of a scandal, than of a sin; whereas those that are resolved not to make any scruple of sin, despise others' constructions, not caring whom they offend, so that they may please themselves. That Naomi might see her daughter-in-law was not sent back in dislike, she comes home laden with corn. Ruth hath gleaned more this night, than in half the harvest. The care of Boaz was, that she would not return to her mother empty. Love, wheresoever it is, cannot be niggardly. We measure the love of God by his gifts; how shall he abide to send us away empty from those treasures of goodness?

Boaz is restless in the prosecution of this suit, and hies him from his threshing-floor to the gate, and there convenes the nearer kinsman before the elders of the city. What was it that made Boaz so ready to entertain, so forward to urge this match? Wealth she had none, not so much as bread, but what she gleaned out of the field: friends she had none, and those she had elsewhere, Moabites: beauty she could not have much, after that scorching in her travel, in her gleanings. Himself tells her what drew his heart to her; "All the city of my people doth know that thou art a virtuous woman." Virtue, in whomsoever it is found, is a great dowry, and, where it meets with a heart that knows how to value it, is accounted greater riches than all that is hid in the bowels of the earth. The corn-heap of Boaz was but chaff to this, and his money dross.

As a man that had learned to square his actions to the law of God, Boaz proceeds legally with his rival; and tells him of a parcel of Elimelech's land, which, it is like, upon his removal to Moab, he had alienated; which he, as the next kinsman, might have power to redeem; yet so, as he must purchase the wife of the deceased with the land. Every kinsman is not a Boaz; the man could listen to the land, if it had been free from the clog of a necessary marriage: but now he will rather leave the land than take the wife,

lest while he should preserve Elimelech's inheritance, he should destroy his own; for the next seed, which he should have by Ruth, should not be his heir, but his deceased kinsman's. How knew he whether God might not, by that wife, send heirs enough for both their estates? Rather had he therefore incur a manifest injustice, than hazard the danger of his inheritance. The law of God bound him to raise up seed to the next in blood; the care of his inheritance draws him to a neglect of his duty, though with infamy and reproach; and now he had rather his face should be spit upon, and his name should be called, "The house of him whose shoes was pulled off," than to reserve the honour of him, that did his brother right, to his own prejudice.

How many are there that do so over-love their issue, as that they regard neither sin nor shame in advancing it, and that will rather endanger their soul, than lose their name! It is a woeful inheritance that makes

men heirs of the vengeance of God. Boaz is glad to take the advantage of his refusal; and holds that shoe (which was the sign of his tenure) more worth than all the land of Elimelech. And whereas other wives purchase their husbands with a large dowry, this man purchaseth his wife at a dear rate, and thinks his bargain happy. All the substance of the earth is not worth a virtuous and prudent wife: which Boaz doth now so rejoice in, as if he this day only began to be wealthy.

Now is Ruth taken into the house of Boaz; she, that before had said, she was not like one of his maidens, is now become their mistress. This day she hath gleaned all the fields and barns of a rich husband; and, that there might be no want in her happiness by a gracious husband, she hath gained a happy seed, and hath the honour, above all the dames of Israel, to be the great grand-mother of a king, of David, of the Messiah.

Now is Marah turned back again to Naomi; and

Orpah, if she hear of this in Moab, cannot but envy at her sister's happiness. O the sure and bountiful payments of the Almighty! Who ever came under his wing in vain? Who ever lost by trusting him? Who ever forsook the Moab of this world for the true Israel, and did not at last rejoice in the change?

CONTEMPLATION V.

HANNAH AND PENINNAH.

ILL customs, where they are once entertained, are not easily discharged: polygamy, besides carnal delight, might now plead age and example; so as even Elkanah, though a Levite, is tainted with the sin of Lamech, like as fashions of attire, which at the first were disliked as uncomely, yet, when they are once grown common, are taken up of the gravest. Yet this sin, as then current with the time, could not make Elkanah not religious. The house of God in Shiloh was duly frequented of him; oftentimes alone, in his ordinary course of attendance, with all his males thrice a year, and once a year with all his family. The continuance of an unknown sin cannot hinder the uprightness of a man's heart with God; as a man may mole upon his back, and yet think his skin clear; the least touch of knowledge or wilfulness mars his sincerity.

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He, that by virtue of his place was employed about the sacrifices of others, would much less neglect his own. It is a shame for him, that teaches God's people that they should not appear before the Lord empty, to bring no sacrifice for himself. If Levites be profane, who should be religious?

It was the fashion, when they sacrificed to feast;

so did Elkanah; the day of his devotion is the day of his triumph; he makes great cheer for his whole family, even for that wife which he loved less. There is nothing more comely than cheerfulness in the services of God. What is there in all the world, wherewith the heart of man should be so lifted up, as with the conscience of his duty done to his Maker? While we do so, God doth to us, as our glass, smile upon us, while we smile on him.

Love will be seen by entertainment; Peninnah and her children shall not complain of want, but Hannah shall find her husband's affection in her portion; as his love to her was double, so was her part: she fared not the worse because she was childless. No good husband will dislike his wife for a fault out of the power of her redress; yea, rather, that, which might seem to lose the love of her husband, wins it, her barrenness. The good nature of Elkanah laboured, by his dear respects, to recompense this affliction; that so she might find no less contentment in the fruit of his hearty love, than she had grief from her own fruitlessness. It is the property of true mercy, to be most favourable to the weakest; thus doth the gracious spouse of the Christian soul pity the barrenness of his servants. O Saviour, we should not find thee so indulgent to us, if we did not complain of our own unworthiness! Peninnah may have the more children, but barren Hannah hath the most love. How much rather could Elkanah have wished Peninnah barren, and Hannah fruitful! But if she should have had both issue and love, she had been proud, and her rival despised. God knows how to disperse his favours so, that every one may have cause both of thankfulness and humiliation; while there is no one that hath all, no one but hath some. If envy and contempt were not thus equally tempered, some would be over haughty, and others too miserable; but now, every man sees that in himself which is worthy of contempt, and matter of emulation in others; and, contrarily,

sees what to pity and dislike in the most eminent, and what to applaud in himself; and out of this contrariety arises a sweet mean of contentation.

The love of Elkanah is so unable to free Hannah from the wrongs of her rival, that it procures them rather. The unfruitfulness of Hannah had never with so much despite been laid in her dish, if her husband's heart had been as barren of love to her. Envy, though it take advantage of our weaknesses, yet is ever raised upon some grounds of happiness, in them whom it emulates; it is ever an ill effect of a good cause. If Abel's sacrifice had not been accepted, and if the acceptation of his sacrifice had not been a blessing, no envy had followed upon it.

There is no evil of another, wherein it is fit to rejoice, but his envy, and this is worthy of our joy and thankfulness; because it shows us the price of that good which we had, and valued not. The malignity of envy is thus well answered, when it is made the evil cause of a good effect to us, when God and our souls may gain by another's sin. I do not find that Hannah insulted upon Peninnah, for the greater measure of her husband's love, as Peninnah did upon her for her fruitlessness. Those that are truly gracious know how to receive the blessings of God, without contempt of them that want; and have learned to be thankful, without overliness.

Envy, when it is once conceived in a malicious heart, is like fire in billets of juniper, which, they say, continues more years than one. Every year was Hannah thus vexed with her emulous partner, and troubled both in her prayers and meals. Amidst all their feastings, she fed on nothing but her tears. Some dispositions are less sensible, and more careless of the despite and injuries of others, and can turn over unkind usages with contempt. By how much more tender the heart is, so much more deeply is it ever affected with discourtesies: as wax receives and retains that impression, which in the hard clay cannot be seen; or, as the