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heap for the fire, which was all chaff! Only Lot vexed his righteous soul with the sight of their uncleanness: he vexed his own soul, for who bade him stay there? Yet because he was vexed, he is delivered. escapeth their judgment, from whose sins he escaped. Though he would be a guest of Sodom, yet, because he would not entertain their sins, he becomes an host to the angels. Even the good angels are the execu tioners of God's judgment. There cannot be a better or more noble act, than to do justice upon obstinate malefactors.

Who can be ashamed of that which did not misbeseem the very angels of God! Where should the angels lodge but with Lot! The houses of holy men are full of these heavenly spirits, when they know not: they pitch their tents in ours, and visit us when we see not; and, when we feel not, protect us. It is the honour of God's saints to be attended by angels. The filthy Sodomites now flock together, stirred up with the fury of envy and lust, and dare require to do that in troops, which, to act single, had been too abominable to imagine natural. Continuance and society in evil makes wicked men outrageous and impudent. It is not enough for Lot to be the witness, but he must be the bawd also: "Bring forth these men that we may know them."

Behold even the Sodomites speak modestly, though their acts and intents be villanous. What a shame is it for those which profess purity of heart, to speak filthily! The good man craves and pleads the laws of hospitality; and, when he sees headstrong purposes of mischief, chooses rather to be an ill father than an ill host. His intention was good, but his offer was faulty. If, through his allowance, the Sodomites had defiled his daughters, it had been his sin: if through violence they had defiled his guests, it had been only theirs. There can be no warrant for us to sin, lest others should sin. It is for God to prevent sins with judgments; it is not for men to prevent a greater sin with a less. The best minds, when they are troubled, yield inconsiderate motions, as water that is violently stirred, sends up bubbles: God meant better to Lot, than to suffer his weak offer to be accepted. Those which are bent upon villany are more exasperated by dissuasion, as some strong streams, when they are resisted by flood-gates, swell over the banks.

Many a one is hardened by the good word of God, and instead of receiving the counsel, rages at the messenger. When men are grown to that pass, that they are no whit better by afflictions, and worse with admonitions, God finds it time to strike. Now Lot's guests begin to show themselves angels, and first deliver Lot in Sodom, than from Sodom; First strike them with blindness, whom they will after consume with fire. How little did the Sodomites think that vengeance was so near them! While they went groping in the streets, and cursing those whom they could not find, Lot with the angels is in secure light, and sees them miserable, and foresees them burning. It is the use of God, to blind and besot those whom he means to destroy. The light which they shall see shall be fiery, which shall be the beginning of an everlasting darkness, and a fire unquenchable. Now they have done sinning, and God begins to judge. Wickedness hath but a time; the punishment of wickedness is beyond all time. The residue of the night was both short and dangerous; yet good Lot, though sought for by the Sodomites, and newly pulled into his house by the angels, goes forth of his house to seek his

sons-in-law. No good man would be saved alone. Faith makes us charitable with neglect of all peril. He warns them like a prophet, and advises them like a father, but both in vain: he seems to them as if he mocked, and they do more than seem to mock him again. Why should to-morrow differ from other days? Who ever saw it rain fire? Or whence should that brimstone come? Or if such showers must fall, how shall nothing burn but this valley? So to carnal men, preaching is foolishness, devotion idleness, the prophets madmen, Paul a babbler. These men's incredulity is as worthy of the fire, as the others' uncleanness. "He that believes not is condemned already."

The messengers of God do not only hasten Lot, but pull him by a gracious violence out of that impure city. They thirsted at once after vengeance upon Sodom, and Lot's safety; they knew God could not strike Sodom till Lot was gone out, and that Lot could not be safe within those walls. We are all naturally in Sodom: if God did not haul us out, while we linger, we should be condemned with the world. If God meet with a very good field, he pulls up the weeds, and lets the corn grow; if indifferent, he lets the corn and weeds grow together; if very ill, he gathers the few ears of corn, and burns the weeds.

Oh the large bounty of God which reacheth not to us only, but to ours! God saves Lot for Abraham's sake, and Zoar for Lot's sake. If Sodom had not been too wicked, it had escaped. Were it not for God's dear children, that are intermixed with the world, it could not stand. The wicked owe their lives unto those few good, whom they hate and persecute. Now at once the sun rises upon Zoar, and fire falls down upon Sodom. Abraham stands upon the hill, and sees the cities burning. It is fair weather with God's children, when it is foulest with the wicked. Those which burned with the fire of lust, are now consumed with the fire of vengeance. They sinned against nature; and now against the course of nature, fire descends from heaven and consumes them. Lot may not so much as look at the flame, whether for the stay of his passage, or the horror of the sight or trial of his faith, or fear of commiseration. Small precepts from God are of importance. Obedience is as well tried, and disobedience as well punished, in little as in much. His wife doth but turn back her head; whether in curiosity, or unbelief, or love and compassion of the place, she is turned into a monument of disobedience. What doth it avail her not to be turned into ashes in Sodom, when she is turned into a pillar of salt in the plain? He that saved a whole city cannot save his own wife. God cannot abide small sins in those whom he hath obliged. If we displease him, God can as well meet with us out of Sodom. Lot, now come into Zoar, marvels at the stay of her, whom he might not before look back to call; and soon after returning to seek her, beholds this change with wonder and grief. He finds salt instead of flesh, a pillar instead of a wife. He finds Sodom consumed, and her standing; and is more amazed with this, by how much it was both more near him, and less expected.

When God delivers us from destruction, he doth not secure us from all afflictions. Lot hath lost his wife, his allies, his substance, and now be takes himself to an uncomfortable solitariness.

Yet though he fled from company, he could not fly from sin. He who could not be tainted with uncleanness in Sodom, is overtaken with

drunkenness and incest in a cave. Rather than Satan shall not want baits, his own daughters will prove Sodomites. Those which should have comforted betrayed him. How little are some hearts moved with judgments! The ashes of Sodom, and the pillar of salt, were not yet out of their eye, when they dare think of lying with their own father. They knew, that whilst Lot was sober, he could not be unchaste. Drunkenness is the way to all bestial affections and acts. Wine knows no difference either of persons or sins. No doubt, Lot was afterwards ashamed of his incestuous seed, and now wished he had come alone out of Sodom; yet even this unnatural bed was blessed with increase; and one of our Saviour's worthy ancestors sprung after from this line. God's election

is not tied to our means, neither are blessings or curses ever traduced. The chaste bed of holy parents hath ofttimes bred a monstrous generation; and contrarily, God hath raised sometimes an holy seed from the drunken bed of incest, or fornication. It hath been seen, that weighty ears of corn have grown out of the compass of the tilled field: thus will God magnify the freedom of his own choice, and let us know that we are not born, but made, good.

BOOK III.

CONTEMPLATION 1.-OF JACOB AND ESAU.

Of all the patriarchs none made so little noise in the world as Isaac ; none lived either so privately, or so innocently: neither know I whether he approved himself a better son or an husband; for the one he gave himself over to the knife of his father, and mourned three years for his mother; for the other he sought not to any handmaid's bed, but, in a chaste forbearance, reserved himself for twenty years' space, and prayed. Rebecca was so long barren. His prayers proved more effectual than his seed. At last she conceived, as if she had been more than the daughterin-law to Sarah, whose son was given her, not out of the power of nature, but out of her husband's faith.

God is oft better to us than we would. Isaac prays for a son: God gives him two at once. Now she is no less troubled with the strife of the children in her womb, than before with the want of children. We know not when we are pleased: that which we desire ofttimes discontents us more in the fruition: we are ready to complain both full and fasting. Before Rebecca conceived, she was at ease. Before spiritual regeneration there is all peace in the soul: no sooner is the new man formed in us, but the flesh conflicts with the spirit. There is no grace where is no unquietness. Esau alone would not have striven. Nature will ever agree with itself. Never any Rebecca conceived only an Esau, or was so happy as to conceive none but a Jacob: she must be the mother of both, that she may have both joy and exercise. Every true Israelite begins his war without his being. How many actions which we know not of, are not without presage and signification!

These two were the champions of two nations: the field was their mother's womb; their quarrel precedency and superiority. Esau got the right of nature, Jacob of grace; yet that there might be some pretence of

equality, lest Esau should outrun his brother into the world, Jacob holds him fast by the heel; so his hand was born before the other's foot. But, because Esau is some minutes the elder, that the younger might have better claim to that which God had promised, he buys that which he could not win. If either by strife, or purchase, or suit, we can attain spiritual blessings, we are happy. If Jacob had come forth first, he had not known how much he was bound to God for the favour of his advancement.

There was never any meat, except the forbidden fruit, so dear bought as this broth of Jacob; in both, the receiver and eater is accursed. Every true son of Israel will be content to purchase spiritual favours with earthly and that man hath in him too much of the blood of Esau, who will not rather die than forego his birthright.

But what hath careless Esau lost, if, having sold his birthright, he may obtain the blessing? Or what hath Jacob gained, if his brother's venison may countervail his pottage? Yet thus hath old Isaac decreed, who was now not more blind in his eyes, than his affections. God had forewarned him that the elder should serve the younger, yet Isaac goes about to bless Esau.

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It was as hard for Abraham to reconcile God's promise and Isaac's sacrifice, as for Isaac to reconcile the superiority of Jacob with Esau's benediction; for God's hand was in that, in this none but his own. dearest of God's saints have been sometimes transported with natural af✓ fections. He saw himself preferred to Ishmael, though the elder. He saw his father wilfully forgetting nature at God's command, in binding him for sacrifice. He saw Esau lewdly matched with heathens, and yet he will remember nothing but Esau is my first-born. But how gracious is God, that when we would, will not let us sin! and so orders our actions, that we do not what we will, but what we ought.

That God which had ordained the lordship to the younger, will also contrive for him the blessing; what he will have effected, shall not want means. The mother shall rather defeat the son, and beguile the father, than the father shall beguile the chosen son of his blessing. What was Jacob to Rebecca, more than Esau? or what mother doth not more affect the elder? But now God inclines the love of the mother to the younger, against the custom of nature, because the father loves the elder, against the promise. The affections of the parents are divided; that the promise might be fulfilled, Rebecca's craft shall answer Isaac's partiality: Isaac would unjustly turn Esau into Jacob; Rebecca doth as cunningly turn Jacob into Esau: her desire was good; her means were unlawful. God doth ofttimes effect his just will by our weaknesses; yet neither thereby justifying our infirmities, nor blemishing his own actions.

Here was nothing but counterfeiting; a feigned person, a feigned name, feigned venison, a feigned answer, and yet behold a true blessing; but to the man, not to the means. Those were so unsound, that Jacob himself doth more fear their curse, than hope for their success. Isaac was now both simple and old; yet, if he had perceived the fraud, Jacob had been more sure of a curse, than he could be sure that he should not be perceived.

Those which are plain-hearted in themselves, are the bitterest enemies to deceit in others. Rebecca, presuming upon the oracle of God and her husband's simplicity, dare be his surety for the danger, his counsellor for the carriage of the business, his cook for the diet, yea, dresses both

the meat and the man; and now puts words into his mouth, the dish into his hand, the garments upon his back, the goat's hair upon the open parts of his body, and sends him in thus furnished for the blessing, standing, no doubt, at the door, to see how well her device succeeded. And if old Isaac should, by any of his senses, have discerned the guile, she had soon stept in and undertaken the blame, and urged him with that known will of God concerning Jacob's dominion, and Esau's servitude, which either age or affection had made him forget.

And now she wishes she could borrow Esau's tongue as well as his garments, that she might securely deceive all the senses of him which had suffered himself to be more dangerously deceived with his affection. But this is past her remedy: her son must name himself Esau with the voice of Jacob. It is hard if our tongue do not bewray what we are, in spite of our habit. This was enough to work Isaac to a suspicion, to an inquiry, not to an incredulity. He that is good of himself, will hardly believe evil of another, and will rather distrust his own senses than the fidelity of those he trusted. All the senses are set to examine; none sticketh at the judgment, but the ear: to deceive that, Jacob must second his dissimulation with three lies at one breath; I am Esau ;-as thou badest me ;-my venison. One sin entertained, fetcheth in another; and if it be forced to lodge alone, either departeth or dieth. I love Jacob's blessing, but I hate his lie. I would not do that wilfully which Jacob did weakly, upon condition of a blessing. He that pardoned his infirmity would curse my obstinateness.

Good Isaac sets his hands to try whether his ears informed him aright; he feels the hands of him whose voice he suspected: that honest heart could not think that the skin might more easily be counterfeited than the lungs. A small satisfaction contents those whom guiltiness hath not made scrupulous. Isaac believes, and blesses the younger son in the garments of the elder. If our heavenly Father smell upon our backs the savour of our elder brother's robes, we cannot depart from him unblessed.

No sooner is Jacob gone away, full of the joy of his blessing, than Esau comes in, full of the hope of the blessing: and now he cannot repent him to have sold that in his hunger for pottage, which in his pleasure he shall buy again with venison. The hopes of the wicked fail them when they are at highest; whereas God's children find those comforts in extremity which they durst not expect.

Now he comes in blowing and sweating for his reward, and finds nothing but a repulse. Lewd men, when they think they have earned of God, and come proudly to challenge favour receive no answer but"Who art thou?" Both the father and the son wonder at each other the one with fear, the other with grief. Isaac trembled, and Esau wept; the one upon conscience, the other upon envy. Isaac's heart now told him, that he should not have purposed the blessing where he did; and that it was due to him unto whom it was given, and not purposed. Hence he durst not reverse that which he had done with God's will, besides his own: for now he saw that he had done unwilling justice. God will find both time and means to reclaim his own, to prevent their sins, to manifest and reform their errors. Who would have looked for tears from Esau? Or who dare trust tears when he sees them fall from so graceless eyes?