choice, nor order, nor measure: the one of these was a wrong to Israel: the other was a wrong done by Israel to God: Saul's zeal was guilty of both. A rash vow is seldom ever free from inconvenience. The heart that hath unnecessarily entangled itself, draws mischief either upon itself or others.

Jonathan was ignorant of his father's adjuration; he knew no reason why he should not refresh himself, in so profitable a service, with a little taste of honey upon his spear: full well had he deserved this unsought dainty. And now, behold, his honey is turned into gall: if it were sweet in the mouth, it was bitter in the soul; if the eyes of his body were enlightened, the light of God's countenance was clouded by this act. After he heard of the oath, he pleads justly against it, the loss of so fair an opportunity of revenge, and the trouble of Israel; yet neither his reasons against the oath, nor his ignorance of the oath, can excuse him from a sin of ignorance in violating that which first he knew not, and then knew unreasonable. Now Saul's leisure would serve him to ask counsel of God: as before Saul would not inquire, so now God will not answer. Well might Saul have found sins enough of his own, whereto to impute this silence. He hath grace enough to know that God was offended, and to guess at the cause of his offence. Sooner will a hypocrite find out another man's sin than his own, and now he swears more rashly to punish with death the breach of that which he had sworn rashly. The lots were cast, and Saul prays for the decision: Jonathan is taken. Even the prayers of wicked men are sometimes heard, although in justice, not in mercy. Saul himself was punished not a little in the fall of this lot upon Jonathan. Surely Saul sinned more in making this vow, than Jonathan in breaking it unwittingly; and now the father smarts for the rashness of his double vow, by the unjust sentence of death upon so worthy a son. God had never singled out Jonathan by his lot, if he had not been displeased with his act. Vows rashly made, may not be rashly broken. If the thing we have vowed be not evil in itself, or in the effect, we cannot violate it without evil. Ignorance cannot acquit, if it can abate our sin. It is like, if Jonathan had heard his father's adjuration, he had not transgressed; his absence, at the time of that oath, cannot excuse him from displeasure. What shall become of those, which may know the charge of their heavenly Father, and will not which do know his charge, and will not keep it! Affectation of ignorance, and willing disobedience, is desperate.

Death was too hard a censure for such an unknown offence. The cruel piety of Saul will revenge the breach of his own charge, so as he would be loath God should avenge on himself the breach of his divine command. If Jonathan had not found better friends than his father, so noble a victory had been recompensed with death. He, that saved Israel from the Philistines, is saved by Israel from the hand of his father. Saul hath sworn Jonathan's death; the people, contrarily, swear his preservation his kingdom was not so absolute, that he could run away with so unmerciful a justice; their oath, that savoured of disobedience, prevailed against his oath, that savoured too strong of cruelty. Neither doubt I, but Saul was secretly not displeased with this loving resistance ;

so long as his heart was not false to his oath, he could not be sorry that Jonathan should live.

BOOK XIII.

CONTEMPLATION I-SAUL AND AGAG.

GOD holds it no derogation from his mercy to bear a quarrel long, where he hates. He, whose anger to the vessels of wrath is everlasting, even in temporal judgment, revengeth late. The sins of his own children are no sooner done, and repented of, than forgotten; but the malicious sins of his enemies stick fast in an infinite displeasure. "I remember what Amelek did to Israel, how they laid wait for them by the way, as they came up from Egypt." Alas, Lord! (might Amalek say) they were our forefathers, we never knew their faces, no, not their names; the fact was so far from our consent, that it is almost past the memory of our histories. It is not in the power of time to raze out any of the arrearages of God. We may lay up wrath for our posterity. Happy is that child whose progenitors are in heaven, he is left an inheritor of blessing together with estate, whereas wicked ancestors lose the thank of a rich patrimony, by the curse that attends it. He that thinks, because punishment is deferred, that God hath forgiven or forgot his offence, is unacquainted with justice, and knows not that time makes no difference in eternity.

The Amalekites were wicked idolaters, and therefore could not want many present sins, which deserved their extirpation. That God, which had taken notice of all their offences, picks out this one noted sin of their forefathers for revenge: amongst all their indignities, this shall bear the name of their judgment. As in legal proceedings with malefactors, one indictment found gives the style of their condemnation. In the lives of those which are notoriously wicked, God cannot look besides a sin; yet when he draws to an execution, he fastens his sentence upon one evil, as principal, others as accessories, so as, at the last, one sin, which perhaps we make no account of, shall pay for all.

The paganish idolatries of the Amalekites could not but be greater sins to God, than their hard measure to Israel; yet God sets this upon the file, while the rest are not recorded: their superstitions might be of ignorance, this sin was of malice. Malicious wickedness, of all others, as they are in greatest opposition to the goodness and mercy of God, shall be sure of the payment of greatest vengeance. The detestation of God may be measured by his revenge; "Slay both man and woman, both infant and suckling, both ox and sheep, camel and ass;" not themselves only, but every thing that drew life, either from them or for their use, must die. When the God of mercy speaks such bloody words, the provocation must needs be vehement. Sins of infirmity do but mutter; spiteful sins cry loud for judgment in the ears of God. Prepensed malice, in courts of human justice, aggravates the murder, and sharpens the sentence of death.

What then was this sin of Amalek, that is called unto this late reckoning? What, but their envious and unprovoked onsets upon the back of Israel; this was it that God took so to heart, as that he not only remembers it now by Samuel, but he bids Israel ever to remember it, by Moses; "Remember how Amalek met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of you, all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary." Besides this, did Amalek meet Israel in a pitched battle openly, in Rephidim; for that God payed them in the present. The hand of Moses, lifted up on the hill, slew them in the valley. He therefore repeats not that quarrel; but the cowardly and cruel attempts upon an impotent enemy, stick still in the stomach of the Almighty. Oppression and wrong, upon even terms, are not so heinous unto God, as those that are upon manifest disadvantage: in the one, there is a hazard of return; in the other, there is ever a tyrannous insultation. God takes still the weaker part, and will be sure therefore to plague them which seek to put injuries on the unable to resist.

This sin of Amalek slept all the time of the judges; those governors were only for rescue and defence; now so soon as Israel hath a king, and that king is settled in peace, God gives charge to call them to account; it was that which God had both threatened and sworn, and now

he chooses out a fit season for the execution. As we use to say of winter, the judgments of God do never rot in the sky, but shall fall, if late, yet surely, yet seasonably. There is small comfort in the delay of vengeance, while we are sure it shall lose nothing in the way by length of protraction.

The Kenites were the offspring of Hobad or Jethro, father-in-law to Moses; the affinity of him, to whom Israel owed their deliverance and being, was worthy of respect; but it was the mercy of that good and wise Midianite showed unto Israel in the wilderness, by his grave advice, cheerful gratulation and aid, which won this grateful forbearance of his posterity. He that is not less in mercy than in justice, as he challenged Amalek's sin of their succeeding generations, so he derives the recompense of Jethro's kindness unto his far descended issue. Those that were unborn many ages after Jethro's death, receive life from his dust, and favour from his hospitality: the name of their dead grandfather saves them from the common destruction of their neighbours. The services of our love to God's children are never thankless. When we are dead and rotten, they shall live, and procure blessings to those, which never knew, perhaps, nor heard of their progenitors. If we sow good works, succession shall reap them, and we shall be happy in making them so.

The Kenites dwelt in the borders of Amalek, but in tents, as did their issue the Rechabites, so as they might remove with ease. They are warned to shift their habitations, lest they should perish with ill neighbours. It is the manner of God, first to separate before he judge, as a good husbandman weeds his corn ere it be ripe for the sickle, and goes to the fan ere he go to the fire. When the Kenites pack up their fardels, it is time to expect judgment. Why should not we imitate God, and separate ourselves, that we may not be judged? separate not one Kenite from another, but every Kenite from among the Amalekites; else, if we must needs live with Amalek, we cannot think much to die with him.

The Kenites are no sooner removed, than Saul falls upon the Amalekites; he destroys all the people, but spares their king. The charge of God was universal, for man and beast. In the corruption of partiality, lightly the greatest escape. Covetousness or misaffection are commonly guilty of the impunity of those, which are at once more eminent in dignity and in offence. It is a shameful hypocrisy, to make our commodity the measure and rule of our execution of God's command, and under pretence of godliness, to intend gain. The unprofitable vulgar must die: Agag may yield a rich ransom. The lean and feeble cattle, that would but spend stover, and die alone, shall perish by the sword of Israel; the best may stock the grounds, and furnish the markets. O hypocrites! did God send you for gain, or for revenge? Went you to be purveyors, or executioners? If you plead that all those wealthy herds had been but lost in a speedy death, think ye that he knew not this which commanded it? Can that be lost, which is devoted to the will of the Owner and Creator? or can ye think to gain any thing by disobedience? That man can never either do well, or fare well, which thinks there can be more profit in any thing, than in his obedience to his Maker. Because Saul spared the best of the men, the people spared the best of the cattle; each is willing to favour the other in the sin. The sins of the great command imitation, and do as seldom go without attendants as their persons.

Saul knew well how much he had done amiss, and yet dare meet Samuel, and can say, "Blessed be thou of the Lord, I have fulfilled the commandment of the Lord." His heart knew that his tongue was as false as his hands had been; and if his heart had not been more false than either of them, neither of them had been so gross in their falsehood. If hypocrisy were not either foolish or impudent, she durst not show her head to a seer of God. Could Saul think that Samuel knew of the asses that were lost, and did not know of the oxen and sheep that were spared? Could he foretell his thoughts, when it was, and now not know of his open actions? Much less, when we have to do with God himself, should dissimulation presume either of safety or secrecy. Can the God, that made the heart, not know it? Can He, that comprehends all things, be shut out of our close corners? Saul was otherwise crafty enough, yet herein his simplicity is palpable. Sin can besot even the wisest man ; and there was never but folly in wickedness.

No man brags so much of holiness as he that wants it. True obedience is joined ever with humility, and fear of unknown errors. Falsehood is bold, and can say, "I have fulfilled the commandment of the Lord." If Saul had been truly obsequious and holy, he had made no noise of it. A gracious heart is not a blab of his tongue, but rests and rejoiceth silently in the conscience of a secret goodness. Those vessels yield most sound, that have the least liqour. Samuel had reason to believe the sheep and oxen above Saul; their bleating and lowing was a sufficient conviction of a denied and outfaced disobedience. God opened their mouths to accuse Saul of their life, and his falsehood: but as sin is crafty, and never wanted a cloak wherewith both to hide and deck itself, even this very rebellion is holy. First, the act, if it were evil, was not mine, but the people's. And, secondly, their intention makes it good; for these

What

flocks and herds were preserved, not for gain, but for devotion. needs this quarrel? If any gain by this act, it is the Lord thy God; his altars shall smoke with these sacrifices; ye, that serve at them, shall fare so much the better. This godly thriftiness looks for thanks rather than censure. If Saul had been in Samuel's clothes, perhaps this answer would have satisfied him; surely himself stands out in it, as that whereto he dares trust; and after he hears of God's angry reproof, he avows, and doubles his hold of his innocency; as if the commanders should not answer for the known sins of the people; as if our intentions could justify us to God, against God. How much ado is it to bring sinners upon their knees, and to make their tongues accuse their hands! But there is no halting with the Maker of the heart; he knew it was covetousness, and not piety, which was accessory to this forbearance; and if it had been as was pretended, he knew it was an odious impiety to raise devotion out of disobedience. Saul shall hear and find, that he hath dealt no less wickedly in sparing an Agag, than in killing an innocent Israelite; in sparing these beasts for sacrifice, than in sacrificing beasts that had been unclean. Why was sacrifice itself good, but because it was commanded? What difference was there betwixt slaughter and sacrifice, but obedience? To sacrifice disobediently, is wilfully to mock God in honouring him.

CONTEMPLATION II-THE REJECTION OF SAUL AND CHOICE OF DAVID.

How

EVEN when Saul had abandoned God in disobedience, he would not forego Samuel, yea, though he reproved him; when he had forsaken the substance, yet he would maintain the formality. If he cannot hold the man, he will keep the pledge of his garment; such was the violence of Saul's desire, that he will rather rend Samuel's coat, than part with his person. Little did Saul think, that he had in his hand the pawn of his own rejection; that this act of kind importunity should carry in it a presage of his judgment; yet so it did. This very rending of the coat was a real prophecy, and did bode no less than the rending of the kingdom from him and his posterity. Wicked men, while they think by carnal means to make their peace, plunge themselves deeper into misery. Any stander-by would have said, What a good king is this! dear is God's prophet unto him! How happy is Israel in such a prince, as thus loves the messengers of God! Samuel, that saw the bottom of his hollow affection, rejects him whom God hath rejected. He was taught to look upon Saul, not as a king, but as an offender, and therefore refuses with no less vehemency than Saul intreated. It was one thing, what he might do as a subject; another, what he must do as a prophet. Now he knows not Saul any otherwise, than as so much the greater trespasser as his place was higher; and therefore he doth no more spare his greatness, than the God against whom he sinned; neither doth he countenance that man with his presence, on whom he sees God to frown.

There needs no other character of hypocrisy, than Saul, in the car