| Israel lay his hand upon an enemy, so miraculously trained home. His heart was still foul with idolatry, yet would he not taint his hand with forbidden blood. Hypocrisy will be still scrupulous in something; and in some awful restraints, is a perfect counterfeit of conscience. forbearance of some hostile inroad, all the forces of Syria are mustered against Jehoram. That very Samaria, which had relieved the distressed Aramites, is by the Aramites besieged, and is famished by those whom it had fed. The famine within the walls was more terrible than the sword without. Their worst enemy was shut within, and could not be dislodged of their own bowels. Whither hath the idolatry of Israel brought them! Before they had been scourged with war, with drought, with dearth, as with a single cord; they remain incorrigible: and now God twists two of these bloody lashes together, and galls them even to death: there needs no other exe things, which in their nature were not edible, at least to an Israelite, were now both dear and dainty. The ass was, besides the untoothsomeness, an impure creature. That which the law of ceremonies had made unclean, the law of necessity had made delicate and precious: the bones of so carrion a head could not be picked for less than four hundred pieces of silver. Neither was this scarcity of victuals only, but of all other necessaries for human use: that the belly might not complain alone, the whole man was equally pinched. The charitable prophet soon gives an angry prohibition of slaughter: "Thou shalt not smite them: wouldst thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow?" as if he had said. These are God's captives, not thine; and if they were thine own, their blood could not be shed without cruelty. Though in the hot chases of war, executions may be justifiable; yet in the coolness of delibera-cutioners than their own maws. Those tion, it can be no other than inhuman, to take those lives which have been yielded to mercy. But here, thy bow and thy sword are guiltless of the success; only a strange providence of the Almighty hath cast them into thine hands, whom neither thy force nor thy fraud could have compassed. If it be victory thou aimest at, overcome them with kindness; "Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink." O noble revenge of Elisha, to feast his persecutors! to provide a table for those who had provided a grave for him! These Syrians came to Dothan full of bloody purposes, to Elisha: he sends them from Samaria full of good cheer and jollity. Thus, thus should a prophet punish his pursuers. No vengeance but this is heroical, and fit | for Christian imitation. "If thine enemy hunger, give him bread to eat; if he thirst, give him water to drink; for thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head; and the Lord shall reward thee. Be not overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good." The king of Israel hath done that by his feast, which he could not have done by his sword. The bands of Syria will no more come by way of ambush or incursion into the bounds of Israel. Never did a charitable act go away without the retribution of a blessing. In doing some good to our enemies, we do most good to ourselves. God cannot but love in us this imitation of his mercy, who bids his sun shine and his rain fall where he is most provoked; and that love is never fruitless. CONTEMPLATION X. THE FAMINE OF Not many good turns are written in marble: soon have these Syrians forgotten the merciful beneficence of Israel. After the The king of Israel is neither exempted from the judgment, nor yet yields under it. He walks upon the walls of his Samaria, to oversee the watches set, the engines ready, the guards changed, together with the posture of the enemy; when a woman cries to him out of the city," Help, my lord, O king." Next to God, what refuge have we in all our necessities, but his anointed? Earthly sovereignty can aid us in the case of the injustice of men, but what can it do against the judgments of God?" If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barn-floor, or out of the wine press?" Even the greatest powers must stoop to afflictions in themselves: how should they be able to prevent them in others? To sue for aid, where is an utter impotence of redress, is but to upbraid the weakness, and aggravate the misery, of those whom we implore. Jehoram mistakes the suit: the supplicant calls to him for a woful piece of justice. Two mothers have agreed to eat their sons: the one hath yielded hers to be boiled and eaten; the other, after she had taken her part of so prodigious a banquet, withdraws her child, and hides him from the knife. Hunger and envy make the plaintiff importunate; and now she craves the benefit of royal justice. She that made the first motion, withholds her part of the bargain, and flies from that promise, whose trust had made this mother childless. O the direful effects of famine, that turns off all respects of nature, and gives no place to horror, causing the tender mother to lay her hands, yea her teeth, upon the fruit of her own body, and to receive that into her stomach, which she hath brought forth of her womb! What should Jehoram do? The match was monstrous; the challenge was just, yet unnatural. This complainant had purchased one half of the living child, by the one half of hers dead. The mother of the surviving infant is pressed by covenant, by hunger; restrained by nature. To force a mother to deliver up her child to voluntary slaughter, had been cruel; to force a debitor to pay a confessed arrearage, seemed but equal. If the remaining child be not dressed for food, this mother of the devoured child is both robbed and famished: if he be, innocent blood is shed by authority. It is no marvel if the question astonished the judge; not so much for the difficulty of the demand, as the horror of the occasion. To what lamentable distress did Jehoram find his people driven! Not without cause did the king of Israel rend his garments, and show his sackcloth; well might he see his people branded with that ancient curse, which God had denounced against the rebellious: "The Lord shall bring a nation against thee of a fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favour to the young; and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates; and thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons, and of thy daughters. The tender and delicate woman, her eyes shall be evil towards her young one that cometh out between her feet, and toward the children which she shall bear, for she shall eat them for want of all things, secretly in the siege and straitness." He mourns for the plague; he mourns not for the cause of this plague, his sin, and theirs I find his sorrow, I find not his repentance. The worst man may grieve for his smart; only the good heart grieves for his offence. Instead of being penitent. Jehoram is furious, and turns his rage from his sins, against the prophet: "God do so to me, and more also, if the head of Elisha, the son of Shaphat, shall stand on him this day." Alas! what hath the righteous done? Perhaps Elisha, that we may imagine some colours of this displeasure, forethreatened this judgment, but they deserved it: perhaps he might have averted it by his prayers; their unrepentance disabled him: perhaps he persuaded Jehoram to hold out the siege, though through much hardness he foresaw the deliverance. In all this, how hath Elisha forfeited his head? All Israel did not afford a head so guiltless, as this that was destined to slaughter. This is the fashion of the world: the lewd blame the innocent, and will revenge their own sins upon others' uprightness. In the midst of all this sad estate of Samaria, and those storms of Jehoram, the prophet sits quietly in his own house, amongst his holy consorts, bewailing, no doubt, both the sins and misery of their people, and prophetically conferring of the issue; when suddenly God reveals to him the bloody intent and message of Jehoram, and he at once reveals it to his fellows: "See ye how this son of a murderer hath sent to take away mine head?" O the inimitable liberty of a prophet! The same God that showed him his danger, suggested his words: he may be bold, where we must be awful. Still is Naboth's blood laid in Jehoram's dish; the foul act of Ahab blemisheth his posterity; and now, when the son threatens violence to the innocent, murder is objected to him as hereditary. He, that foresaw his own peril, provides for his safety: "Shut the door, and hold him fast at the door." No man is bound to tender his throat to an unjust stroke: this bloody commission was prevented by a prophetical foresight. The same eye that saw the executioner coming to smite him, saw also the king hastening after him to stay the blow the prophet had been no other than guilty of his own blood, if he had not re served himself awhile, for the rescue of authority. O the inconstancy of carnal hearts! It was not long since Jehoram could say to Elisha, "My father, shall I smite them?” now he is ready to smite him as an enemy, whom he honoured as a father; yet again his lips had no sooner given sentence of death against the prophet, than his feet stir to recal it. It should seem that Elisha, upon the challenges and expostulations of Jehoram's messenger, had sent a persuasive message to the king of Israel, yet awhile to wait patiently upon God for his deliverance. The discontented prince flies off in an impotent anger: "Behold, this evil is of the Lord, what should I wait for the Lord any longer?" O the desperate resolutions of impatient minds! They have stinted God both for his time and his measure: if he exceed either, they either turn their backs upon him, or fly in his face. The position was true; the inference deadly. All that evil was of the Lord: they deserved it; he sent it. What then? It should have been therefore argued, He that sent it can remove it: I will wait upon his mercy, under whose justice I suffer. Impatience and distrust shall but aggravate my judgment: "It is the Lord, let him do what he will." But now to despair because God is just, to defy mercy because it lingers, to reject God for correction, it is a presumptuous madness, an impious pettishness. Yet, in spite of all these provocations, both of king and people, Elisha hath good news for Jehoram: "Thus saith the Lord, To-morrow, about this time, shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria." Miserable Israel now sees an end of this hard trial; one day's patience shall free them both of the siege and famine. God's deliverances may overstay our expectation, not the due period of his own counsels. O infinite mercy! when man says, No longer, God says, " Tomorrow;" as if he would condescend where he might judge, and would please them who deserve nothing but punishinent. The word seemed not more comfortable than incredible: "A lord, on whose hand the king leaned, answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be." Prophecies, before they be fulfilled, are riddles ; no spirit can read them, but that by which they are delivered. It is a foolish and injurious infidelity, to question a possibility, where we know the message is God's: how easy is it for that Omnipotent hand to effect those things which surpass all the reach of human conceit! Had God intended a miraculous multiplication, was it not as easy for him to increase the corn or meal of Samaria, as the widow's oil? was it not as easy for him to give plenty of victuals, without opening the windows of heaven, as to give plenty of water, without wind or rain? The Almighty hates to be distrusted. This peer of Israel shall rue his unbelief: "Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof." The sight shall be yielded for conviction; the fruition shall be denied for punishment. Well is that man worthy to want the benefit which he would not believe who can pity to see infidelity excluded from the blessings of earth, from the glory of heaven? How strange a choice doth God make of the intelligencers of so happy a change! Four lepers sit at the entering of the gate: they see nothing but death before them; famine within the walls, the enemy with | : resolve upon the lesser evil; famine is worse than the Syrian in the famine there is certainty of perishing, amongst the Syrians hazard; perhaps the enemy may have some pity, hunger hath none; and, were the death equally certain, it were more easy to die by the sword, than by famine. Upon this deliberation they come down into the Syrian camp, to find either speed of mercy or despatch. Their hunger would not give them respite till morning: by twilight are they fallen upon the uttermost tents: "Behold, there was no man." They marvel at the silence and solitude: they look and listen; the noise of their own feet affrighted them; their guilty hearts supplied the Syrians, and expected fearfully, those which were as fearfully fled. How easily can the Almighty confound the power of the strong, the policy of the wise! God puts a panic terror into the hearts of the proud Syrians; he makes them hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host. They say one to another, "Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to come upon us!" They rise therefore in a confused rout, and, leaving all their substance behind them, flee for their lives. Not long before, Elisha's servant saw chariots and horses, but heard none now, these Syrians hear chariots and horses, but see none: that sight comforted his heart, this sound dismayed theirs. The Israelites heard no noise within the walls; the lepers heard no noise without the gates; only the Syrians heard this noise in their camp. What a scorn doth God put upon these presumptuous Aramites! he will not vouchsafe to use any substantial stratagem against them; nothing but an empty sound shall scatter them, and send them home empty of substance, laden with shame, half dead with fear: the very horses, that might have hastened their flight, are left tied in their tents; their very garments are a burden; all is left behind, save their bodies, and those breathless for speed. Doubtless these Syrians knew well to what miserable exigents the inclosed Israelites were brought, by their siege; and now made full account to sack and ransack their Samaria; already had they divided, and swallowed the prey; when suddenly God puts them into a ridiculous confusion, and sends them to seek safety in their heels: no booty is now in price with them but their life, and happy is he that can run fastest. Thus the Almighty laughs at the designs of insolent men, and shuts up their counsels in shame. The fear of the four lepers began now to give way to security: they fill their bellies. and hide their treasures, and pass from one tent to another, in a fastidious choice of the best commodities ; they, who erewhile would have held it happiness enough to have been blessed with a crust, now wantonly rove for dainties, and from necessity leap into excess. How far self-love carries us in all our actions, even to the neglect of the public! Not till their own bellies, and hands, and eyes, were filled, did these lepers think of imparting this news to Israel. At last, when themselves are glutted, they begin to remember the hunger of their brethen, and now they find room for remorse: "We do not well; this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace." Nature teaches us, that it is an injury to engross blessings, and so to mind the private, as if we had no relation to a community. We are worthy to be shut out of the city gates for lepers, if the respects to the public good do not oversway with us in all our desires, in all our demeanour; and well may we, with these covetous lepers, fear a mischief upon ourselves, if we shall wilfully conceal blessings from others. The conscience of this wrong and danger sends back the lepers into the city; they call to the porters, and soon transmit the news to the king's household. The king of Israel complains not to have his sleep broken with such intelligence; he ariseth in the night, and not contemning good news, though brought by lepers, consults with his servants of the business. We cannot be too jealous of the intentions of an enemy. Jehoram wisely suspects this flight of the Syrians to be but simulatory and politic, only to draw Israel out of their city for the spoil of both. There may be more peril in the back of an enemy than in his face: the cruelest slaughters have been in retiring. Easily therefore is the king persuaded to adventure some few forlorn scouts for further assurance. The word of Elisha is out of his head, out of his heart, else there had been no place for this doubt. Timorous hearts never think themselves sure; those that have no faith, had need of much sense. Those few horses that remain are sent forth for discovery; they find nothing but monuments of frightfulness, pledges of security. Now Israel dares issue forth to the prey there, as if the Syrians had come thither to enrich them, they find granaries, wardrobes, treasures, and whatever may serve either for use or ostentation. Every Israelite goes away filled, laden, wearied with the wealthy spoil. As scarcity breeds dearth, so plenty cheapness. To-day a measure of fine flour is lower rated, than yesterday of dung. The cistrustful peer of Israel sees this abundance, according to the word of the prophet, but enjoys it not. He sees this plenty can come in at the gate, though the windows of heaven be not open. The gate is his charge: the famished Israelites press in upon him, and bear him down in the throng. Extreme hunger hath no respect to greatness. Not their rudeness, but his own unbelief, hath trampled him under feet. He that abased the power of God by his distrust, is abased worthily to the heels of the multitude. Faith exalts a man above his own sphere; infidelity depresses him into the dust, into hell: "He that believes not, is condemned already." BOOK XX. CONTEMPLATION I. — THE SHUNAMITE SUING TO JEHORAM; ELISHA CONFERRING WITH HAZAEL. How royally hath Elisha paid the Shunamite for his lodging! To him already she owes the life of her son, both given and restored; and now again, after so many years, as might well have worn out the memory of so small a courtesy, herself, her son, her family, owe their lives to so thankful a guest. That table and bed, and stool and candlestick, were well bestowed. That candlestick repaid her the light of her future life and condition, that table the means of maintenance, that stool a seat of safe abode, that bed a quiet rest from the common calamities of her nation. He is a niggard to himself that scants his beneficence to a prophet, whose very cold water shall not go unrewarded. Elijah preserved the Sareptan from famine; Elisha the Shunamite: he, by provision of oil and meal; this, by premonition: " Arise, and go, thou and thine household, and sojourn wheresoever thou canst sojourn." The Sareptan was poor, and driven to extremes; therefore the prophet provides for her from hand to mouth; the Shunamite was wealthy; and therefore the prophet sends her to provide for herself. The same goodness, that relieves our necessity, leaves our competency to the hand of our own counsel; in the one he will make use of his own power, in the other of our providence. The very prophet advises this holy client to leave the bounds of the church, and to seek life, where she should not find religion. Extremity is for the time a just dispensation, with some common rules of our outward demeanour and motions, even from better to worse. All Israel and Judah shall be famished: the body can be preserved nowhere, but where the soul shall want. Sometimes the conveniences of the soul must yield to bodily necessities. Wantonness and curiosity can find no advantage from that which is done out of the power of need. It is a long famine that shall afflict Israel. He, upon whom the spirit of Elijah was doubled, doubled the judgment inflicted by his master. Three years and a half did Israel gasp under the drought of Elijah: seven years' dearth shall it suffer under Elisha. The trials of God are many times not more grievous for their sharpness, than for their continuance. This scarcity shall not come alone: God shall call for it: whatever be the second cause, he is the first. The executioners of the Almighty (such are his judgments) stand ready waiting upon his just throne; and do no sooner receive the watch-word, than they fly upon the world, and plague it for sin. Only the cry of our sins moves God to call for vengeance; and, if God once call, it must come. How oft, how earnestly, are we called to repentance, and stir not! The messengers of God's wrath fly forth at the least beck, and fulfil the will of his revenge upon those whose obedience would not fulfil the will of his command. | pation: neither were they in all likelihood, pressed with multitude. The rest of Israel were led on with hopes, presuming upon the amends of the next harvest, till their want grew desperate and irremediable; only the forewarned Shunamite prevents the mischief: now she finds what it is to have a prophet her friend. Happy are those souls, that upon all occasions consult with God's seers: they shall be freed from the plagues wherein the secure blindness of others is heedlessly overtaken. Seven years had this Shunamite sojourned in Palestine; now she returns to her own, and is excluded. She, that found harbour among Philistines, finds oppression and violence among Israelites: those of her kindred, taking advantage of her absence, had shared her possessions. How oft doth it fall out, that the worst enemies of a man are those of his own house! All went by contraries with this Shunamite: in the famine she had enough, in the common plenty she was scanted: Philistines were kind unto her, Israelites cruel. Both our fears and our hopes do not seldom disappoint us. It is safe trusting to that stay which can never fail us, who can easily provide us both of friendship in Palestine, and of justice in Israel. We may not judge of the religion by particular actions: a very Philistine may be merciful, when an Israelite is unjust; the person may be faulty, when the profession is holy. It was not long since the prophet made that friendly offer to the Shunamite, out of the desire of a thankful requital: "What is to be done for thee? wouldst thou be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the host?" and she answered. “I dwell among my brethren." Little did she then think of this injurious measure, else she might have said, I dwell among my enemies, I dwell among robbers. It is like they were then friendly, who were now cruel and oppressive. There is no trust to be reposed How should their favours be constant, who are, in their nature and disposition, variable? It is the surest way to rely on Him who is ever like himself, the measure of whose love is eternity. After so many proofs of fidelity, the Shunamite cannot distrust the prophet; not staying, therefore, to be convicted by the event, she removes her family into the land of the Philistines. No nation was more opposite to Israel, none more worthily odious; yet there doth the Shunamite seek and find shelter even the shade of those trees that in flesh and blood. : are unwholesome may keep us from a storm. Every where will God find room for his own. The fields of the Philistines flourish, while the soil of Israel yields nothing but weeds and barrenness. Not that Israel was more sinful, but that the sin of Israel was more intolerable. The offers of grace are so many aggravations of wickedness. In equal offences, those do justly smart more, who are more obliged. No pestilence is so contagious as that which hath taken the purest air. These Philistine neighbours would never have endured themselves to be pestered with foreigners, especially Israelites, whom they hated, besides religion, for their usur Whither should the Shunamite go to complain of her wrong, but to the court? There is no other refuge of the oppressed, but public authority. All justice is derived from sovereignty: kings are not called gods for nothing; they do both sentence and execute for the Almighty. Doubtless now the poor Shunamite thought of the courteous proffer of Elisha, and, missing a friend at the court, is glad to be the presenter of her own petition. |