[BOOK XI. Old Eli could not choose but much rejoice to see this fruit of those lips, which he thought moved with wine; and this good proof, both of the merciful audience of God, and the thankful fidelity of his handmaid: this sight calls him down to his knees, "He worshipped the Lord." We are unprofitable witnesses of the mercies of God and the graces of men, if we do not glorify him for others' sakes, no less than for our own. Eli and Hannah grew now better acquainted; neither had he so much cause to praise God for her as she afterwards for him; for if her own prayers obtained her first child, his blessings enriched her with five more. If she had not given her first son to God, ere she had him, I doubt whether she had not been ever barren; or, if she had kept her Samuel at home, whether ever she had conceived again. Now that piety which stripped her of her only child for the service of her God, hath multiplied the fruit of her womb, and gave her five for that one, which was still no less hers, because he was God's. There is no so certain way of increase, as to lend or give unto the owner of all things.

CONTEMPLATION VII.
Eli and his Sons.

If the conveyance of grace were natural, holy parents would not be so ill suited with children. What good man would not rather wish his loins dry, than fruitful of wickedness? Now we can neither traduce goodness, nor choose but traduce sin. If virtue was as well entailed upon as sin, one might serve to check the other in our children; but now since grace is derived from heaven on whomsoever it pleases the Giver, and that evil, which ours receive hereditarily from us, is multiplied by their own corruption, it can be no wonder that good men have ill children; it is rather a wonder that any children are not evil. The sons of Eli are as lewd, as himself was holy. If the goodness of examples, precepts, education, profession, could have been preservatives from extremity of sin, these sons of an holy father had not been wicked; now, neither parentage, nor breeding, nor priesthood, can keep the sons of Eli from the sons of Belial. If our children be good, let us thank God for it; this was more than we could give them; if evil, they may thank us, and themselves, us for their birth-sin, themselves for the improvement of it to that height of wickedness.

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If they had not been sons of Eli, yet being priests of God, who would not have hoped their very calling should have infused some holiness into them? But now, even their white ephod covers foul sins; yea, rather, if they which serve at the altar degenerate, their wickedness is so much more above others, as their place is holier. A wicked priest is the worst creature upon earth. Who are devils but they which were once angels of light? Who can stumble at the sins of the evangelical Levites, that sees such impurity even before the ark of God? That God which promised to be the Levites' portion, had set forth the portion of his ministers; he will feast them at his own altar; the breast, and the right shoulder of the peace-offering was their morsel. These bold and covetous priests will rather have the flesh-hook their arbiter, than God. Whatsoever those three teeth fasten upon, shall be for their tooth; they were weary of one joint, and now their delicacy affects variety; God is not worthy to carve for these men, but their own hands; and this they do not receive, but take; and take violently, unseasonably. It had been fit God should be first served: their presumption will not stay his leisure; ere the fat be burned, ere the flesh be boiled, they snatch more than their share from the altar; as if the God of heaven should wait on their palate; as if the Israelites had come thither to sacrifice to their bellies. And, as commonly a wanton tooth is the harbinger of luxurious wantonness, they are no sooner fed than they neigh after the dames of Israel. Holy women assemble to the door of the tabernacle; these varlets tempt them to lust, that came thither for devotion :, they had wives of their own, yet their unbridled desires rove after strangers, and fear not to pollute even that holy place with abominable filthiness. O sins too shameful for men, much more for the spiritual guides of Israel! He, that makes himself a servant to his tooth, shall easily become a slave to all inordinate affections. That altar, which expiated other men's. sins, added to the sins of the sacrificers. Doubtless many a soul was the cleaner for the blood of the sacrifices which they shed, while their own were more impure; and as the altar cannot sanctify the priest, so the uncleanliness of the minister cannot pollute the offering; because the virtue thereof is not in the agent, but in the institution; in the representation his sin is his own, the comfort of the sacrament is from God. Our clergy is no charter for heaven. Even those, whose

trade is devotion, may at once shew the way to heaven by their tongue, and by their foot lead the way to hell. It is neither a cowl, nor an ephod, that can privilege the soul.

The sin of these men was worthy of contempt, yea, perhaps their persons; but for the people therefore to abhor the offerings of the Lord, was to add their evil unto the priests, and to offend God, because he was offended. There can no offence be justly taken, even at men, much less at God for the sake of men. No man's sins should bring the service of God into dislike; this is to make holy things guilty of our profaneness. It is a dangerous ignorance, not to distinguish betwixt the work, and the instrument; whereupon it oft comes to pass, that we fall out with God, because we find cause of offence from men, and gave God just cause to abhor us, because we abhor his service unjustly. Although it be true, of great men especially, that they are the last to know the evils of their own house, yet either it could not be, when all Israel rung of the lewdness of Eli's sons, that he only should not know it, or, if he knew it not, his ignorance cannot be excused for a seasonable restraint might have prevented this extremity of debauchedness. Complaints are long muttered of the great, ere they dare break forth into open contestation. Public accusations of authority argue intolerable extremities of evil. Nothing but age can plead for Eli, that he was not the first accuser of his sons. Now, when their enormities came to be the voice of the multitude, he must hear it by force; and doubtless he heard it with grief enough, but not with anger enough he that was the judge of Israel, should have unpartially judged his own flesh and blood; never could he have offered a more pleasing sacrifice, than the depraved blood of so wicked sons. In vain do we rebuke those sins abroad, which we tolerate at home. That man makes himself but ridiculous, that, leaving his own house on fire, runs to quench his neighbour's.

I heard Eli sharp enough to Hannah, upon but a suspicion of sin, and now how mild I find him to the notorious crimes of his own! "Why do you so, my sons? it is no good report; my sons, do no more so." The case is altered with the persons. If nature may be allowed to speak in judgment, and to make difference, not of sins, but of offenders, the sentence must needs savour of partiality. Had these men but some little slackened their duty, or heedlessly omitted some right of the sacrifice, this

censure had not been unfit; but to punish the thefts, rapines, sacrileges, adulteries, incests of his sons, with "why do ye so?" was no other than to shave that head, which had deserved cutting off. As it is with ill humours, that a weak dose doth but stir and anger them, not purge them out; so it fareth with sins; an easy reproof doth but encourage wickedness, and makes it think itself so slight as that censure importeth. A vehement rebuke to a capital evil is but like a strong shower to a ripe field, which lays that corn which were worthy of a sickle. It is a breach of justice, not to proportionate the punishment to the offence: to whip a man for a murder, or to punish the purse for incest, or to burn treason in the hand, or to award the stocks to burglary, it is to patronize evil instead of avenging it. Of the two extremes, rigour is more safe for the public-weal, because the over-punishing of one offender frights many from sinning. It is better to live in a commonwealth where nothing is lawful, than where every thing.

Indulgent parents are cruel to themselves and their posterity. Eli could not have devised which way to have plagued himself and house so much, as by his kindness to his children's sins. What variety of judgments doth he now hear of from the messenger of God! First, because his old age (which uses to be subject to choler) inclined now to mis-favour his sons, therefore there shall not be an old man left of his house for ever; and because it vexed him not enough to see his sons enemies to God in their profession, therefore he shall see his enemy in the habitation of the Lord; and because himself forbore to take vengeance of his sons, and esteemed their life above the glory of his Master, therefore God will revenge himself, by killing them both in one day; and because he abused his sovereignty by conniving at sin, therefore shall his house be stripped of this honour, and see it translated to another; and, lastly, because he suffered his sons to please their own wanton appetite, in taking meat off from God's trencher, therefore those which remain of his house shall come to his successors to beg a piece of silver, and a morsel of bread. In a word, because he was partial to his sons, God shall execute all this severely upon him and them. I do not read of any fault Eli had, but indulgence; and which of the notorious offenders were plagued more! Parents need no other means to make them miserable, than sparing the rod.

Who should be the bearer of these fearful tidings to Eli, but

young Samuel, whom himself had trained up! He was now grown past his mother's coats, fit for the message of God. Old Eli rebuked not his young sons, therefore young Samuel is sent to rebuke him. I marvel not, while the priesthood was so corrupted, if the word of God were precious, if there were public vision. It is not the manner of God to grace the unworthy. The ordinary ministration in the temple was too much honour for those that robbed the altar, though they had no extraordinary revelations. Hereupon it was, that God lets old Eli sleep, (who slept in his sin) and awakes Samuel, to tell him what he would do with his master. He which was wont to be the mouth of God to the people, must now receive the message of God from the mouth of another: as great persons will not speak to those with whom they are highly offended, but send them their checks by others.

The lights of the temple were now dim, and almost ready to give place to the morning, when God called Samuel; to signify perhaps, that those which should have been the lights of Israel, burned no less dimly, and were near their going out, and should be succeeded with one so much more lightsome than they, as the sun was more bright than the lamps. God had good leisure to have delivered this message by day, but he meant to make use of Samuel's mistaking; and therefore so speaks, that Eli may be asked for an answer, and perceive himself both omitted and censured. He that meant to use Samuel's voice to Eli, imitates the voice of Eli to Samuel: Samuel had so accustomed himself to obedience, and to answer the call of Eli, that lying in the further cells of the Levites, he is easily raised from his sleep; and even in the night runs for his message to him, who was rather to receive it from him. Thrice is the old man disquieted with the diligence of his servant; and though visions were rare in his days, yet is he not so unacquainted with God, as not to attribute that voice to him which himself heard not. Wherefore, like a better tutor than a parent, he teaches Samuel what he shall answer, "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth."

It might have pleased God, at the first call, to have delivered his message to Samuel, not expecting the answer of a novice unseen in the visions of God; yet doth he rather defer it till the fourth summons, and will not speak till Samuel confessed his audience. God loves ever to prepare his servants for his employments, and will not commit his errands but to those