of themselves, ill of their governors. Absalom needs not to wish himself upon the bench; every man says, O what a courteous 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. Over-fair shews 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 pence in his name, war in his heart and how easily is that put on! Absalom hath an 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 vizard 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 formed; 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 in

nocence.

BOOK XVI.

CONTEMPLATION I.

Shimei cursing.

WITH an 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 condemns 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 good subject; yet all that while was his heart unsound and traiterous. Peace and good success hides many a false heart, like as the snow-drift covers an 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, cursed 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 double 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 angerly 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 shew 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, upon the heads of Rechab and Baanah? What could any living man have done more to wipe off these bloody aspersions? Yet is not a Shimei ashamed to charge innocent David with all the blood of the house of Saul.

How is it likely this clamorous wretch had secretly traduced the naine of David, all the time of his government, that dares thus accuse him to his face, before all the mighty men of Israel, who were witnesses of the contrary? The greater the person is, the more open do his actions lie to misinterpretation and censure. Every tongue speaks partially, according to the interest he hath in the cause, or the patient. It is not possible that eminent persons should be free from imputations: innocence can no more protect them than power.

If the patience of David can digest this indignity, his train cannot; their fingers could not but itch to return iron for stones. If Shimei rail on David, Abishai rails on Shimei ; Shimei is of Saul's family, Abishai of David's; each speaks

for his own. Abishai most justly bends his tongue against Shimei, as Shimei against David most unjustly. Had Shimei been any other than a dog, he had never so rudely barked at an harmless passenger; neither could he deserve less than the loss of that head which had uttered such blasphemies against God's anointed. The zeal of Abishai doth but plead for justice, and is checked: "What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah?" David said not so much to his reviler, as to his abettor he well saw that a revenge was just, but not seasonable; he found the present a fit time to suffer wrongs, not to right them: he therefore gives way rather meekly to his own humiliation, than to the punishment of another. There are seasons wherein lawful motions are not fit to be cherished; anger doth not become a mourner; one passion at once is enough for the soul. Unadvised zeal may be more prejudicial than a cold remissness.

What if the Lord, for the correction of his servant, had said unto Shimei, Curse David; yet is Shimei's curse no less worthy of Abishai's sword: the sin of Shimei's curse was his own, the smart of the curse was God's. God wills that as David's chastisement, which he hates as Shimei's wickedness: that lewd tongue moved from God, it moved lewdly from Satan. Wicked men are never the freer from guilt or punishment, for that hand which the holy God hath in their offensive actions; yet David can say, "Let him alone, and let him curse, for the Lord hath bidden him;" as meaning to give a reason of his own patience, rather than Shimei's impunity. The issue shewed, how well David could distinguish betwixt the act of God and of a traitor; how he could both kiss the rod and burn it. There can be none so strong motive of our meek submission to evils, as the acknowledgment of their original. He, that can see the hand of God striking him by the hand or tongue of an enemy, shall more awe the first mover of his harm, than malign the instrument. Even while David laments the rebellion of his son, he gains by it, and makes that the argument of his patience, which was the exercise of it. "Behold, my son, which came forth of my bowels, seeketh my life; how much more now may this Benjamite do it?" The wickedness of an Absalom may rob his father of comfort, but shall help to add to his father's goodness. It is the advantage of great crosses, that they swallow up the less. One man's sin cannot be excused by another's, the lesser by

the greater. If Absalom be a traitor, Shimei may not curse and rebel: but the passion conceived from the indignity of a stranger, may be abated by the harder measure of our own; if we can therefore suffer, because we have suffered, we have profited by our affliction. A weak heart faints with every addition of succeeding trouble; the strong recollects itself, and is grown so skilful, that it bears off one mischief with another.

It is not either the unnatural insurrection of Absalom, nor the unjust curses of Shimei, that can put David quite out of heart: "It may be that the Lord will look on mine affliction, and will requite good for his cursing, this day." So well was David acquainted with the proceedings of God, that he knew cherishing was ever wont to follow stripes; after vehement evacuation, cordials; after a dark night, the clear light of the morning. Hope therefore doth not only uphold, but cheer up his heart, in the midst of his sorrow. If we can look beyond the cloud of our affliction, and see the sunshine of comfort on the other side of it, we cannot be so discouraged with the presence of evil, as heartened with the issue: as, on the contrary, let a man be never so merry within, and see pain and misery waiting for him at the door, his expectation of evil shall easily daunt all the sense of his pleasure. The retributions of temporal favours go but by peradventures," It may "It be the Lord will look on mine affliction ;"-of eternal, are certain and infallible; if we suffer, we shall reign; why should not the assurance of reigning make us triumph in suffering?

David's patience draws on the insolence of Shimei. Evil natures grow presumptuous upon forbearance. In good dispositions, injury unanswered grows weary of itself, and dies in a voluntary remorse; but in those dogged stomachs, which are only capable of the restraints of fear, the silent digestion of a former wrong provokes a second. Mercy had need to be guided with wisdom, lest it prove cruel to itself.

O the base minds of inconstant time-servers! Stay but a while, till the wheel be a little turned, you shall see humble Shimei fall down on his face before David, in his return over Jordan: now his submission shall equal his former rudeness; his prayers shall requite his curses, his tears make amends for his stones: "Let not my lord impute iniquity unto me; neither do thou remember that which thy servant did perversely, the day that my lord the king went out of Jerusalem,