puted 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 singly to grace others, have conspired to meet in Absalom; goodliness of person, magnificence of state, gracious affability, unwea ried 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 sove reign, Över-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 cloke 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 will I serve the Lord, Wicked hypocrites care not to play with God, that they may mock men. The more deformed any act is, the fairer visor 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 credu. lity. How easy it is 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, în the attendance of a traitor. How many thousands are thus igno, rantly 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, 2 Sem.xiv. BOOK XVI. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE AND TRULY Noble lord, BARON OF THORNHAUGH, ALL INCREASE OF HONOUR AND HAPPINESS, RIGHT HONOURABLE: You shall not need to impute it to any other reason besides your virtues, that I have presumed to shroud this piece of my labours under your noble patronage. The world hath taken just notice, how much the Gospel is graced by your real profession; whom nei ther honour hath made overlie, nor wealth lavish, nor charge miserable, nor greatness licentious. Go on happily in these safe and gainful steps of goodness; and still honour the God that hath ho noured you. In the mean time, accept from my unworthy hands these poor Meditations; more high for their subject, than mean for their author: wherein, Shimei's curses shall teach you, how unable either greatness or innocence is, to bear off the blows of ill tongues; and how baseness ever moulds itself according to the advantage of times. Ahitophel's depth, compared with his end, shall shew, how witless and insensate craft is, when it strives against honesty; and how justly are they forsaken of their reason, that have abandoned God. The blood of Absalom and Sheba proclaim the inevitable revenge of rebellion, which neither in woods nor walls can find safety. The late famine of Israel, for the forgotten violence offered to the Gibeonites, shews what note God takes of our oaths, and what sure vengeance of their violation. David's muster, seconded with the plague of Israel, teaches, how highty God may be offended with sins of the least appearance; how severe to his own; how merciful to that severity. If these my thoughts shall be approved beneficial to any soul, I am rich. I shall vow my prayers to their success, and to the happiness of your honourable family, both in the root and branches; whereto I am, in all humble duty, devoted, JOSEPH HALL. 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 those 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 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 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 a usurper, If David's hand 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 daughters of Israel to weep over Saul, who had clothed them in scarlet? Did we not hear and see him inquir ing for any remainder of the house of Saul, that he might shew him the kindness of God? Did we not see him honouring lame D 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 Is rael, 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 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, have 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 an enemy, shall more awe the first mover of his arm, than malign the instrument. of Even while David laments the rebellion of his son, he gains by 1 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 recol lects 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 or 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 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. Oh the base minds of inconstant time-servers! Stay but awhile, 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, that the king should take it to heart; for thy servant doth know that I have sinned. False-hearted Shimei! had Absalom prospered, thou hadst not sinned; thou hadst not repented: then hadst thou bragged of thine insultation over his miseries, |