CHAP. XXXIV.

Verse 1. CHristians should of all others be very shy of the occasions of evil, and take heed of the Wine when 'tis red in the glass, and have an eye to their eye when they look on a Maid. Dinah out of a gadding curiosity must needs vi∣sit the Daughters of the Land; and while she goeth to see the Daughters, the Son saw her, visamque cupit, and having seen her he took her, having taken her he lay with her: the report whereof coming to Iacobs Sons they were grieved; being grie∣ved they were wroth; being wroth they meditate revenge; meditating revenge they speak deceitfully; having deceived they slew; having slain they spoyle. See how great a fire a little matter kindleth, what great evils issue from small beginnings: take heed then of these beginnings.

Verse 3. Shechem in this verse bewrays a good nature even in filthiness; he loves Dinah after his sin, and would needs Marry her whom he had defiled. Commonly Lust ends in loathing. Ammon abhors Tamar as much after the act, as before he loved; and beats her out of doors, whom he was sick to bring in. But Shechem would not let Dinah fare the worse for his sin. And now he goes about to entertain her with honest love, whom the rage of his Lust had dishonestly abused. Her de∣flouring shall be no prejudice to her, since her shame shall redound to none but him, and he will hide her dishonour with the name of an Husband. Those actions that are ill begun, can hardly be salved up with late satisfactions; whereas good entrances give strength to the proceedings, and success to the end.

Verse 4. I find but one only Daughter of Iacob; who must needs therefore be a great Darling to her Father; and she so miscarries that she causes her Fathers grief to be more than his love. As her Mother Leah, so she hath a fault in her eyes, which was curiosity. She will needs see and be seen, and whiles she doth vainly see, she is seen lustfully. It is not enough for us to look to our own thoughts, except we be∣ware of the provocations of others. If we once wander out of the Lists that God hath set us in our Callings, there is nothing but danger: her virginity had been safe had she kept home; or if Shechem had forced her in her Mothers Tent, this loss of her virginity had been without her sin, now she is not innocent that gave the occasion. Her eyes were guilty of the temptation: only to see is an insufficient warrant to Page  53 draw us into places of spiritual hazard. If Shechem had seen her busie at home, his love had been free from outrage; now the lightness of her presence gave encourage∣ment to his inordinate desire. Immodesty of behaviour makes way to lust, and gives life unto wicked hopes.

Verse 14. The two old men, Iacob and Hamor, would have ended the matter peaceably, but youth commonly undertakes rashly, and performs with passion. The Sons of Iacob think of nothing but revenge, and which is worst of all begin their cruelty with craft, and hide their craft with Religion. A smiling malice is most dead∣ly, and hatred doth most rankle the heart when it is kept in, and dissembled. We cannot give our Sister to an uncircumcised man; here was God in the mouth, and Satan in the heart. The bloodiest of all Projects have ever wont to be coloured with Religi∣on; because the worse any thing is, the better shew it desires to make; and contra∣rily the better colour is put upon any vice the more odious it is: for as every simula∣tion adds to an evil, so the best adds most evil: themselves had taken the Daughters and Sisters of uncircumcised men; yea, Iacob himself did so; why might not then an uncircumcised man obtain their Sister? Or if there be a difference of giving and ta∣king, it had been well if it had not been only pretended. It had been an happy ra∣vishment of Dinah that should have drawn a whole Country into the bosome of the Church; but here was a Sacrament intended not to the good of the soul, but to the murther of the body.

Verse 15. Simeon and Levi, when they meditate their revenge for the Rape com∣mitted upon their Sister, when they pretended Peace yet they required a little bloud, they would have the Shechemites Circumcised; but when they had opened a Vein, they made them bleed to Death; when they were under the soreness of Circumcision, they slew them all. Gods Justice required bloud likewise, the bloud of his Son; but that bloud is not spilt as was the bloud of these Shechemites, but poured from that Head to our Hearts, into the Veins and Wounds of our own Souls. In the Circumcision and Passion of our Saviour there was Bloud shed, but no Bloud lost.

Verse 23. It was an hard task for Hamor and Shechem not only to put the knife to their own fore-skins, but to perswade a multitude to so painful a condition. Now to bring this about, as the Sons of Iacob dissembled with them, so they dissemble with the people; Shall not all their flocks and substance be ours? Common profit is pre∣tended when as only Shechems pleasure is meant. No motive is so powerful to the vulgar sort as the name of Commodity; the hope of this makes them prodigal of their skin and bloud; not the love to the Sacrament, nor the love to Shechem: sinister re∣spects draw more to the profession of Religion than Conscience; if it were not for the Loaves and Fishes, the train of Christ would be less. But the Sacraments of God mis-received, never prosper in the end. These men are content to smart, so they may gain.

Verse 25. Now that every one lies sore of his own Wound, Simeon and Levi rush in armed, and wound all the Males to death: Cursed be their Wrath for it was fierce, and their Rage for it was cruel. Indeed filthiness should not have been wrought in Israel; yet murther should not have been wrought by Israel. If they had been fit Judges, which were but bloudy Executioners, how far doth the punishment exceed the fault. To punish above the offence, is no less injustice than to offend. One of∣fendeth, and all feel the revenge: yea, all the innocent suffer that revenge, which he that offended deserved not. Shechem sinneth, but Dinah tempted him. She that was so light as to wander abroad alone only to gaze, I fear was not over-difficult to yield: and if having wrought her shame, he had driven her home with disgrace to her Fa∣thers Tent, such tyrannous lust had justly called for bloud: but now he craves, and offers, and would pay dear for but leave to give satisfaction: to execute rigor upon a submiss offendor is more merciless than just: or if the punishment had been both just and proportionable from another, yet from them which had vowed Peace and Affini∣ty, it was shamefully unjust. To disappoint the Trust of another, and to neglect Page  54 our own promise and fidelity for private purposes, adds faithlessness unto our cruelty.

Verse 30. Who would have looked to have found this outrage in the Family of Ia∣cob? How did that good Patriarch, when he saw Dinah come home blubber'd and wringing her hands, Simeon and Levi sprinkled with bloud, wish that Leah had been barren as long as Rachel. Good Parents have grief enough though they sustain no blame for their Childrens sins. What great evils arise from small beginnings. The idle curiosity of Dinah hath bred all this mischeif. Ravishment follows upon her wandring, upon her ravishment murther, upon the murther spoyl. It is holy and safe to be jealous of the first occasions of evil, either done or suffered.