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 show 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.

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 outfaced disobedience. God opened their mouths to accuse Saul of their life, and his falsehood; but as sin is crafty, and never wanted a cloak 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. 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 there 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 commanded? What difference was there betwixt slaughter and sacrifice, but obedience? To sacrifice disobediently, is wilfully to mock God in honouring him.

CONTEMPLATION II.

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 in 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 intreated. 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. He gives God of the worst; he doth that in a colour which might seem answerable to the charge of God: he respects persons in the execution; he gives good words when his deeds were evil; he protests his obedience against his conscience; he faces out his protestation against a reproof; when he sees no remedy, he acknowledges the fact, denies the sin, yea he justifies the act by a profitable intention: when he can no longer maintain his innocence, he casts the blame from himself upon the people. He confesseth not, till the sin be wrung from his mouth; he seeks his peace out of himself, and relies more upon another's virtue than his own penitency; he would cloak his guiltiness with the holiness of another's presence; he is more tormented with the danger and damage of his sin, than with the offence; he cares to hold in with men, in what terms soever he stands with God; he fashionably serves that God whom he hath not cared to reconcile by his repentance. No marvel if God cast him off, whose best was dissimulation.

Old Samuel is forced to do a double execution, and that upon no less than two kings: the one upon Saul, in dividing the kingdom from him, who had divided

himself from God; the other upon Agag, in dividing him in pieces, whom Saul should have divided. Those holy hands were not used to such sacrifices; yet did he never spill blood more acceptably. If Saul had been truly penitent, he had, in a desire of satisfaction, prevented the hand of Samuel in this slaughter: now he coldly stands still, and suffers the weak hands of an aged prophet to be imbrued with that blood, which he was commanded to shed. If Saul might not sacrifice in the absence of Samuel, yet Samuel might kill in the presence of Saul. He was yet a judge of Israel, although he suspended the execution; in Saul's neglect, this charge reverted to him. God loves just executions so well, that he will hardly take them ill at any hand.

I do not find, that the slaughter of Agag troubled Samuel; that other act of his severity upon Saul, though it drew no blood, yet struck him in the striking, and fetched tears from his eyes. Good Samuel mourned for him that had not grace to mourn for himself. No man in all Israel might seem to have so much reason to rejoice in Saul's ruin as Samuel, since that he knew him raised up in despite of his government: yet he mourns more for him than he did for his sons, for himself. It grieved him to see the plant, which he had set in the garden of Israel, thus soon withered. It is an unnatural senselessness not to be affected with the dangers, with the sins of our governors. God did not blame this sorrow but moderated it; "How long wilt thou mourn for Saul?" It was not the affection he forbade, but the measure. In this is the difference betwixt good men and evil, that evil men mourn not for their own sins; good men do so mourn for the sins of others, that they will hardly be taken off.

If Samuel mourn because Saul hath cast away God by his sin, he must cease to mourn, because God hath cast away Saul, from reigning over Israel, in his just punishment. A good heart hath learned to rest