exchange that Gehazi hath made with Naaman: Naaman came a leper; returned a disciple: Gehazi came a disciple; returned a leper: Naaman left behind both his disease and his money; Gehazi takes up both his money and his disease. Now shall Gehazi never look upon himself, but he shall think of Naaman, whose skin is transferred upon him with those talents, and shall wear out the rest of his days in shame, in pain, and sorrow. His tears may wash off the guilt of his sin, but shall not, like another Jordan, wash off his leprosy; that shall ever remain as a hereditary monument of divine severity. This son of the prophet shall more loudly and lively preach the justice of God by his face, than others by their tongue. Happy was it for him, if, while his skin was snow-white with leprosy, his humbled soul was washed white as snow with the water of true repentance. CONTEMPLATION IX. ELISHA RAISING THE IRON; BLINDING THE ASSYRIANS. THERE was no loss of Gehazi: when he was gone, the prophets increased. An ill man in the church is but like some shrubby tree in a garden, whose shade keeps better plants from growing: a blank doth better in a room, than an ill filling. The view of God's just judgments doth rather draw clients unto him, than alienate them. The kings of Israel had succeeded in idolatry and hate of sincere religion, yet the prophets multiply: persecution enlargeth the bounds of the church. These very tempestuous showers bring up flowers and herbs in abundance: there would have been neither so many, nor so zealous prophets, in the languishment of peace. Besides, what marvel is it if the immediate succession of two such noble leaders, as Elijah and Elisha, established and augmented religion, and bred multitudes of prophets? Rather who can marvel, upon the knowledge of all their miracles, that all Israel did not prophesy? It is a good hearing that the prophets want elbow-room out of their store, not out of the envy of neighbours, or incompetency of provision: where vision fails, the people perish; they are blessed where it abounds. When they found themselves straitened, they did not presume to carve for themselves, but they craved the leave, the counsel of Elisha: "Let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make us a place where we may dwell: and he said, Go ye." | It well becomes the sons of the prophets to enterprise nothing without the allowance of their superiors. Here was a building towards none of the curiousest I do not see them making means for the procurement of some cunning artificers, nor for the conquisition of some costly marbles and cedars; but every man shall hew, and square, and frame his own beam. No nice terms were stood upon by these sons of the prophets; their thoughts were fixed upon the perfection of a spiritual building: as a homely roof may serve them, so their own hands shall raise it. The fingers of these contempla. tive men did not scorn the axe, and mallet, and chisel: it was better being there than in Obadiah's cave; and they that dwell now contentedly under rude sticks, will not refuse the squared stones and polished contignations of better times. They shall be ill teachers of others, that have not learnt both to want and to abound. The master of this sacred society, Elisha, is not stately, nor austere: he gives not only passage to this motion of his collegiates, but assistance. It was fit the sons of the prophets should have convenience of dwelling, though not pomp, not costliness. They fall to their work: no man goes slackly about the building of his own house. One of them, more regarding the tree than the tool, lets fall the head of the axe into the river. Poor men are sensible of small losses: he makes his moan to Elisha, "Alas, master, for it was borrowed." Had the axe been his own, the trouble had been the less to forego it; therefore doth the miscarriage afflict him, because it was of a borrowed axe. Honest minds are more careful of what they have by loan than by propriety. In lending there is a trust, which a good heart cannot disappoint without vexation. Alas! poor novices of the prophet, they would be building, and were not worth their axes; if they would give their labour, they must borrow their instruments. Their wealth was spiritual; outward poverty may well stand with inward riches: he is rich, not that hath the world, but that can contemn it. Elisha loves and cherishes this just simplicity: rather will he work a miracle, than a borrowed axe shall not be restored. It might easily be imagined, he that could raise up the iron out of the bottom of the water, could tell where it fell in: yet even that powerful hand calls for direction. In this one point the son of the prophet knows more than Elisha. The notice of particularities is neither fit for a creature, nor communicable: a mean man may best know his own case this novice better knows where his axe fell, than his master; his master knows better how to get it out than he. There is no reason to be given of supernatural actions: the prophet borrows an axe to cut a helve for the lost axe, why did he not make use of that handle which had cast the head? Did he hold it unworthy of respect, for that it had abandoned the metal where with it was trusted? or did he make choice of a new stick, that the miracle might be the more clear and unquestionable? Divine power goes a contrary way to art we first would have procured the head of the axe, and then would have fitted it with an helve: Elisha fits the head to the helve, and causeth the wood, which was light, and knew not how to sink, to fetch up the iron, which was heavy, and naturally incapable of supernatation. Whether the metal were stripped of the natural weight, by the same power which gave it being, or whether, retaining the wonted poise, it was raised by some spiritual operation, I inquire not: only, I see it swim like cork upon the stream of Jordan, and move towards the hand that lost it. What creature is not willing to put off the properties of nature, at the command of the God of nature! O God, how easy is it for thee, when this hard and heavy heart of mine is sunk down into the mud of the world, to fetch it up again by thy mighty word, and cause it to float upon the streams of life, and to see the face of heaven again! | Yet still do the sides of Israel complain of the thorns of Aram: the children of Ahab rue their father's unjust mercy. From an enemy, it is no making question whether of strength or wile. The king of Syria consults with his servants, where to encamp for his greatest advantage: their opinion is not more required than their secresy. Elisha is a thousand scouts: he sends word to the king of Israel of the projects, of the removes of his enemy. More than once had Jehoram saved both his life and his host by these close admonitions: it is well, that in something yet a prophet may be obeyed. What strange state-service was this which Elisha did, besides the spiritual! The king, the people of Israel, owe themselves and their safety to a despised prophet. The man of God knew and felt them idolaters; yet how careful and vigilant is he for their rescue! If they were bad, yet they were his own: if they were bad, yet not all; God had his number amongst their worst: if they were bad, yet the Syrians were worse. The Israelites mis-worshipped the true God; the Syrians worshipped a false; that, if it were pos sible, he might win them, he will preserve them; and, if they will needs be wanting to God, yet Elisha will not be wanting to them. Their impiety shall not make him undutiful. There cannot be a juster cause of displeasure, than the disclosing of those secret counsels which are laid up in our ear, in our breast. The king of Syria, not without reason, stomachs this supposed treachery. What prince can bear that an adverse power should have a party, a pensionary, in his own court? How famous was Elisha, even in foreign regions! Besides Naaman, others of the Syrian nobility take notice of the miraculous faculties of this prophet of Israel. He is accused for this secret intelligence: no words can escape him, though spoken in the bed-chamber. O Syrian! whosoever thou wert, thou saidst not enough: if thy master do but whisper in thine ear, if he smother his words within his own lips, if he do but speak within his own bosom, Elisha knows it from an infallible information. What counsel is it, O God, that can be hid from thee! what counsel is it that thou wilt hide from thy seer! Even this very word, that accuseth the prophet, is known to the accused. He hears this tale while it is in telling; he hears the plot for his apprehension. How ill do the projects of wicked men hang together! They that confess Elisha knows their secretest words, do yet confer to take him. There are spies upon him, whose espials have moved their anger and admiration. He is described to be in Dothan, a small town of Manasseh. A whole army is sent hither to surprise him: the opportunity of the night is chosen for the exploit. There shall be no want either in the number, or valour, or secresy of these conspired troops: and now, when they have fully girt in the village with a strong and exquisite siege, they make themselves sure of Elisha, and please themselves to think how they have encaged the miserable prophet; how they should take him at unawares in his bed, in the midst of a secure dream; how they should carry him fettered to their king: what thanks they should have for so welcome a prisoner. The successor of Gehazi riseth early in the morning, and seeth all the city encompassed with a fearful host of foot, horse, chariots: his eyes could meet with nothing but woods of pikes, and walls of harness, and lustre of metals; and now he runs in affrighted to his master: "Alas, my master, what shall we do?" He had day enough to see they were enemies that environed | them; to see himself helpless and desperate; and hath only so much life left in him, as to lament himself to the partner of his misery. He cannot flee from his new master, if he would; he runs to him with a woful clamour: "Alas, my master, what shall we do?" O the undaunted courage of faith! Elisha sees all this, and sits in his chamber so secure, as if these had only been the guard of Israel, for his safe protection. It is a hard precept that he gives his servant: "Fear not." As well might he have bid him not to see when he saw, as not to fear when he saw so dreadful a spectacle. The operations of the senses are no less certain than those of the affections, where the objects are no less proper. But the task is easy, if the next word may find belief: "For there are more with us than with them." Multitude, and other outward probabilities, do both lead the confidence of natural hearts, and fix it. It is for none but David to say, "I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me round about." Flesh and blood riseth and falleth, according to the proportion of the strength or weakness of apparent means. Elisha's man looked about him; yet his master prays, "Lord, open his eyes, that he may see.' Naturally we see not while we do see; every thing so seen as it is bodily eyes discern bodily objects; only spiritual can see the things of God. Some men want both eyes and light: Elisha's servant had eyes, wanted illumination; no sooner were his eyes open, than he saw the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. They were there before; neither doth Elisha pray that those troops may be gathered, but that they may be seen: not till now were they descried. Invisible armies guard the servants of God, while they seem most forsaken of earthly aid, most exposed to certain dangers. If the eyes of our faith be as open as those of our sense, to see angels as well as Syrians, we cannot be appalled with the most unequal terms of hostility. Those blessed spirits are ready either to rescue our bodies, or to carry up our souls to blessedness; whichsoever shall be enjoined by their Maker, there is just comfort in both, in either. Both these chariots that came to fetch Elijah, and those that came to defend Elisha, were fiery. God is not less lovely to his own in the midst of his judgments, than he is terrible to his enemies in the demonstration of his mercies. Thus guarded, it is no marvel if Elisha dare walk forth into the midst of the Syrians. Not one of those : heavenly presidiaries struck a stroke for the prophet, neither doth he require their blows; only he turns his prayer to his God, and and says, "Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness." With no other than deadly intentions did those Aramites come down to Elisha, yet doth he not say, Smite them with the sword, but, "Smite them with blindness." All the evil he wisheth to them is their repentance: there was no way to see their error, but by blindness. He that prayed for the opening of his servant's eyes to see his safeguard, prays for the blinding of his enemies, that they might not see to do hurt. As the eyes of Elisha's servant were so shut, that they saw not the angels when they saw the Syrians; so the eyes of the Syrians shall be likewise shut, that, when they see the man, they shall not see the prophet. To all other objects their eyes are clear, only to Elisha they shall be blind; blind, not through darkness, but through misknowledge: they shall see and mistake both the person and place. He that made the senses, can either hold or delude them at pleasure: how easily can he offer to the sight other representations than those which arise from the visible matter, and make the heart to believe them! Justly now might Elisha say, "This is not the way, neither is this the city," wherein Elisha shall be descried. He was in Dothan, but not as Elisha; he shall not be found but in Samaria; neither can they have any guide to him but himself. No sooner are they come into the streets of Samaria, than their eyes have leave to know both the place and the prophet. The first sight they have of themselves is in the trap of Israel, in the jaws of death. Those stately palaces, which they now wonder at unwillingly, carry no resemblance to them but of their graves. Every Israelite seems an executioner, every house a jail, every beam a gibbet and now they look upon Elisha, transformed from their guide to their common murderer, with horror and paleness. It is most just with God to entangle the plotters of wickedness in their own snare. How glad is a mortal enemy to snatch at all advantages of revenge! Never did the king of Israel see a more pleasing sight, than so many Syrian throats at his mercy; and, as loath to lose so fair a day, as if his fingers itched to be dipt in blood, he says, "My father, shall. Ismite them, shall I smite them?" The repetition argued desire, the compellation reverence. Not without al. lowance of a prophet, would the king of | 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. 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 deliberation, 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 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 executioners than their own maws. Those 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 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, withhold 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. her part of the bargain, and flies from that | siege, though through much hardness he 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 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. 66 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 |