Fear affrights itself, rather than it will want bugs of terror. It is true, two kings fell before Jehu, but two kings unarmed, unguarded. Had not the surprisal of Jehu taken advantage of the unsuspicious nakedness of these two princes, his victory had not been thus successful, thus easy. One of those two kings, upon advertisement and preparation, had abated the fury of that hot leader. It is the fashion of fear to represent unto us always the worst, in every event, not looking at the inequality of the advantages, but the misery of the success: as, contrarily, it is the guise of faith and valour, by the good issue of one enterprise, to raise up the heart to an expectation and assurance of more. : These men's hearts are dead with their king's neither dare entertain the hope of a safe and prosperous resistance, but basely return, "We are thy servants, and will do all that thou shalt bid us: we will not make any king; do thou that which is good in thine eyes." Well may Jehu think, These men, which are thus disloyal to their charge, cannot be faithful to me it is their fear that draws them to this observation; were they not cowards, they would not be traitors to their princes, subjects to me: I may use their hands, but I will not trust them. It is a thankless obedience that is grounded upon fear there can be no true fidelity without love and reverence. Neither is it other betwixt God and us; if out of a dread of hell we be officious, who shall thark us for these respects to ourselves? As one that had tasted already the sweetness of a resolute expedition, Jehu writes back instantly, If ye be mine, and if ye will hearken unto my voice, take ye the heads of the men, your master's sons, and come to me to Jezreel to-morrow this time." Valiant Jehu was so well acquainted with the nature of fear, that he well knew this passion, once grown desperate, would be ready to swallow all conditions: so far, therefore, doth his wisdom improve it, as to make these peers his executioners, who presently, upon the receipt of his charge, turn cruel, and by a joint consent fetch off the seventy heads of those princes, whom they undertook to guard, whom they had flattered with the hopes of greater honour. No doubt but amongst so many sons of Ahab, some had so demeaned themselves, that they had won zealous professions of love from their guardians. Except, perhaps, death stole upon them in sleep, what tears, what entreaties, what conjurations, must here needs have been ! What have we done, Oye peers of Israel, that might deserve this bloody measure? We are the sons of Ahab, therefore have ye hitherto professed to observe us. What change is this? why should that which hath hitherto kept you loyal, now make you cruel? Is this the reward of the long peaceable government of our father? are these the trophies of Ahab's victories against Benhadad, Jehoram's against Hazael? If we may not reign, yet at least let us live: or, if we must die, why will your hands be imbrued in that blood which ye had wont to term royal and sacred? why will ye of tutors turn murderers? All pleas are in vain to them that are deafened with their own fears. Perhaps these expostulations might have fetched some dews of pity from the eyes, and kisses from the lips of these unfaithful tutors, but cannot prevent the stroke of death. These crocodiles weep upon those whom they must kill; and if their own sons had been in the place of Ahab's, doubtless they had been sacrificed to the will of an usurper, to the parent's safety. It is ill relying upon timorous natures: upon every occasion, those crazy reeds will break and run into our hands. How worthy were Ahab and Jezebel of such friends! They had been ever false to God, how should men be true to them? They had sold themselves to work wickedness, and now they are requited with a mercenary fidelity for a few lines have these men sold all the heads of Ahab's posterity. Could ever the policy of Jezebel have reached so far, as to suspect the possibility of the extirpation of so ample an issue, in one night, by the hands of her trustiest subjects? Now she, that by her letters sent to the elders of Jezreel, shed the blood of Naboth and his sons, hath the blood of all her sons shed, by a letter sent from Jezreel to the elders of Samaria. At last, God will be sure to come out of the debt of wicked sinners, and will pay them with that coin, which is both most proper, and least looked for. Early in the morning, in that gate of Jezreel, where Ahab had passed many an unjust sentence, is presented unto Jehu the fearful pledge of his sovereignty, seventy ghastly heads of the sons of Ahab. Some carnal eye, that had seen so many young and smooth faces besmeared with blood, would have melted into compassion, bemoaning their harmless age, their untimely end. It is not for the justice of God to stand at the bar of our corrupted judgment. Except we include some grandchildren of Ahab within this number, none of these died before they were seasoned with hor rible idolatry; or, if they had, they were in the loins of Ahab, when he sold himself to work wickedness; and now it is just with God to punish Ahab's wickedness in this fruit of his loins. The holy severity of God, in the revenge of sin, sometimes goes so far, that our ignorance is ready to mistake it for cruelty. The wonder and horror of those two heaps hath easily drawn together the people of Jezreel. Jehu meets them in that seat of public judgment, and, finding much amazedness and passionate confusion in their faces, he clears them, and sends them to the true original of these sudden and astonishing massacres. match, by the inoculation of one bud, hath tainted all the sap of the house of Judah. The two and forty brethren of Ahaziah are therefore sent after the seventy sons of Ahab, that they may overtake them in death, whom they came to visit: God will much less brook idolatry from the loins of a Jehoshaphat. Our entireness with wicked men feoffs us both in their sins and judgments. Doubtless, many Israelites, that were devoted to the family and allies of Ahab, looked (what they durst) awry at this common effusion of royal blood; yet, in the worst of the depravedness of Israel, there were some which both drooped under the deplored idolatry of the times, and congratulated to Jehu this severe vindication of God's inheritance: amongst the rest, Jonadab the son of Rechab was most eminent. That man was by descent derived from Jethro, a Midianite by nation, but incor However his own conspiracy, and the cowardly treachery of the princes of Israel, had been, not without their heinous sin, the visible means of this judgment, yet he directs their eyes to a higher authority, the just decree of the Almighty, manifested by his servant Elijah, who, even by the will-porated into Israel; a man whose piety and ing sins of men, can most wisely, most holily fetch about his most righteous and blessed purposes. This old and rough friend of Jehu, out of his moving habitations, meets him, and applauds his success. He that allowed not wine to his seed, allows the blood of Ahab's seed poured out by the hand of Jehu: he, that shunned the city, is carried in Jehu's chariot to the palace of Samaria. How easily might Jehu have been deceived! Many a one professes uprightness, who yet is all guile. Jonadab's carriage hath been such, that his word merits trust. It is a blessing upon the plain-hearted, that they can be believed. Honest Jonadab is admitted to the honour of Jehu's seat, and called, instead of many, to witness the zeal of the new anointed king of Israel. strict conversation did both teach and shame those twelve tribes to which he was joined. He was the author of an austere rule of If the peers of Samaria, out of a base civility to his posterity, to whom he defear, if Jehu, out of an ambition of reign-barred the use of wine, cities, possessions. ing, shed the foul blood of Ahab's posterity, the sin is their own; but, in the meantime, the act is no other than what the infinite justice of God would justly work by their misintentions. Let these Israelites but look up from earth to heaven, these tragical changes cannot trouble them: thither Jehu sends them, wiping off the envy of all this blood, by the warrant of the divine pre-ordination. In obedience whereunto, he sends after these heirs of Ahab all his kinsfolk, favourites, priests, that remained in Jezreel. And now, having cleared these coasts, he hastens to Samaria: whom should he meet with in the way, but the brethren of Ahaziah king of Judah? They are going to visit their cousins the sons of Ahab. This young troop was thinking of nothing but jollity and courtly entertainment, when they meet with death. So suddenly, so secretly, had Jehu despatched these bold executions, that these princes could imagine no cause of suspicion. How could they think it might be dangerous to be known for the brethren of Ahaziah, or friends to the brethren of Jehoram? The just providence of the Almighty hath brought all this covey under one net. Jehu thinks it not safe to let go so many avengers of Ahaziah's blood, so many co-rivals of his Sovereignty. The unhappy affinity of Je-ites, that looked for a happy restoration of hoshaphat with Ahab is no less guilty of this slaughter than Jehu's ambition: this While Jehu had to do with kings, his cunning and his courage held equal pace together; but now, that he is to deal with idolatrous priests, his wile goes alone, and prevails: he calls the people together, and, dissembling his intentions, says, "Ahab served Baal a little, but Jehu shall serve him much; now therefore call unto me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests, let none be wanting; for I have a great sacrifice to do to Baal; whosoever shall be wanting, he shall not live." What a dead paleness was there now in the faces of those few true-hearted Israel the religion of God! How could they choose but think, Alas! how are we fallen from our hopes is this the change we looked for? was it only ambition that hath set this edge upon the sword of Jehu? It was not the person of Ahab that we disliked, but the sins: if those must still succeed, what have we gained? Woe be to us, if only the author of our misery be changed, not the condition, not the cause of our misery. On the other side, what insultations and triumphs sounded everywhere of the joyful Baalites! what glorying of the truth of their profession, because of their success! what scorns of their dejected opposites! what exprobrations of the disappointed hopes and predictions of their adverse prophets! what promises to themselves of a perpetuity of Baalism! How did the dispersed priests of Baal now flock together, and applaud each other's happiness, and magnify the devotion of their new sovereign! Never had that idol so glorious a day as this for the pomp of his service: before, he was adored singly in corners; now solemn sacrifices shall be offered to him by all his clients, in the great temple of the mother city of Israel. I can commend the zeal of Jehu; I cannot commend the fraud of Jehu. We may come to our end, even by crooked ways. He that bade him to smite for him, did not bid him to lie for him. Falsehood, though it be but tentative, is neither needed nor approved by the God of truth. If policy have allowed officious untruths, religion never. Nothing wanted now, but the sacrifice. No doubt whole herds and flocks were ready for a pretence of some royal hecatombs, whereof some had now already smoked on their altars. O Jehu, what means this di lation? If thou abhorrest Baal, why didst thou give way to this last sacrifice? why didst not thou cut off these idolaters, before this upshot of their wickedness? Was it, that thou mightest be sure of their guiltiness? was it, that their number, together with their sin, might be complete? What acclamations were here to Baal! what joy in the freedom of their revived worship! when all on the sudden, those that had sacrificed, are sacrificed. The soldiers of Jehu, by his appointment, rush in with their swords drawn, and turn the temple into a slaugh ter-house. How is the tune now changed! what shrieking was here! what outcries! what running from one sword to the edge of another! what scrambling up the walls and pillars what climbing into the windows! what vain endeavours to escape that death which would not be shunned! Whether running, or kneeling, or prostrate, they must die. The first part of the sacrifice was Baal's ; the latter is God's: the blood of beasts was offered in the one; of men in the other. The shedding of this was so much the more acceptable to God, by how much these men were more beasts than those they sacrificed. O happy obedience! God was pleased with a sacrifice from the house of Baal: the ido By this device the house of Baal is well furnished, well filled; not one of his Che-laters are slain, the idols burnt, the house marim either might or would be absent; of Baal turned to a draught, though even not one of those which were present might thus less unclean, less noisome, than in the be unrobed. False gods have ever affected former perfumes; and, in one word, Baal to imitate the true : even Baal hath temples, is destroyed out of Israel. altars, priests, vestments: all religions have allotted peculiar habits to their highest devotions. These vestments, which they miscalled sacred, are brought forth and put on, for the glory of this service. Jehu and Jonadab are first careful that this separation be exact: they search and see that no servant of the Lord be crept into that throng. What should a religious Israelite do in the temple of Baal? Were any such there, he had deserved their smart, who would partake with their worship; but if curiosity had drawn any thither, the mercy of Jehu seeks his rescue. How much more favourable is the God of mercies, in not taking advantage of our infirmities! Well might this search have bred suspicion, were it not, that in all those idolatrous sacrifices. the first care was to avoid the profane even Baal would admit no mixture; how should the true God abide it? Who, that had seen all this zeal for God, would not have said, Jehu is a true Israelite? Yet he, that rooted out Ahab, would not be rid of Jeroboam: he, that destroyed Baal, maintained the two calves of Dan and Bethel. That idolatry was of a lower rank, as being a mis-worship of the true God: whereas, the other was a worship of the false. Even the easier of both is heinous, and shall rob Jehu of the praise of his uprightness. A false heart may laudably quit itself of some one gross sin, and in the meantime hug some lesser evil that may condemn it ; as a man recovered of a fever may die of jaundice or a dropsy: we lose the thank of all, if we wilfully fail in one. It is an entire goodness that God cares for: perhaps such is the bounty of our God, a partial obedience may be rewarded with a temporal blessing, as Jehu's severity to Ahab shall carry the crown to his seed for four generations; but we can never have any comfortable assurance of an eternal retribution, if our hearts and ways be not perfect with God. Woe be to us, O God, if we be not all thine! we cannot but everlastingly depart from thee, if we depart not from every sin. Thou hast purged our hearts from the Baal of our gross idolatries; O clear us from the golden calves of our petty corruptions also, that thou mayest take pleasure in our uprightness, and we may reap the sweet comforts of thy glorious remuneration! CONTEMPLATION IV.-ATHALIAH AND JOASH. OH the woful ruins of the house of good Jehoshaphat! Jehu hath slain two and forty of his issue; Athaliah hopes to root out the rest. This daughter of Ahab was not like to be other than fatal to that holy line; one drop of that wicked blood was enough, both to impure and spill all the rest, which affinity had mixed with it. It is not unlike that Ahaziah, betaking himself to the society of Jehoram's wars, committed the sway of his sceptre to his mother Athaliah. The daughter of Jezebel cannot but be plotting: when she hears of the death of Ahaziah and his brethren, inflicted by the heavy hand of Jehu, she straight casts for the kingdom of Judah. The true heirs are infants: their minority | gives her both colour of rule, and opportunity of an easy extirpation. Perhaps her ambition was not more guilty than her zeal of Baalism: she saw Jehu, out of a detestation of idolatry, trampling on the blood of Jehoram, Jezebel, Ahaziah, the sons of Ahab, the brethren of Ahaziah, the priests and prophets of Baal, and, in one word, triumphing in the destruction both of Ahab and his gods out of Israel: and now she thinks, Why should not I destroy Jehoshaphat and his God out of Judah? Who ever saw an idolater that was not cruel? Athaliah must needs let out some of her own blood out of the throat of Ahaziah's sons; yet she spares not to shed it out of a thirst of sovereignty. O God, how worthy of wonder are thy just and merciful dispensations! in that thou sufferest the seed of good Jehoshaphat to be destroyed by her hand, in whose affinity he offended, and yet savest one branch of this stock of Jehoshaphat, for the sake of so faithful a progenitor! Wicked Athaliah, couldst thou think God would so far forget his servant David, though no other of those loins had seconded his virtues, as to suffer all his seed to be rooted out of the earth? This vengeance was for thy father Ahab. The man according to God's own heart shall have a lineal heir to succeed in his throne, when thou and thy father's house shall have vanished into forgetfulness. For this purpose hath the wise providence of God ordained a Jehosheba, and matched her in the priestly tribe. Such reverence did Jehoram king of Judah, though dege. nerated into the idolatry of his father-in-law Ahab, bear to this sacred function, that he marries his daughter to Jehoiada the priest. Even princesses did not then scorn the bed of those that served at God's altar. Why should the Gospel pour contempt upon that which the law honoured? The good lady had too much of Jehoshaphat in her, to suffer the utter extirpation of that royal seed; she could not, doubtless, without the extreme danger of her own life, save the life of her nephew Joash with what a loving boldness doth she adventure to steal him from amongst those bleeding carcasses in the chamber of death! Her match gave her opportunity to effect that, which both nature and religion moved her to attempt: neither know I whether more to wonder at the cunning of the device, or the courage of the enterprise or the secresy of the concealment, or the happiness of the success. Certainly Athaliali was too cruelly careful to forget this so late born son of Ahaziah; of all the rest, his age would not suffer him to be out of her eye. In all likelihood, therefore, she must needs have missed so noted a corpse, had there not been a substitution of some other dead child in his room: in that age, the favour is not so distinguishable, especially of a dead face. Without some pious deceit, this work could never have been effected: else had the child been secretly subduced, and missed by his bloody grandmother: her perpetual jealousy had both expected a surviving heir, and continued a curious and unavoidable search; both which were now shunned at once, whilst Athaliah reckons him for dead, whom Jehosheba hath preserved. Mischief sometimes fails of those appointments, wherein it thinks to have made the surest work: God laughs in heaven at the plots of tyrants, and befools them in their deepest projects. He had said to David, "Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy seat ;" in vain shall earth and hell conspire to frustrate it. Six years hath Joash and his nurse been hid in a close cell of the temple. Those rooms were destined only to the holy tribe, yet now rejoice to harbour such a guest. The rigour of the ordinary law must yield to cases of so important necessity. All this could not possibly be done, and continued, without the privity of many faithful priests and Levites, who were as careful to keep this counsel, as hopeful of the issue of it. It is not hard for many honest hearts to agree in a religious secresy; needs must those lips be shut, which God hath sealed up. Judah hath not been used to such a yoke: long had it groaned under the tyranny, not of a woman only, but of an idolatrous Sidonian if any of that sex might have claimed that sceptre, none had so much right to it as Jehosheba herself. But good Jehoiada the priest, who had rather be a loyal guardian to the king, than a husband to a queen, now finds time to set on foot the just title of Joash, and to put him into the misusurped throne of his father Ahaziah. In the seventh year, therefore, he sends for the captains, and the guard; and, having sworn them to secresy, by undoubted witnesses, makes faith unto them of the truth of their native prince, thus happily rescued from the bloody knife of his merciless grandmother, marshals the great business of his inauguration, gives every one his charge, sets every one his station, and so disposes of his holy forces, as was most needful for the safety of the king, the revenge of the usurper, the prevention of tumults, the establishment of the crown upon the owner's head in peace and joy. There was none of all these agents, who did not hold the business to be his own: every true subject of Judah was feelingly interested in this service; neither was there any of them, who was not secretly heartburned, all this while, with the hateful government of this idolatrous tyranness: and now this inward fire is glad to find a vent. How gladly do they address themselves to this welcome employment! The greatest part of this sacred band were Levites, who might therefore both meet together with least suspicion, and be more securely trusted by Jehoiada, under whom they served. Even that holy priest of God, instead of teaching the law, sets the guard, orders the captains, ranges the troops of Judah; and, instead of a censer, brings forth the spears and shields of David: the temple is for the present a field, or an artillery-yard, and the ephods are turned into harness. That house, in the rearing whereof not the noise of a hammer might be heard, now admits of the clashing of armour, and the secret murmurs of some military achievement. No circumstances, either of place or calling, are so punctual, as that public necessity may not dispense with their alteration. All things are now ready for this solemnity: each man rejoices to fix upon his own footing, and longs to see the face of their long-concealed sovereign, and vows his blood to the vindication of the common liberty, to the punishment of a cruel intruder. Now Jehoiada brings forth unto them the king's son, and presents him to the peers and people: hardly can the multitude contain itself from shouting out too soon: one sees in his countenance the features of his father Ahaziah, another of his grandfather Jehoram; a third professes to discern in him some lines and fashion of his great-grand. father Jehoshaphat: all find in his face the natural impressions of majesty, and read in it the hopes, yea, the prophecies, of their future happiness. Not with more joy than speed doth Jehoiada accomplish all the rites of the coronation. Before that young king could know what was done to him, he is anointed, crowned, presented with the book of the law. Those ceremonies were instructive, and no doubt Jehoiada failed not to comment upon them in due time to that royal pupil. The oil wherewith he was anointed, signified his designation to that high service; and those endowments from heaven that might enable him to so great a function. The crown wherewith he was adorned, signified that glory and majesty which should both encourage and attend his princely cares. The book of the testimony signified the divine rules and directions, whereto he must frame his heart and actions, in the wielding of that crown, in the improvement of that oil. These three, the oil, the crown, the testimony, that is, inward powers, outward magnificence, true piety and justice, make up a perfect prince: none of these may be wanting: if there be not a due calling of God, and abilities meet for that greatness, the oil faileth; if there be not a majestic grace and royalty, that may command reverence, the crown is missing; if there be not a careful respect to the law of God, as the absolute guide of all counsels and determinations, the testimony is neglected : all of them concurring, make both king and people happy. Now it is time for the people to clap their hands, and, by their loud acclamations, to witness their joy, which must needs break |