lom's filial affection. As a man, therefore, inwardly weary of so long displeasure, at last he receives Absalom to his sight, to his favour, and seals his pardon with a kiss. Natural parents know not how to retain an everlasting anger towards the fruit of their loins ; how much less shall the God of mercies be unreconcileably displeased with his own, and suffer his wrath to burn like fire that cannot be quenched! "He will not always chide, neither will he keep his anger for ever; his wrath endureth but a moment; in his favour is life; weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."

Absalom is now as great as fair; beauty and greatness make him proud; pride works his ruin: great spirits will not rest content with a moderate prosperity. Ere two years be run out, Absalom runs out into a desperate plot of rebellion; none but his own father was above him in Israel; none was so likely, in human expectation, to succeed his father. If his ambition could but have contained itself for a few years, as David was now near his period, dutiful carriage might have procured that by succession, which now he sought by force. An aspiring mind is ever impatient, and holds time itself an enemy, if it thrust itself importunately betwixt the hopes and fruition. Ambition is never but in travail, and can find no intermission of painful throes, till she have brought forth her abortive desires. How happy were we, if our affection could be so eager of spiritual and heavenly promotions! Oh that my soul could find itself so restless, till it feel the weight of that crown of glory!

Outward pomp and unwonted shows of magnificence are wont much to affect the light minds of the vulgar. Absalom, therefore, to the incomparable comeliness of his person, adds the unusual state of a more than princely equipage. His chariots rattle, and his horses trample proudly in the streets: fifty footmen run before their glittering master; Jerusalem

rings of their glorious prince, and is ready to adore these continual triumphs of peace. Excess and novelty of expensive bravery and ostentation, in public persons, gives just cause to suspect either vanity or a plot. True-hearted David can misdoubt nothing in him, to whom he had both given life, and forgiven this. Love construed all this, as meant to the honour of a father's court, to the expression of joy and thankfulness for his reconcilement. The eyes and tongues of men are thus taken up; now hath Absalom laid snares for their hearts also; "He rises early, and stands beside the way of the gate." Ambition is no niggard of her pains; seldom ever is good meaning so industrious. The more he shined in beauty and royal attendance, so much more glory it was to neglect himself, and to prefer the care of justice to his own case. Neither is Absalom more painful than plausible; his ear is open to all plaintiffs, all petitioners; there is no cause which he flatters not; "See thy matters are good and right;" his hand flatters every comer with a salutation, his lips with a kiss. All men, all matters are soothed, saving the state and government; the censure of that is no less deep, than the applause of all others, "There is none deputed of the king to hear thee." What insinuations could be more powerful? No music can be so sweet to the ears of the unstable multitude, as to hear well of themselves, ill of their governors: Absalom needs not to wish himself upon the bench; every man says, Oh what a curious prince is Absalom! What a just and careful ruler would Absalom be! How happy were we, if we might be judged by Absalom! Those qualities, which are wont single to grace others, have conspired to meet in Absalom: goodliness of person, magnificence of state, gracious affability, unwearied diligence, humility in greatness, feeling pity, love of justice, care of the commonwealth! The world hath not so complete a prince as Absalom! Thus the hearts of the people are not won, but stolen by

a close traitor, from their lawfully anointed sovereign. Overfair shows are a just argument of unsoundness; no natural face hath so clear a white and red, as the painted. Nothing wants now but a cloak of religion, to perfect the treachery of that ungracious son, who carried peace in his name, war in his heart; and how easily is that put on! Absalom hath a holy vow to be paid in Hebron; the devout man had made it long since, while he was exiled in Syria, and now he hastes to perform it: "If the Lord shall bring me back again to Jerusalem, then I will serve the Lord." Wicked hypocrites care not to play with God, that they may mock men. The more deformed any act is, the fairer vizor it still seeketh.

How glad is the good old king, that he is blessed with so godly a son, whom he dismisseth laden with his causeless blessings! What trust is there in flesh and blood, when David is not safe from his own loins? The conspiracy is now fully forged; there lacked nothing but this guilt of piety to win favour and value in all eyes; and now it is a wonder, that but two hundred honest citizens go up with Absalom from Jerusalem the true-hearted lie most open to credulity. How easy is it to beguile harmless intentions! The name of David's son carries them against the father of Absalom; and now these simple Israelites are unwittingly made loyal rebels. Their hearts are free from a plot, and they mean nothing but fidelity in the attendance of a traitor. How many thousands are thus ignorantly misled into the train of error; their simplicity is as worthy of pity, as their misguidance of indignation. Those that will suffer themselves to be carried with semblances of truth and faithfulness, must needs be as far from safety as innocence.

VOL. II.

D

BOOK XVI.

CONTEMPLATION I.

SHIMEI CURSING.

WITH a heavy heart, and a covered head, and a weeping eye, and bare feet, is David gone away from Jerusalem: never did he with more joy come up to this city, than now he left it with sorrow; how could he do otherwise, whom the insurrection of his own son drove out from his house, from his throne, from the ark of God? And now, when the depth of this grief deserved nothing but compassion, the foul mouth of Shimei entertains David with curses! There is no small cruelty in the picking out of a time for mischief; that word would scarce gall at one season, which at another killeth. The same shaft flying with the wind pierces deep, which, against it, can hardly find strength to stick upright. The valour and justice of children condemn it for injuriously cowardly, to strike their adversary when he is once down. It is the murder of the tongue to insult upon those whom God hath humbled, and to draw blood of that back which is yet blue from the hand of the Almighty. If Shimei had not presumed upon David's dejection, he durst not have been thus bold; now he, that perhaps durst not have looked at one of these worthies single, defies them all at once, and doth both cast and speak stones against David and all his army. The malice of base spirits sometimes carries them further than the courage of the valiant.

In all the time of David's prosperity we heard no news of Shimei; his silence and colourable obedience made him pass for a great subject; yet all that while was his heart unsound and traitorous. Peace and

good success hide many a false heart, like as the snowdrop covers a heap of dung, which, once melting away, descries the rottenness that lay within. Honour and welfare are but flattering glasses of men's affections. Adversity will not deceive us, but will make a true report, as of our own powers, so of the disposition of others.

He that smiled on David in his throne, curseth him in his flight. If there be any quarrels, any exceptions to be taken against a man, let him look to have them laid in his dish when he fares the hardest. This practice have wicked men learned of their master, to take the utmost advantages of our afflictions. He that suffers had need to be doubly armed, both against pain and censure.

Every word of Shimei was a slander. He that took Saul's spear from his head, and repented to have but cut the lap of his garment, is reproached as a man of blood. The man after God's own heart is branded for a man of Belial. He that was sent for out of the fields to be anointed, is taxed for an usurper: if David's hands were stained with blood, yet not of Saul's house; it was his servant, not his master that bled by him; yet is the blood of the Lord's anointed cast in David's teeth, by the spite of a false tongue. Did we not see David, after all the proofs of his humble loyalty, shedding the blood of that Amalekite, who did but say he shed Saul's? Did we not hear him lament passionately for the death of so ill a master, chiding the mountains of Gilboa on which he fell; and angrily wishing, that no dew might fall where that blood was poured out; and charged the daughters of Israel to weep over Saul, who had clothed them in scarlet? Did we not hear and see him inquiring for any remainder of the house of Saul, that he might show him the kindness of God? Did we not see him honouring lame Mephibosheth with a princely seat at his own table? Did we not see him revenging the blood of his rival Ishbosheth