with judgment. We have all opened our mouths to God, in that initial and solemn vow of Christianity. O that we could not go back! So much more is our vow obligatory, by how much the thing vowed is more necessary Why was the soul of Jephthah thus troubled, but because he saw the entail of his new honour thus suddenly cut off? he saw the hope of posterity extinguished in the virginity of his daughter. It is natural to us to affect that perpetuity in our succession, which is denied us in our persons: our very bodies would emulate the eternity of the soul. And if God have built any of us a house on earth, as well as prepared us a house in heaven, it must be confessed a favour worth our thankfulness; but as the perpetuity of our earthly houses is uncertain, so let us not rest our hearts upon that, but make sure of the house which is eternal in the heavens. Doubtless the goodness of the daughter added to the father's sorrow: she was not more loving, than religious; neither is she less willing to be the Lord's than her father's; and, as provoking her father to that which he thought piety, though to her own wrong, she says, "If thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord, do with me as thou hast promised." Many a daughter would have dissuaded her father with tears, and have wished rather her father's impiety, than her own prejudice; she sues for the smart of her father's vow. How obsequious should children be to the will of their careful parents, even in their final disposition in the world, when they see this holy maid willing to abandon the world upon the rash vow of a father! They are the living goods of their parents, and must therefore wait upon the bestowing of their owners. They mistake themselves which think they are their own. If this maid had vowed herself to God, without her father, it had been in his power to abrogate it; but now that he vowed her to God without herself, it stands in force. But what shall we say to those children, whom their parents' vow and care cannot make so much as honest,-that will be no other than godless, in spite of their baptism and education? what but that they are given their parents for a curse, and shall one day find what it is to be rebellious? All her desire is, that she may have leave to bewail that which she must be forced to keep, her virginity. If she had not held it an affliction, there had been no cause to bewail it; it had been no thank to undergo it, if she had not known it to be a cross. Tears are no argument of impatience; we may mourn for that we repine not to bear. How comes that to be a meritorious virtue under the gospel, which was but a punishment under the law? The daughters of Israel had been too lavish of their tears, if virginity had been absolutely good. What injury should it have been, to lament that spiritual preferment which they should rather have emulated! While Jephthah's daughter was two months in the mountains, she might have had good opportunity to escape her father's vow; but as one whom her obedience tied as close to her father, as his vow tied him to God, she returns to take up that burden which she had bewailed to foresee. If we be truly dutiful to our Father in heaven, we would not slip our necks out of the yoke, though we might, nor fly from his commands, though the door were open. CONTEMPLATION II.-SAMSON CONCEIved. Or extraordinary persons, the very birth and conception is extraordinary: God begins his wonders betimes, in those whom he will make wonderful. There was never any of those which were miraculously conceived, whose lives were not notable and singular. The presages of the womb and the cradle, are commonly answered in the life: it is not the use of God to cast away strange beginnings. If Manoah's wife had not been barren, the angel had not been sent to her. Afflictions have this advantage, that they occasion God to show that mercy to us, whereof the prosperous are incapable. It would not beseem a mother to be so indulgent to a healthful child, as to a sick. It was to the woman that the angel appeared, not to the husband; whether for that the reproach of barrenness lay upon her more heavily than on the father; or for that the birth of the child should cost her more dear than her husband; or, lastly, for that the difficulty of this news was more in her conception than in his generation. As Satan lays his batteries ever to the weakest; so, contrarily, God addresseth his comforts to those hearts that have most need: as, at the first, because Eve had most reason to be dejected, for that her sin had drawn man into the trangression; therefore the cordial of God most respecteth her: "The seed of the woman shall break the serpent's head." As a physician first tells the state of the disease with its symptoms, and then pre. scribes; so doth the angel of God first tell the wife of Manoah her complaint, then her | remedy: "Thou art barren." All our afflictions are more noted of that God which sends them, than of the patient that suffers them how can it be but less possible to endure any thing that he knows not, than that he inflicteth it not? He saith to one, Thou art sick; to another, Thou art poor; to a third, Thou art defamed; Thou art oppressed, to another. That all-seeing eye takes notice from heaven of every man's condition, no less than if he should send an angel to tell us he knew it. His knowledge, compared with his mercy, is the just comfort of all our sufferings. O God, we are many times miserable, and feel it not! thou knowest even those sorrows which we might have; thou knowest what thou hast done: do what thou wilt. "Thou art barren." Not that the angel would upbraid the poor woman with her affliction; but therefore he names her pain, that the mention of her cure might be much more welcome. Comfort shall come unseasonably to that heart which is not apprehensive of his own sorrow. We must first know our evils, ere we can quit them. It is the just method of every true angel of God, first to let us see that whereof either we do, or should complain, and then to apply comforts: like as a good physician first pulls down the body, and then raises it with cordials. If we cannot abide to hear of our faults, we are not capable of amend ment. If the angel had first said, "Thou shalt conceive," and not premised, "Thou art barren," I doubt whether she had conceived faith in her soul, of that infant which her body should conceive: now his knowledge of her present estate makes way for the assurance of the future. Thus ever it pleases our good God to leave a pawn of his fidelity with us; that we should not distrust him in what he will do, when we find him faithful in that which we see done. It is good reason that he, which gives the son to the barren mother, should dispose of him, and diet him, both in the womb first, and after in the world. The mother must first be a Nazarite, that her son may be so. While she was barren, she might drink what she would; but now, that she shall conceive a Samson, her choice must be limited. There is a holy austerity that ever follows the special calling of God. The worldling may take his full scope, and deny his back and belly nothing; but he that hath once conceived that blessed burden, whereof Samson was a type, must be strict and severe to himself: neither his tongue, | nor his palate, nor his hand, may run riot. Those pleasures which seemed not unseemly for the multitude, are now debarred him. We borrow more names of our Saviour than one: as we are Christians, so we are Nazarites. The consecration of our God is upon our heads, and therefore our very hair should be holy. Our appetites must be curbed, our passions moderated, and so estranged from the world, that in the loss of parents, or children, nature may not make us forget grace. What doth the looseness of vain men persuade them that God is not curious, when they see him thus precisely ordering the very diet of his Nazarites? Nature pleads for liberty, religion for restraint; not that there is more uncleanness in the grape, than in the fountain; but that wine finds more uncleanness in us, than water; and that the high feed is not so fit for devotion, as abstinence. Who sees not a ceremony in this command? which yet carries with it this substance of everlasting use, that God and the belly will not admit of one servant; that quaffing and cramming is not the way to heaven. A drunken Nazarite is a monster among men. We have now more scope than the ancients: not drinking of wine, but drunkenness with wine is forbidden to the evangelical Nazarite; wine, wherein is excess. O that ever Christians should quench the Spirit of God with a liquor of God's own making! that they should suffer their hearts to be drowned with wine, and should so live, as if the practice of the gospel were quite contrary to the rule of the law! The mother must conceive the only giant of Israel, and yet must drink but water; neither must the child touch any other cup. Never wine made so strong a champion, as water did here. The power of nourishment is not in the creatures, but in their Maker. Daniel and his three companions kept their complexion, with the same diet wherewith Samson got his strength; he that gave that power to the grape, can give it to the stream. O God, how justly do we raise our eyes from our tables unto thee, which can make water nourish, and wine enfeeble us! Samson had not a better mother than Manoah had a wife; she hides not the good news in her own bosom, but imparts it to her husband. That wife hath learned to make a true use of her head, which is ever ready to consult with him about the messages of God. If she were made for his helper, he is much more her's. Thus should good women make amends for their first offence; that as Eve no sooner had received an ill motion, but she delivered it | diately to God, so God comes immediately to her husband; so they should no sooner receive good, than they should impart it. Manoah (like one which in those lewd times had not lost his acquaintance with God) so soon as he hears the news, falls down upon his knees. I do not hear him call forth and address his servants to all the coasts of heaven (as the children of the prophets did in the search of Elias) to find out the messenger; but I see him rather look straight up to that God which sent him: "My Lord, I pray thee, let that man of God come again." As a straight line is the shortest, the nearest cut to any blessing is to go by heaven: as we may not sue to God, and neglect means, so we must sue to God for those means which we shall use. When I see the strength of Manoah's faith, I marvel not that he had a Samson to his son: he saw not the messenger, he heard not the errand, he examined not the circumstances; yet now he takes thought, not whether he should have a son, but how he shall order the son which he must have; and sues to God, not for the son which as yet he had not, but for the direction of governing him when he should be. Zechariah had the same message, and, craving a sign, lost that voice wherewith he craved it. Manoah seeks no sign for the promise, but counsel for himself; and yet that angel spake to Zachary himself; this only to the wife of Manoah: that in the temple, like a glorious spirit; this in the house, or field, like some prophet or traveller: that to a priest; this to a woman. All good men have not equal measures of faith: the bodies of men have not more differences of stature, than their graces. Credulity to men is faulty and dangerous; but, in the matters of God, is the greatest virtue of a Christian. Happy are they that have not seen, yet believed. True faith takes all for granted, yea, for performed, which is once promised. He, that before sent his angel unasked, will much more send him again upon entreaty those heavenly messengers are ready both to obey their Maker, and to relieve his children. Never any man prayed for direction in his duties to God, and was repulsed: rather will God send an angel from heaven to instruct us, than our good desires shall be frustrate. Manoah prayed; the angel appeared again, not to him, but to his wife. It had been the shorter way to have come first to the man, whose prayers procured his presence. But as Manoah went directly and imme and about to him; and will make her the means to bear the message to her husband, who must bear him the son: both the blessing and the charge are chiefly meant to her. It was a good care of Manoah, when the angel had given order to his wife alone for the governing of the child's diet, to proffer himself to his charge: " How shall we order the child?" As both the parents have their part in the being of their children, so should they have in their edu. cation; it is both unreasonable and unnatural in husbands to cast this burden upon the weaker vessel alone: it is no reason that she, which alone hath had the pain of their birth, should have the pain of their breeding. Though the charge be renewed to the wife, yet the speech is directed to the husband; the act must be her's, his must be the oversight: "Let her observe all I commanded her." The head must overlook the body; it is the duty of the husband to be careful that the wife do her duty to God. ness. As yet Manoah saw nothing but the outside of a man, and therefore offers the angel an answerable entertainment, wherein there is at once hospitality and thankfulNo man shall bring him good news from God, and go away unrecompensed How forward he is to feast him, whom he took for a prophet! Their feet should be so much more beautiful that bring us news of salvation, by how much their errand is better. That Manoah might learn to acknow. ledge God in this man, he sets off the proffer of his thankfulness from himself to God, and (as the same angel which appeared to Gideon) turns his feast into a sacrifice. And now he is Manoah's solicitor to better thanks than he offered. How forward the good angels are to incite us unto piety! Either this was the Son himself, which said, "It was his meat and drink to do his Father's will," or else one of his spiritual attendants of the same diet. We can never feast the angels better, than with our hearty sacrifices to God. Why do not we learn this lesson of them, whom we propound to ourselves as patterns of our obedience? We shall be once like the angels in condition; why are we not, in the meantime, in our dispositions? If we do not provoke and exhort one another to godliness, and do care more for a feast than a sacrifice, our appetite is not angelical, but brutish. It was an honest mind in Manoah, while he was addressing a sacrifice to God, yet not to neglect his messenger: fain would he know whom to honour. True piety is | but, instead of looking up cheerfully to not uncivil, but, while it magnifies the heaven, they fall down to the earth upon author of all blessings, is thankful to the their faces; as weak eyes are dazzled with means. Secondary causes are worthy of that which should comfort them. This is regard; neither need it detract any thing the infirmity of our nature, to be afflicted from the praise of the agent, to honour the with the causes of our joy, to be astonished mstrument. It is not only rudeness, but with our confirmations, to conceive death injustice in those which can be content to in that vision of God, wherein our life and hear good news from God, with contempt happiness consist. If this homely sight of to the bearers. the angel did so confound good Manoah, what shall become of the enemies of God, when they shall be brought before the glorious tribunal of the God of angels. I marvel not now, that the angel appeared both times rather to the wife of Manoah: her faith was the stronger of the two. It falls out sometimes, that the weaker vessel is fuller, and that of more precious liquor. That wife is no helper, which is not ready to give spiritual comfort to her husband. The reason was good and irrefragable: "If the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt-offering from us." God will not accept gifts where he intends punishment, and professes hatred: "The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to the Lord." If we can find assurance of God's acceptation of our sacrifices, we may be sure he loves our persons. If I incline to wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear me : but the Lord hath heard me. The angel will neither take nor give, but conceals his very name from Manoah. All honest motions are not fit to be yielded to; good intentions are not always sufficient grounds of condescent. If we do sometimes ask what we know not, it is no marvel f we receive not what we ask. In some cases, the angel of God tells his name unasked, as Gabriel to the virgin here, not by entreaty. If it were the angel of the covenant, he had as yet no name but Jehovah; if a created angel, he had no commission to tell his name; and a faithful messenger hath not a word beyond his charge. Besides that he saw it would be of more use for Manoah, to know him really, than by words. O the bold presumption of those men, which (as if they had long sojourned in heaven, and been acquainted with all the holy legions of spirits) discourse of their orders, of their titles, when this one angel stops the mouth of a better man than they, with "Why dost thou ask after my name, which is secret ?" "Secret things belong CONTEMPLATION III.—SAMSON'S MARRIAGE. to God; revealed, to us and our children.' No word can be so significant as actions. The act of the angel tells best who he was: he did wonderfully; Wonderful, therefore, was his name. So soon as ever the flame of the sacrifice ascended, he mounted up in the smoke of it, that Manoah might see the sacrifice and the messenger belonged both to one God, and might know both whence to acknowledge the message, and whence to expect the performance. Gideon's angel vanished at his sacrifice, but this in the sacrifice; that Manoah might at once see both the confirmation of his promise, and the acceptation of his obedience, while the angel of God vouchsafed to perfume himself with that holy smoke, and carry the scent of it up into heaven. Manoah believed before, and craved no sign to assure him; God voluntarily confirms it to him above his desire: "To him that hath, shall be given." Where there are beginnings of faith, the mercy of God will add perfection. How do we think Manoah and his wife looked to see this spectacle? They had not spirit enough left to look one upon another; Of all the deliverers of Israel, there is none of whom are reported so many weaknesses, or so many miracles, as of Samson. The news which the angel told of his conception and education was not more strange than the news of his own choice: he but sees a daughter of the Philistines, and falls in love. All this strength begins in infirmity. One maid of the Philistines overcomes that champion, which was given to overcome the Philistines. Even he that was dieted with water, found heat of unfit desires. As his body was strong, notwithstanding that fare, so were his passions; without the gift of continency, a low feed may impair nature, but not inordination. To follow nothing but the eye in the choice of his wife, was a lust unworthy of a Nazarite: this is to make the sense not a counsellor but a tyrant. Yet was Samson in this very impotency dutiful: he did not, in the presumption of his strength, ravish her forcibly; he did not make up a clandestine match, without consulting with his parents, but he makes suit to them for consent: "Give me her to not be too peremptory in their denial. It is not safe for children to overrun parents in settling their affections; nor for parents (where the impediments are not very mate wife;" as one that could be master of his | own act, though not of his passion, and as one that had learned so to be a suitor, as not to forget himself to be a son. Even in this deplored state of Israel, children durstrial) to come short of their children, when not presume to be their own carvers: how much less is this tolerable in a well guided and Christian commonwealth? Whosoever now dispose of themselves without their parents, they do wilfully unchild themselves, and change natural affection for violent. It is no marvel if Manoah and his wife were astonished at this unequal motion of her son. Did not the angel (thought they) tell us, that this child should be consecrated to God; and must he begin his youth in unholy wedlock? Did not the angel say, that our son should begin to save Israel from the Philistines; and is he now captivated in his affections by a daughter of the Philistines? Shall our deliverance from the Philistines begin in an alliance? Have we been so scrupulously careful that he should eat no unclean thing, and shall we now consent to a heathenish match? Now, therefore, they gravely endeavour to cool this intemperate heat of his passion with good counsel; as those which well knew the inconveniences of an unequal yoke: corruption in religion, alienation of affections, distraction of thoughts, connivance at idolatry, death of zeal, dangerous underminings, and lastly, an unholy seed. Who can blame them, if they were unwilling to call a Philistine daughter? I wish Manoah could speak so loud, that all our Israelites might hear him: "Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all God's people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines?" If religion be any other than a cipher, how dare we not regard it in our most important choice? Is she a fair Philistine? Why is not this deformity of the soul more powerful to dissuade us than the beauty of the face or of metal to allure us? To dote upon a fair skin, when we see a Philistine under it, is sensual and brutish. Affection is not more blind than deaf. In vain do the parents seek to alter a young man, not more strong in body than in will. Though he cannot defend his desires, yet he pursues them: "Get her, for she pleases me." And although it must needs be a weak motion that can plead no reason but appetite, yet the good parents, since they cannot bow the affection of their son with persuasion, dare not break it with violence. As it becomes not children to be forward in their choice, so parents may the affections are once settled: the one is disobedience; the other may be tyranny. I know not whether I may excuse either Samson in making this suit, or his parents in yielding to it, by a divine dispensation in both; for, on the one side, while the Spirit of God notes that as yet his parents knew not this was of the Lord, it may seem that he knew it; and is it likely he would know and not impart it? This alone was enough to win, yea, to command his parents it is not mine eye only, but the counsel of God that leads me to this choice. The way to quarrel with the Philistines is to match with them. If I follow mine affection, mine affection follows God in this project. Surely he that commanded his prophet afterwards to marry a harlot, may have appointed his Nazarite to marry with a Philistine. On the other side, whether it were of God's permitting, or allowing, I find not. It might so be of God, as all the evil in the city; and then the interposition of God's decree shall be no excuse of Samson's infirmity. I would rather think that God meant only to make a treacle of a viper; and rather appointed to fetch good out of Samson's evil, than to approve that for good in Samson, which in itself was evil. When Samson went on wooing, he might have made the sluggard's excuse, "There is a lion in the way;" but he that could not be stayed by persuasion, will not by fear. A lion, young, wild, fierce, hungry, comes roaring upon him, when he had no weapon but his hand, no fence but his strength. The same providence that carried him to Timnah, brought the lion to him. It hath been ever the fashion of God to exercise his champions with some initiatory encounters: both Samson and David must first fight with lions, then with Philistines; and he, whose type they bore, meets with that roaring lion of the wilderness in the very threshold of his public charge. The same hand that prepared a lion for Samson, hath proportionable matches for every Christian: God never gives strength, but he employs it. Poverty meets one like an armed man; infamy, like some furious mastiff, comes flying in the face of another: the wild boar out of the forest, or the bloody tiger of persecution, sets upon one; the brawing curs of heretical pravity, or contentious neighbourhood, are |