion. There is nothing but this wherein we may not joy immoderately, unseasonably; this spiritual joy can never be either out of time, or out of measure▪ let him that rejoiceth, rejoice in the Lord. But now when the Israelites were in the midst of this Angellike jollity, their hearts lifted up, their hands playing, their feet moving, their tongues singing and shouting, God sees good to strike them into a sudden dump by the death of Vzzah: They are scarce set into the tune when God mars their Music, by a fearful judgement; and changes their mirth into astonishment, and confusion; There could not be more excellent work then this they were about; there could not be more cheerful hearts in the performing of it, yet will the most holy God rather dash all this solemn service, then endure an act of presumption or infidelity. Abinadab had been the faithful host of God's Ark, for the space of twenty years: even in the midst of the terrors of Israel, who were justly affrighted with the vengeance inflicted upon Beth-shemesh, did he give harbour unto it; Yet even the Son of Abinadab is stricken dead, in the first departing of that blessed guest: The Sanctity of the Parent cannot bear out the sin of his Son: The holy one of Israel will be sanctified in all that come near him: He will be served like himself.  
What then was the sin of Vzzah? What was the capital crime, for which he so fearfully perished? That the Ark of God was committed to the Cart, it was not his device only, but the common act of many, That it was not carried on the shoulders of Levites, was no less the fault of Ahio, and the rest of their brethren; only Vzzah is stricken: The rest sinned in negligence, he in presumption; the Ark God shakes with the agitation of that carriage; he puts forth his hand to hold it steady; Humane judgement would have found herein nothing heinous: God sees not with the eyes of men; None but the Priests should have dared to touch the Ark; It was enough for the Levites to touch the bars that carried it; An unwarranted hand cannot so lightly touch the Ark, but he strikes the God that dwells in it: No marvel if God strike that man with death, that strikes him with presumption; There was well-near the same quarrel against the thousands of Bethshemesh, and against Vzzah; They died for looking into the Ark, he for touching it; lest Israel should grow into a contemptuous familiarity with this Testimony of God's presence, he will hold them in awe with judgements: The revenging hand of the Almighty, that upon the return of the Ark stayed at the house of Ahinadab, upon the remove of the Ark gins there again: Where are those that think God will take up with a careless and slubbered service? He whose infinite mercy uses to pass by our sins of infirmity, punisheth yet severely our bold faults: If we cannot do any thing in the degrees that he requireth, yet we must learn to do all things in the form that he requireth; Doubtless Vzzah meant no otherwise then well in putting forth his hand to stay the Ark; He knew the sacred utensils that were in it, the pot of Manna, the Tables of the Law, the rod of Aaron, which might be wronged by that over-rough motion: to these he offers his aid, and is stricken dead; The best intentions cannot excuse; much less warrant us in unlawful actions; where we do aught in faith, it pleaseth our good God to wink at, and pity our weaknesses; but if we dare to present God with the well-meant services of our own making, we run into the indignation of God; There is nothing more dangerous, then to be our own carvers in matter of devotion.  
I marvel not if the countenance of David were suddenly changed, to see the pale face of death in one of the chief actors in this holy procession: He that had found God so favourable to him in actions of less worth, is troubled to see this success of a business so hearty directed unto his God; and now he gins to look thorough Vzzah at himself, and to say, (How shall the Ark of the Lord come to me?) Then only shall we make a right use of the judgements of God upon others, when we shall fear them in ourselves, and finding our sins at least equal, shall tremble at the expectation of the same deserved punishments. God intends not only revenge in his executions, but reformation; As good Princes regard not so much the smart of the evil past, as the prevention of the future; which is never attained, but when we make applications of God's hand; and draw common cases out of God's particular proceed.  
I do not hear David say; Surely, this man is guilty of some secret sin, that the world knows not; God hath met with him; there is no danger to us; why should I be discouraged to see God just? We may go on safely and prosper; but here his foot stays, and his hand falls from his instrument, and his tongue is ready to tax his own unworthiness, (How shall the Ark of the Lord come unto me?) That heart is carnal and proud, that thinks any man worse than himself; David's fear stays his progress; Perhaps, he might have proceeded with good success, but he dares not venture, where he sees such a deadly check: It is better to be too fearful, then too forward in those affairs, which do immediately concern God; As it is not good to refrain from holy businesses, so it is worse to do them ill; awfulness is a safe interpreter of God's secret actions, and a wise guide of ours.  
This event hath helped Obed-Edom to a guest he looked not for, God shall now sojourn in the house of him, in whose heart he dwelled before by a strong faith; else the man durst not have undertaken, to receive that dreadful Ark, which David himself feared to harbour; Oh the courage of an honest and faithful heart; Obed-Edom knew well enough what slaughter the Ark had made among the Philistims, and after that amongst the Beth shemites, and now he saw Vzzah lie dead before him, yet doth he not make any scruple of entertaining it, neither doth he say, My neighbour Abinadab was a careful and religious host to the Ark, and is now paid with the blood of his son; how shall I hope to speed better; but he opens his doors with a bold cheerfulness, and notwithstanding all those terrors, bids God welcome: Nothing can make God not amiable to his own; Even his very justice is lovely: Holy men know how to rejoice in the Lord with trembling, and can fear without discouragement.  
The God of Heaven will not receive any thing from men on free cost; he will pay liberally for his lodging, a plentiful blessing upon Obed-Edom, and all his household. It was an honour to that zealous Gittite, that the Ark would come under his roof; yet God rewards that honour with benediction: Never man was a loser by true godliness; The house of Obed-Edom cannot this while want observation; the eyes of David, and all Israel are never off from it, to see how it fared with this entertainment. And now, when they find nothing, but a gracious acceptation and sensible blessing, the good King of Israel takes new heart, and hastens to fetch the Ark into his royal City. The view of God's favours upon the godly, is no small encouragement to confidence and obedience; Doubtless, Obed-Edom was not free from some weaknesses; If the Lord should have taken the advantage of judgement against him, what Israelites had not been disheartened from attending the Ark? Now David & Israel was not more affrighted with the vengeance upon Vzzah, then encouraged by the blessing of Obed-Edom; The wise God doth so order his just and merciful proceed, that the awfulness of men may be tempered with love. Now the sweet singer of Israel revives his holy Music; and adds both more spirit and more pomp to so devout a business▪ I did not before hear of trumpets, nor dancing, nor shouting, nor sacrifices, nor the linen Ephod; The sense of Gods passed displeasure, doubles our care to please him, and our joy in his recovered approbation; we never make so much of our health, as after sickness, nor never are so officious to our friend, as after an unkindness. In the first setting out of the Ark, David's fear was at least an equal match to his joy; therefore after the first six paces he offered a sacrifice, both to pacify God, and thank him: but now when they saw no sign of dislike, they did more freely let themselves lose to a fearless joy; and the body striven to express the holy affection of the Soul; there was no limb, no part that did not profess their mirth by motion, no noise of voice, or instrument wanted to assist their spiritual jollity; David led the way, dancing with all his might in his linen Ephod; Vzzah was still in his eye; he durst not usurp upon a garment of Priests; but he will borrow their colour to grace the solemnity, though he dare not the fashion; White was ever the colour of joy, and linen was light for use; therefore he covers his Princely robes with white linen, and means to honour himself by his conformity to God's ministers. Those that think there is disgrace in the Ephod, are fare from the Spirit of the man after Gods own heart; Neither can there be a greater argument of a foul Soul, than a dislike of the glorious calling of God: Barren Mical hath too many Sons that scorn the holy habit and exercises: she looks through her window, and seeing the attire and gestures of her devout husband, despiseth him in her heart, neither can she conceal her contempt, but like saul's daughter cast it proudly in his face (Oh how glorious was the King of Israel this day; which was uncovered to day in the eyes of the Maidens of his servants, as a fool uncovereth himself.) Worldly hearts can see nothing in actions of zeal, but folly and madness: Piety hath no relish to their palate but distasteful.  
David's heart did never swell so much at any reproach, as this of his wife; his love was for the time lost in his anger; and as a man impatient of no affront so much as in the way of his devotion, he returns a bitter check to his Micall; (It was before the Lord, which chose me rather than thy Father, & all his house, etc.) Had not Mical twitted her husband with the shame of his zeal, she had not heard of the shameful rejection of her Father; now since she will be forrgetting, whose wife she was, she shall be put in mind whose daughter she was. contumelies that are cast upon us in the causes of God, may safely be repaid: If we be meal-mouthed in the scorns of religion, we are not patiented, but zealelesse: Hear we may not forbear her, that lies in our bosom. If David had not loved Mical dear, he had never stood upon those points with Abner; He knew that if Abner came to him, the Kingdom of Israel would accompany him, and yet he sends him the charge of not seeing his face, except he brought Mical, saul's daughter with him; as if he would not regard the Crown of Israel, whiles he wanted that wife of his; Yet here he takes her up roundly, as if she had been an enemy, not a partner of his bed; All relations are a loof off, in comparison of that betwixt God, and the Soul; He that love's Father, or Mother, or wife, or child, better than me (saith our Saviour) is not worthy of me. Even the highest delights of our hearts must be trampled upon, when they will stand out in rivality with God. Oh happy resolution of the royal Prophet, and prophetical King of Israel, (I will be yet more vile than thus, and will be low in mine own sight) he knew this very abasement heroical; and that the only way to true glory, is not to be ashamed of our lowest humiliation unto God: Well might he promise himself honour from those, whose contempt she had threatened; The hearts of men are not their own, he that made them, overrules them, and inclines them to an honourable conceit of those that honour their maker; So as holy men have ofttimes inward reverence, even where they have outward indignities. David came to bless his house, Mical brings a curse upon herself; Her scorns shall make her childless to the day of her death; Barrenness was held in those times, none of the least judgements; God doth so revenge David's quarrel upon Mical, that her sudden disgrace, shall be recompensed with perpetual: She shall not be held worthy to bear a Son, to him whom she unjustly contemned; How just is it with God to provide whips for the back scorners? It is no marvel if those that mock at goodness, be plagued with continual fruitlessness.   

Mephibosheth and Ziba.  
SO soon as ever David can but breathe himself from the public cares, he casts back his thoughts to the dear remembrance of his jonathan. saul's servant is likely to give him the best intelligence of saul's sons; The question is therefore moved to Ziba; Remaineth there yet none of the house of Saul? and  suspicion might conceal the remainders of an emulous line in fear of revenge intended, he adds: On whom I may show the mercy of God for jonathans' sake. O friendship worthy of the monuments of eternity; fit only to requite him, whose love was more than the love of women; He doth not say, Is there any of the house of jonathan, but of Saul; that for his friend's sake he may show favour to the posterity of his Persecutor. jonathans' love could not be greater than saul's malice, which also survived long in his issue; from whom David found a busy and stubborn rivality for the Crown of Israel; yet as one that gladly buried all the hostility of saul's house in jonathans' grave, he asks, Is there am man left of saul's house, that I may show him mercy for jonathans' sake? It is true love that overlives in the person of a friend, will be inherited of his seed▪ but to love the posterity of an enemy in a friend, it is the miracle of friendship: The formal amity of the world is confined to a face; or to the possibility of recompense, languishing in the disability, and dying in the decease of the party affected: That love was ever false, that is not ever constant, and then most operative, when it cannot be either known, or requited.  
To cut of all unquiet competition for the Kingdom of Israel, the providence of God had so ordered, that there is none left to the house of Saul (besides the sons of his Concubines) save only young and lame Mephibosheth; so young, that he was but five years of age, when David entered upon the government of Israel; so lame, that if his age had fitted, his impotence had made him unfit for the throne. Mephibosheth was not borne a Cripple, it was an heedless nurse that made him so: She hearing of the death of Saul and jonathan, made such haste to flee, that her young Master was lamed with the fall: Iwis there needed no such speed to run away from David; whose love pursues the hidden son of his brother jonathan: How often doth our ignorant mistaking, cause us to run from our best friends, and to catch knocks and maims of them that profess our protection?  
Mephibosheth could not come otherwise then fearfully, into the presence of David, whom he knew so long; so spitefully opposed by the house of Saul: he could not be ignorant, that the fashion of the world is, to build their own security upon the blood of the opposite faction; neither to think themselves safe, whiles any branch remains springing out of that root of their emulation: Seasonably doth David therefore first, expel all those unjust doubts, ere he administer his further cordials; (Fear not; for I will surely show thee kindness, for jonathan thy father's sake, and will restore thee all the fields of Saul thy father, and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually:)  
David can see neither saul's blood, nor lame legs in Mepibosheth, whiles he sees in him the features of his friend jonathan; how much less shall the God of mercies regard our infirmities, or the corrupt blood of our sinful progenitors, whiles he beholds us in the face of his son, in whom he is well pleased.  
Favours are wont so much more to affect us, as they are less expected by us; Mephibosheth as over-ioyed with so comfortable a word, and confounded in himself at the remembrance of the contrary deservings of his family, bows himself to the earth, and says (What is thy servant, that thou shouldst look upon such a dead dog as I am?) I find no defect of wit, (though of limbs) in Mephibosheth, he knew himself the grandchild of the King of Israel, the Son of jonathan, the lawful heir of both, yet in regard of his own impotency, and the trespass and rejection of his house, he thus abaseth himself unto David; Humiliation is a right use of God's afflictions; What if we were borne great? If the sin of his grandfather hath lost his estate, and the hand of his Nurse hath deformed and disabled his person, he now forgets what he was, and calls himself worse than he is a, A dog; Yet a living dog, is better than a dead Lion; there is dignity and comfort in life; Mephibosheth is therefore a Dead Dog unto David: It is not for us to nourish the same Spirits in our adverse estate, that we found in our highest prosperity; What use have we made of God's hand, if we be not the lower with our fall? God intends we should carry our cross, not make a fire of it to warm us; It is no bearing up our sails in a tempest; Good David cannot disesteem Mephibosheth ever the more for disparaging himself; he love's and honours this humility, in the Son of jonathan; There is no more certain way to glory and advancement, than a lowly dejection of ourselves: He that made himself a dog, and therefore fit only to lie under the table, Yea a dead dog, and therefore fit only for the ditch, is raised up to the Table of a King; his seat shall be honourable, yea, royal, his fare delicious, his attendance noble. How much more will our gracious God, lift up our heads, unto true honour before men and Angels, if we can be sincerely humbled in his sight? If we miscall ourselves in the meanness of our conceits to him, he gives us a new name, and sets us at the table of his glory; It is contrary with God and men; if they reckon of us as we set out ourselves, he values us according to our abasements. Like a Prince truly munificent and faithful, David promises and performs at once; Ziba saul's servant hath the charge given him, of the execution of that royal word; He shall be the Bailiff of this great husbandry of his master Mephibosheth; The land of Saul, how ever forfeited, shall know no other master than saul's grandchild; As yet, saul's servant had sped better than his Son▪ I read of twenty servants of Ziba, none of Mephibosheth; Earthly possessions, do not always admit of equal divisions; The wheel is now turned up; Mephibosheth is a Prince, Ziba is his officer; I cannot but pity the condition of this good Son of jonathan; Into how ill hands did honest Mephibosheth fall, first, of a careless Nurse, then of a treacherous servant; She maimed his body, he would have overthrown his estate; After some years of eye service to Mephibosheth, wicked Ziba intends to give him a worse fall than his nurse. Never any Court was free from detractors, from delators, who if they see a man to be a cripple, that he cannot go to speak for himself, will be telling tales of him, in the ears of the great; such a one was this perfidious Ziba; who taking the opportunity of David's flight from his Son Absalon, follows him with a fair present, and a false tale, accusing his impotent master of a foul and traitorous ingratitude; labouring to tread upon his lame Lord to raise himself to honour: True-hearted Mephibosheth had as good a will as the best; if he could have commanded legs, he had not been left behind David: now that he cannot go with him; he will not be well without him; and therefore puts himself to a wilful and sullen penance, for the absence and danger of his King; he will not so much as put on clean clothes for the time, as he that could not have any joy in himself, for the want of his Lord David; Unconscionable miscreants care not how they collogue, whom they slander for a private advantage; Lewd Ziba comes with a gift in his hand, and a smooth tale in his mouth; Oh sir, you thought you had a jonathan at home; but you will find a Saul, It were pity but he should be set at your table, that would sit in your throne; you thought saul's land would have contented Mephibosheth, but he would have all yours; though he be lame yet he would be climbing; would you have thought that this cripple could be plotting for your kingdom, now that you are but gone aside? Ishbosheth will never die whiles Mephibosheth life's: How did he now forget his impotence, and raised up his spirits in hope of a day; and durst say, that now the time was comen, wherein the Crown should revert to saul's true heir, Oh viper: If a Serpent bite in secret when he is not charmed, no better is a slanderer; Honest Mephibosheth in good manners made a dead dog of himself, when David offered him the favour of his board; but Ziba would make him a very dog indeed, an ill-natured cur, that when David did thus kindly feed him at his own table, would not only bite his fingers, but fly at his throat.  
But what shall we say to this? Neither earthly sovereignty, nor holiness can exempt men from humane infirmities. Wise and good David hath now but one ear; and that misled; with credulity; His charity in believing Ziba, makes him uncharitable in distrusting, in censuring Mephibosheth. The detractor hath not only sudden credit given him, but saul's land, jonathans' Son hath lost (unheard) that inheritance, which was given him unsought. Hearsay is no safe ground of any judgement; Ziba slanders, David believes, Mephibosheth suffers.  
Lies shall not always prosper, God will not abide the truth to be ever oppressed; At last jonathans' lame Son shall be found as sound in heart, as lame in his body; He whose Soul was like his father jonathans' Soul, whose body was like to his grandfather saul's Soul, meets David (as it was high time) upon his return; bestirs his tongue, to discharge himself of so foul a slander; The more horrible the crime had been, the more villainous was the unjust suggestion of it, and the more necessary was a just Apology; Sweetly therefore, and yet passionately doth he labour to greaten David's favours to him; his own obligations and vileness; showing himself more affected with his wrong, then with his loss; welcoming David home with a thankful neglect of himself, as not caring that Ziba had his substance, now that he had his king. David is satisfied, Mephibosheth restored to favour and lands; here are two kind hearts well met. David is full of satisfaction from Mephibosheth; Mephibosheth runs over with joy in David: David, like a gracious King, gives Mephibosheth (as before) saul's lands to halves with Ziba; Mephibosheth, like a King, gives all to Ziba, for joy that God had given him David; All had been well, if Ziba had fared worse; Pardon me, o holy and glorious soul of a Prophet, of a King, after Gods own heart, I must needs blame thee for mercy: A fault that the best and most generous natures are most subject to. It is pity, that so good a thing should do hurt; yet we find, that the best, misused is most dangerous: Who should be the pattern of Kings, but the King of God? Mercy is the gentliest flower in his Crown, much more in theirs, but with a difference. God's mercy is infinite, theirs limited; he says, I will have mercy on whom I will: they must say, I will have mercy on whom I should: And yet he, for all his infinite mercy, hath vessels of wrath, so must they; of whom his justice hath said, Thine eye shall not spare them: A good man is pitiful to his beast, shall he therefore make much of toads & snakes? Oh that Ziba should go away with any possession, save of shame and sorrow; that he should be coupled with a Mephibosheth in a partnership of estates: Oh that David had changed the word a little;  
A division was due here indeed; but of Ziba's ears from his head, or his head from his shoulders, for going about so maliciously, to divide David from the son of jonathan; An eye for an eye, was God's rule; If that had been true, which Ziba suggested against Mephibosheth, he had been worthy to lose his head with his lands, being false, it had been but reason, Ziba should have changed heads with Mephibosheth; Had not holy David himself been so stung with venomous tongues, that he cries out in the bitterness of his soul; What reward shall be given to thee, o thou false tongue? even sharp arrows with hot burning coals. He that was so sensible of himself in Doegs' wrong, doth he feel so little of Mephibosheth in Ziba's? Are these the arrows of David's quiver? are these his hot burning coals (Thou & Ziba divide?) He that had said, Their tongue isa sharp sword, now that he had the sword of just revenge in his hand, is this the blow he gives, Divide the possessions? I know not whether, excess, or want of mercy, may prove most dangerous in the great; the one may discourage good intentions with fear; the other may encourage wicked practices through presumption; Those that are in eminent place, must learn the midway betwixt both; so pardoning faults, that they may not provoke them; so punishing them, that they may not dishearten virtuous and wel-meant actions; they must learn to sing that absolute ditty (whereof David had here forgotten one part) of Mercy & judgement.   

Hanun and David's Ambassadors.  
IT is not the meaning of religion, to make men uncivil; If the King of Ammon were heathenish, yet his kindness may be acknowledged, may be returned by the King of Israel. I say not, but that perhaps David, might maintain too straight a league with that forbidden nation; A little friendship is enough to an Idolater; but even the savage Cannibals may receive an answer of outward courtesy: If a very dog fawn upon us, we struck him on the head, and clap him on the side; much less is the common band of humanity untied by Grace: Disparity in spiritual professions, is no warrant for ingratitude: He therefore, whose good nature proclaimed to show mercy to any branch of saul's house, for jonathans' sake, will now also show kindness to Hanun, for the sake of Nahash his father.  
It was the same Nahash, that offered the cruel condition to the men of jabesh Gilead, of thrusting out their right eyes for the admission into his covenant. He that was thus bloody in his designs against Israel, yet was kind to David; perhaps for no cause so much, as saul's opposition; And yet even this favour is held worthy both of memory; & retribution: where we have the acts of courtesy, it is not necessary we should enter into a strict examination of the grounds of it; whiles the benefit is ours, let the intention be their own; What ever the hearts of men are, we must look at their hands, and repay, not what they meant, but what they did;  
Nahash is dead, David sends Ambassadors to condole his loss, and to comfort his son Hanun. No Ammonite, but is sadly affected with the death of a father, though it gain him a Kingdom: Even Esau could say, the days of mourning for my father will come; No earthly advantage can fill up the gap of nature: Those children are worse than Ammonites, that can think either gain, or liberty, worthy to countervail a parent's loss.  
Carnal men are wont to measure another's foot, by their own last; their own falsehood makes them unjustly suspicious of others. The Princes of Ammon, because they are guilty to their own hollowness, and doubleness of heart, are ready so to judge of David and his messengers (Thinkest thou that David doth honour thy father, that he hath sent comforters unto thee. Hath not David rather sent his own servants to thee, to search the City, and to spy it out, to overthrew it;) It is hard for a wicked heart to think well of any other; because it can think none better than itself, and knows itself evil: The freer a man is from vice himself, the more charitable he uses to be unto others.  
Whatsoever David was particularly in his own person, it was ground enough of prejudice, that he was an Israelite; It was an hereditary and deep settled hatred, that the Ammonites had conceived against their brethren of Israel: neither can they forget that shameful and fearful foil, which they received from the rescuers of jabesh-gilead; and now still do they stomach at the name of Israel; Malice once concived in worldly hearts, is not easily extinguished, but upon all occasions, is ready to break forth into a flame of revengeful actions.  
Nothing can be more dangerous, then for young Princes, to meet with ill counsel in the entrance of their government; for both than are they most prone to take it, and most difficultly recovered from it; If we be set out of our way in the beginning of our journey, we wander all the day; How happy is that state, where both the Counsellors are faithful, to give only good advice; and the King wise to discern good advice from evil: The young King of Ammon is easily drawn to believe his Peers, and to mistrust the messengers; and having now in his conceit turned them into Spies, entertains them with a scornful disgrace; he shaves off, one half of their beards, & cuts off one half of their garments; exposing them to the derision of all beholders. The Israelites were forbidden either a shaved beard, or a short garment; in despite, perhaps, of their Law, these Ambassadors are sent away with both: Certainly in a despite of their Master, and a scorn of their persons.  
King David is not a little sensible of the abuse of his Messengers, and of himself in them; first therefore, he desires to hide their shame, then to revenge it. Man hath but a double ornament of body, the one of nature, the other of Art; The natural ornament is the hair, the artificial is apparel; David's Messengers are deformed in both; The one is easily supplied by a new suit, the other can only be supplied out of the wardrobe of Time; Tarry at jericho till your beards be grown. How easily had this deformity been removed, if as Hanun had shaved one side of their faces, so they had shaved the other; what had this been but to resemble their younger age, or that other sex, in neither of which, do we use to place any imagination of unbeseeming; neither did their want some of their neighbour Nations, whose faces age itself had not wont to cover with this shade of hair: But so respective is good David, and his wise Senators, of their country-formes; that they shall by appointment rather tarry abroad, till time have wrought their conformity, then vary from the received fashions of their own people. Alas, into what a licentious variety of strange disguises are we fall'n? the glory of attire is sought in novelty, in mishapennesse, in monstrousness: There is much latitude, much liberty in the use of these indifferent things; but because we are free, we may not run wild; and never think we have scope enough, unless we outrun modesty.  
It is lawful for public persons, to feel their own indignities, and to endeavour their revenge. Now David sends all the host of the mighty men to punish Ammon, for so foul an abuse; Those that received the Messengers of his love, with scorn and insolency, shall now be severely saluted with the Messengers of his wrath. It is just both with God and men, that they, who know not how to take favours aright, should smart with judgements. Kindness repulsed, breaks forth into indignation, how much more when it is repaid with an injurious affront?  
David cannot but feel his own cheeks shaved, and his own coats cut in his Ambassadors; They did but carry his person to Hanun; neither can he therefore but appropriate to himself the kindness, or injury offered unto them; He that did so take to heart the cutting off, but the lap of King saul's garment, when it was laid aside from him, how must he needs be affected with this disdainful halving of his hair and robes, in the person of his Deputies. The name of Ambassadors hath been ever sacred, and by the universal Law of Nations, hath carried in it sufficient protection, from all public wrongs, neither hath it ever been violated, without a revenge. Oh God, what shall we say to those notorious contempts which are daily cast upon thy spiritual messengers? Is it possible thou shouldst not feel them, thou shouldst not avenge them? We are made a gazing stock to the world, to Angels and to men, we are despised and trodden down in the dust; Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?  
How obstinate are wicked men in their perverse resolutions. These foolish Ammonites had rather hire Syrians to maintain a war against Israel in so foul a quarrel, besides the hazard of their own lives, then confess the error of their jealous misconstruction.  
It is one of the mad principles of wickedness, that it is a weakness to relent, and rather to Die then yield; Even ill causes once undertaken, must be upheld although with blood; whereas the gracious heart finding his own mistaking, doth not only remit of an ungrounded displeasure, but studies to be revenged of itself; and to give satisfaction to the offended.  
The mercenary Syrians are drawn to venture their lives for a fee; twenty thousand of them are hired into the field against Israel; Fond Pagans that know not the value of a man; their blood cost them nothing, and they care not to sell it good cheap; How can we think those men have Souls, that esteem a little white earth above themselves? that never inquire into the justice of the quarrel, but the rate of the pay, that can rifle for drams of silver, in the bowels of their own flesh, and either kill or die for a day's wages?  
joab the wise General of Israel soon finds, where the strength of the battle lay, and so marshals his troops, that the choice of his men shall encounter the vanguard of the Syrians. His brother Abishai leads the rest against the children of Ammon; with this covenant of mutual assistance, (If the Syrians be too strong for me, than thou shalt help me; but if the children of Ammon be too strong for thee, then will I come and help thee;) It is an happy thing, when the captains of God's people join together as brethren, and lend their hand to the aid of each other against the common adversary. Concord in defence, or assault is the way to victory; as contrarily, the division of the Leaders is the overthrow of the army.  
Set aside some particular actions, joab was a worthy Captain, both for wisdom and valour. Who could either exhort or resolve better than he, (Be of good courage, and let us play the men, for our people, and for the cities of our God; and the Lord do that which seemeth him good?) It is not either private glory or profit that whets his fortitude, but the respect to the cause of God, and his people; That Soldier can never answer it to God, that strikes not more as a justicer, then as an enemy; Neither doth he content himself with his own courage, but he animates others. The tongue of a Commander fights more than his hand; it is enough for private men to exercise what life and limbs they have, a good Leader must out of his own abundance, put life and spirits into all others; If a Lion lead sheep into the field, there is hope of victory: Lastly, when he hath done his best, he resolves to depend upon God for the issue: not trusting to his sword, or his bow, but to the providence of the Almighty for success; as a man religiously awful, and awfully confident, whiles there should be no want in their own endeavours: he knew well that the race was not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, therefore he looks up above the hills whence cometh his salvation; All valour is cowardice to that, which is built upon religion.  
I marvel not to see joab victorious, whiles he is thus godly; The Syrians flee before him, like flocks of sheep; the Amonites follow them; The two Sons of Zeruiah have nothing to do, but to pursue and execute; The throats of the Amonites are cut, for cutting the beards and coats of the Israelitish messengers; Neither doth this revenge end in the field; Rabath the royal city of Ammon is strongly beleguered by joab; the City of waters (after well-near a year's siege) yieldeth; the rest can no longer hold out; now joab, as one that desired more to approve himself a loyal and careful subject, than a happy General, sends to his master David that he should come personally, and encamp against the City and take it; Lest (saith he) I take it and it be called after my name. Oh noble and imitable fidelity of a dutiful servant, that prefers his Lord to himself, and is so fare from stealing honour from his master's deserts, that he willingly remits of his own, to add unto his. The war was not his; he was only employed by his Sovereign; The same person that was wronged in the Ambassadors, revengeth by his soldiers; the praise of the act shall (like fountain water) return to the sea, whence it originally came: To seek a man's own glory is not glory. Alas, how many are there, who being sent to sue for God, woo for themselves. Oh God, it is a fearful thing to rob thee of that which is dearest to thee, glory; which as thou wilt not give to any creature, so much l●sse wilt thou endure that any creature should filch it from thee, and give it to himself. Have thou the honour of all our actions, who givest a being to our actions and us, and in both hast most justly regarded thine own praise.   

David with Bathsheba and VRIAH.  
WIth what unwillingness, with what fear, do I still look upon the miscarriage of the man after Gods own heart? O holy Prophet, who can promise himself always to stand, when he sees thee fall'n and maimed in the fall? Who can assure himself of an immunity from the foulest sins, when he sees the offending so heinous, so bloodily? Let profane eyes behold thee contentedly, as a pattern, as an excuse of sinning; I shall never look at thee but through tears, as a woeful spectacle of humane infirmity:  
Whiles joab and all Israel were busy in the war against Ammon, in the siege of Rabbah, Satan finds time to lay siege to the secure heart of David; Who ever found David thus tempted, thus foiled in the days of his busy wars? Now only do I see the King of Israel, rising from his bed in the evening; The time was, when he rose up in the morning to his early devotions; when he broke his nightly rest with public cares, with the business of estate; all that while he was innocent, he was holy; but now that he wallows in the bed of idleness, he is fit to invite a tentation. The industrious man hath no leisure to sin. The idle hath neither leisure nor power to avoid sin; Exercise is not wore wholesome for the body, then for the Soul, the remission whereof breeds matter of disease in both: The water that hath been heated, soon freezeth; the most active Spirit soon ty●eth with slackening; The earth stands still, and is all dregs; the heavens ever move, and are pure. We have no reason to complain of the assiduity of work; the toil of action is answered by the benefit; If we did less we should suffer more; Satan like an idle companion, if he find us busy, flies back and sees it no time to entertain vain purposes with us; We cannot please him better than by casting away our work, to hold chat with him; we cannot yield so fare and be guiltless.  
Even David's eyes have no sooner the sleep rubbed out of them, than they rove to wanton prospects; He walks upon his roof, and sees Bathsheba washing herself; inquires after her, sends for her, solicits her to uncleanness. The same Spirit that shut up his eyes in an unseasonable sleep, opens them upon an enticing object; whiles sin hath such a Solicitor, it cannot want either means or opportunity▪ I cannot think Bathsheba could be so immodest, as to wash herself openly, especially from her natural uncleanness; Lust is quicksighted; David hath espied her, where she could espy no beholder: His eyes recoil upon his heart, and have smitten him with a sinful desire.  
There can be no safety to that Soul, where the senses are let lose. He can never keep his covenant with God, that makes not a covenant with his eyes: It is an Idle presumption to think the outward man may be free, whiles the inward is safe: He is more than a man, whose heart is not led by his eyes, he is no regenerate man whose, eyes are not restrained by his heart.  
Oh Bathsheba, how wert thou washed from thine uncleanness, when thou yieldedst to go into an adulterous bed? Never wert thou so foul: as now when thou wert new washed; The worst of nature, is cleanliness, to the best of sin: thou hadst been clean if thou hadst not washed; yet for thee, I know how to plead infirmity of sex; and the importunity of a King; But what shall I say for thee, O thou royal Prophet, and prophetical King of Israel; where shall I find aught to extenuate that crime, for which God himself hath noted thee? Did not thine holy profession teach thee to abhor such a sin more than death? Was not thy justice wont to punish this sin with no less than death? Did not thy very calling call thee to a protection and preservation of justice, of chastity in thy subjects? Didst thou want store of wines of thine own? wert thou restrained from taking more? was there no beauty in Israel, but in a subject's marriage-bed? Wert thou overcome by the vehement solicitations of an adulteress? wert thou not the tempter, the prosecutor of this uncleanness? I should accuse thee deeply, if thou hadst not accused thyself; Nothing wanted to greaten thy sin, or our wonder, and fear. O God, whither do we go if thou stay us not? Who ever amongst the millions of thy servants could find himself furnished with stronger preservatives against sin? Against whom could such a sin find less pretence of prevailing? Oh keep thou us, that presumptuous sins prevail not over us; So only shall we be free from great offences.  
The suits of Kings are imperative; Ambition did now prove a bawd to lust. Bathsheba yieldeth to offend God, to dishonour her husband, to clog and wound her own Soul, to abuse her body: Dishonesty grows bold, when it is countenanced with greatness. Eminent persons had need be careful of their demands; they sin by authority, that are solicited by the mighty.  
Had Bathsheba been mindful of her matrimonial fidelity, perhaps David had been soon checked in his inordinate desire; her facility furthers the sin. The first motioner of evil is most faulty, but as in quarrels, so in offences, the second blow (which is the consent) makes the fray. Good joseph was moved to folly, by his great and beautiful mistress, this fire fell upon wet tinder, and therefore soon went out. Sin is not acted alone; if but one party be wise, both escape. It is no excuse to say, I was tempted, though by the great, though by the holy and learned; Almost all sinners are misled by that transformed Angel of light; The action is that we must regard, not the person; Let the mover be never so glorious, if he stir us to evil, he must be entertained with defiance.  
The God that knows how to raise good out of evil, blesses an adulterous copulation with that increase, which he denies to the chaste embracements of honest wedlock: Bathsheba hath conceived by David; and now at once conceives a sorrow and care how to smother the shame of her conception; He that did the fact, must hide it. Oh David, where is thy repentance? Where is thy tenderness and compunction of heart? Where are those holy meditations, which had wont to take up thy Soul? Alas, in steed of clearing thy sin, thou labourest to cloak it; and spendest those thoughts in the concealing of thy wickedness, which thou shouldst rather have bestowed in preventing it: The best of God's children may not only be drenched in the waves of sin, but lie in them for the time, and perhaps sink twice to the bottom; What hypocrite could have done worse, then study how to cover the face of his sin from the eyes of men, whiles heregarded not the sting of sin in his soul. As there are some acts, wherein the Hypocrite is a Saint, so there are some, wherein the greatest Saint upon earth may be an Hypocrite; Saul did thus go about to colour his sin, and is cursed; The vessels of mercy and wrath, are not ever distinguishable by their actions. He makes the difference, that will have mercy on whom he will, and whom he will, he hardeneth.  
It is rare and hard to commit a single sin; David hath abused the wife of Vriah, now he would abuse his person, in causing him to father a false seed: That worthy Hittite is sent for from the wars; and now after some cunning, and far-fetched questions; is dismissed to his house, not without a present of favour; David could not but imagine, that the beauty of his Bathsheba, must needs be attractive enough to an husband, whom long absence in wars, had withheld all that while from so pleasing a bed; neither could he think, that since that face, and those breasts had power to allure himself to an unlawful lust, it could be possible, that Vriah should not be invited by them, to an allowed and warrantable fruition.  
That David's heart might now the rather strike him, in comparing the chaste resolutions of his servant, with his own light incontinence; good Vriah sleeps at the door of the King's palace, making choice of a stony pillow, under the canopy of Heaven, rather than the delicate bed of her, whom he thought as honest, as he knew fair. The Ark (saith he) and Israel, and judah, dwell in tents, and my Lord joab, and the servants of my Lord, abide in the open fields; shall I then go into mine house, to eat, and drink, and lie with my wife; by thy life, and by the life of thy soul, I will not do this thing. Who can but be astonished at this change, to see a Soldier austere, and a Prophet wanton? And how doth that Soldier's austerity, shame the Prophet's wantonness? Oh zealous and mortified soul, worthy of a more faithful wife, of a more just master, how didst thou overlook all base sensuality, and hatedst to be happy alone? War and lust had wont to be reputed friends; thy breast is not more full of courage than chastity, and is so far from wand'ring after forbidden pleasures, that it refuseth lawful.  
There is a time to laugh, and a time to mourn; a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embracing; even the best actions are not always seasonable, much less the indifferent: He that ever takes liberty to do what he may, shall offend no less, than he that sometimes takes liberty to do what he may not.  
If any thing, the Ark of God is fittest to lead our times; according as that is either distressed, or prospereth, should we frame our mirth, or mourning. To dwell in sieled houses, whiles the Temple lies waste, is the ground of God's just quarrel. How shall we sing a song of the Lord in a strange land; If I forget thee, o jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning; If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; yea, if I prefer not Jerusalem to my chief joy.  
As every man is a limb of the community, so must he be affected with the estate of the universal body, whether healthful, or languishing; It did not more aggravate David's sin, that whiles the Ark and Israel was in hazard and distress, he could find time to lose the reynes to wanton desires, and actions, than it magnifies the religious zeal of Vriah, that he abandons comfort, till he see the Ark and Israel victorious.  
Common dangers, or calamities must (like the rapt motion) carry our hearts contrary to to the ways of our private occasions.  
He that cannot be moved with words, shall be tried with wine, Vriah had equally protested against feasting at home, and society with his wife; To the one, the authority of a King forces him abroad, in hope that the excess thereof shall force him to the other: It is like, that holy Captain intended only to yield so much obedience, as might consist with his course of austerity. But wine is a mocker, when it goes plausibly in, no man can imagine how it will rage and tyrannize; he that receives that Traitor within his gates, shall too late complain of a surprisal. Like unto that ill spirit, it insinuates sweetly, but in the end, it bites like a Serpent, & hurts like a Cockatrice. Even good Urias is made drunk; the holiest soul may be overtaken; It is hard gainsaying, where a King gins an health to a subject; Where, oh where, will this wickedness end? David will now procure the sin of another, to hide his own; Vriahs' drunkenness is more David's offence, then his. It is weakly yielded to of the one, which was wilfully intended of the other. The one was as the sinner, the other as the tempter.  
Had not David known, that wine was an inducement to lust, he had spared those superfluous cups. Experience had taught him, that the eye debauched with wine, will look upon strange women: The Drunkard may be any thing save good. Yet in this the aim failed; Grace is stronger than wine; Whiles that withholds, in vain shall the fury of the grape attempt to carry Vriah to his own bed. Sober David is now worse than drunken Vriah. Had not the King of Israel been more intoxicate with sin, than Vriah with drink, he had not in a sober intemperance climbed up into that bed, which the drunken temperance of Vriah refused.  
If David had been but himself, how had he loved, how had he honoured this honest and religious zeal, in his so faithful servant; whom now he cruelly seeks to reward with death? That fact which wine cannot hide, the sword shall; Vriah shall bear his own Mittimus unto joab; Put ye Vriah in the fore front of the strength of the battle, and recoil back from him, that he may be smitten, and die.) What is becomne of thee, o thou good Spirit, that hadst wont to guide thy chosen servant in his former ways? Is not this the man, whom we lately saw so heart-smitten, for but cutting off the lap of the garment of a wicked Master, that is now thus lavish of the blood, of a gracious and well-deserving Servant? Can it be likely, that so worthy a Captain could fall alone? Can David have expiated this sin with his own blood, it had been but well spent, but to cover his sin with the innocent blood of others, was a crime above astonishment. Oh the deep deceitfulness of sin; If the Devil should have comen to David, in the most lovely form of Bathsheba herself, and at the first should have directly, and in terms, solicited him to murder his best servant; I doubt not, but he would have spat scorn in that face, on which he should otherwise have doted; now, by many cunning windings, Satan rises up to that tentation, & prevails; that shall be done for a colour of guiltiness, whereof the soul would have hated to be immediately guilty; Even those, that find a just horror, in leaping down from some high tower, yet may be persuaded to descend by stairs to the bottom. He knows not where he shall stay, that hath willingly slipped into a known wickedness.  
How many doth an eminent offender draw with him into evil? It could not be, but that diverse of the attendants both of David and Bathsheba must be conscious to that adultery; Great men's sins are seldom secret; And now joab must be fetched in, as accessary to the murder: How must this example needs harden joab against the conscience of Abners' blood? Whiles he cannot but think, David cannot avenge that in me, which he acteth himself.  
Honour is pretended to poor Vriah, death is meant. This man was one of the worthies of David; their courage sought glory in the difficultest exploits: That reputation had never been purchased without attempts of equal danger; Had not the leader and followers of Vriah: been more treacherous, than his enemies were strong, he had comen off with victory; Now, he was not the first or last that perished by his friends. David hath forgotten, that himself was in like sort betrayed in his master's intention, upon the dowry of the Philistim-foreskins. I fear to ask, Who ever noted so foul a plot in David's rejected predecessor? Vriah must be the messenger of his own death, joab must be a traitor to his friend, the host of God must shamefully turn their backs upon the Ammonites, all that Israelitish blood must be shed, that murder must be seconded with dissimulation, and all this to hide one adultery. O God thou hadst never suffered so dear a favourite of thine to fall so fearfully, if thou hadst not meant to make him an universal example to mankind; of not presuming, of not despairing; How can we presume of not sinning, or despair for sinning, when we find so great a Saint thus fallen, thus risen.   

Nathan and David.  
YEt Bathsheba mourned for the death of that husband, whom she had been drawn to dishonour: How could she bestow tears enough upon that funeral, whereof her sin was the cause? If she had but a suspicion of the plot of his death, the fountains of her eyes could not yield water enough to wash off her husband's blood; Her sin was more worthy of sorrow, than her loss. If this grief had been right placed, the hope of hiding her shame, and the ambition to be a Queen had not so soon mitigated it; neither had she upon any terms been drawn into the bed of her husband's murderer. Every gleam of earthly comfort can dry up the tears of worldly sorrow. Bathsheba hath soon lost her grief at the Court; The remembrance of an husband is buried in the jollity and state of a Princess. David securely enjoys his ill-purchased love, and is content to exchange the conscience of his sin, for the sense of his pleasure. But the just and holy God will not put it up so; he that hates fin so much the more, as the offender is more dear to him, will let David feel the bruise of his fall. If Gods best children have been sometimes suffered to sleep in a sin, at last he hath awakened them in a fright.  
David was a Prophet of God, yet he hath not only stepped into these foul sins, but sojourns with them; If any profession or state of life could have privileged from sin; the Angels had not sinned in heaven, nor man in Paradise: Nathan the Prophet is sent to the Prophet David, for reproof, for conviction, Had it been any other man's case, none could have been more quicksighted than the Princely Prophet, in his own he is so blind, that God is fain to lend him others turns. Even the Physician himself when he is sick, sends for the counsel of those whom his health did mutually aid with advice. Let no man think himself too good to learn; Teachers themselves may be taught that in their own particular, which in a generality they have often taught others; It is not only ignorance that is to be removed, but mis-affection.  
Who can prescribe a just period to the best man's repentance? About ten months are passed since David's sin; in all which time I find no news of any serious compunction; It could not be but some glances of remorse must needs have passed through his Soul long ere this; but a due and solemn contrition was not heard of till nathan's message; and perhaps had been further adjourned, if that Monitor had been longer deferred; Alas, what long and dead sleeps may the holiest Soul take in fearful sins; Were it not for thy mercy, O God, the best of us should end our spiritual lethargy in a sleep of death:  
It might have pleased God as easily to have sent Nathan to check David in his first purpose of sinning; So had his eyes been restrained, Bathsheba honest, Vriah alive with honour; now the wisdom of the Almighty knew how to win more glory by the permission of so foul an evil, then by the prevention; yea, he knew how by the permission of one sin, to prevent millions; how many thousand had sinned in a vain presumption on their own strength, if David had not thus offended; how many thousand had despaired in the conscience of their own weaknesses, if these horrible sins had not received forgiveness. It is happy for all times, that we have so holy a sinner, so sinful a penitent; It matters not how bitter the pill is, but how well wrapped; so cunningly hath Nathan conveyed this dose, that it gins to work ere it be tasted; there is no one thing wherein is more use of wisdom, than the due contriving of a reprehension, which in a discreet delivery helps the disease, in an unwise, destroys nature.  
Had not Nathan been used to the possession of David's ear; this complaint had been suspected. It well beseems a King to take information by a Prophet. Whiles wise Nathan was querulously discoursing, of the cruel rich man that had forceably taken away the only Lamb of his poor neighbour, how willingly doth David listen to the story, and how sharply (even above law) doth he censure the fact? As the Lord liveth the man that hath done this thing shall surely dye.) Full little did he think that he had pronounced sentence against himself; It had not been so heavy, if he had known on whom it should have light; We have open ears & quick tongues to the vices of others; How severe justicers we can be to our very own crimes in others persons? how flattering parasites to another's crime in ourselves? The life of doctrine is in application; Nathan might have been long enough in his narration, in his invective, ere David would have been touched with his own guiltiness; but now that the Prophet brings the word home to his bosom, he cannot but be affected. We may take pleasure, to hear men speak in the clouds, we never take profit till we find a propriety in the exhortation, or reproof; There was not more cunning in the parable, than courage in the application (Thou art the man) If David be a King, he may not look, not to hear of his faults; Gods messages may be no other than unpartial. It is a treacherous flattery in divine errands to regard greatness: If Prophets must be mannerly in the form, yet in the matter of reproof, resolute: The words are not their own, They are but the Heralds of the King of heaven, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel.  
How thunder-striken do we think David did now stand? how did the change of his colour bewray the confusion in his Soul; whiles his conscience said the same within, which the Prophet sounded in his ear? And now lest aught should be wanting to his humiliation, all Gods former favours shall be laid before his eyes, by way of exprobration: He is worthy to be upbraided with mercies, that hath abused mercies unto wantonness; whiles we do well, God gives and says nothing, when we do ill, he lays his benefits in our dish, and casts them in our teeth, that our shame may be so much the more; by how much our obligations have been greater. The blessings of God in our unworthy carriage prove but the aggravations of sin, and additions to judgement.  
I see all God's children falling into sin, some of them lying in sin; none of them maintaining their sin; David cannot have the heart, or the face to stand out against the message of God, but now as a man confounded, and condemned in himself, he cries out in the bitterness of a wounded Soul, (I have sinned against the Lord) It was a short word, but passionate; and such as came from the bottom of a contrite heart; The greatest griefs are not most verbal: Saul confessed his sin more largely, less effectually; God cares not for phrases, but for affections. The first piece of our amends to God for sinning, is the acknowledgement of sin; He can do little that in a just offence cannot accuse himself: If we cannot be so good as we would, it is reason we should do God so much right, as to say, how evil we are. And why was not this don sooner? It is strange to see how easily sin gets into the heart, how hardly it gets out of the mouth; Is it because sin, like unto Satan, where it hath got possession is desirous to hold it; and knows that it is fully ejected by a free confession? or, because in a guiltiness of deformity, it hides itself in the breast where it is once entertained, and hates the light? or because the tongue is so feed with self-love, that it is loath to be drawn unto any verdict against the heart, or hands? or, is it out of an idle misprision of shame, which whiles it should be placed in offending, is misplaced in disclosing of our offence?  
However, sure I am, that God hath need even of racks to draw out confessions, and scarce in death itself, are we wrought to a discovery of our errors.  
There is no one thing, wherein our folly shows itself more, then in these hurtful concealments: Contrary to the proceed of humane justice, it is with God, Confess and live; no sooner can David say, I have sinned, than Nathan infers, The Lord also hath put away thy sin. He that hides his sins shall not prosper, but he that confesseth and forsaketh them, shall find mercy Who would not accuse himself, to be acquitted of God? O God, who would not tell his wickedness to thee, that know'st it better than his own heart, that his heart may be eased of that wickedness, which being not told, killeth? Since we have sinned, why should we be niggardly of that action, wherein we may at once give glory to thee, and relief to our souls?  
David had sworn in a zeal of justice, that the rich Oppressor, for but taking his poor neighbour's lamb, should dye the death; God, by Nathan, is more favourable to David, then to take him at his word; Thou shalt not dye: O the marvelous power of repentance; Besides adultery, David had shed the blood of innocent Vriah; The strict law was eye for tie, tooth for tooth; He that smiteth with the sword, shall perish with the sword; Yet, as if a penitent confession had dispensed with the rigour of justice, now God says, Thou shalt not dye. David was the voice of the Law, awarding death unto sin; Nathan was the voice of the Gospel, awarding life unto the repentance for sin. Whatsoever the sore be, never any soul applied this remedy, and died; never any soul escaped death, that applied it not.  
David himself shall not dye for this fact; but his misbegotten child shall dye for him; He that said, The Lord hath put away thy sin, yet said also, The sword shall not departed from thine house.  
The same mouth, with one breath, pronounces the sentence both of absolution, and death, Absolution to the person, death to the issue. Pardon may well stand with temporal afflictions. Where God hath forgiven, though he do not punish, yet he may chastise, and that unto blood; neither doth he always forbear correction, where he remits revenge. So long as he smites us not as an angry judge, we may endure to smart from him, as a loving father.  
Yet even this rod did David deprecate with tears: how fain would he shake off so easy a load? The child is stricken; the father fasts and prays, and weeps, and lies all night upon the earth, and abhors the noise of comfort; That child, which was the fruit and monument of his odious adultery, whom he could never have looked upon, without a recognition of his sin; in whose face he could not but have still read the records of his own shame, is thus mourned for, thus sued for; It is easy to observe that good man over-passionately affected to his children. Who would not have thought, that David might have held himself well appayd, that his soul escaped an eternal death, his body a violent: though God should punish his sin, in that child, in whom he sinned: Yet even against this cross, he bends his prayers, as if nothing had been forgiven him: There is no child that would be scourged, if he might escape for crying; No affliction is for the time other then grievous; neither is therefore yielded unto, without some kind of reluctation. Far yet was it from the heart of David, to make any opposition to the will of God; he sued, he struggled not; There is no impatience in entreaties; He well knew, that the threats of temporal evils, ran commonly with a secret condition; and therefore might perhaps be avoided by humble importunity: If any means under Heaven can avert judgements, it is our prayers.  
God Can not choose, but like well the boldness of David's faith, who after the apprehension of so heavy a displeasure, is so far from doubting of the forgiveness of his sin, that he dares become a Suitor unto God for his sick child. Sin doth not make us more strange, than faith, confident.  
But, it is not in the power of the strongest faith, to preserve us from all afflictions; After all David's prayers and tears, the child must dye. The careful servants dare but whisper this sad news: They, who had found their Master so averse from the motion of comfort, in the sickness of the child, feared him uncapable of comfort in his death.  
Suspicion is quickwitted; Every occasion makes us misdoubt that event, which we fear; This secrecy proclaims, that which they were so loath to utter; David perceives his child dead, and now he rises up from the earth whereon he lay, and washes himself, and changeth his apparel, and goes first into God's house to worship, and then into his own to eat; now he refuses no comfort, who before would take none; The issue of things doth more fully show the will of God, than the prediction; God never did any thing, but what he would; he hath sometimes foretold that for trial, which his secret will intended not; he would foretell it, he would not effect it, because he would therefore foretell it, that he might not effect it; His predictions of outward evils are not always absolute, his actions are; David well sees by the event, what the decree of God was, concerning his child; which now he could not strive against, without a vain impatience; Till we know the determinations of the Almighty, it is free for us to strive in our prayers; to strive with him, not against him; when once we know them, it is our duty to sit down in a silent contentation;  
(Whiles the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, Who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live, but now he is dead, Wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again?)  
The grief that goes before an evil for remedy, can hardly be too much, but that which follows an evil, past remedy, cannot be too little: Even in the saddest accident, death, we may yield something to nature, nothing to impatience: Immoderation of sorrow, for losses past hope of recovery, is more sullen, then useful; our stomach may be bewrayed by it, not our wisdom.   

Amnon and Tamar.  
IT is not possible, that any word of God should fall to the ground: David is not more sure of forgiveness, then smart: Three main sins passed him in this business of Vriah; Adultery, murder, dissimulation: for all which, he receives present payment, for adultery, in the deflowering of his daughter Thamar; for murder, in the kill of his son Amnon; for dissimulation in the contriving of both. Yet all this was but the beginning of evils. Where the father of the family, brings sin home to the house, it is not easily swept out: Unlawful lust propagates itself by example; How justly is David scourged by the sin of his sons, whom his act taught to offend?  
Maacah was the daughter of an Heathenish King; By her, had David that beautiful, but unhappy issue; Absalon, and his no less fair sister, Thamar: Perhaps, thus late doth David feel the punishment of that unfit choice: I should have marvelled, if so holy a man had not found crosses in so unequal a match, either in his person, or at least in his seed.  
Beauty, if it be not well disciplined, proves not a friend, but a traitor; three of David's children are undone by it at once; What else was guilty of Amnons' incestuous love, Thamar's ravishment, Absaloms' pride? It is a blessing to be fair, yet such a blessing, as if the soul answer not to the face, may lead to a curse; How commonly have we seen the foulest soul dwell fairest? It was no fault of Thamar's, that she was beautiful; the candle offends not in burning, the foolish fly offends in scorching itself in the flame; yet it is no small misery to become a tentation unto another; and to be made but the occasion of others ruin. Amnon is lovesick of his sister Tamar, and languishes of that unnatural heat. Whither will not wanton lust, carry the inordinate minds of pampered and vngouerned youth; None but his halfe-sister, will please the eyes of the young Prince of Israel: Ordinary pleasures will not content those, whom the conceit of greatness, youth, and ease, have let lose to their appetite.  
Perhaps, yet this unkindly flame might, in time, have gone out alone, had not there been a jonadab, to blow these coals with ill counsel. It were strange, if great Princes should want some parasitical followers, that are ready to feed their ill humours. Why art thou, the King's son so lean from day to day? As if it were unworthy the heir of a King, to suffer either law, or conscience, to stand in the way of his desires: Whereas wise Princes know well, that their places give them no privilege of sinning: but call them in rather to so much more strictness, as their example may be more prejudicial.  
jonadab was the cousin german of Amnon; Ill advice is so much more dangerous, as the interest of the giver is more; Had he been a true friend, he had bend all the forces of his dissuasion, against the wicked motions of that sinful lust; and had showed the Prince of Israel how much those lewd desires provoked God, and blemished himself; and had lent his hand to strangle them in their first conception. There cannot be a more worthy improvement of friendship, then in a fervent opposition to the sins of them; whom we profess to love: No enemy can be so mortal to great Princes, as those officious clients, whose flattery soothes them up in wickedness; These are traitors to the Soul, and by a pleasing violence kill the best part eternally.  
How ready at hand is an evil suggestion? Good counsel is like unto well water, that must be drawn up with a Pump, or bucket; Ill counsel is like to Conduit-water, which if the cock be but turned, runs out alone; jonadab hath soon projected how Amnon shall accomplish his lawless purpose. The way must be to fayne himself sick in body, whose mind was sick of lust; and under this pretence to procure the presence of her, who had wounded, and only might cure him.  
The daily-increasing languor, and leanness, and paleness of lovesick Amnon might well give colour to a kercheife, and a pallet. Now it is soon told David that his eldest Son is cast upon his sickebed; there needs no suit for his visitation; The careful father hastens to his bedside, not without doubts and fears▪ He that was lately so afflicted with the sickness of a child that scarce lived to see the light, how sensible must we needs think he would be, of the indisposition of his first borne Son, in the prime of his age and hopes; It is not given to any Prophet to foresee all things; Happy had it been for David, if Amnon had been truly sick, and sick unto death; yet who could have persuaded this passionate father to have been content with this succession of losses, this early loss of his successor: How glad is he to hear, that his daughter tamar's skill might be likely to fit the diet of so dear a patiented. Conceit is wont to rule much both in sickness, and the cure. Tamar is sent by her father to the house of Amnon; Her hand only must dress that dish, which may please the nice Palate of her sick brother. Even the children of Kings, in those homelyer times, did not scorn to put their fingers, to some works of huswifrie: (She took flower and did knead it, and did make cakes in his sight, and did bake the cakes, and took a pan, and poured them out before him.) Had she not been sometimes used to such domestic employments, she had been now to seek; neither had this been required of her, but upon the knowledge of her skill: She doth not plead, the impairing of her beauty by the scorching of the fire; nor thinks her hand too dainty for such mean services; but fettles to the work, as one that had rather regard the necessities of her brother, than her own state: Only pride and idleness, have banished honest and thrifty diligence, out of the houses of the great.  
This was not yet the dish that Amnon longed for. It was the Cook, and not the cates which that wanton eye affected. Unlawful acts seek for secrecy; The company is dismissed, Tamar only stays; Good meaning suspects nothing; Whiles she presents the meat she had prepared, to her sick brother, herself is made a prey to his outrageous lust. The modest virgin entreats, and persuades in vain; she lays before him the sin, the shame, the danger of the fact; and since none of these can prevail, fain would win time by the suggesting of impossible hopes; Nothing but violence can stay a resolved sinner; What he cannot by entreaty, he will have by force. If the Devil were not more strong in men, than nature, they would never seek pleasure in violence. Amnon hath no sooner fulfilled his beastly desires, than he hates Tamar more than he loved her. Inordinate lust never ends but in discontentment; Loss of spirits, and remorse of soul make the remembrance of that act tedious, whose expectation promised delight. If we could see the back of sinful pleasures, ere we behold their face, our hearts could not but be forstalled with a just detestation. Brutish Amnon, it was thyself whom thou shouldst have hated for this villainy; not thine innocent sister; Both of you lay together; only one committed incest: What was she but a patiented, in that impotent fury of lust? How unjustly do carnal men mis-place their affections? No man can say whether that love, or this hatred were more unreasonable: Fraud drew Thamar into the house of Amnon, force entertained her within; and driven her out. Feign would she have hid her shame where it was wrought, and may not be allowed it; That roof under which, she came with honour, and in obedience and love, may not be lent her for the time as a shelter of her ignominy. Never any savage could be more barbarous: Shechem had ravished Dinah, his offence did not make her odious; his affection so continued, that he is willing rather to draw blood of himself and his people, then forgo her whom he had abused; Amnon in one hour is in the excess of love and hate; and is sick of her, for whom he was sick; She that lately kept the keys of his heart, is now locked out of his doors. Unruly passions run ever into extremities, and are then best apaid, when they are furthest off from reason and moderation.  
What could Amnon think, would be the event of so foul a fact, which as he had not the grace to prevent, so he hath not the care to conceal? If he looked not so high as heaven, what could he imagine would follow hereupon, but the displeasure of a father, the danger of law, the indignation of a brother, the shame and outcries of the world; All which he might have hoped to avoid by secrecy, and plausible courses of satisfaction. It is the just judgement of God upon presumptuous offenders, that they lose their wit, together with their honesty; and are either so blinded, that they cannot foresee the issue of their actions, or so besotted that they do not regard it.  
Poor Thamar can but bewail that which she could not keep, her virginty, not lost, but torn from her by a cruel violence: She rends her princely robe, and lays ashes on her head, and laments the shame of another's sin; and life's more desolate than a widow, in the house of her brother Absalon.  
In the mean time, what a corosive must this news needs be to the heart of good David, whose fatherly command had out of love, cast his daughter into the jaws of this Lion? What an insolent affront must he needs construe this, to be offered by a Son to a father; that the father should be made the Pander of his own daughter to his son? He that lay upon the ground weeping for, but the sickness of an infant, how vexed do we think he was with the villainy of his heir, with the ravishment of his daughter, both of them worse than many deaths? What revenge can he think of, for so heinous a crime less than death; and what less than death is it to him, to think of a revenge? Rape was by the law of God, capital, how much more, when it is seconded with incest? Anger was not punishment enough for so hie an offence; Yet this is all that I hear of, from so indulgent a father, saving that he makes up the rest with sorrow; punishing his son's outrage in himself; The better-naturd, and more gracious a man is, the more subject he is to the danger of an over remissness, and the excess of favour and mercy: The mild injustice is no less perilous to the commonwealth, than the cruel.  
If David (perhaps out of the conscience of his own late offence) will not punish this fact, his son Absalon shall: not out of any care of justice, but in a desire of revenge. Two whole years, hath this sly Courtier smothered his indignation, and feigned kindness; else his invitation of Amnon in special, had been suspected. Even gallant Absalon was a great sheep-master; The bravery and magnificence of a Courtier, must be built upon the grounds of frugality; David himself is bidden to this bloody sheep-shearing; It was no otherwise meant, but that the father's eyes, should be the witnesses, of the tragical execution of one son by another; Only David's love kept him from that horrible spectacle: He is careful not to be chargeable to that son, who cares not to over-charge his father's stomach with a feast of blood.  
Amnon hath so quite forgot his sin, that he dares go to feast in that house where Tamar was mourning; and suspects not the kindness of him, whom he had deserved, of a brother to make an enemy; Nothing is more unsafe to be trusted, than the fair looks of a festered heart: Where true charity or just satisfaction, have not wrought a sound reconciliation, malice doth but lurk for the opportunity of an advantage.  
It was not for nothing, that Absalon deferred his revenge; which is now so much the more exquisite, as it is longer protracted: What could be more fearful, then when Amnons' heart was merry with wine, to be suddenly stricken with death? As if this execution had been no less intended to the Soul, then to the body; How wickedly soever this was ●one by Absalon, yet how just was it with God, that he, whom in two year's impunity would find no leisure o● repentance, ●●ould now receive a punishment without possibility of repentance.  
O God, thou art righteous to reckon for those sins, which humane partiality or negligence hath omitted, and whiles th●u punishest sin with sin, to punish sin with death; If either David had called Amnon to account for this villainy, or Amnon had called himself, the revenge had not been so desperate; Happy is the man that by an unfeigned repentance acquits his soul from his known evils, and improves the days of his peace to the prevention of future vengeance; ●hi●h if it be not d●ne, the hand of God shall as surely oue●●ake us in judgement, as the hand of Satan hath overtaken us in miscarriage unto sin.   

Absaloms' return and conspiracy.  
ONE act of injustice draws on another; The injustice of David, in not punishing the rape of Amnon, procures the injustice of Absalon, in punishing Amnon with murder: That which the father should have justly revenged, and did not; the son revenges unjustly; The rape of a sister was no less worthy of death; then the murder of a brother; Yea, this latter sin was therefore the less, because that brother was worthy of death, though by another hand; whereas that sister was guilty of nothing but modest beauty: yet he that knew this rape passed over (whole two years) with impunity, dares not trust the mercy of a father, in the pardon of his murder; but for threeyeers', hides his head in the Court of his Grandfather, the King of Geshur. Doubtless, that heathenish Prince gave him a kind welcome, for so meritorious a revenge of the dishonour done to his own loins. No man can tell, how Absalon should have sped from the hands of his otherwise over-indulgent Father, if he had been apprehended in the heat of the fact. Even the largest love may be over-strayned, and may give a fall in the breaking; These fearful effects of lenity, might perhaps have whetted the severity of David, to shut up these outrages in blood; Now this displeasure was weakened with age: Time and thoughts have digested this hard morsel; David's heart told him, that his hands had a share in this offence; that Absalon did but give that stroke, which himself had wrongfully forborn; that the unrecoverable loss of one son, would be but woefully relieved with the loss of another; He therefore, that in the news of the deceased infant could change his clothes, and wash himself, and cheer up his spirits, with the resolution of, I shall go to him, he shall not return to me, comforts himself concerning Amnon; and gins to long for Absolom.  
Those three years banishment seemed not so much a punishment to the son, as to the father; Now David gins to forgive himself; yet out of his wisdom, so inclines to favour, that he conceals it; and yet so conceals it, that it may be descried by a cunning eye; If he had cast out no glances of affection, there had been no hopes for his Absalon, if he had made profession of love after so foul an act, there had been no safety for others; now he lets fall so much secret grace, as may both hold up Abfalom in the life of his hopes, and not hearten the presumption of others.  
Good eyes see light thorough the smallest chink; The wit of joab hath soon discerned David's reserved affection; and knows how to serve him in that which he would, and would not accomplish: and now devices how to bring into the light, that birth of desire, whereof he knew David was both big, and ashamed. A woman of Tekoah (that sex hath been ever held more apt for wiles) is suborned to personate a mourner, and to say that, by way of parable, which in plain terms would have sounded too harshly; and now whiles she lamentably lays forth the loss & danger of her sons, she shows David his own; and whiles she moves compassion to her pretended issue, she wins David to a pity of himself, and a favourable sentence for Absalon. We love ourselves better than others, but we see others better than ourselves; who so would perfectly know his own case, let him view it in another's person.  
Parables sped well with David; One drew him to repent of his own sin; another, to remit Absaloms' punishment; And now, as glad to hear this plea, and willing to be persuaded unto that, which if he durst, he would have sought for, he gratifies joab with the grant of that suit, which joab more gratified him in suing for; Go bring again the young man Absalon.  
How glad is joab, that he hath light upon one act, for which the Sun, both setting and rising, should shine upon him? and now he speeds to Geshur, to fetch back Absalon to jerusalem: he may bring the long-banished Prince to the City; but to the Court he may not bring him. (Let him turn to his own house, and let him not see my face.)  
The good King hath so smarted with mercy; that now he is resolved upon austerity; and will relent but by degrees; It is enough for Absalon that he life's, and may now breathe his native air; David's face is no object for the eyes of a murderer: What a Darling this son was to his father, appears in that, after an unnatural and barbarous rebellion, passionate David wishes to have changed lives with him; yet now, whiles his bowels yearned, his brow frowned; The face may not be seen, where the heart is set. The best of God's Saints may be blinded with affection; but when they shall once see their errors, they are careful to correct them. Wherefore serves the power of Grace, but to subdue the insolences of nature? It is the wisdom of parents, as to hide their hearts from their best children, so to hide their countenances from the ungracious: Fleshly respects may not abate their rigour to the ill deserving. For the child to see all his father's love, it is enough to make him wanton, and of wanton, wicked: For a wicked child, to see any of his father's love, it emboldens him in evil, and draws on others.  
Absaloms' house is made his prison; justly is he confined to the place which he had stained with blood; Two years doth he live in jerusalem, without the happiness of his father's sight; It was enough for David and him, to see the smoke of each others chimneys. In the mean time, how impatient is Absalon of this absence? He sends for joab, the Solicitor of his return; So hard an hand, doth wise and holy David carry over his reduced son, that his friendly Intercessor, joab, dares not visit him. He, that afterwards kindled that seditious fire over all Israel, sets fire now on the field of joab; whom love cannot draw to him, fear and anger shall; Continued displeasure hath made Absalon desperate; Five years are passed, since he saw the face of his father; and now he is no less weary of his life, then of this delay; (Wherefore am I comen down from Geshur? It had been better for me, to have been there still: Now therefore let me see the King's face, and if there be any iniquity in me, let him kill me.) Either banishment, or death, seemed as tolerable to him, as the debarring of his father's sight. What a torment shall it be to the wicked, to be shut out for ever, from the presence of a God, without all possible hopes of recovery? This was but a father of the flesh, by whom, if Absalon lived at first, yet in him he lived not, yea, not without him only, but against him that son found he could live; God is the Father of Spirits, in whom we so live, that without him can be no life, no being; to be ever excluded from him, in whom we live and are, what can it be but an eternal dying, an eternal perishing? If in thy presence, o God, be the fullness of joy, in thine absence, must needs be the fullness of horror and torment; Hid not thy face from us, o Lord, but show us the light of thy countenance, that we may live, and praise thee.  
Even the fire of joabs' field, warmed the heart of David, whiles it gave him proof of the heat of Absaloms' filial affection. As a man therefore inwardly weary of so long displeasure, at last he receives Absalon to his sight, to his favour; and seals his pardon with a kiss: Natural parents, know not how to retain an everlasting anger towards the fruit of their loins; how much less shall the God of mercies, be unreconcileably displeased with his own; and suffer his wrath to burn like fire that cannot be quenched? He will not always chide, neither will he keep his anger for ever; His wrath endureth but a moment, in his favour is life; weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.  
Absalon is now as great, as fair; beauty and greatness make him proud; pride works his ruin; Great spirits will not rest content with a moderate prosperity: Ere two years be run out, Absalon runs out into a desperate plot of rebellion; None but his own father was above him in Israel; None was so likely, in humane expectation, to succeed his father; If his ambition could but have contained itself for a few years, (as David was now near his period) dutiful carrige might have procured, that by succession, which now he sought by force. An aspiring mind is ever impatient, and holds Time itself an enemy, if it thrust itself importunately betwixt the hopes and fruition: Ambition is never but in travel, and can find no intermission of painful throws, till she have brought forth her abortive desires: How happy were we, if our affectation could be so eager of spiritual and heavenly promotions; Oh that my soul could find itself so restless, till it feel the weight of that crown of glory.  
Outward pomp, and unwonted shows of magnificence, are wont much to affect the light minds of the vulgar. Absalon therefore to the incomparable comeliness of his person, adds the unusual state of a more-then-princely equipage His Charets rattle, and his hor says trample proudly in the streets; Fifty footmen run before their glittering master; jerusalem rings of their glorious Prince; and is ready to adore these continual triumphs of peace. Excess and novelty, of expensive bravery and ostentation in public persons, gives just cause to suspect either vanity, or a plot; True-hearted David can misdoubt nothing in him, to whom he had both given life, and forgiven death▪ Love construed all this, as meant to the honour of a father's Court, to the expression of joy and thankfulness for his reconcilement: The eyes and tongues of men are thus taken up; now hath Absalon laid snares for their hearts also; He rises early, and stands beside the way of the gate; Ambition is no niggard of her pains; seldom ever is good meaning so industrious; The more he shined in beauty and royal attendance, so much more glory it was to neglect himself, and to prefer the care of justice to his own ease; Neither is Absalon more painful than plausible, his ear is open to all plaintives, all petitioners: there is no cause Which he flatters not, See thy matters are good and right; his hand flatters every comer with a salutation, his lips with a kiss. All men, all matters are soothed, saving the state and government; the censure of that is no less deep, than the applause of all others, (There is none deputed of the King to hear thee.) What insinuations could be more powerful; No music can be so sweet to the ears of the unstable multitude, as to hear well of themselves, ill of their governors; Absalon needs not to wish himself upon the Bench; Every man says, Oh what a courteous Prince is Absalon? What a just and careful ruler would Absalon be? How happy were we, if we might be judged by Absalon? Those qualities which are wont single to grace others, have conspired to meet in Absalon; goodliness of person, magnificence of state, gracious affability, unwearied diligence, humility in greatness, feeling pity, love of justice, care of the Commonwealth; The world hath not so complete a Prince as Absalon; Thus the hearts of the people are not won, but stolen by a close traitor from their lawfully-anointed Sovereign. Ouer-faire shows are a just argument of unsoundness; no natural face hath so clear a white and red, as the painted: Nothing wants now but a cloak of religion, to perfect the treachery of that ungracious Son, who carried peace in his name, war in his heart: and how easily is that put on? Absalon hath an holy vow to be paid in Hebron; The devout man had made it long since, whiles he was exiled in Syria, and now he hasts to perform it, (If the Lord shall bring me back again to jerusalem, than I will serve the Lord;) wicked hypocrites, care not to play with God that they may mock men. The more deformed any act is, the fairer visor it still seeketh.  
How glad is the good old King, that he is blessed with so godly a Son; whom he dismisseth laden with his causeless blessings: What trust is there in flesh and blood when David is not safe from his own loins? The conspiracy is now fully forged, there lacked nothing but this guilt of piety to win favour and value in all eyes; and now it is a wonder, that but two hundred honest Citizens go up with Absalon from jerusalem: The true-harted lie most open to credulity: How easy it is to beguile harmless intentions? The name of David's Son carries them against the father of Absalon, and now these simple Israelites, are unwittingly made loyal rebels. Their hearts are free from a plot, and they mean nothing, but fidelity in the attendance of a traitor. How many thousands are thus ignorantly misled into the train of error; Their simplicity is as worthy of pity, as their misguidance of indignation. Those that will suffer themselves to be carried with semblances of truth and faithfulness, must needs be as fare from safety, as innocence.   

Contemplations UPON THE HISTORY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.  
THE SECOND BOOK:  


Christ among the Doctors.  
Christ Baptised.  
Christ Tempted.  
Simon Called.  
The Marriage in Cana.  
The good Centurion.     

TO THE HONOURABLE GENERAL Sir EDWARD CECIL Knight, all honour and happiness,  
Most Honoured Sir,  
THE store of a good Scribe is (according to our Saviour) both old and new; I would (if I durst) be ambitions of this only honour; having therefore drawn forth these not-frivolous thoughts, out of the old Testament, I fetch these following from the new; God is the same in both; as the body differs not with the age of the suit, with the change of robes: The old and new wine of holy Truth, came both out of one vineyard; yet here may we safely say to the word of his father, as was said to the Bridegroom of Cana, Thou hast kept the best wine till the last; The authority of both is equally sacred, the use admits no less difference, then is betwixt a Saviour foreshadowed, and comen. The intermission of those military employments, which have won you just honour, both in foreign nations, and at home, is in this only gainful, that it yields you leisure to these happy thoughts, which shall more fully acquaint you with him that is at once the God of hosts, and the Prince of Peace: To the furtherance whereof these my poor labours, shall do no thankless offices. In lieu of your noble favours to me both at home, and where you have merited command, nothing can be returned but humble acknowledgements, and hearty prayers for the increase of your Honour, and all happiness to yourself, and your thrice-worthy and virtuous Lady, by him that is deeply obliged, and truly devoted to you both.  
IOS: HALL..   

CHRIST among the Doctors.  
EVEN the spring shows us what we may hope for of the tree in Summer; In his nonage therefore, would our Saviour give us a taste of his future proof, lest if his perfection should have showed itself without warning to the world, it should have been entertained with more wonder, than belief; now this act of his Childhood shall prepare the faith of men by fore-expectation; notwithstanding all this early demonstration of his divine graces, the incredulous jews could afterwards say, whence hath this man this wisdom and great works? What would they have said, if he had suddenly leapt forth into the clear light of the world? The Sun would dazzle all eyes, if he should break forth at his first rising into his full strength; now he hath both the daystar to go before him, and to bid men look for that glorious body, and the lively colours of the day, to publish his approach, the eye is comforted, not hurt by his appearance.  
The Parents of Christ went up yearly to jerusalem at the feast of the Passover; the law was only for the males, I do not find the blessed virgin bound to this voyage, the weaker sex received indulgence from God: yet she knowing the spiritual profit of that journey, takes pains voluntarily to measure that long way every year; Piety regards not any distinction of sexes or degrees, neither yet doth God's acceptation; rather doth it please the mercy of the highest, more to reward that service, which, though he like in all, yet out of favour he will not impose upon all! It could not be but that she whom the holy ghost overshadowed, should be zealous of God's service: those that will go no further than they are dragged in their religious exercises, are no whit of kin to her whom all generations shall call blessed.  
The child jesus in the minority of his age, went up with his Parents to the holy solemnity, not this year only, but in all likelihood others also; he in the power of whose Godhead, and by the motion of whose Spirit, all others ascended thither, would not himself stay at home. In all his examples he meant our Instruction: this pious act of his nonage intended to lead our first years into timely devotion. The first liquor seasons the vessel for a long time after: It is every way good for a man, to bear God's yoke even from his Infancy: it is the policy of the devil to discourage early holiness: he that goes out betimes in the morning, is more like to dispatch his journey, than he that lingers till the day be spent. This blessed Family, came not to look at the feast & be gone; but they duly stayed out all the appointed days of unleavened bread: they and the rest of Israel could not want household businesses at home; those secular affairs could not either keep them from repairing to jerusalem, or send them away immaturely; Worldly cares must give place to the sacred: Except we will departed unblessed, we must attend God's services till we may receive his dismission:  
It was the fashion of those times and places, that they went up, and so returned by troops, to those set meetings of their holy festivals. The whole parish of Nazareth went and came together, Good-fellowship doth no way so well, as in the passage to Heaven: much comfort is added by society to that journey, which is of itself pleasant; It is an happy word, Come let us go up to the house of the Lord: Mutual encouragement is none of the least benefits of our holy assemblies: Many sticks laid together, make a good fire, which if they lie single, lose both their light and heat.  
The feast ended, what should they do, but return to Nazareth? God's services may not be so attended, as that we should neglect our particular callings: Himself calls us from his own house to ours: and takes pleasure to see a painful Client: They are foully mistaken, that think God cares for no other trade, but devotion: Piety & diligence must keep meet changes with each other; neither doth God less accept of our return to Nazareth, than our going up to jerusalem.  
I cannot think that the blessed Virgin, or good joseph, could be so negligent of their divine charge, as not to call the child jesus, to their setting forth from jerusalem: But their back was no sooner turned upon the Temple, than his face was towards it; he had business in that place, when theirs was ended: there he was both worshipped and represented: he, in whom the Godhead dwelled bodily, could do nothing without God: his true father led him away from his supposed: Sometimes the affairs of our ordinary vocation, may not grudge to yield unto spiritual occasions: The Parents of Christ knew him well, to be of a disposition, not strange, nor sullen and stoical, but sweet and sociable: and therefore they supposed, he had spent the time and the way, in the company of their friends and neighbours: They do not suspect him wandered into the solitary fields, but when evening came, they go to seek him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance: If he had not wont to converse formerly with them, he had not now been sought amongst them: Neither as God, nor man doth he take pleasure in a stern froward austerity, and wild retiredness: but in a mild affableness, and amiable conversasation.  
But, o blessed Virgin, who can express the sorrows of thy perplexed soul; when all that evening-search could afford thee no news of thy Son jesus▪ Was not this one of those swords of Simeon, which should pierce thorough thy tender breast? How didst thou chide thy credulous neglect, in not observing so precious a charge, and blame thine eyes, for once looking beside this object of thy love? How didst thou, with thy careful husband, spend that restless night, in mutual expostulations, and bemoning of your loss? How many suspicious imaginations did that while rack thy grieved spirit? Perhaps thou mightst doubt, lest they which laid for him, by Herod's command, at his birth, had now by the secret instigation of Archelaus, surprised him in his childhood: or it may be, thou thoughtst thy divine Son had now withdrawn himself from the earth, and returned to his heavenly glory, without warning: or peradventure, thou studyedst with thyself, whether any careless on thy behalf, had not given occasion to this absence.  
Oh dear Saviour, who can miss and not mourn for thee? Never any soul conceived thee by faith, that was less afflicted with the sense of thy dissertion, then comforted with the joy of thy presence: Just is that sorrow, and those tears seasonable, that are bestowed upon thy loss; What comfort are we capable of, whiles we want thee? What relish is there in these earthly delights without thee? What is there to mitigate our passionate discomforts, if not from thee? Let thyself lose, o my soul, to the fullness of sorrow, when thou findest thyself bereaved of him, in whose presence is the fullness of joy, and deny to receive comfort from any thing, save from his return.  
In vain is Christ sought among his kindred, according to the flesh: So far are they still from giving us their aid, to find the true Messiah, that they lead us from him: Back again therefore are joseph and Mary gone, to seek him at Jerusalem; She goes about in the City, by the streets, and by the open places, and seeks him whom her soul loveth: She sought him, for the time, and found him not. Do we think she spared her search, the evening of her return, she hastes to the Inn, where she last left him; where missing him, she inquires of every one she met, Have you not seen him, whom my soul loveth? At last, the third day, she finds him in the Temple: One day was spent in the journey towards Galilee; another in the return to jerusalem: The third day recovers him: He, who would rise again the third day, and be found amongst the living, now also would the third day be found of his Parents, after the sorrow of his absence. But where wert thou, o blessed jesus, for the space of these three days? Where didst thou bestow thyself, or who tended thee, whiles thou wert thus alone at Jerusalem? I know, if Jerusalem should have been as unkind to thee, as Bethelem, thou couldst have commanded the Heavens to harbour thee, and if men did not minister to thee, thou couldst have commanded the service of Angels, but since the form of a servant, called thee to a voluntary homeliness, whether it pleased thee to exercise thyself thus early, with the difficulties of a stranger, or to provide miraculously for thyself; I inquire not, since thou revealest not, only this I know, that hereby thou intendest to teach thy parents, that thou couldst live without them, and that not of any indigency, but out of a gracious dispensation, thou wouldst ordinarily depend upon their care.  
In the mean time, thy divine wisdom could not but foreknow all these corroding thoughts, wherewith the heart of thy dear mother must needs bleed, through this sudden dereliction; yet wouldst thou leave her for the time to her sorrow: Even so, o Saviour, thou thoughtest fit to visit her, that bore thee with this early affliction; Never any loved thee, whom thou dost not sometimes exercise with the grief of missing thee, that both we may be more careful to hold thee, and more joyful in recovering thee. Thou hast said, and canst not lie, I am with you to the end of the world: but even whiles thou art really present, thou thinkest good to be absent unto our apprehensions: yet if thou leave us, thou wilt not forsake us; if thou leave us for our humiliation, thou wilt not forsake us to our final discomfort; thou mayst for three days hide thyself; but then we shall find thee in the Temple; None ever sought thee with a sincere desire, of whom thou wert not found: Thou wilt not be either so little absent, as not to whet our appetites, nor so long, as to fainten the heart. After three days we shall find thee; and where should we rather hope to find thee then in the Temple? There is the habitation for the God of Israel, there is thy resting place for ever; Oh all ye that are grieved with the want of your Saviour, see where ye must seek him: In vain shall ye hope to find him in the strects, in the Taverns, in the theatres, seek him in his holy Temple: Seek him with piety, seek him with faith, there shall ye meet him, there shall ye recover him. Whiles children of that age were playing in the streets, Christ was found sitting in the Temple, not to gaze on the outward glory of that house, or on the golden Candlesticks, or tables, but to hear and appose the Doctors; He, who as God, gave them all the wisdom they had, as the Son of man hearkens to the wisdom he had given them: He, who sat in their hearts, as the Author of all learning and knowledge, sets in the midst of their school, as an humble Disciple: That by learning of them, he might teach all the younger sort humility, and due attendance upon their Instructours, he could at the first have taught the great Rabbins of Israel, the deep mysteries of God; but because he was not yet called by his Father, to the public function of a Teacher, he contents to hear with diligence, and to ask with modesty, & to teach only by insinuation. Let those consider this, which will needs run as soon as they can go: and when they find ability, think they need not stay for a further vocation of God, or men; Open your eyes, ye rather ripe Invaders of God's Chair: and see your Saviour in his younger years, not sitting in the eminent pulpits of the Doctors, but in the lowly floors of the Auditors: See him that could have taught the Angels, listening in his minority, to the voice of men; Who can think much, to learn of his Ancients, when he looks upon the Son of God, sitting at the feet of the Doctors of Israel. First he hears, them he asks: how much more doth it concern usto be hearers, ere we offer to be teachers of others; he gathers that hears, he spends that teacheth; if we spend ere we gather, we shall soon prove bankrupts.  
When he hath heard, he asks, and after that, he answers: doubtless those very questions were instructions, and meant to teach more then to learn: Never had these great Rabbins heard the voice of such a tutor: in whom they might see the wisdom of God so concealing itself, that yet it would be known to be there: No marvel then if they all wondered at his understanding and answers▪ Their eyes saw nothing but humane weakness, their ears heard divine sublimity of matter; betwixt what they saw, and what they heard, they could not but be distracted with a doubting admiration. And why did ye not (o ye jewish teachers) remember That to us a Child is borne, and unto us a Son is given, and the government is upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace? Why did ye not now bethink yourselves, what the star, the Sages, the Angels, the Shepherds, Zachary, Simeon, Anna, had premonished you. Fruitless is the wonder that endeth not in faith; No light is sufficient where the eyes are held through unbelief or prejudice.  
The Doctors were not more amazed, to hear so profound a childhood, than the parents of Christ were to see him among the Doctors; the joy of finding him, did strive with the astonishment of finding him thus, And now, not joseph (he knew how little right he had to that divine Son) but Mary breaks forth into a loving expostulation (Son why hast thou dealt so with us;) that she might not sceme to take upon her as an imperious mother, it is like she reserved this question till she had him alone: Wherein she meant rather to express grief then correption: Only herein th● blessed virgin offended, that he inconsideration did not suppose (as it was) that some hy● respects, than could be due to flesh and blood, called away th● Son of God from her, that wa● the daughter of man: She tha● was but the mother of his humanity, should not hau● thought that the business o● God must for her sake be neglected: We are all partial to ourselves naturally, & prone to the regard of our own rights; questionless this gracious saint would not for all the world, have willingly preferred her own attendance, to that of her God: through heedlessness she doth so: her Son and Saviour is her monitor: out of his divine love reforming her natural: How is ●t that ye sought me? Knew ye not ●hat I must go about my Father's business? Immediately before the blessed virgin had said, thy father and I sought thee with heavy hearts: Wherein both according to the supposition of the world, she called joseph the father of Christ, and according to the fashion of a dutiful wife, she names her joseph, before herself. She well knew that joseph had nothing but a name in this business, she knew how God had dignified her beyond him; yet, she says: Thy father and I sought thee; The Son of God stand not upon contradiction to hi● mother, but leading he thoughts from his supposed father, to his true; from earth t● heaven, he answers (Knew ye no● that I must go about my Father's business?) It was honour enough to her that he had vouchsafed to take flesh of her; It was his eternal honour, that he wa● God of God; the everlasting Son of the heavenly Father; good reason therefore was it that, the respects to flesh: should give place to the God of Spirits▪ How well contented was holy Mary with so just an answer, how doth she now again in her heart, renew her answer to the Angel (Behold the servant of the Lord, be it according to thy word.  
We are all the sons of God in another kind. Nature and the world thinks we should attend them; we are not worthy to say, we have a Father in heaven, if we cannot steal away from these earthly distractions, and employ ourselves in the services of our God.   

Christ's Baptism.  
JOHN did every way forerun Christ, not so much in the time of his birth, as in his office; neither was there more unlikeness in their disposition and carriage, than similitude in their function; both did preach and baptise; only john baptised by himself, our Saviour by his disciples; our Saviour wrought miracles by himself, by his disciples; john wrought none by either; Wherein Christ meant to show himself a Lord, and john a servant; and john meant to approve himself a true servant to him, whose harbinger he was; he that leapt in the womb of his mother, when his Saviour (than newly conceived) came in presence, bestirred himself when he was brought forth into the light of the Church, to the honour and service of his Saviour: he did the same before Christ, which Christ charged his disciples to do after him, preach and baptise. The Gospel ran always in one tenor, and was never but like itself; So it became the word of him in whom there is no shadow by turning, and whose word it is, I am jehova, I change not.  
It was fit, that he which had the Prophets, the star, the Angels to foretell his coming into the world, should have his Usher to go before him, when he would notify himself to the world; john was the voice of a Crier, Christ was the word of his Father; it was fit this voice should make a noise to the world, ere the word of the Father should speak to it; john's note was still, repentance; the axe to the root, the fan to the flower, the chaff to the fire; as his raiment was rough, so was his tongue, and if his food were wild honey, his speech was stinging locusts: Thus must the way be made for Christ in every heart: Plausibility is no fit preface to regeneration: if the heart of man had continued upright, God might have been entertained without contradiction; but now violence must be offered to our corruption, ere we can have room for grace; if the great way-maker do not cast down hills, and raise up valleys in the bosoms of men, there is no passage for Christ; never will Christ come into that soul, where the herald of repentance hath not been before him.  
That Saviour of ours, who from eternity lay hid in the counsel of God, who in the fullness of time so came, that he lay hid in the womb of his mother, for the space of forty weeks; after he was come, thought fit to lie hid in Nazareth, for the space of thirty years, now at last gins to show himself to the world, and comes from Galilee to jordan. He that was God always, and might have been perfect man in an instant, would by degrees rise to the perfection both of his manhood, and execution of his mediator-ship; to teach us, the necessity of leisure in spiritual proceed; that many suns, and successions of seasons, and means must be stayed for, ere we can attain our maturity; and that when we are ripe for the employments of God, we should no less willingly leave our obscurity, than we took the benefit of it for our preparation. He that was formerly circumcised, would now be baptised; what is baptism but an Evangelicall circumcision? What was circumcision but a legal baptism? One both supplied and succeeded the other; yet the author of both will undergo both; He would be circumcised to satisfy his Church that was, and baptised to sanctify his Church that should be; that so in both Testaments he might open away into heaven. There was in him neither filthiness, nor foreskin of corruption, that should need either knife, or water; He came not to be a Saviour for himself, but for us, we are all uncleanness, and uncircumcision, he would therefore have that done to his most pure body, which should be of force to clear our impure souls; thus making himself sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.  
His baptism gives virtue to ours. His last action (or rather passion) was his baptising with blood, his first was his baptization with water, both of them wash the world from their sins. Yea, this latter did not only wash the souls of men, but washeth that very water, by which we are washed; from hence is that made both clean and holy, and can both cleanse and hollow us; And if the very hadkerchiefe which touched his Apostles, had power of cure, how much more that Water, which the sacred body of Christ touched? Christ comes far, to seek his baptism: to teach us (for whose sake he was baptised) to wait upon the ordinances of God; and to sue for the favour of spiritual blessings; They are worthless commodities, that are not worth seeking for; it is rarely scene, that God is found of any man unsought for: that desire which only makes us capable of good things, cannot stand with neglect.  
john durst not baptise unbidden: his Master sent him to do this service, and behold the Master comes to his servant, to call for the participation of that privilege, which he himself had instituted, and enjoined; how willingly should we come to our spiritual Superiors, for our part in those mysteries, which God hath left in their keeping; y●●, how gladly should we come to that Christ, who gives us these blessings; who is given to us in them.  
This seemed too great an honour for the modesty of john to receive; If his mother could say, when her blessed cousin the Virgin Mary, came to visit her (Whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?) how much more might he say so, when the divine Son of that mother, came to call for a favour from him? I have need to be baptised of thee, and comest thou to me? O holy Baptist, if there were not a greater borne of women than thou; yet thou couldst not be borne of a woman, and not need to be baptised of thy Saviour. He baptised with fire, thou with water; Little would thy water have availed thee without his fire, If he had not baptised thee, how wert thou sanctified from the womb? There can be no flesh without filthiness; neither thy supernatural conception, nor thy austere life could exempt thee from the need of baptism: Even those, that have not lived to sin after the similitude of Adam, yet are they so tainted with Adam, that unless the second Adam cleanse them by his baptism they are hopeless; There is no less use of baptism unto all, then there is certainty of the need of baptism; john baptised without; Christ within. The more holy a man is, the more sensible he is of his unholiness; No carnal man could have said (I have need to be baptised of thee;) neither can he find, what he is the better for a little Font-water. The sense of our wretchedness, and the valuation of our spiritual helps, is the best trial of our regeneration: Our Saviour doth not deny, that either john hath need to be baptised of him, or that it is strange, that he should come to be baptised of john, but he will needs thus far, both honour john, and disparage himself, to be baptised of his Messenger; he that would take flesh of the Virgin, education from his Parents, sustenance from his creatures, will take baptism from john: It is the praise of his mer cy, that he will stoop so low, as to be beholden to his creatures, which from him receive their being and power, both to take and give. Yet not so much respect to john, as obedience to his Father, drew him to this point of humiliation, (Thus it behoves us to fulfil all righteousness.) The counsels and appointments of God, are righteousness itself; There needs no other motive, either to the servant, or the Son, than the knowledge of those righteous purposes. This was enough to lead a faithful man thorough all difficulties and inconveniences; neither will it admit of any reply, or any demur: john yields to this honour, which his Saviour puts upon him, in giving baptism to the Author of it: He baptised others to the remission of their sins: now he baptises him by them, they are remitted both to the Baptizer, and to others.  
No sooner is Christ baptised, than he comes forth of the water: The element is of force, but during the use: It turns common, when that is past, neither is the water sooner poured on his head, than the Heavens are opened, and the Holy Ghost descendeth upon that head which was baptised: The Heavens are never shut, whiles either of the Sacraments is duly administered, and received: neither do the Heavens ever thus open without the descent of the Holy Ghost: But now that the God of Heaven is baptised, they open unto him, which are opened to all the faithful by him: and that Holy Ghost which proceeded from him, together with the Father; joins with the Father in a sensible testimony of him; that now the world might see what interest he had in the Heavens, in the Father, in the Holy Spirit, and might expect nothing but divine, from the enttance of such a Mediator.   

CHRIST tempted.  
NO sooner is Christ comen out of the water of Baptism, than he enters into the fire of Tentation: No sooner is the Holy Spirit descended upon his head, in the form of a Dove, than he is led by the spirit to be tempted. No sooner doth God say (This is my Son) than Satan says, (If thou be the Son of God.) It is not in the power, either of the gtft or seals of Grace, to deliver us from the assaults of Satan; they may have the force to repel evil suggestions, they have none to prevent them; yea, the more we are engaged unto God by our public vows, and his pledges of favour, so much more busy and violent is the rage of that evil one, to encounter us; We are no sooner stepped forth into the field of God, than he labours to wrest our weapons out of our hands, or to turn them against us.  
The voice from Heaven, acknowledged Christ to be the Son of God; this divine Testimony did not allay the malice of Satan, but exasperated it: Now that venomous Serpent swells with inward poison, and hastes to assail him, whom God hath honoured from Heaven. O God, how should I look to escape the suggestious of that wicked one, when the Son of thy love cannot be free? when even grace itself draws on enmity? That Enemy, that spared not to strike at the head, will he forbear the weakest and remotest limb? Arm thou me therefore, with an expectation of that evil I cannot avoid, Make thou me as strong, as he is malicious; Say to my soul also (Thou art my Son) and let Satan do his worst.  
All the time of our Saviour's obscurity, I do not find him set upon; Now, that he looks forth to the public execution of his divine Office, Satan bends his forces against him: Our privacy, perhaps, may sit down in peace, but never man did endeavour a common good without opposition. It is a sign, that both the work is holy, & the Agent faithful, when we meet with strong affronts.  
We have reason to be comforted with nothing so much, as with resistance, If we were not in a way to do good, we should find no rubs; Satan hath no cause to molest his own, and that whiles they go about his own service; He desires nothing more, then to make us smooth paths to sin; but when we would turn our feet to holiness, he blocks up the way with tentations.  
Who can wonder enough at the sauciness of that bold Spirit, that dares to set upon the Son of the everliving God? who can wonder enough at thy meekness & patience, o Saviour, that wouldst be tempted? He wanted not malice and presumption to assault thee, thou wantedst not humility to endure those assaults. I should stand amazed at this voluntary dispensation of thine, but that I see the susception of our humane nature, lays thee open to this condition. It is necessarily incident to manhood, to be liable to tentations; Thou wouldst not have put no flesh, if thou hadst meant utterly to put off this consequence of our infirmity: If the state of innocence could have been any defence against evil motions, the first Adam had not been tempted, much less the second. It is not the presenting of tentation that can hurt us, but their entertainment. Ill counsel is the fault of the Giver, not of the Refuser, We cannot forbid leudeys to look in at our windows, we may shut our doors against their entrance; It is no less our praise to have resisted, than Satan's blame to suggest evil. Yea, o blessed Saviour, how glorious was it for thee, how happy for us, that thou wert tempted? Had not Satan tempted thee, how shouldest thou have overcomne? Without blows there can be no victory, no triumph: How had thy power been manifested; if no adversary had tried thee? The first Adam was tempted & vanquished, the second Adam, to repay and repair that foil, doth vanquish in being tempted. Now have we not a Saviour, and Highpriest, that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but such an one, as was in all things tempted in like sort, yet without sin; how boldly therefore may we go unto the Throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and find grace of help in time of need: Yea, this Devil was for us; Now we see by this conflict of our Almighty Champion, what manner of Adversary we have, how he fights, how he is resisted, how overcomne. Now our very temptation affords us comfort, in that we see, the dearer we are unto God, the more obnoxious we are to this trial; neither can we be discouraged by the heinousness of those evils, whereto we are moved, since we see the Son of God solicited to Infidelity, Covetousness, Idolatry; How glorious therefore was it for thee, o Saviour, how happy for us, that thou wert tempted?  
Where then wast thou tempted, O blessed jesus; or whither goest thou to meet with our great adversary? I do not see thee led into the marketplace, or any other part of the city, or thy home-sted of Nazareth, but into the vast wilderness, the habitation of beasts; a place that carrieth in it, both horror and opportunity; why wouldst thou thus retire thyself from men, but as confident Champions are wont to give advantage of ground, or weapon, to their Antagonist, that the glory of their victory may be the greater: So wouldst thou, O Saviour, in this can but with our common enemy, yield him his own terms for circumstances, that thine honour and his foil may be the more; Solitarynesse is no small help to the speed of a tentation; Woe to him that is alone, for if he fall, there is not a second to lift him up; Those that out of an affectation of holiness seek for solitude, in rocks and caves of the deserts, do no other than run into the mouth of the danger of tentation, whiles they think to avoid it. It was enough for thee, to whose divine power the gates of hell were weakness; thus to challenge the Prince of darkness; Our care must be always to eschew all occasions of spiritual danger; and (what we may) to get us out of the reach of tentations.  
But O the depth of the wisdom of God; How cam'st thou o Saviour, to be thus tempted? That Spirit whereby thou wast conceived, as man, and which was one with thee and the Father, as God, Led thee into the wilderness to be tempted of Satan; Whiles thou taughtest us to pray to thy Father, Led us not into temptation, thou meantest to instruct us, that if the same Spirit lead us not into this perilous way, we go not into it; We have still the same conduct; Let the path be what it will, how can we miscarry in the hand of a Father. Now may we say to Satan as thou didst unto Pilate; thou couldst have no power over me, except it were given thee from above; The spirit led thee, it did not drive thee; here was a sweet invitation, no compulsion of violence; So absolutely conformable was thy will to thy deity, as if both thy natures had but one volition; In this first draught of thy bitter potion, thy Soul said in a real subjection, Not my will, but thy will be done: We imitate thee, o Saviour, though we cannot reach to thee; All thine are led by thy Spirit; Oh teach us to forget that we have wills of our own. The spirit led thee; thine invincible strength did not animate thee into thi● combat uncalled, What do we weaklings so far presume upon our abilities, or success, as that we dare thrust ourselves upon temptations unbidden, unwarranted? Who can pity the shipwreck of those Mariners, which will needs put forth, and hoist sails in a tempest?  
Forty days did our Saviour spend in the wilderness, fasting, and solitary, all which time was worn out in temptation; how ever the last brunt, because it was most violent, is only expressed; Now could not the Adversary complain of disadvantage, whiles he had the full scope both of time and place to do his worst; And why did i● please thee, o Saviour, to fas● forty days, and forty nights● unless as Moses fasted forty days at the delivery of the law and Elias at the restetution o● the law; So thou thoughtest fit at the accomplishment of the law, and the promulgation of the Gospel, to fulfil the time of both these tips of thine, wherein thou intendedst our wonder, not our imitation; Not our imitation of the time, though of the act. Hear were no faulty desires of the flesh, in thee to be tamed, no possibility of a freer and more easy ascent of the soul to God, that could be affected of thee, who wast perfectly united unto God, but as for us thou wouldst suffer death, so for us, thou wouldst suffer hunger, that we might learn by fasting, to prepare ourselves for tentations: In fasting so long thou intendedst the manifestation of thy power; in fasting no longer, the truth of thy manhood; Moses and Elias, through the miraculous sustentation of God, fasted so long, without any question made of the truth of their bodies; So long therefore thou thoughtest good to fast, as by reason of these precedents, might be without prejudice of thine humanity, which if it should have pleased thee to support, as thou couldst, without means, thy very power might have opened the mouth of cavils against the verity of thine humane nature; That thou mightest therefore well approve, that ther● was no difference betwixt the● and us, but sin; thou tha● couldst have fasted without hunger, and lived without meat; wouldst both feed, and fast, and hunger.  
Who can be discouraged with the scantness of friends, or bodily provisions, when he sees his Saviour thus long destitute of all earthly comforts, both of society and sustenance. Oh the policy and malice of that old Serpent, when he sees Christ bewray some infirmity of nature in being hungry, than he lays sorest at him by tentations; His eye was never off from our Saviour▪ all the time of his sequestration; and now that he thinks he espies any one part to lie open, he drives at it with all his might; We have to do with an adversary, no less vigilant than malicious; who will be sure to watch all opportunities of our mischief, and where he sees any advantage of our weakness, will not neglect it. How should we stand upon our guard for prevention; that both we may not give him occasions, of our hurt, nor take hurt by those we have given.  
When our Saviour was hungry, Satan tempts him in matter of food; not then, of wealth or glory; He well knows both what baits, to fish withal, and when, and how to lay them; How safe and happy shall we be, if we shall bend our greatest care where we discern the most danger?  
In every tentation there is an appearance of good; whether of the body, or mind, or estate; The first is the lust of the flesh, in any carnal desire, the second the pride of heart, and life; the third the lust of the eyes; To all these, the first Adam is tempted, and in all miscarried; the second Adam is tempted to them all, and overcometh; The first man was tempted, to a carnal appetite by the forbidden fruit, to pride by the suggestion of being as God; To covetousness, in the ambitious desire of knowing good and evil; Satan having found all the motions so successful with the first Adam in his innocent estate, will now tread the same steps in his temptations of the second; The stones must be made bread; there is the motion to a carnal appetite; The guard and attendance of Angels must be presumed on, there is a motion to pride; The Kingdoms of the earth, and the glory of them must be offered, there, to covetousness and ambition.  
Satan could not but have heard God say, This is my well-beloved Son, he had heard the message and the Carol of the Angels; he saw the Star, and the journey, and offerings, of the Sages, he could not but take notice of the gratulations of Zachary, Simeon, Anna; he well knew the predictions of the Prophets; yet now that he saw Christ fainting with hunger, as not comprehending how infirmities could consist with a Godhead, he can say, (If thou be the Son of God;) Had not Satan known that the Son of God was to come into the world, he had never said (If thou be the Son of God) His very supposition convinces him; The ground of his tentation, answers itself; If therefore Christ seemed to be a mere man, because after forty days he was hungry, why was he not confessed more than a man, in that for forty days he hungered not? The motive of the tentation is worse than the motion, (If thou be the Son of God) Satan could not choose another suggestion of so great importance. All the work of our redemption, of our salvation, depends upon this one truth, Christ is the Son of God; How should he else have ransomed the world, how should he have done, how should he have suffered that, which was satisfactory ●o his father's wrath? how should his actions, or passion been valuable to the sins of all the world? What marvel is it if we that are sons by adoption, be assaulted with the doubts of our interest in God, when the natural Son, the Son of his essence is thus tempted? Since all our comfort consists in this point, here must needs be laid the chief battery; and here must be placed our strongest defence.  
To turn stones into bread, had been no more faulty in itself, then to turn water into wine: But to do this in a distrust of his Father's providence, to abuse his power and liberty in doing it, to work a miracle of Satan's choice, had been disagreeable to the Son of God: There is nothing more ordinary with our spiritual enemy, then by occasion of want to move us to unwarrantable courses; Thou art poor, steal; Thou canst not rise by honest means, use indirect; How easy had it been for our Saviour, to have confounded Satan by the power of his Godhead? But he rather chooses to vanquish him by the sword of the Spirit, that he might teach us how to resist and overcome the powers of darkness? If he had subdued Satan by the almighty power of the deity, we might have had what to wonder at, not what to imitate; now he useth that weapon, which may be familiar unto us, that he may teach our weakness how to be victorious; Nothing in heaven or earth can beat the forces of hell, but the word of God; How carefully should we furnish ourselves with this powerful munition; how should our hearts and mouths be full of it? Teach me O Lord the way of thy statutes; O take not from me the words of Truth; Let them be my songs in the house of my pilgrimage; So shall I make answer to my blasphemers. What needed Christ to have answered Satan at all, if it had not been to teach us, that tentations must not have their way; but must be answered by resistance; and resisted by the word.  
I do not hear our Saviour aver himself to be a God; against the blasphemous insinuation of Satan; neither do I see him working this miraculous conversion, to prove himself the Son of God; but most wisely he takes away the ground of the tentation; Satan had taken it for granted, that man cannot be sustained without bread; and therefore infers the necessity of making bread of stones; Our Saviour shows him from an infallible word, that he had mislaied his suggestion; That man life's not by usual food only, but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God; He can either sustain without bread, as he did Moses and Elias, or with a miraculous bread, as the Israelites with Manna, or send ordinary means miraculously, as food to his Prophet by the Ravens, or miraculously multiply ordinary means, as the meal and oil to the Sareptan widow: All things are sustained by his almighty word: Indeed we live by food, but not by any virtue that is in it without God; without the concurrence of whose providence, bread would rather choke, then nourish us; Let him withdraw his hand from his creature; in their greatest abundance we perish; Why do we therefore bend our eyes on the means, and not look up to the hand that gives the blessing?  
What so necessary dependence hath the blessing upon the creature, if our prayers hold them not together; As we may not neglect the means, so we may not neglect the procurement of a blessing upon the means, nor be unthankful to the hand that hath given the blessing.  
In the first assault, Satan moves Christ to doubt of his father's providence, and to use unlawful means to help himself: in the next, he moves him to presume upon his Father's protection, and the service of his blessed Angels; He grounds the first upon a conceit of want, the next of abundance; If he be in extremes, it is all to one end, to misled unto evil: If we cannot be driven down to despair, he labours to lift us up to presumption; It is not one foil that can put this bold spirit out of countenance: Tentations, like waves, break one in the neck of another; Whiles we are in this warfare, we must make account, that the repulse of one tentation doth but invite another.  
That blessed Saviour of ours, that was content to be led from lordan into the wilderness, for the advantage of the first tentation, yields to be led from the wilderness to jerusalem, for the advantage of the second; The place doth not a little avail to the act: The wilderness was fit for a tentation, arifing from want, it was not fit for a tentation moving to vainglory. The populous City was the fittest for such a motion; jerusalem was the glory of the world, the Temple was the glory of jerusalem, the pinnacles, the highest piece of the Temple, there is Christ content to be set for the opportunity of tentation: O Saviour of men, how can we wonder enough at this humility of thine, that thou wouldst so fare abase thyself, as to suffer thy pure and sacred body to be transported by the presumptuous and malicious hand of that unchaste spirit? It was not his power, it was thy patience, that deserves our admiration, Neither can this seem over-strange to us, when we consider, that if Satan be the head of wicked men, wicked men are the members of Satan; What was Pilate, or the jews that persecuted thine innocence, but limbs of this Devil? and why are we then amazed, to see thee touched, and locally transported by the head, when we see thee yielding thyself over, to be crucified by the members? If Satan did the worse, and greater, mediately by their hands, no marvel if he do the less and easier, immediately by his own, yet neither of them without thy voluntary dispensation. He could not have looked at thee, without thee; And if the Son of God, did thus suffer his own holy and precious body, to be carried by Satan, what wonder is it, if that Enemy have sometimes power given him, over the sinful bodies of the adopted Sons of God. It is not the strength of faith, that can secure us from the outward violences of that evil One; This difference I find betwixt his spiritual and bodily assaults: those are beaten back by the shield of faith, these admit not of such repulse; As the best man may be lame, blind, diseased, so through the permission of God, he may be bodily vexed by that old ; Grace was never given us for a target against external afflictions.  
Me thinks I see Christ, hoist up on the highest battlements of the Temple; whose very roof was an hundred and thirty cubits high; and Satan standing by him with this speech in his mouth; Well then, since in the matter of nourishment, thou wilt needs depend upon thy Father's providence, that he can without means sustain thee, take now further trial of that providence, in thy miraculous preservation; Cast thyself down from this height; Behold, thou art here in jerusalem, the famous and holy City of the world; here thou art, on the top of the pinnacle of that Temple, which is dedicated to thy Father, and, if thou be God, to thyself; the eyes of all men are now fixed upon thee, there cannot be devised a more ready way to spread thy glory, and to proclaim thy Deity, then by casting thyself headlong to the earth. All the world will say, there is more in thee, than a man; and for danger, there can be none; What can hurt him, that is the Son of God? and wherefore serves that glorious Guard of Angels, which have by divine commission, taken upon them the charge of thine humanity? since therefore in one act, thou mayst be both safe, and celebrated, trust thy Father, and those thy serviceable spirits with thine assured preservation, Cast thyself down: And why didst thou not, o thou malignant spirit, endeavour to cast down my Saviour, by those same presumptuous hands, that brought him up, since the descent is more easy than the raising up? was it for that, it had not been so great an advantage to thee, that he should fall by thy means, as by his own? falling into sin, was more than to fall from the pinnacle; still thy care and suit is, to make us Authors to ourselves of evil; thou gainest nothing by our bodily hurt; if the soul be safe: Or was it rather for that, thou couldst not? I doubt not, but thy malice could as well have served, to have offered this measure to himself, as to his holy Apostle soon after; but he that bounded thy power, tethered thee shorter; Thou couldst not, thou canst not do what thou wouldst. He that would permit thee to carry him up, binds thy hands from casting him down: And woe were it for us if thou wert not ever stinted:  
Why did Satan carry up Christ so high, but on purpose, that his fall might be the more deadly; so deals he still with us, he exalts us, that we may be dangerously abased; He puffs men up with swelling thoughts of their own worthiness, that they may be vile in the eyes of God, and fall into condemnation: It is the manner of God, to cast down, that he may raise, to abase that he may exalt; Contrarily, Satan raises up, that he may throw down, and intends nothing but our dejection, in our advancement.  
Height of place gives opportunity of tentation; Thus busy is that wicked one, in working against the members of Christ. If any of them be in eminence above others, those he labours most to ruinated▪ They had need to stand fast, that stand high; Both there is more danger of their falling, and more hurt in their fall.  
He that had presumed thus far, to tempt the Lord of life, would feign now draw him also to presume upon his Deity; If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down. There is not a more tried shaft in all his quiver, than this; a persuasion to men, not to bear themselves too bold upno the favour of God; Thou art the Elect and Redeemed of God; sin, because grace hath abounded, sin, that it may abound; Thou art safe enough, though thou offend, be not too much an adversary to thine own liberty: False Spirit, it is no liberty to sin, but servitude rather, there is no liberty, but in the freedom from sin; Every one of us, that hath the hope of Sons, must purge himself, even as he is pure, that hath redeemed us: We are bought with a price, therefore must we glorify God in our bodies and spirits, for they are Gods; Our Sonship teacheth us awe and obedience, and therefore, because we are Sons, we will not cast ourselves down into sin.  
How idly do Satan and wicked men measure God, by the crooked line of their own misconceit: Iwis, Christ cannot be the Son of God, unless he cast himself down from the pinnacle; unless he come down from the Cross. God is not merciful, unless he humour them in all their desires, not just, unless he take speedy vengeance, where they require it; But when they have spent their folly upon these vain imaginations, Christ is the Son of God, though he stay on the top of the Temple, God will be merciful, though we miscarry, and just, though Sinners seem lawless. Neither will he be any other than he is, or measured by any rule, but himself.  
But what is this I see, Satan himself with a Bible under his arm, with a Text in his mouth, It is written, He shall give his Angels charge over thee? How still in that wicked One doth subtlety strive with presumption? Who could not, but over-wonder at this, if he did not consider, that since the Devil dared to touch the sacred bódy of Christ with his hand, he may well touch the Scriptures of God with his tongue? Let no man henceforth marvel, to hear heretics, or hypocrites, quote Scriptures, when Satan himself hath not spared to cite them; what are they the worse for this, more than that holy body, which he transported? Some have been poisoned, by their meats & drinks, yet either these nourish us, or nothing: It is not the letter of the Scripture that can carry it, but the sense; if we divide these two, we profane and abuse that word we allege. And wherefore doth this foul Spirit urgea Text, but for imitation, for prevention, and for success? Christ had alleged a Scripture unto him, he re-alledges Scripture unto Christ: At least wise, he will counterfeit an imitation of the Son of God; Neither is it in this alone; what one act ever passed the hand of God, which Satan did not apishly attempt to second? If we follow Christ in the outward action, with contrary intentions, we follow Satan, in following Christ. Or, perhaps, Satan meant to make Christ hereby weary of this weapon; As we see fashions, when they are taken up of the unworthy. are cast of by the great, It was doubtless, one cause, why Christ afterwards forbade the Devil even to confess the truth, because his mouth was a slander. But chiefly doth he this, for a better colour of his tentation: He guilds over this false mettle with Scripture, that it may pass currant; Even now is Satan transformed into an Angel of light, and will seem godly for a mischief; If hypocrites make a fair show to deceive with a glorious lustre of holiness, we see whence they borrowed it: How many thousand souls are betrayed by the abuse of that word, whose use is sovereign and saving. No devil is so dangerous as the religious devil. If good meat turn to the nourishment, not of nature, but of the disease, we may not forbear to feed, but endeavour to purge the body of those evil humours, which cause the stomach to work against itself. O God, thou that hast given us light, give us clear and sound eyes, that we may take comfort of that light thou hast given us; Thy word is holy, make our hearts so, and then shall they find that word, not more true than cordial; Let not this divine table of thine, be made a snare to our souls.  
What can be a better act then to speak Scripture? It were a wonder if Satan should do a good thing well; He cities scripture then, but with mutilation, and distortion; it comes not out of his mouth, but maimed and perverted; One piece is left out, all misapplyed; Those that wrist or mangle Scripture for their own turn, it is easy to see from what school they come. Let us take the word from the author, not from the usurper: David would not doubt to eat that sheep, which he pulled out of the mouth of the Bear or Lion; (He shall give his Angels charge over thee:) Oh comfortable assurance of our protection; God's children never go unattended; Like unto great Princes we walk ever in the midst of our guard; though invisible, yet true, careful, powerful; What creatures are so glorious as the Angels of heaven, yet their maker hath set them to serve us: Our adoption makes us at once great and safe; We may be contemptible and ignominious in the eyes of the world, but the Angels of God observe us the while, and scorn not to wait upon us in our homeliest occasions; The Sun, or the light may we keep out of our houses, the air we cannot; much less these fpirits, that are more simple and immaterial: No walls, no bolts, can sever them from our sides: they accompany us in dungeons, they go with us into our exile; How can we either fear danger, or complain of solitariness, whiles we have so unseperable, so glorious companions?  
Is our Saviour distasted with Scripture, because Satan mislaies it in his dish? Doth he not rather snatch this sword out of that impure hand, and beat Satan with the weapon which he abuseth; (It is written, Thou shalt not tempt thy Lord thy God;) The Scripture is one, as that God, whose it is; Where it carries an appearance of difficulty or inconvenience, it needs no light to clear it, but that, which it hath in itself. All doubts that may arise from it, are fully answered by collection; It is true that God hath taken this care, and given this charge of his own; he will have them kept, not in their sins; they may trust him, they may not tempt him; he meant to encourage their faith, not their presumption. To cast ourselves upon an immediate providence, when means fail not, is to disobey, in steed of believing God; we may challenge God on his word, we may not strain him beyond it; we may make account of what he promised, we may not subject his promises to unjust examinations; and where no need is, make trial of his power, justice, mercy, by devices of our own. All the Devils in hell, could not elude the force of this divine answer; and now Satan sees how vainly he tempteth Christ to tempt God.  
Yet again for all this, do I see him setting upon the Son of God: Satan is not foiled when he is resisted: neither diffidence, nor presumption can fasten upon Christ, he shall be tried with honour; As some expert Fencer that challenges at all weapons, so doth this great enemy; In vain shall we plead our skill in some, if we fail in any; It must be our wisdom to be prepared for all kind of assaults: As those that hold towns and forts do, not only defend themselves from incursions, but from the cannon and the Pioneer; still doth that subtle Serpent traverse his ground for an advantage; The Temple is not hie enough for his next tentation; He therefore carries up Christ to the top of an exceeding high mountain; All enemies in pitched fields strive for the benefit of the hill, or river, or wind, or sun; That which his servant Balac did by his instigation, himself doth now immediately, change places in hope of prevailing. If the obscure country will not move us, he tries what the Court can do, if not our home, the Tavern, if not the field, our closet,; As no place is left free by his malice, so no place must be made prejudicial by our carelessness; and as we should always watch over ourselves, so than most, when the opportunity carries cause of suspicion.  
Wherefore is Christ carried up so high but for prospect? If the kingdoms of the earth and their glory, were only to be represented to his imagination; the valley would have served; If to the outward sense, no hill could suffice; Circular bodies though small, cannot be seen at once. This show was made to both, diverse kingdoms lying round about judea were represented to the eye; The glory of them to the imagination; Satan meant the eye could tempt the fancy; no less than the fancy could tempt the will. How many thousand souls have died of the wound of the eye; If we do not let in sin at the window of the eye, or the door of the ear, it cannot enter into our hearts.  
If there be any pomp, majesty, pleasure, bravery in the world, where should it be but in the Courts of Princes, whom God hath made his Images, his deputies upon earth? There is soft raiment, sumptuous feasts, rich jewels, honourable attendance, glorious triumphs, royal state, these Satan lays out to the fairest show: But oh the craft of that old Serpent; Many a care attends greatness; No creature is without thorns: High seats are never but uneasy; all those infinite discontentments, which are the shadow of earthly sovereignty, he hides out of the way; nothing may be seen, but what may both please and allure. Satan is still and ever like himself; If tentations might be but turned about and shown on both sides, the kingdom of darkness would not be so populous. Now whensoever the Tempter sets upon any poor soul, all sting of conscience, wrath, judgement, torment is concealed, as if they were not; Nothing may appear to the eye but pleasure, profit, and a seeming happiness in the enjoying our desires; those other woeful objects are reserved for the farewell of sin; that our misery may be seen and felt at once; When we are once sure, Satan is a Tyrant, till then, he is a Parasite: There can be no safety, if we do not view as well the back as the face of tentations.  
But oh presumption and impudence, that hell itself may be ashamed of; The Devil dares say to Christ, All these will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me; That beggarly spirit, that hath not an inch of earth, can offer the whole world to the maker; to the owner of it; The slave of God would be adored of his Creator; How can we hope he should be sparing of false boasts, and of unreasonable promises unto us, when he dares offer kingdoms to him by whom kings reign?  
Tentations on the right hand are most dangerous; how many that have been hardened with fear, have melted with honour; There is no doubt of that soul that will not bite at the golden hook.  
False liars and vainglorious boasters, see the top of their pedigree; If I may not rather say, that Satan doth borrow the use of their tongues for a time; Whereas faithful is he that hath promised; who will also do it. Fidelity and truth is the issue of heaven.  
If Idolatry were not a dear sin to Satan, he would not be so importunate to compass it; It is miserable to see how he draws the world insensibly into this sin, which they profess to detest; Those that would rather hazard the furnace, than worship gold in a statue, yet do adore it in the stamp, and find no fault with themselves. If our hearts be drawn to stoop unto an over-high respect of any creature, we are Idolaters. O God, it is no marvel if thy jealousy be kindled at the admission of any of thine own works into a competition of honour with their Creator.  
Never did our Saviour say, Avoid Satan, till now; It is a just indignation, that is conceived at the motion of a rivality with God, Neither yet did Christ exercise his divine power in this command, but by the necessary force of Scripture, drives away that impure Tempter; It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve: The rest of our Saviour's answers were more full and direct, then that they could admit of a reply, but this was so flat and absolute, that it utterly daunted the courage of Satan, and put him to a shameful flight, and made him for the time, weary of his trade.  
The way to be rid of the troublesome solicitations of that wicked one, is continued resistance. He that forcibly driven the tempter from himself, takes him off from us, and will not abide his assaults perpctuall; It is our exercise and trial, that he intends, not our confusion.   

Simon called.  
AS the Sun in his first rising, draws all e●es to it; So did this Sun of righteousness, when he first shone forth into the world; His miraculous cures drew Patients, his divine doctrine drew Auditors, both together drew the admiring multitude by troops after him. And why do we not still follow thee, o Saviour, thorough deserts and mountains, over land and seas, that we may be both healed, and taught. It was thy word, that when thou wert lift up, thou wouldst draw all men unto thee; Behold, thou art lift up long since, both to the tree of shame, and to the throne of heavenly glory, Draw us, and we shall run after thee; Thy word is still the same, though proclaimed by men, thy virtue is still the same, though exercised upon the spirits of men; Oh give us, to hunger after both, that by both, our souls may be satisfied.  
I see the people, not only following Christ, but pressing upon him; even very unmannerliness finds here both excuse and acceptation; They did not keep their distances in an awe to the Majesty of the Speaker, whiles they were ravished with the power of the speech, yet did not our Saviour check their unreverent thronging, but rather encourages their forwardness. We cannot offend thee, o God, with the importunity of our desires; It likes thee well, that the Kingdom of Heaven should suffer violence. Our slackness doth ever displease there, never our vehemence.  
The throng of Auditors forced Christ to leave the shore, and to make Peter's ship his Pulpit; Never were there such nets cast out of that fisherboat before; whiles he was upon the land, he healed the sick bodies by his touch; now that he was upon the sea, he cured the sick souls by his doctrine; and is purposely severed from the multitude, that he may unite them to him. He that made both sea and land, causeth both of them to conspire to the opportunities of doing good.  
Simon was busy, washing his nets: Even those nets that caught nothing, must be washed, no less then if they had sped well: The night's toil doth not excuse his day's work: Little did Simon think of leaving those nets, which he so carefully washed; and now Christ interrupts him with the favour and blessing of his gracious presence; Labour in our callings (how homely soever) makes us capable of divine benediction.  
The honest Fisherman, when he saw the people flock after Christ, and heard him speak with such power, could not but conceive a general & confuse apprehension of some excellent worth in such a Teacher, and therefore is glad to honour his ship with such a guest; and is first Christ's host by sea, ere he is his Disciple by land; An humble and serviceable entertainment of a Prophet of God, was a good foundation of his future honour; He that would so easily lend Christ his hand, and his ship, was likely soon after to bestow himself upon his Saviour.  
Simon hath no sooner done this service to Christ, than Christ is preparing for his reward; when the sermon is ended, the ship-roome shall be paid for abundantly; Neither shall the Host expect any other paymaster than himself: Launch forth into the deep, and let down your nets to make a draught: That ship which lent Christ an opportunity of catching men upon the shore, shall be requited with a plentiful draught of fish in the deep: It had been as easy for our Saviour, to have brought the fish to Peter's ship, close to the shore, yet as choosing rather to have the ship carried to the shoal of fish, he bids (Launch forth into the deep:) In his miracles, he love's ever to meet nature in her bounds; and when she hath done her best, to supply the rest by his overruling power; The same power therefore, that could have caused the fishes to leap upon dry land, or to leave themselves forsaken of the waters, upon the sands of the Lake, will rather find them in a place natural to their abiding (Launch out into the deep.)  
Rather in a desire to gratify and obey his guest, then to pleasure himself, will Simon bestow one cast of his net; Had Christ enjoined him an harder task, he had not refused; yet not without an allegation of the vnlikelyhood of success, (Master we have travailed all night, and caught nothing; yet at thy word I will let down the net.  
The night was the fittest time for the hopes of their trade; not unjustly might Simon misdoubt his speed by day, when he had worn out the night in unprofitable labour: Sometimes God crosseth the fairest of our expectations, and gives a blessing to those times and means whereof we despair. That pains cannot be cast away which we resolve to lose for Christ.  
Oh God, how many do I see casting out their netsin the great lake of the world, which in the whole night of their life have caught nothing; They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity; They hatch Cokatrices eggs, & wove the spider's web; he that eateth of their eggs dyeth, and that which is trodden upon, breaketh out into a Serpent; Their webs shall be no garment, neither shall they cover themselves with their labours.  
Oh ye sons of men, how long will ye love vanity and follow after lies? Yet, if we have thus vainly misspent the time of our darkness; Let us at the command of Christ, cast out our new-washen nets; our humble and penitent obedience, shall come home laden with blessings, (And when they had so done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes, so that their net broke:) What a difference there is betwixt our own voluntary acts, and those that are done upon command; not more in the grounds of them, then in the issue? those are ofttimes fruitless, these ever successful: Never man threw out his net at the word of his Saviour, and drew it back empty; who would not obey thee, o Christ, since thou dost so bountifully requite our weakest services?  
It was not mere retribution that was intended in this event, but instruction also: This act was not without a mystery; He that should be made a fisher of men, shall in this draught foresee his success; The kingdom of heaven is like a draw-net, cast into the sea, which when it is full men draw to land; The very first draught that Peter made after the compliment of his Apostleship, enclosed no less than three thousand souls. Oh powerful Gospel, that can fetch sinful men from out of the depths of natural corruption: Oh happy souls, that from the blind and muddy cells of our wicked nature, are drawn forth to the glorious liberty of the sons of God. Simons net breaks with the store; Abundance is sometimes no less troublesome than want; the net should have held, if Christ had not meant to over-charge Simon both with blessing and admiration: How happily is that net broken, whose rapture draws the fisher to Christ. Though the net broke, yet the fish escaped not; He that brought them thither to be taken, held them there till they were taken, (They beckoned to their partners in the other ship, that they should come and help them;) There are other ships in partnership with Peter, he doth not fish all the lake alone; There cannot be a better improvement of society, then to help us again, to relieve us in our profitable labours; to draw up the spiritual draught into the vessel of Christ, and his Church: wherefore hath God given us partners, but that he should because to them for their aid in our necessary occasions? Neither doth Simon slacken his hand, because he had assistants. What shall we say to those lazy fishers, who can set others to the drag, whiles themselves look on at ease; caring only to feed themselves with the fish, not willing to wet their hands with the net?  
What shall we say to this excess of gain? The nets break, the ships sink with their burden: Oh happy complaint of too large a capture! O Saviour, if those Apostolical vessels of thy first rigging, were thus overlaid, ours float and totter with an unballasted lightness: Thou, who art no less present in these bottoms of ours, lad them with an equal freight of converted souls, and let us praise thee for thus sinking.  
Simon was a skilful Fisher, and knew well the depth of his trade, and now perceiving more than Art or nature in this draught, he falls down at the knees of jesus, saying, (Lord, go from me, for I am a sinful man.) Himself is caught in this net: He doth not greedily fall upon so unexpected and profitable a booty, but he turns his eyes from the draught to himself, from the act to the Author, acknowledging vileness in the one, in the other Majesty; (Go from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.)  
It had been pity the honest Fisherman should have been taken at his Word: Oh Simon, thy Saviour is comen into thine own ship to call thee, to call others by thee unto blessedness, and dost thou say, Lord, go from me? As if the Patient should say to the Physician; Depart from me, for I am sick. It was the voice of astonishment, not of dislike; the voice of humility, not of discontentment: yea, because thou art a sinful man, therefore hath thy Saviour need to come to thee, to stay with thee; and because thou art humble in the acknowledgement of thy sinfulness, therefore Christ delights to abide with thee, and will call thee to abide with him; No man ever fared the worse for abasing himself to his God; Christ hath left many a soul, for froward and unkind usage, never any for the disparagement of itself, and entreaties of humility. Simon could not device how to hold Christ faster, then by thus suing to him, to be gone, then by thus pleading his unworthiness.  
O my soul be not weary of complaining of thine own wretchedness, disgrace thyself to him that knows thy vileness; be astonished at those mercies which have shamed thine ill deservings; Thy Saviour hath no power to go away from a prostrate heart; He that resists the proud, heartens the lowly (Fear not, for I will make thee henceforth a fisher of men.) Lo, this humility is rewarded with an Apostleship: What had the earth ever more glorious, than a legacy from heaven? He that bad Christ go from him, shall have the honour to go first on this happy errand; This was a trade that Simon had no skill of: it could not but be enough to him, that Christ said, I will make thee; the miracle showed him, able to make good his word; he that hath power to command the fishes to be taken, can easily enable the hands to take them.  
What is this divine trade of ours then, but a spiritual piscation? The world is a sea; souls like fishes swim at liberty in this deep, the nets of wholesome doctrine, draw up some to the shore of grace and glory; How much skill, and toil, and patience, is requisite in this art? Who is sufficient for these things? This sea, these nets, the fishers, the fish, the vessels are all thine, o God; do what thou wilt in us, and by us; Give us ability and grace to take, give men will and grace to be taken, and take thou glory by that which thou hast given.   

The marriage in Cana.  
WAS this then thy first miracle, o Saviour, that thou wroughts in Cana of Galilee? And could there be a greater miracle than this, that having been thirty years upon earth, thou didst no miracle till now? That thy divinity did hide itself thus long in flesh; that so long thou wouldst lie obscure in a corner of Galilee, unknown to that world thou camest to redeem? That so long thou wouldst strain the patiented expectation of those, who ever since thy Star, waited upon the revelation of a Messiah? We silly wretches, if we have but a dram of virtue, are ready to set it out to the best show, thou who receivedst not the Spirit by measure, wouldst content thyself with a willing obscurity, and concealedst that power that made the world, in the roof of an humane breast, in a cottage of Nazareth. O Saviour, none of thy miracles is more worthy of astonishment, than thy not doing of miracles. What thou didst in private, thy wisdom thought fit for secrecy; but if thy blessed mother had not been acquainted with some domestical wonders, she had not now expected a miracle abroad; The stars are not seen by day; the Sun itself is not seen by night: As it is no small art to hide Art, so is it no small glory, to conceal glory; Thy first public miracle graceth a marriage; It is an ancient and laudable institution, that the rites of matrimony should not want a solemn celebration; When are feasts in season, if not at the recovery of our lost rib? If not at this main change of our estate, wherein the joy of obtaining, meets with the hope of further comforts? The Son of the Virgin, and the Mother of that Son are both at a wedding; It was in all likelihood some of their kindred, to whose nuptial feast, they were invited so fare; yet was it more the honour of the act, then of the person, that Christ intended; He that made the first marriage in Paradise, bestows his first miracle upon a Galilean marriage; He that was the author of matrimony and sanctified it, doth by his holy presence, honest the resemblance of his eternal union with his Church: How boldly may we spit in the faces of all the impure adversaries of wedlock, when the Son of God pleases to honour it?  
The glorious bridegroom of the Church, knew well how ready men would be to place shame, even in the most lawful conjunctions; and therefore his first work shall be, to countenance his own ordinance. Happy is that wedding, where Christ is a guest; O Saviour, those that marry in thee, cannot marry without thee; There is no holy marriage whereat thou art not (how ever invisible) yet truly present, by thy Spirit, by thy gracious benediction. Thou makest marriages in heaven, thou blessest them from heaven. Oh thou, that hast betrothed us to thyself in truth and righteousness, do thou consummate that happy marriage of ours in the highest heavens.  
It was no rich or sumptuous Bridal, to which Christ with his Mother, & Disciples vouchsafed to come, from the further parts of Galilee; I find him not at the magnificent feasts or triumphs of the great; the proud pomp of the world, did not agree with the state of a servant; This poor needy bridegroom wants drink for his guests. The blessed virgin (though a stranger, to the house) out of a charitable compassion, and a friendly desire, to maintain the decency of an hospital entertainment, inquires into the wants of her host; pittyes them, bemoans them, where there was power of redress; (When the wine failed, the the mother of jesus said unto him, They have no wine.) How well doth it beseem the eyes of piety, and christian love to look into the necessities of others? She that conceived the God of mercies, both in her heart, and in her womb, doth not fix her eyes upon her own trencher, but searcheth into the penury of a poor Israelite, and feels those wants, whereof he complains not; They are made for themselves, whose thoughts are only taken up with their own store, or indigence.  
There was wine enough for a meal, though not for a feast: and if there were not wine enough, there was enough water; yet the holy virgin complains of the want of wine; and is troubled with the very lack of superfluity; The bounty of our God reaches not to our life only, but to our contentment; neither hath he thought good to allow us only the bread of sufficiency, but sometimes of pleasure. One while that is but necessary, which some other time were superfluous. It is a scrupulous injustice to scant ourselves, where God hath been liberal.  
To whom should we complain of any want, but to the maker and giver of all things? The blessed virgin knew to whom she sued; She had good reason to know the divine nature and power of her Son: Perhaps the Bridegroom was not so needy, but if not by his purse, yet by his credit, he might have supplied that want; or, it were hard if some of the neighbour-guests (had they been duly solicited) might not have furnished him with so much wine, as might suffice for the last service of a dinner; but blessed Mary knew a nearer way; she did not think best to lad at the shallow channel, but runs rather to the wellhead, where she may dip, and fill the firkins at once, with ease. It may be she saw that the train of Christ (which unbidden followed unto that feast, and unexpectedly added to the number of the guests) might help forward that defect, and therefore she justly solicits her Son jesus for a supply: Whether we want bread, or water, or wine; necessaries or comforts, whither should we run, o Saviour, but to that infinite munificence of thine, which neither denieth, nor upbraideth any thing? We cannot want, we cannot abound, but from thee, Give us what thou wilt, so thou give us contentment with what thou givest.  
But what is this I hear? A sharp answer to the suit of a mother? (Oh woman what have I to do with thee?) He whose sweet mildness and mercy, never sent away any suppliant discontented, doth he only frown upon her that bore him? He that commands us to honour father and mother, doth he disdain her whose flesh he took? God forbidden: Love and duty doth not exempt parents from due admonition. She solicited Christ as a mother, he answers her as a woman: If she were the mother of his flesh, his deity was eternal; She might not so remember herself to be a mother, that she should forget she was a woman; nor so look upon him as a Son, that she should not regard him, as God; He was so obedient to her as a mother, that withal she must obey him as her God; That part which he took from her shall observe her; She must observe that nature, which came from above; and made her both a woman, and a mother. Matter of miracle concerned the Godhead only; Supernatural things, were above the sphere of fleshly relation; If now the blessed virgin will be prescribing, either time, or form unto divine acts, O woman, what have I to do with thee, my hour is not come. In all bodily actions his style was, O mother; in spiritual and heavenly, O woman. Neither is it for us in the holy affairs of God, to know any faces, yea, if we have known Christ heretofore according to the flesh, henceforth know we him so no more.  
O blessed virgin, if in that heavenly glory wherein thou art, thou canst take notice of these earthly things, with what indignation, Dost thou look upon the presumptuous superstition of vain men, whose suits make thee more than a solicitor of divine favours? Thine humanity is not lost in thy mother-hood, nor in thy glory: The respects of nature reach not so high as heaven; It is far from thee to abide that honour, which is stolen from thy Redeemer.  
There is a marriage, whereto we are invited, yea, wherein we are already interessed, not as the guests only, but as the Bride; in which there shall be no want of the wine of gladness: It is marvel, if in these earthly banquets there be not some lack; In thy presence, o Saviour, there is fullness of joy, and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore. Blessed are they, that are called to the marriage-supper of the Lamb.  
Even in that rough answer, doth the blessed Virgin descry cause of hope. If his hour were not yet comen, it was therefore coming; when the expectation of the guests, and the necessity of the occasion had made fit room for the miracle, it shall come forth, & challenge their wonder. Faithfully therefore, and observantly, doth she turn her speech from her Son to the Waiters (Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.) How well doth it beseem the mother of Christ to agree with his Father in Heaven, whose voice from Heaven said, This is my welbeloned Son, hear him; She that said of herself, Be it unto me according to thy word, says unto others, Whatsoever he saith to you, do it. This is the way to have miracles wrought in us, obedience to his Word. The power of Christ did not stand upon their officiousness; he could have wrought wonders in spite of them; but their perverse refusal of his commands, might have made them uncapable of the favour of a miraculous action: He that can (when he will) convince the obstinate, will not grace the disobedient. He that could work without us, or against us, will not work for us, but by us.  
This very poor house, was furnished with many and large vessels, for outward purifications; As if sin had dwelled upon the skin, that superstitious people sought holiness in frequent washings; Even this rinsing fouled them, with the uncleanness of a traditional will-worship. It is the soul which needs scouring; and nothing can wash that, but the blood, which they desperately wished upon themselves, and their children; for guilt, not for expiation. Purge thou us, o Lord, with hyssop, and we shall be clean, wash us and we shall be whiter than snow.  
The waiters could not but think strange of so unseasonable a command; (Fill the water-pots.) It is wine that we want, what do we go to fetch water; Doth this holy man mean thus to quench our feast, and cool our stomaches? If there be no remedy, we could have sought this supply unbidden; yet so far hath the charge of Christ's mother prevailed, that in steed of carrying flagons of wine to the table, they go to fetch pailes-full of water from the cisterns. It is no pleading of unlikelihoods against the command of an Almighty power.  
He that could have created wine immediately in those vessels, will rather turn water into wine; In all the course of his mitacles, I do never find him making out of nothing; all his great works are grounded upon former existences; he multiplied the bread, he changed the water, he restored the withered limbs, he raised the dead; and still wrought upon that which was, and did not make that which was not: What doth he in the ordinary way of nature, but turn the watery juice that arises up from the root, into wine; he will only do this now suddenly, and at once, which he doth usually by insensible degrees. It is ever duly observed by the Son of God, not to do more miracle than he needs.  
How liberal are the provisions of Christ? If he had turned but one of those vessels, it had been a just proof of his power, and perhaps that quantity had served the present necessity; now he furnisheth them with so much wine, as would have served an hundred and fifty guests for an entire feast; Even the measure magnifies at once, both his power and mercy. The munificent hand of God, regards not our need only, but our honest affluence: It is our sin and our shame, if we turn his favour into wantonness. There must be first a filling, ere there be a drawing out: Thus, in our vessels, the first care must be of our receipt; the next, of our expense: God would have us cisterns, not channels.  
Our Saviour would not be his own taster, but he sends the first draught to the Governor of the feast. He knew his own power, they did not; Neither would he bear witness of himself, but fetch it out of others mouths; They that knew not the original of that wine, yet praised the taste; (Every man at the beginning, doth set forth good wine, and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse, but thou hast kept the good wine until now;) The same bounty that expressed itself in the quantity of the wine, shows itself no less in the excellence: Nothing can fall from that divine hand not exquisite: That liberality hated to provide crab-wine for his guests. It was fit, that the miraculous effects of Christ, (which came from his immediate hand) should be more perfect, than the natural. O blessed Saviour, how delicate is that new wine, which we shall one day drink with thee, in thy Father's Kingdom. Thou shalt turn this water of our earthly affliction, into that wine of gladness, wherewith our souls shall be satiate for ever. Make haste, o my Beloved, and be thou like to a Roe, or to a young heart, upon the mountain of spices.   

The good Centurion.  
EVEN the bloody trade of war yielded worthy Clients to Christ: This Roman Captain had learned to believe in that jesus, whom many jews despised: No nation, no trade, can shut out a good heart from God: If he were a Foreigner for birth; yet he was a Domestic in heart; He could not change his blood, he could overrule his affections; He loved that Nation, which was chosen of God; and if he were not of the Synagogue, yet he built a Synagogue; where he might not be a Party, he would be a Benefactor; Next to being good, is a favouring of goodness; We could not love religion, if we utterly wanted it: How many true jews were not so zealous? Either will, or ability lacked in them, whom duty more obliged; Good affections do many times more than supply nature: Neither doth God regard whence, but what we are.  
I do not see this Centurion come to Christ, as the Israelitish Captain came to Elias in Carmel, but with his cap in his hand, with much suit, much submission, by others, by himself; He sends first the Elders of the Jews, whom he might hope, that their nation & place, might make gracious: then, lest the employment of others might argue neglect, he seconds them in person; Cold and fruitless are the motions of friends, where we do wilfully shut up our own lips: Importunity cannot but speed well in both. Can we but speak for our souls, as this Captain did for his servant, what could we possibly want? What marvel is it, if God be not forward to give, where we care not to ask; or ask, as if we cared not to receive? Shall we yet call this a suit, or a complaint? I hear no one word of entreaty; The less is said, the more is concealed, It is enough to lay open his wants; He knew well, that he had to deal with so wise and merciful a Physician, as that the opening of the malady was a craving of cure: If our spiritual miseries be but confessed, they cannot fail of redress.  
Great variety of Suitors resorted to Christ; One comes to him for a son, another for a daughter, a third for himself: I see none come for his servant, but this one Centurion; Neither was he a better man than a Master: His servant is sick; he doth not drive him out of doors, but lays him at home; neither doth he stand gazing by his beds-side, but seeks forth; He seeks forth, not to Witches, or Charmers, but to Christ; he seeks to Christ, not with a fashionable relation, but with a vehement aggravation of the disease. Had the Master been sick, the faithfullest servant could have done no more: He is unworthy to be well served, that will not sometimes wait upon his followers. Conceits of inferiority, may not breed in us a neglect of charitable offices; so must we look down upon our servants, here on earth, as that we must still look up to our Master, which is in heaven.  
But why didst thou not, o Centurion, rather bring thy servant to Christ for cure, then sue for him absent? There was a Paralytic, whom faith and charity brought to our Saviour, and let down thorough the uncovered roof, in his bed; why was not thine so carried, so presented? Was it out of the strength of thy faith, which assured thee, thou needest not show thy servant to him, that saw all things? One and the same grace, may yield contrary effects; They, because they believed, brought the Patient to Christ, thou broughtest not thine to him, because thou believed it; Their act argued no less desire, thine, more confidence; Thy labour was less, because thy faith was more: Oh, that I could come thus to my Saviour, and make such moan to him for myself: Lord, my soul is sick of unbelief, sick of self-love, sick of inordinate desires, I should not need to say more; Thy mercy, o Saviour, would not then stay for my suit, but would prevent me (as here) with a gracious engagement, I will come and heal thee; I did not hear the Centurion say, Either come, or heal him; The one he meant, though he said not, the other, he neither said, nor meant: Christ over-gives, both his words and intentions; It is the manner of that divine munificence, where he meets with a faithful suitor, to give more than is requested; to give when he is not requested. The very insinuations of our necessity's are no less violent, then successful: We think the measure of humane bounty, runs over, when we obtain but what we ask with importunity; that infinite goodness keeps within bounds, when it overflows the desires of our hearts.  
As he said, so he did; The word of Christ ei●her is his act, or concurres with it; He did not stand still when he said, I will come, but he went as he spoke. When the ruler entreated him for his son (Come down ere he die) our Saviour stirred not a foot; The Centurion did but complain of the sickness of his servant, and Christ unasked, says, I will come and heal him; That he might be fare from so much as seeming to honour wealth, and despise meanness, he that came in the shape of a servant, would go down to the sick servant's pallet, would not go to the bed of the rich ruler's son; It is the basest motive of respect, that ariseth merely from outward greatness. Either more grace, or more need, may justly challenge our favourable regards, no less than private obligations.  
Even so, o Saviour, that which thou offeredst to do for the Centurion's servant, hast thou done for us; We were sick unto death; So fare had the dead palsy of sin overtaken us, that there was no light of grace left in us; When thou wert not content to sit still in heaven, and say, I will cure them; but addest also, I will come and cure them; Thyself came down accordingly to this miserable world, and hast personally healed us; So as now we shall not dye but live, and declare thy works, o Lord; And oh! that we could enough praise that love and mercy, which hath so graciously abased thee, and could be but so low dejected before thee, as thou hast stooped low unto us; that we could be but as lowly subjects of thy goodness, as we are unworthy.  
Oh admirable return of humility: Christ will go down to visit the sick servant; the master of that servant says, Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof: The jewish Elders, that went before to mediate for him, could say, (He is worthy that thou shouldst do this for him; but the Centurion, when he comes to speak for himself (I am not worthy) They said, He was worthy of Christ's miracle; He says he is unworthy of Christ's presence: There is great difference betwixt others valuations, and our own; Sometimes the world under-rates him that finds reason to set an high price upon himself; Sometimes again, it overvalues a man that knows just cause of his own humiliation; If others mistake us, this can be no warrant for our error; We cannot be wise, unless we receive the knowledge of ourselves by direct beams, not by reflection; unless we have learned to contemn unjust applauses; and scorning the flatteryes of the world, to frown upon our own vileness, Lord I am not worthy.  
Many a one if he had been in the Centurion's cote, would have thought well of it; A Captain, a man of good ability and command, a founder of a Synagogue, a Patron of religion: yet he overlookes all these, and when he casts his eye upon the divine worth of Christ, and his own weakness, he says, I am not worthy; Alas Lord I am a Gentile, an alien, a man of blood, thou art holy, thou art omnipotent. True humility will teach us to find out the best of another, and the worst piece of ourselves; Pride contrarily shows us nothing, but matter of admiration in ourselves; in others, of contempt. Whiles he confessed himself unworthy of any favour; he approved himself worthy of all. Had not Christ been before in his heart, he could not have thought himself unworthy to entertain that guest within his house; Under the low roof of an humble breast, doth God ever delight to dwell; The stare of his Palace may not be measured by the height, but by the depth: Brags & bold faces do ofttimes carry it away with men, nothing prevails with God, but our voluntary deiections.  
It is fit the foundations should be laid deep, where the building is high; The centurions humility was not more low; then his faith was lofty; that reaches up into heaven, and in the face of humane weakness descry omnipotence; Only say the word, and my servant shall be whole.  
Had the Centurion's roof● been heaven itself, it could not have been worthy to be comen under, of him, whose word was almighty, and who was the Almighty word of his Father, Such is Christ confessed by him that says Only say the word; none, but a divine power is unlimited; neither hath faith any other bounds than God himself. There needs no footing to remove mountains, or Devils, but a word; Do but say the word, o Saviour, my sin shall be remitted; my soul shall be healed, my body shall be raised from dust; both soul and body shall be glorious.  
Whereupon then was the steady confidence of the Good Centurion? He saw how powerful his own word was with those, that were under his command, (though himself were under the command of another) the force whereof extended even to absent performances; well therefore might he argue, that a free and unbounded power, might give infallible commands, and that the most obstinate disease, must therefore needs yield to the beck of the God of nature: weakness may show us what is in strength; By one drop of water we may see what is in the main Ocean; I marvel not if the Centurion were kind to his servants, for they were dutiful to him; he can but say, Do this, and it is done; these mutual respects draw on each other; cheerful and diligent service in the one, calls for a due and favourable care in the other; they that neglect to please, cannot complain to be neglected.  
Oh that I could be but such a servant to mine heavenly Master; Alas, every of his commands, says, Do this, and I do it not; Every of his inhibitions says, Do it not, and I do it, He says, Go from the world, I run to it; he says, Come to me, I run from him: Woe is me, this is not service, but enmity; how can I look for favour, whiles I return rebellion; It is a gracious Master whom we serve; there can be no duty of ours, that he sees not, that he acknowledges not, that he crownes not; we could not but be happy, if we could be officious.  
What can be more marvellous then to see Christ marvel? All marvelling supposes an ignorance going before, and a knowledge following some accident unexpected: now who wrought this faith in the Centurion, but he that wondered at it? He knew well what he wrought, because he wrought what he would; yet he wondered at what he both wrought, and knew, to teach us, much more to admire that which he at once knows and holds admirable.  
He wrought this faith as God, he wondered at it as man; God wrought, and man admired, he that was both, did both; to teach us where to bestow our wonder. I never find Christ wondering at gold, or silver, at the costly and curious works of humane skill or industry; Yea, when the Disciples wondered at the magnificence of the Temple, he rebuked them rather: I find him not wondering at the frame of heaven and earth, nor at the orderly disposition of all creatures and events; the familiarity of these things intercepts the admiration; But when he sees the grace or acts of faith, he so approves them, that he is ravished with wonder; He that rejoiced in the view of his creation, to see that of nothing, he had made all things good, rejoices no less in the reformation of his creature, to see, that he hath made good of evil: Behold thou art fair, my love, behold thou art fair, and there is no spot in thee; My sister, my spouse, thou hast wounded my heart, thou hast wounded my heart with one of thine eyes.  
Our wealth, beauty, wit, learning, honour may make us accepted of men, but it is our faith only, that shall make God in love with us; And why are we of any other save God's diet, to be more affected with the least measure of grace in any man, than withal the outward glories of the world? There are great men whom we justly pity, we can admire none but the gracious.  
Neither was that plant more worthy of wonder in itself, then that it grew in such a soil, with so little help of rain and Sun; The weakness of means, adds to the praise and acceptation of our proficiency: To do good upon a little is the commendation of thrift; it is small thank to be full-handed in a large estate; As contrarily, the strength of means doubles the revenge of our neglect: It is not more the shame of Israel, than the glory of the Centurion, that our Saviour says, I have not found so great faith in Israel; Had Israel yielded any equal faith, it could not have been unespied of those all-seeing eyes; yet were their helps so much greater, than their faith was less; and God never gives more than he requires: Where we have laid our tillage, and compost, and seed, who would not look for a crop? but if the uncultured fallow yield more, how justly is that unanswerable ground near to a curse?  
Our Saviour did not mutter this censorious testimony to himself, nor whisper it to his Disciples, but he turned him about to the people, and spoke it in their ears, that he might at once work their shame and emulation: In all other things, except spiritual, lemma yourself makes us impatient of equals, much less can we endure to be outstripped by those, who are our professed inferiors. It is well, if any thing can kindle in us holy ambitions: Dull and base are the spirits of that man, that can abide to see another overtake him in the way, and outrun him to Heaven.  
He that both wrought this faith, and wondered at it, doth now reward it, Go thy ways, and as thou hast believed, so be it unto thee; Never was any faith unseen of Christ, never was any seen without allowance, never was any allowed without remuneration: The measure of our receipts in the matter of favour, is the proportion of our belief; The infinite mercy of God (which is ever like itself) follows but one rule in his gifts to us, the faith that he gives us: Give us, o God, to believe, and be it to us as thou wilt; it shall be to us above that we will.  
The Centurion sues for his servant, and Christ says, So be it unto thee; The servant's health is the benefit of the Master; and the Master's faith is the health of the servant; And if the prayers of an earthly master, prevailed so much with the Son of God, for the recovery of a servant, how shall the intercession of the Son of God, prevail with his Father in Heaven, for us that are his impotent children and servants upon earth? What can we want, o Saviour, whiles thou suest for us? He that hath given thee for us, can deny thee nothing for us, can deny us nothing for thee; In thee we are happy, and shall be glorious; To thee, o thou mighty Redeemer of Israel, with thine eternal Father, together with thy blessed Spirit, one God infinite, and incomprehensible, be given all praise, honour, and glory, for ever and ever. AMEN.   
FINIS.  

Errata.  
PAg. 6. lin. 7 for where, read when. pag. 14. lin. 3. for the, read he. p 29. l. 16. for of, r. or. p. 30. l. 16 for virtue, r. wealth. p. 32. l. for foe, r. foil. p. 42. l. 9 for desection, r. dejection. p. 44. l. 15. for with, r. without. p. 74. l. 6. for to, r. then to. p. 75. l. 5. for not him, r. not to him. p. 78. l. 9 for destroyer, r. disease. p. 147. l. penult. for cessatum, r. cessation. p. 150. l. 7. for unto, r. into. p. 196. l. 2. for we, r. he. p. 205. l 5. for gentliest, r. goodliest. p. 234. l. 2. for estate. r. state. p. 234. l. 11. for wore, r. more. p. 302. l. 5. for whom, r. who. p 341. l. penult. for careless, r. carelessness. p 342. l. 5. for dissertion, r. desertion. p. 349. l. vlt. for contents, r. contents himself. p. 363. l. 17. for satisfy, r. sanctify. p. 371. l. 7. for by them, r. by whom. p. 378. l. 4. for no, r. on. p. 380. l. 5, for Devil, r. Duell. p. 382. l. 1. for can but, r conflict p. 402. l. 11. for unchaste, r. unclean. p. 410. l. for not to bear, r. to bear. p. 419. l. vlt. for collection, r. collation. p. 425. l. 2. for creature, r. crown. p. 443. l. 4. for again, r. gain. p 443 l. 10. for he, r. we. p. 467. l. 17. for out, r. aught. p. 481. l. 9 for light, r. life.