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yet more miraculous. I know not how the sight of the means abates our admiration of the effect where no causes can be found out, we are forced to confess omnipotency. Elijah relieved Israel with water, but it was out of the clouds, and those clouds rose from the sea; but whence Elisha shall fetch it, is not more marvellous than secret.

All that evening, all that night, must the faith of Israel and Judah be exercised with expectation. At the hour of the morning sacrifice, no sooner did the blood of that oblation gush forth, than the streams of water gushed forth into their new channels, and filled the country with a refreshing moisture: Elijah fetched down his fire at the hour of the evening sacrifice; Elisha fetched up his water at the hour of the morning sacrifice. God gives respect to his own hours, for the encouragement of our observation: if his wisdom hath set us any peculiar times, we cannot keep them without a blessing: the devotions of all true Jews, all the world over, were in that hour combined. How seasonably doth the wisdom of God pick out that instant, wherein he might at once answer both Elisha's prophecy, and his people's prayers?

The prophet hath assured the kings, not of water only, but of victory. Moab hears of enemies, and is addressed to war: their own error shall cut their throats. They rise soon enough to beguile themselves: the beams of the rising sun, glistening upon those vaporous and unexpected waters, carried, in the eyes of some Moabites, a semblance of blood. A few eyes were enough to fill all ears with a false noise; the deceived sense miscarries the imagination: "This is blood; the kings are surely slain, and they have smitten one another; now therefore, Moab, to the spoil." Civil broils give just advantage to a common enemy; therefore must the camps be spoiled, because the kings have smitten each other. Those that shall be deceived are given over to credulity: the Moabites do not examine either the conceit or the report, but fly in confusedly upon the camp of Israel, whom they find, too late, to have no enemies but themselves. As if death would not have hastened enough to them, they come to fetch it, they come to challenge it: it seizeth upon them unavoidably; they are smitten, their cities razed, their lands marred, their wells stopped, their trees felled, as if God meant to waste them but once.

No onsets are so furious as the last assaults of the desperate. The king of Moab, now hopeless of recovery, would be glad to shut up with a pleasing revenge: with

seven hundred resolute followers, he rushes into the battle towards the king of Edom, as if he would bid death welcome, might he but carry with him that despited neighbour; and now, mad with repulse, he re turns; and, whether as angry with his destiny, or as barbarously affecting to win his cruel gods with so dear a sacrifice, he offers them, with his own hands, the blood of his eldest son in the sight of Israel, and sends him up in the smoke to those hellish deities. O prodigious act, whether of rage or of devotion! What a hand hath Satan over his miserable vassals! What marvel is it to see men sacrifice their souls in an unfelt oblation, to these plausible tempters, when their own flesh and blood have not been spared? There is no tyrant like to the prince of darkness.

CONTEMPLATION VII. — ELISHA WITH THE SHUNAMITE.

THE holy prophets under the Old Testament did not abhor the marriage-bed: they did not think themselves too pure for an institution of their Maker. The distressed widow of one of the sons of the prophets comes to Elisha to bemoan her condition. Her husband is dead, and dead in debt : death hath no sooner seized on him, than her two sons, the remaining comfort of her life, are to be seized on by his creditors, for bondmen.

How thick did the miseries of this poor afflicted woman light upon her! Her husband is lost, her estate clogged with debts, her children ready to be taken for slaves. Her husband was a religious and worthy man; he paid his debts to nature, he could not to his creditors: they are cruel, and rake in the scarce closed wound of her sorrow, passing an arrest worse than death upon her sons: widowhood, poverty, servitude, have conspired to make her perfectly miserable. Virtue and goodness can pay no debts. The holiest man may be deep in arrearages, and break the bank; not through lavishness, and riot of expense (religion teaches us to moderate our hands, to spend within the proportion of our es.. tate), but through either iniquity of times, or evil casualties. Ahab and Jezebel were lately in the throne: who can marvel that a prophet was in debt? It was well that any good man might have his breath free, though his estate were not: wilfully to overlash our ability, can: ot stand with wisdom and good government; but no providence can guard us from crosses. Holiness is no more defence against debt, than agamst

death. Grace can keep us from unthriftiness, not from want. Whither doth the prophet's widow come to bewail her case but to Elisha? Every one would not be sensible of her affliction, or if they would pity, yet could not relieve her: Elisha could do both; into his car doth she unload her griefs. It is no small point of wisdom to know where to plant our lamentation; otherwise, instead of comfort, we may meet with scorn and insultation.

None can so feelingly compassionate the hard terms of a prophet as an Elisha; he finds that she is not querulously impatient, expressing her sorrow without murmuring and discontentment, making a loving and honourable mention of that husband who had left her distressed; readily, therefore, doth he incline to her succour : "What shall I do for thee? Tell me what hast thou in thine house?" Elisha, when he hears of her debts, asks of her substance. Had her house been furnished with any valuable commodity, the prophet implies the necessity of selling it for satisfaction. Our own abundance can ill stand with our engage. ment to others it is great injustice for us to be full of others' purses. It is not our own which we owe to another: what is it other than a plausible stealth, to feed our riot with the want of the owner? He that could multiply our substance, could know it: God and his prophet love to hear our necessities out of our own mouths. "Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house save a pot of oil." It is neither news nor shame for a prophet to be poor: grief and want perhaps hastened his end; both of them are left for the dowry of his careful widow. She had not complained, if there had been any possibility of remedy at home; bashfulness had stopt her mouth thus long, and should have done yet longer, if the exigence of her children's servitude had not opened it. No want is so worthy of relief, as that which is loathest to come forth. "Then he said, Go borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels, borrow not a few; and when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee, and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full."

She that owed much, and had nothing, yet must borrow more, that she may pay all. Poverty had not so discredited her with her neighbours, that they should doubt to lend her those vessels empty, which they had grudged full. Her want was too well known it could not but seem strange to the neighbours, to see this poor widow so

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busily pestering her house with empty tubs, which they knew she had nothing to fill; they knew well enough, she had neither field, nor vineyard, nor orchard, and therefore must needs marvel at such unprofit able diligence. If their curiosity would be inquiring after her intentions, she is commanded secresy. The doors must be shut upon herself, and her sons, while the oil is increasing. No eye shall see the miracle in working enough shall see it, once wrought. This act was no less a proof of her faith, than an improvement of her estate; it was an exercise of her devotion, as well as of her diligence; it was fit her doors should be shut, while her heart and lips were opened in an holy invocation. of one small jar was poured out so much oil, as by a miraculous multiplication filled all these empty casks. Scarce had that pot any bottom, at least the bottom that it had was to be measured by the brims of all those vessels; this was so deep, as they were high; could they have held more, this pot had not been empty. Even so the bounty of our God gives grace and glory, according to the capacity of the receiver : when he ceaseth to infuse, it is for want of room in the heart that takes it in. Could we hold more, O God, thou wouldst give more if there be any defect, it is in our vessels, not in thy beneficence. How did the heart of this poor widow run over, as with wonder, so with joy and thankfulness, to see such a river of oil rise out of so small a spring! to see all her vessels swimming full with so beneficial a liquor! Justly is she affected with this sight; she is not transported from her duty. I do not see her run forth into the street, and proclaim her store, nor calling in her neighbours, whether to admire or bargain: I see her running to the prophet's door, and gratefully acknowledging the favour, and humbly depending on his directions, as not daring to dispose of that which was so wonderfully given her, without the advice of him, by whose powerful means she had received it. Her own reason might have sufficiently suggested what to do: she dares not trust it, but consults with the oracle of God. If we would walk surely, we must do nothing without a word; every action, every motion must have a warrant : we can no more err with this guide, than not err without him.

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The prophet sets her in a right way: "Go sell the oil, and pay thy debts, and live, thou and thy children, on the rest." The first care is of her debts; the next of her maintenance. It should be gross injustice to raise means for herself, and her charge,

ere she have discharged the arrearages of her husband. None of the oil was hers, till her creditors were satisfied; all was hers that remained. It is but stealth to enjoy a borrowed substance: while she had nothing, it was no sin to owe; but, when once her vessels were full, she could not have been guiltless, if she had not paid, before she stored. God and his prophets were bountiful: after the debts paid, they provide not only against the thraldom of her charge, but against the want. It is the just care of a religious heart to defend the widow and children of a prophet from distress and

penury.

Behold the true servant, and successor of Elijah: what he did to the Sareptan widow, this did to the widow of a prophet. That increase of oil was by degrees, this at once; both equally miraculous; this so much more charitable, as it less concerned himself.

He that gives kindnesses, doth by turns receive them. Elisha hath relieved a poor woman, is relieved by a rich. The Shunamite, a religious and wealthy matron, invites him to her house; and now, after the first entertainment, finding his occasions to call him to a frequent passage that way, moves her husband to fit up, and furnish a lodging for the man of God. It was his holiness that made her desirous of such a guest : well might she hope that such an inmate would pay a blessing for his house-rent. O happy Shunamite, that might make herself the hostess of Elisha! As no less dutiful than godly, she imparts her desire to her husband, whom her suit hath drawn into a partnership in this holy hospitality: blessed of God is that man, whose bed yields him an help to heaven! The good Shunamite desires not to harbour Elisha in one of her wonted lodgings; she solicits her husband to build him a chamber on the wall apart; she knew the tumult of a large family unfit for the quiet meditations of a prophet: retiredness is most meet for the thoughts of a seer. Neither would she bring the prophet to bare walls, but sets ready for him a bed, a table, a stool, and a candlestick, and whatever necessary utensils for his entertainment. The prophet doth not affect delicacy; she takes care to provide for his convenience. Those that are truly pious and devout, think their houses and their hands cannot be too open to the messengers of God, and are most glad to exchange their earthly commodities for the others' spiritual. Superfluity should not fall within the care of a prophet, necessity must: he, that could provide oil for the widow, could have provided

all needful helps for himself. What room had there been for the charity and beneficence of others, if the prophet should have always maintained himself out of power?

The holy man is so far sociable, as not to neglect the friendly offer of so kind a benefactor: gladly does he take up his new lodging, and, as well pleased with so quiet a repose, and careful attendance, he sends his servant Gehazi with the message of his thanks, with a treaty of retribution: "Behold, thou hast been careful for us, with all this care: what is to be done for thee? wouldst thou be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the host?" An ingenuous disposition cannot receive favours without thoughts of return. A wise debtor is desirous to retribute in such kind as may be most acceptable to his obligers. Without this discretion, we may offer such requitals as may seem goodly to us to our friends, worthless. Every one can choose best for himself; Elisha, therefore, who had never been wanting in spiritual duties to so hospitable a friend, gives the Shunamite the election of her suit, for temporal recompense also: no man can be a loser by his favour to a prophet. It is good hearing that an Elisha is in such grace at the court; that he can promise himself access to the king in a friend's suit. It was not ever thus the time was, when his master heard, "Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?" Now the late miracle which Elisha wrought, in gratifying the three kings with water and victory, hath endeared him to the king of Israel: and now, who but Elisha? Even that rough mantle finds respect amongst those silks and tissues. As bad as Jehoram was, yet he honoured the man of God. He that could not prevail with an idolatrous king in a spiritual reformation, yet can carry a civil suit. Neither doth the prophet, in a sullen discontentment, fly off from the court, because he found his labours unprofitable, but still holds good terms with that prince, whom he cannot reclaim, and will make use, notwithstanding, of his countenance, in matters whether of courtesy or justice. We may not cast off our due respects even to faulty authority, but must still submit and persist, where we are repelled. Not to his own advancement doth Elisha desire to improve the king's favour, but to the behoof, to the relief, of others. If the Shunamite have business at the court, she need no other solicitor. There cannot be a better office, nor more beseeming a prophet, than to speak in the cause of the dumb; to befriend the oppressed, to win greatness unto the protection of innocence.

The good matron needs no shelter of the great: "I dwell among mine own people;" as if she said, The courtesy is not small in itself, but not useful to me: I live here quietly, in a contented obscurity, out of the reach either of the glories or cares of a court; free from wrongs, free from envies. Not so high as to provoke an evil eye, not so low as to be trodden on: I have neither fears nor ambitions: my neighbours are my friends, my friends are my protectors, and, if I should be so unhappy as to be the subject of main injuries, would not stick to be mine advocates: this favour is for those that either affect greatness, or groan under oppression; I do neither, for "I live among my own people." O Shunamite, thou shalt not escape envy! Who can hear of thine happy condition, and not say, why am I not thus? If the world afford any perfect contentment, it is in a middle estate, equally distant from penury, from excess: it is in a calm freedom, a secure tranquillity, a sweet fruition of ourselves, of ours. But what hold is there of these earthly things? how long is the Shunamite thus blessed with peace? Stay but a while, you shall see her come on her knees to the king of Israel, pitifully complaining that she was stripped of house and land; and now Gehazi is fain to do that good office for her, which was not accepted from his master. Those that stand safest upon earth have but slippery footing; no man can say that he shall not need friends. Modesty sealed up the lips of the good Shunamite; she was ashamed to confess her longing. Gehazi easily guessed that her barrenness could not but be her affliction: she was childless, her husband old. Elisha gratifies her with the news of a son: "About this season, according to the time of life, thou shalt embrace a son." How liberal is God, by his prophet, in giving | beyond her requests: not seldom doth his bounty over-reach our thoughts, and meet us with those benefits which we thought too good for us to ask. Greatness and inexpectation make the blessing seem incredible: "Nay, my lord, thou man of God, do not lie to thine handmaid." We are never sure enough of what we desire; we are not more hard to believe, than loath to distrust beneficial events. She well knew the prophet's holiness could not stand with wilful falsehood: perhaps she might think it spoken by way of trial, not of serious affirmation. As unwilling, therefore, that it should not be, and willing to hear that pleasing word seconded, she says, "Do not lie to thine handmaid." Promises are made

good, not by iteration, but by the effect: the Shunamite conceives, and bears a son at the set season. How glad a mother she was, those know best that have mourned under the discomfort of a sad sterility. The child grows up, and is now able to find out his father in the field, amongst his reapers : his father now grew young again with the pleasure of this sight, and more joyed in this spring of his hopes, than in all the crops of his harvest But what stability is there in these earthly delights? The hot beams of the sun beat upon that head which too much care had made tender and delicate; the child complains to his father of his pain. O that grace could teach us, what nature teaches infants, in all our troubles to bemoan ourselves to our heavenly Father! He sends him to his mother: upon her lap, about noon, the child dies, as if he would return his soul into that bosom from which it was derived to him. The good Shunamite hath lost her son; her faith she had not lost. Passion hath not robbed her of her wisdom: as not distracted with an accident so sudden, so sorrowful, she lays the dead child upon the prophet's bed, she locks the door, she hides her grief, lest that consternation might hinder her design. She hastens to her husband, and, as not daring to be other than officious in so distressful an occasion, acquaints him with her journey, though not with the cause, requires of him both attendance and conveyance; she posts to Mount Carmel. She cannot so soon find out the man of God as he hath found her: he sees her afar off, and, like a faithful guest, sends his servant hastily to meet her, to inquire of the health of herself, her husband, her child. Her errand was not to Gehazi; it was to Elisha: no messenger shall interrupt her, no ear shall receive her complaint but the prophet's. Down she falls passionately at his feet, and, forgetting the fashion of her bashful strange. ness, lays hold of them, whether in an humble veneration of his person, or in a fervent desire of satisfaction. Gehazi, who well knew how uncouth, how unfit this gesture of salutation was for his master, offers to remove her, and admonisheth her of her distance. The merciful prophet easily apprehends that no ordinary occasion could so transport a grave and well-governed matron; as, therefore, pitying her unknown passion, he bids "Let her alone, for her soul is vexed within her, and the Lord hath hid it from me, and hath not told me." If extremity of grief have made her unmannerly, wise and holy Elisha knows how to pardon it: he dares not add sorrow to the

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afflicted; he can better bear an unseemliness in her greetings, than cruelty in her molestation. Great was the familiarity that the prophet had with his God; and as friends are wont mutually to impart their counsels to each other, so had the Lord done to him. Elisha was not idle on mount Carmel what was it that he saw not from thence? not heaven only, but the world, was before him. Yet the Shunamite's loss is concealed from him, neither doth he shame to confess it. Ofttimes those that know greater matters may yet be ignorant of the less it is no disparagement to any finite creature not to know something. By her mouth will God tell the prophet, what by vision he had not: Then she said, Did I desire a son of my lord? did I not say, do not deceive me?" Deep sorrow is sparing of words: the expostulation could not be more short, more quick, more pithy. Had I begged a son, perhaps my importunity might have been yielded to in anger: too much desire is justly punished with loss: it is no marvel if what we wring from God prosper not. This favour to me was of thine own motion; thy suit, O Elisha, made me a mother couldst thou intend to torment me with a blessing? How much more easy had the want of a son been, than the miscarriage! barrenness than abortion! Was there no other end of my having a son, than that I might lose him? O man of God, let me not complain of a cruel kind- | ness! Thy prayers gave me a son, let thy prayers restore him; let not my dutiful respects to thee be repaid with an aggravation of misery: give not thine handmaid cause to wish that I were but so unhappy as thou foundest me: O woful fruitfulness, if I must now say that I had a son!

I know not whether the mother or the prophet were more afflicted; the prophet for the mother's sake, or the mother for her own. Not a word of reply do we hear from the mouth of Elisha; his breath is only spent in the remedy: he sends his servant with all speed to lay his staff upon the face of the child, charging him to avoid all the delays of the way. Had not the prophet supposed that staff of his able to beat away death, why did he send it? and if upon that supposition he send it, how was it that it failed of effect? Was this act done out of human conceit, not out of instinct from God? or did the want of the mother's faith hinder the success of that cure? She, not regarding the staff, or the man, holds fast to Elisha; no hopes of his message can loose her fingers: "As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee."

She imagined that the servant, the staff, might be severed from Elisha; she knew, that wherever the prophet was, there was power. It is good relying upon those helps that cannot fail us.

Merit and importunity have drawn Elisha from Carmel to Shunem. He finds his lodging taken up by that pale carcass: he shuts his door, and falls to his prayers. This staff of his, whatever became of the other, was long enough, he knew, to reach up to heaven, to knock at those gates, yea, to wrench them open. He applies his body to those cold and senseless limbs by the fervour of his soul, he reduces that soul; by the heat of his body, he educeth warmth out of that corpse: the child sneezeth seven times, and, as if his spirit had been but hid for the time, not departed, it falls to work afresh; the eyes look up, the lips and hands move. The mother is called in to receive a new life in her twice-given son: she comes in, full of joy, full of wonder, and bows herself to the ground, and falls down before those feet which she had so boldly laid hold of in Carmel. O strong faith of the Shunamite, that could not be discouraged with the seizure and continuance of death; raising up her heart still in an expectation of that life, which to the eyes of nature had been impossible, irrevocable! O infinite goodness of the Almighty, that would not suffer such faith to be frustrated, that would rather reverse the laws of nature, in returning a guest from heaven, and raising a corpse from death, than the confidence of a believing heart should be disappointed!

How true an heir is Elisha of his master, not in his graces only, but in his actions! Both of them divided the waters of Jordan; the one as his last act, the other as his first: Elijah's curse was the death of the captains and their troops; Elisha's curse was the death of the children: Elijah rebuked Ahab to his face; Elisha, Jehoram: Elijah supplied the drought of Israel, by rain from heaven; Elisha supplied the drought of the three kings, by waters gushing out of the earth; Elijah increased the oil of the Sareptan; Elisha increased the oil of the prophet's widow: Elijah raised from death the Sareptan's son; Elisha, the Shunamite's: both of them had one mantle, one spirit; both of them climbed up one Carmel, one heaven.

CONTEMPLATION VIII. ELISHA WITH NAAMAN.

Or the full showers of grace which fell upon Israel and Judah, yet some drops did