what, but that they are given their parents for a curse, and shall one day find what it is to be rebellious?

All her desire is, that she may have leave to bewail that which she must be forced to keep, her virginity: if she had not held it an affliction, there had been no cause to bewail it; it had been no thank to undergo it, if she had not known it to be a cross. Tears are no argument of impatience; we may mourn for that we repine not to bear. How comes that to be a meritorious virtue under the Gospel, which was but a punishment under the Law? The daughters of Israel had been too lavish of their tears, if virginity had been absolutely good: what injury should it have been to lament that spiritual preferment, which they should rather have emulated?

While Jephthah's daughter was two months in the mountains, she might have had good opportunity to escape her father's vow; but as one, whom her obedience tied as close to her father, as his vow tied him to God, she returns to take up that burden, which she had bewailed to foresee if we be truly dutiful to our Father in heaven, we would not slip our necks out of the yoke though we might; nor fly from his commands though the door were open.

CONTEMPLATION II.-SAMSON CONCEIVED.

JUDGES XIII.

Or extraordinary persons, the very birth and conception is extraordinary. God begins his wonders betimes, in those whom he will make wonderful. There was never any of those which were miraculously conceived, whose lives were not notable and singular. The presages of the womb and the cradle are commonly answered in the life: it is not the use of God to cast away strange beginnings. If Manoah's wife had not been barren, the angel had not been sent to her: afflictions have this advantage, that they occasion God to shew that mercy to us, whereof the prosperous are incapable; it would not beseem a mother to be so indulgent to a healthful child, as to a sick. It was to the woman that the angel appeared, not to the husband; whether for that the reproach of barrenness lay upon her more heavily than on the father, or for that the birth of the child should cost her more dear than her husband, or lastly, for that the difficulty of this news was more in her conception than in his generation: as Satan lays his batteries ever to the weakest, so contrarily, God addresseth his comforts to those hearts that have most need; as at the first, because Eve had most reason to be dejected, for that her sin had drawn man into the transgression, therefore the cordial of God most respecteth her; The seed of the woman shall break the serpent's head.

As a physician first tells the state of the disease with his symptoms, and then prescribes; so doth the angel of God, first tell the wife of Manoah her complaint, then her remedy; Thou art barren. All our afflictions are more noted of that God which sends them, than of the patient that suffers them: how can it be but less possible to endure any thing that he knows not, than that he inflicteth it not? He saith to one, "Thou art sick;" to another, “Thou art poor;" to a third, "Thou art defamed;" "Thou art oppressed," to another: that all-seeing eye takes notice from heaven of every man's condition, no less than if he should send an angel to tell us he knew it his knowledge, compared with his mercy, is the just comfort of all our sufferings. O God, we are many times miserable, and feel it not; thou knowest even those sorrows which we might have; thou knowest what thou hast done: do what thou wilt.

Thou art barren. Not that the angel would upbraid the poor woman with her affliction but therefore he names her pain, that the mention of her cure might be so much more welcome: comfort shall come unseasonably to that heart, which is not apprehensive of his own sorrow: we must first know our evils, ere we can quit them. It is the just method of every true angel of God, first to let us see that whereof either we do or should complain, and then to apply comforts; like as a good physician first pulls down the body, and then raises it with cordials. If we cannot abide to hear of our faults, we are not capable of amendment.

If the angel had first said, Thou shalt conceive, and not premised, Thou art barren, I doubt whether she had conceived faith in her soul, of that infant which her body should conceive; now, his knowledge of her present estate, makes way for the assurance of the future. Thus ever it pleases our good God, to leave a pawn of his fidelity with us; that we should not distrust him in what he will do, when we find him faithful in that which we see done.

It is good reason, that he, which gives the son to the barren mother, should dispose of him and diet him, both in the womb first and after in the world. The mother must first be a Nazarite, that her son may be so. While she was barren, she might drink what she would; but now, that she shall conceive a Samson, her choice must be limited. There is a holy austerity that ever follows the special calling of God: the worldling may take his full scope, and deny his back and belly nothing; but he, that hath once conceived that blessed burthen, whereof Samson was a type, must be strict and severe to himself; neither his tongue, nor his palate, nor his hand, may run riot those pleasures, which seemed not unseemly for the multitude, are now debarred him.

We borrow more names of our Saviour than one; as we are

Christians, so we are Nazarites; the consecration of our God is upon our heads, and therefore our very hair should be holy. Our appetite must be curbed, our passions moderated, and so estranged from the world, that in the loss of parents or children, nature may not make us forget grace. What! doth the looseness of vain men persuade them that God is not curious, when they see him thus precisely ordering the very diet of his Nazarites?

Nature pleads for liberty; religion for restraint: not that there is more uncleanness in the grape, than in the fountain ; but that wine finds more uncleanness in us than water; and that the high feed is not so fit for devotion as abstinence. Who sees not a ceremony in this command? Which yet carries with it this substance of everlasting use, that God and the belly will not admit of one servant; that quaffing and cramming is not the way to heaven: a drunken Nazarite is a monster among men.

We have now more scope than the ancient: not drinking of wine, but drunkenness with wine, is forbidden to the evangelical Nazarite; Wine, wherein is excess. Oh that ever Christians should quench the Spirit of God, with a liquor of God's own making! That they should suffer their hearts to be drowned with wine, and should so live, as if the practice of the Gospel were quite contrary to the rule of the Law!

The mother must conceive the only giant of Israel, and yet must drink but water; neither must the child touch any other cup. Never wine made so strong a champion as water did here. The power of nourishment is not in the creatures, but in their Maker. Daniel and his three companions kept their complexion, with the same diet wherewith Samson got his strength: he that gave that power to the grape, can give it to the stream. O God, how justly do we raise our eyes from our tables unto thee, which canst make water nourish, and wine enfeeble us!

Samson had not a better mother, than Manoah had a wife; she hides not the good news in her own bosom, but imparts it to her husband: that wife hath learned to make a true use of her head, which is ever ready to consult with him about the messages of God. If she were made for his helper, he is much more hers. Thus should good women make amends for their first offence ; that, as Eve no sooner had received an ill motion but she delivered it to her husband, so they should no sooner receive good than they should impart it.

Manoah (like one which in those lewd times had not lost his acquaintance with God), so soon as he hears the news, falls down upon his knees. I do not hear him call forth and address his servants to all the coasts of heaven, as the children of the prophets did in the search of Elias, to find out the messenger; but

I see him rather look straight up, to that God which sent him; My Lord, I pray thee let that man of God come again. As a straight line is the shortest, the nearest cut to any blessing is to go by heaven as we may not sue to God, and neglect means, so we must sue to God for those means which we shall use.

When I see the strength of Manoah's faith, I marvel not that he had a Samson to his son. He saw not the messenger, he heard not the errand, he examined not the circumstances; yet now he takes thought, not whether he shall have a son, but how he shall order the son which he must have; and sues to God, not for the son which as yet he had not, but for the direction of governing him when he should be. Zachariah had the same message; and craving a sign, lost that voice wherewith he craved it Manoah seeks no sign for the promise, but counsel for himself; and yet, that angel spake to Zachariah himself, this only to the wife of Manoah; that, in the temple, like a glorious spirit; this, in the house or field, like some prophet or traveller that to a priest, this to a woman. All good men have not equal measures of faith. The bodies of men have not more differences of stature, than their graces. Credulity to men is faulty and dangerous; but in the matters of God, is the greatest virtue of a Christian. Happy are they that have not seen, yet believed. True faith takes all for granted, yea for performed, which is once promised.

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He that before sent his angel unasked, will much more send him again upon entreaty. Those heavenly messengers are ready both to obey their Maker and to relieve his children. Never any man prayed for direction in his duties to God, and was repulsed: rather will God send an angel from heaven to instruct us, than our good desires shall be frustrate.

Manoah prayed, the angel appeared again; not to him, but to his wife. It had been the shorter way to have come first to the man, whose prayers procured his presence: but as Manoah went directly and immediately to God, so God comes mediately and about to him; and will make her the means to bear the message to her husband, who must bear him the son. Both the blessing and the charge are chiefly meant to her.

It was a good care of Manoah, when the angel had given order to his wife alone for the governing of the child's diet, to proffer himself to his charge; How shall we order the child? As both the parents have their part in the being of their children, so should they have in their education. It is both unreasonable and unnatural in husbands, to cast this burthen upon the weaker vessel alone it is no reason that she, which alone hath had the pain of their birth, should have the pain of their breeding.

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Though the charge be renewed to the wife, yet the speech is directed to the husband: the act must be hers, his must be the

oversight; Let her observe all I commanded her.

The head must

overlook the body: it is the duty of the husband, to be careful that the wife do her duty to God.

As yet Manoah saw nothing but the outside of a man, and therefore offers the angel an answerable entertainment, wherein there is at once hospitality and thankfulness. No man shall bring him good news from God, and go away unrecompensed. How forward he is to feast him, whom he took for a prophet! Their feet should be so much more beautiful, that bring us news of salvation, by how much their errand is better.

That Manoah might learn to acknowledge God in this man, he sets off the proffer of his thankfulness, from himself to God; and (as the same angel which appeared to Gideon) turns his feast into a sacrifice. And now he is Manoah's solicitor to better thanks than he offered. How forward the good angels are to incite us unto piety! Either this was the Son himself, which said it was his meat and drink to do his Father's will, or else one of his spiritual attendants of the same diet. We can never feast the angels better, than with our hearty sacrifices to God. Why do not we learn this lesson of them, whom we propound to ourselves as patterns of our obedience? We shall be once like the angels in condition; why are we not in the mean time in our dispositions? If we do not provoke and exhort one another to godliness, and do care more for a feast than a sacrifice, our appetite is not angelical, but brutish.

It was an honest mind in Manoah, while he was addressing a sacrifice to God, yet not to neglect his messenger: fain would he know whom to honour. True piety is not uncivil; but, while it magnifies the Author of all blessings, is thankful to the means. Secondary causes are worthy of regard; neither need it detract any thing from the praise of the agent, to honour the instrument. It is not only rudeness, but injustice, in those, which can be content to hear good news from God, with contempt of the bearers.

The angel will neither take nor give; but conceals his very name from Manoah. All honest motions are not fit to be yielded to: good intentions are not always sufficient grounds of condescension. If we do sometimes ask what we know not, it is no marvel if we receive not what we ask. In some cases, the angel of God tells his name unasked, as Gabriel to the Virgin; here, not by entreaty. If it were the Angel of the Covenant, he had as yet no name but Jehovah: if a created angel, he had no commission to tell his name; and a faithful messenger hath not a word beyond his charge. Besides that, he saw it would be of more use for Manoah, to know him really than by words. Oh the bold presumption of those men, which (as if they had long sojourned in heaven, and been acquainted with all the holy legions of spirits) discourse of their orders, of their titles, when