Ways that he takes to do it. Where you may observe,
1. The Policy and Wisdom of this People: They are compar’d to Serpents and Adders.
2. Their Courage, or the Hazard they run: They’ll throw themselves into the Path, venture being crush’ed, rather than lose their End.
3. Their Resolution to have the Blessing whatever it cost ’em: If they can’t dismount a Tyrant by mere Force, they’ll bite his Horse’s Heels, so that the Rider shall fall backward.
1. They are represented as a wise and well-instructed People; a Serpent in the Way, an Adder in the Path. Doubtless Issachar thought it a good Prudential to humble themselves, and hold their Lives upon no other Tenure than the Will of a Prince; but this their Way was their Folly. Dan takes his Maxims as they rise from the plain Welfare of the Community: He’ll neither [17] be hector’d nor wheedled out of his Privileges; he’ll lose ’em neither by War nor Treaty: As he’s Serpent enough to understand what’s best for him; so, like the Adder, he stops his Ears against the Voice of the Charmer, charming never so wisely.
Job xvii. 41.
The want of such a Spirit, is the Presage of Ruin. Thou hast hid their Hearts from Understanding, therefore thou shalt not exalt them. Christ himself hath bid his People take to ’em the Wisdom of the Serpent; tho’ here I would not have you mistake this for the mere Wrigling of that Creature. Fraud and Artifice, lurking Ways, and lying Words, are as much below the Wisdom that will save a Nation, as they are against the Honesty that must save a Soul. Those Men that came to David, and had understanding of the Times, and knew what Israel ought to do, found that the Wisdom of the Serpent was consistent with the Innocence of the Dove.
Deut. xxxiii. 22.
2. Besides a Capacity to contrive what is best, here’s a Courage to execute it. This is a Tribe that Moses speaks well of in the Blessing that he gave ’em. Dan is a Lyon’s Whelp, and he shall leap from Bashan. And we may observe a Character of that sort in the Verse before us, That he’ll venture himself as a Serpent in the Way, as an Adder in the Path; he’ll run the Hazard of being trampled under foot, rather than take up with the poor and scanty Terms that an Enemy gives him. ’Tis better being crush’d at once, than condemn’d to a miserable Existence: And these are things that will deliver a People over the Voice of Fame: The good Esteem and hearty Wishes of the World will be to such as offer themselves willingly, and jeopard their Lives in the high Places of the Field.
3. They are determin’d to have the Blessing at any Expence: Nor will they lose Things for [18] want of meer Names and Forms; they’ll endeavour to bring down a Tyrant by his own Methods, if all the rest shall fail: And, when he designs to ride over Liberty and Religion, if they cannot stop his Career, they’ll break his Neck; the very Horse’s Heels, which should have ruin’d Them, shall receive the Wound that will prove fatal to Him. And indeed when a People are thus inclin’d to loose the Bands of their Capacity, it’s no very hard matter to humble the Wicked by the Measures they have taken. Violence and Iniquity do not so easily carry their Load, but, in a little time, their Rider may fall backward.
(3.) WHEN Jacob hath thus describ’d his Son by the brave Measures that he’ll take, he commends the whole Design to the Blessing of God; I have waited for thy Salvation, O Lord.
Some imagine that the good old Patriarch was, at this time, almost spent upon his Deathbed with going so far as he had done; and in these Words he takes breath again: Others think there’s in them the Horror of that Idolatry that he saw the Tribe of Dan would run into. But if you’ll take ’em for a Pause, it’s a Sign, that what he had said of a people getting back their Liberties, was of so much Value with him, that his Soul can rest a while upon it, before he proceeds to the other Blessings.
I Kings. 1, 2
Or, you may understand it, as several would do, for a personal Wish, Q. D. “Let me turn aside for a Moment from telling what will happen to you, and spend one Thought upon my self. You hear what Issachar will give up, and Dan retrieve; but these things belong to a World I am going from. There’s something nearer me than your prosperity; I have waited for thy Salvation, O Lord.” If [19] you take it thus, it tells us, That for good Men to know that they who come after ’em will be zealous for God, and truly concern’d for the Publick Interest, is One Cordial in a dying Hour; as David saith to Solomon, I go the way of all the Earth; but be thou strong, and show thy self a Man.
But I see no reason why the Salvation that he waited for, may not be connected to the ways that Dan would take in judging his People. And then it includes in it these three things.
1. His hearty Wishes to so good a cause, Q. D. “This will be thy Temper, and my Blessing go along with it. It’s what I think of with Pleasure, and in some of my last Breath commit thee to the Favour of Heaven: The God before whom my Fathers walkt, the Angel that redeem’d me from all Evil, establish the Work of thine Hand.”
And this we have had many Examples of; tho’ good People were just at the Gates of Glory, yet they could not take leave of those that stay’d behind, without a Testimony for the Cause they had been engag’d in: Which ought to be of the greatest Value with us, that such a Number of excellent Persons have died Praying for the Peace of our Jerusalem. They have spoke well of the Liberties of Mankind, when themselves were leaving all Things of that sort; and we cannot think that God would let ’em go out of the World, either with a Lye in their Mouths, or a Trifle in their Hearts.
2. When he adds, I have waited for thy Salvation; it may be understood as a Direction to those brave People, to tell ’em, they must hope for Success in a religious Way. Second Causes are employ’d; but the good old Man would let ’em know, That their Salvation is of the [20] Lord: And if they will conquer in earnest, they must be a People that wait for it.
Is. CXLIX. 6.
This comprehends the Duty that they owe to him, their Dependance upon his Care, their Jealousy for his Honour. The Profane, the Unclean, the Evil-doers do not come into the Number. If they have any hopes of being deliver’d, ’tis from something else, for God is not in all their Thoughts. They that use his Name without Reverance, and his People without Pity, can’t think that he hath any Pleasure in their Ways. But Jacob would have them give all their Counsels and Attempts a serious Tincture, for when the high Praises of God are in their Mouths, it will add a Weight to the two edged Sword that is in their Hands.
Luk. ii. 29, 30.
Heb. xi. 33, 34.
3. This seems to be an Act of his Faith in the Great Messiah; for it’s under this Name that another good old Man receiv’d him: Lord, now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace, for mine Eyes have seen thy Salvation. Nor could this be thought improper to mingle with the Zeal they had for Civil Liberties: It was by a Faith in him that the Elders obtained a good Report, in Subduing Kingdoms, working Righteousness, stopping the Mouths of Lions, waxing valiant in Fight, and turning to fight the Enemies of the Aliens. The Believer hath in him the truest Courage. There’s nothing in any one Doctrine of Christianity that will tye up the Hands of an injur’d People. One that hath tasted that the Lord is gracious, must have Pity to the Desolations of Mankind. He can’t endure to see that Nature ruin’d by a Tyrant, that hath been honour’d by a Saviour.
Rev. xi. 18.
And then, besides, as the Kingdom of a Messiah extends it self, it will proclaim Liberty to the Captives. It’s an Institution, as well
