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CONTEMPLATIONS.

BOOK XIII.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

SIR THOMAS EDMONDS, KNIGHT,

TREASURER OF HIS MAJESTY'S HOUSEHOLD,

AND OF HIS MOST HONQURABLE PRIVY COUNCIL.

RIGHT HONOURABLE:

AFTER your long and happy acquaintance with other courts
and kingdoms, may it please you to compare with them the estate
of old Israel. You shall find the same hand swaying all sceptres;
and you shall meet with such a proportion of dispositions and
occurrences, that
"Men are still the same, if their
will
you say,
names and faces differ." You shall find envy and mutability an-
cient courtiers; and shall confess the vices of men still alive, if
themselves die. You shall see God still honouring those that honour
him, and both rescuing innocence and crowning it. It is not for
me to anticipate your deeper and more judicious observations. I
am bold to dedicate this piece of my labour to your Honour, in a
thankful acknowledgment of those noble respects, I have found
from you, both in France and at Home. In lieu of all which, I
can but pray for your happiness, and vow myself

Your Honour's, in all humble observance,
JOSEPH HALL.

SAUL AND AGAG.

GOD holds it no derogation from his mercy, to bear a quarrel long, where he hates. He, whose anger to the vessels of wrath is everlasting, even in temporal judgment revengeth late. The sins of his own children are no sooner done, and repented of, than forgotten; but the malicious sins of his enemies stick fast in an infinite displeasure: I remember what Amalek did to Israel; how they laid wait for them by the way, as they came up from Egypt. Alas, Lord," might Amalek say, they were our forefathers: we never knew their faces, no not their names; the fact was so far from our consent, that it is almost past the memory of our histo

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ries." It is not in the power of time, to rase out any of the arrearages of God. We may lay up wrath for our posterity. Happy is that child, whose progenitors are in heaven: he is left an inheritor of blessing, together with estate; whereas wicked ancestors lose the thank of a rich patrimony, by the curse that attends it. He, that thinks because punishment is deferred, that God hath forgiven or forgot his offence, is unacquainted with justice, and knows not, that time makes no difference in eternity.

The Amalekites were wicked idolaters, and therefore could not want many present sins, which deserved their extirpation. That God, which had taken notice of all their offences, picks out this one noted sin of their forefathers, for revenge. Among all their indignities, this shall bear the name of their judgment as in legal proceedings with malefactors, one indictment found gives the style of their condemnation. In the lives of those which are notoriously wicked, God cannot look beside a sin; yet when he draws to an execution, he fastens his sentence upon one evil as principal, others as accessaries; so as at the last, one sin, which perhaps we make no account of, shall pay for all.

The paganish idolatries of the Amalekites could not but be greater sins to God, than their hard measure to Israel; yet God sets this upon the file, while the rest are not recorded. Their superstitions might be of ignorance, this sin was of malice. Malicious wickednesses, of all others, as they are in greatest opposition to the goodness and mercy of God, shall be sure of the payment of greatest vengeance.

The detestation of God may be measured by his revenge; Slay both man and woman, both infant and suckling, both ox and sheep, camel and ass; not themselves only, but every thing that drew life, either from them or for their use, must die. When the God of mercy speaks such bloody words, the provocation must needs be vehement. Sins of infirmity do but mutter; spiteful sins cry loud for judgment in the ears of God. Prepensed malice, in courts of human justice, aggravates the murder, and sharpens the sentence of death.

What then was this sin of Amalek, that is called unto this late reckoning? What? but their envious and unprovoked onsets upon the back of Israel: this was it, that God took so to heart, as that he not only remembers it now by Samuel, but he bids Israel ever to remember it by Moses; Remember how Amalek met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of you, all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary. Besides this, did Amalek meet Israel in a pitched battle openly, in Rephidim; for that, God paid them in the present: the hand of Moses lifted up on the hill slew them in the valley: he therefore repeats not that quarrel; but the cowardly and cruel attempts upon an impotent enemy, stick still in the stomach of the Almighty. Oppression and wrong upon even terms are not so heinous unto God, as those that are upon manifest disadvantage: in the one, there is a hazard of return; in the other, there is ever a tyrannous insultation. God

takes still the weaker part, and will be sure therefore to plague them, which seek to put injuries on the unable to resist.

This sin of Amalek slept all the time of the judges; those gover nors were only for rescue and defence; now, so soon as Israel hath a king, and that king is settled in peace, God gives charge to call them to account. It was that, which God had both threatened and sworn; and now he chooses out a fit season for the execution: as we use to say of winter, the judgments of God do never rot in the sky, but shall fall, if late, yet surely, yet seasonably. There is small comfort in the delay of vengeance, while we are sure it shall lose nothing in the way, by length of protraction.

The Kenites were the offspring of Hóbab or Jethro, father-inlaw to Moses. The affinity of him, to whom Israel owed their deliverance and being, was worthy of respect; but it was the mercy of that good and wise Midianite, shewed unto Israel in the wilderness, by his grave advice, cheerful gratulation, and aid, which won this grateful forbearance of his posterity. He, that is not less in mercy than in justice, as he challenged Amalek's sin of their succeeding generations, so he derives the recompence of Jethro's kindness unto his far-descended issue. Those, that were unborn many ages after Jethro's death, receive life from his dust, and favour from his hospitality. The name of their dead grandfather saves them from the common destruction of their neighbours. The services of our love to God's children are never thankless: when we are dead and rotten, they shall live and procure blessings to those, which never knew perhaps nor heard of their progenitors. If we sow good works, succession shall reap them, and we shall be happy in making them so.

The Kenites dwelt in the borders of Amalek, but in tents, as did their issue the Rechabites, so as they might remove with ease. They are warned to shift their habitations, lest they should perish with ill neighbours. It is the manner of God, first to separate before he judge; as a good husbandman weeds his corn ere it be ripe for the sickle, and goes to the fan ere he go to the fire. When the Kenites pack up their fardels, it is time to expect judgment. Why should not we imitate God, and separate our selves that we may not be judged? separate, not one Kenite from another, but every Kenite from among the Amalekites; else, if we will needs live with Amalek, we cannot think much to de-with

him.

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The Kenites are no sooner removed, than Saul falls upon Amalekites. He destroys all the people, but spares their king. The charge of God was universal, for man and beast. In the corruption of partiality, lightly the greatest escape. Covetousness or misaffection are commonly guilty of the impunity of those, which are at once more eminent in dignity and in offence. It is a shameful hypocrisy, to make our commodity the measure and rule of our execution of God's command; and, under pretence of godliness, to intend gain. The unprofitable vulgar must die; Agag may yield a rich ransom. The lean and feeble cattle, that

would but spend stover, and die alone, shall perish by the sword of Israel; the best may stock the grounds, and furnish the markets. O hypocrites, did God send you for gain, or for revenge? Went you to be purveyors, or executioners? If you plead, that all those wealthy herds had been but lost in a speedy death, think ye that he knew not this which commanded it? Can that be lost, which is devoted to the will of the owner and Creator? Or can ye think to gain any thing by disobedience? That man can never either do well or fare well, which thinks there can be more profit in any thing than in his obedience to his Maker. Because Saul spared the best of the men, the people spared the best of the cattle: each is willing to favour other in the sin. The sins of the great command imitation, and do as seldom go without attendants as their persons.

Saul knew well how much he had done amiss, and yet dare meet Samuel, and can say, Blessed be thou of the Lord; I have fulfilled the commandment of the Lord. His heart knew, that his tongue was as false as his hands had been; and if his heart had not been more false than either of them, neither of them had been so gross in their falsehood. If hypocrisy were not either foolish or impudent, she durst not shew her head to a seer of God. Could Saul think that Samuel knew of the asses that were lost, and did not know of the oxen and sheep that were spared? Could he foretel his thoughts, when it was, and now not know of his open actions? Much less when we have to do with God himself, should dissimulation presume either of safety or secrecy. Can the God that made the heart not know it? Can he, that comprehends all things, be shut out of our close corners? Saul was otherwise crafty enough, yet herein his simplicity is palpable. Sin can besot even the wisest man, and there was never but folly in wickedness.

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No man brags so much of holiness, as he that wants it. True obedience is joined ever with humility, and fear of unknown errors. Falsehood is bold, and can say, I have fulfilled the commandment of the Lord. If Saul had been truly obsequious and holy, he had made no noise of it. A gracious heart is not a blab of his tongue, but rests and rejoiceth silently in the conscience of a secret goodness. Those vessels yield most sound, that have the least liquor.

Samuel had reason to believe the sheep and oxen above Saul. Their bleating and lowing was a sufficient conviction of a denied and out-faced disobedience. God opened their mouths, to accuse Saul of their life and his falsehood; but, as sin is crafty and never wanted a cloke wherewith both to hide and deck itself, even this very rebellion is holy. "First the act, if it were evil, was not mine but the people's; and secondly, their intention makes it good, for these flocks and herds were preserved, not for gain but for devotion. What needs this quarrel? If any gain by this act, it is the Lord thy God. His altars shall smoke with these sacrifices; ye, that serve at them, shall fare so much the better: this godly thriftiness looks for thanks, rather than censure."

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If Saul had been in Samuel's clothes, perhaps this answer would have satisfied him: surely, himself stands out in it, as that whereto he dares trust; and after he hears of God's angry reproof, he avows and doubles his hold of his innocency; as if the commanders should not answer for the known sins of the people; as if our intentions could justify us to God against God. How much ado is it to bring sinners upon their knees, and to make their tongues accuse their hands! But it is no halting with the maker of the heart. He knew it was covetousness, and not piety, which was accessary to this forbearance; and if it had been as was pretended, he knew it was an odious impiety to raise devotion out of disobedience. Saul shall hear and find, that he hath dealt no less wickedly, in sparing an Agag, than in killing an innocent Israelite; in sparing these beasts for sacrifice, than in sacrificing beasts that had been unclean. Why was sacrifice itself good, but because it was com manded? What difference was there betwixt slaughter and sacrifice, but obedience? To sacrifice disobediently is wilfully to mock God in honouring him. 1 Sam. xv.

THE REJECTION OF SAUL, AND THE CHOICE OF

DAVID.

EVEN when Saul had abandoned God in disobedience, he would not forego Samuel; yea, though he reproved him. When he had forsaken the substance, yet he would maintain the formality. If he cannot hold the man, he will keep the pledge of his garment: such was the violence of Saul's desire, that he will rather rend Samuel's coat, than part with his person. Little did Saul think, that he had in his hand the pawn of his own rejection; that this act of kind importunity should carry in it a presage of his judgment, yet so it did: this very rending of the coat was a real prophecy, and did bode no less than the rending of the kingdom from him and his posterity. Wicked men, while they think by carnal means to make their peace, plunge themselves deeper into misery.

Any stander-by would have said, "What a good king is this! How dear is God's prophet unto him? How happy is Israel in such a prince, as thus loves the messengers of God!" Samuel, that saw the bottom of his hollow affection, rejects him, whom God had rejected. He was taught to look upon Saul, not as a king, but as an offender; and therefore refuses, with no less vehemency than Saul entreated. It was one thing, what he might do as a subject, another what he must do as a prophet. Now he knows not Saul any otherwise, than as so much the greater trespasser as his place was higher; and therefore he doth no more spare his greatness, than the God against whom he sinned: neither doth he countenance that man with his presence, on whom he sees God to frown.

There needs no other character of hypocrisy, than Saul, in the carriage of this one business with Agag and Samuel. First, he obeys God where there is no gain in disobedience; then, he serves God by halves, and disobeys where the obedience might be loss.

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