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Concerning the person that is here commended, ye heard that she was a stranger from God, and an alient from the commonwealth of Israel; yet the Lord, as he dealt mercifully with divers others of that kind, so dealt he mercifully with her also. Ye heard wherefore she is marked, Rahab the harlot;—to testify the great mercy of God, and to testify how highly he honours his saints. She is commended here for faith; and this faith, she had it by report: and howsoever, indeed, in respect of her knowledge, it was weak, yet in respect of her apprehension, it was a strong faith. And so we see that that faith which is but weak in one thing, it may be strong in another. Now we are to consider [i] of the testimony she gave of her faith. 2. Of the reward of her faith. 3. How it was made evident and sensible to her and others, that it was a reward of her faith.
III. “She received the spies in peace.” This was a testimony she gave of her faith. There were two spies sent out from the host of Israel, to spy the land of Canaan, and that city among the rest; and yet, albeit she knew them to be spies, she received them. If we will but take a view of Joshua 2, we will see there notable testimonies of her faith. 1. When the spies comes to her house, and she knew them to be spies, yet she keeps them; and the text says not it was for greed of gain she kept them, but she did it by faith. 2. The king sent to her house, hearing that there were two men who were strangers in it, suspecting them to be spies; yet she hides them upon the platform or roof of her house, under some flax she had. 3. which was also another degree and manifestation of the greatness of her faith, she gives a notable confession of her faith to the spies. She acknowledges that the Lord is God in heaven above, and in the earth beneath; and she acknowledges that he has a particular providence which rules all things: and to make a confession of this, in sincerity and from sense, I will assure you it is no small matter. Everyone professes a providence of God, but each one is not touched with the sense of that providence in everything, and to say, It was the Lord who brought this and this to pass. And further, in the confession of her faith she ascribes this glory to God, that it was the Lord who dried up the waters of the Red Sea before them; that it was the Lord who gave them victory over the kings of the Amorites, Og and Sihon; and further, she acknowledges that when they heard of these things, then their hearts did melt, and there remained no courage in them. And withal, she assures them that the Lord had delivered that land into their hand, and that city also among the rest. And lastly, which indeed was a notable proof of her faith, she takes an oath of the spies, that they should deliver her, and her father’s house, and all that they had, when the rest of the city were destroyed.
Where we may see, first, That this fact of hers, for the which she is commended here, in the world it seems not to be worthy of commendation. For she was dwelling in the town, and was born and brought up there all her days; then was this her part, when she heard tell that the enemy was coming on them, that she should betray the city to them? In this she seems to fail both to her country and to her king; and no question, there were edicts given out by the king that no stranger should be received within the city; and it seems that the spies has knew of this, for the woman dwelt upon the wall of the city, and therefore they went to her house. Now, was not this which she did for the ruin both of her king and her country? And yet ye see, albeit it would seem both to be treachery against the country, and treason against the king, yet here it is commended for a work of faith; for it is said, “By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies in peace.” And if so be that it was a work of faith, then the substance of the action, it was good, and commanded of God; otherwise it could not have been done in faith. Then this is sure and certain, that oftentimes that which is counted to be treachery and treason into the world, it is a work that is commanded of God; and the doing of it is acceptable to God, because it is done in faith. And so when God and man commands things to be done, and both of them cannot be obeyed, then we must choose rather to obey God than man; and the apostles, they make the enemies themselves judges of this. Acts 4:19, “Whether it be right in your sight to obey God rather than man, judge ye.” And Acts 5:29, seeing that the enemies themselves could say nothing against it, they say, “We must rather obey God than man.” And surely as there is a sovereign law for this,—that the Lord will not give his glory to another, so there is a particular law for it, from our own law, from among ourselves; and that is even by that same law, whereby we do rather obey kings and princes than their vassals.1 We ought rather to obey God than man, for one says, “Omne sub regno,” Every king is under a greater king: and it was a good direction which Antiochus Third gave to his subjects for this purpose; he says, “When I command anything to be done thai is contrair to law, albeit that I should be never so earnest for the doing of it; yet think that itis done without my warrant, and so obey it not.” And we have this same also contained in one of our laws; and all nations acknowledge this, that laws are only the will of magistrates in ruling their subjects, because every one has a vote there, and not their own will. ~Subjects has their own will in things, but princes' will must be the laws of the country; because every one is bound to be guided by the laws.2 And Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel 3:28, when he was come to himself, and perceived that the three children were delivered out of the fiery furnace, when they would not obey his will, in bowing to the image which he had set up, he says, “Blessed be the Lord God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.” And why blesses he him? “Because he sent his angels to deliver his servants who trusted in him, and changed the king’s word.” So he began to bless God, for that he had not suffered the fire to destroy his own, and that he himself had not gotten his intended will. So albeit that princes and magistrates, sometimes in their rage and fury, and sometimes by ill counsel, may give out hard edicts against God’s people, yet the time may come when they shall esteem better of that which is truth, and was esteemed disobedience, than of that which is nothing else but flattery, and was then esteemed obedience.
She is commended for this, “That she received the spies peaceably, or favourably.” And this is to teach us, that when the children of God come under our power and safeguard, that we may do them any good, then we should stretch over them the wings of our protection, for their safety. 'This for the present is not very necessary, yet the time may come when it will be; and therefore let us resolve to do it now, and when it is required, then practise it.3 Every one will seem to be a friend to the servants of God, when there is no frowning against them; but when others begins to frown, they will find many of these to be foes, who professed to be friends before; for these who are friends to the world cannot be friends to God’s people, when the world frowns upon them. Obadiah, he hid the true prophets by fifties in caves, and he is commended for this. Certainly, if the king had known of this, it had cost him his life; and it was done contrair to the commandment of the king; and yet in the word of God it is commended, as good service done to God. And the midwives of the Israelites, Exodus 1, when they were sent for to the king, and commanded straitly by him to slay all the males of the children of Israel, when they were born, yet they obeyed it not, but by the contrair preserved them alive; and the Lord accepted of it as service done to him. And the Apostle Peter was let down out of a prison in a basket, which was contrair to law, that any should be relieved thus from prison. So, albeit that thousands of proclamations were made contrair to this, not to preserve the children of God, when they are in danger for religion, yet we must do it. And if we be bound to preserve men for religion, far more are we bound to preserve religion itself: and although all the great once in the land should conspire themselves together against religion, yet our care should be, by confession of our faith, entering in a covenant with God, and all lawful means, to strive to have religion established into the land, and through the earth.
Secondly, we may perceive here that it is the duty of every Christian to receive Christians in a friendly and peaceable manner, and it is the duty of all Christians to live peaceably among themselves; for certainly by nature every one of us are ill disposed to another. We are crafty, venomous, cruel towards others, like serpents, wolves, foxes; for if we will look through the world, what is to be found in it but some who are wolves for cruelty against the children of God, some foxes, for their deceit and craft, and some like oxen, living in sensuality,—a bellygod, or like a swine, wallowing in the mire of sin? But when the gospel comes into a land, it makes a change, either in land or in person; and it runs first to the heart, and makes a change there, and then changes the outward, and so it makes that to come to pass, which is, Isaiah 2:6, “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young kid; and the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling shall play together, etc.” O if this be not a great change! And therefore the way to keep peace into a land is to keep the gospel into it. Do not think that this which we have been doing this time, and are yet doing, is the way to bring war into the land; for it is for keeping the gospel into the land, and so it is for keeping of peace into it. There was no peace here whill (till) the gospel came here: and if so be the gospel were away, there should be no more peace. When the gospel is into a land, then God and man is at peace together, and so man and man is at peace together: but if so be that idolatry and papistry were into the land, then ye would to your deadly feids (feuds) again.4 But if the gospel remain among [us], there may well be some little thing of that kind; yet it shall be for the establishing of peace. Certainly they are not lovers of peace who would bring in a strange religion into a land, and so put away the light of the gospel: but these ‘who labour to entertain and keep the gospel are the only lovers of peace. They who give themselves to wickedness and sin, these are the disturbers of the peace of a country and kingdom, especially these who give themselves to the sin of idolatry; for then the fear of God is out of the land, when idolatry is in it: and that is sure, there can be no peace where the fear of God is away. Especially it is the gospel that must keep peace into a land, where the king of the land remains not into it: and certainly it is the gospel has kept peace into this land these many years, and not any respect was had to the magistrates into it.5 Only the clear preaching of the gospel has drawn men to peace with God, and so to live peaceably among themselves: and therefore these who loves peace, certainly they will love the gospel also, which is the procurer of peace.
But it appears that there was something in her not worthy of commendation, and that was, when the king sent to her house to cause bring forth the men that were in it, she said, “There came men here, but 1 wist not whence they were; but now they are gone, and if ye will follow them quickly, ye will overtake them; ” and yet, in the meantime, they were lying hid upon the roof of her house. It is needless for us, it needs not to defend her doing in this, and all the doings of the saints who has been commended for their faith, that, for that, we should say that in all things they were perfect, and so defend that there was no lying in this speech of hers. Howsoever, indeed, men might plead for her truth, and say, It may be two men came into her house, and she wist not wherefra they came, and that they were presently gone away, and if they would follow them they would overtake them; and so they, speiring (asking) for one sort of men, she answered them of another sort; this might have been true, indeed, and yet it is but needless for us to say this, for God is rather honoured in acknowledging that there be infirmities in the best of his children, than in defending them as perfyte. For certainly lies are not in anyways to be defended, not only wicked and hurtful lies are not to be defended, but even jesting and officious6 lies. For, as Augustine says very well in that respect, because it is a lie therefore it is a sin; for in saying, because it is officious therefore it is just, then we may as well say that sin is just, and that were to make that which is altogether unjust to be just.7 And so that which once in the nature of it is ill, it cannot in any wise be exponed to be good. And therefore we have rather to learn from this, that with her faith there was also some vitiosity joined, and some corruption adhered even to this same work of faith; and so albeit in substance the work was a work of faith, yet there was weakness in it. It’s true, indeed, she should not have discovered them, for she is commended for that, that she preserved them; yea, she should rather have hazarded herself and all that she had before any harm had come to them; yet this was her weakness, that she should have spoken after this manner. And this indeed is a mixture which is ordinary in the children of God. There are few or none of the children of God in whom something may not be marked which tends to infirmity; and there be few or none of them in whom something has not been marked; and I may say more, who of them is there in whom God has not marked many things? Before the Spirit of regeneration come, and we are in nature, then we are wholly in darkness and ill; and when we are in glory, then we are altogether good, and in light; but while we are here into the state of grace, there is a mixture of good and ill in us—of light and darkness. And if so be it be true grace we have, we will see it to be so; and if it be true grace, then that which is imperfect will be passed by, and that which is good will be remembered. As this woman, she made a lie, yet that is passed by in silence, and only her faith is remembered; and the Spirit of God, speaking of Job, says, “Ye have heard of the patience of Job,” and yet there was much impatience in him, but there is no word of that. And all the saints of God, while they are here, has many infirmities, and yet the Lord passes by all these, and remembers only of that which is good in them. The Lord, he is glad to put down his hand and gather up the smallest crumbs of faith, and make something of them; and not only does he this with Abraham, or Moses, or such worthies as these, but even Sarah, he remembers her faith, and Rahab’s;, who was a whore, and passes by all their ill,—never a word of that. It is not so much as mentioned of some of them, that there was such a thing. This indeed is a matter of great comfort to the children of God, who sees all their best actions to be greatly stained with infirmity, so as they think they rather deserve to be punished for their unbelief, than to be rewarded for their faith. But this may comfort us, if so be that our faith be true and sincere, albeit it be but weak, yet the Lord will accept that weak faith, and will respect it, especially when it is unfeigned, and it is a wise faith, and there is a desire to have it increased. I call this a wise faith, that uses means how to have it increased, and still, as it is increased, goes on in walking in obedience to it. When thou can say this far, I find that there is great unbelief in me, and I am racked with it, and then can say, I find some measure of faith, and I desire to have it more, and art daily using the means how it may grow, and brings that which thou believes to practice in thy life and conversation, thou may be sure that shall be marked of God for true faith, and thy unbelief shall be passed by and not remembered. Ay, the godly, in any of their actions, still sees much to be wrong, even when they pray to God, reads his word, or hears it, etc., and I am sure they are not acquainted with themselves, who sees not this to be true. And yet at that last day God shall remember none of these evil deeds, but all their good shall be remembered; but for the wicked, when that day comes, all their ill deeds shall be remembered, and nothing that they did which was good. “When I was hungry, ye fed me not; when I was naked, ye clad me not.” But for the godly, it shall be said, “When I was hungry, ye fed me, etc.,” and when they shall wonder that any good thing should be marked of them, and speir, How did we all that? he shall answer, “Insomuch as ye did it to one of these little ones, ye did it to me,” and this shall be comfortable to them. Surely, beloved, if the Lord remember not our ill turns, he shall turn that same ill to good. And therefore go on in the strength of the Lord, and in cheerfulness and obedience to his will; and albeit we cannot do as we should, yet let us not be out of hope for all that, but let us still be going on in faith, and in obedience to the commandment of God, and then we shall find the power of the flesh still to decay, and the power of faith still to be growing.
IV. “Perished not.” This is the reward or recompense of her faith. Ay, moreover, she is made a mother in Israel, and a mother of Christ, according to the flesh. Now, she was not negligent in using means for her preservation, for that is not true faith which uses not means. For if it be true faith, as it has actus elicitus, (as the schoolmen says), so it has also actus imperatus, that is, an action without also.8 Therefore she binds them by an oath for her preservation, for she knew well enough that this city would be delivered - into their hands, and destroyed by them, and therefore she takes a band (bond) of them for her safety. And they gave it to her, and they agreed that a scarlet thread should be knit to the window, whereby she might be known from the rest, and so preserved in the common calamity.
Beloved, there be two things, if so be that we could lippen to them and make use of them, that would give us assurance of deliverance, albeit destruction were coming upon the world. 1. If we will take God’s oath and band for our safety, then we shall be sure. 2. I will not allegorize between the two; yet this scarlet thread may remember us of the scarlet colour of the blood of Christ, to have that hung out at the windows of our souls. Ye heard the Israelites, when all the first-born in Egypt were slain, they had the posts and lintels of their doors sprinkled with the blood of the pascal lamb, and so the destroying angel passed by them; now there is the like colour hung out at Rahab’s window, and it is a mark to her that she and these who were with her should not perish. Surely, beloved, if we can grip to the oath and promise of God that he has made, and then get the blood of the promise sprinkled upon the posts and lintels of our souls by faith, we may be sure that the Lord shall have a care of us, in the midst of the great destruction of the world. But if so be that we have not the promise and oath of God, and have not our souls sprinkled with this blood, then there is no strength in the world that shall be able to save us from the vengeance and wrath of God almighty. If so be that we be of these who knows not the oath and promise of God, and are not sprinkled with the blood of that Lamb, we shall perish.
Now this oath that is made at this time by these men, they resolved to keep it, and therefore she perished not. Beloved, when we have made an oath, if it were but to a man or a woman, we should be careful to keep it. If sixty thousand had made an oath to one poor body, as there did to this woman by these two men, they might have said, “What! let her go among the rest,” yet they do not so. So albeit that never so many should make an oath to a silly feckless body, it must be kept. Then much more, if ye who are poor silly worms make an oath to God, that must be kept. 1If so be that ye labour not to live in godliness, soberness, and righteousness, and to live within the bounds of your Christian liberty, as ye have sworn to the Lord to do,9 I cannot think but when ye shall be assaulted with tentations, ye will depart from the truth, for any band that ye have made yet. For tentations to sin, in your life and conversation, are not so strong and vehement as these that are to depart from any point of religion. And beside, when ye take not heed to your life and conversation, that judgment of God comes upon you, that he watches not over you, and is not with you in these troubles to uphold you.
V. Now the greatness of her deliverance is made manifest in this: “She perished not with these who believed not,” or “with these who were disobedient,” for the word in the original signifies both. Then, certainly, these two go evermore together—unbelief and disobedience. And therefore, if ye would know who are those who are disobedient and rebellious, (for there is much spoken nowadays of disobedience and rebellion), it is only these who are unbelievers; these who looks not to the promise of God and his direction, these are the men who are disobedient. Some says, these are disobedient who obeys not authority in everything they command; but these are the only traitors who are unbelievers, and disobeys the word of God; and if it were coming to a particular trial, we would make themselves judges, whether it be rightest to obey God or man. Then we may see here that perdition and disobedience go evermore together, and faith and preservation from calamities. Rahab, she had faith, therefore she perished not; but all the rest had no faith, therefore they perished. And therefore it is good for us to think seriously upon this. We are evermore thinking, What if such a day of destruction come, what then shall word10 (become) of me? but labour to have faith, and then thou shall not need to fear. “The prudent man,” says Solomon, “runs, and hides himself, in the ill day, in the clefts of the rock;” so the child of God, when he sees any destruction coming, he flees in te Christ by faith, and there he is safe and secure. Secondly, we think these men shall be secure because they have strong [walls], and they shall be safe because they are many and strong; but think not that. If so be that they be disobedient, and have unbelief, then surely destruction shall come upon them, and all the world shall not be able to hold it aft them.
Beloved, he sets forth the greatness of her deliverance by the contrary of the destruction of the unbelievers: so we should still learn to set contraries against other. Consider, when thou sees anything that is good in thee, and another altogether ill, I might have been as he is, and he might have been as I am;—he might have been in the estate of grace, and I might have been in the estate of misery: that will make thee think the more of it. And indeed there will be a difference thus between these who will be very near otherwise, as there was a difference between Jacob and Esau, who were two twins, two married persons, etc.; and this is the reason, “To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to them it is not given;” that so it may be the more sensible to you that it is the proper gift of God. When ye consider that ye are no better by nature than they, that magnifies the great goodness of God, that ye should be brought out of that miserable estate, and a difference there; and that there should be a difference also in your temporal estate; but especially at that last and great day, then the great difference shall be seen, when ye shall see their perdition to be great and fearful: and that shall make manifest to you the greatness of your salvation. which the Lord grant that every one of us may be partakers of, through Jesus Christ. To whom, etc.