a direct caveat of their vicinity; yet dare not Joshua and the princes trust to shifts for the eluding their oath, but must faithfully perform what they have rashly promised.

Joshua's heart was clear from any intention of a league with a Canaanite, when he gave his oath to these disguised strangers; yet he durst neither repeal it himself, neither do I hear him sue to Eleazar the High Priest to dispense with it, but takes himself tied to the very strict words of his oath, not to his own purpose. His tongue had bound his heart and hands, so as neither might stir; lest while he was curious of fulfilling the will of God, he should violate the oath of God. And if the Gibeonites had not known these holy bonds indissoluble, they neither had been so importunate to obtain their vow, nor durst they have trusted it being obtained. If either dispensation with oaths, or equivocation in oaths, had been known in the world, or at least approved, these Gibeonites had not lived, and Israel had slain them without sin: either Israel wanted skill, or our reservers honesty.

The multitude of Israel, when they came to the walls of these four exempted cities, itched to be at the spoil. Not out of a desire to fulfil God's commandment, but to enrich themselves, would they have fallen upon, these Hivites. They thought all lost that fell beside their fingers. The wealthy city of Jericho was first altogether interdicted them: the walls and houses either fell, or must be burnt; the men and cattle killed; the goods and treasure confiscate to God. Achan's booty shews that city was both rich and proud; yet Israel might be no whit the better for them, carrying away nothing but empty victory and now four other cities must be exempted from their pillage. Many an envious look did Israel therefore cast upon these walls, and many bitter words did they cast out against their princes, the enemies of their gain; whether for swearing, or for that they would not forswear: but howsoever, the princes might have said in a return to their fraud, "We swore indeed to you, but not the people;" yet, if any Israelite had but pulled down one stone from their walls, or shed one drop of Gibeonitish blood, he had no less plagued all Israel for perjury, than Achan had before plagued them for sacrilege. The sequel shews how God would have taken it; for when, three hundred years after, Saul, perhaps forgetting the vow of his forefathers, slew some of these Gibeonites, although out of a well-meant zeal, all Israel smarted for the fact with a three years' famine, and that in David's reign, who received this oracle from God, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites. Neither could this wrong be expiated, but by the blood of Saul's seven sons, hanged up at the very court-gates of their father.

Joshua and the princes had promised them life; they promised them not liberty: no covenant was past against their servitude. It was just therefore with the rulers of Israel, to make slavery the price both of their lives and their deceit. The Israelites had themselves been drudges, if the Gibeonites had not beguiled them, and lived. The old rags therefore wherewith they came disguised,

must now be their best suits; and their life must be toilsomely spent in hewing of wood, and drawing of water for all Israel. How dear is life to our nature, that men can be content to purchase it with servitude! It is the wisdom of God's children, to make good use of their oversights. The rash oath of Israel proves their advantage: even wicked men gain by the outside of good actions: good men make a benefit of their sins. Jos. ix.

CONTEMPLATIONS.

BOOK IX.

!

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE, MY SINGULAR GOOD Lord, SIR THOMAS EGERTON, KNIGHT,

LORD ELLESMERE,

LORD CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND,

CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD,

THE SINCERE AND GRAVE ORACLE OF EQUITY,

THE GREAT AND SURE FRIEND OF THE CHURCH,

THE SANCTUARY OF THE CLERGY,

THE BOUNTIFUL ENCOURAGER OF LEARNING;

J. H.

WITH THANKFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF GOD'S BLESSING UPON THIS STATE, IN SO WORTHY AN INSTRUMENT,

AND HUMBLE PRAYERS FOR HIS HAPPY CONTINUANCE, DEDICATES THIS POOR AND UNWORTHY PART OF HIS LABOURS.

THE RESCUE OF GIBEON.

THE life of the Gibeonites must cost them servitude from Israel, and dangers from their neighbours. If Joshua will but sit still, the deceit of the Gibconites shall be revenged by his enemies. Five kings are up in arms against them, and are ready to pay their fraud with violence. What should these poor men do? If they make not their peace, they die by strangers; if they do make their peace with foreigners, they must die by neighbours. There is no course that threatens not some danger: we have sped well, if our choice hath lighted upon the easiest inconvenience.

If these Hivites have sinned against God, against Israel; yet what have they done to their neighbours? I hear of no treachery, no secret information, no attempt. I see no sin but their league with Israel, and their life: yet, for aught we find, they were freemen; no way either obliged, or obnoxious. As Satan, so wicked men, cannot abide to lose any of their community: if a convert come home, the angels welcome him with songs, the devils follow him with uproar and fury, his old partners with scorn and obloquy.

I find these neighbour' princes half dead with fear, and yet they can find time to be sick of envy. Malice in a wicked heart is the king of passions; all other vail and bow when it comes in place; even their own life was not so dear to them as revenge. Who would not rather have looked, that these kings should have tried to have followed the copy of this league? Or if their fingers did itch to fight, why did they not rather think of a defensive war against Israel, than an offensive against the Gibeonites? Gibcon was strong, and would not be won without blood; yet these Amorites, which at their best were too weak for Israel, would spend their forces before-hand on their neighbours. Here was a strong hatred in weak breasts: they feared, and yet began to fight; they feared Israel, yet began to fight with Gibeon. If they had sat still, their destruction had not been so sudden: the malice of the wicked hastens the pace of their own judgment. No rod is so fit for a mischievous man as his own.

Gibeon, and these other cities of the Hivites, had no king; and none yielded and escaped, but they. Their elders consulted before for their league; neither is there any challenge sent to the king, but to the city: and now these five kings of the Amorites have unjustly compacted against them. Sovereignty abused is a great spur to courage: the conceit of authority in great persons many times lies in the way of their own safety, while it will not let them stoop to the ordinary courses of inferiors. Hence it is, that heaven is peopled with so few great-ones: hence it is, that true contentment seldom dwells high; while meaner men of humble spirits enjoy both earth and heaven.

The Gibeonites had well proved, that though they wanted a head, yet they wanted not wit; and now the same wit, that won Joshua and Israel to their friendship and protection, teacheth them to make use of those they had won. If they had not more trusted Joshua than their walls, they had never stolen that league; and when should they have use of their new protectors, but now that they were assailed? Whither should we fly, but to our Joshua, when the powers of darkness, like mighty Amorites, have besieged us? If ever we will send up our prayers to him, it will be when we are beleagured with evils. If we trust to our own resistance, we cannot stand; we cannot miscarry, if we trust to his: in vain shall we send to our Joshua in these straits, if we have not before come to him in our freedom.

Which of us would not have thought Joshua had a good pretence for his forbearance, and have said, "You have stolen your league with me: why do you expect help from him whom ye have deceived? All that we promised you was a sufferance to live: enjoy what we promised; we will not take your life from you. Hath your faithfulness deserved to expect more than our covenant? We never promised to hazard our lives for you; to give you life with the loss of our own." But that good man durst not construe his own covenant to such an advantage: he knew little difference betwixt killing them with his own sword, and the sword of an Amo

rite; whosoever should give the blow, the murder would be his. Even permission in those things we may remedy, makes us no less actors than consent: some men kill as much by looking on, as others by smiting. We are guilty of all the evil we might have hindered.

The noble disposition of Joshua, besides his engagement, will not let him forsake his new vassals. Their confidence in him is argument enough to draw him into the field. The greatest obligation to a good mind, is another's trust; which to disappoint were mercilessly perfidious. How much less shall our true Joshua fail the confidence of our faith! O my Saviour, if we send the messengers of our prayers to thee into thy Gilgal, thy mercy binds thee to relief: never any soul miscarried that trusted thee: we may be wanting in our trust; our trust can never want success.

Speed in bestowing doubles a gift: a benefit deferred loses the thanks, and proves unprofitable. Joshua marches all night, and fights all day for the Gibconites: they took not so much pains in coming to deceive him, as he in going to deliver them. It is the noblest victory to overcome evil with good. If his very Israelites had been in danger, he could have done no more: God and his Joshua make no difference, betwixt Gibeonites Israelited and his own natural people. All are Israelites whom he hath taken to league. We, strangers of the Gentiles, are now the true Jews: God never did more for the natural olive, than for that wild imp which he hath grafted in. And as these Hivites could never be thankful enough to such a Joshua, no more can we to so gracious a Redeemer; who, forgetting our unworthiness, descended to our Gibeon, and rescued us from the powers of hell and death.

Joshua fought, but God discomfited the Amorites. The praise is to the workman, not the instrument. Neither did God slay them only with Joshua's sword, but with his own hail-stones; that now the Amorites may see both these revenges come from one hand. These bullets of God do not wound, but kill. It is no wonder that these five kings fly: they may soon run away from their hope; never from their horror. If they look behind, there is the sword of Israel, which they dare not turn upon, because God had taken their heart from them before their life: if they look upwards, there is the hail-shot of God fighting against them out of heaven, which they can neither resist nor avoid.

If they had no enemy but Israel, they might hope to run away from death, since fear is a better footman than desire of revenge; but now whithersoever they run, heaven will be about their heads: and now, all the reason that is left them in this confusion of their thoughts, is to wish themselves well dead: there is no evasion, where God intends a revenge. We men have devised to imitate these instruments of death, and send forth deadly bullets out of a cloud of smoke, wherein yet as there is much danger, so much uncertainty; but this God, that discharges his ordnance from heaven, directs every shot to a head, and can as easily kill as shoot. It is a fearful thing, to fall into the hands of the living God: he hath