company it, or bewail it. He, that had vaunted of his iron chariots, is slain by one nail of iron; wanting only this one point of his infelicity, that he knows not by whose hand he perished. Judges iv.

GIDEON'S CALLING.

THE judgments of God, still the further they go, the sorer they are: the bondage of Israel under Jabin was great, but it was freedom in comparison of the yoke of the Midianites. During the former tyranny, Deborah was permitted to judge Israel under á palm-tree; under this, not so much as private habitations will be allowed to Israel. Then, the seat of judgment was in sight of the sun; now, their very dwellings must be secret under the earth. They, that rejected the protection of God, are glad to seek to the mountains for shelter; and as they had savagely abused themselves, so they are fain to creep into dens and caves of the rocks, like wild creatures, for safeguard. God had sown spiritual seed amongst them, and they suffered their heathenish neighbours to pull it up by the roots; and now, no sooner can they sow their material seed, but Midianites and Amalekites are ready by force to destroy it. As they inwardly dealt with God, so God deals outwardly by them. Their eyes may tell them what their souls have done; yet that God, whose mercy is above the worst of our sins, sends first his prophet with a message of reproof, and then his angel with a message of deliverance. The Israelites had smarted enough with their servitude, yet God sends them a sharp rebuke. It is a good sign when God chides us; his round reprehensions are ever gracious forerunners of mercy; whereas his silent connivance at the wicked, argues deep and secret displeasure. The prophet made way for the angel, reproof for deliverance, humiliation for

comfort.

Gideon was thrashing wheat by the wine-press. Yet, Israel hath both wheat and wine, for all the incursions of their enemies. The worst estate out of hell hath either some comfort, or at least some mitigation. In spite of the malice of the world, God makes secret provision for his own. How should it be, but he, that owns the earth and all creatures, should reserve ever a sufficiency from foreigners (such the wicked are) for his houshold? In the worst of the Midianitish tyranny, Gideon's field and barn are privileged; as his fleece was afterwards from the shower.

Why did Gideon thrash out his corn? To hide it; not from his neighbours, but his enemies: his granary might easily be more close than his barn. As then, Israelites thrashed out their corn, to hide it from the Midianites; but now, Midianites thrash out corn, to hide it from the Israelites. These rural tyrants of our time do not more lay up corn than curses: He that withdraweth corn, the people will curse him; yea, God will curse him, with them, and for them.

What shifts nature will make to live! Oh that we could be so careful to lay up spiritual food for our souls, out of the reach of those spiritual Midianites! We could not but live, in despite of all adversaries.

The angels, that have ever God in their face, and in their thoughts, have him also in their mouths: The Lord is with thee. But this, which appeared unto Gideon, was the Angel of the Covenant, the Lord of angels. While he was with Gideon, he might well say, The Lord is with thee. He that sent the Comforter was also the true comforter of his Church: he well knew, how to lay a sure ground of consolation; and that the only remedy of sorrow, and beginning of true joy, is the presence of God. The grief of the Apostles for the expected loss of their master, could never be cured by any receipt but this, of the same angel, Behold I am with you to the end of the world. What is our glory, but the fruition of God's presence? The punishment of the damned is a separation from the beatifical face of God; needs must therefore his absence in this life be a great torment to a good heart: and no cross can be equivalent to this beginning of heaven in the elect, The Lord is with thee.

Who can complain either of solitariness or opposition, that hath God with him? With him, not only as a witness, but as a party. Even wicked men and devils cannot exclude God: not the bars of hell can shut him out: he is with them perforce, but to judge, to punish them; yea, God will be ever with them to their cost; but to protect, comfort, save, he is with none but his.

While he calls Gideon valiant, he makes him so. How could he be but valiant, that had God with him! The godless man may be careless, but cannot be other than cowardly. It pleases God to acknowledge his own graces in men, that he may interchange his own glory with their comfort; how much more should we confess the graces of one another! An envious nature is prejudicial to God: he is a strange man in whom there is not some visible good; yea, in the devils themselves we may easily note some commendable parts, of knowledge, strength, agility: let God have his own in the worst creature; yea, let the worst creature have that praise which God would put upon it.

Gideon cannot pass over this salutation, as some fashionable compliment; but lays hold on that part, which was most important; the tenure of all his comfort; and, as not regarding the praise of his valour, inquires after that which should be the ground, of his valour, the presence of God. God had spoken particularly to him; he expostulates for all. It had been possible God should be present with him, not with the rest; as he promised to have been with Moses, Israel: and yet when God says The Lord is with thee, he answers, Alas, Lord, if the Lord be with us. Gideon cannot conceive of himself as an exempt person; but puts himself among the throng of Israel, as one that could not be sensible of any particular comfort, while the common case of Israel laboured, The main care of a good heart is still for the public; neither can it en

1

joy itself, while the Church of God is distressed. As faith draws home generalities, so charity diffuses generalities from itself to all.

Yet the valiant man was here weak; weak in faith, weak in discourse; while he argues God's absence by affliction, his presence by deliverances, and the unlikelihood of success by his own disability; all gross inconsequences. Rather should he have inferred God's presence upon their correction; for wheresoever God chastises, there he is, yea, there he is in mercy: nothing more proves us his, than his stripes; he will not bestow whipping where he loves not. Fond nature thinks God should not suffer the wind to blow upon his dear ones, because herself makes this use of her own indulgence; but none out of the place of torment have suffered so much as his dearest children. He says not," We are idolaters; therefore the Lord hath forsaken us, because we have forsaken him." This sequel had been as good, as the other was faulty; "The Lord hath delivered us unto the Midianites, therefore he hath forsaken us." Sins, not afflictions, argue God absent.

Who

While Gideon bewrayeth weakness, God both gives him might and employs it; Go in this thy might, and save Israel. would not have looked, that God should have looked angrily on him, and chid him for his unbelief? But he, whose mercy will not quench the weakest fire of grace though it be but in flax, looks upon him with compassionate eyes; and to make good his own word, gives him that valour he had acknowledged.

Gideon had not yet said, "Lord, deliver Israel:" much less had he said, "Lord, deliver Israel by my hand." The mercy of God prevents the desire of Gideon. If God should not begin with us, we should be ever miserable. If he should not give us till we ask, yet who should give us to ask? If his Spirit did not work those holy groans and sighs in us, we should never make suit to God. He, that commonly gives us power to crave, sometimes gives. us without craving; that the benefit might be so much more welcome, by how much less it was expected; and we so much more thankful, as he is more forward. When he bids us ask, it is not for that he needs to be entreated, but that he may make us more capable of blessings by desiring them; and where he sees fervent desires, he stays not for words; and he that gives ere we ask, how much more will he give when we ask?

He that hath might enough to deliver Israel, yet hath not might enough to keep himself from doubting. The strongest faith will. ever have some touch of infidelity. And yet this was not so much a distrust of the possibility of delivering Israel, as an inquiry after the means; Whereby shall I save Israel? The salutation of the angel to Gideon was as like Gabriel's salutation of the blessed Virgin, as their answers were like: both angels brought news of deliverance; both were answered with a question of the means of performance, with a report of the difficulties in performing: Ah, my Lord, whereby shall I save Israel? How the good man disparages himself! "It is a great matter, O Lord, that thou speakest of; and great actions require mighty agents: as for me, who am I?

My tribe is none of the greatest in Israel; my father's family is one of the meanest in his tribe, and I the meanest in his family poverty is a sufficient bar to great enterprizes."

Whereby shall I? Humility is both a sign of following glory, and a way to it, and an occasion of it. Bragging and height of spirit will not carry it with God: none have ever been raised by him, but those which have formerly dejected themselves; none have been confounded by him, that have been abased in themselves. Thereupon it is that he adds; I will therefore be with thee; as if he had answered," Hadst thou not been so poor in thyself, I would not have wrought by thee." How should God be magnified in his mercies, if we were not unworthy? how should he be strong, if not in our weakness?

All this while, Gideon knew not it was an angel that spake with him. He saw a man stand before him like a traveller, with his staff in his hand. The unusualness of those revelations in those corrupted times was such, that Gideon might think of any thing rather than an angel. No marvel if so strange a promise from an unknown messenger, found not a perfect assent. Fain would he be

lieve, but fain would he have good warrant for his faith. In matters of faith, we cannot go upon too sure grounds. As Moses therefore, being sent upon the same errand, desired a sign, whereby Israel might know that God sent him; so Gideon desires a sign from this bearer, to know that his news is from God.

Yet the very hope of so happy news, not yet ratified, stirs up in Gideon both joy and thankfulness. After all the injury of the Midianites, he was not so poor but he could bestow a kid and cakes upon the reporter of such tidings. Those, which are rightly affected with the glad news of our spiritual deliverance, study to shew their loving respects to the messengers.

The angel stays for the preparing of Gideon's feast. Such pleasure doth God take in the thankful endeavours of his servants, that he patiently waits upon the leisure of our performances. Gideon intended a dinner; the angel turned it into a sacrifice. He, whose meat and drink it was to do his Father's will, calls for the broth and flesh to be poured out upon the stone; and when Gideon looked he should have blessed and eaten, he touches the feast with his staff, and consumes it with fire from the stone, and departs. He did not strike the stone with his staff, for the attrition of two hard bodies would naturally beget fire, but he touched the meat, and brought fire from the stone; and now, while Gideon saw and wondered at the spiritual act, he lost the sight of the agent.

He, that came without intreating, would not have departed without taking leave, but that he might increase Gideon's wonder, and that his wonder might increase his faith. His salutation therefore was not so strange, as his farewell. Moses touched the rock with his staff, and brought forth water, and yet a man, and yet continued with the Israelites. This messenger touches the stone with his staff, and brings forth fire, and presently vanishes, that he may approve himself a spirit. And now Gideon, when he had gathered

VOL. I.

up himself, must needs think; "He, that can raise fire out of a stone, can raise courage and power out of my dead breast: he, that by this fire hath consumed the broth and flesh, can by the feeble flame of my fortitude consume Midian."

Gideon did not so much doubt before, as now he feared. We, that shall once live with and be like the angels, in the estate of our impotency think we cannot see an angel and live. Gideon was acknowledged for mighty in valour, yet he trembles at the sight of an angel. Peter, that durst draw his sword upon Malchus and all the train of Judas, yet fears when he thought he had seen a spirit. Our natural courage cannot bear us out against spiritual objects. This angel was homely and familiar, taking upon him for the time a resemblance of that flesh whereof he would afterwards take the substance; yet even the valiant Gideon quakes to have seen him. How awful and glorious is the God of angels, when he will be seen in the state of heaven!

The angel that departed for the wonder, yet returns for the comfort of Gideon. It is not the wont of God to leave his children in a maze; but he brings them out in the same mercy which led them in, and will magnify his grace in the one, no less than his power in the other.

Now Gideon grows acquainted with God, and interchanges pledges of familiarity. He builds an altar to God, and God confers with him; and, as he uses where he loves, employs him. His first task must be, to destroy the god of the Midianites; then the idolaters themselves. While Baal's altar and grove stood in the hill of Ophrah, Israel should in vain hope to prevail. It is most just with God, that judgment should continue with the sin; and no less mercy, if it may remove after it. Wouldst thou fain be rid of any judgment? inquire what false altars and groves thou hast in thy heart. Down with them first.

First must Baal's altar be ruined, ere God's be built; both may not stand together: the true God will have no society with idols, neither will allow it us. I do not hear him say, "That altar and grove which were abused to Baal, consecrate now to me;" but, as one whose holy jealousy will abide no worship till there be no idolatry, he first commands down the monuments of superstition, and then enjoins his own service; yet the wood of Baal's grove must be used to burn a sacrifice unto God: when it was once cut down, God's detestation and their danger ceased. The good creatures of God, that have been profaned to idolatry, may, in a change of their use, be employed to the holy service of their Maker.

Though some Israelites were penitent under this humiliation, yet still many of them persisted in their wonted idolatry: the very household of Gideon's father were still Baalites, and his neigh bours of Ophrah were in the same sin; yea, if his father had been free, what did he with Baal's grove and altar? He dares not there fore take his father's servants, though he took his bullocks, but commands his own. The master is best seen in the servants: Gideon's servants, amongst the idolatrous retinue of Joash, are re