seconded with a languishing distemper. It is not in the power of any holiness to privilege us from infirmity of body, from final dissolution. He that stretched himself upon his bed, over the dead carcass of the Shunamite's son, and revived it, must now stretch out his own limbs upon his sick bed, and die. He saw his master Elijah rapt up suddenly from the earth, and fetched by a fiery chariot from this vale of mortality; himself most leisurely wait for his last pangs, in a lingering passage to the same glory. There is not one way appointed to us, by the divine Providence, unto one common blessedness: one hath more pain, another hath more speed: violence snatcheth away one; another, by an insensible pace, draws every day nearer to his term : the wisdom and goodness of God magnifies itself in both. Happy is he, that, after due preparation, is past through the gates of death, ere he be aware. Happy is he, that, by the holy use of long sickness, is taught to see the gates of death afar off, and addressed for a resolute passage: the one dies like Elijah, the other like Elisha, both blessedly.

The time was, when a great king sent to Elisha, to know if he should recover: now the king of Israel, as knowing that Elisha shall not recover, so had his consumption spent him, comes to visit the dying prophet; and, when his tears would give him leave, breaks forth into a passionate exclamation; "O my father, my father, the chariots of Israel, and the horsemen thereof!" Yet the calves of Dan and Bethel have left some goodness in Joash: as the best man hath something in him worthy of reproof, so the faultiest hath something commendable. Had not the Spirit of God himself told us, that Joash did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, we had admired this piety, this reverend respect to the prophet. The holiest man could not have said more. It is possible for the clients of a false worship to honour, out of another regard, the professors of truth. From the hand of Elisha had Jehu, the grandfather of Joash received his unction to the kingdom; this favour might not be forgotten.

Visitation of the sick is a duty required both by the law of humanity, and of religion. Bodily infirmity is sad and comfortless; and therefore needs the presence and counsel of friends to relieve it: although, when we draw the curtains of those that are eminently gracious, we do rather fetch, with Joash, than bring a blessing.

How sensible should we be of the loss of holy men when a Joash spends his tears upon Elisha! If we be more affected with the foregoing of a natural friend, or kinsman, than of a noted and useful prophet, it argues more love to ourselves, than to the church of God, than to God himself.

What use there was of chariots and horsemen in those wars of the ancients, all histories can tell us; all the strength of the battle stood in these; there could be neither defence nor offence but by them: such was Elisha unto Israel. The greatest safeguard to any nation is the sanctity and faithfulness of their prophets, without which the church and state lies open to utter desolation.

The same words that Elisha said of his master Elijah, when he saw him taken up from the earth, doth Joash now speak of Elisha, near his dissolution; "O my father, my father, the chariots of Israel, and the horsemen thereof!" The words were good, the tears were pious, but where are the actions? O Joash! if the prophet were thy father, where was thy filial obedience? he cried down thy calves, thou upheldst them; he counselled thee to good, thou didst evil in the sight of the Lord.

If the prophet was the chariot and horsemen of Israel, why didst thou fight against his holy doctrine? if thou weepedst for his loss, why didst thou not weep for those sins of thine that procured it?

Had thine hand answered thy tongue, Israel had been happy in Elisha, Elisha had been happy in Israel and thee. Words are no good trial of profession: the worst men may speak well. Actions have only the power to descry hypocrites.

Yet even a Joash, thus complying, shall not go away unblessed. This outward kindness shall receive an outward retribution. These few drops of warm water, shed upon the face of a prophet, shall not lose their reward. The spirit of prophecy forsakes not the death-bed of Elisha: he calls for bow and arrows, and puts them into the hand of Joash, and, putting his hands upon the king's hand, he bids to shoot eastward, and while the shaft flies, and lights, he says, "The arrow of the Lord's deliverance from Syria; for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek, till thou have consumed them." If the weak and withered hand of the prophet had not been upon the youthful and vigorous hand of the king, this bow

had been drawn in vain: the strength was from the hand of the king, the blessing from the hand of the prophet. He, whose real parable hath made the earth to be Syria, the arrow revenge, the archer Joash, hath obtained for his last boon from God to Israel, that this archer shall shoot this arrow of revenge into the heart of Syria, and wound it to death. When then the hand of the king, and of the prophet, draw together, there cannot choose but success must follow.

How readily doth Elisha now make good the words of Joash! how truly is he the chariots and horsemen of Israel! Israel had not fought without him, much less had been victorious; if theirs be the endeavour, the success is his. Even the dying prophet puts life and speed into the forces of Israel; and, while he is digging his own grave, is raising trophies to God's people.

He had received kindness from the Syrians; amongst them was he harboured in the dearth, and from some of their nobles was presented with rich gifts; but their enmity to Israel drowns all his private respects; he cannot but profess hostility to the public enemies of the church, neither can he content himself with a single prediction of their ruin. He bids Joash to take the arrows, and smite upon the ground; he sets no number of those strokes, as supposing the frequence of those blows, which Joash might well, upon this former parabolical act, understand to be significant. The slack hand of the king smites but thrice. So apt we are to be wanting to ourselves; so coldly do we execute the commands of God. The sick prophet is not more grieved than angry at this dull negligence. Doubtless, God had revealed to him, for his last gratification, that, upon his fervent prayers, so often as Joash should voluntarily, after his general charge, smite the earth, so oft should Israel smite Syria. Elisha's zeal doth not languish with his body; with a fatherly authority he chides him who had styled him father, not fearing to spend some of his last wind in a mild reproof; "Thou shouldst have smitten five or six times, then thou hadst smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it; whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice." Not that the unchangeable decree of the Almighty meant to suspend itself upon the uncertain issue of Joash's will; but he, that puts this word into the mouth of his prophet, puts this motion into the hand of the king, which did not more willingly stay, than necessarily obey the providence whereby it was

stirred. Even while we have the freest choice, we fall upon those actions and circumstances, whereby the just and holy will of our God is brought about. Our very neglects, our ignorances, shall fulfil his eternal counsels.

Elisha dies and is buried; his miracles do not cease with his life. Who can marvel, that his living prayers raised the son of the Shunamite, when his dead bones raise the carcass that touched them! God will be free in his works; he that must die himself, yet shall revive another: the same power might have continued life to him, that gave it by his bones. Israel shall well see that he lives, by whose virtue Elisha was both in life and death miraculous. While the prophet was alive, the impetration might seem to be his, though the power were God's. Now, that he is dead, the bones can challenge nothing, but send the wandering Israelite to that Almighty agent, to whom it is all one to work by the quick or dead. Were not the men of Israel more dead than the carcass thus buried, how could they choose but see, in this ruined 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 rising 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 upon, 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.

O 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, upon this king of Judah, the still odious unthankfulness of his father Jehoiada, or to plague Judah for their share in the blood of Zechariah, 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 upon that woe, 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 honour, 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.

CONTEMPLATION VI.

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 virtuous. 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