praise had it been of her faith, if she had stayed God's leisure, and would rather have endured her barrenness than her husband's polygamy! Now she shows herself the daughter of Laban: the father for covetousness, the daughters for emulation, have drawn sin into Jacob's bed: he offended in yielding, but they more in soliciting him, and therefore the fact is not imputed to Jacob, but to them. In those sins which Satan draws us into, the blame is ours: in those which we move each other into, the most fault and punishment lies upon the tempter. None of the patriarchs divided his seed into so many wombs as Jacob; none was so much crossed in his seed.

Thus, rich in nothing but wives and children, was he now returning to his father's house, accounting his charge his wealth. But God meant him yet more good. Laban sees that both his family and his flocks were well increased by Jacob's service. Not his love, therefore, but his gain, makes him loath to part. Even Laban's covetousness is made by God the means to enrich Jacob.

Behold, his strait master entreats him to that recompense, which made his nephew mighty and himself envious. God, considering his hard service, paid him wages out of Laban's folds. Those flocks and herds had but a few spotted sheep and goats, until Jacob's covenant; then (as if the fashion had been altered) they all ran into parted colours; the most and best (as if they had been weary of their former owner) changed the colours of their young, that they might change their master.

In the very shapes and colours of brute creatures there is a divine hand, which disposeth them to his own ends. Small and unlikely means shall prevail, where God intends an effect. Little peeled sticks of hazel or poplar, laid in the troughs, shall enrich Jacob with an increase of his spotted flocks: Laban's sons might have tried the same means, and failed. God would have Laban know, that he put a difference betwixt Jacob and him; that as for fourteen years he had multiplied Jacob's charge of cattle to Laban, so now, for the last six years, he would multiply Laban's flock to Jacob: and if Laban had the more, vet the better were Jacob's. Even in these outward things, God's children have many times sensible tastes of his favours above the wicked.

I know not whether Laban were a worse uncle, or father, or master: he can like well Jacob's service, not his wealth. As the wicked have no peace with God, so

the godly have no peace with men: for if they prosper not, they are despised; if they prosper, they are envied. This uncle, whom his service had made his father, must now, upon his wealth, be fled from as an enemy, and like an enemy pursues him: if Laban had meant to have taken a peaceable leave, he had never spent seven days' journey in following his innocent sox. Jacob knew his churlishness, and therefore resolved rather to be unmannerly than injured. Well might he think that he, whose oppression changed his wages so often in his stay, would also abridge his wages in the parting; now therefore he wisely prefers his own estate to Laban's love. It is not good to regard too much the unjust discontentment of worldly men, and to purchase unprofitable favour with too great loss.

Behold, Laban follows Jacob with one troop, Esau meets him with another, both with hostile intentions: both go on to the utmost point of their execution; both are prevented ere the execution.. God makes fools of the enemies of his church; he lets them proceed, that they may be frustrate; and, when they are gone to the utmost reach of their tether, he pulls them back to their task with shame. Lo now, Laban leaves Jacob with a kiss; Esau meets him with a kiss: of the one he hath an oath, tears of the other, peace with both. Who shall need to fear man that is in league with God?

But what a wonder is this! Jacob received not so much hurt from all his enemies, as from his best friend. Not one of his hairs perished by Laban or Esau, yet he lost a joint by the angel, and was sent halting to his grave. He that knows our strength, yet will wrestle with us for our exercise, and loves our violence and importunity.

O happy loss of Jacob! he lost a joint and won a blessing. It is a favour to halt from God, yet this favour is seconded with a greater. He is blessed, because he would rather halt than leave ere he was blessed. If he had left sooner, he had not halted, but he had not prospered. That man shall go away sound, but miserable, that loves a limb more than a blessing. Surely if Jacob had not wrestled with God, he had been foiled with evils. How many are the troubles of the righteous!

Not long after, Rachel, the comfort of his life, dieth. And when? but in her travail, and in his travel to his father. When he had now before digested in his thoughts the joy and gratulation of his aged father

for so welcome a burden, his children (the staff of his age) wound his soul to the death. Reuben proves incestuous, Judah adulterous, Dinah ravished, Simeon and Levi murderous, Er and Onan stricken dead, Joseph lost, Simeon imprisoned, Benjamin, the death of his mother, the father's right hand, endangered; himself driven by famine, in his old age, to die amongst the Egyptians, a people that held it abomination to eat with him. If that angel with whom he strove, and who therefore strove for him, had not delivered his soul out of all adversity, he had been supplanted with evils, and had been so far from gaining the name of Israel, that he had lost the name of Jacob. Now, what son of Israel can hope for good days, when he hears his father's were so evil? It is enough for us, if, when we are dead, we can rest with him in the land of promise. If the angel of the covenant once bless us, no pain, no sorrows, can make us miserable.

CONTEMPLATION III.-OF DINAH.

I FIND but one only daughter of Jacob, who must needs therefore be a great darling to her father; and she so miscarries, that she causes her father's grief to be more than his love. As her mother Leah, so she hath a fault in her eyes, which was curiosity. She will needs see and be seen; and while she doth vainly see, she is seen lustfully. It is not enough for us to look to our own thoughts, except we beware of the provocations of others. If we once wander out of the lists that God hath set us in our callings, there is nothing but danger. Her virginity had been safe, if she had kept home; or if Shechem had forced her in her mother's tent, this loss of her virginity had been without her sin; now she is not innocent that gave the occasion.

Her eyes were guilty of the temptation; only to see, is an insufficient warrant to draw us into places of spiritual hazard. If Shechem had seen her busy at home, his love had been free from outrage; now the lightness of her presence gave encouragement to his inordinate desires. Immodesty of behaviour makes way to lust, and gives life unto wicked hopes: yet Shechem bewrays a good nature, even in filthiness. He loves Dinah after his sin, and will needs marry her whom he had defiled. Commonly lust ends in loathing. Amnon abhors Thamar as much after his act, as before he loved her; and beats her out of doors, whom he was sick to bring in. But Shechem would

not let Dinah fare the worse for his sin. And now he goes about to entertain her with honest love, whom the rage of his lust had dishonestly abused. Her deflowering shall be no prejudice to her, since her shame shall redound to none but him; and he will hide her dishonour with the name of a husband. What could he now do but sue to his father, to her's, to herself, to her brethren; entreating that, with humble submission, which he might have obtained by violence? Those actions which are ill begun, can hardly be salved up with late satisfactions; whereas good entrances give strength unto the proceedings, and success to the end.

The

The young man's father doth not only consent, but solicit; and is ready to purchase a daughter either with substance or pain. The two old men would have ended the matter peaceably; but youth commonly undertakes rashly, and performs with passion. The sons of Jacob think of nothing but revenge, and (which is worst of all) begin their cruelty with craft, and hide their craft with religion. A smiling malice is most deadly; and hatred doth most rankle the heart when it is kept in and dissembled. "We cannot give our sister to an uncircumcised man." Here was God in the mouth, and Satan in the heart. bloodiest of all projects have ever wont to be coloured with religion; because the worse any thing is, the better show it desires to make; and contrarily, the better colour is put upon any vice, the more odious it is; for as every simulation adds to an evil, so the best adds most evil. Themselves had taken the daughters and sisters of uncircumcised men; yea, Jacob himself did so: why might not an uncirumcised man obtain their sister? Or, if there be a difference of giving and taking, it had been well if it had not been only pretended. It had been a happy ravishment of Dinah, that should have drawn a whole country into the bosom of the church. But here was a sacrament intended, not to the good of the soul, but to the murder of the body. It was a hard task for Hamor and Shechem, not only to put the knife to their own foreskins, but to persuade a multitude to so painful a condition.

The sons of Jacob dissemble with them, they with the people. "Shall not their flocks and substance be ours?" Common profit is pretended; whereas only Shechem's pleasure is meant. No motive is so powerful to the vulgar sort, as the name of commodity: the hope of this makes them prodigal of their skin and blood; not the love

And now, that every man lies sore of his own wound, Simeon and Levi rush in armed, and wound all the males to death. "Cursed be their wrath, for it was fierce; and their rage, for it was cruel." Indeed, filthiness should not have been wrought in Israel; yet murder should not have been wrought by Israel if they had been fit judges, (which were but bloody executioners) how far doth the punishment exceed the fault? To punish above the offence, is no less injustice than to offend. One offendeth, and all feel the revenge: yea all (though innocent) suffer 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 of fender, is more merciless than just. Or if the punishment had been both just and proportionable from another, yet from them which had vowed 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 sacrament 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 Dinah 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

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 m 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, "She is more righteous than I!" God will find a time to bring his children upon thei knees, and to wring from them peniteu

confessions. And, rather than he will not have them soundly ashamed, he will make them the trumpets of their own reproach. 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