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 foil; and if we have escaped the storm, that some after-drops wet us not. Who would not have expected, that the midwives should be mur dered, for not murdering! Pharaoh could not be so simple to think these women trusty; yet his indignation had no power to reach 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 remu neration 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 had but smoked before, now it flames up; secret practising hath made it shameless, that now it dare proclaim tyranny. It is a miserable state, where every man is made an executioner. There can be no greater argument of an ill cause, than a bloody persecution; whereas, truth upholds herself by mildness, and is promoted by patience. This is their act, what was their issue? the people must drown their males, themselves are drowned: they died by the same means, by which they caused the poor Is-, raelitish infants to die; that law of retaliation which God will not allow to us, because we are fellow creatures, he justly practiseth in us. God would have us read our sins in our judgments, that we might both repent of our sins and give glory to his justice. 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 ᎥᏝ 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 word 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, conscionable care singularity. Every vice hath a title, and every virtue a disgrace. Yet while possible tasks were imposed, there was some comfort: their diligence might save their backs from stripes. The conceit of a benefit to the commander, and hope of impunity to the labourer, might give a good pretence to great difficulties; but to require tasks not feasible, is tyrannical, and doth only pick a quarrel to punish; they could neither make straw, nor find it, yet they must have it. "Do what may be," is tolerable; but "Do what cannot be," is cruel. Those which are above others in place must measure their 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 task-masters 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 task-masters, but to require it by the task-masters of the people. Public persons do either good or ill with a thousand hands, and with no fewer shall receive it. Exod. i. in the OF THE BIRTH AND BREEDING OF MOSES. 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, 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 imitation, for those which have not the power of containing! perhaps we 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 others are somewhat mitigated with hope, and countervailed with joy that a man-child was 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 hood-winked, 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 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 bullrushes, 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. His providence brings Pharaoh's daughter thither to wash herself. Those times looked for no great state: a princess comes to bathe herself in the open stream: she meant only to wash herself; God fetches her thither, to deliver the deliverer of his people. His designs go beyond ours. We 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 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 parents. 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 cha rity, as their liberty is more. Moses's 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 recompence, 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 to call his nurse, mother, or wean him from a willing misery with the Israelites. If we had Moses's faith, we could not but make his choice. It is only our infidelity that binds us so to the world, and makes us prefer the momentary pleasures of sin, unto that everlasting recompence of reward. 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 with 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? Oppres sions 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. Another Hebrew is stricken, but by a Hebrew: the act is the same, the agents differ; neither doth their profession more differ, than Moses's proceedings. He gives blows to the one; to the other, words. The blows, to the Egyptian, were deadly; the words, to the Hebrew, gentle and plausible. As God makes a dif ference betwixt chastisements of his own, and punishments of strange children; so must wise governors learn to distinguish of sins and judgments, according to circumstances. How mildly doth Moses admonish! Sirs, ye are brethren. If there had been but any drachm 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 enemies, they fly in 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 a 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 well, if never so well tempered: no sugar can bereave a pill of his 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 which 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 men, much more of Christians, to advise against sin; yet this man asks, Who made thee a judge? for but finding fault with his injury. Then he aggravates, and misconstrues, Wilt thou kill me? when Moses meant only to save both. It was the death of his malice only that was intended, and the safety of his person. And lastly, he upbraids him with former actions, Thou killedst the Egyptian: What if he did? What if unjustly? What was this to the Hebrew? Another man's sin is no excuse for ours. A wicked heart never looks inward to itself, but outward to the quality of the reprover: if that afford exception, it is enough; a 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 F |