Two whole years hath this sly courtier | rape of Amnon, procures the injustice of smothered his indignation, and feigned Absalom, in punishing Amnon with mur. kindness, else his invitation of Amnon, in der. That which the father should have special, had been suspected. Even gallant justly revenged, and did not, the son reAbsalom was a great sheep-master. The venges unjustly. The rape of a sister was bravery and magnificence of a courtier must no less worthy of death, than the murder be built upon the grounds of frugality. Da- of a brother; yea, this latter sin was therevid himself is bidden to this bloody sheep- fore the less, because that brother was shearing it was no otherwise meant, but worthy of death, though by another hand; that the father's eyes should be the wit- whereas that sister was guilty of nothing nesses of the tragical execution of one son but modest beauty: yet he that knew this by another; only David's love kept him rape passed over a whole two years with from that horrible spectacle. He is care-impunity; dares not trust the mercy of a ful not to be chargeable to that son who cares not to overcharge his father's stomach with a feast of blood.

Amnon hath so quite forgot his sin, that he dares go to feast in that house where Tamar was mourning, and suspects not the kindness of him, whom he had deserved, of a brother, to make an enemy. Nothing is more unsafe to be trusted, than the fair looks of a festered heart. Where true charity or just satisfaction have not wrought a | sound reconciliation, malice doth but lurk for the opportunity of an advantage.

It was not for nothing that Absalom deferred his revenge, which is now so much more exquisite, as it is longer protracted. What could be more fearful than, when Amnon's heart was merry with wine, to be suddenly stricken with death? as if this execution had been no less intended to the soul than to the body. How wickedly soever this was done by Absalom, yet how just was it with God, that he, who in two years' impunity would find no leisure of repentance, should now receive a punishment without possibility of repentance!

O God, thou art righteous to reckon for those sins which human partiality or negligence hath omitted; and while thou punishest sin with sin, to punish sin with death. If either David had called Amnon to account for this villany, or Amnon had called himself, the revenge had not been so desperate. Happy is the man, that by an unfeigned repentance acquits his soul from his known evils, and improves the days of his peace to the prevention of future vengeance. which, if it be not done, the hand of God shall as surely overtake us in judgment, as the hand of Satan hath overtaken us in miscarriage unto sin.

father in the pardon of his murder; but for three years hides his head in the court of his grandfather, the king of Geshur. Doubtless that heathenish prince gave him a kind welcome, for so meritorious a revenge of the dishonour done to his own loins.

No man can tell how Absalom should have sped from the hands of his otherwise over-indulgent father, if he had been apprehended in the heat of the fact. Even the largest love may be over-strained, and may give a fall in the breaking: these fearful effects of lenity might perhaps have whetted the severity of David, to shut up these outrages in blood. Now this displeasure was weakened with age. Time and thoughts have digested this hard morsel. David's heart told him, that his hands had a share in this offence; that Absalom did but give that stroke which himself had wrongfully forborne; that the unrecoverable loss of one son would be but wofully relieved with the loss of another; he therefore, that in the news of the deceased infant could change his clothes, and wash himself, and cheer up his spirits, with the resolution of, "I shall go to him, he shall not return to me,' comforts himself concerning Amnon: and begins to long for Absalom.

Those three years' banishment seemed not so much a punishment to the son, as to the father. Now David begins to forgive himself: yet, out of his wisdom, so inclines to favour, that he conceals it; and yet so conceals it, that it may be descried by a cunning eye. If he had cast out no glances of affection, there had been no hopes for his Absalom; if he had made profession of love after so foul an act, there had been no safety for others: now, he lets fall so much secret grace as may both hold up Absalom in the life of his hopes, and not hearten the presumption of others.

Good eyes see light through the smallest chink. The wit of Joab hath soon discerned David's reserved affection, and knows how to serve him in that which he would and would not accomplish; and now devises how

but a moment; in his favour is life: weep- | lips with a kiss. All men, all matters, are

ing may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."

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 near well 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, hu

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. Am-mility in greatness, feeling pity, love of jusbition 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! O that my soul could find itself so restless, till it feel the weight of that crown of glory!

tice, 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 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

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.

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 rat-it long since, while he was exiled in Syria, tle, 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. Truehearted 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 fatters every comer with a salutation, his

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 gilding 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.

BOOK XVI.

CONTEMPLATION 1.-SHIMEI CURSING.

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 angrily wishing, that no dew might fall where that blood was poured out; and charging the daugh

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 hard-ters of Israel to weep over Saul, who had ly 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 good subject; yet all that while was his heart unsound and traitorous. Peace and good success hide many a false heart, likeas the snow-drift 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

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, 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 name 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 a 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 pre-"It may be that the Lord will look on mine sent a fit time 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.