that, while they do their own will, they do | him wear out so many judgments, will not his! The Israelites are equally glad of this haste. Who would not be ready to go, yea to fly out of bondage? They have what they wished; it was no staying for a second invitation. The loss of an opportunity is many times unrecoverable. The love of their liberty made the burden of their dough light. Who knew whether the variable mind of Pharaoh might return to a denial, and, after all his stubbornness, repent of his obedience? It is foolish to hazard, where there is certainty of good offers, and uncertainty of continuance. They go therefore; and the same God that fetched them out, is both their guide and protector. How carefully doth he choose their way! not the nearer, but the safer. He would not have his people so suddenly change from bondage to war. leave him, till it have wrought out his full destruction. All God's vengeances have their end, the final perdition of his enemies, which they cannot rest till they have attained. Pharaoh therefore, and his Egyptians, will needs go fetch their bane. They well knew that Israel was fitter to serve than to fight; weary with their servitude, not trained up to war, not furnished with provision for a field: themselves, captains and soldiers by profession, furnished with horses and chariots of war. They gave themselves therefore the victory beforehand, and Israel either for spoil or bondage. Yea, the weak Israelites gave up themselves for dead, and are already talking of their graves. They see the sea before them; behind them the Egyptians: they know not which is most merciless, and are stricken with the fear of both. O God, how couldst It is the wondrous mercy of God, that thou forbear so distrustful a people! They he hath respect, as to his own glory, so had seen all thy wonders in Egypt, and in to our infirmities. He intends them wars their Goshen; they saw even now thy hereafter, but after some longer breathing pillar before them, and yet they did more and more preparation; his goodness so fear Egypt than believe thee. Thy paorders all, that evils are not ready for us, tience is no less miracle than thy delivetill we be ready for them. And as he rance. But instead of removing from them, chooses, so he guides their way. That the cloudy pillar removes behind them, and they might not err in that sandy and un- stands betwixt the Israelites and Egyptians; tracted wilderness, himself goes before them: as if God would have said, they shall first who could but follow cheerfully, when he overcome me, O Israel, ere they touch sees God lead him! He that led the wise thee. Wonder did now justly strive with men by a star, leads Israel by a cloud. fear in the Israelites; when they saw the That was a higher object, therefore he cloud remove behind them, and the sea gives them a higher and more heavenly con- remove before them. They were not used duct: this was more earthly; therefore he to such bulwarks. God stood behind them contents himself with a lower representa- in the cloud, the sea reared them up walls tion of his presence: a pillar of cloud and on both sides of them. That, which they fire; a pillar for firmness, of cloud and fire feared would be their destruction, protectfor visibility and use. The greater light ex-ed them. How easily can God make the tinguishes the less; therefore in the day cruellest of his creatures both our friends he shows them not fire, but a cloud. In and patrons! the night nothing is seen without light; therefore he shows them not the cloud but fire. The cloud shelters them from heat by day; the fire digests the rawness of the night. The same God is both a cloud and a fire to his children, ever putting himself into those forms of gracious respects that may best fit their necessities. As good motions are long ere they can enter into hard hearts, so they seldom continue long. No sooner were the backs of Israel turned to depart, than Pharaoh's heart and face is turned after them, to fetch them back again. It vexes him to see so great a command, so much wealth, cast away in one night, which now he resolves to redeem, though with more plagues. The same ambition and covetousness, that made Yet here was faith mixed with unbelief. He was a bold Israelite that set the first foot into the channel of the sea; and every step that they set in that moist way, was a new exercise of their faith. Pharaoh sees all this, and wonders; yet hath not the wit or grace to think (though the pillar tell him so much), that God made a difference betwixt him and Israel. He is offended with the sea for giving way to his enemies, and yet sees not why he may not trust it as well as they. He might well have thought, that he which gave light in Goshen, when there was darkness in Egypt, could as well distinguish in the sea; but he cannot now either consider, or fear: it is his time to perish. God makes him fair way, and lets him run smoothly on, till he come to the midst of the sea; not one wave may rise up against him, to wet so much as the hoof of his horse. Extraordinary favours to wicked men are the forerunners of their ruin. Now, when God sees the Egyptians too far to return, he finds time to strike them with their last terror. They know not why, but they would return too late. Those chariots, in which they trusted, now fail them, as having done service enough to carry them into perdition. God pursues them, and they cannot flee from him. Wicked men make equal haste, both to sin and from judgment: but they shall one day find, that it is not more easy to run into sin, than impossible to run away from judgment: the sea will show them that it regards the rod of Moses, not the sceptre of Pharaoh; and now (as glad to have got the enemies of God at such an advantage) shuts her mouth upon them, and swallows them up in her waves; and, after she hath made sport with them awhile, casts them upon her sand, for a spectacle of triumph to their adversaries. What a sight was this to the Israelites, when they were now safe on the shore, to see their enemies come floating after them upon the billows, and to find among the carcases upon the sands, their known oppressors, which now they can tread upon with exultation! They did not cry more loud before than now they sing. Not their faith, but their sense, teaches them now to magnify that God, after their deliverance, whom they hardly trusted for their delive rance. BOOK V. CONTEMPLATION I.-THE WATERS OF MARAH. ISRAEL was not more loath to come to the Red Sea than to part from it. How soon can God turn the horror of any evil into pleasure! One shore resounded with shrieks of fear; the other with timbrels, and dances, and songs of deliverance. Every main affliction is our Red Sea, which, while it threats to swallow, preserves us. At last our songs shall be louder than our cries. The Israelitish dames, when they saw their danger, thought they might have left their timbrels behind them. How unprofitable a burden seemed those instruments of music! Yet now they live to renew that forgotten minstrelsy and dancing, which their bondage had so long discontinued; and well might those feet dance upon the shore, which had walked through the sea. The land of Goshen was not so bountiful to them as these waters: that afforded them a servile life; this gave them at once freedom, victory, riches, bestowing upon them the remainder of that wealth which the Egyptians had but lent. It was a pleasure to see the floating carcases of their adversaries; and every day offers them new booties: it is no marvel, then, if their hearts were tied to these banks. If we find but a little plea sure in our life, we are ready to doat upon it. Every small contentment glues our affections to that we like; and if here our imperfect delights hold us so fast that we would not be loosed, how forcible shall those infinite joys be above, when our souls are once possessed of them. Yet if the place had pleased them more, it is no marvel they were willing to follow Moses; that they durst follow him in the wilderness, whom they followed through the sea. It is a great confirmation to any people, when they have seen the hand of God with their guide. O Saviour, which hast undertaken to carry me from the spiritual Egypt to the land of promise, how faithful, how powerful have I found thee! how fearlessly should I trust thee! how cheerfully should I follow thee through contempt, poverty, death itself!" Master, if it be thou, bid us come unto thee." Immediately before, they had complained of too much water; now they go three days without. Thus God meant to punish their infidelity, with the defect of that whose abundance made them to distrust. Before they saw all water, no land; now, all dry and dusty land, and no water. Extremities are the best trials of men; as in bodies, those that can bear sudden changes of heats and cold without complaint, are the strongest. So much as an evil touches upon the mean, so much help it yields towards patience. Every degree of sorrow is a preparation of the next: but when we pass to extremes without the mean, we want the benefit of recollection, and must trust to our present strength. To come from all things to nothing, is not a descent but a downfall; and it is a rare strength and constancy, not to be maimed at least. These headlong evils, as they are the sorest, so they must be most provided for; as, on the contrary, a sudden advancement from a low condition to the height of honour is most hard to manage. No man can marvel how that tyrant blinded his captives, when he hears that he brought them immediately out | of a dark dungeon into rooms that were made bright and glorious. We are not worthy to know for what we are reserved. No evil can amaze us, if we can overcome sudden extremities. The long deferring of a good, though tedious, yet makes it the better when it comes. Well did the Israelites hope, that the waters, which were so long in finding, would be precious when they were found: yet behold they are crossed, not only in their desires, but in their hopes; for, after three days' travel, the first fountains they find are bitter waters. If these wells had not run pure gall, they could not have so much complained. Long thirst will make bitter waters sweet. Yet such were these springs, that the Israelites did not so much like their moisture as abhor their relish. I see the first handsel that God gives them, in their voyage to the land of promise, thirst and bitterness. Satan gives us pleasant entrances into his ways, and reserves the bitterness for the end. God inures us to our worst at first, and sweetens our conclusion with pleasure. The same God that would not lead Israel through the Philistines' land, lest they should shrink at the sight of war, now leads them through the wilderness, and fears not to try their patience with bitter potions. If he had not loved them, the Egyptian furnace, or sword, had prevented their thirst, or the sea whereof their enemics drunk dead; and yet see how he dicts them! Never any have had so bitter draughts upon earth, as those he loves best. The palate is an ill judge of the favours of God. O my Saviour, thou didst drink a more bitter cup from the hands of thy Father, than that which thou refusedst of the Jews, or than that which I can drink from thee! Before, they could not drink if they would; now, they might and would not. God can give us blessings with such a tang, that the fruition shall not much differ from the want. So many a one hath riches, not grace to use them; many have children, but such as they prefer barrenness. They had said before, Oh that we had any water! Now, Oh that we had good water! It is good so to desire blessings from God, that we may be the better for enjoying them; so to crave water, that it may not be sauced with bitterness. Now, these fond Israelites, instead of praying, murmur; instead of praying to God, murmur against Moses. "What hath the righteous done?" He made not either the wilderness dry, or the waters bitter: yea, if his conduct were the matter, what one foot went he before them without God? The pillar led them, and not he; yet Moses is murmured at. It is the hard condition of authority, that when the multitude fare well, they applaud themselves; when ill, they repine against their governors. Who can hope to be free, if Moses escape not? Never any prince so merited of a people. He thrust himself upon the pikes of Pharaoh's tyranny-he brought them from a bondage worse than death-his rod divided the sea, and shared life to them, death to their pursuers. Who would not have thought these men so obliged to Moses, that no death could have opened their mouths, or raised their hands against him? Yet now, the first occasion of want makes them rebel. No benefit can stop the mouth of impatience. If our turn be not served for the present, former favours are either forgotten or contemned. No marvel if we deal so with men, when God receives this measure from us. One year of famine, one summer of pestilence, one moon of unseasonable weather, makes us overlook all the blessings of God; and more to mutiny at the sense of our evil, than to praise him for our varieties of good: whereas, favours well bestowed leave us both mindful and confident, and will not suffer us either to forget or distrust. God, I have made an ill use of thy mercies, if I have not learnt to be content with thy corrections. O Moses was in the same want of water with them, in the same distaste of bitterness; and yet they say to Moses, What shall we drink? If they had seen him furnished with full vessels of sweet water, and themselves put over to this unsavoury liquor, envy might have given some colour to this mutiny; but now their leader's common misery might have freed him from their murmurs. They held it one piece of the late Egyptian tyranny, that a task was required of them (which the imposers knew they could not perform) to make brick when they have no straw; yet they say to Moses, What shall we drink? Themselves are grown exactors, and are ready to menace more than stripes, if they have not their ends without means. Moses took not upon him their provision, but their deliverance; and yet, as if he had been the common victualler of the camp, they ask, What shall we drink? When want meets with impatient minds, it transports them to fury; every thing disquiets, and nothing satisfies them. What course doth Moses now take? | hearts were the bitter waters of manifold That which they should have done, and corruptions? yet their unsavoury souls are did not. They cried not more fervently sweetened by the graces of his Spirit. O to him than he to God. If he were their blessed Saviour, the wood of thy cross, leader, God was his. That which they un- that is, the application of thy sufferings, is justly required of him, he justly requires enough to sweeten a whole sea of bitterof God that could do it. He knew whence ness! I care not how unpleasant a potion to look for redress of all complaints: this I find in this wilderness, if the power and was not his charge, but his Maker's, which benefit of thy precious death may season it was able to maintain his own act. I see to my soul. and acknowledge the harbour that we must put into in all our ill weather. It is to thee, O God, that we must pour out our hearts, who only canst make our bitter waters sweet. CONTEMPLATION II.-THE QUAILS AND THE thirst of Israel is well quenched; for, besides the change of the waters of Marah, their station is changed to Elim, where were twelve fountains for their twelve tribes. And now they complain as much of hunger. Contentation is a rare blessing; because it arises either from a fruition of all comforts, or a not desiring of some which we have not. Now, we are never so bare as not to have some benefits; never so full, as not to want something, yea, as not to be full of wants. God hath much ado with us. Either we lack health, or quiet Might not that rod which took away the liquid nature from the waters, and made them solid, have also taken away the bitter quality from these waters, and made them sweet, since to flow is natural unto the water, to be bitter is but accidental? Moses durst not employ his rod without a precept; he knew the power came from the commandment. We may not presume on likelihoods, but depend upon warrants; therefore Moses doth not lift up his rod to the waters, but his hand and voice to God. The hand of faith never knocked at heaven in vain. No sooner hath Moses showed his grievance, than God shows himness, or children, or wealth, or company, the remedy; yet an unlikely one, that it might be miraculous. He that made the waters, could have given them any savour. How easy is it for him that made the matter to alter the quality! It is not more hard to take away than to give. Who doubts but the same hand that created them, might have immediately changed them? Yet that almighty power will do it by means. A piece of wood must sweeten the waters. What relation hath wood to water? or that which hath no savour, to the redress of bitterness? Yet here is no more possibility of failing, than proportion to the success. All things are subject to the command of their Maker. He that made all of nothing, can make every thing of any thing. There is so much power in every creature as he will please to give. It is the praise of Omnipotency to work by improbabilities; Elisha with salt, Moses with wood, shall sweeten the bitter waters. Let no man despise the means when he knows the author. God taught his people by actions, as well as words. This entrance showed them their whole journey, wherein they should taste of much bitterness; but at last, through the mercy of God, sweetened with comfort. Or did it not represent themselves rather in the journey, in the fountains of whose or ourselves in all these. It is a wonder They He our bodies with the fruits of the earth. | affects that which is like itself. Carnal Why do we not wait on him, whom we minds are for the flesh-pots of Egypt, have found so powerful? Now they set though bought wah servitude: spiritual are the mercy and love of God upon a wrong for the presence of God, though redeemed last, while they measure it only by their with famine; and would rather die in God's present sense. Nature is jocund and cheer- presence, than live without him, in the ful while it prospereth: let God withdraw sight of delicate or full dishes. his hand, no sight, no trust. Those can praise him with timbrels for a present favour, that cannot depend upon him in the | want of means for a future. We all are never weary of receiving, soon weary of attending. The other mutiny was of some few malcontents, perhaps those strangers, which sought their own protection under the wing of Israel; this, of the whole troop. Not that none were free: Caleb, Joshua, Moses, Aaron, Miriam, were not yet tainted. Usually God measures the state of any church or country by the most; the greater part carries both the name and censure. Sins are so much the greater as they are more universal: so far is evil from being extenuated by the multitude of the guilty, that nothing can more aggravate it. With men, commonness may plead for favour; with God, it pleads for judgment. Many hands draw the cable with more violence than few. The leprosy of the whole body is more loathsome than that of a part. But what do these mutineers say? Oh that we had died by the hand of the Lord! And whose hand was this, O ye fond Israelites, if you must perish by famine? God carried you forth; God restrained his creatures from you; and, while ye are ready to die, thus ye say, Oh that we had died by the hand of the Lord! It is the folly of men, that in immediate judgments they can see God's hand; not in those whose second causes are sensible: whereas God holds himself equally interested in all, challenging that there is no evil in the city but from him. It is but one hand, and many instruments, that God strikes us with. The water may not lose the name, though it comes by channels and pipes from the spring. It is our faithlessness, that in visible means we see not him that is invisible. And when would they have wished to die? When they sat by the flesh-pots of Egypt? Alas! what good would their fleshpots have done them in their death? If they might sustain their life, yet what could they avail them in dying? For, if they were unpleasant, what comfort was it to see them?-if pleasant, what comfort to part from them? Our greatest pleasures are but pains in their loss. Every mind They loved their lives well enough. I heard how they shrieked when they were in danger of the Egyptians; yet now they say, Oh that we had died! not, Oh that we might live by the flesh-pots; but, Oh that we had died! Although life be naturally sweet, yet a little discontentment makes us weary. It is a base cowardliness, so soon as ever we are called from the garrison to the field, to think of running away. Then is our fortitude worthy of praise, when we can endure to be miserable. But what, can no flesh-pots serve but those of Egypt? I am deceived if that land afforded them any flesh-pots save their own. Their landlords of Egypt held it abomination to eat of their dishes, or to kill that which they did eat. In those times, then, they did eat of their own; and why not now? They had droves of cattle in the wilderness; why did they not take of them? Surely, if they would have been as good husbands of their cattle as they were of their dough, they might have had enough to eat without need of murmuring: for if their back-burdens of dough lasted for a month, their herds might have served them many years. All grudging is odious, but most when our hands are full. whine in the midst of abundance, is a shameful unthankfulness. To When a man would have looked that the anger of God should have appeared in fire, now, behold, his glory appears in a cloud. Oh the exceeding long-suffering of God, that hears their murmurings! and, as if he had been bound to content them, instead of punishing, pleases them! as a kind mother would deal with a crabbed child, who rather stills him with the breast, than calls for the rod. One would have thought, that the sight of the cloud of God should have dispelled the cloud of their distrust; and this glory of God should have made them ashamed of themselves, and afraid of him: yet I do not hear them once say, What mighty and gracious God have we distrusted! Nothing will content an impotent mind but fruition. When a heart is hardened with any passion, it will endure much ere it will yield to relent. Their eyes saw the cloud; their ears heard the promise; the performance is speedy and answerable. Needs must they |