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ance; as, contrarily, deceit doth both argue and make a bankrupt. Who can trust where he is disappointed? O God! so oft, so ever have we found thee true in all thy promises, in all thy performances, that, if we do not seek thee, if we do not trust thee in the sequel, we are worthy of our loss, worthy of thy desertions.

Nature wrought in Jeroboam, not grace: he is enough troubled with his son's disease, no whit bettered. I would have heard him say, God follows me with his afflictions; it | is for mine impiety: what other measure can I expect from his justice? while mine idols stand, how can I look that my house should prosper? I will turn from my wickedness; O God, turn thou from thy wrath. Yet I do not see that Jeroboam sends to These thoughts were too good for that ob- the prophet for his aid, but for intelligence. durate heart his son is sick, he is sorrow. Curiosity is guilty of this message, and not ful; but, as an amazed man seeks to go devotion; he calls not for the prayers, nor forth at the wrong door, his distraction for the benediction of that holy man, but sends him to a false help: he thinks not of for mere information of the event. He well God, he thinks of his prophet; he thinks saw what the prayers of a prophet could of the prophet that had foretold him he do: that which cured his hand, might it ́should be a king; he thinks not of the God not have cured his son? yet he that said to of that prophet who made him a king. It a man of God, "Entreat the face of the is the property of a carnal heart to con- Lord thy God, that he may restore my fine both his obligations and his hopes to hand," says not now, in his message to Abithe means, neglecting the Author of good. jah, Entreat thy God to restore my son. Vain is the respect that is given to the ser- Sin makes such a strangeness betwixt God vant, where the master is contemned. and man, that the guilty heart either thinks not of suing to God, or fears it. What a poor contentment it was to foreknow that evil which he could not avoid, and whose notice could but hasten his misery! Yet thus fond is our restless curiosity, that it seeks ease in the drawing on of torment: he is worthy of sorrow, that will not stay till it comes to him, but goes to fetch it.

Extremity draws Jeroboam's thoughts to the prophet, whom else he had not cared to remember. The king of Israel had divines enow of his own, else he must needs have thought them miserable gods that were not worth a prophet: and, besides, there was an old prophet, if he yet survived, dwelling within the smoke of his palace, whose visions had been too well approved: why should Jeroboam send so far, to an Abijah?

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Whom doth Jeroboam send on this message but his wife? and how, but disguised? why her, and why thus? Neither durst he Certainly his heart despised those base trust this errand with another, nor with her priests of his high places; neither could he in her own form: it was a secret that Jetrust either to the gods or the clergy of his roboam sends to a prophet of God; none own making his conscience rests upon might know it but his own bosom, and she the fidelity of that man whose doctrine he that lay in it: if this had been noised in had forsaken. How did this idolater strive Israel, the example had been dangerous : against his own heart, whilst he inwardly who would not have said, The king is glad despised those whom he professed to ho- to leave his counterfeit deities, and seek to nour, and inwardly honoured them whom the true? why should we adhere to them he professed to despise! Wicked breasts whom he forsakes? As the message must are false to themselves, neither trusting to not be known to the people, so she that their own choice, nor making choice of that bears it must not be known to the prophet: which they may dare to trust. They will her name, her habit, must be changed; she set a good face upon their secretly unpleas- must put off her robes, and put on a russet ing sins, and had rather be self-condemned coat; she must put off the queen, and put than wise and penitent. As for that old on the peasant; instead of a sceptre, she seer, it is like Jeroboam knew his skill, but must take up a basket, and go a masked doubted of his sincerity: that man was too pilgrimage to Shiloh. O the fondness of much his neighbour to be good; Abijah's vain men, that think to juggle with the Altruth had been tried in a case of his own. mighty, and to hide their counsels from that He, whose word was found just in the pre-all-seeing eye! If this change of habit were diction of his kingdom, was well worthy of credit in the news of his son. Experience is a great encouragement of our trust. It is a good matter to be faithful: this loadstone of our fidelity shall draw to us even hearts of iron, and hold them to our reli

necessary at Bethel, yet what needs it at Shiloh? though she would hide her face from her subjects, yet why should she not pull off her muffler, and show herself to the prophet? Certainly, what policy began, guiltiness must continue. Well might she

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he shall not enjoy an Abijah: Abijah hath some good things, therefore he shall be removed from the danger of the depravation of Jeroboam. Sometimes God strikes in favour, but more often forbears out of severity. The best are fittest for heaven, the

dinate height was not enough for thee; no seat would serve thee but a throne; "yea, to be a prince of my people Israel." No nation was for thee but my chosen one; none but my royal inheritance: neither did I raise thee into a vacant throne: a forlorn and forsaken principality might be thank-earth is fittest for the worst; this is the reless, but "I rent the kingdom away from another for thy sake." Yea, from what other but the grandchild of David? Out of his hands did I wrest the sceptre, to give it into thine. O what high favours doth God sometimes cast away upon unworthy subjects! How do his abused bounties double both their sin and judgment !

gion of sin and misery, that of immortality. It is no argument of disfavour to be taken early from a well-led life, as not of approbation to age in sin.

As the soul of Abijah is favoured in the removal, so is his body with a burial. He shall have alone both tears and tomb; all the rest of his brethren shall have no grave but dogs and fowls, no sorrow but for their Though the carcass be insensible of any position, yet honest sepulture is a blessing. It is fit the body should be duly respected on earth, whose soul is glorious in heaven.

The sins of this prince were no less eminent than his obligations; therefore his judg-life. ments shall be no less eminent than his sins. How bitterly doth God express that, which shall be more bitter in the execution! "Behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel, and will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh away dung, till it be all gone. Him that dieth of Jeroboam in the city shall the dogs eat, and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat." O heavy load that this disguised princess must carry to her husband! But because these evils, though grievous, yet might be remote, therefore, for a present hansel of vengeance, she is dismissed with the sad tidings of the death of her son: "When thy feet enter into the city, the child shall die." It is heavy news for a mother, that she must lose her son; but worse yet, that she may not see him. In these cases of our final departures, our presence gives some mitigation to our grief. Might she but have closed the eyes, and have received the last breath of her dying son, the loss been more tolerable. I know not how our personal farewell eases our heart, even while it increases our passion; but now she shall no more see, nor be seen of, her Abijah: she shall no sooner be in the city, than he shall be out of the world. Yet more, to perfect her sorrow, she hears, that in him alone there is found some good; the rest of her issue are graceless: she must lose the good, and hold the graceless: he shall die to afflict her, they shall live to afflict her.

CONTEMPLATION V.—OF ASA.

THE two houses of Judah and Israel grow up now together in an ambitious rivalry: this splitted plant branches out so severally, as if it had forgotten that ever it was joined in the root. The throne of David oft changeth the possessors, and more complaineth of their iniquity than their remove. Abijam inherits the sins of his father Rehoboam, no less than his crown; and so spends his three years, as if he had been no whit of kin to his grandfather's virtues. It is no news that grace is not traduced, while vice is; therefore is his reign short, because it was wicked. It was a sad case, when both the kings of Judah and Israel, though enemies, yet conspired in sin. Rehoboam, like his father Solomon, began graciously, but fell to idolatry; as he followed his father, so his son, so his people, followed him. O what a face of a church was here, when Israel worshipped Jeroboam's calves, when Judah built them high places, and images and groves on every high hill, and under every green tree! On both hands God is forsaken, his temple neglected, his worship adulterate; and this not for some short brunt, but during the succession of two kings; for, after the first three years, Re hoboam changed his father's religion, as his shields, from gold to brass; the rest of his Yet what a mixture is here of severity seventeen years were led in impiety. His and favour in one act! favour to the son, son Abijam trode in the same miry steps, severity to the father: severity to the father, and Judah with them both. If there were that he must lose such a son; favour to the any (and doubtless there were some) faithson, that he shall be taken from such a fa-ful hearts yet remaining in both kingdoms ther. Jeroboam is wicked, and therefore during these heavy times, what a corrosive

it must needs have been to them, to see so deplored and miserable a depravation!

There was no visible church upon earth but here; and this, what a one! O God, how low dost thou sometimes suffer thine own flock to be driven! what woful wanes and eclipses hast thou ordained for this heavenly body! Yet, at last, an Asa shall rise from the loins, from the grave of Abijam; he shall revive David and reform Judah. The gloomy times of corruption shall not last always; the light of truth and peace | shall at length break out, and bless the sad hearts of the righteous.

dotage in religion; bodily pollution with spiritual. How should the soul care to be chaste, that keeps a stew in the body? Asa begins with the banishment of both, scouring Judah of this double uncleanness. In vain should he have hoped to restore God to his kingdom, while these abominations inhabited it. It is justly the main care of worthy and religious princes to clear their coasts of the foulest sins. O the impartial zeal of Asa! There were idols that challenged a prerogative of favour, the idols that his father had made; all these he defaces: the name of a father cannot protect an idol; It is a wonder how Asa should be good, the duty to his parent cannot win him to a of the seed of Abijam, of the soil of Maa- liking, to a forbearance, of his misdevotion: chah, both wicked, both idolatrous. God yea, so much the more doth the heart of would have us see that grace is from heaven; Asa rise against these puppets, for that they neither needs the help of these earthly con- were the sin, the shame of his father. Did veyances. Should not the children of good there want, think we, some courtier of his parents sometimes be evil, and the children father's retinue, to say, Sir, favour the meof evil parents good, virtue would seem na- mory of him that begot you; you cannot tural, and the giver would lose his thanks. demolish these statues, without the disThus we have seen a fair flower spring out honour of their erector; hide your dislike of dung, and a well-fruited tree rise out of at the least; it will be your glory to lay a sour stock: education hath no less power your finger upon this blot of your father's to corrupt, than nature. It is therefore the reputation; if you list not to allow his act, just praise of Asa, that, being trained up yet wink at it. The godly zeal of Asa turns under an idolatrous Maachah, he main- the deaf ear to these monitors, and lets tained his piety; as, contrarily, it is a shame them see, that he doth not more honour a for those that have been bred up in the father, than hate an idol: no dearness of precepts and examples of virtue and godli-person should take off the edge of our deness, to fall off to lewdness or superstition. There are four principal monuments of Asa's virtue, as so many rich stones in his diadem: he took away sodomy and idols out of Judah. Who cannot wonder more that he found them there, than that he removed them? What a strange incongruity is this! Sodom in Jerusalem! idols in Judah! Surely debauched profession proves desperate: admit the idols; ye cannot doubt of the sodomy. If they have changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things, it is no marvel if God give them up to uncleanness, through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves. If they changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever, no marvel if God give them to vile affections, to change the natural use into that which is against nature, burning in lust one towards another, men with men working that which is unseemly.

Contrarily, admit the sodomy, ye cannot doubt of the idols: unnatural beastliness in manners is punished justly with a sottish

testation of the sin. Nature is worthy of forgetfulness and contempt, in opposition to the God of nature; upon the same ground as he removed the idols of his father Abijam, so for idols he removed his grandmother Maachah: she would not be removed from her obscene idols; she is therefore removed from the station of her honour. That princess had aged, both in her regency and superstition. Under her rod was Asa brought up, and schooled in the rudiments of her idolatry: whom she could not infect, she hoped to overawe; so as if Asa will not follow her gods, yet she presumes that she may retain her own. Doubtless, no means were neglected for her reclamation; none would prevail. Religious Asa gathers up himself, and begins to remember that he is a king, though a son; that she, though a mother, yet is a subject; that her eminence could not but countenance idolatry; that her greatness suppressed religion, which he should in vain hope to reform while her superstition swayed: forgetting, therefore, the challenges of nature, the awe of infancy, the custom of reverence, he strips her of that command which he saw prejudicial to his Maker. All respects of flesh and blood must be trampled

on for God. Could that long settled idolatry | the extirpation of sodomy, the demolition want abettors? Questionless, some or other of idols, the removal of Maachah, the boun would say, This was the religion of your teous contribution to the temple; but that father Abijam, this of your grandfather which gives true life unto all these, is a Rehoboam, this of the latter days of your sound root: "Asa's heart was perfect with wise and great-grandfather Solomon, this the Lord all his days." No less laudable of your grandmother Maachah, this of your works than these have proceeded from great-grandmother Naamah; why should hypocrisy, which, while they have carried it not be yours? why should you suspect away applause from men, have lost their either the wisdom, or piety, or salvation thanks with God. All Asa's gold was but of so many predecessors? Good Asa had dross to his pure intentions. learned to contemn prescription against a direct law; he had the grace to know it was no measuring truth by so modern antiquity: his eyes scorning to look so low, raise up themselves to the uncorrupt times of Solomon, to David, to Samuel, to the Judges, to Joshua, to Moses, to the patriarchs, to Noah, to the religious founders of the first world, to the first father of mankind, to paradise, to heaven. In comparison of these, Maachah's god cannot overlook yesterday: the ancientest error is but as a novice to truth; and if never any example could be pleaded for purity of religion, it is enough that the precept is express. He knew what God said in Sinai, and wrote in the tables: "Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, nor any similitude; thou shalt not bow down to them, nor worship them." If all the world had been an idolater, ever since that word was given, he knew how little that precedent could avail for disobedience. Practice must be corrected by law, and not the law yield to practice: Maachah, therefore, goes down from her seat, her idols from their grove; she to retiredness, they to the fire, and from thence to the water: woful deities, that could both burn and drown!

But O what great and many infirmities may consist with uprightness! what alloys of imperfection will there be found in the most refined soul! Four no small faults are found in true-hearted Asa: First, the high places stood still, unremoved; what high places? There were some dedicated to the worship of false gods; these Asa took away: there were some misdevoted to the worship of the true God; these he lets stand. There was gross idolatry in the former; there was a weak will-worship in the latter: while he opposes impiety, he winks at mistakings: yet even the variety of altars was forbidden by an express charge from God, who had confined his service to the temple. With one breath doth God report both these: "The high places were not removed, yet, nevertheless, Asa's heart was perfect." God will not see weaknesses where he sees truth, How pleasing a thing is sincerity, that, in favour thereof, the mercy of our just God digests many an error! O God, let our hearts go upright, though our feet slide; the fall cannot, through thy grace, be deadly, however it may shame or pain us.

Besides, to confront his rival of Israel, Baasha, this religious king of Judah fetches in Benhadad, the king of Syria, into God's inheritance, upon too dear a rate, the breach of his league, the expilation of the temple. All the wealth wherewith Asa had endowed the house of the Lord, was little enough to hire an Edomite to betray his

Neither doth the zeal of Asa more magnify itself in these private weedings out of the corruptions of religion, than in the positive acts of a holy plantation. In the falling down of those idolatrous shrines, the temple of God flourishes; that doth he fur-fidelity, and to invade Israel. Leagues may nish with those sacred treasures which were dedicated by himself, by his progenitors: like the true son of David, he would not serve God cost free: Rehoboam turned Solomon's gold into brass; Asa turns Rehoboam's brass into gold. Some of these vessels, it seems, Abijam, Asa's father, had dedicated to God; but, after his vow, inquired, yea, withheld them. Asa, like a good son, pays his father's debts, and his own. It is a good sign of a well-meant devotion, when we can abide it chargeable; as, contrarily, in the affairs of God, a niggardly hand argues a cold and hollow heart.

All these were noble and excellent acts:

be made with infidels; not at such a price, upon such terms: there can be no warrant for a wilful subornation of perfidiousness. In these cases of outward things, the mercy of God dispenseth with our true necessities, not with the affected. O Asa! where was thy piety, while thou robbedst God, to corrupt an infidel, for the slaughter of Israelites? O princes! where is your piety, while ye hire Turks to the slaughter of Christians, to the spoil of God's church?

Yet, which was worse, Asa doth not only employ the Syrian, but relies on him; relies not on God: a confidence less sinful cost his grandfather David dear; and when Ha.