Samaria, where they were brought into the power of the king of Israel0? Or, if the cases be thought not sufficiently parallel, let any one ask, whether, if a maniac were coming to destroy his whole family, he should not think himself justified in denying them to him, when no evil could accrue to the maniac himself by means of it, and the preservation of so many lives depended on it ? Yet even this case, strong as it would be, would fall very far short of Rahab's, whose eternal, no less than tem- poral, interests depended on her forwarding the purposes of Heaven. But, whether we justify or condemn her conduct, it can afford no precedent to us: for, before we can plead her example in justification of treachery or falsehood, we must be circumstanced like her, which it is nearly impossible we should ever be.]
Such was the service which she rendered to the Lord. Let us now consider,
II. The reward she obtained —
This was greater far than ever she herself could have conceived —
1. She and all her family were preserved —
[In a few days, Joshua and all his army appeared before the city; and, by God's special interposition, took it. The sign before agreed upon had been attended to by Rahab, and the two very persons with whom the agreement had been made were sent to secure the execution of it. They went to the house, brought out Rahab and all her family, and placed them in safety near the camp of Israel : then the order was given to burn the whole city, and to destroy every one of its inhabitants without exception. The fulfilment of the covenant which the spies had entered into is particularly noticed at the taking of Jericho ; and Rahab herself long continued in Israel a monu- ment of the mercy of God and of the fidelity of his people d.
This alone was an exceeding great reward : to be so distin- guished herself; and, after all the distress which her former wickedness had occasioned to her family, to be made an in- strument of saving all their lives, surely this was an inestimable benefit, and assimilated her to the angels which rescued Lot and his family from the flames of Sodom.]
2. She is enrolled amongst the number of God's most eminent saints —
[We have already had occasion to refer to the testimony of two Apostles in her behalf. The very scope of one was to illustrate the transcendent excellence of faith, and of the other
c 2 Kings vi. 13 — 19. d Josh. vi. 22 — 25.