this one angel stops the mouth of a better man than they, with Why dost thou ask after my name, which is secret? Secret things to God; revealed, to us and our children.

No word can be so significant as actions: the act of the angel tells best who he was; he did wonderfully: WONDERFUL therefore was his name. So soon as ever the flame of the sacrifice ascended, he mounted up in the smoke of it; that Manoah might see the sacrifice and the messenger belonged both to one God; and might know, both whence to acknowledge the message, and whence to expect the performance.

Gideon's angel vanished at his sacrifice, but this in the sacrifice; that Manoah might at once see, both the confirmation of his promise, and the acceptation of his obedience; while the angel of God vouchsafed to perfume himself with that holy smoke, and carry the scent of it up into heaven. Manoah believed before, and craved no sign to assure him; God voluntarily confirms it to him above his desire; To him that hath shall be given: where there are beginnings of faith, the mercy of God will add perfection.

How do we think Manoah and his wife looked to see this spectacle! They had not spirit enough left to look one upon another; but instead of looking up cheerfully to heaven, they fall down to the earth upon their faces; as weak eyes are dazzled with that which should comfort them. This is the infirmity of our nature, to be afflicted with the causes of our joy; to be astonished with our confirmations; to conceive death in that vision of God, wherein our life and happiness consist. If this homely sight of the angel did so confound good Manoah, what shall become of the enemies of God, when they shall be brought before the glorious tribunal of the God of angels?

I marvel not now, that the angel appeared both times rather to the wife of Manoah: her faith was the stronger of the two. It falls out sometimes, that the weaker vessel is fuller, and that of more precious liquor: that wife is no helper, which is not ready to give spiritual comfort to her husband. The reason was good, and irrefragable; If the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt offering from us. God will not accept gifts, where he intends punishment, and professes hatred. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. If we can find assurance of God's acceptation of our sacrifices, we may be sure he loves our persons. If I incline to weakness in my heart, the Lord will not hear me; but the Lord hath heard me.

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CONTEMPLATION III.-SAMSON'S MARRIAGE.

JUDGES XIV.

Of all the deliverers of Israel, there is none of whom are reported so many weaknesses, or so many miracles, as of Samson. The news, which the angel told of his conception and education, was not more strange, than the news of his own choice: he but sees a daughter of the Philistines, and falls in love. All this strength begins in infirmity; one maid of the Philistines overcomes that champion, which was given to overcome the Philistines. Even he, that was dieted with water, found heat of unfit desires. As his body was strong, notwithstanding that fare, so were his passions. Without the gift of continency, a low feed may impair nature, but not inordination. To follow nothing but the eye in the choice of his wife, was a lust unworthy of a Nazarite: this is to make the sense not a counsellor, but a tyrant.

Yet was Samson, in this very impotency, dutiful: he did not, in the presumption of his strength, ravish her forcibly; he did not make up a clandestine match without consulting with his parents, but he makes suit to them for consent; Give me her to wife as one that could be master of his own act, though not of his passion; and as one that had learned so to be a suitor, as not to forget himself to be a son. Even in this deplored state of Israel, children durst not presume to be their own carvers; how much less is this tolerable in a well-guided and Christian commonwealth! Whosoever now dispose of themselves without their parents, they do wilfully unchild themselves, and change natural affection for violent.

It is no marvel, if Manoah and his wife were astonished at this unequal motion of their son. "Did not the angel," thought they, "tell us, that this child should be consecrated to God; and must he begin his youth in unholy wedlock? Did not the angel say, that our son should begin to save Israel from the Philistines; and is he now captivated in his affections by a daughter of the Philistines? Shall our deliverance from the Philistines begin in an alliance? Have we been so scrupulously careful, that he should eat no unclean thing, and shall we now consent to a heathenish match ?" Now, therefore, they gravely endeavour to cool this intemperate heat of his passion with good counsel; as those which well knew the inconveniencies of an unequal yoke; corruption in religion, alienation of affections, distraction of thoughts, connivance at idolatry, death of zeal, dangerous underminings, and lastly, an unholy seed. Who can blame them, if they were unwilling to call a Philistine daughter?

I wish Manoah could speak so loud, that all our Israelites might hear him; Is there never a woman among the daughters of

thy brethren, or among all God's people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? If religion be any other than a cipher, how dare we not regard it in our most important choice? Is she a fair Philistine? Why is not this deformity of the soul more powerful to dissuade us, than the beauty of the face or of metal to allure us? To dote upon a fair skin, when we see a Philistine under it, is sensual and brutish.

Affection is not more blind than deaf. In vain do the parents seek to alter a young man, not more strong in body than in will. Though he cannot defend his desires, yet he pursues them; Get her, for she pleases me. And although it must needs be a weak motion, that can plead no reason but appetite; yet the good parents, since they cannot bow the affection of their son with persuasion, dare not break it with violence. As it becomes not children to be forward in their choice; so parents may not be too peremptory in their denial. It is not safe for children to over-run parents in settling their affections; nor for parents, where the impediments are not very material, to come short of their children, when the affections are once settled: the one is disobedience; the other may be tyranny.

I know not whether I may excuse either Samson in making this suit, or his parents in yielding to it, by a divine dispensation in both; for on the one side, while the Spirit of God notes, that as yet his parents knew not this was of the Lord, it may seem that he knew it; and is it likely he would know and not impart it? This alone was enough to win, yea to command his parents; "It is not mine eye only, but the counsel of God, that leads me to this choice: the way to quarrel with the Philistines is to match with them; if I follow mine affection, mine affection follows God, in this project." Surely, he, that commanded his prophet afterwards to marry a harlot, may have appointed his Nazarite to marry with a Philistine. On the other side, whether it were of God's permitting or allowing, I find not: it might so be of God, as all the evil in the city: and then the interposition of God's decree, shall be no excuse of Samson's infirmity. I would rather think, that God meant only to make a treacle of a viper; and rather appointed to fetch good out of Samson's evil, than to approve that for good in Samson, which in itself was evil.

When Samson went on wooing, he might have made the sluggard's excuse, There is a lion in the way; but he, that could not be stayed by persuasion, will not by fear. A lion, young, wild, fierce, hungry, comes roaring upon him, when he had no weapon but his hand, no fence but his strength: the same Providence, that carried him to Timnath, brought the lion to him. It hath been ever the fashion of God, to exercise his champions with some initiatory encounters: both Samson and David must first fight with lions, then with Philistines; and he, whose type they

bore, meets with that roaring lion of the wilderness, in the very threshold of his public charge. The same hand, that prepared a lion for Samson, hath proportionable matches for every Christian: God never gives strength, but he employs it: Poverty meets one, like an armed man; infamy, like some furious mastiff, comes flying in the face of another; the wild boar out of the forest, or the bloody tiger of persecution, sets upon one; the brawling curs of heretical pravity or contentious neighbourhood, are ready to bait another: and by all these meaner and brutish adversaries, will God fit us for greater conflicts. It is a pledge of our future victory over the spiritual Philistines, if we can say, My soul hath been among lions. Come forth now, thou weak Christian! and behold this preparatory battle of Samson. Dost thou think God deals hardly with thee, in matching thee so hard, and calling thee forth to so many frays? What dost thou but repine at thine own glory? How shouldest thou be victorious without resistance?

If the parents of Samson had now stood behind the hedge and seen this encounter, they would have taken no further care of matching their son with a Philistine; for who, that should see a strong lion ramping upon an unarmed man, would hope for his life and victory? The beast came bristling up his fearful mane, wafting his raised stern; his eyes sparkling with fury, his mouth roaring out knells of his last passage, and breathing death from his nostrils, and now rejoiced at so fair a prey. Surely, if the lion had had no other adversary than he whom he saw, he had not lost his hope; but now he could not see that his Maker was his enemy: The Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson: what is a beast in the hand of the Creator? He, that struck the lions with the awe of Adam, Noah, and Daniel, subdued this rebellious beast to Samson: what marvel is it, if Samson now tore him, as if it had been a young kid? If his bones had been brass, and his skin plates of iron, all had been one: The right hand of the Lord bringeth mighty things to pass.

If that roaring lion, that goes about continually seeking whom he may devour, find us alone among the vineyards of the Philistines, where is our hope? Not in our heels; he is swifter than we: not in our weapons; we are naturally unarmed: not in our hands, which are weak and languishing; but in the Spirit of that God, by whom we can do all things: if God fight in us, who can resist us? There is a stronger lion in us, than that against us.

Samson was not more valiant than modest: he made no words of this great exploit. The greatest performers ever make the least noise: he, that works wonders alone, could say, See thou tell no man; whereas those, whose hands are most impotent, are busiest of their tongues. Great talkers shew that they desire only to be thought eminent, whereas the deepest waters are least heard.

But while he concealed this event from others, he pondered it in himself; and when he returned to Timnath, went out of the way to see his dead adversary, and could not but recal to himself his danger and deliverance; " Here the beast met me, thus he fought, thus I slew him." The very dead lion taught Samson thankfulness there was more honey in this thought than in the carcass. The mercies of God are ill bestowed upon us, if we cannot step aside to view the monuments of his deliverances : dangers may be at once past, and forgotten. As Samson had not found his honeycomb, if he had not turned aside to see his lion; so we shall lose the comfort of God's benefits, if we do not renew our perils by meditation.

Lest any thing should befal Samson wherein is not some wonder, his lion doth more amaze him dead than alive; for lo, that carcass is made a hive; and the bitterness of death is turned into the sweetness of honey. The bee, a nice and dainty creature, builds her cells in an unsavoury carcass; the carcass, that promised nothing but strength and annoyance, now offers comfort and refreshing; and, in a sort, pays Samson for the wrong offered. Oh the wonderful goodness of our God, that can change our terrors into pleasure, and can make the greatest evils beneficial! Is any man, by his humiliation under the hand of God, grown more faithful and conscionable? there is honey out of the lion. Is any man, by his temptation or fall, become more circumspect? there is also honey out of the lion. There is no Samson, to whom every lion doth not yield honey: every Christian is the better for his evils; yea, Satan himself, in his exercise of God's children, advantageth them.

Samson doth not disdain these sweets, because he finds them uncleanly laid. His diet was strict, and forbad him any thing that savoured of legal impurity; yet he eats the honeycomb out of the belly of a dead beast: good may not be refused, because the means are accidentally evil: honey is honey still, though in a dead lion. Those are less wise and more scrupulous than Samson, which abhor the graces of God, because they find them in ill vessels: one cares not for the preacher's true doctrine, because his life is evil; another will not take a good receipt from the hand of a physician, because he is given to unlawful studies; a third will not receive a deserved contribution from the hands of a usurer. It is a weak neglect not to take the honey, because we hate the lion. God's children have right to their father's blessings, wheresoever they find them.

The match is now made: Samson, though a Nazarite, hath both a wedding and a feast: God never disliked moderate solemnities in the severest life; and yet this bridal feast was long, the space of seven days. If Samson had matched with the best Israelite, this celebration had been no greater; neither had this, perhaps, been so long, if the custom of the place had not required