This unction was a mutual bond. Good reason had David to sue him, which had poured the oil on his head, for the hiding of that head which he had anointed; and good reason had Samuel to hide him, whom God by his means had chosen, from him whom God had by his sentence rejected; besides that, the cause deserved commiseration here was not a malefactor running away from justice, but an innocent avoiding murder; not a traitor countenanced against his sovereign, but the deliverer of Israel harboured in a sanctuary of prophets till his peace might be made.

Even thither doth Saul send to apprehend David. All his rage did not incense him against Samuel as the abettor of his adversary: such an impression of reverence had the person and calling of the prophet left in the mind of Saul, that he cannot think of lifting up his hand against him. The same God, which did at the first put an awe of man in the fiercest creatures, hath stamped in the cruellest hearts a reverent respect to his own image in his ministers; so as even they that hate them, do yet honour them.

Saul's messengers came to lay hold on David; God lays hold on them. No sooner do they see a company of prophets busy in those divine exercises, under the moderation of Samuel, than they are turned from executioners to prophets. It is good going up to Naioth, into the holy assemblies: who knows how we may be changed beside our intention? Many one hath come into God's house to carp, or scoff, or sleep, or gaze, that hath returned

a convert.

:

The same heart, that was thus disquieted with David's happy success, is now vexed with the holiness of his other servants. It angers him, that God's Spirit could find no other time to seize upon his agents, than when he had sent them to kill and now, out of an indignation at this disappointment, himself will go and be his own servant. His guilty soul finds itself out of the danger of being thus surprised; and behold, Saul is no sooner come within the smell of the smoke of Naioth, than he also prophesies. The same Spirit, that, when he went first from Samuel, enabled him to prophesy, returns in the same effect now that he was going (his last) unto Samuel. This was such a grace as might well stand with rejection; an extraordinary gift of the Spirit, but not sanctifying. Many men have had their mouths opened to prophesy unto others, whose hearts have been deaf to God; but this, such as it was, was far from Saul's purpose, who, instead of expostulating with Samuel, falls down before him; and laying aside his weapons and his robes, of a tyrant proves, for the time, a disciple. All hearts are in the hand of their Maker. How easy is it for him that gave them their being, to frame them to his own bent! Who can be afraid of malice, that knows what hooks God hath in the nostrils of men and devils? what charms he hath for the most serpentine hearts?

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CONTEMPLATION VII.-DAVID AND AHIMELECH.

1 SAMUEL XXI.

WHO can ever judge of the children by the parents, that knows Jonathan was the son of Saul? There was never a falser heart than Saul's; there was never a truer friend than Jonathan. Neither the hope of a kingdom, nor the frowns of a father, nor the fear of death, can remove him from his vowed amity. No son could be more officious and dutiful to a good father; yet he lays down nature at the foot of grace, and, for the preservation of his innocent rival for the kingdom, crosses the bloody designs of his own parent. David needs no other counsellor, no other intelligencer, than he. It is not in the power of Saul's unnatural reproaches, or of his spear, to make Jonathan any other than a friend and patron of innocence. Even after all these difficulties, doth Jonathan shoot beyond David, that Saul may shoot short of him. In vain are those professions of love, which are not answered with action. He is no true friend, that, beside talk, is not ready both to do and suffer.

Saul is no whit the better for his prophesying. He no sooner rises up from before Samuel, than he pursues David. Wicked men are rather the worse, for those transitory good motions they have received. If the swine be never so clean washed, she will wallow again. That we have good thoughts, it is no thank to us that we answer them not, it is both our sin and judg

ment.

David hath learned, not to trust these fits of devotion; but flies from Samuel to Jonathan, from Jonathan to Ahimelech. When he was hunted from the prophet, he flies to the priest; as one that knew justice and compassion should dwell in those breasts which are consecrated unto God.

The ark and the tabernacle were then separated; the ark was at Kirjath-jearim, the tabernacle at Nob. God was present with both. Whither should David fly for succour, but to the House of that God which had anointed him?

Ahimelech was wont to see David attended with the troops of Israel, or with the gallants of the court; it seems strange therefore to him, to see so great a peer and champion of Israel come alone. These are the alterations to which earthly greatness is subject. Not many days are past, since no man was honoured at court but Jonathan and David; now they are both for the time in disgrace: now dare not the king's son-in-law, brother to the prince both in love and marriage, shew his head at the court; nor any of those that bowed to him, dare stir a foot with him. Princes are as the sun, and great subjects are like to dials; if the sun shine not on the dial, no man will look at it.

Even he, that overcame the bear, the lion, the giant, is overcome with fear. He, that had cut off two hundred fore-skins of the Philistines, had not circumcised his own heart of the weak passions that follow distrust. Now that he is hard driven, he practises to help himself with an unwarrantable shift. Who can look to pass this pilgrimage without infirmities, when David dissembleth to Ahimelech? A weak man's rules may be better than the best man's actions. God lets us see some blemishes in his holiest servants, that we may neither be too highly conceited of flesh and blood, nor too much dejected when we have been miscarried into sin. Hitherto hath David gone upright, now he begins to halt with the priest of God; and, under pretence of Saul's employment, draws that favour from Ahimelech which shall afterwards cost him his head.

What could Ahimelech have thought too dear for God's anointed, for God's champion! It is not like, but that if David had sincerely opened himself to the priest as he had done to the prophet, Ahimelech would have seconded Samuel in some secret and safe succour of so unjust a distress; whereas he is now, by a false colour, led to that kindness which shall be prejudicial to his life. Extremities of evil are commonly inconsiderate; either for that we have not leisure to our thoughts, or perhaps (so we may be perplexed) not thoughts to our leisure. What would David have given afterwards, to have redeemed this oversight?

Under this pretence, he craves a double favour of Ahimelech : the one of bread for his sustenance, the other of a sword for his defence.

There was no bread under the hands of the priest, but that which was consecrated to God; and whereof none might taste, but the devoted servants of the altar: even that, which was with solemn dedication set upon the holy tables before the face of God; a sacramental bread, presented to God with incense, figuring that true bread that came down from Heaven; yet even this bread might, in case of necessity, become common, and be given by Ahimelech, and received by David and his followers. Our Saviour himself justifies the act of both. Ceremonies must give place to substance. God will have mercy and not sacrifice, Charity is the sum and the end of the law: that must be aimed at, in all our actions; wherein it may fall out, that the way to keep the law may be to break it: the intention may be kept, and the letter violated; and it may be a dangerous transgression of the law, to observe the words and neglect the scope of God. That, which would have dispensed with David for the substance of the act, would have much more dispensed with him for the circumstance. The touch of their lawful wives had contracted a legal impurity, not a moral. That could have been no sufficient reason, why, in an urgent necessity, they might not have partaken of the holy bread. Ahimelech was no perfect

casuist. These men might not famish, if they were ceremonially impure but this question bewrayed the care of Ahimelech in distributing the holy bread. There might be in these men a double incapacity, the one as they were seculars, the other as unclean : he saw the one must be, he feared lest the other should be; as one that wished as little indisposition, as possible might be, in those which should be fed from God's table.

It is strange, that David should come to the priest of God for a sword. Who, in all Israel, was so unlikely to furnish him with weapons, as a man of peace, whose armour was only spiritual! Doubtless, David knew well where Goliath's sword lay; as the noble relic of God's victorious deliverance, dedicated to the same God which won it: at this, did that suit aim: none could be so fit for David; none could be so fit for it as David. Who could have so much right to that sword, as he against whom it was drawn, and by whom it was taken? There was more in that sword, than metal and form: David could never cast his eye upon it, but he saw an undoubted monument of the merciful protection of the Almighty; there was therefore more strength in that sword, than sharpness: neither was David's arm so much strengthened by it, as his faith; nothing can overcome him, while he carries with him that assured sign of victory. It is good to take all occasions of renewing the remembrance of God's mercies to us, and our obligations to him.

Doeg, the master of Saul's herdsmen, (for he that went to seek his father's asses before he was king, hath herds and droves now that he is a king,) was now in the court of the tabernacle, upon some occasion of devotion. Though an Israelite in profession, he was an Edomite no less in heart than in blood; yet he hath some vow upon him, and not only comes up to God's house, but abides before the Lord. Hypocrites have equal access to the public places and means of God's service. Even he, that knows the heart, yet shuts his doors upon none; how much less should we dare to exclude any, which can only judge of the heart by the face?

Doeg may set his foot as far within the tabernacle, as David. He sees the passages betwixt him and Ahimelech, and lays them up for an advantage. While he should have edified himself by those holy services, he carps at the priest of God; and, after a lewd misinterpretation of his actions, of an attendant, proves an accuser. To incur favour with an unjust master, he informs against innocent Ahimelech; and makes that his act, which was drawn from him by a cunning circumvention. When we see our auditors before us, little do we know with what hearts they are there, nor what use they will make of their pretended devotion. If many come in simplicity of heart to serve their God, some others may perhaps come to observe their teachers, and to pick quarrels where none are. Only God and

the issue can distinguish betwixt a David and a Doeg, when they are both in the tabernacle.

Honest Ahimelech could little suspect, that he now offered a sacrifice for his executioner; yea, for the murderer of all his family. Oh the wise and deep judgments of the Almighty! God owed a revenge to the house of Eli; and now, by the delation of Doeg, he takes occasion to pay it. It was just in God, which in Doeg was most unjust. Saul's cruelty and the treachery of Doeg do not lose one dram of their guilt by the counsel of God; neither doth the holy counsel of God gather any blemish by their wickedness. If it had pleased God to inflict death upon them sooner, without any pretence of occasion, his justice had been clear from all imputations; now, if Saul and Doeg be instead of a pestilence or fever, who can cavil? The judgments of God are not open, but are always just. He knows how, by one man's sin to punish the sin of another, and by both their sins and punishments to glorify himself. If his word sleep, it shall not die; but, after long intermissions, breaks forth in those effects, which we had forgotten to look for, and ceased to fear. O Lord, thou art sure when thou threatenest, and just when thou judgest. Keep thou us from the sentence of death, else in vain shall we labour to keep ourselves from the execution.