SECT. II.

Of Eli, and of the ark taken; and of Dagon's fall, and the sending back of the ark.

THE story of Eli the priest, who succeeded Samson, is written in the beginning of Samuel, who foretold him of the destruction of his house, for the wickedness of his sons, which he suppressed not, neither did he punish them according to their deserts'; whose sins were horrible, both in abusing the sacrifice, and profaning and polluting the holy places; though Levi Ben Gerson, to extenuate this filthy offence of forcing the women by the sons of Eli, hath a contrary opinion. In this time therefore it pleased God to cast the Israelites under the swords of the Philistines; of whom there perished in the first encounter four thousand, and in the second battle thirty thousand footmen; among whom the sons of Eli being slain, their father, (hearing the lamentable success,) by falling from his chair, brake his neck. He was the first that obtained the highpriesthood of the stock of Ithamar the son of Aaron, before whose time it continued successively in the race of Eleazar, the eldest brother of Ithamar; for Aaron was the first, Eleazar the second, Phineas the son of Eleazar the third, Abishu the son of Phineas the fourth, his son Bocci the fifth, Ozi the son of Bocci the sixth, and then Eli; as Josephus and Lyranus, out of divers Hebrew authors, have conceived. In the race of Ithamar the priesthood continued after Eli, to the time of Solomon, who cast out Abiathar', and established Zadok and Ahimaaz, and their successors. The ark of God, which Israel brought into the field, was in this battle taken by the Philistines. For as David witnesseth, Psal. lxxviii. God greatly abhorred Israel, so that he forsook the ha. bitation of Shiloh; even the tabernacle where he 2 1 Kings ii, 27, and 1 Chron. vi.

1 1 Sam. ii. 22.

'dwelt among men, and delivered his power into 'captivity,' &c.

Now as it pleased God, at this time, that the ark whereby himself was represented, should fall into the hands of the heathen, for the offences of the priests and people; so did he permit the Chaldeans to destroy the temple built by Solomon; the Romans to overthrow the second temple; and the Turks to overthrow the Christian churches in Asia and Europe. And had not the Israelites put more confidence in the sacrament, or representation, which was the ark, than in God himself, they would have observed his laws, and served him only; which whensoever they did, they were then victorious. For after the captivity they had no ark3 at all, nor in the times of the Maccabees; and yet for their piety it pleased God to make that family as victorious as any that guarded themselves by the sign instead of the substance. And that the ark was not made to the end to be carried into the field as an ensign, David witnessed when he fled from Absalom. For when the priests would have carried the ark with him, he forbad it, and caused it to be returned into the city, using these words: If I shall find favour in the eyes of 'the Lord, he will bring me again; if not, let him 'do to me as seemeth good in his eyes*.

The Trojans believed, that while their Palladium, or the image of Minerva, was kept in Troy, the city should never be overturned; so did the Christians in the last fatal battle against Saladine, carry into the field, as they were made believe, the very cross whereon Christ died, and yet they lost the battle, their bodies, and the wood. But Chrysostom, upon St. Matthew, (if that be his work,) giveth a good judgment, speaking of those that wore a part of St. John's gospel about their necks, for an amulet or preservative: Si tibi ea non prosunt in auribus, quomodo proderunt in collo ?' If those words

3 1 Sam. v. 6.

4 2 Sam. xv. 25, 26.

do not profit men in their ears, (to wit, the hear ing of the Gospel preached,) how should it profit them by hanging it about their necks? For, it was neither the wood of the ark, nor the wood of the cross, but the reverence of the father, that gave the one for a memory of his covenant, and the faith in his son, which shed his blood on the other, for redemption, that could or can profit them and us, either in this life, or after it.

The Philistines returning with the greatest victory and glory which ever they obtained, carried the ark of God with them to Azotus, and set it up in the house of Dagon their idol: but that night the idol fell out of his place, from above to the ground, and lay under the ark. The morning following they took it up, and set it again in his place, and it fell the second time; and the head brake from the body, and the hands from the arms, shewing that it had nor power nor understanding in the presence of God; for the head fell off, which is the seat of reason and knowledge, and the hands, (by which we execute strength,) were sundered from the arms. For God and the devil inhabit not in one house, nor in one heart. And if this idol could not endure the repre sentation of the true God, it is not to be marvelled, that at such time as it pleased him to cover his only begotten with flesh, and sent him into the world, that all the oracles wherein the devil derided and betrayed mortal men, lost power, speech, and opera tion at the instant. For, when that true light, which never had beginning of brightness, brake through the clouds of a virgin's body, shining upon the earth, which had been long obscured by idolatry, all those foul and stinking vapours vanished. Plutarch res hearseth a memorable accident in that age concerning the death of the great god Pan, as he stileth him; where, (as ignorant of the true cause,) he searcheth his brains for many reasons of so great an alteration; yet finds he none out but frivolous. For

not only this old devil did then die as he supposed but all the rest, as Apollo, Jupiter, Diana, and the whole rabble, became speechless.

Now, while the Philistines triumphed after this victory, God struck them with the grievous disease of the hemorrhoides, of which they perished in great numbers. For it is written, that the Lord destroyed them. It therefore was, by general consent, ordered, that the ark should be removed from Azotus to Gath, or Geth, another of the five great cities of the Philistines; to prove, as it seemeth, whether this disease were fallen on them by accident, or by the hand of God immediately; but when it was brought to Gath, and received by them, the plague was yet more grievous and mortal: For the hand of the 'Lord was against the city with a very great destruction; and he smote the men of the city, both 'small and greats,' &c. And being not satisfied, they of Gath sent the ark to Ekron or Accaron, a third city of the Philistines; but they also felt the same smart, and cried out that themselves and their people should be slain thereby for there was a destruction and death throughout all the city. In the end, by the advice of their priests, the princes of the Philistines did not only resolve to return the ark, but to offer gifts unto the God of Israel, remembering the plague which had fallen on the Egyptians, when their hearts were hardened to hold the people of God from their inheritance, and from his service, by strong hand. Wherefore, confessing the power of the God of Israel to be almighty, and that their own idols were subject thereunto, they agreed to offer a sin-offering, using these words: so ye shall give glory to the God of Israel, that he may 'take his hand from you, and from your gods, and 'from your land;' 1 Sam. vi. 5. And what can be a more excellent witnessing, than where an enemy doth approve our cause? according to Aristotle,

5 1 Sam, v..

Pulchrum est testimonium, quo nostra probantur ab hostibus.' So did Pharaoh confess the living God, when he was plagued in Egypt; and Nabuchodonosor, and Darius, when they had seen his miracles by Daniel.

This counsel, therefore, of the priests being enbraced, and the golden hemorrhoides, and the golden mice prepared, they caused two milch kine to be chosen, such as had not been yoked, and a new cart or carriage to be framed; but they durst not drive or direct it to any place certain, thereby to make trial whether it were indeed the hand of God that had stricken them. For, if the ark of God were carried towards Bethshemish, and into the territory of Israel; then they should resolve, that from God only came their late destruction. For the Philistines knew that the milch kine which drew the ark could not be forced from their calves, but that they would have followed them wheresoever; much less when they were left to themselves, would they travel a contrary way for, in the darkest night in the world, if calves be removed from their dams, the kine will follow them through woods and deserts by the foot, till they find them. But the kine travelled directly towards Bethshemish; and when they came into the fields thereof, to wit, of one Joshua of the same city, they stood still there; which, when the princes of the Philistines perceived, they returned to Ekron; after which, God spared not his own people the Bethshemites, in that they presumed to look into the ark. And because they knew God and his commandments, and had been taught accordingly, he struck them more grievously than he did the heathen, for there perished of them fifty thou sand and seventy. From hence the ark was carried to Kirjath-jearim, and placed in the house of Abinadab; where it is written, that it remained twenty years, in the charge of Eleazar, his son, until David brought it to Jerusalem..