our glory. Faithful art thou that hast promised, which wilt also do it.

He that led them about, in forty years' journey, through the wilderness, yet now leads them the nearest cut to Jericho: he will not so much as seek for a ford for their passage, but divides the waters. What a sight was this to their heathen adversaries, to see the waters make both a lane and a wall for Israel! Their hearts could not chuse but be broken, to see the streams broken off for a way to their enemies. I do not see Joshua hasting through this channel, as if he feared lest the tide of Jordan should return; but, as knowing that watery wall stronger than the walls of Jericho, he paces slowly and lest this miracle should pass away with themselves, he commands twelve stones to be taken out of the channel of Jordan, by twelve selected men from every tribe, which shall be pitched in Gilgal; and twelve other stones to be set in the midst of Jordan, where the feet of the priests had stood with the ark; that so both land and water might testify the miraculous way of Israel, while it should be said of the one, "These stones were fetched out of the pavement of Jordan;" of the other, "There did the ark rest while we walked dry-shod through the deeps of Jordan:" of the one, "Jordan was once as dry as this Gilgal;" of the other, "Those waves which drown these stones had so drowned us, if the power of the Almighty had not restrained them." Many a great work had God done for Israel, which was now forgotten; Joshua therefore will have monuments of God's mercy, that future ages might be both witnesses and applauders of the great works of their God. Josh. ii, iv.

THE SIEGE OF JERICHO.

JOSHUA begins his wars with the Circumcision and Passover. He knew that the way to keep the blood of his people from shedding, was to let out that Paganish blood of their uncircumcision. The person must be in favour, ere the work can hope to prosper: his predecessor Moses had like to have been slain for neglect of this sacrament, when he went to call the people out of Egypt; he justly fears his own safety, if now he omit it, when they are brought into Canaan: we have no right of inheritance in the spiritual Canaan, the Church of God, till we have received the sacrament of our matriculation: so soon as our covenants are renewed with our Creator, we may well look for the vision of God for the assurance of victory.

What sure work did the king of Jericho think he had made! He blocked up the passages, barred up the gates, defended the walls, and did enough to keep out a common enemy: if we could do but this to our spiritual adversaries, it were as impossible for us to be surprised, as for Jericho to be safe. Methinks I see how they called their council of war, debated of all means of defence, gathered their forces, trained their soldiers, set

strong guards to the gates and walls; and now would persuade one another, that unless Israel could fly into their city, the siege was vain. Vain worldlings think their ramparts and barricadoes can keep out the vengeance of God: their blindness suffers them to look no further than the means: the supreme hand of the Almighty comes not within the compass of their fears. Every carnal heart is a Jericho shut up: God sits down before it, and displays mercy and judgment in sight of the walls thereof; it hardens itself in a wilful security, and saith, Tush, I shall never be moved.

Yet their courage and fear fight together within their walls, within their bosoms: their courage tells them of their own strength'; their fear suggests the miraculous success of this (as they could not but think) enchanted generation; and now while they have shut out their enemy, they have shut in their own terror. The most secure heart in the world hath some flashes of fear; for it cannot but sometimes look out of itself, and see what it would not. Rahab had notified that their hearts fainted; and yet now their faces bewray nothing but resolution. I know not whether the heart or the face of a hypocrite be more false; and as each of them seeks to beguile the other, so both of them agree to deceive the beholders. In the midst of laughter their heart is heavy: who would not think him merry that laughs? yet their rejoicing is but in the face. Who would not think a blasphemer or profane man resolutely careless? If thou hadst a window into his heart, thou shouldst see him tormented with horrors of conscience.

Now the Israelites see those walled cities and towers, whose height was reported to reach to heaven; the fame whereof had so affrighted them ere they saw them; and were ready doubtless to say in their distrust, "Which way shall we scale these invincible fortifications? What ladders, what engines shall we use to so great a work?" God prevents their infidelity; Behold, I have given Jericho into thine hand. If their walls had their foundations laid in the centre of the earth; if the battlements had been so high built that an eagle could not soar over them; this is enough, I have given it thee. For on whose earth have they raised these castles? Out of whose treasure did they dig those piles of stone? Whence had they their strength and time to build? Cannot he that gave recal his own? O ye fools of Jericho, what if your walls be strong, your men valiant, your leaders skilful, your king wise, when God hath said, I have given thee the city?

What can swords or spears do against the Lord of Hosts? Without him means can do nothing; how much less against him! How vain and idle is that reckoning, wherein God is left out! Had the captain of the Lord's host drawn his sword for Jericho, the gates might have been opened: Israel could no more have entered, than they can now be kept from entering, when the walls were fallen. What courses soever we take for our safety, it is good making God of our side: neither men nor devils can hurt us against him; neither men nor angels can secure us from him.

There was never so strange a siege as this of Jericho: here was

no mount raised, no sword drawn, no engine planted, no pioneers undermining; here were trumpets sounded, but no enemy seen; here were armed men, but no stroke given: they must walk and not fight; seven several days must they pace about the walls, which they may not once look over to see what was within. Doubtless, these inhabitants of Jericho made themselves merry with this sight; when they had stood six days upon their walls, and beheld none but a walking enemy; "What," say they, "could Israel find no walk to breathe them with, but about our walls? Have they not travelled enough in their forty years' pilgrimage, but they must stretch their limbs in this circle? Surely if their eyes were engines, our walls could not stand we see they are good footmen, but when shall we try their hands? What, do these vain men think Jericho will be won with looking at? or, do they only come to count how many paces it is about our city? If this be their manner of siege we shall have no great cause to fear the sword of Israel." Wicked men think God in jest, when he is preparing for their judgment. The Almighty hath ways and counsels of his own, utterly unlike to ours; which, because our reason cannot reach, we are ready to condemn of foolishness and impossibility. With us, there is no way to victory but fighting, and the strongest carries the spoil: God can give victory to the feet as well as to the hands; and, when he will, makes weakness no disadvantage. What should we do, but follow God through bye-ways; and know, that he will, in spite of nature, lead us to our end?

All the men of war must compass the city; yet it was not the presence of the great warriors of Israel, that threw down the walls of Jericho. Those foundations were not so slightly laid, as that they could not endure either a look, or a march, or a battery: it was the Ark of God, whose presence demolished the walls of that wicked city. The same power, that drave back the waters of Jordan before, and afterwards laid Dagon on the floor, cast down all those forts. The priests bare on their shoulders that mighty engine of God, before which those walls, if they had been of molten brass, could not stand. Those spiritual wickednesses, yea, those gates of hell, which to nature are utterly invincible, by the power of the word of God, which he hath committed to the carriage of his weak servants, are overthrown and triumphed over. Thy Ark, O God, hath been long amongst us; how is it that the walls of our corruptions stand still unruined? It hath gone before us; his priests have carried it, we have not followed it, our hearts have not attended upon it; and therefore how mighty soever it is in itself, yet to us it hath not been so powerful as it would,

Seven days together they walk this round; they made this therefore their sabbath-day's journey; and who knows whether the last and longest walk, which brought victory to Israel, were not on this day? Not long before, an Israelite is stoned to death for but gathering a few sticks that day; now all the host of Israel must walk about the walls of a large and populous city, and yet do not violate the day. God's precept is the rule of the justice and holi

ness of all our actions. Or was it, for that revenge upon God's enemies is a holy work, and such as God vouchsafes to privilege with his own day? or, because when we have undertaken the exploits of God, he will abide no intermission till we have fulfilled them? He allows us to breathe, not to break off till we have finished.

It had been as easy for God to have given this success to their first day's walk, yea to their first pace, or their first sight of Jericho; yet he will not give it until the end of their seven days' toil : it is the pleasure of God, to hold us both in work and in expectation; and though he require our continual endeavours for the subduing of our corruptions, during the six days of our life, yet we shall never find it perfectly effected till the very evening of our last day in the mean time it must content us, that we are in our walk, and that these walls cannot stand, when we come to the measure and number of our perfection. A good heart groans under the sense of its infirmities, fain would be rid of them, and strives and prays; but when he hath all done, until the end of the seventh day it cannot be if a stone or two moulder off from these walls in the mean time, that is all; but the foundations will not be removed till then.

When we hear of so great a design as the miraculous winning of a mighty city, who would not look for some glorious means to work it? When we hear that the ark of God must besiege Jericho, who would not look for some royal equipage? But behold, here seven priests must go before it, with seven trumpets of rams' horns. The Israelites had trumpets of silver, which God had appointed for the use of assembling and dissolving the congregation, for war, and for peace. Now I do not hear them called for; but, instead thereof, trumpets of rams' horns; base for the matter, and not loud for sound, the shortness and equal measure of those instruments could not afford, either shrillness of noise, or variety. How mean and homely are those means, which God commonly uses in the most glorious works! No doubt, the citizens of Jericho answered this dull alarum of theirs from their walls, with other instruments of louder report, and more martial ostentation; and the vulgar Israelites thought, "We have as clear and as costly trumpets as theirs ;' yet no man dares offer to sound the better, when the worse are commanded. If we find the ordinances of God poor and weak, let it content us that they are of his own chusing; and such as whereby he will so much more honour himself, as they in themselves are more inglorious. Not the outside, but the efficacy, is it that God cares for.

No ram of iron could have been so forcible for battery, as these rams' horns; for when they sounded long, and were seconded with the shout of the Israelites, all the walls of Jericho fell down at once. They made the heaven ring with their shout; but the ruin of those walls drowned their voice, and gave a pleasant kind of horror to the Israelites. The earth shook under them with the fall; but the hearts of the inhabitants shook yet more: many of them doubtless were slain with those walls, wherein they had trusted: a man.

The spies can find no other lodging but Rahab's house. She was a victualler by profession, and (as those persons and trades, by reason of the commonness of entertainment, were amongst the Jews infamous by name and note) she was Rahab the harlot: I will not think she professed filthiness: only her public trade, through the corruption of those times, hath cast upon her this name of reproach; yea, rather will I admire her faith, than make excuses for her calling. How many women in Israel, now Miriam was dead, have given such proofs of their knowledge and faith! How noble is that confession, which she makes of the power and truth of God! Yea, I see here, not only a disciple of God, but a prophetess. Or if she had once been public, as her house was; now she is a chaste and worthy convert; and so approved herself for honest and wise behaviour, that she is thought worthy to be the great grandmother of David's father; and the holy line of the Messias is not ashamed to admit her into that happy pedigree. The mercy of our God doth not measure us by what we were. It would be wide with the best of us, if the eye of God should look backward to our former estate: there he should see Abraham an idolater, Paul a persecutor, Manasses a necromancer, Mary Magdalen a courtesan, and the best vile enough to be ashamed of himself. Who can despair of mercy, that sees even Rahab fetched into the blood of Israel and line of Christ?

If Rahab had not received these spies, but as unknown passengers, with respect to their money and not to their errand, it had been no praise; for in such cases, the thank is rather to the guest, than to the host; but now she knew their purpose: she knew that the harbour of them was the danger of her own life, and yet she hazards this entertainment. Either faith or friendship is never tried, but in extremities. To shew countenance to the messengers of God, while the public face of the state smiles upon them, is but a courtesy of course; but to hide our own lives in theirs, when they are persecuted, is an act that looks for a reward. These times need not our favour; we know not what may come: alas! how likely is it they would shelter them in danger, which respect them not in prosperity?

All intelligences of state come first to the court: it most concerns princes, to hearken after the affairs of each other. If this poor innholder knew of the sea dried up before Israel, and of the discomfiture of Og and Sehon; surely this rumour was stale with the king of Jericho: he had heard it and feared; and yet, instead of sending ambassadors for peace, he sends pursuivants for the spies. The spirit of Rahab melted with that same report, wherewith the king of Jericho was hardened: all make not one use of the messages of the proceedings of God.

The king sends to tell her what she knew she had not hid them, if she had not known their errand. I know not whether first to wonder at the gracious provision of God for the spies, or at the strong faith which he hath wrought in the heart of a weak woman: two strangers, Israelites, spies (and noted for all these) in a foreign,