thus buried, how could they choose but see in this revived corpse, an emblem of their own condition? How could they choose but think, If we adhere to the God of Elisha, he shall raise our decayed estates, and restore our nation to the former glory?'

The Sadducees had as yet no being in Israel. With what face could that heresy ever after look into the world, when, before the birth of it, it was so palpably convinced, with an example of the resurrection?

Intermission of time and degrees of corruption add nothing to the impossibility of our rising. The body that is once cold in death hath no more aptitude to a reanimation, than that which is mouldered into dust. Only the divine power of the Maker must restore either, can restore both.

When we are dead, and buried in the grave of our sin, it is only the touch of God's prophets, applying unto us the death and resurrection of the Son of God, that can put new life into us. No less true, though spiritual, is the miracle of our raising up, from an estate of inward corruption, to a life of grace.

Yet all this prevails not with Israel. No bones of Elisha could raise them from their wicked idolatry; and, notwithstanding their gross sins, Joash their king prospers. Whether it were for the sake of Jehu, whose grandchild he was, or for the sake of Elisha, whose face he wept on, his hand is notably successful; not only against the son of Hazael king of Syria, whom he beats out of the cities of Israel; but against Amaziah king of Judah, whom he took prisoner, beating down the very walls of Jerusalem, and returning laden with the sacred and rich spoil, both of the temple and court, to his Samaria.

Oh the depth of the divine justice and wisdom, in these outward administrations! The best cause, the best man, doth not ever fare best. Amaziah did that, which was right in the sight of the Lord; Joash, evil: Amaziah follows David, though not with equal paces; Joash follows Jeroboam yet is Amaziah shamefully foiled by Joash. Whether God yet meant to visit on this king of Judah, the still odious unthankfulness of his father to Jehoiada; or, to plague Judah for their share in the blood of ZechaDiv. No. XXXIII.

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riah, and their late revolt to idolatry; or, whether Amaziah's too much confidence in his own strength, which moved his bold challenge to Joash, were thought fit to be thus taken down; or whatever other secret ground of God's judgment there might be, it is not for our presumption to inquire. Whoso, by the event, shall judge of love or hatred, shall be sure to run on that wo, which belongs to them that call good evil, and evil good.

What a savage piece of justice it is, to put the right, whether of inheritance or honor, to the decision of the sword, when it is no news, for the better to miscarry by the hand of the worse!

The race is not to the swift; the battle is not to the strong; no, not to the good. Perhaps, God will correct his own by a foil; perhaps, he will plague his enemy by a victory. They are only our spiritual combats, wherein our faithful courage is sure of a crown.-2 Kings xiii.

UZZIAH LEPROUS.

EVEN the throne of David passed many changes of good and evil. Good Jehoshaphat was followed, with three successions of wicked princes; and those three were again succeeded, with three others godly and vir

tuous.

Amaziah, for a long time, shone fair; but, at the last, shut up in a cloud. The gods of the Edomites marred him. His rebellion against God stirred up his people's rebellion against him.

The same hands that slew him crowned his son Uzziah; so as the young king might imagine it was not their spite, that drew violence on his father, but his own wicked

ness.

Both early did this prince reign, and late. He began at sixteen; and sat fifty-two years in the throne of Judah. They, that mutinied in the declining age of Amaziah the father, are obsequious to the childhood of the son; as if they professed to adore sovereignty, while they hated lewdness. The unchanged government of good princes is the happiness, no less of the subjects than of themselves. The hand knows best to guide those reins, to which it hath been inured; and even mean hackneys

go on cheerfully, in their wonted road. Custom, as it makes evils more supportable, so, where it meets with constant minds, makes good things more pleasing and beneficial.

The wise and holy prophet Zechariah was a happy tu tor, to the minority of king Uzziah. That vessel can hardly miscarry, where a skilful steersman sits at the helm. The first praise of a good prince is, to be judicious and just and pious, in himself; the next is, to give ear and way, to them that are such. While Zechariah hath the visions of God, and Uzziah takes the counsels of Zechariah, it is hard to say, whether the prophet, or the king, or the state, be happier.

God will be in no man's debt. So long as Uzziah 'sought the Lord, God made him to prosper." Even what we do out of duty cannot want a reward. Godliness never disappointed any man's hopes; oft hath exceeded them. If Uzziah fight against the Philistines, if against the Arabians and Mehunims; according to his names (Uzziah, Azariah), the Strength, the Help, of the Almighty is with him. The Ammonites come in with presents; and all the neighbor nations ring of the greatness, of the hap-. piness, of Uzziah. His bounty, and care, makes Jerusalem both strong and proud of her new towers; yea, the very desert must taste of his munificence.

The outward magnificence of princes cannot stand firm, unless it be built on the foundations of providence and frugality. Uzziah had not been so great a king, if he had not been so great a husband. He had his flocks in the deserts, and his herds in the plains; his ploughs in the fields; his.vinedressers on the mountains, and in Carmel neither was this more out of profit, than delight; for he loved husbandry.' Who can contemn those callings for meanness, which have been the pleasures of princes?

Hence was Uzziah so potent at home, so dreadful to his neighbors his wars had better sinews than theirs. Which of his predecessors was able to maintain so settled an army, of more than of three hundred and ten thousand trained soldiers, well furnished, well fitted for the suddenest occasion? Thrift is the strongest prop of power.

The greatness of Uzziah, and the rare devices of his artificial engines for war, have not more raised his fame, than his heart. So is he swoln up, with the admiration of his own strength and glory, that he breaks again. How easy it is, for the best man to dote on himself; and to be lifted up so high, as to lose the sight, both of the ground whence he arises, and of the hand that advanced him! How hard it is, for him, that hath invented strange engines for the battering of his enemies, to find out any means to beat down his own proud thoughts!

Wise Solomon knew what he did, when he prayed to be delivered from too much: 'Lest,' said he, 'I be full, and deny thee; and say, Who is the Lord?' On this rock, did the son of Solomon run, and split himself: his full sails of prosperity carried him into presumption and ruin. What may he not do? What may he not be? Because he found his power otherwise unlimited; overruling in the court, the cities, the fields, the deserts, the arms, and magazines; therefore he thinks he may do so in the temple too: as things royal, civil, husbandly, military, passed his hands; so why should not, thinks he, sacred also? It is a dangerous indiscretion, for a man not to know the bounds of his own calling. What confusion doth not follow, on this breaking of the ranks!

On a solemn day, king Uzziah clothes himself in pontifical robes; and, in the view of that populous assembly, walks up in state into the temple of God, and, boldly approaching to the altar of incense, offers to burn sweet odors on it to the God of heaven. Azariah, the priest, is sensible of so perilous an encroachment: he, therefore, attended with fourscore valiant assistants of that holy tribe, hastens after the king; and, finding him with the censer in his hand, ready addressed to that sinful devotion, stays him with a free and grave expostulation: 'There is no place, wherein I could be sorry to see thee, O king, but this, where thou art; neither is there any act, that we should grudge thee so much, as this, which is the most sacred. Is it possible, that so great an oversight should fall into such wisdom? Can a religious prince, trained up under a holy Zechariah, after so many years' zealous profession of piety, be either ignorant or

regardless of those limits, which God hath set to his own services? Oh, what means this uncouth attempt? Consider, O dear sovereign, for God's sake, for thy soul's sake, consider where thou art, what thou doest. It is God's house, wherein thou standest; not thine own. Look about thee, and see, whether these vails, these tables, these pillars, these walls, these pavements, have any resemblance of earth. There is no place in all the world, whence thy God hath excluded thee, but only this: this, he hath reserved for his own use: and canst thou think much, to allow one room as proper to him, who hath not grudged all the rest to thee? But if it be thy zeal of a personal service to God, that hath carried thee hither; alas! how canst thou hope to please the Almighty, with a forbidden sacrifice? Which of thy holy progenitors ever dared to tread, where thy foot now standeth? Which of them ever put forth their hand, to touch this sacred altar? Thou knowest that God hath set apart and sanctified his own attendants. Wherefore serves the priesthood, if this be the right of kings? Were it not for the strict prohibition of our God, it could seem no other than an honor to our profession, that a king should think to dignify himself by our employment; but now, knowing the severe charge of the great King of heaven, we cannot but tremble to see that censer in thy hand. Who ever, out of the holy tribe, hath wielded it unrevenged? This affront is not to us; it is to the God, whom we serve. In awe of that terrible Majesty, as thou wouldest avoid some exemplary judgment, O king, withdraw thyself, not without humble deprecations, from this presence; and lay down that interdicted handfull, with fear and trembling. Be thou ever a king; let us be priests: the sceptre is thine; let censers be ours.'

What religious heart could do other, than relent at so faithful and just an admonition? But how hard is it, for great persons to yield they have offended! Uzziah must not be faulty. What is done rashly shall be borne out with power. He was wroth; and thus expresseth it: What means this saucy expostulation, O ye sons of Levi? How dare ye thus malapertly control the well-meant actions of your sovereign? If ye be priests, remember that ye are