CONT. II.]

DAVID'S END, AND SOLOMON'S BEGINNING.

comes now to David to sue for the life and | honour of Bathsheba: and he that was sent from God to David to bring the news of a gracious promise of favour unto Solomon, comes now to challenge the execution of it from the hands of a father; and he, whose place freed him from suspicion of a faction, complains of the insolent demeanour and proclamation of Adonijah; what he began with an humble obeisance, shutting up in a lowly and loving expostulation: "Is this thing done by my lord the king, and thou hast not showed thy servant who should sit on the throne of my lord the king after him?" As Nathan was of God's council unto David, so was he of David's council both to God and the state. As God, therefore, upon all occasions, told Nathan what he meant to do with David, so had David wont to tell Nathan what he meant to do in his holy and most important civil affairs. There are cases wherein it is not unfit for God's prophets to meddle with matters of state: it is no disparagement to religious princes to impart their counsels unto them who can requite them with the counsels of God.

That wood which a single iron could not rive, is soon splitted with a double wedge: the seasonable importunity of Bathsheba and Nathan, thus seconding each other, hath so wrought upon David, that now his love to Adonijah gives place to indignation, nature to a holy fidelity; and now he renews his ancient oath to Bathsheba with a passionate solemnity: "As the Lord liveth, who hath redeemed my soul out of all adversity, even as I sware unto thee by the Lord God of Israel, saying, Assuredly Solomon thy son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne in my stead; so will I certainly do this day." In the decay of David's body, I find not his intellectual powers any whit impaired: as one, therefore, that from his bed could, with a perfect, if weak hand, steer the government of Israel, he gives wise and full directions for the inauguration of Solomon: Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the captain, receive his grave and princely charge for the carriage of that so weighty a business. They are commanded to take with them the royal guard, to set Solomon upon his father's mule, to carry him down in state to Gihon, to anoint him with the holy oil of the tabernacle, to sound the trumpets, and proclaim him in the streets, to bring him back with triumph and magnificence to the court, and set him in the royal throne, with all the due ceremonies of coronation.

How pleasing was this command to them,

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who, in Solomon's glory, saw their own safety! Benaiah applauds it, and not fearing a father's envy, in David's presence wishes Solomon's throne exalted above his; the people are ravished with the joy of so hopeful a succession, and break the earth, and fill the heaven, with the noise of their music and shouting.

Solomon's guests had now at last better cheer than Adonijah's, whose feast, as all wicked men's, ended in horror: no sooner are their bellies full of meat, than their ears are full of the sound of those trumpets which at once proclaim Solomon's triumph, and their confusion: ever after the meal is ended, comes the reckoning. God could as easily have prevented this jolity, as marred it; but he willingly suffers vain men to please themselves for a time in the conceited success of their own projects, that afterwards their disappointment may be so much the more grievous. No doubt, at this feast there was many a health drunken to Adonijah, many a confident boast of their prospering design, many a scorn of the despised faction of Solomon; and now, for their last dish, is served up astonishment, and fearful expectation of a just revenge. Jonathan, the son of Abiathar the priest, brings the news of Solomon's solemn and joyful enthronization: now all hearts are cold, all faces pale, and every man hath but life enough to run away. How suddenly is this braving troop dispersed! Adonijah, their new prince, flies to the horns of the altar, as distrusting all hopes of life, save the sanctity of the place, and the mercy of his rival.

So doth the wise and just God befool proud and insolent sinners, in those secret plots wherein they hope to undermine the true Son of David, the Prince of peace; he suffers them to lay their heads together, and to feast themselves in jocund security, and promise of success; at last, when they are at the height of their joys and hopes, he confounds all their devices, and lays them open to the scorn of the world, and to the anguish of their own guilty hearts.

CONTEMPLATION II.—DAVID'S END, AND
SOLOMON'S BEGINNING.

IT well became Solomon to begin his reign in peace. Adonijah receives pardon upon his good behaviour, and finds the throne of Solomon as safe as the altar. David lives to see a wise son warm in his seat; and now he, that yielded to succession. yields to nature. Many good counsels had David given his heir; now he sums them

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DAVID'S END. AND SOLOMON'S BEGINNING. [Book XVII.

what he cannot pay, he will owe, and approve himself at last a faithful debitor: now he will defray it by the hand of Solomon. The slaughter was of Abner and Amasa. David appropriates it: "Thou knowest what Joab did to me." The sovereign is smitten in the subject; neither is it other than just, that the arraignment of mean malefactors runs in the style of wrong to the king's crown and dignity. How much more dost thou, O Son of David, take to thyself those insolencies which are done to thy poorest subjects, servants, sons, members, here upon earth! No Saul can touch a Christian here below, but thou feelest it in heaven, and complainest.

But what shall we think of this? David was a man of war, Solomon a king of peace; yet David refers this revenge to Solomon. How just it was that he who shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war upon his girdle that was about his loins, should have his blood shed in peace, by a prince of peace! Peace is fittest to rectify the outrages of war: or whether is not this done in type of that divine administration, wherein thou, O Father of heaven, hast committed all judgment unto thine eternal Son? Thou, who couldst immediately either plague or absolve sinners, wilt do neither, but by the hand of a Mediator.

up in his end. Dying words are wont to be weightiest; the soul, when it is entering into glory, breathes nothing but divine: "I go the way of all the earth." How well is that princely heart content to subscribe to the conditions of human mortality! as 'one that knew sovereignty doth not reach to the affairs of nature. Though a king, he neither expects nor desires an immunity from dissolution, making no account to go in any other than the common tract, to the universal home of mankind, the house of age. Whither should earth, but to earth? and why should we grudge to do that which all do?" Be thou strong, therefore, and show thyself a man." Even when his spirit was going out, he puts spirit into his son: age puts life into youth, and the dying animates the vigorous. He had well found, that strength was requisite to government; that he had need to be no less than a man, that should rule over men. If greatness should never receive any opposition, yet those worlds of cares and businesses that attend the chair of state are able to overlay any mean powers. A weak man may obey; none but the strong can govern. Graceless courage were but the whetstone of tyranny: "Take heed therefore to the charge of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes." The best legacy that David bequeaths to his heir, is the care of piety: himself had found the sweetness of a good conscience, and now he commends it to his successor. If there be any thing that, in our desires of the prosperous condition of our children, takes place of good-fore upon the first opportunity removed: ness, our hearts are not upright. Here was the father of a king, charging the king's son to keep the statutes of the King of kings; as one that knew greatness could neither exempt from obedience, nor privilege sin; as one that knew the least deviation in the greatest and highest orb, is both most sensible, and most dangerous. Neither would he have his son to look for any prosperity, save only from well-doing. That happiness is built upon sand or ice, which is raised upon any foundation besides virtue. If Solomon was wise, David was good; and if old Solomon had well remembered the counsel of old David, he had not so foully miscarried. After the precepts of piety, follow those of justice, distributing in a due recompense, as revenge to Joab and Shimei, so favour to the house of Barzillai. The bloodiness of Joab had lain long upon David's heart: the hideous noise of those treacherous murders, as it had pierced heaven, so it still filled the ears of David: he could abhor the villany, though he could not revenge it;

Solomon learned betimes what his ripeness taught afterwards: "Take away the wicked from the king, and his throne shall be established in righteousness." Cruel Joab and malicious Shimei must be there

the one lay open to present justice, for abetting the conspiracy of Adonijah, neither needs the help of time for a new advantage; the other went under the protection of an oath from David, and therefore must be fetched in upon a new challenge. The hoary head of both must be brought to the grave with blood, else David's head could not be brought to his grave in peace. Due punishment of malefactors is the debt of authority: if that holy king has run into arrearages, yet, as one that hates and fears to break the bank, he gives order to his paymaster; it shall be defrayed, if not by him, yet for him.

Generous natures cannot be unthankful. Barzillai had showed David some kindness in his extremity; and now the good man will have posterity to inherit the thanks. How much more bountiful is the Father of mercies, in the remuneration of our poor unworthy services! Even successions of generations shall fare the better for one good parent.

CONT. II.]

DAVID'S END, AND SOLOMON'S BEGINNING.

The dying words and thoughts of the man after God's own heart did not confine themselves to the straits of these particular charges, but enlarged themselves to the care of God's public service. As good men are best at last, David did never so busily and carefully marshal the affairs of God, as when he was fixed to the bed of his age and death. Then did he load his son Solomon with the charge of building the house of God; then did he lay before the eyes of his son the model and pattern of that whole sacred work, whereof if Solomon bear the name, yet David no less merits it. He now gives the platform of the courts and buildings; he gives the gold and silver for that holy use, a hundred thousand talents of gold, a thousand thousand talents of silver, besides brass and iron passing weight; he weighs out those precious metals for their several designments: every future vessel is laid out already in his poise, if not in his form. He excites the princes of Israel to their assistance, in so high a work; he takes notice of their bountiful offerings; he numbers up the Levites for the public service, and sets them their tasks. He appoints the singers and other musicians to their stations; the porters to the gates that should be: and now, when he hath set all things in a desired order and forwardness, he shuts up with a zealous blessing of his Solomon, and his people, and sleeps with his fathers. O blessed soul, how quiet a possession hast thou now taken, after so many tumults, of a better crown! Thou that hast prepared all things for the house of thy God, how happily art thou now welcomed to that house of his, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens! Who now shall envy unto good princes the honour of overseeing the businesses of God and his church, when David was thus punctual in these divine provisions? What fear can be of usurpation, where they have so glorious a precedent?

Now is Solomon the second time crowned king of Israel; and now in his own right, as formerly in his father's, sits peaceably upon the throne of the Lord: his awe and power come on faster than his years. Envy and ambition, where it is once kindled, may sooner be hid in the ashes than quite put out. Adonijah yet hangs after his old hopes: he remembers how sweet he found the name of a king; and now hath laid a new plot for the setting up of his cracked title. He would make the bed a step to the throne; his old complices are sure enough; his part would gather much strength, if he might enjoy Abishag, the relict of his father,

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to wife. If it were not the Jewish fashion, as is pretended, that a king's widow should marry none but a king; yet certainly the power both of the alliance and friendship of a queen, must needs not a little advance his purpose. The crafty rival dare not either move the suit to Solomon, or effect the marriage without him; but would cunningly undermine the son by the suit of that mother, whose suit had undermined him. The weaker vessels are commonly used in the most dangerous suggestions of evil.

Bathsheba was so wise a woman, that some of her counsels are canonized for divine; yet she saw not the depth of this drift of Adonijah: therefore she both entertains the suit, and moves it. But whatever were the intent of the suitor, could she choose but see the unlawfulness of so incestuous a match? It is not long since she saw her late husband David abominating the bed of those his concubines that had been touched by his son Absalom; and can she hold it lawful that his son Adonijah should climb up to the bed of his father's wife? Sometimes even the best eyes are dim, and discern not those things which are obvious to weaker sights or whether did not Bathsheba well see the foulness of the suit; and yet, in compassion of Adonijah's late repulse, wherein she was the chief agent, and in a desire to make him amends for the loss of the kingdom, she yields even thus to gratify him. It is an injurious weakness to be drawn upon any by-respects, to the furtherance of faulty suits of unlawful actions.

No sooner doth Bathsheba come in place, than Solomon, her son, rises from his chair of state, and meets her, and bows to her, and sets her on his right hand, as not so remembering himself to be a king, that he should forget he was a son. No outward dignity can take away the rights and obligations of nature. Had Bathsheba been as mean as Solomon was mighty, she had carried away this honour from a gracious son; yet, for all these due compliments, Bathsheba goes away with a denial: reverence she shall have; she shall not have a condescent.

That

In the acts of magistracy, all regards of natural relations must give way. which she propounded as a small request, is now, after a general and confused engagement, rejected as unreasonable. It were pity we should be heard in all our suits. Bathsheba makes a petition against herself, and knows it not: her safety and life depend upon Solomon's reign, yet she unwittingly moves for the advancement of Adonijah.

Solomon was too dutiful to check his

THE EXECUTION OF JOAB AND SHIMEI. [Book XVII.

mother, and too wise to yield to her. In | the house of Eli; now doth it come to exe

CONT. III.1

THE EXECUTION OF JOAB AND SHIMEI.

daring to unsheath his sword against a man sheltered in God's tabernacle, without a new commission. Young Solomon is so well acquainted with the law of God, in such a case, that he sticks not at the sentence: he knew that God had enacted, "If a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile, thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die." He knew Joab's murders had not been more presumptuous than guileful; and therefore he sends Benaiah to take away the offender both from God and men, from the altar and the world.

No subject haa merited more than Joab. When proclamation was made in Israel, that whoever should smite the Jebusites first, he should be the chief and captain, Joab was the man: when David built some part of Jerusalem, Joab built the rest; so that Jerusalem owes itself to Joab, both for recovery and reparation. No man held so close to David; no man was more intent to the weal of Israel; none so successful in victories; yet now is he called to reckon for his old sins, and must repay blood to A masa and Abner. It is not in the power of all our deserts to buy off one sin, either with God or man: where life is so deeply forfeited, it admits of no redemption.

The honest simplicity of those times knew not of any infamy in the execution of justice. Benaiah, who was the great marshal under Solomon, thinks not his fingers defiled with that fatal stroke. It is a foolish niceness to put more shame in the doing of justice, than in the violating of it.

In one act Solomon hath approved himself both a good magistrate and a good son, fulfilling at once the will of a father and the charge of God; concluding upon this just execution, that," Upon David, and upon his seed, and upon his house, and upon his throne, there shall be peace for ever from the Lord;" and inferring, that without this there could have been no peace.

Blood is a restless suitor, and will not leave clamouring for judgment, till the mouth be stopped with revenge. In this case favour to the offender is cruelty to the favourer.

Now hath Joab paid all his arrearages by the sword of Benaiah; there is no suit against his corpse, that hath the honour of a burial fit for a peer of Israel, for the near cousin to the king. Death puts an end to all quarrels: Solomon strikes off the score when God is satisfied: the revenge that survives death, and will not be shut up in the coffin, is barbarous, and unbeseeming true Israelites.

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Only Shimei remains upon the file; his course is next, yet so, as that it shall be in his own liberty to hasten his end. Upon David's remission, Shimei dwells securely in Bahurim, a town of the tribe of Benjamin: doubtless, when he saw so round justice done upon Adonijah and Joab, his guilty heart could not think Solomon's message portended aught but his execution; and now he cannot but be well pleased with so easy conditions of dwelling at Jerusalem, and not passing over the brook Kidron: what more delightful place could he choose to live in than that city, which was the glory of the whole earth? what more pleasant bounds could he wish than the sweet banks of Kidron? Jerusalem could be no prison to him, while it was a paradise to his betters; and, if he had a desire to take fresh air, he had the space of six furlongs to walk from the city to the brook; he could not complain to be so delectably confined; and besides, thrice every year, he might be sure to see all his friends, without stirring his foot.

Wise Solomon, while he cared to seem not too severe an exactor of that which his father had remitted, prudently lays insensible twigs for so foul an offender: besides the old grudge, no doubt, Solomon saw cause to suspect the fidelity of Shimei, as a man who was ever known to be hollow to the house of David; the obscurity of a country life would easily afford him more safe opportunities of secret mischief: many eyes shall watch him in the city; he cannot look out unseen, he cannot whisper unheard; upon no other terms shall he enjoy his life, which the least straying shall forfeit.

Shimei feels no pain in this restraint. how many nobles of Israel do that for pleasure, which he doth upon command? Three years hath he lived within compass, limited both by Solomon's charge and his own oath; it was still in his power, notwithstanding David's caveat, to have laid down his hoary head in the grave, without blood: the just God infatuates those whom he means to plague. Two of Shimei's servants are fled to Gath; and now he saddles his ass, and is gone to fetch them back: either he thinks this word of Solomon is forgotten, or in the multitude of greater affairs, not heeded, or this so small an occurence will not come to his ears. Covetousness, and presumption of impunity, are the destruction of many a soul; Shimei seeks his servants, and loses himself. How many are there who cry out of this folly, and yet imitate it! These earthly things either are our servants, or