quire our careful disposition to those we leave behind us; and, if we have delayed these thoughts till then, our sick beds may not complain of their importunity. We cannot leave to our families a better legacy than peace. Never was the prophet Isaiah unwelcome to this good king, until now. Even sad tidings must be carried by those messengers which would be faithful: neither may we regard so much how they will be taken, as by whom they are sent. I It was a bold and harsh word, to say to a king, "Thou shalt die and not live.' do not hear Hezekiah rage, and fret at the message, or threaten the bearer; but he meekly turns his face to the wall, and weeps, and prays. Why to the wall? Was it for the greater secresy of his devotion? was it for the more freedom from distraction? was it that all the passion, which accompanied his prayer, might have no witnesses? or, was it for that this wall looked towards the temple, which his heart and eyes still moved unto, though his feet could not? Howsoever, the patient soul of good Hezekiah turns itself to that holy God, from whom he smarts and bleeds, and pours out itself into a fervent deprecation: "I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart; and have done that which is good in thy sight." Speak out, Hezekiah: what is it that thy tears crave, while thy lips express not? "O let me live, and I shall praise thee, O God." In a natural man, none could wonder at this passionate request: who can but wonder at it in a saint, whose happiness doth but then begin when his life ceaseth; whose misery doth but then end when his death enters? The word of faith is, "O let me die, that I may enjoy thee." How, then, doth the good king cry at the news of that death, which some resolute pagans have entertained with smiles? Certainly the best man cannot strip himself of some flesh; and while nature hath an undeniable share in him, he cannot but retain some smatch of the sweetness of life, of the horror of dis. solution: both these were in Hezekiah; neither of them could transport him into this passion: they were higher respects that swayed with so holy a prince; a tender care of the glory of God, a careful pity of the church of God. His very tears said, O God, thou knowest that the eyes of the world are bent upon me, as one that hath abandoned their idolatry, and restored thy sincere worship; I stand alone in the midst of a wicked and idolatrous generation, that looks through all my actions, all my events: if now they shall see me snatched away in the midst of my days, what will these heathens say? how can thy great name but suffer in this mine untimely extinction? Besides, what will become of thy poor church, which I shall leave feebly religious, and as yet scarce warm in the course of a pious reformation? How soon shall it be miserably overgrown with superstition and heathenism! how soon shall the wild boar of Assyria root up this little vineyard of thine! What need I beseech thee, O Lord, to regard thy name, to regard thine inheritance? Couldst thou fear, O Hezekiah, that God had forgotten thine integrity? the grace that was in thee was his own work; could he in thee neglect himself? or dost thou therefore doubt of his remembrance of thy faithfulness, because he summons thee to receive the crown of thy faithfulness, glory and immortality? Wherein canst thou be remembered, if this be to forget thee? What challenge is this? Is God a debitor to thy perfection? hath thine holy carriage merited What one tear of Hezekiah can run anything from that infinite justice? Far, far waste? what can that good king pray for, were these presumptuous conceits from that unheard, unanswered? Sennacherib came, humble and mortified soul: thou hadst hated in a proud confidence, to swallow up his thine own breast, if it could once have har- city and people: prayers and tears send him boured so proud a thought. This perfec- away confounded. Death comes to swaltion of thine was no other than an honest low up his person, and that not without fondness of heart and life, which thou knew- authority: prayers and tears send him away est God had promised to reward. It was disappointed. Before Isaiah was gone out the mercy of the covenant that thou plead-into the middle court, the word of the Lord edst not the merit of thine obedience. came to him, saying, "Turn again, and tell Hezekiah, the captain of my people, Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears; behold, I will heal thee on the third day thou shalt go up to the house of the Lord, and I will add to thy days fifteen years." Every one of these words was steeped in tears but what meant these words, these tears? I hear not of any suit moved by Hezekiah; - only he wishes to be remembered in that which never could be forgotten, though he should have entreated for an oblivion. bountiful. We are wont to reckon sever years for the life of a man; and now, be hold, more than two lives hath God added to the age of Hezekiah. How unexampled a favour is this! Who ever but Hezekiah knew his period so long before? The fix. edness of his term is no less merciful than the protraction: we must be content to live or die at uncertainties: we are not worthy to calculate the date of our times: "Teach us, O Lord, so to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom." There is little joy in many days, if they be evil. Hezekiah shall not be blessed only with life, but with peace. The proud Assyrian threatens an invasion; his late foil still sticks in his stomach, and stirs him to revenge: the hook is in his nostrils; he cannot move whither he list. The God of heaven will maintain his own quarrel: “I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake." Lo! for his life, Hezekiah is beholden, next under the infinite goodness of God, to his prayers; for his protection, to the dear memory of his father David. Surely, for aught we find, Hezekiah was no less upright, and less of What shall we say, then? O God! hast | thou thus soon changed thy purpose? Was it not thy true message which thy prophet, even now, delivered to Hezekiah? Is somewhat fallen out that thou foresawest not? or dost thou now decree somewhat thou meantest not? The very thought of any of these were no better than blasphemous impiety. Certainly, Hezekiah could not live one day longer than was eternally decreed: the decree of God's eternal counsel had from everlasting determined him fifteen years yet longer. Why then doth God say by his prophet, "Thou shalt die, and not live?" He is not as man, that he should repent; the message is changed, the will is not changed; yea, rather the message is explicated, not changed: for the signified will of God, though it sound absolutely, yet must be understood with condition; that tells Hezekiah what he must expect from the nature of his disease, what would befall him without his deprecations. There was nothing but death in the second causes, whatever secret purpose there was in the first: and that purpose shall lie hid for a time, under a reserved condition. The same decree that says, Nineveh shall be destroy-fensive than David; yet both Hezekiah and ed, means, If Nineveh repent, it shall not be destroyed. He, that finds good reason to say Hezekiah shall die, yet still means, If the quickened devotion of Hezekiah shall importune me for life, it shall be protracted. And the same God, that hath decreed this addition of fifteen years, had decreed to stir | up the spirit of Hezekiah to that vehement and weeping importunity which should obtain it. O God! thou workest thy good pleasure in us, and with us; and, by thy revealed will, movest us in those ways, whereby thou effectest thy secret will. How wonderful is this mercy! Hezekiah's tears are not dry upon his cheeks, yea, his breath is not passed his lips, when God sends him a comfortable answer. How careful is the God of compassions, that his holy servant should not languish one hour, in the expectation of his denounced death! What speed was here, as in the errand, so in the act of recovery! Within three days shall Hezekiah be upon his feet; yea, his feet shall stand in the courts of God's house he that now in his bed sighs and groans, and weeps out a petition, shall then sing out a thanksgiving in the temple. "O thou that hearest prayer! unto thee shall all flesh come." With what cheerful assurance should we approach to the throne of that grace, which never failed any suppliant. Neither was this grant more speedy than Jerusalem shall fare the better for David's sake, above three hundred years after. To that man after his own heart, had God engaged himself, by his gracious promise, to preserve his throne, his seed. God loves to remember his ancient mercies. How happy a thing is it to be faithful with God! This is the way to oblige those which are yet unborn, and to entail blessings upon the successions of future generations. It seems it was some pestilent ulcer that thus endangered the life of Hezekiah.— Isaiah is not a prophet only, but a physi cian: "And Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs." He that gave an assurance of recovery, gives a receipt for the recovery. The decree of God includes the means: neither can the medicine work without a word; nei ther will the word work without the medicine; both of them must meet in the cure. If we so trust the promise, that we neglect the prescript, we presume to no purpose. Happy is that soul, that so regards the promise of God's prophets, as that withal he receives their counsels. Nothing could be more proper for the ripening of hard and purulent tumours, than dry figs. Herein Isaiah's direction was according to nature. Wherefore should we baulk the ordinary road, where it is both fair and near? The sudden contradiction of the message causes a just difficulty in the assent. Hew kiah therefore craves a sign; not for that he distrusted, but that he might trust the more: we can never take too fast hold of those promises of God, which have not more comfort in the application, than natural impossibility in the performance. "We believe: Lord, help our unbelief!" The sick king hath his option: his father was offered a sign, and refused it; he sues for one, and obtains it: "Shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or back ten degrees?" as if heaven itself lay open to his choice, and were ready either to mend his pace, or retire for his confirmation. What creature is not cheerfully forward to obey the faith of God's servants? Hezekiah fastens rather upon that sign which is more hard, more disagreeing from the course of nature: not without good reason; every proof must be clearer than the thing to be proved, neither may there want a meet proportion betwixt both: now the going forward of the shadow was a motion, no other than natural; the recovery of that pestilent disease was against the stream of nature: the more difficult sign, therefore, the surer evidence. Whether shall we more wonder at the measure of the love of God to Hezekiah, or at the power of Isaiah's faith in God? Out of both, either the sun goes back in heaven, that his shadow may go back on earth, or the shadow no less miraculously goes back on earth, while the sun goes forward in heaven. It is true that the prophet speaks of the shadow, not of the sun; except perhaps because the motion of the sun is best discerned by the shadow, and the motion of the shadow is led by the course of the sun; besides that the demonstration of this miracle is reported to be local in the dial of Ahaz, not universal in the sensible length of the day: withal, the retreat of the sun had made a public and noted change in the frame of nature. This particular alteration of the shadow, in places limited, might satisfy no less without a confusive mutation in the face of the world. Whethersoever, to draw the sun back together with the shadow, or to draw the shadow back without the sun, was the proof of a divine omnipotence, able therefore to draw back the life of Hezekiah fifteen degrees from the night of death, towards which it was hastening. O God! thou wilt rather alter the course of heaven and earth, than the faith of thy children shall sink for want of supportation. It should seem, the Babylonians, finding the Assyrian power abated by the revengeful hand of God's angel, and their own dis cord, took this advantage of a revolt; and now, to strengthen their part, fall in with Hezekiah king of Judah, whom they found the old enemy to the Assyrians, and the great favourite of heaven: him they woo with gifts, him they congratulate with embassages. The fame of Hezekiah's sickness, recovery, form, and assurance of cure, have drawn thither messengers and presents from Berodach-baladan, king of Babylon. The Chaldees were curious searchers into the secrets of nature, especially into the motions of the celestial bodies: though there had been no politic relations, this very astronomical miracle had been enough to fetch them to Jerusalem, that they might see the man, for whose sake the sun forsook his place, or the shadow forsook the sun. How easily have we seen those holy men miscarried by prosperity, against whom no miseries could prevail! He that stood out stoutly against all the Assyrian onsets, clinging the faster to his God, by how much he was harder assaulted by Sennacherib, melted now with these Babylonian favours, and runs abroad into offensive weaknesses. The Babylonian ambassadors are too welcome to Hezekiah: as a man transported with the honour of their respective and costly visitations, he forgets his tears, and his turning to the wall; he forgets their incompatible idolatry, so hugging them in his bosom, as if there had been no cause of strangeness, all his doors fly open to them, and, in a vain-glorious ostentation, all his new-gathered treasures, all his strong armories, entertain their eyes: nothing in his house, nothing in his dominion, is hid from them. O Hezekiah! what means this impotent ambition? It is not long since thou tearedst off the very plates of the temple-doors, to give unto Sennacherib; and can thy treasures be suddenly so multiplied, that they can be so worthy to astonish foreign beholders? or, if thy store-house were as rich as the earth, can thy heart be so vain as to be lifted up with these heavy metals? Didst thou not see, that heaven itself was at thy beck, whilst thou wert humbled? and shall a little earthly dross have power over thy soul? Can the flattering applause of strangers let thee loose into a proud joy, whom the late message of God's prophet resolved into tears? O God! if thou do not keep us. as well in our sunshine as in our storm, we are sure to perish: as in all time of our tribulation, so in all time of our wealth, good Lord, deliver us! Alas! how slight doth this weakness seem in our eyes, to rejoice in the abundance of God's blessings, to call in foreign friends to be witnesses of our plenty; to raise our conceits some little, upon the acclamations of others, upon the value of our own abilities! Lay thy hand upon thy mouth, O foolish flesh and blood, when thou seest the censure of thy Maker. Isaiah the prophet is sent speedily to Hezekiah, with a sharp and beart-breaking message: "Behold, the days come that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried into Babylon; nothing shall be left, saith the Lord; and of thy sons, that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon." No sin can be light in Hezekiah: the holiness of the person adds to the unholiness of the act; eminency of profession doubles both the offence and the judgment. This glory shall end in an ignominious loss. The great and holy God will not digest pride in any, much less in his own. That which was the subject of Hezekiah's sin, shall be the matter of his punishment; those with whom he sinned, shall be his avengers. It was his treasure and munition, wherein he prides himself to these men of Babylon: the men of Babylon shall carry away his treasure and munition. What now doth Hezekiah, but tempt them with a glorious booty, as some fond traveller that would show his gold to a thief? These worldly things are furthest off from the heart: perhaps Hezekiah might not be much troubled with their loss. Lo! God comes closer to him yet. As yet was Hezekiah childless. how much better had it been to continue so still, than to be plagued in his issue! He shall now beget children to servitude, his loins shall yield pages to the court of Babylon: while he sees them born princes, he shall foresee them made eunuchs in a foreign palace. What comfort can he take in the wishes and hopes of sons, when, ere they be born, he hears them destined to captivity and bondage! This rod was smart, yet good Hezekiah kisses it his heart struck him no less, than the mouth of the prophet; meekly, therefore, doth he yield to this divine correction: "Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken." Thou hast spoken this word, but from the Lord; it is not thine, but his; and, being his, it must needs be, like himself, good: good, because it is just; for I have deserved more, and worse: good, because merciful; for I suffer not according | I have to my deserts. Is it not good, if there be peace and truth in my days?" I have deserved a present payment; O God! thou deferrest it: I have deserved it in person; thou reservest it for those whom I cannot yet so feel, because they are not. deserved war and tumult; thou favourest me with peace: I have deserved to be overrun with superstition and idolatry; thou blessest me with truth: shouldst thou continue truth unto me, though upon the most unquiet terms, the blessing were too good for me; but now thou hast promised, and will not reverse it, that both truth and peace shall be in my days. Lord! I adore thy justice, I bless thy mercy. God's children are neither waspish nor sullen, when they are chid or beaten, but patiently hold their backs to the stripes of a displeased mercy; knowing how much more God is to be magnified for what he might have done, than repined at for what he hath done; resigning themselves over into the hand of that gracious justice, which, in their smart, seeks their reformation and glory. CONTEMPLATION XI. — MANASSEH. Ar last, some three years after his reco very, Hezekiah hath a son: but such a one if he could have foreseen, orbity had been a blessing. as, Still in the throne of Judah there is a succession and interchange of good and evil : good Jotham is succeeded by wicked Ahaz; wicked Ahaz is succeeded by good Hezekiah; good Hezekiah is succeeded by wicked Manasseh. Evil princes succeed to good, for the exercise of the church; and good succeed to evil, for the comfort of the church. The young years of Manasseh gave advantage to his miscarriage; even while he might have been under the ferule, he swayed the sceptre. Whither may not a child be drawn, especially to a garish and puppetlike superstition? As infancy is capable of all impressions, so most of the worst. Neither did Manasseh begin more early than he held out long: he reigned more years than his good father lived, notwithstanding the miraculous addition to his age; more than ever any king of Judah besides could reach. Length of days is no true rule of God's favour: as plants last longer than sensitive creatures, and brute creatures outlive the reasonable; so amongst the reasonable, it is no news for the wickedly great to inherit these earthly glories, longer than the best. There wants not apparent reason for this difference. Good princes are fetched away to a better crown: they cannot be losers, that exchange a weak and fading honour for a perfection and eternity of blessedness. Wicked men live long, to their own disadvantage; they do but carry so many more brands to their hell. If, therefore, there be a just man that perisheth in his righteousness, and there be a wicked man that prolongs his life in his wickedness, far be it from us, either to pity the removal of the just, or to envy the continuance of the wicked. This continues to his loss; that departs to a happy advancement. It is very like that Hezekiah marrying so late, in the vigour both of his age and holiness, made a careful choice of a wife suitable to his own piety: neither had his delight been so much in her, according to her name, if her delight had not been, as his, in God their issue swerves from both, so fully inheriting the vices of his grandfather Ahaz, as if there had been no intervention of a Hezekiah. So we have seen the kernel of a well fruited plant degenerate into that crab, or willow, which gave the original to his stock; yet can I not say, that Hezekiah was as free from traducing evil to his son Manasseh, as Ahaz was free from traducing good to his son Hezekiah. Evil is incorporated in the best nature, whereas even the least good descends from above. We may not measure grace by means. Was it possible that Manasseh, having been trained up in the religious court of his father Hezekiah, under the eye of so holy prophets and priests, under the shadow of the temple of God, after a childhood seasoned with so gracious precepts, with so frequent exercise of devotion, should run thus wild into all heathenish abominations; as if there had been nothing but idolatry in the seed of his conception, in the milk of his nourishment, in the rules of his institution, in the practice of his examples? How vain are all outward helps without the influence of God's Spirit, and that spirit that breathes where he listeth! Good education raiseth great hopes; but the proof of them is in the divine benediction. I fear to look at the outrages of this wicked son of Hezekiah. What havoc doth he make in the church of God! as if he had been born to ruin religion; as if his only felicity had been to untwist, or tear, in one day, that holy web which his father had been weaving, nine and twenty years; and contrarily, in one hour, to set up that offensive pile which had been above three hundred years in pulling down: so long had the high places stood. The zeal of Hezekiah in demolishing them, honoured him above all his predecessors; and now the first act of this green head was their re-edifying. That mischief may be done in a day, which many ages cannot redress. Fearful were the presages of these bold beginnings. From the misbuilding of these chapels of the hills to the true God, Ma. nasseh proceeds to erecting of altars to a false, even to Baal, the god of Ahab, the stale idol of the heathen: Yet further, not content with so few deities, he worships all the host of heaven; and, that he might despite God yet more, he sets up altars to these abused rivals of their Maker, in the very house of the Lord: that holy place doth he not fear to defile with the graven image of the grove that he had made. Never Amorite did so wickedly as Manasseh, and, which was yet worse, it sufficed not to be thus wicked himself, but he seduced God's people to these abominations; and, that his example might move the more, he spares not his own son from the fire of the idolsacrifice. Neither were his witcheries less enormous than his idolatry: he observed times, he used enchantments, he dealt with familiar spirits, and with wizards. Neither were either of these worse than his cruelty: he shed innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another. O Manasseh, how no less cruel wert thou to thine own soul, than to thy Judah! What a hideous lift of monstrous impieties is here! any one of which were enough to draw judgment upon a world; but what hell is sufficient for all together! What brows are not now lifted up to an attentive expectation of some present and fearful vengeance from God, upon such flagitious wickedness! Therefore, thus saith the Lord, Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle."The person of Manasseh is not capable of revenge enough: as his sin dilated itself by an infectious diffusion to his people, so shall the punishment. We are sensible of the least touch of our own miseries: how rarely are we affected with other men's calamities! Yet this evil shall be such, as that the rumour of it shall beat no ear, that shall not glow with an astonishing commiseration. What then, O God, what shall that plague be, which thou threatenest with so much preface of horror? "I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab; and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down; and I will forsake the remnant of mine inheritance; and I will deliver them into the hand of |