TIme was when Amaleck would have destroyed Israel; Time is now in my Text, when Israel shall destroy Amaleck. Go, and smite [Page 2] Amaleck, and all that they have.

God will revenge the injuries that are done unto his Saints; Anger may sleep, but it cannot die. Though it be four hundred year after, God will call the wicked to account: Their posterity shall be heirs of their curse, as well as of their lands. Whom God hath destined to destruction, he will raise up Instruments to effect his own Decrees: Whom God employs, he will enable them to that piece of ser­vice about which he sets them. When God does for man, he expects that man should do for God. The power he gives us, he intends we should em­ploy in his service. If God gives Saul the dignity of a King, 'tis fit that Saul should yeild him the duty of a ser­vant. And Samuel said unto Saul, God sent me to anoint thee, &c. Now therefore hearken thou to the voice &c.

These words may be generally di­chotomized into two parts.

[Page 3]1. A commemoration of what God hath done for Saul, made him King; And Samuel said unto Saul, God sent me to anoint thee to be King over his people, over Israel.

2. A Declaration of what God would have Saul do for him, in these words, Now therefore hearken thou un­to the voice, &c.

In the commemoration we observe two things; 1. By whose ministrati­on Saul was made King, by Samuel saith the Text; And Samuel said unto Saul, God sent me. Secondly, After what manner he was enstated in that office; by being Anointed thereunto: God sent me to anoint thee to be King, &c.

In the Declaration of what God would have Saul do for him, we ob­serve three things.

1. The form of the Injunction, in these words, Now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the Lord.

[Page 4]2. The ground of this Injunction, the remembrance of an injury; I re­member what Amaleck did to Israel when he came up from Aegypt, &c.

3. The Commission granted in it, Go and smite Amaleck, &c. The hand­ling of the Text will discover the se­veral branches of each particular. I begin with the first general, a Com­memoration of what God had done for Saul, made him King; and there­in by whose ministration he was so made, by Samuel's: And Samuel said, God sent me.

God sent me: It was not so, for Saul was sent to Samuel, and not Samuel to Saul, so we find it 1 Sam. 9. 16.

I answer, Sending does not always imply a local motion, but somtimes a mental direction; God's Prophets are no less said to be sent, when they di­rected their Prophesies to a place, then when they brought them. It is the delivery of their message, rather then [Page 5] their personal moving, that speaks them sent: I am sent to thee with heavie Tydings, saith the Prophet Ahijah to the wife of Jeroboam coming to him; though the good old man moved nei­ther from his house nor seat, so we read 1 Kings 14. 6.

So is Samuel here said to be sent to anoint Saul, not so much in reference to any external motion, as to that pro­phetique instinct, whereby he was commanded to anoint Saul when he came unto him. But Saul in coming to Samuel to receive his Royal Uncti­on, Expositors upon my Text say, was a Type of wicked and ambitious men, seeking after the outward ho­nour and dignity of the world. From whence no [...]e.

They that are least worthy of ho­nour, are commonly most desirous of it, and seek after that honour which the more▪ deserving accepts▪ not of, without being sought unto.

Never had pride so much worth, as true worth has humility. There is no dignities so high, which ambition makes not the mark of its own merit: no advancement so mean, which hu­mility thinks not to over-ballance its desert. Every one thinks himself wor­thy of that honour whereunto he aspires; yea therefore aspires to it, be­cause he thinks himself worthy of it.

Lucifer could not be chief among the Angels, but he will also be as high as God himself: Ero ut Altissimus, I will be like the most High, Isa. 14. 13. Behold, O Lucifer, thousands of Angels minister unto him, and ten thousand stand before him: While all the rest are standing, Lucifer must needs be sit­ting; I will sit in the Mount of the Con­gregation, Isa. 14 14. O Lucifer! If thou hadst any priority of order, thou hadst none of Nature; if thou hadst higher endowments then thy fellows, yet but the same identity of Being: If [Page 7] thou wer [...] chief in the service of God, yet not exempted from it: For, Are they not all made [...]inistring Spirits? so saith St Paul, Heb. 1. 14. O proud and ambitious spirit! Hadst thou ra­ther be without God, then under him? Hadst thou rather be chief in hell▪ then not as chief in heaven? Know then, that thou shalt be tumbled into hell, Isa. 14. 15. And he that would sit in a Throne by himself, Judge of his own Angels excellency, shall stand before men to be judged for his Di­vels contumacy: so saith St Paul, Know ye not that we shall judge the An­gels? 1 Cor. 6. 3.

But let me draw down your thoughts from heaven to earth: None of Gideons sons so much affected So­veraigne Power over Israel as Abi [...] ­lech, not younger then his brethren so much in years, as in worth: The name of Judge was enough for his valiant father; nothing but the Title [Page 8] of King would suit with his ambition, Judg. 9. 2. None before him usurped Soveraign power over Israel, none that came after him was less worthy of it: He was illegitimate in his birth, but execrable in his actions. The blood of seventy of his Brethren must seal the Crown faster to his head.

Absolon too, thought he had had as much worth as beauty, his Father's crown would better befit his head, which yet had more hair then wit: There is no wit against the counsel of God, who had design'd Israels crown for a wiser head; so we read 2 Sam. 7. 13. But what say we next to the Scribes and Pharisees, of whom our Saviour says, That they love to sit in the chief places in the Synagogues, Mat. 23. 6. If their sitting there did become their gravity, sure I am, their love to fit there did betray their vanity. These are those ambitious affections which are figured in Saul, in coming (though [Page 9] unwillingly) to receive his holy Un­ction; which is the second thing ob­served in this first general; the man­ner how he was enstated into this So­veraigne Office, by being anointed thereunto with oyl: God sent me to a­noint thee to be King, &c.

As the Office of a King doth enstate him with power, for the administrati­on of Justice, so his anointing to that Office with Oyl, which is ever held for a Type of mercy, doth admonish him to exercise that power with lenity and mercy.

Hence Note, That the very acts of Justice, must be tempered with Mer­cy; and the rigour of the one, miti­gated with the lenity of the other. Pu­nishments must nor take their measure from that guilt which did occasion them. The Father of mercies may be our soul-melting president in this particular. The very Divels are not tormented so much as they deserve. [Page 10] For why should we limit the power of his wrath? Wo, and wo, would be the damned in hell, if mercy were confin'd to heaven and earth; yea even in hell does his mercy tryumph over his justice, and abates of the measure of their deserved pains, though not of the continuance.

But let us more safely adore the temporal acts of his Justice: Here mercy I am sure interposes, not more willing to mitigate our deserved pu­nishments, then unwilling to inflict what he does: so saith the Prophet, Lam. 3. 33. The grief which he takes at the misery of men, shews his un­willingness to proceed against them; for, his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel, saith the Text, Judg. 10. 16. as if he that did afflict, were no less affected then the people that were af­flicted. So violent is the heat of this holy contention between his mercy and his justice, that it kindles repent­ings [Page 11] in him: My heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together: Hos. 11. 8. As if the Prophet should have said, Justice can no sooner get a resolution of vengeance, but in comes mercy, and turns performing into re­penting; and repenting, into forgiving: but lo justice provoked by man's con­tinuance in sin, returns, and assisted by truth, begets another repenting of that forgiving; and then the sentence of judgement is given forth; according as it is written, Within forty days, and Ninive shall be destroyed; when lo be­fore it can be executed, it is revoked; his heart turns within him, and the turning of his heart, stays his hand.

Nay more, when Justice does pre­vail, and God does punish, mercy tryumphs even in that justice: Because Justice will not turn it self into mercy, mercy will turn it self into justice; and that which was justice in the pu­nishment, becomes mercy in the a­mendment [Page 12] that is wrought by being punish­ed. Even the acts of justice shall serve to set forth the power of mercy in their happy effects. How many that had run to the very gates of hell in in their prosperity, have been brought home again by adversity, and set in their right way again to heaven. God exerciseth his justice, that he may make way for his mercy: 'Tis our be­nefit he intends by punishing, and not our ruine. This mercy then which God doth exercise in and among his works of justice, is a divine rule for all earthly Potentates to walk by, sig­nified in my Text to Saul by the oyl, (an embleme of mercy) wherewith he was anointed to that Kingly Office▪ God sent me to anoint thee to be King over his people, over Israel: Now therefore hearken thou to the voice of the words of the Lord, &c. which is the second ge­neral, A Declaration of what God would have Saul do for him, wherein [Page 13] we have first the form of the Injuncti­on, Now therefore hearken thou, &c.

Wherein each word hath its weight. Now, Now therefore: Now therefore hearken thou: Now therefore hearken thou (not to the words, but) to the voice of the words of the Lord.

Now. This particle Now, hath a pe­culiar Emphasis; as if he should have said, O Saul! Thou didst sin before in offering up forbidden sacrifice, cap. 13. 9. thy detrusion from the Throne of Israel was threatned then, Now therefore take heed, offend no more, but hearken to. Note hence.

Present obedience may revoke that judgement, which reiteration of sin may make inevitable.

If God's [ Now] be not observed, man's [ Now] may either never come, or come too late. Esau may shed tears for the loss of his blessing, but toge­ther with his blessing, he doth but lose his tears; for, he found no place for [Page 14] repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears, saith St Paul, Heb. 12. 17. There is a promise made to unfained penitence, but there is none made for it.

Some say the Divels should be sa­ved, if they would, or could repent; but there can be no ground for that as­sertion: and my reason is, for that re­pentance can expiate no sin, for which God hath not better satisfaction in the death of Christ, and Christ died not for the Divels. That repentance which is built upon faith in a personal appli­cation of Christs merit, is only saving, and this repentance is given only unto Abraham's children, whose seed the Redeemer of the world took. But what difference is there between men and divels, if the divels cannot expi­ate their sins by repentance, and man will not? They are less abhorred that neither do nor can, then they that can, and do not: If therefore the divels [Page 15] neither can repent, nor if they did, could be saved by it, they are then worse then divels who may repent, and may be saved by it, and yet will not but continue in sin. We may sin as men, but if we do not desist from it as Christians, we cannot persevere in it but as divels: Sad is their condi­tion, and full of horrour, whose hearts are not smitten with their sins, as well as their ears, whose resolutions are not convinced, as well as their consciences. It were better for these to have died soon in their sin, then to have lived longer to it, they may be a little long­er in hell, but they would be a great deal less tormented; for in living to fulfil the measure of their iniquity, they do but treasure up wrath against the day of wrath: Who sees not then the danger (I say) not so much of fal­ling into sin, as in lying in it. It is just with God to deny repenrance to them, when it is begg'd, who wilfully neg­lect [Page 16] it when it is proffered. It is just that they that run on in sin without care, should die without cure.

Nor is it less difficult for the Leo­pard to change his spots, then the Ae­thiope his skin. I mean by the Leo­pard (which is a beast speckled with the different spots of white and black) that kind of sinner that is neither con­stant in good nor bad, but somtimes white, by retracting of his sins, som­times black, by re-acting, and falling back into the same. By the Aethiope, who is wholly black, I mean, that sin­ner which goes on and perseveres in sin. Though there be the same diffi­culty for either to recover out of their sins, yet there may be difference in the condition of the sinner; for recidua­tion into sin, is worse then continu­ance; for it is no marvel, if they that never felt the horrour of sin, can con­tinue in it; if they that have, can re­turn unto it: If they found no horror [Page 17] in sin, why did they forsake it? If they did, why do they repeat it? If the first acts of sin struck any terror, what a work will the reiteration make in the conscience? If one divel at first could so disturb the soul, that it could never rest, till he had been cast out, and its self been swept with the besome of mortification, and garnished with ma­ny Christian graces, what confusion will he, with the addition of seven more worse then himself, make in the soul if he returns? It is better never to have known the way of righteousness, then after they have known it, to turn from the holy Commandment. 2. Pet. 2. 21. If it were not wicked to consult with Witches, why did Saul destroy them? If it were, why did he afterward seek unto them? Surely his former de­stroying them, is set down, to note his greater impiety in his after seeking unto them. Knowledge of sin, height­ens the guilt of the sinner; and reite­ration, [Page 18] both the guilt and judgement of known sins. And therefore sin no more ( [...]aith our Saviour) lest a w [...]rse thing happen to you. God easily forgets our past sins, if the addition of more makes him not remember and recal them: But if they do, he deals with us, as some mothers with their chil­dren, call them to a reckoning for all together: Which Samuel does here emphatically infinuate in my Text, by this particle Now. Saul was before for his disobedience threatned the rejecti­on from his Kingdom; which sentence present obedience may revoke. Now therefore hearken. Which brings me to the next term of weight, the illative particle [ therefore] Now therefore; as if Samuel should have said, O King! God hath done for thee, now therefore thou must do for God. The Note that I observe from hence is this.

There is nothing more pleasing then a pious gratitude.

Obligations and transgressions are proportionable. By how much the more we are bound to serve God, by so much the more vile we are if we do it not. The foresight of our sins, and abuse of them, cannot stop the current of God's present favours: but those favours which do not prevent sin, do aggravate it. Go up (saith God to Moses) thou and the people; the vul­gar translation renders it, Tu, & po­pulus tuus, Thou, and thy people; and the following words render it the more probable, where God ascribes their eduction from Aegypt also unto Moses; whom thou hast brought up out of Egypt, Exod. 33. 1. But how comes Israel, whom God had in so many re­lative and respective terms appropria­ted to himself, how come they on the sudden to be Moses his people, and charge? Surely Moses his prayer (who was also the Mediator of the Law) which only preserved them a people, [Page 20] made them his people: Now God will no longer be the God of his people, then they are the people of their God: Nor would he go up with them him­self, but there was a mysterie in the reason, I will not go up, lest I should destroy them, Exod. 33. 3. But yet he would send an Angel with them: but what do I read? Will not God go up lest he should destroy them? And yet will he send an Angel? What shall we say then? Is there more mercy in an Angel, then in God? God forbid, Not more mercy in an Angel, but less danger to the people; for that high favour, and holy benefit of his divine presence, would but heighten their sin, and at once both hasten and aggravate their judgement: It is mercy to the wicked to withdraw his temporal mercies from them; because those benefits which do not more excite men to serve the Lord, doth the more excite God to punish the men. He will [Page 21] measure out a portion of wrath, an­swerable to his abused favours: And in this respect an Angel's conduct was more safe for a rebellious people, then God's.

The punishment must be proporti­onable to the sin: To speak morally, there can be no sin more odious to God then ingratitude, because all his favours are wholly undeserved. Those favours deserve most of us, of which we are least deserving. Can we cha­lenge any interest in the God of love, when that love of God which hath done so much for us, cannot perswade us to do what we can for God? Are his benefits so much above the ability of our deserving? And shall our de­sert be below the ability of our per­forming? 'Tis true, we are not able to pay so much obedience as we owe, yet let us not owe what we are able to pay: But make Samuel's Ergo in my Text, become ours too in resolution, [Page 22] and resolve it thus in our selves: ma­ny are the blessings which we have re­ceived from God, and therefore we will hearken to the voice of his words. Which brings me from the illative particle, Therefore, to the personal, Thou: Now therefore hear [...]en thou; e­ven thou O King! Thou that art ho­noured with Royal Dignity, though others less endeared, less indebted, may fail of their duty yet do not thou, Hearken thou. The Note is this.

The highest preheminence calls for the exactest obedience. For,

1. Men are better taught by the eye then the ear, and are brought to pra­ctise sooner by imitation then perswa­sion, and do rather follow the instruct­or, then his instructions. God com­manded Abraham to offer up Isaac▪ not to try his obedience, but to prove it. God did not want experience, but po­sterity example. Abraham had been unworthy to be the father of the faith­ful, [Page 23] if he had not left his children an example of his obedience, as well as precept.

2. Eminency of place calls for obe­dience; as first, for being example of good to others: so secondly, for con­trouling evil in others. They only may justly reprove a sin, which may not justly be reproved for it. Otherwise wherein thou judgest another, thou con­demnest thy self, saith St Paul. They carry (like Urias) the letters of his own death, the sentence of their own con­demnation, that prescribe that obedi­ence which they do not practise. Nor are they more pernicious to them­selves then others; for in that they pull down by their lives, what they build up by their lines; while men are more ready to follow their example, then instruction; they do but make the people also more knowing to their greater destruction.

3. It is not only, either for exam­ple, [Page 24] or for liberty of controuling e­vil in others, that requires obedience in men of eminency; but also out of gratitude to God. He is unworthy to be master of a family, who is not the most godly in it; nor they either of Civil or Ecclesiastical honour, whom sanctity doth not more adorn then their dignity: The divel would not part with honour to Christ, without doing homage for it; and shall God to man? Or rather, would the divel have worship done to him for his fain­ed promises, and shall not God for re­al performances. God gave man do­minion over all his works, and writ his Soveraignty in the ma [...]esty of his countenance, but sealed his donation with a precept of obedience; man broke the Seal, and made the Wri­ting of no validity. The Government both of heaven and earth was given to Christ, but even he too must bear it upon his shoulders, Isa. 9. 6. that is, [Page 25] he must submit to the Law, and to the will of God, in dying for the sins of men; For so it is written, In the volumn of thy book, that I should do thy will, O God: Yea, I am content to do it: and so became obedient un [...]o death, the death of the Cross: And for this cause, God hath exalted him, and given him a name a­bove all names; Phil. 2. 9▪ Exaltation is ever either the reward of obedience, or else the condition. Saul had done no remarkable service of obedience, why he should be made King, yet he was made King, that he might do it. God sent me to anoint thee to be King; Now therefore hearken thou to the voice of the words: He does not say to the Word of the Lord, as if it were spo­ken but now; but hearken to the voice of the words of the Lord, because there were formerly several words, or di­vine oracles, as Exod. 17. 14. Deut. 25. 17. which did enjoyn upon Israel this piece of service, which was reser­ved [Page 26] for a tryal of Saul's obedience. The observation hence is this.

The more often and earnestly Pre­cepts are pressed in holy Writ, the greater care is required in performing them, and the heavier judgement in­curr'd in neglecting them.

The dignity of the person that com­mands, makes the breach of the smal­lest precept no small offence; how then will he be observed in his more severe edicts? Take an instance.

What command is more often, and with greater protestation and zeal commended to our practise, then an holy observation of the Sabbath? What precept violated with greater rigour of punishment, Adam did not more slightly forfeit heaven then his posterity do eagerly pursue the earth. Heaven being lost, which only can satisfie the desires of men, the world is only affected, which never can. E­ven innocent Adam must till the [Page 27] ground, Gen, 2. 15. but in sorrow must he eat thereof, as the curse of his sin, Gen. 3. 17. And yet, the sinful sons of Adam, as if they would recompence the loss of heaven, with the gain of the world, by a piece of the divel's Chymistry, turn their necessity into delight, and make their curse their blessing; with such sweet content pier­cing themselves thorow with many sorrows, while they will be rich, 1 Tim. 6. 10. though they forfeit for it, truth, honesty, grace, heaven, yea and Jesus Christ. For this cause, God foresee­ing the propension of man's will, allu­red with the false beauty of temporal felicity, would be wholly addicted to heap up these earthly treasures, and find no leisure for heavenly employ­ments, bound us to the obedience of this command, with a more frequent pressing it, and by threatning the vio­lation thereof with unavoidable death.

Remarkable is the story of the man that gathered sticks on the Sabbath day; remarkable, not so much in re­gard of the punishment that was in­flicted, but in regard of them that did inflict that punishment: And let all the people stone him with stones, Numb 15. 35. Not some, but all the people: Every one must have a stone to fling at the offender, that so every one might learn not to transgress that Law, the breach whereof themselves had been the punishers. If the terror of the death might affright them, their own hands dipt in the offenders blood might make them no less ashamed, then afraid to commit that sin which themselves had so severely punished.

As in this case of the Sabbath, so in all other crimes may the proposition hold; that a more sharp chast [...]sement is due to them, whom a more often pressing doth not excite to a more strict obedience: which that Samuel [Page 29] might gain from Saul, he minds him of former words, wherein this ser­vice was commanded, Hearken not to the word, but to the voice of the words of the Lord.

Thus saith the Lord.

Whom the new Testament calls the God of peace, in the Old, was stiled the Lord of Hosts. The whole Cre­ation,▪ Men, Angels, and the other creatures, are God's armies, sent forth to subdue his enemies: The very Stars in their course fight against Sisera, Judg. 5. God is called thus and thus, ac­cording to his several attributes: His Attributes are distinguished in the no­tion of men, by their proper actions; from these attributes producing acti­ons answerable each to the same, are these Titles derived. Thus great and miraculous actions, speaks him a God of power. Acts of punishment, a just God. Acts of grace, a God of mer­cy: and Acts of victory, the Lord of [Page 30] Hosts, from whom Samuel here brought a Commission; Thus saith the Lord of Hosts. And what was that?

I remember what Amaleck did. I re­member. Whence note.

All the actions of the wicked are re­corded in the book of God's remembrance. Penitently to remember our own sins, is the readiest way to abolish them. The fight of this [...]erpent cures the sting. Because the Saints sets their sins before their face, God casts them be­hind his back, God will not hereafter afflict them for their sins, whom their very sins do here afflict. If hell were appointed for sinners, yet not for those who make their sins as an hell to them; as he did who prayed, O bring my soul out of hell! that is, from the state of sin.

'Tis contrary with the wicked, they forget God, and with him, the sins they commit against him: Some wash away the remembrance of their sins in [Page 31] their drunken Bowls, as did Balshaz­zar, Dan. 5. Some feast away the re­membrance of them, in luxurious ri­ot, so did Dives, Luke 15. Some fid­dle away the remembrance of them, so did they in Job, They take the Tabret and the Harp, and delight in the found of the Organ, Job 21. 12. Some sport a­way all thoughts of sin, They spend their days in mirth, and in a moment go down to death, Job 21. 13. Some bury the remembrance of sin in their worldly cares, so do the greedy Mi­sers of the earth. Some choak the re­membrance of them with a false hope, that God himself takes no notice of them, Tush, say they, Doth God per­ceive it? Is there knowledge in the most high? Yes, desperate sinner, God doth see them, he records them all, and in his time of vengeance, will remember it too. I remember what Amaleck did.

Why did the Angel go about Jeru­salem in the appearance of a man, with [Page 32] a Writers Inkhorn by his side, Ezek. 9. 11. but to note, that if he did not according to the Letter of the Text; write down all their sins, yet to signifie they were as certainly remembred as if they were.

All holy and divine Attributes make up but one God. All the operations of those attributes, tend but to accom­plish one infinite Will, and terminates in glorifying him. His glory is incom­prehensible, and so are the ways whereby he doth promote it. Those ways which are most unlikely in the apprehension of man, do most ad­vance that glory. Nothing did more startle the faith of the ancient Pro­phets, then the prosperous success of the wicked: Why doth the way of the wicked prosper? Why are they in wealth that rebelliously transgress? cries Jere­miah, cap. 12. 2. Why doth the wicked oppress the man that is more righteous then himself? is the complaint of Hab­bakuk, [Page 33] cap. 1. 13. as if they should say, Can God be jealous for his glory, and let them prosper so, who thus po­lute it? Is God righteous that takes vengeance on the wicked? Shall man glory in his wickedness, and shall God sit down with the dishonour they do unto his name thereby? But cease, O man, whose breath is in thy nostrils, is the reward of thy faith so far above thine understanding, and must the tri­al of it be only in things below it? Does the wisdom of God infinitely surmount thine apprehension, & must the proceedings thereof be only li­mited to it? If God be God, be thou a man. Canst thou search into the se­crets of his mercy, which with-holds the present execution of his justice, in expectation of repentance? Think not that mercy too great, which had it been less then infinite (and so above the apprehension of a finite creature) had left thee wholly to justice? Canst [Page 34] thou search into the secrets of his ju­stice, which raiseth glory to it self out of abused mercy? Think not his ju­stice too slow, which had it been more speedy, had cut thee off (thou best of men) from the benefit of mercy. Dost thou see a man slight the Ordinances of God, and pass by his gracious call with neglect and scorn, to outbrave his conscience with a bold admittance of any sin, to aggravate his sin with hateful circumstances, in contempt of goodness, to be a graduate in ungraci­ousness, and to wallow in his unclean­ness; as if he were as void of fear, as he is of grace; as if he were as far from judgement, as he is from re­morse. O the dreadful, and no less se­cret effects of divine justice. Present impunity makes this man secure, secu­rity more outragious: Because judge­ment is not speedily executed on the wick­ed, therefore are the hearts of the chil­dren of men set on mischief, saith the [Page 35] Scripture. It was Eves impunity (if I dare suppose it) more then her exam­ple, that induced Adam to eat the for­biden fruit, He saw her eat that morsel which God had forbidden her, but he did not see her die, as God had threat­ned her. Me-thinks I hear Adam thus reasoning within himself: If the injun­ction were laid upon her as well as me, why should the penalty be inflicted on me, and not upon her? I may wel hope I shall not die for eating that, which I see her eat, and live. If Absolon had died for murthering Ammon, he had never rose out of his grave in rebellion against his Father. The wicked fear not that vengeance which they pre­sently feel not, till they suddenly feel what they feared not. Because God winks at the sins of the ungodly, they think he is blind, and sees them not: Because they mind not God's judge­ments, they think God minds not their sins: They remember not God's judg­ments [Page 36] because he defers them, and God defers them, because he would more severely remember them. I re­member what Amaleck did, which is the next point; wherein two things.

• 1. What Amaleck was?
• 2. What he did?

1. What Amaleck was? He was the posterity of Esau, the brother of Jacob, who was father to Israel, to whom Amaleck did this wroag.

The first opposition then which Is­rael received, was from their consin Germans. To have been the ringlead­ers of mischief, is no small aggrava­tion of the crime: The example is as bad as the crime. Every one may serve to set forward a mischief, which hath neither skill nor courage to attempt it. What shall Israel expect from the A­morite a stranger, that is first injured by Amaleck a brother? To receive hurt from them which ought to help, is a double injury. No bonds of Na­ture [Page 37] can restrain the mischievous pro­ceedings of bloody men. Self-interest, and envie, know no difference of per­sons, but oftentimes produceth the bitterest enmity between the nearest allies, as here between Israel and A­maleck: But if the Law of Nature had link'd Amaleck to Israel, the e­lection of grace had appropriated Is­rael to God. Israels natural relation to Amaleck, did aggravate Amalecks injury to Israel; Israels spiritual rela­tion to God, shall heighten God's re­venge against Amaleck, for that inju­ry done to his Israel. I remember what Amaleck did to Israel. And what was that? He laid wait for him in the Wil­derness, as he came up out of Aegypt.

He laid wait for him.

The wicked want nothing but op­opportunity to do mischief; What they cannot effect by force, they will endeavour by fraud. Amaleck is a true Metatype of the divel, whose subtlety [Page 38] must prevail more then his power. The divel may roar like a Lyon, but he cannot hurt; he may seek to devour, but cannot assure it: Not what he will, but what he is permitted, is done by him: yet his malice shall still feed his hope. The divel may as well cease to be, as not do like one. Though it be to his greater confusion in disappoint­ment, he will yet attempt; and hopes to facilitate that by his trechery, which he cannot by his strength.

Of him it was Amaleck learn'd to lay wait for Israel as he came out of Aegypt: For no sooner can a soul go forth in resolution and endeavour, from the Egypt of the world, to the Canaan of heaven, but that infernal Amalekite lays snares to entrap it.

He that could not endure that man should continue in the state of inno­cency, does with greater despite behold his return unto it. It is a greater vexation to be foyl'd by a foe [Page 39] overthrown before, and whets the de­sire to a more hopeful encounter. If one divel be expell'd, he will seek to regain his possession, with the assist­ance of seven more. Pharaoh cannot endure that Israel should serve a greater Lord then himself, nor the di­vel a better. Pharaoh thinks them strait idle in his service, if they have any leisure to think of serving another, and will encrease their tasks, to divert their thoughts. No sooner could Gideon make peace with Joshua, bnt all his neighbour Kings make war against him: No sooner can a soul enter into a peace with God, by holy resoluti­ons of amendment, but the divel strait attempts to corrupt the affections thereof; love of gain, fear of scoffs, desire of pleasures, in a joynt conspi­racy work together, to break off those resolutions. I am the Lord thy God, so begins the Law; but while this Law was writing, the divel stirred up the [Page 40] people to force Aaron to make them a golden god: While the true God was writing them a Law, they made a Law to set up a false God. The divel did hope God would hold them unwor­thy of his holy Law, that had not the patience to stay the writing of it.

Nor seeks he more to deprive us of the helps of piety, then to hinder the encrease. It is the sad complaint of many a poor soul, that they never meet with more occasions to call them aside, then on those days which pre­cedent intentions had devoted more solemnly with fasting and prayer to humble their souls before their God. Holy purposes, if deferred, are likely lost: But its a false necessity that crosses that unum necessarium of Mary, which is the only true one, what ever occasi­on it is, or outward necessity, that di­verts us from our holy purposes, it is but an Amalekite that lies in wait by the way as thou goest from Egypt, [Page 41] to thy heavenly Canaan, thou must subdue it; thou must destroy it in this spiritual warfare, as here Saul was in this temporal; Go and smite Amaleck, and all that they have: which is the last thing, The Commission granted from the Lord of Hosts: Wherein see

First the matter of it, Destroy Ama­leck.

Secondly, The extent of it. 1. Ge­nerally, All that they have. 2. Particu­larly, Man and Woman, i. e. of all states, degrees, and conditions, Infants and Sucklings, Beasts and all.

The Observation hence is this.

Divine vengeance knows no differ­ence of persons, spares neither the high for their state, nor the weaker for their Sex, nor the young for their non­age, nor the very beasts for their want of reason, which makes them in them­selves uncapble of finning.

1. Not the high for their state. No outward dignity can be priviledged [Page 42] from impunity; nay, the dignity of the person, adds to the indignity of the crime, and makes him obnoxious to the greater judgement: The reason given, is, Because the sins of the great are exemplary. Great men, if sinners, are like to the divel, who with his tail drew down the third part of the stars with him, Rev. 12. 4. Who ever knew an holy Court, and a wicked Prince? Or to speak neerer to our selves, who ever knew a vertuous family, and a profane master? His plenty corrupts him, and he the rest. They are afraid to appear good, if he upon whom they depend hates to be so▪ They think he will hate them too, if they be not like unto him. A bad example is sooner followed, then a good one: It is this in Governours, whether publique or private, that maintains sin in the world, which it at once both secures, and feeds. Men think they may safe­ly do that, which they see those pra­ctise, [Page 43] who ought to punish it. It is the just retribution of God, that if they who ought, do not punish sin, should be more severely punished for it: they attract the guilt of many, by whom many are made guilty: All shall suffer for their own sins, but he shall suffer as much as many, whose example made many sinners. How justly did Dives fear the augmentation of his own, by his brothers coming into the same torments, whose example might bring them to it: With what bitterness did he entertain the thoughts of their coming to encrease his flames, which he already found so intolerable? How much better had it been for him to have begg'd his bread with Lazarus on earth, then to beg water of him in hell?

VVhat a corrasive must it needs be to the penitent soul of David, to hear Nathan say, Thou hast made the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme? O holy Da­vid! [Page 44] I have heard thee somtimes say, Thou wouldst destroy all the wicked of the Land? Shall those wicked now learn by thee to be more vile? That thou which hast so often sang praises to the name of God, shouldest cause others to blaspheme that name! For what will they say? Is this the servant of the God of Israel? Can that Law of God be an holy Law, whose chief Professors commit such unholy acts? Such needs must be the Law, as the lives of them that do embrace it do declare, Men sure are such as they are taught to be: If their God were holy, his people would be holy too; he can­not well be good, that hath such wick­ed servants. If great men therefore be greater examples of impiety, a greater measure of punishment must be their due, which divine justice will surely pay.

Indeed it is no less requisite that the Divine nature should be uucapable of [Page 45] sinning, then impossible for it to be subject to it: for if it be necessary that sin should be punished, it is as necessa­ry, that it should be punished by him who cannot sin. VVhere there is sub­jection to a capacity of sinning, there can be no certainty of immunity from falling into it: where there is no ne­cessity of immunity from it, there can be no necessity of punishing it; for how shall any (especially eternally) punish that, whereof himself may possibly be guilty, if he should be sub­ject to it?

Hence it is, that neither men nor Angels can punish sin; a derivative power they have, but not a primi­tive, they may have it from God, but not from themselves; they may be executioners of punish­ment, but not imposers. The Elect Angels indeed, and beatified Saints cannot sin; but they have this happi­ness by their confirmation in Christ, [Page 46] and not by the soundness of their own nature: The one have sinned while they were here, the other might have done even there.

To God then only it belongs to punish sin, not only as it is committed against him, but as it is he that could not possibly have sinned. And now to bring it home, as he is God, and cannot sin, and therefore only may, so as he is God, he cannot but punish sin, and therefore will, in whomsoever he finds it. He spared not the Angels, saith S. Jude: If sin seizeth upon the nature of Angels, the nature of Angels shall be subjected even to actual torments for that sin: As it is written, Go ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the Divel and his Angels. And as a worthy light of our Church saith, In vain were that light prepared for the Di­vel, if the Divel's nature could not be tormented in it. But as for us men, God did more to redeem us, then he did to [Page 47] make us. If then God spared not the Angels, which▪ sinned only against their creation, how much less will he not spare man that sinneth against so great redemption, treading under foot the Son of God; as if the blood of the Covenant, wherewith we were sanctified, were an unholy thing. Heb. 10. 29. A­gain, If he spared not the Angels for their heavenly excellency, much less will he spare man for his earthly dig­nity; whom their impiety of life doth condemn, their eminency of place shall not absolve. 'Tis the works of men that God accepts, and not their persons. He that would not accept of a crown for himself, will never ac­cept of another for it. For, Tophet is prepared of old, even for the King is it prepared, Isa. 30. ult And so hateful was Saul's partiality in this respect, that for sparing the King of Amaleck, he lost the Kingdom of Israel, if not of heaven to himself. Thus you see, first [Page 48] he spares not the high for their state.

Secondly, Not the weaker for their Sex: Slay man and woman too.

Women. The original matter of woman, whereof she was composed, was more pure then that of man, yet was the woman first in the transgressi­on, and not the man. Before their fall, she was an help meet for him, not sub­ject to him; but after her fall, lest she should abuse that equality which she had before, to the like seducement, she must submit to the dominion of her husband, Gen. 3. 16. That as in her equality she first induced him to sin, whereby he merited eternal death, so in her subjection, she should be obno­xious to the penalty of his sin, even to a temporal death; and therefore slay man, yea and woman too.

Thirdly, He spares not the young for their nonage. Such as are the Pa­rents, such usually are the children; not that the very sins of the Parents [Page 49] are by nature transfused into the chil­dren, but do insensibly steal upon them, by being daylie inured to them, which at length by custome turns to another nature. It is therefore just with God, to root the whole race of them, whom he foresees will be inhe­ritors of their fathers enmity against his Church. So Noah about to curse his Son Cham, pronounced not the curse in the name of Cham, but Canaan his sons son.

Noah by a prophetique spirit fore­saw Canaan would be heir of his Fa­thers sin, and therefore subjected him to his fathers curse. Nay, righteous Jonathan must be dispossessed for his fathers disobedience. God's judge­ments are always deep and secret, but ever just: He takes away the righte­ous young for their greater good, he takes away the wicked young for their lesser torment; and therefore s [...]ay man, woman, yea infant and suckling too.

Oxen and Sheep, &c.

It is the endowment of reason that gives a capacity of sinning: The crea­ture is void of reason, and therefore free from sin, yet must be slain. The unreasonable creature, though in it self void of sin, yet in detestation of the sinner whom it serves, is made obno­xious to temporal punishment. If the divel in the serpent induce Eve to sin, the instrument is cursed, in hatred of the sin occasioned by it. In the destru­ction of the old world by the univer­sal deluge, why should the beasts, creeping things, and fowls of the Ayr, perish by the waters, but because they received their food from that earth wherein man had corrupted their ways Gen. 6. 7. As therefore Beasts in ge­neral cannot sin, yet subjected to the curse of man's sin; so neither in par­ticular had these Amalekitish cattel a­ny hand in the offence done to the Is­rael, yet must be destroyed for their [Page 51] owners sakes, who had▪ So severe is God's vengeance against the enemies of his Church, even total destruction, both of them and theirs. In God's due time Amalecks portion shall be theirs. Even so, O Lord, let all thy enemies perish, that thy Church may have rest,

Amen.