not; Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head this day? and he answered, Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace.

How familiarly do these prophets interknow one another! how kindly do they communicate their visions! Seldom ever was any knowledge given to keep, but to impart; the grace of this rich jewel is lost in concealment.

The removal of an Elijah is so not fit to be done without noise.

important a business that it is Many shall have their share in

his loss: he must be missed on the sudden: it was meet therefore that the world should know his rapture should be divine and glorious.

I do not find where the day of any natural death is notified to so many. By how much more wonder there was in this assumption, by so much more shall it be forerevealed. It is enough for ordinary occurrents to be known by their event; supernatural things have need of premonition, that men's hearts may be both prepared for their receipt and confirmed in their certainty.

Thrice was Elisha entreated, thrice hath he denied to stay behind his now departing master; on whom both his eyes and his thoughts are so fixed that he cannot give allowance so much as to the interpellation of a question of his fellow prophets.

Together, therefore, are this wonderful pair come to the last stage of their separation, the banks of Jordan.

Those that were not admitted to be attendants of their journey yet will not be debarred from being spectators of so marvellous an issue. Fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and stood to view afar off. I marvel there were no more. How could any son of the prophets stay within the college walls that day, when he knew what was meant to Elijah? Perhaps, though they knew that to be the prophet's last day, yet they might think his disparition should be sudden and insensible; besides, they found how much he affected secrecy in this intended departure: yet the fifty prophets of Jericho will make proof of their eyes; and with much intention assay who shall have the last sight of Elijah.

Miracles are not purposed to silence and obscurity. God will not work wonders without witnesses. Since he doth them on purpose to win glory to his name, his end were frustrate without their notice. Even so, O Saviour, when thou hadst raised thyself from the dead, thou wouldest be seen of more than five hundred brethren at once; and when thou wouldest raise up thy glorified

body from earth into heaven, thou didst not ascend from some close valley, but from the mount of Olives; not in the night, not alone, but in the clear day, in the view of many eyes; which were so fixed upon that point of thine heaven, that they could scarce be removed by the check of angels.

Jordan must be crossed by Elijah in his way to heaven. There must be a meet parallel betwixt the two great prophets that shall meet Christ upon Tabor, Moses and Elias. Both received visions on Horeb: to both God appeared there in fire and other forms of terror: both were sent to kings; one to Pharaoh, the other to Ahab: both prepared miraculous tables; the one of quails and manna in the desert, the other of meal and oil in Sarepta : both opened heaven; the one for that nourishing dew, the other for those refreshing showers: both revenged idolatries with the sword; the one upon the worshippers of the golden calf, the other upon the four hundred Baalites: both quenched the drought of Israel; the one out of the rock, the other out of the cloud: both divided the waters; the one of the Red sea, the other of Jordan: both of them are forewarned of their departure: both must be fetched away beyond Jordan; the body of Elijah is translated, the body of Moses is hid: what Moses doth by his rod Elijah doth by his mantle; with that he smites the waters, and they, as fearing the divine power which wrought with the prophet, run away from him and stand on heaps, leaving their dry channel for the passage of those awful feet. It is not long since he mulcted them with a general exsiccation; now he only bids them stand aside, and give way to his last walk, that he might with dry feet mount up into the celestial chariot.

The waters do not now first obey him. They know that mantle of old; which hath oft given laws to their falling, rising, standing. They are passed over; and now, when Elijah finds himself treading on his last earth, he proffers a munificent boon to his faithful servant; Ask what I shall do for thee, before I am taken from thee.

I do not hear him say, "Ask of me when I am gone; in my glorified condition I shall be more able to bestead thee;" but, "Ask before I go." We have a communion with the saints departed, not a commerce. When they are enabled to do more for us, they are less apt to be solicited by us. It is safe suing where we are sure that we are heard.

Had not Elijah received a peculiar instinct for this proffer, he

had not been thus liberal. It were presumption to be bountiful on another's cost, without leave of the owner. The mercy of our good God allows his favourites not only to receive, but to give; not only to receive for themselves, but to convey blessings to others. What can that man want that is befriended of the faithful?

Elisha needs not go far to seek for a suit. It was in his heart, in his mouth; Let, a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. Every prophet must be a son to Elijah, but Elisha would be his heir, and craves the happy right of his primogeniture, the double share to his brethren. It was not wealth, nor safety, nor ease, nor honour that Elisha cares for. The world lies open before him; he may take his choice; the rest he contemneth; nothing will serve him but a large measure of his master's spirit.

No carnal thought was guilty of this sacred ambition. Affectation of eminence was too base a conceit to fall into that man of God. He saw that the times needed strong convictions; he saw that he could not otherwise wield the succession to such a master; therefore he sues for a double portion of spirit; the spirit of prophecy to foreknow, the spirit of power to work. We cannot be too covetous, too ambitious of spiritual gifts; such especially as may enable us to win most advantage to God in our vocations. Our wishes are the true touchstone of our estate. Such as we wish to be, we are. Worldly hearts affect earthly things; spiritual, divine. We cannot better know what we are indeed than by what we would be.

Elijah acknowledges the difficulty, and promises the grant of so great a request, suspended yet upon the condition of Elisha's eyesight; If thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be. What are the eyes to the furniture of the soul? what power is there in those visive beams to draw down a double portion of Elijah's spirit? God doth not always look at efficacy and merit in the conditions of our actions, but at the freedom of his own appointments. The eye was only to be employed as the servant of the heart, that the desires might be so much more intended with the sight. Vehemence is the way to speed both in earth and in heaven. If but the eyelids of Elisha fall, if his thoughts slacken, his hopes are dashed. There must be fixedness and vigilance in those that desire double graces.

Elijah was going on and talking when the chariot of heaven came to fetch him. Surely, had not that conference been needful

and divine, it had given way to meditation; and Elijah had been taken up rather from his knees than from his feet. There can be no better posture or state for the messenger of our dissolution to find us in, than in a diligent prosecution of our calling. The busy attendance of our holy vocation is no less pleasing to God than an immediate devotion: Happy is the servant whom the Master, when he comes, shall find so doing.

O the singular glory of Elijah! What mortal creature ever had this honour to be visibly fetched by the angels of God to his heaven? Every soul of the elect is attended and carried to blessedness by those invisible messengers; but what flesh and blood was ever graced with such a convoy?

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There are three bodily inhabitants of heaven, Enoch, Elijah, our Saviour Christ: the first, before the Law; the second, under the Law; the third, under the Gospel all three in a several form of translation. Our blessed Saviour raised himself to and above the heavens by his own immediate power; he ascended as the Son, they as servants; he as God, they as creatures. Elijah ascended by the visible ministry of angels, Enoch insensibly. Wherefore, O God, hast thou done thus, but to give us a taste of what shall be? to let us see that heaven was never shut to the faithful? to give us assurance of the future glorification of this mortal and corruptible part? Even thus, O Saviour, when thou shalt descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, we that are alive and remain shall be caught up, together with the raised bodies of thy saints, into the clouds, to meet thee in the air, to dwell with thee in glory.

Many forms have those celestial spirits taken to themselves in their apparitions to men; but, of all other, most often hath the Almighty made his messengers a flame of fire: never more properly than here. How had the Spirit of God kindled the hot fires of zeal in the breast of Elijah! how had this prophet thrice commanded fire from heaven to earth! how fitly now, at last, do these scraphical fires carry him from earth to heaven!

What do we see in this rapture of Elijah but violence and terror, whirlwind and fire; two of those fearful representations which the prophet had in the rock of Horeb? Never any man entered into glory with ease. Even the most favourable change hath some equivalency to a natural dissolution: although doubtless to Elijah this fire had a lightsomeness and resplendence, not terror; this whirlwind had speed, not violence. Thus hast thou,

O Saviour, bidden us, when the elements shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be flaming about our ears, to lift up our heads with joy, because our redemption draweth nigh. Come death, come fire, come whirlwind; they are worthy to be welcome that shall carry us to immortality.

This arreption was sudden; yet Elisha sees both the chariot and the horses and the ascent; and cries to his now changed master, between heaven and earth, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. Shaphat of Abelmeholah hath yielded this title to Elijah, the natural father of Elisha to the spiritual. Neither of them may be neglected; but after the yoke of oxen killed at the farewell we hear of no more greetings, no more bewailings of his bodily parent; and now that Elijah is taken from him he cries out like a distressed orphan, My father, my father; and when he hath lost the sight of him he rends his clothes in pieces, according to the fashion of the most passionate mourners.

That Elisha sees his master half way in heaven cannot take away the sorrow of his loss. The departure of a faithful prophet of God is worthy of our lamentation.

Neither is it private affection that must sway our grief, but respects to the public: Elisha says not only My father, but the chariot and horsemen of Israel. That we have foregone a father should not so much trouble us as that Israel hath lost his guard. Certainly the view of this heavenly chariot and horses that came for Elijah puts Elisha in mind of that chariot and horsemen which Elijah was to Israel. These were God's chariots; Elijah was theirs. God's chariot and theirs are upon the same wheels mounted into heaven. No forces are so strong as the spiritual. The prayers of an Elijah are more powerful than all the armies of flesh. The first thing that this seer discerns after the separation of his master is the nakedness of Israel in his loss. If we muster soldiers and lose zealous prophets, it is but a woful exchange.

Elijah's mantle falls from him in the rising. There was no use of that whither he was going, there was whence he was taken. Elisha justly takes up this dear monument of his glorified master; a good supply for his rent garments: this was it which, in presage of his future right, Elijah invested him withal upon the first sight, when he was ploughing with the twelve yoke of oxen; now it falls from heaven to his possession. I do not see him adore so precious a relic; I see him take it up, cast it about him.

Pensive and masterless doth he now come back to the banks