Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

:

should be how commonly do we see men run out of the bounds set by God's law, to hunt after them, till their souls incur a fearful judgment!

Princes have thousands of eyes and ears: if Shimei will for more secrecy saddle his own ass, and take, as is like, the benefit of night for his passage, his journey cannot be hid from Solomon. How wary had those men need to be which are obnoxious! Without delay is Shimei complained of, convented, charged with violation both of the oath of God, and the injunction of Solomon: and that all these might appear to be but on occasion of that punishment, whose cause was more remote, now is all that old venom laid before him, which his malice had long since spit at God's anointed: "Thou knowest all the wickedness whereto thine heart is privy, that thou didst to David my father.'

Had this old tally been stricken off, yet could not Shimei have pleaded aught for his life; for had he said, Let not my lord the king be thus mortally displeased for so small an offence: who ever died for passing over Kidron? what man is the worse for my harmless journey? it had soon been returned, If the act be small, yet the circumstances are deadly: the commands of sovereign authority make the slightest duties weighty if the journey be harmless, yet not the disobedience: it is not for subjects to poise the prince's charge in the scales of their weak constructions, but they must suppose it ever to be of such importance as is pretended by the commander. Besides, the precept here was a mutual adjuration: Shimei swore not to go; Solomon swore his death if he went: the one oath must be revenged; the other must be kept: if Shimei were false in offending, Solomon will be just in punishing. Now, therefore, that which Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, wished to have done in the greenness of the wound, and was repelled, after long festering, Benaiah is commanded to do. The stones that Shimei threw at David, struck not so deep as Benaiah's sword: the tongue that cursed the Lord's anointed hath paid the head to boot. Vengeance against rebels may sleep; it cannot die: a sure, though late judgment, attends those that dare lift up either their hand or tongue against the sacred persons of God's vicegerents. How much less will the God of heaven suffer unrevenged the insolencies and blasphemies against his own divine Majesty! It is a fearful word, He should not be just, if he should hold these guiltless.

[ocr errors]

CONTEMPLATION IV. — SOLOMON'S CHOICE,

WITH HIS JUDGMENT UPON THE TWO
HARLOTS.

AFTER SO many messages and proofs of grace, Solomon begins doubtfully, both for his match, and for his devotion. If Pharaoh's daughter were not a proselyte, his early choice was besides unwarrantable, dangerous. The high places not only stood, but were frequented, both by the people and king. I do not find David climbing up those mishallowed hills, in an affection of the variety of altars: Solomon doth so, and yet loves the Lord, and is loved of God again. Such is the mercy of our God, that he will not suffer our well-meant weaknesses to bereave us of his favours: he rather pities than plagues us for the infirmities of upright hearts.

Gibeon was well worthy to be the chief, yea, the only high place: there was the hallowed altar of God; there was the tabernacle, though, as then, severed from the ark: thither did young Solomon go up; and, as desiring to begin his reign with God, there he offers no less than a thousand sacrifices.

Solomon worships God by day: God appears to Solomon by night. Well may we look to enjoy God when we have served him; the night cannot but be happy, whose day hath been holy.

It was no unusual course with God, to reveal himself unto his servants by dreams; so did he here to Solomon, who saw more with his eyes shut, than ever they could see open, even him that was invisible. The good king offereth unto God a thousand burnt - sacrifices; and now God offereth him, his option: "Ask what I shall give thee." He, whose the beasts are on a thousand mountains, graciously accepts a small return of his own. It stands not with the munificence of a bountiful God to be indebted to his creature: we cannot give him aught unrecompensed: there is no way wherein we can be so liberal to ourselves, as by giving to the Possessor of all things. And art thou still, O God, less free unto us thy meaner servants under the gospel? Hast thou not said, "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, it shall be given you?" Only give us grace not to be wanting unto thee, and we know thou canst not suffer any thing to be wanting unto us.

The night follows the temper of the day; and the heart so useth to sleep as it wakes. Had not the thoughts of Solomon been intent upon wisdom by day, he had not made it his suit in his dream. There needs no

leisure of deliberation: the heart was so God likes not to have his gifts lie dead forestalled with the love and admiration of where he hath conferred them: Israel shall wisdom, that, not abiding the least motion soon witness, that they have a king enof a competition, it fastens on that grace it lightened from heaven, in whom wisdom had longed for: "Give unto thy servant an did not stay for heirs, did not admit of any understanding heart to judge thy people." parallel in his predecessors: the all-wise Had not Solomon been wise before, he had God will find occasions to draw forth those not known the worth of wisdom; he had graces to use and light which he hath benot preferred it in his desires. The dunghill stowed on man. Two harlots come before tocks of the world cannot know the price young Solomon with a difficult plea. It is of this pear!: those that have it, know that not like, the prince's ear was the first that all other excellencies are but trash and rub- heard this complaint; there was a subordibish unto it. Solomon was a great king, nate course of justice for the determination and saw that he had power enough; but of these meaner incidences: the hardness withal, he found that royalty, without wis- of this decision brought the matter, through dom, was no other than eminent dishonour. all the benches of inferior judicature, to the There is no trade of life whereto there be-tribunal of Solomon. The very Israelitish longs not a peculiar wisdom, without which harlots were not so unnatural, as some nowthere is nothing but a tedious unprofitable-a-days that counterfeit honesty: these strive ness; much more to the highest and busiest vocation, the regiment of men. As God hath no reason to give his best favours unasked, so hath he no will to withhold them where they are asked.

"

He, that in his cradle had the title of "Beloved of God," is now beloved more in the throne for the love and desire of wis- | dom: this soil could never have borne this fruit alone: Solomon could not so much as have dreamed of wisdom, if God had not put it into him and now God takes the suit so well, as if he were beholden to his creature for wishing the best to itself; and because Solomon hath asked what he should, he shall now receive both what he asked, and what he asked not: riches and honour shall be given him into the match. So doth God love a good choice, that he recompenses it with overgiving. "Could we but first seek the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, all these earthly things should be superadded to us.' Had Solomon made wealth his boon, he had failed both of riches and wisdom: now he asks the best, and speeds of all. They are in a fair way of happiness that can pray well. It was no discomfort to Solomon, that he awaked, and found it a dream; for he knew this dream was divine and oracular; and he already found, in his first waking, the real performance of what was promised him sleeping: such illumination did he sensibly find in all the rooms of his heart, as if God had now given him a new soul. No marvel if Solomon, now returning from the tabernacle to the ark, testified his joy and thankfulness by burnt-offerings, and peace-offerings, and public feastings: the heart that hath found in itself the lively testimonies of God's presence and favour cannot contain itself from outward expressions.

for the fruit of their womb; ours to put them off. One son is yet alive; two mothers contend for them. The children were alike for features, for age; the mothers were alike for reputation here can be no evidence from others' eyes, whether's now is the living child, and whether's is the dead. Had Solomon gone about to wring forth the truth by tortures, he had perhaps plagued the innocent, and added pain to the misery of her loss: the weaker had been guilty, and the more able to bear had carried away both the child and the victory. The countenance of either of the mothers bewrayed an equality of passion: sorrow possessed the one for the son she had lost, and the other for the son she was in danger to lose. both were equally peremptory and importunate in their claim. It is in vain to think that the true part can be discerned by the vehemence of their challenge: falsehood is ofttimes more clamorous than truth. No witnesses can be produced: they two dwelt apart under one roof; and if some neighbours have seen the children at their birth and circumcision, yet how little difference, how much change is there in the favour of infants! how doth death alter more confirmed lines!

The impossibility of proof makes the guilty more confident, more impudent: the true mother pleads that her child was taken away at midnight by the other, but in her sleep, she saw it not, she felt it not; and if all her senses could have witnessed it, yet here was but the affirmation of the one against the denial of the other, which, in persons alike credible, do but counterpoise. What is there now to lead the judge, since there is nothing either in the act, or circumstances, or persons, or plea, or evidence that might sway the sentence? Solomon

well saw, that when all outward proof failed, there was an inward affection, which, if it could be fetched out, would certainly betray the true mother; he knew sorrow might more easily be dissembled than natural love both sorrowed for their own; both could not love one as theirs. To draw forth, then, this true proof of motherhood, Solomon calls for a sword. Doubtless, some of the wiser hearers smiled upon each other, and thought in themselves, What, will the young king cut these knotty causes in pieces? will he divide justice with edge-tools? will he smite at hazard, before conviction? The actions of wise princes are riddles to vulgar constructions; neither is it for the shallow capacities of the multitude to fathom the deep projects of sovereign authority. That sword which had served for execution, shall now serve for trial: "Divide ye the living child in twain, and give the one half to the one, and the other half to the other!" O divine oracle of justice, commanding that which it would not have done, that it might find out that which could not be discovered! neither God, nor his deputies, may be so taken at their words, as if they always intended their commands for action, and not sometimes for probation.

This sword hath already pierced the breast of the true mother, and divided her heart with fear and grief at so killing a sentence: there needs no other rack to discover nature; and now she thinks, Woe is me, that came for justice, and am answered with cruelty!" Divide ye the living child!" Alas! what hath that poor infant offended, that t survives, and is sued for? How much less miserable had I been, that my child had been smothered in my sleep, than mangled | before mine eyes! If a dead carcass could have satisfied me, I needed not to have complained! What a woful condition am I fallen into, who am accused to have been the death of my supposed child already, and now shall be the death of my own! If there were no loss of my child, yet how can I endure this torment of mine own bowels! How can I live to see this part of myself sprawling under that bloody sword! And while she thinks thus, she sues to that suspected mercy of her just judge: "Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and slay him not!" as thinking, if he live, he shall but change a mother; if he die, his mother loseth a son: while he lives, it shall be my comfort that I have a son, though I may not call him so; dying, he perisheth to both: it is better he should live to a wrong mother, than to neither. Contrarily, her envious competitor, as holding herself well satisfied

that her neighbour should be as childless as herself, can say, "Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it." Well might Solomon, and every hearer, conclude, that either she was no mother, or a monster, that could be content with the murder of her child; and that, if she could have been the true mother, and yet have desired the blood of her infant, she had been as worthy to have been stripped of her child for so foul unnaturalness, as the other had been worthy to enjoy him for her honest compassion. Not more justly than wisely, therefore, doth Solomon trace the true mother by the footsteps of love and pity; and adjudgeth the child to those bowels that had yearned at his danger.

Even in morality it is thus also: truth, as it is one, so it loves entireness; falsehood, division. Satan, that hath no right to the heart, would be content with a piece of it: God, that made it all, will have either the whole or none. The erroneous church strives with the true for the living child of saving doctrine; each claims it for her own: heresy, conscious of her own injustice, would be content to go away with a leg or an arm of sound principles, as hoping to make up the rest with her own mixtures: truth cannot abide to part with a joint; and will rather endure to lose all by violence, than a piece through a willing connivancy.

CONTEMPLATION V.-THE TEMPLE.

It is a weak and injurious censure that taxeth Solomon's slackness in founding the house of God: great bodies must have but slow motions. He was wise that said, “The matters must all be prepared without, ere we build within;" and if David have laid ready a great part of the metals and timber, yet many a tree must be felled and squared, and many a stone hewn and polished, ere this foundation could be laid: neither could those large cedais be cut, sawn, seasoned in one year; four years are soon gone in so vast a preparation. David had not been so entire a friend to Hiram, if Hiram had not been a friend to God. Solomon's wisdom had taught him to make use of so good a neighbour, of a father's friend: he knew that the Tyrians' skill was not given them for nothing: not Jews only, but Gentiles, must have their hand in building the temple of God: only Jews meddled with the tabernacle, but the temple is not built without the aid of Gentiles; they, together with us, make up the church of God.

Even Pagans have their arts from hea

ven; how justly may we improve their graces to the service of the God of heaven! If there be a Tyrian that can work more curiously in gold, in silver, in brass, in iron, in purple, and blue silk, than an Israelite, why should not he be employed about the temple? Their heathenism is their own; their skill is their Maker's: many a one works for the church of God, that yet hath no part in it.

Solomon raises a tribute for the work, not of money, but of men: thirty thousand Israelites are levied for the service; yet not continuedly, but with intermission; their labour is more generous, and less pressing. it is enough if they keep their courses one month in Lebanon, two at home; so as ever ten thousand work, while twenty thousand breathe. So favourable is God to his creature, that he requires us not to be overtoiled in the works of his own service. Due respirations are requisite in the holiest acts. The main stress of the work lies upon proselytes; whose both number and pains were herein more than the natives: a hundred and fifty thousand of them are employed in bearing burdens, in hewing stones; besides their three thousand three hundred overseers. Now were the despised Gibeonites of good use; and in vain doth Israel wish that the zeal of Saul had not robbed them of so serviceable drudges.

There is no man so mean but may be some way useful to the house of God: those that cannot work in gold, and silver, and silk, yet may cut and hew; and those that can do neither, yet may carry burdens. Even the services that are more homely, are not less necessary. Who can dishearten himself in the conscience of his own insufficiency, when he sees God can as well serve himself of his labour, as of his skill?

The temple is framed in Lebanon, and set upon Zion: neither hammer nor axe was heard in that holy structure; there was nothing but noise in Lebanon, nothing in Sion but silence and peace. Whatever tumults are abroad, it is fit there should be all quietness and sweet concord in the church. O God, that the axes of schism, or the hammers of furious contentions, should be heard within thy sanctuary! Thine house is not built with blows; with blows it is beaten down. O knit the hearts of thy servants together in the unity of the spirit, and the bond of peace, that we may mind and speak the same things; that thou, who art the God of peace, mayest take pleasure to dwell under the quiet roof of our hearts!

Now is the foundation laid, and the walls rising of that glorious fabric, which all nations admired, and all times have celebrated; even those stones which were laid in the base of the building were not ragged and rude, but hewn and costly: the part that lies covered with earth from the eyes of all beholders, is no less precious, than those that are more conspicuous. not all for the eye; he pleaseth himself with the hidden value of the living stones of his spiritual temple. How many noble graces of his servants have been buried by obscurity! not discerned so much as by their own eyes! which yet as he gave, so he crowneth. Hypocrites regard nothing but show; God nothing but truth.

God is

No

The matter of so goodly a frame strives with the proportion, whether shall more excel: here was nothing but white marble without, nothing but cedar and gold within. Upon the hill of Sion stands that glittering and snowy pile, which both inviteth and dazzleth the eyes of passengers afar off; so much more precious within, as cedar is better than stone, gold than cedar. base thing goes to the making up of God's house. If Satan may have a dwelling, he cares not though he patch it up of the rubbish of stone, or rotten sticks, or dross of metals: God will admit of nothing that is not pure and exquisite; his church consists of none but the faithful; his habitation is in no heart but the gracious.

The fashion was no other than that of the tabernacle; only this was more costly, more large, more fixed: God was the same that dwelt in both; he varied not: the same mystery was in both; only it was fit there should be a proportion betwixt the work and the builder. The tabernacle was erected in a popular estate; the temple in a monarchy it was fit this should savour of the munificence of a king, as that of the zeal of a multitude: that was erected in the flitting condition of Israel in the desert; this, in their settled residence in the promised land: it was fit therefore that should be framed for motion, this for rest. Both of them were distinguished into three remarkable divisions, whereof each was more noble, more reserved, than other.

But what do we bend our eyes upon?— stone, wood, and metals? God would never have taken pleasure in these dead materials for their own sakes, if they had not had a further intendment. Methinks I see four temples in this one: it is but one in matter, as the God that dwells in it is but one; three yet more in resemblance, according to the division of them in whom it pleases

[ocr errors]

God to inhabit; for wherever God dwells, | to the breadth, as being sixty cubits long, there is his temple. O God! thou vouch- thirty high, and twenty broad. How exquisafest to dwell in the believing heart. As site a symmetry hast thou ordained, O God, we, thy silly creatures, have our being in betwixt the faithful heart, and thy church thee, so thou, the Creator of heaven and on earth, with that in heaven! how accuearth, hast thy dwelling in us. The heaven rate in each of these, in all their powers of heavens is not able to contain thee, and and parts, compared with other! So hath yet thou disdainest not to dwell in the strait God ordered the believing soul, that it hath lodgings of our renewed souls. So then, neither too much shortness of grace, nor because God's children are many, and those too much height of conceit, nor too much many divided in respect of themselves, breadth of passion: so hath he ordered his though united in their head, therefore this visible church, that there is a necessary temple, which is but one in collection, as inequality, without any disproportion; a God is one, is manifold in the distribution, height of government, a length of extent, a as the saints are many; each man bearing breadth of jurisdiction, duly answerable to about with him a little shrine of this Infinite each other: so hath he ordered his triumMajesty: and for that the most general divi- phant church above, that it hath a length sion of the saints is in their place and estate, of eternity, answered with a height of persome struggling and toiling in this earthly fection, and a breadth of incomprehensible warfare, others triumphing in heavenly glory: glory. therefore hath God two other, more universal temples; one the church of his saints on earth; the other, the highest heaven of his saints glorified. In all these, O God, thou dwellest for ever: and this material house of thine is a clear representation of these three spiritual: else what were a temple made with hands unto the God of spirits? And though one of these was a true type of all, yet how are they all exceeded each by other! This of stone, though most rich and costly; yet what is it to the living temple of the Holy Ghost, which is our body? What is the temple of this body of ours to the temple of Christ's body, which is his church? And what is the temple of God's church on earth, to that which triumpheth gloriously in heaven?

How easily do we see all these in this one visible temple! which, as it had three distinctions of rooms, the porch, the holy place, the holy of holies, so is each of them answered spiritually. In the porch we find the regenerate soul entering into the blessed society of the church: in the holy place, the communion of the true visible church on earth, selected from the world: in the holy of holies, whereinto the high priest entered once a-year, the glorious heaven, into which our true High Priest, Christ Jesus, entered once for all, to make an atonement betwixt God and man. In all these, what a meet correspondence there is in proportion, matter, situation!

In proportion; the same rule that skilful carvers observe in the cutting out of the perfect statue of a man, that the height be thrice the breadth, and the breadth one third of the height, was likewise duly observed in the fabric of the temple, whose length was double to the height, and treble

In matter; all was here of the best: the wood was precious, sweet, lasting; the stones beautiful, costly, insensible of age; the gold: pure and glittering: so are the graces of God's children, excellent in their nature, dear in their acceptation, eternal in their use; so are the ordinances of God in his church, holy, comfortable, irrefragable; so is the perfection of his glorified saints, incomparable, unconceivable.

In situation; the outer parts were here more common; the inner more holy and peculiarly reserved. I find one court of the temple open to the unclean, to the uncircumcised; within that, another open only to the Israelites, and of them, to the clean; within that, yet another, proper only to the priests and Levites, where was the brazen altar for sacrifice, and the brazen sea for washing: the eyes of the laity might follow their oblations in hither; their feet might

not.

Yet more, in the covered rooms of the temple, there is, whither the priests only may enter, not the Levites; there is, whither the high priest only may enter, not his brethren.

It is thus in every renewed man, the individual temple of God: the outward parts are allowed common to God and the world; the inwardest and secretest, which is the heart, is reserved only for the God that made it. It is thus in the church visible: the false and foul-hearted hypocrite hath access to the holy ordinances of God, and treads in his courts; only the true Christian hath entire and private conversation with the Holy One of Israel; he only is admitted into the holy of holies, and enters within the glorious vail of heaven.

If, from the walls, we look into the fur.

« FöregåendeFortsätt »