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should be so mad as to hang himself! that he should be careful to order his house, who regarded not to order his impotent passions; that he should care for his house, who cared not for either body or soul. How vain it is for a man to be wise, if he be not wise in God! How preposterous are the cares of idle worldlings, that prefer all other things to themselves, and while they look at what they have in their coffers, forget what they have in their breasts!

CONTEMPLATION III.

THE DEATH OF ABSALOM.

THE same God that raised enmity to David from his own loins, procured him favour from foreigners; strangers shall relieve him, whom his own son persecutes; here is not a loss, but an exchange of love. Had Absalom been a son of Amnon, and Shobi a son of David, David had found no cause of complaint. If God takes with one hand, he gives with another; while that divine bounty serves us in good meat, though not in our own dishes, we have good reason to be thankful. No sooner is David come to Mahanaim, than Barzillai, Machir, and Shobi refresh him with provisions. Who ever saw any child of God left utterly destitute? Whosoever be the messenger of our aid, we know whence he comes; heaven shall want power, and earth means, before any of the household of faith shall want maintenance.

He that formerly was forced to employ his arms for his defence against a tyrannous father-in-law, must now buckle them on against an unnatural son: now therefore he musters his men, and ordains his commanders, and marshals his troops: and, since their loyal importunity will not allow the hazard of his person, he at once encourages them by his and restrains them with his tongue, "Deal gently with the young man Absalom, for my sake." How

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unreasonably favourable are the wars of a father! O holy David, what means this ill-placed love, this unjust mercy! Deal gently with a traitor! but of all traitors with a son! of all sons with an Absalom, the graceless darling of so good a father; and all this for my sake, whose crown, whose blood he hunts after! For whose sake should Absalom be pursued, if he must be forborne for thine? He was still courteous to thy followers, affable to suitors, plausible to all Israel, only to thee he is cruel. Wherefore are those arms, if the cause of the quarrel must be a motive of mercy? Yet thou sayest, "Deal gently with the young man Absalom, for my sake. Even in the holiest parents nature may be guilty of an injurious tenderness, of a bloody indulgence.

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Or, whether shall we not rather think this was done in type of that unmeasurable mercy of the true King, and Redeemer of Israel, who prayed for his persecutors, for his murderers; and, even while they were at once scorning and killing him, could say, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." If we be sons, we are ungracious, we are rebellious, yet still is our heavenly Father thus compassionately regardful of us. David was not sure of his success; there was great inequality in the number; Absalom's forces were more than double to his; it might have come to the contrary issue, that David should have been forced to say, "Deal gently with the father of Absalom ;" but in a supposition of that victory, which only the goodness of his cause bade him hope for, he saith, "Deal gently with the young man Absalom." As for us, we are never but under mercy; our God needs no advantages to sweep us from the earth any moment, yet he continues that life, and those powers to us, whereby we provoke him, and bids his angels deal kindly with us, and bear us in their arms, while we lift up our hands, and bend our tongues against heaven. Oh mercy past the comprehension of all finite spirits, and only to be con

ceived by Him whose it is: never more resembled by any earthly affection, than by this of his deputy and type, "Deal gently with the young man Absalom, for my sake."

The battle is joined; David's followers are but a handful to Absalom's. How easily may the fickle multitude be transported to the wrong side! What they wanted in abettors is supplied in the cause. Unnatural ambition draws the sword of Absalom, David's a necessary and a just defence. They that in simplicity of heart followed Absalom, cannot in malice of heart persecute the father of Absalom. With what courage could any Israelite draw his sword against a David? or, on the other side, who can want courage to fight for a righteous sovereign and father, against the conspiracy of a wicked son? The God of hosts, with whom it is all one to save with many or with few, takes part with justice, and lets Israel feel what it is to bear arms for a traitorous usurper. The sword devours twenty thousand of them, and the wood devours more than the sword: it must needs be a very universal rebellion, wherein so many perished. What virtue or merits can assure the hearts of the vulgar, when so gracious a prince finds so many revolters? Let no man look to prosper by rebellion : the very thickets, and stakes, and pits, and wild beasts of the wood shall conspire to the punishment of traitors. Amongst the rest, see how a fatal oak hath singled out the ringleader of this hateful insurrection, and will at once serve for his hangman and gallows, by one of those spreading arms snatching him away to speedy execution. Absalom was comely, and he knew it well enough; his hair was no small piece of his beauty, nor matter of his pride: it was his wont to cut it once a year; not for that it was too long, but too heavy; his heart would have borne it longer, if his neck had not complained; and now the justice of God hath platted a halter of those locks; those tresses had formerly hanged loosely dishevelled

on his shoulders, now he hangs by them. He had wont to weigh his hair, and was proud to find it so heavy; now his hair poiseth the weight of his body, and makes his burden his torment. It is no marvel if his own hair turned traitor to him who durst rise up against his father. That part, which is misused by man to sin, is commonly employed by God to revenge; the revenge that it worketh for God makes amends for the offence whereto it is drawn against God; the very beast whereon Absalom sat, as weary to bear so unnatural a burden, resigns over his load to the tree of justice: there hangs Absalom between heaven and earth, as one that was hated and abandoned both of earth and heaven; as if God meant to prescribe this punishment for traitors, Absalom, Ahithophel, and Judas, die all one death: so let them perish that dare lift up their hand against God's anointed.

The honest soldier sees Absalom hanging in the oak, and dares not touch him; his hands were held with the charge of David, "Beware that none touch the young man Absalom." Joab, upon that intelligence, sees him, and smites him with no less than three darts. What the soldier forbore in obedience, the captain doth in zeal; not fearing to prefer his sovereign's safety to his command, and more tendering the life of a king, and peace of his country, than the weak affection of a father. I dare not sit judge betwixt this zeal and that obedience, betwixt the captain and the soldier; the one was a good subject, the other a good patriot; the one loved the king, the other loved David, and out of love disobeyed; the one meant as well as the other sped. As if God meant to fulfil the charge of his anointed, without any blame of his subjects, it pleased him to execute that immediate revenge upon the rebel, which would have dispatched him without hand or dart; only the mule and the oak conspired to this execution; but that death would have required more leisure than it was

safe for Israel to give, and still life would give hope of rescue. To cut off all fears, Joab lends the oak three darts to help forward so needful a work of justice. All Israel did not afford so firm a friend to Absalom as Joab had been: who but Joab had suborned the witty widow of Tekoah to sue for the recalling of Absalom from his three years' exile? who but he went to fetch him from Geshur to Jerusalem? who but he fetched him from his house at Jerusalem, whereto he had been two years confined, to the face, to the lips of David? Yet now he, that was his solicitor for the king's favour, is his executioner against the king's charge. With honest hearts all respects, either of blood or friendship, cease in the case of treason. Well hath Joab forgotten himself to be a friend to him, who had forgotten himself to be a son. Even civilly, the king is our common father, our country, our common mother; nature hath no private relations, which should not gladly give place to these; he is neither father, nor son, nor brother, nor friend, that conspires against the common parent. Well doth he, who spake parables for his master's son, now speak darts to his king's enemy, and pierces that heart which was false to so great a father. Those darts are seconded by Joab's followers; each man tries his weapon upon so fair a mark. One death is not enough for Absalom; he is at once hanged, shot, mangled, stoned. Justly was he lift up to the oak, who had lift up himself against his father and sovereign; justly is he pierced with darts, who had pierced his father's heart with so many sorrows; justly is he mangled, who hath dismembered and divided all Israel; justly is he stoned, who hath not only cursed, but pursued his own parent.

Now Joab sounds the retreat, and calls off his eager troops from execution; however he knew what his rebellious countrymen had deserved in following an Absalom. Wise commanders know how to put a difference betwixt the heads of a faction and the mis

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