ready to bait another: and by all these meaner and brutish adversaries, will God fit us for greater conflicts. It is a pledge of our future victory over the spiritual Philistines, if we can say, My soul hath been among lions. Come forth now, thou weak Christian, and behold this preparatory battle of Samson. Dost thou now think God deals hardly with thee, in matching thee so hard, and calling thee forth to so many frays? What, dost thou but repine at thine own glory? How shouldst thou be victorious, without resistance?

If the parents of Samson had now stood behind the hedge, and seen this encounter, they would have taken no further care of matching their son with a Philistine; for who, that should see a strong lion ramping upon an unarmed man, would hope for his life and victory? The beast came bristling up his fearful mane, wafting his raised stern, his eyes sparkling with fury, his mouth roaring out knells of his last passage, and breathing death from his nostrils, and now rejoicing at so fair a prey. Surely, if the lion had had no other adversary than him whom he saw, he had not lost his hope; but now he could not see that his Maker was his enemy: "The spirit of the Lord came upon Samson." What is a beast in the hand of the Creator? He that struck the lions with the awe of Adam, Noah, and Daniel, subdued this rebellious beast to Samson. What marvel is it if Samson now tore him, as if it had been a young kid? If his bones had been brass, and his skin plates of iron, all had been one: "The right hand of the Lord bringeth mighty things to pass."

If that roaring lion, that goes about continually seeking whom he may devour, find us alone among the vineyards of the Philistines, where is our hope? Not in our heels; he is swifter than we: not in our weapons; we are naturally unarmed: not in our hands, which are weak and languishing but in the Spirit of that God by whom we can do all things. If God fight in us, who can resist us? There is a stronger lion in us, than that against us.

Samson was not more valiant than modest; he made no words of this great exploit. The greatest performers ever make the least noise. He that works wonders alone could say, "See thou tell no man ;" whereas those whose hands are most impotent, are busiest of their tongues. Great talkers show that they desire only to be thought eminent, whereas the deepest waters are least heard.

But, while he concealed this event from others, he pondered it in himself; and when he returned to Timnah, went out of the way to see his dead adversary, and could not but recall to himself his danger and deliverance. Here the beast met me; thus he fought; thus I slew him! The very dead' lion taught Samson thankfulness; there was more honey in this thought than in the carcass. The mercies of God are ill bestowed upon us, if we cannot step aside to view the monuments of his deliverances: dangers may be at once past and forgotten. As Samson had not found his honeycomb, if he had not turned aside to see his lion; so we shall lose the comfort of God's benefits, if we do not renew our perils by meditation.

Lest any thing should befall Samson, wherein is not some wonder, his lion doth more amaze him dead than alive; for lo! that carcass is made a hive, and the bitterness of death is turned into the sweetness of honey! The bee, a nice and dainty creature, builds her cells in an unsavoury carcass; that carcass, that promised nothing but stench and annoyance, now offers comfort and refreshing, and, in a sort, pays Samson for the wrong offered. O the wonderful goodness of our God, that can change our terrors into pleasure, and can make the greatest evils beneficial! Is any man, by his humiliation under the hand of God, grown more faithful and conscionable? There is honey out of the lion. Is any man by his temptation or fall become more circumspect? There is also honey out of the lion. There is no Samson to whom every lion doth not yield honey. Every Christian is the better for his evils; yea, Satan himself, in his exercise of God's children, advantageth them.

Samson doth not disdain these sweets, because he finds them uncleanly laid his diet was strict, and forbade him anything that savoured of legal impurity; yet he eats the honeycomb out of the belly of a dead beast. Good may not be refused, because the means are accidentally evil. Honey is honey still, though in a dead lion. Those are less wise and more scrupulous than Samson, which abhor the graces of God. because they find them in ill vessels. One cares not for the preacher's true doctrine, because his life is evil; another will not take a good receipt from the hand of a physician, because he is given to unlawful studies; a third will not receive a deserved contribution from the hands of a usurer. It is a weak neglect not to take the honey, because we hate the lion. God's children

The match is now made; Samson (though a Nazarite) hath both a wedding and a feast. God never mislikes moderate solemnities in the severest life; and yet this bridal feast was long, the space of seven days. If Samson had matched with the best Israelite, this celebration had been no greater; neither had this perhaps been so long, if the custom of the place had not required it. Now I do not hear him plead his Nazaritism, for a colour of singularity. It is both lawful and fit, in things not prohibited, to conform ourselves to the manners and rites of those with whom we live. That Samson might think it an honour to match with the Philistines, he, whom before the lion found alone, is now accompanied with thirty attendants: they called them companions, but they meant them for spies. The courtesies of the world are hollow and thankless; neither doth it ever purpose so ill, as when it shows fairest. None are so near to danger, as those whom it entertains with smiles. While it frowns, we know what to trust to; but the favours of it are worthy of nothing but fears and suspicion. Open defiance is better than false love.

Austerity had not made Samson uncivil: he knows how to entertain Philistines with a formal familiarity; and that his intellectual parts might be approved answerable to his arms, he will first try masteries of wit, and set their brains on work with harmless thoughts: his riddle shall oppose them, and a deep wager shall bind the solution; thirty shirts and thirty suits of raiment: neither their loss nor their gain could be much, besides the victory being divided into thirty partners: but Samson's must needs be both ways very large, who must give or receive thirty alone. The seven days of the feast are expiring, and yet they, which had been all this while devouring of Samson's meat, cannot tell who that eater should be from whence meat should come. In the course of nature, the strong feeder takes in meat, and sends out filthiness; but that meat and sweetness should come from a devouring stomach, was beyond their apprehension.

And as fools and dogs used to begin in jest and end in earnest, so did these Philistines; and therefore they force the bride to entice her husband to betray himself. Covetousness and pride have made them impatient of loss; and now they threat to fire her and her father's house, for recompense of their entertainment, rather than they will lose a small wager to an Israelite.

I do not wonder that a Philistine woman loved herself and her father's family more than an Israelitish bridegroom; and if she bestowed tears upon her husband, for the ransom of them, Samson himself taught her this difference, "I have not told it my father or my mother, and should I tell it thee?" If she had not been as she was, she had neither done this to Samson, nor heard this from him: matrimonial respects are dearer than natural. It was the law of Him that ordained marriage (before ever parents were), that parents should be forsaken for the husband or wife: but now Israelitish parents are worthy of more entireness than a wife of the Philistines; and yet whom the lion could not conquer, the tears of a woman have conquered. Samson never bewrayed infirmity but in uxoriousness. What assurance can there be of him that hath a Philistine in his bosom! Adam the most perfect man, Samson the strongest man, Solomon the wisest man, were betrayed with the flattery of their helpers. As there is no comfort comparable to a faithful yoke-fellow, so woe be to him that is matched with a Philistine!

It could not but much discontent Samson, to see that his adversaries had ploughed with his heifer, and that upon his own back; now therefore he pays his wager to their cost. Ascalon, the city of the Philistines, is his wardrobe; he fetches thence thirty suits, lined with the lives of their owners. He might with as much ease have slain these thirty companions, which were the authors of this evil; but his promise forbade him, while he was to clothe their bodies, to unclothe their souls; and that Spirit of God, which stirred him up to revenge, directed him in the choice of the subjects. If we wonder to see thirty throats cut for their suits, we may easily know, that this was but the occasion of that slaughter, whereof the cause was their oppression and tyranny. David slew two hundred Philistines for their foreskins; but the ground of this act was their hostility. It is just with God to destine what enemies he pleases to execution. It is not to be expostulated, why this man is stricken than another, when both are Philistines.

CONTEMPLATION IV. —SAMSON'S VICTORY.

I CAN no more justify Samson in the leaving of his wife, than in the choosing her: he chose her, because she pleased him; and because she despised him. he left her. Though her fear made her false to him in his riddle, yet she was true to his bed. That weak treachery was worthy of a check, not a desertion. All the passions of Samson were strong like himself; but (as vehement motions are not lasting) this vehement wind is soon allayed; and he is now returning with a kid to win her that had offended him, and to renew that feast which ended in her unkindness. Slight occasions may not break the knot of matrimonial love; and if any just offence have slackened it on either part, it must be fastened again by speedy reconciliation.

Now Samson's father-in-law shows himself a Philistine, the true parent of her that betrayed her husband; for no sooner is the bridegroom departed, than he changes his son: what pretence of friendship soever he make, a true Philistine will soon be weary of an Israelite. Samson had not so many days' liberty to enjoy his wedding, as he spent in celebrating it. Marriage hath been ever a sacred institution, and who but a Philistine would so easily violate it?

One of his thirty companions enjoys his wife, together with his suit, and now laughs to be a partner of that bed whereon he was an attendant. The good nature of Samson, having forgotten the first wrong, carried him to a proffer of familiarity, and is repulsed; but with a gentle violence: "I thought thou hadst hated her." Lawful wedlock may not be dissolved by imaginations, but by proofs.

Who shall stay Samson from his own wife? He that slew the lion in the way of his wooing, and before whom thousands of the Philistines could not stand, yet suffers himself to be resisted by him that was once his father-in-law, without any return of private violence.

Great is the force of duty, once conceived, even to the most unworthy. This thought (I was a son) binds the hands of Samson; else how easily might he, that slew those thirty Philistines for their suits, have destroyed this family for his wife? How unnatural are those mouths that can curse the loins from which they are proceeded, and those hands that dare lift up themselves against the means of their life and being!

I never read that Samson slew any but

by the motion and assistance of the Spirit of God: and the divine wisdom hath reserved these offenders to another revenge. Judgment must descend from others to them, since the wrong proceeded from others by them. In the very marriage, God foresaw and intended this parting, and in the parting, this punishment upon the Philistines. If the Philistines had not been as much enemies to God as to Samson-enemies to Israel in their oppression, no less than to Samson in this particular injury-that purpose and execution of revenge had been no better than wicked. Now he to whom vengeance belongs, sets him on work, and makes the act justice: when he commands, even very cruelty is obedience.

It was a busy and troublesome project of Samson, to use the foxes for his revenge; for not without great labour, and many hands, could so many wild creatures be got together; neither could the wit of Samson want other devices of hostility: but he meant to find out such a punishment as might in some sort answer the offence, and might imply as much contempt as trespass. By wiles, seconded with violence, had they wronged Samson, in extorting his secret, and taking away his wife: and what other emblems could these foxes tied together present unto them, than wiliness, combined with force, to work mischief?

These foxes destroy their corn, before he which sent them destroy the persons. Those judgments which begin in outward things, end in the owners. A stranger that had been of neither side, would have said, What pity it is to see good corn thus spoiled! If the creature be considered apart from the owners, it is good; and therefore if it be mispent, the abuse reflects upon the Maker of it; but if it be looked upon, with respect to an ill master, the best use of it is to perish. He, therefore, that slew the Egyptian cattle with murrain, and smote their fruit with hailstones; he that consumed the vines of Israel with the palmer-worm, and caterpillar, and cankerworm, sent also foxes by the hand of Samson, into the fields of the Philistines. Their corn was too good for them to enjoy, not too good for the toxes to burn up. God had rather his creatures should perish any way, than serve for the lust of the wicked.

There could not be such secresy in the catching of three hundred foxes, but it might well be known who had procured them. Rumour will swiftly fly of things not done; but of a thing so notoriously executed, it is no marvel if fame be a blab.

L

The mention of the offence draws in the provocation: and now the wrong to Samson is scanned and revenged; because the fields of the Philistines are burned for the wrong done to Samson by the Timnite and his daughter, therefore the Philistines burn the Timnite and his daughter. The tying of the fire-brand between two foxes was not so witty a policy, as the setting a fire of dissension betwixt the Philistines. What need Samson be his own executioner, when his enemies will undertake that charge? There can be no more pleasing prospect to an Israelite, than to see the Philistines together by the ears.

If the wife of Samson had not feared the fire for herself and her father's house, she had not betrayed her husband; her husband had not thus plagued the Philistines; the Philistines had not consumed her and her father with fire: now she leaps into that flame which she meant to avoid. That evil which the wicked feared, meets them in their flight. How many, in a fear of poverty, seek to gain unconscionably, and die beggars! How many, to shun pain and danger, have yielded to evil, and in the long run have been met in the teeth with that mischief which they had hoped to have left behind them! How many, in a desire to eschew the shame of men, have fallen into the confusion of God! Both good and evil are sure paymasters at the last.

He that was so soon pacified towards his wife, could not but have thought this revenge more than enough, if he had not rather wielded God's quarrel than his own: he knew that God had raised him up on purpose to be a scourge to the Philistines, whom as yet he had angered more than punished. As if these, therefore, had been out-flourishes before the fray, he stirs up his courage, and strikes them, both hip and thigh, with a mighty plague. That God which can do nothing imperfectly, where he begins either mercy or judgment, will not leave till he have happily finished. As it is in his favours, so in his punishments, one stroke draws on another.

The Israelites were but slaves, and the Philistines were their masters; so much more indignantly, therefore, must they needs take it, to be thus affronted by one of their own vassals: yet shall we commend the moderation of these pagans. Samson, being not mortally wronged by one Philistine, falls foul upon the whole nation: the Philistines, heinously offended by Samson, do not fall upon the whole tribe of Judah, but, being mustered together, call to them

for satisfaction from the person offending. The same hand of God, which wrought Samson to revenge, restrained them rom it. It is no thank to themselves, that sometimes wicked men cannot be cruel.

The men of Judah are by their fear made friends to their tyrants, and traitors to their friend; it was in their cause that Samson had shed blood, and yet they conspire with the Philistines to destroy their own flesh and blood. So shall the Philistines be quit with Israel, that as Samson by Philistines revenged himself of Philistines, so they of an Israelite, by the hand of Israelites. That which open enemies dare not attempt, they work by false brethren; and these are so much more perilous, as they are more entire.

It had been no less easy for Samson to have slain those thousands of Judah that came to bind him, than those other of the Philistines that meant to kill him bound. And what if he had said, Are you turned traitors to your deliverer? your blood be upon your own heads! But the Spirit of God (without whom he could not kill either beast or man) would never stir him up to kill his brethren, though degenerated into Philistines; they have more power to bind him than he to kill them. Israelitish blood was precious to him, that made no more scruple of killing a Philistine than a lion That bondage and usury, that was allowed to a Jew from a pagan, might not be exacted from a Jew.

The Philistines, that had before ploughed with Samson's heifer, in the case of the riddle, are now ploughing a worse furrow with a heifer more his own. I am ashamed to hear these cowardly Jews say, " Knowest thou not that the Philistines are lords over us? Why hast thou done this unto us? We are therefore come to bind thee." Whereas they should have said, We find these tyrannical Philistines to usurp dominion over us; thou hast happily begun to shake off their yoke, and now we are come to second thee with our service; the valour of such a captain shall easily lead us forth to liberty. We are ready either to die with thee, or to be freed by thee. A fearful man can never be a true friend; rather than incur danger, he will be false to his own soul. O cruel mercy of these men of Judah! "We will not kill thee, but we will bind thee, and deliver thee into the hands of the Philistines, that they may kill thee;" as if it had not been much worse to die an ignominious and tormenting death, by the hands of the Philistines, than to be at once despatched by them which

wished either his life safe, or his death

easy.

When Saul was pursued by the Philistines upon the mountains of Gilboa, he could say to his armour-bearer, "Draw forth thy sword, and kill me, lest the uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and mock me ;" and, at last, would rather fall upon his own sword than theirs: and vet these cousins of Samson can say, "We will not kill thee, but we will bind thee, and deliver thee." It was no excuse to these Israelites, that Samson's binding had more hope than his death. It was more in the extraordinary mercy of God, than their will, that he was not tied with his last bonds. Such is the goodness of the Almighty, that he turns the cruel intentions of wicked men to an advantage.

Now these Jews, that might have let themselves loose from their own bondage, are binding their deliverer, whom yet they

w able to have resisted. In the greatest strength, there is use of patience: there was more fortitude in this suffering than in his former actions. Samson abides to be tied by his own countrymen, that he may nave the glory of freeing himself victoriously. Even so, O Saviour! our better Nazarite! thou which couldst have called to thy Father, and have had twelve legions of angels for thy rescue, wouldst be bound voluntarily, that thou mightest triumph; so the blessed martyrs were racked, and would not be loosed, because they expected a better resurrection. If we be not as well ready to suffer ill, as to do good, we are not fit for the consecration of God.

To see Samson thus strongly manacled, and exposed to their full revenge, could not but be a glad spectacle to these Philistines; and their joy was so full, that it could not but fly forth of their mouths in shouting and laughter: whom they saw loose with terror, it is pleasure to see bound. It is the sport of the spiritual Philistines, to see any of God's Nazarites fettered with the cords of iniquity; and their imps are ready to say, Aha! so would we have it. But the event answers their false joy, with that clause of triumph, " Rejoice not over me, O mine enemy; though I fall, yet I shall rise again." How soon was the countenance of these Philistines changed, and their shouts turned unto shriekings! "The Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson;" and then, what are cords to the Almighty? His new bonds are as flax burnt with fire; and he rouses up himself, like that young lion whom he first encountered, and flies upon those cowardly adversaries, who, if

they had not seen his cords, durst not have seen his face. If they had been so many devils as men, they could not have stood before the Spirit which lifted up the heart and hand of Samson. Wicked men never see fairer prospect, than when they are upon the very threshold of destruction. Security and ruin are so close bordering upon each other, that, where we see the face of the one, we may be sure the other is at his back. Thus didst thou, O blessed Saviour, when thou wert fastened to the cross, when thou layest bound in the grave with the cords of death-thus didst thou miraculously raise up thyself, vanquish thine enemies, and lead captivity captive! Thus do all thy holy ones, when they seem most forsaken, and laid open to the insultation of the world, find thy Spirit mighty to their deliverance, and the discomfiture of their malicious adversaries.

Those three thousand Israelites were not so ill advised, as to come up into the rock unweaponed to apprehend Samson. Samson therefore might have had his choice of swords or spears for his skirmish with the Philistines; yet he leaves all the munition of Israel, and finding the new jaw-bone of an ass, takes that up in his hand, and, with that base instrument of death, sends a thousand Philistines to their place. All the swords and shields of the armed Philistines cannot resist that contemptible engine, which hath now left a thousand bodies as dead as the carcass of that beast whose bone it was. This victory was not in the weapon, was not in the arm; it was in the Spirit of God, which moved the weapon in the arm.

O God! if the means be weak, yet thou art strong! Through God we shall do great acts; yea, I can do a.l things through him that strengtheneth me. Seest thou a poor Christian, which by weak council hath obtained to overcome a temptation? there is the Philistine vanquished with a sorry jaw-bone.

It is no marvel, if he were thus admirably strong and victorious, whose bodily strength God meant to make a type of the spiritual power of Christ. And behold, as the three thousand of Judah stood still gazing, with their weapons in their hands, whilst Samson alone subdued the Philistines; so did men and angels stand looking upon the glorious achievements of the Son of God, who might justly say, "I have trode the wine-press alone."

Both the Samsons complained of thirst. The same God, which gave this champion victory, gave him also refreshing; and by the same means. The same bone yields