If thou canst so easily multiply victuals, how is it that thou wantest? Do that before-hand, which thou promisest shall be afterwards performed, there will be no need of my little." But this good Sareptan was wrought on by God not to mistrust a prophet she will do what he bids, and hope for what he promises; she will live by faith rather than by sense, and give away the present, in the confidence of a future remuneration. First she bakes Elijah's cake, then her own, not grudging to see her last morsels go down another's throat, while herself was famishing. How hard precepts doth God lay, where he intends bounty! Had not God meant her preservation, he had suffered her to eat her last cake alone, without any interpellation; now the mercy of the Almighty, purposing as well this miraculous favour to her as to his prophet, requires of her this task, which flesh and blood would have thought unreasonable. So we are wont to put hard questions to those scholars whom we would promote | to higher forms. So in all achievements, the difficulty of the enterprise makes way for the glory of the actor.

Happy was it for this widow, that she did not shut her hand to the man of God, that she was no niggard of her last handful: never corn or oil did so increase in growing, as here in consuming. This barrel, this cruse of hers, had no bottom; the barrel of meal wasted not, the cruse of oil failed not: behold, not getting, not saving, is the way to abundance, but giving. The mercy of God crowns our beneficence with the blessing of store; who can fear want by a merciful liberality, when he sees the Sareptan had famished, if she had not given, and, by giving, abounded? With what thankful devotion must this woman every day needs look upon her barrel and cruse, wherein she saw the mercy of God renewed to her continually? Doubtless her soul was no less fed by faith, than her body with this supernatural provision. How welcome a guest must Elijah needs be to this widow, that gave her life and her son's to her for this board! yea that, in that woful famine, gave her and her son their board for his house

room.

The dearth thus overcome, the mother looks hopefully upon her only son, promising herself much joy in his life and prosperity, when an unexpected sickness surpriseth him, and doth that which the famine but threatened. When can we hold ourselves secure from evils? no sooner is one of these sergeants compounded withal, than we are arrested by another.

How ready are we to mistake the grounds of our afflictions, and to cast them upon false causes. The passionate mother cannot find whether to impute the death of her son but to the presence of Elijah, to whom she comes distracted with perplexity, not without an unkind challenge of him, from whom she had received both that life she had lost, and that she had: "What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come to me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?" as if her son could not have died, if Elijah had not been her guest; whereas her son had died but for him. Why should she think that the prophet had saved him from the famine, to kill him with sickness? as if God had not been free in his actions, and must needs strike by the same hands by which he preserved. She had the grace to know that her affliction was for her sin; yet was so unwise to imagine the arrearages of her iniquities had not been called for, if Elijah had not been the remembrancer: he, who had appeased God towards her, is suspected to have incensed him: this wrongful misconstruction was enough to move any patience. Elijah was of a hot spirit; yet his holiness kept him from fury: this challenge rather increased the zeal of his prayer, than stirred his choler to the offender. He takes the dead child out of his mother's bosom, and lays him upon his own bed, and cries unto the Lord, "O Lord my God, hast thou brought evil also upon the widow, with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?" Instead of chiding the Sareptan, out of the fervency of his soul, he humbly expostulates with his God: his only remedy is in his prayer; that which shut heaven for rain, must open it for life. Every word enforceth: first, he pleads his interest in God, "O Lord my God;" then the quality of the patient, "a widow," and therefore both most distressed with the loss, and most peculiar to the charge of the Almighty; then his interest, as in God, so in this patient, "with whom I sojourn;" as if the stroke were given to himself, through her sides; and lastly, the quality of the punishment, "by slaying her son," the only comfort of her life: and in all these, implying the scandal that must needs arise from this event, wherever it should be noised, to the name of his God, to his own; when it should be said, Lo! how Elijah's entertainment is rewarded: surely the prophet is either impotent, or unthankful.

Neither doth his tongue move thus only: thrice doth he stretch himself upon the dead body, as if he could wish to infuse of

safe; policy, without religion, is too subtile to be good their match makes themselves secure, and many happy.

O degenerated estate of Israel! any thing was now lawful there, saving piety. It is well if God's prophets can find an hole to hide their heads in; they must needs be hard driven, when fifty of them are fain to crowd together into one cave: there they had both shade and repast. Good Obadiah hazards his own life to preserve theirs, and spends himself in that extreme dearth, upon their necessary diet: bread and water was more now, than other whiles wine and delicates. Whether shall we wonder more at the mercy of God in reserving a hundred prophets, or in thus sustaining them, being reserved? When did God ever leave his Israel unfurnished of some prophets? when did he leave his prophets unprovided of some Obadiah? How worthy art thou, O Lord, to be trusted with thine own charge! While there are men upon earth, or birds in the air, or angels in heaven, thy messengers cannot want provision.

Goodness carries away trust, where it cannot have imitation. Ahab divides with Obadiah the survey of the whole land; they two set their own eyes on work, for the search of water, of pasture, to preserve the horses and mules alive. O the poor and vain cares of Ahab! he casts to kill the prophet, to save the cattle; he never seeks to save his own soul, to destroy idolatry; he takes thought for grass, none for mercy. Carnal hearts are ever either grovelling on the earth, or delving into it; no more regarding God or their souls, than if they either were not, or were worthless.

charge: "Go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here." Obadiah finds this load too heavy; neither is he more stricken with the boldness than with the unkindness of this command; boldness in respect of Elijah, unkindness in respect of himself; for thus he thinks: "If Elijah do come to Ahab, he dies; if he do not come, I die: if it be known that I met him, and brought him not, it is death; if I say that he will come voluntarily, and God shall alter his intentions, it is death. How unhappy a man am I, that must be either Elijah's executioner, or my own! Were Ahab's displeasure but smoking, I might hope to quench it; but now that the flame of it hath broken forth to the notice, to the search, of all the kingdoms and nations round about, it may consume me; I cannot extinguish it. This message was for an enemy of Elijah, for a client of Baal. As for me, I have well approved my true devotion to God, my love to his prophets: what have I done, that I should be singled out either to kill Elijah, or to be killed for him?" Many a hard plunge must that man needs be driven to, who would hold his conscience together with the service and favour of a tyrant. It is a happy thing to serve a just master; there is no danger, no stain, in such obe dience.

But when the prophet binds his resolution with an oath, and clears the heart of Obadiah from all fears, from all suspicions, the good man dares be the messenger of that which he saw was decreed in heaven. Doubtless Ahab startled to hear of Elijah coming to meet him, as one that did not more hate, than fear, the prophet. Well might he think, "Thus long, thus far have I sought Elijah; Elijah would not come to

Obadiah meets the prophet, knows him, and, as if he had seen God in him, falls on his face to him, whom he knew his master persecuted: though a great peer, he had learned to honour a prophet. No respect was too much for the president of that sacred college. To the poor boarder of the Sareptan, here was no less than a prostration, and "My lord Elijah," from the great high steward of Israel. Those that are truly gracious cannot be niggardly of their observances to the messengers of God.

Elijah receives the reverence, returns a

some strange commission: his coarse mantle hath the advantage of my robe and sceptre; if I can command a piece of the earth, I see he can command heaven." The edge of his revenge is taken off with a doubtful expectation of the issue; and now, when Elijah offers himself to the eyes of Ahab, he, who durst not strike, yet durst challenge the prophet: "Art thou he that troubleth Israel?" Jeroboam's hand was still in Ahab's thoughts; he holds it not so safe to smite, as to expostulate. He, that was the head of Israel, speaks out that which was in the heart of all his people, that Elijah was the cause of all their sorrow. Alas! what hath the righteous prophet done? he taxed their sin, he foretold the judgment, he deserved it not, he inflicted it not yet he smarts, and they are

guilty as if some fond people should ac- | cuse the herald or the trumpet as the cause of their war; or as if some ignorant peasant, when he sees his fowls bathing in his pond, should cry out of them as the causes of foul weather.

O the heroical spirit of Elijah! he stands alone amidst all the train of Ahab, and dares not only repel this charge, but retort it: "I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim." No earthly glory can daunt him, who hath the clear and heartening visions of God: this holy seer discerns the true cause of our sufferings to be our sins; foolish men are plagued for their offences; and it is no small part of their plague, that they see it not. The only common disturber of men, families, cities, kingdoms, worlds, is sin: there is no such traitor to any state, as the wilfully wicked; the quietest and most plausible offender is secretly seditious, and stirreth quarrels in heaven.

The true messengers of God carry authority even where they are maligned: Elijah doth at once reprove the king, and require of him the improvement of his power, in gathering all Israel to Carmel, in fetching thither all the prophets of Baal. Baal was rich in Israel, while God was poor; while God hath but one hundred prophets hid closely in Obadiah's caves, Baal hath eight hundred and fifty; four hundred and fifty dispersed over the villages and towns of Israel, four hundred at the court. God's prophets are glad of bread and water, while the four hundred trencher-prophets of Jezebel feed on her dainties: they lurk in caves, while these lord it in the pleasantest groves. Outward prosperity is a false note of truth. All these, with all Israel, doth Elijah require Ahab to summon unto Carmel. It is in the power of kings to command the assembly of the prophets; the prophet sues to the prince for the indiction of this synod. They are injurious to sovereignty, who arrogate this power to none but spiritual hands. How is it that Ahab is as ready to perform this charge, as Elijah to move it? I dare answer for his heart, that it was not drawn with love. Was it out of the sense of one judgment, and fear of another? He smarted with the dearth and drought, and well thinks Elijah would not be so round with him for nothing. Was it out of an expectation of some miraculous exploit which the prophet would do in the sight of all Israel? or, was it out of the overruling power of the Almighty?" The

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heart of kings is in the hands of God, and he turns it which way soever he pleaseth."

Israel is met together. Elijah rates them, not so much for their superstition, as for their unsettledness and irresolution. One Israelite serves God, another Baal; yea, the same Israelite, perhaps, serves both God and Baal: "How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him." Nothing is more odious to God, than a profane neutrality in main oppositions of religion: to go upright in a wrong way, is a less eye-sore to God, than to halt betwixt right and wrong. The Spirit wished that the Loadicean were either hot or cold; either temper would be better borne than neither, than both. In reconcileable differences, nothing is more safe than indifferency both of practice and opinion; but in cases of so necessarily hostility, as betwixt God and Baal, he that is on neither side is the deadliest enemy to both: less hateful are they to God that serve him not at all, than they that serve him with a rival.

Whether out of guiltiness, or fear, or uncertainty, Israel is silent; yet, while their mouth was shut, their eyes were open. It was a fair motion of Elijah: "I am only remaining a prophet of the Lord: Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty: let them choose one bullock, let me choose another; their devotion shall be combined, mine single; the God that consumes the sacrifice by fire from heaven, let him be God." Israel cannot but approve it; the prophets of Baal cannot refuse it: they had the appearance of the advantage, in their number, in the favour of king and people. O strange disputation, wherein the argument, which must be used is fire; the place whence it must be fetched, heaven; the mood and figure, devotion; the conclusion, death to be overcome!

Had not Elijah, by divine instinct, been assured of the event, he durst not have put religion upon such hazard: that God commanded him this trial, who meant confusion to the authors of idolatry, victory to the truth. His terror shall be approved both by fire and by water: first by fire, then by water: there was no less terror in the fire, than mercy in the rain. It was fit they should be first humbled by his terrors, that they might be made capable of his mercy; and, by both, might be won to repentance. Thus, still the fears of the law make way for the influences of grace; neither do those sweet and heavenly dews descend upon the soul, till way be made for them by the ter rible flashes of the law.