that revenge, which he that offended deserved not. Shechem sinneth, but Dinah tempted him. She that was so light, as to wander abroad alone, only to gaze, I fear was not over difficult to yield; and if, having wrought her shame, he had driven her home with disgrace to her father's tent, such tyrannous lust had justly called for blood: but now he craves, and would pay dear for but leave to give satisfaction.

To execute rigour upon a submissive offender, is more merciless than just. Or if the punishment had, been both just and proportionable from another, yet from them which had viewed peace and affinity, it was shamefully unjust. To disappoint the trust of another, and to neglect our own promise and fidelity for private purposes, adds faithlessness unto our cruelty. That they were impotent, it was through their circumcision: what impiety was this, instead of honouring a holy sign, to take an advantage by it! What shrieking was there now in the streets of the city of the Hivites! And how did the beguiled Shechemites, when they saw the swords of the two brethren, die cursing the sacraments in their hearts, which had betrayed them! Even their curses were the sins of Simeon and Levi, whose fact, though it were abhorred by their father, yet it was seconded by their brethren. Their spoil makes good the others' slaughter. Who would have looked to have found this outrage in the family of Jacob! How did that good patriarch, when he saw Di. nah come home blubbered and wringing her hands, Simeon and Levi sprinkled with blood, wish that Leah had been barren as long as Rachel ! Good parents have grief enough (though they sustain no blame) for their children's sins. What great evils arise from small beginnings! The idle curiosity of Dinah hath bred all this mischief; ravishment follows upon her wandering; upon her ravishment, murder; upon the murder, spoil. It is holy and safe to be jealous of the first occasions of evil, either done or suffered.

CONTEMPLATION IV.-OF JUDAH AND THAMAR.

I FIND not many of Jacob's sons more faulty than Judah; who yet is singled out from all the rest, to be the royal progenitor of Christ, and to be honoured with the dignity of the birth-right, that God's election might not be of merit, but of grace: else, howsoever he might have sped alone. Thamar had never been joined with him in this line. Even Judah marries a Canaanite; it is no marvel though his seed prosper not. And yet, that good children may not be too much discouraged with their unlawful propagation, the fathers of the promised seed are raised from an incestuous bed. Judah was very young, scarce from under the rod of his father, yet he takes no other counsel for his marriage, but from his own eyes, which were, like his sister Dinah's, roving and wanton. What better issue could be expected from such beginnings? Those proud Jews, that glory so much of their pedigree and name from this patriarch, may now choose whether they will have their mother a Canaanite or a harlot; even in these things ofttimes the birth follows the belly. His eldest son Er is too wicked to live; God strikes him dead ere he can leave any issue, not abiding any scions to grow out of so bad a stock.

Notorious sinners God reserves to his own vengeance. He doth not inflict sensible judgments upon all his enemies, lest the wicked should think there were no punishment abiding for them elsewhere. He doth inflict such judgments upon some, lest he should seem careless of evil. It were as easy for him to strike all dead, as one: but he had rather all should be warned by one; and would have his enemies find him merciful, as well as his children just his brother Onan sees the judgment, and yet follows his sins. Every little thing discourages us from good: nothing can alter the heart that is set upon evil. Er was not worthy of any love; but, though he were a miscreant, yet he was a brother. Seed should have been raised to him: Onan justly loses his life with his seed, which he would rather spill, than lend to a wicked brother. Some duties we owe to humanity, more to our nearness of blood. Ill deservings of others can be no excuse for our injustice, for our uncharitableness. That which Thamar required, Moses afterward, as from God, commanded, the succession of brothers into the barren bed. Some laws God spake to his church, long ere he wrote them: while the author is certainly known, the voice and the finger of God are worthy of equal respect. Judah had lost two sons, and now doth but promise the third, whom he sins in not giving. It is the weakness of nature, rather to hazard a sin than a danger, and to neglect our own duty, for wrongful suspicion of others: though he had lost his son in giving him, yet he should have given him. A faithful man's promise is his debt, which no fear of damage can dispense with.

But whereupon was his slackness? Judah feared that some unhappiness in the bed of Thamar was the cause of his son's miscarriage; whereas it was their fault, that Thamar was both a widow and childless. Those that are but the patients of evil, are many times burdened with suspicions ; and therefore are ill thought of, because they fare ill. Afflictions would not be so heavy, if they did not lay us open unto uncharitable conceits.

What difference God puts betwixt sins of wilfulness and infirmity! The son's pollution is punished with present death, the father's incest is pardoned, and in a sort prospereth.

Now Thamar seeks by subtilty, that which she could not have by award of justice. The neglect of due retributions drives men to indirect courses; neither know I whether they sin more in righting themselves wrongfully, or the other in not righting them. She therefore takes upon her the habit of a harlot, that she might perform the act: if she had not wished to seem a whore, she had not worn that attire, nor chosen that place. Immodesty of outward fashion or gesture bewrays evil desires. The heart that means well, will never wish to seem ill: for commonly we affect to show better than we are. Many harlots will put on the semblances of chastity, of modesty; never the contrary. There is no trusting those, which do not wish to appear good. Judah esteems her by her habit; and now the sight of a harlot hath stirred up in him a thought of lust. Satan finds well, that a fit object is half a victory.

Who would not be ashamed to see a son of Jacob thus transported with filthy affections! At the first sight he is inflamed; neither yet did he see the face of her whom he lusted after it was motive enough to him that she was a woman, neither could the presence of his neighbour,

the Adullamite, compose those wicked thoughts, or hinder his unchaste

acts.

That sin must needs be impudent which can abide a witness: yea, so hath his lust besotted him, that he cannot discern the voice of Thamar, that he cannot foresee the danger of his shame in parting with such pledges. There is no passion, which doth not for the time bereave a man of himself. Thamar had learned not to trust him without a pawn: he had promised his son to her as a daughter, and failed; now he promised a kid to her, as an harlot, and performeth it. Whether his pledge constrained him, or the power of his word, I inquire not. Many are faithful in all things, save those which are the greatest and dearest. If his credit had been as much endangered in the former promise, he had kept it. Now hath Thamar requited him. She expected long the enjoying of his promised son, and he performed not. But here he performs the promise of the kid, and she stays not to expect it. Judah is sorry that he cannot pay the hire of his lust, and now feareth lest he shall be beaten with his own staff, lest his signet should be used to confirm and seal his reproach; resolving not to know them, and wishing they were unknown of others. Shame is the easiest wages of sin, and the surest which ever begins first in ourselves. Nature is not more forward to commit sin, than willing to hide it.

I hear as yet of no remorse in Judah, but fear of shame. Three months hath his sin slept; and now, when he is securest, it awakes and baits him. News is brought him that Thamar begins to swell with her conception, and now he swells with rage, and calls her forth to the flame like a rigorous judge, without so much as staying for the time of her deliverance, that his cruelty, in this justice should be no less ill, than the injustice of occasioning it. If Judah had not forgotten his sin, his pity had been more than his hatred to this of his daughter's. How easy is it to detest those sins in others, which we flatter in ourselves! Thamar doth not deny the sin, nor refuse punishment; but calls for that partner in her punishment, which was partner in the sin. The staff, the signet, the handkerchief, accuse and convince Judah; and now he blushes at his own sentence, much more, at his act, and cries out, than I!" God will find a time to bring his and to wring from them penitent confessions. not have them soundly ashamed, he will make own reproach.

"She is more righteous children upon their knees, And, rather than he will them the trumpets of their

Yet doth he not offer himself to the flame with her, but rather excuses her by himself. This relenting in his own case, shamed his former zeal. Even in the best men, nature is partial to itself. It is good so to sentence others' frailties, that yet we remember our own, whether those that have been, or may be. With what shame, yea with what horror, must Judah needs look upon the great belly of Thamar, and on her two sons, the monuments of his filthiness!

How must it needs wound his soul, to hear them call him both father and grandfather; to call her mother and sister! If this had not cost him many a sigh, he had no more escaped his father's curse, than Reuben did : I see the difference, not of sins, but of men. Remission goes not by the measure of the sin, but the quality of the sinner; yea, rather, the mercy

of the forgiver. "Blessed is the man (not that sins not, but) to whom the Lord imputes not his sin."

CONTEMPLATION V.-OF JOSEPH.

I MARVEL not that Joseph had the double portion of Jacob's land, who had more than two parts of his sorrows. None of his sons did so truly inherit his afflictions; none of them was either so miserable or so great: suffering is the way to glory. I see in him not a clearer type of Christ, than of every Christian. Because we are dear to our Father, and complain of sins, therefore are we hated of our carnal brethren. If Joseph had not meddled with his brother's faults, yet he had been envied for his father's affection; but now malice is met with envy. There is nothing more thankless or dangerous than to stand in the way of a resolute sinner. That which doth correct and oblige the penitent, makes the wilful mind furious and revengeful.

All the spite of his brethren cannot make Joseph cast off the livery of his father's love. What need we care for the censures of men, if our hearts can tell us that we are in favour with God?

But what meant young Joseph to add unto his own envy by reporting his dreams? The concealment of our hopes or abilities hath not more modesty than safety. He that was envied for his dearness, and hated for his intelligence, was both envied and hated for his dreams. Surely God meant to make the relation of these dreams a means to effect that which the dreams imported. We men work by likely means: God by contraries. The main quarrel was, "Behold this dreamer cometh!" Had it not been for his dreams, he had not been sold: if he had not been sold, he had not been exalted. So Joseph's state had not deserved envy, if his dreams had not caused him to be envied. Full little did Joseph think, when he went to seek his brethren, that this was the last time he should see his father's house. Full little did his brethren think, when they sold him naked to the Ishmaelites, to have once seen him in the throne of Egypt. God's decree runs on; and while we either think not of it, or oppose it, is performed.

In an honest and obedient simplicity, Joseph comes to inquire of his brethren's health, and now may not return to carry news of his own misery: whilst he thinks of their welfare, they are plotting his destruction; "Come, let us slay him." Who would have expected this cruelty in them, which should be the fathers of God's church! It was thought a favour, that Reuben's entreaty obtained for him, that he might be cast into the pit alive, to die there. He looked for brethren, and behold murderers: every man's tongue, every man's fist was bent against him. Each one strives who shall lay the first hand upon that changeable coat which was dyed with their father's love, and their envy and now they have stript him naked, and hauling him by both arms, as it were, cast him alive into his grave. So, in pretence of forbearance, they resolve to torment him with a lingering death. The savagest robbers could not have been more merciless: for now, besides, (what in them lies), they kill their father in their brother. Nature, if it once degenerate, grows more monstrous and extreme, than a disposition born to cruelty.

All this while Joseph wanted neither words nor tears; but, like a passionate suppliant, (bowing his bare knees to them whom he dreamed should bow to him), entreats and persuades, by the dear name of their brotherhood, by their profession of one common God, for their father's sake, for their own souls' sake, not to sin against his blood. But envy hath shut out mercy, and makes them not only forget themselves to be brethren, but men. What stranger can think of poor innocent Joseph, crying naked in that desolate and dry pit, (only saving that he moistened it with tears), and not be moved! Yet his hard-hearted brethren sit them down carelessly, with the noise of his lamentation in their ears, to eat bread, not once thinking, by their own hunger, what it was for Joseph to be famished to death.

Whatsoever they thought, God never meant that Joseph should perish in that pit; and therefore he sends the very Ismaelites to ransom him from his brethren: the seed of him that persecuted his brother Isaac, shall now redeem Joseph from his brethren's persecution. When they came to fetch him out of the pit, he now hoped for a speedy despatch; that since they seemed not to have so much mercy as to prolong his life, they would not continue so much cruelty as to prolong his death.

And now, when he hath comforted himself with hope of the favour of dying, behold death exchanged for bondage! How much is servitude, to an ingenuous nature, worse than death! for this is common to all; that, to none but the miserable. Judah meant this well, but God better. Reuben saved him from the sword, Judah from famishing. God will ever raise up some secret favourers to his own, amongst those that are most malicious. How well was this favour bestowed! If Joseph had died for hunger in the pit, both Jacob and Judah, and all his brethren, had died for hunger in Canaan. Little did the Ismaelitish merchants know what a treasure they bought, carried, and sold; more precious than all their balm and myrrhs. Little did they think that they had in their hands the lord of Egypt, the jewel of the world. Why should we contemn any man's meanness, when we know not his destiny?

One sin is commonly used for the veil of another: Joseph's coat is sent home dipped in blood, that, while they should hide their own cruelty, they might afflict their father, no less than their brother. They have devised this real lie, to punish their old father, for his love, with so grievous a monument of his sorrow.

He that is mourned for in Canaan as dead, prospers in Egypt under Potiphar; and of a slave, is made ruler. Thus God meant to prepare him for a greater charge; he must first rule Potiphar's house, then Pharaoh's kingdom: his own service is his least good, for his very presence procures a common blessing: a whole family shall fare the better for one Joseph. Virtue is not looked upon alike with all eyes: his fellows praise him, his master trusts him, his mistress affects him too much. All the spite of his brethren was not so great a cross to him, as the inordinate affection of his mistress. Temptations on the right hand are now more perilous, and hard to resist, by how much they are more plausible and glorious; but the heart that is bent upon God, knows how to walk steadily and indifferently betwixt the pleasures of sin and fears of evil. saw this pleasure would advance him: he knew what it was to be a minion of one of the greatest ladies in Egypt, yet resolves to contemn. A

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