them such fools as to mistake villany and madness for the best virtue. than death, as their sex was weaker. O marvellous cruelty, that a man should kill a man for his sex's sake! Whosoever hath loosed the reins unto cruelty, is easily carried into incredible extremities. Injustice is upheld by violence, whereas just governments are maintained by love. Taskmasters must be set over Israel; they should not be the true seed of Israel, if they From burdens they proceed to bondage, were not still set to wrestle with God in and from bondage to blood: from an unaffiictions: heavy burdens must be laid upon | just vexation of their body, to an inhuman them. Israel is never but loaded: the des- destruction of the fruit of their body. As tiny of one of Jacob's sons is common to the sins of the concupiscible part, from all, to lie down betwixt their burdens. If slight motions, grow on to foul executions, they had seemed to breathe them in Goshen so do those of the irascible. There is no sometimes, yet even there it was no small sin whose harbour is more unsafe than that isery to be foreigners, and to live among of malice: but ofttimes the power of tyrants idolaters; but now the name of a slave is answers not their will. Evil commanders added to the name of a stranger. Israel hath cannot always meet with equally mischiegathered some rust in idolatrous Egypt, and vous agents. now he must be scoured: they had borne the burden of God's anger if they had not borne the burdens of the Egyptians. As God afflicted them with another mind than the Egyptians (God to exercise them, the Egyptians to suppress them), so causes Le the event to differ. Who would not have thought with these Egyptians, that so extreme misery should not have made the Israelites unfit, both for generation and resistance? Moderate exercise strengthens, extreme destroys nature: that God, which many times works by contrary means, caused them to grow with depression, with persecution to multiply. How can God's church but fare well, since the very malice of their enemies benefits them! O the sovereign goodness of our God, that turns all our poisons into cordials! God's vine bears the better with bleeding. And now the Egyptians could be angry with their own maliciousness, that this was the occasion of multiplying them whom they hated and feared; to see that this service gained more to the workmen than to their masters: the stronger therefore the Israelites grew, the more impotent grew the malice of their persecutors. And since their own labour strengthens them, now tyranny will try what can be done by the violence of others. Since the present strength cannot be subdued, the hopes of succession must be prevented: women must be suborned to be murderers; and those whose office is to help the birth must destroy it. There was less suspicion of cruelty in that sex, and more opportunity of doing mischief. The male children must be born, and die at once. What can be more innocent than the child that hath not lived so much as to cry, or to see light? It is fault enough to be the son of an Israelite. The daughters may live for bondage, for lust; a condition so much (at the least) worse The fear of God teaches the midwives to disobey an unjust command; they well knew how no excuse it is for evil, I was bidden. God said to their hearts, "Thou shalt not kill." This voice was louder than Pharaoh's. I commend their obedience in disobeying; I dare not commend their excuse. There was as much weakness in their answer, as strength in their practice: as they feared God in not killing, so they feared Pharaoh in dissembling. Ofttimes those that make conscience of greater sins are overtaken with less. It is well and rare, if we can come forth of a dangerous action without any soil; and if we have escaped the storm, that some after-drops wet us not. Who would not have expected that the midwives should be murdered, for not murdering? Pharaoh could not be so simple to think these women trusty; yet his indignation had no power to reach to their punishment. God prospered the midwives: who can harm them? Even the not doing of evil is rewarded with good. And why did they prosper? Because they feared God-not for their dissimulation, but their piety; so did God regard their mercy, that he regarded not their infirmity. How fondly do men lay the thank upon the sin, which is due to the virtue! True wisdom teaches to distinguish God's actions, and to ascribe them to the right causes: pardon belongs to the lie of the midwives, and remuneration to their goodness; prosperity to their fear of God. But that which the midwives will not, the multitude shall do. It were strange if wicked rulers should not find some or other instruments of violence; all the people must drown whom the women saved: cruelty hath but smoked before, now it flames up; secret practising hath made it shameless, that now it dare proclaim tv ranny. It is a miserable state, where | scionable care, singularity. Every vice every man is made an executioner. There hath a title, and every virtue a disgrace. can be no greater argument of an ill cause, Yet while possible tasks were imposed, than a bloody persecution; whereas truth there was some comfort: their diligence upholds herself by mildness, and is pro- might save their back from stripes. The moted by patience. This is their act; what conceit of a benefit to the commander, and was their issue? The people must drown hope of impunity to the labourer, might their males, themselves are drowned: they give a good pretence to great difficulties. die by the same means by which they But to require tasks not feasible is tyrancaused the Israelitish infants to die. That nical, and doth only pick a quarrel to law of retaliation which God will not allow punish. They could neither make straw, to us, because we are fellow-creatures, he nor find it, yet they must have it. Do justly practiseth in us. God would have what may be, is tolerable; but do what us read our sins in our judgments, that we cannot be, is cruel. Those which are might both repent of our sins and give above others in place, must measure their glory to his justice. commands, not by their own wills, but by the strength of their inferiors. To require more of a beast than he can do, is inhuman. The task is not done; the taskmasters are beaten : the punishment lies where the charge is; they must exact it of the people, Pharaoh of them. It is the misery of those which are trusted with authority, that their inferiors' faults are beaten upon their backs. This was not the fault to require it of the taskmasters, but to require it by the taskmasters of the people. Public persons do either good or ill with a thousand hands, and with no fewer shall receive it. Pharaoh raged before; much more now, that he received a message of dismission. The monitions of God make ill men worse: the waves do not beat, nor roar any where so much as at the bank which restrains them. Corruption, when it is checked, grows mad with rage: as the vapour in a cloud would not make that fearful report, if it met not with opposition. A good heart yields at the stillest voice of God: but the most gracious motions of God harden the wicked. Many would not be so desperately settled in their sins, if the world had not controlled them. How mild a message was this to Pharaoh, and yet how galling! "We pray thee let us go." God commands him that which he feared. He took pleasure in the present servitude of Israel: God calls for a release. If the suit had been for mitigation of labour, for preservation of their children, it might have carried some hope, and have found some favour: but now God requires that which he knows will as much discontent Pharaoh, as Pharaoh's cruelty could discontent the Israelites; "Let us go." How contrary are God's precepts to natural minds! And indeed, as they love to cross him in their practice, so he loves to cross them in their commands before, and his punishments afterwards. It is a dangerous sign of an ill heart to feel God's yoke heavy. Moses talks of sacrifice. Pharaoh talks of work. Any thing seems due work to a carnal mind, saving God's service; nothing superfluous, but religious duties. Christ tells us, there is but one thing necessary; nature tells us, there is nothing but that needless: Moses speaks of devotion, Pharaoh of idleness. It hath been an old use, as to cast fair colours upon our own vicious actions, so to cast evil aspersions upon the good actions of others. The same devil that spoke in Pharaoh, speaks still in our scoffers, and calls religion hypocrisy; con CONTEMPLATION II. OF THE BIRTH AND It is a wonder that Amram, the father of Moses, would think of the marriage-bed in so troublesome a time, when he knew he should beget children either to slavery or slaughter. Yet even now, in the heat of this bondage, he marries Jochebed. The drowning of his sons was not so great an evil, as his own burning; the thraldom of his daughters not so great an evil, as the subjection unto sinful desires. He therefore uses God's remedy for his sin, and refers the sequel of his danger to God. How necessary is this intimation for those which have not the power of containing! Perhaps he would have thought it better to live childless: but Amram and Jochebed durst not incur the danger of a sin, to avoid the danger of a mischief. No doubt, when Jochebed, the mother of Moses, saw a man-child born of her, and him beautiful and comely, she fell into extreme passion to think that the executioner's hand should succeed the midwife's. All the time of her conception, she could not but fear a son; now she sees him, and thinks of his birth and death at once her second throes are more grievous than her first. The pains of travail in E others are somewhat mitigated with hope, and countervailed with joy, that a manchild is born; in her they are doubled with fear. The remedy of others is her complaint. Still she looks when some fierce Egyptian would come in, and snatch her new-born infant out of her bosom, whose comeliness had now also added to her affection. Many times God writes presages of majesty and honour, even in the faces of children. Little did she think that she held in her lap the deliverer of Israel. It is good to hazard in greatest appearances of danger. If Jochebed had said, If I bear a son, they will kill him, where had been the great rescuer of Israel? Happy is that resolution which can follow God hoodwinked, and let him dispose of the event. When she can no longer hide him in her womb, she hides him in her house, afraid lest every one of his cryings should guide the executioners to his cradle. And now she sees her treasure can be no longer hid, she ships him in a bark of bulrushes, and commits him to the mercy of the waves, and (which was more merciless) to the danger of an Egyptian passenger, yet doth she not leave him without a guardian. No tyranny can forbid her to love him whom she is forbidden to keep. Her daughter's eyes must supply the place of her arms. And if the weak affection of a mother were thus effectually careful, what shall we think of Him whose love, whose compassion, is (as himself) infinite? His eye, his hand, cannot but be with us, even when we forsake ourselves. Moses had never a stronger protection about him, no, not when all his Israelites were pitched about his tent in the wilderness, than now when he lay sprawling alone upon the waves: no water, no Egyptian, can hurt him. Neither friend nor mother dare own him, and now God challenges his custody. When we seem most neglected and forlorn in ourselves, then is God most present, most vigilant. our ignorance and regardlessness! She saw the ark, opens it, finds the child weeping: his beauty and his tears had God provided for the strong persuasions of mercy. This young and lively oratory prevailed. Her heart is struck with compassion, and yet her tongue could say, "It is a Hebrew child." See here the merciful daughter of a cruel father! It is an uncharitable and injurious ground, to judge of the child's disposition by the parent's. How well doth pity beseem great personages, and most in extremities! It had been death to another to rescue the child of a Hebrew; in her it was safe and noble. It is a happy thing when great ones improve their places to so much more charity, as their liberty is more. Moses' sister finding the princess compassionate, offers to procure a nurse, and fetches the mother: and who can be so fit a nurse as a mother? She now with glad hands receives her child, both with authority and reward. She would have given all her substance for the life of her son; and now she hath a reward to nurse him. The exchange of the name of a mother for the name of a nurse, hath gained her both her son and his education, and with both a recompense. Religion doth not call us to a weak simplicity, but allows us as much of the serpent as of the dove. Lawful policies have from God both liberty in the use, and blessing in the success. The good lady did not breed him as some child of alms, or as some wretched outcast, for whom it might be favour enough to live, but as her own son, in all the delicacies, in all the learning of Egypt. Whatsoever the court or the school could put into him, he wanted not; yet all this could not make him forget that he was a Hebrew. Education works wondrous changes, and is of great force either way. A little advancement hath so puffed some up above themselves, that they have not only forgot their friends, but scorned their parents. All the honours of Egypt could not win Moses not His providence brings Pharaoh's daugh- to call his nurse mother, or wean him from ter thither to wash herself. Those times a willing misery with the Israelites. If we looked for no great state: a princess comes had Moses' faith, we could not but make to bathe herself in the open stream. She his choice. It is only our infidelity that meant only to wash herself: God fetches binds us so to the world, and makes us her thither to deliver the deliverer of his prefer the momentary pleasures of sin unto people. His designs go beyond ours. We that everlasting recompense of reward. know not (when we set our foot over our threshold) what he hath to do with us. This event seemed casual to this princess, but predetermined and provided by God before she was. How wisely and sweetly God brings to pass his own purposes, in He went forth and looked on the burdens of Israel. What needed Moses to have afflicted himself with the afflictions of others? Himself was at ease and pleasure in the court of Pharaoh. A good heart cannot endure to be happy alone, | and must needs, unbidden, share with others in their miseries. He is no true Moses that is not moved with the calamities of God's church. To see an Egyptian smite a Hebrew, it smote him, and moved him to smite. He hath no Israelitish blood in him that can endure to see an Israelite stricken either with hand or tongue. Here was his zeal where was his authority? Doubtless, Moses had an instinct from God of his magistracy, else how should he think they would have understood what himself did not? Oppressions may not be righted by violence, but by law. The redress of evil, by a person unwarranted, is evil. Moses knew that God had called him; he knew that Pharaoh knew it not; therefore he hides the Egyptian in the sand. Those actions which may be approved unto God, are not always safe with men: as contrarily, too many things go current with men, which are not approved of God. well, if never so well tempered. No sugar can bereave a pill of its bitterness. None but the gracious can say, "Let the righteous smite me." Next to the not deserving a reproof, is the well taking of it. But who is so ready to except and exclaim as the wrong doer? The patient replies not. One injury draws on another, first to his brother, then to his reprover. Guiltiness will make a man stir upon every touch. He that was wronged could incline to reconciliation. Malice makes men incapable of good counsel; and there are none so great enemies to justice as those who are enemies to peace. With what impatience doth a galled heart receive an admonition! This unworthy Israelite is the pattern of a stomachful offender: first he is moved to choler in himself, then he calls for the authority of the admonisher. A small authority will serve for a loving admonition. It is the duty of Another Hebrew is stricken, but by a men, much more of Christians, to advise Hebrew: the act is the same, the agents against sin; yet this man asks, "Who differ; neither doth their profession more made thee a judge?" for but finding fault differ than Moses' proceedings. He gives with his injury. Then he aggravates and blows to the one, to the other words. The misconstrues: "Wilt thou kill me?" when blows to the Egyptians were deadly; the Moses meant only to save both. It was words to the Hebrew gentle and plausible. the death of his malice only that was inAs God makes a difference betwixt the chas- tended, and the safety of his person. And tisements of his own and punishments of lastly, he upbraids him with former actions: strange children, so must wise governors "Thou killedst the Egyptian." What if learn to distinguish of sins and judgments he did? what if unjustly? What was this according to circumstances. How mildly to the Hebrew? Another man's sin is no doth Moses admonish!" Sirs, ye are bre-excuse for ours. A wicked heart never thren." If there had been but a dram of good nature in these Hebrews, they had relented now it is strange to see, that being so universally vexed with their common adversary, they should yet vex one another. One would have thought that a common opposition should have united them more; yet now private grudges do thus dangerously divide them. Blows enough were not dealt by the Egyptians, their own must add to the violence. Still Satan is thus busy, and Christians are thus malicious, that (as if they wanted eniemies) they fly on one another's faces. While we are in this Egypt of the world, all unkind strifes would easily be composed, if we did not forget that we are brethren. Behold an Egyptian in the skin of an Hebrew: how dogged an answer doth Moses receive to so gentle a reproof! Who would not have expected that this Hebrew had been enough dejected with the common affliction? But vexations may make some more miserable, not more humble; as we see sicknesses make some tractable, others more froward. It is no easy matter to bear a reproof 100ks inward to itself, but outward to the quality of the reprover: if that afford exception, it is enough; as a dog runs first to revenge on the stone. What matter is it to me who he be that admonisheth me? Let me look home into myself: let me look to his advice. If that be good, it is more shame to me to be reproved by an evil man. As a good man's allowance cannot warrant evil, so an evil man's reproof may remedy evil. If this Hebrew had been well pleased, Moses had not heard of his slaughter; now in choler all will out; and if this man's tongue had not thus cast him in the teeth with blood, he had been surprised by Pharaoh, ere he could have known that the fact was known. Now he grows jealous, flees, and escapes. No friend is so commodious, in some cases, as an adversary. This wound, which the Hebrew thought to give Moses, saved his life. As it is good for a man to have an enemy, so it shall be our wisdom to make use of his most choleric objections. The worst of an enemy may prove most sovereign to ourselves. Moses flees. It is no I do not so much marvel that Jethro gave him his daughter (for he saw him valiant, wise, learned, nobly bred), as that Moses would take her, a stranger both in blood and religion. I could plead for him neces sity; his own nation was shut up to him. If he would have tried to fetch a daughter of Israel, he had endangered to leave himself behind. I could plead some correspondence in common principles of religion; for doubtless Moses' zeal could not suffer him to smother the truth in himself: he should have been an unfaithful servant, if he had not been his master's teacher. Yet neither of these can make this match either safe or good. The event bewrays it dangerously inconvenient. This choice had like to have cost him dear: she stood in his way for circumcision; God stands in his way for revenge. Though he was now in God's message, yet might he not be forborn in this neglect. No circumstance either of the dearness of the solicitor, or our own engagement, can bear out a sin with God. Those, which are unequally yoked, may not ever look to draw one way. True love to the person cannot long agree with dislike of the religion. He had need to be more than a man, that hath a Zipporah in his bosom, and would have true zeal in his heart. All this while, Moses' affection was not so tied to Midian, that he could forget Egypt. He was a stranger in Midian: what was he else in Egypt? Surely either Egypt was not his home, or a miserable one; and yet, in reference to it, he calls his son Gershom, a stranger there. Much better were it to be a stranger there, than a dweller in Egypt. How hardly can we forget the place of our abode or education, although never so homely: and if he so thought of his Egyptian home, where was nothing but bondage and tyranny, how should we think of that home of ours above, where is nothing but rest and bless discomfort for a man to flee when his con- CONTEMPLATION III.-OF MOSES' CALLING. FORTY years was Moses a courtier, and forty years (after that) a shepherd. That great men may not be ashamed of honest vocations, the greatest that ever were have been content to take up with mean trades. The contempt of honest callings, in those which are well-born, argues pride without wit. How constantly did Moses stick to his hook! and yet a man of great spirits, of excellent learning, of curious education; and, if God had not (after his forty |