never judgment from God, where hath not been a provocation from men; therefore, when he sees the plague, he inquires for the sin. Never man smarted causelessly from the hand of divine justice. Oh that, when we suffer, we could ask what we have done, and could guide our repentance to the root of our evils.

That God whose counsels are secret, even where his actions are open, will not be close to his prophet, to his priest: without inquiry we shall know nothing; upon inquiry nothing shall be concealed from us, that is fit for us to know.

Who can choose but wonder at once, both at David's slackness in consulting with God, and God's speed in answering so slow a demand? He that so well knew the way to God's oracle, suffers Israel to be three years pinched with famine, ere he asks why they suffer. Even the best hearts may be overtaken with dulness in holy duties; but oh, the marvellous mercy of God, that takes not the advantage of our weakness! David's question is not more slow, than his answer is speedy; "It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites." Israel was full of sins, besides those of Saul's house; Saul's house was full of sins, besides those of blood; much blood was shed by them, besides that of the Gibeonites: yet the justice of God singles out this one sin of violence offered to the Gibeonites, contrary to the league made by Joshua, some four hundred years before, for the occasion of this late vengeance. Where the causes of offence are infinite, it is just with God to pitch upon some; it is merciful not to punish for all: well near forty years are past betwixt the commission of the sin, and the reckoning for it. It is a vain hope that is raised from the delay of judgment; no time can be any prejudice to the Ancient of Days; when we have forgotten our sins, when the world hath forgotten us, he sues us afresh for our arrearages. The slaughter of the Gibeonites was the sin not of the present, but rather of the former generation; and now posterity

pays for their forefathers. Even we men hold it not unjust to sue the heirs and executors of our debtors: eternal payments God uses only to require of the person; temporary oftentimes of succession.

As Saul was higher by the head and shoulders than the rest of Israel, both in stature and dignity, so were his sins more conspicuous than those of the vulgar. The eminence of the person makes the offence more remarkable to the eyes both of God and men.

Neither Saul nor Israel were faultless in other kinds; yet God fixes the eye of his revenge upon the massacre of the Gibeonites. Every sin hath a tongue, but that of blood overcries, and drowns the rest. He, who is mercy itself, abhors cruelty in his creature above all other inordinateness: that holy soul, which was heavy pressed with the weight of heinous adultery, yet cries out, "Deliver me from blood, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall joyfully sing of thy righteousness."

If God would take account of blood, he might have entered the action upon the blood of Uriah spilt by David; or if he would rather insist in Saul's house, upon the blood of Ahimelech the priest, and fourscore and five persons that did wear a linen ephod: but it pleased the wisdom and justice of the Almighty, rather to call for the blood of the Gibeonites, though drudges of Israel, and a remnant of Amorites. Why this? There was a perjury attending upon this slaughter; it was an ancient oath wherein the princes of the congregation had bound themselves upon Joshua's league to the Gibeonites that they would suffer them to live; an oath extorted by fraud, but solemn by no less name than the Lord God of Israel. Saul will now, thus late, either not acknowledge it, or not keep it; out of his zeal therefore to the children of Israel and Judah, he roots out some of the Gibeonites, whether in a zeal of revenge of their first imposture, or in a zeal of enlarging the

possession of Israel, or in a zeal of executing God's charge upon the brood of Canaanites: he that spared Agag whom he should have smitten, smites the Gibeonites whom he should have spared. Zeal and good intention is no excuse, much less a warrant for evil: God holds it a high indignity that his name. should be sworn by, and violated. Length of time cannot dispense with our oaths, with our vows; the vows and oaths of others may bind us, how much

more our own!

There was a famine in Israel; a natural man would have ascribed it unto the drought, and that drought, perhaps, to some constellations: David knows to look higher, and sees a divine hand scourging Israel for some great offence, and overruling those second causes to his most just executions. Even the most quicksighted worldling is purblind to spiritual objects, and the weakest eyes of the regenerate pierce the heavens, and espy God in all earthly occurrences.

So well was David acquainted with God's proceedings, that he knew the removal of the judgment must begin at the satisfaction of the wronged. At once, therefore, doth he pray unto God, and treat with the Gibeonites: "What shall I do for you, and wherewith shall I make the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the Lord ?" In vain should David, though a prophet, bless Israel, if the Gibeonites did not bless them. Injuries done us on earth give us power in heaven; the oppressor is in no man's mercy, but his whom he hath trampled upon.

Little did the Gibeonites think that God had so taken to heart their wrongs, that for their sakes all Israel should suffer. Even when we think not of it, is the righteous Judge avenging our unrighteous vexations. Our hard measures cannot be hid from him ; his returns are hid from us. It is sufficient for us that God can be no more neglective, than ignorant of our sufferings. It is now in the power of these despised Hivites to make their own terms with Israel:

neither silver nor gold will savour with them towards their satisfaction; nothing can expiate the blood of their fathers, but the blood of seven sons of their deceased persecutor. Here was no other than a just retaliation: Saul had punished in them the offence of their predecessors: they will now revenge Saul's sin in his children. The measure we mete unto others is, with much equity, remeasured unto ourselves. Every death would not content them of Saul's sons, but a cursed and ignominious hanging on the tree; neither would that death content them, unless their own hands might be the executioners; neither would any place serve for the execution but Gibeah, the court of Saul; neither would they do any of this for the wreaking of their own fury, but for the appeasing of God's wrath, "We will hang them up unto the Lord in Gibeah of Saul."

David might not refuse the condition: he must deliver, they must execute; he chooses out seven of the sons and grandchildren of Saul. That house had raised long an unjust persecution against David, now God pays it upon another score. David's love and oath to Jonathan preserves lame Mephibosheth; how much more shall the Father of all mercies do good unto the children of the faithful, for the covenant made with their parents!

The five sons of Adriel the Meholathite, David's ancient rival in his first love, which were born to him by Merab, Saul's daughter, and brought up by her barren sister Michal, the wife of David, are yielded up to death; Merab was, after a promise of marriage to David, unjustly given away by Saul to Adriel. Michal seems to abet the match, in breeding the children now, in one act, not of David's seeking, the wrong is thus late avenged upon Saul, Adriel, Merab, Michal, the children. It is a dangerous matter to offer injury to any of God's faithful ones; if their meekness have easily remitted it, their God will not pass it over without a severe retribution.

These five, together with two sons of Rizpah, Saul's concubine, are hanged up at once before the Lord, yea, and before the eyes of the world; no place but a hill will serve for this execution. The acts of justice, as they are intended for example, so they should be done in that eminent fashion, that make them both most instructive, and most terrifying; unwarrantable courses of private revenge seek to hide their heads in secrecy; the beautiful face of justice both affects the light, and becomes it.

It was the general charge of God's law, that no corpse should remain all night upon the gibbet; the Almighty hath power to dispense with his own command; so, doubtless, he did in this extraordinary case; these carcases did not defile, but expiate. Sorrowful Rizpah spreads her a tent of sackcloth upon the rock, for a sad attendance upon those sons of her womb; death might bereave her of them, not them of her love. This spectacle was not more grievous to her, than pleasing to God, and happy to Israel. Now the clouds drop fatness, and the earth runs forth into plenty. The Gibeonites are satisfied, God reconciled, Israel relieved.

How blessed a thing it is for any nation, that justice is impartially executed, even upon the mighty! a few drops of blood have procured large showers from heaven. A few carcases are rich compost to the earth; the drought and dearth remove away with the breath of those pledges of the offender: judgment cannot tyrannize where justice reigns: as contrarily, there can be no peace where blood cries unheard, unregarded.

CONTEMPLATION VI.

THE NUMBERING OF THE PEOPLE.

ISRAEL was grown wanton and mutinous; God pulls them down, first by the sword, then by famine, now by pestilence. Oh the wondrous, and yet just ways