of wickedness leave a man, when they have led him to his bane; as familiar devils forsake their witches, when they have brought them once into fetters.

The man of God returns alone; careful, no doubt, and pensive, for his offence; when a lion out of the wood meets him, assaults him, kills him. Oh the just and severe judgments of the Almighty, who hath brought this fierce beast, out of his wild ranges into the highway, to be the executioner of his offending servant!

Doubtless, this prophet was a man of great holiness, of singular fidelity, else he durst not have been God's herald, to carry a message of defiance to Jeroboam, king of Israel, in the midst of his royal magnificence; yet now, for varying from but a circumstance of God's command, though on the suggestion of a divine warrant, is given for a prey to the lion. Our interest in God is so far from excusing our sin, that it aggravates it. Of all others, the sin of a prophet shall not pass unrevenged.

The very wild beasts are led by a providence. Their wise and powerful Creator knows how to serve himself of them. The lions guard one prophet, kill another, according to the commission received from their Maker. What sinner can hope to escape unpunished, when every creature of God is ready to be an avenger of evil? The beasts of the field were made to serve us; we, to serve our Creator. When we forsake our homage to him that made us, it is no marvel, if the beasts forget their duty to us, and deal with us, not as masters, but as rebels.

When a holy man buys so dearly such a slight frailty, of a credulous mistaking, what shall become of our heinous and presumptuous sins?

I cannot think but this prophet died in the favor of God, though by the teeth of the lion. His life was forfeited for example; his soul was safe: yea, his very carcass was left, though torn, yet fair after those deadly grasps; as if God had said, 'I will only take thy breath from thee, as the penalty of thy disobedience. A lion shall do that, which an apoplexy or fever might do. I owe thee no further revenge, than may be satisfied with thy blood.' Violent events do not always argue the anger of God. Even death itself is, to his servants, a fatherly castigation.

But oh, the unsearchable ways of the Almighty! the man of God sins, and dies speedily; the lying prophet, that seduced him, survives: yea, wicked Jeroboam enjoys his idolatry, and treads on the grave of his reprover. There is neither favor in the delay of stripes, nor displeasure in the haste: rather, whom God loves, he chastises, as sharply, so speedily, while the rest prosper to condemnation. Even the rod of a loving father may draw blood. How much happier is it for us, that we die now, to live for ever, than that we live awhile to die ever!

save

Had this lion set on the prophet for hunger, why did he not devour, as well as kill him? Why did he not rather kill the beast, than the man? since we know the nature of the lion such, that he is not wont to assail man, in the extreme want of other prey. Certainly, the same power, that employed those fangs, restrained them; that the world might see, it was not appetite, that provoked the beast to this violence, but the overruling command of God. Even so, O Lord, thy powerful hand is over that roaring lion, that goes about continually, seeking whom he may devour. Thine hand withholds him, that, though he may shed the blood of thine elect, yet he cannot hurt their souls; and, while he doth those things which thou permittest, and orderest to thy just ends, yet he cannot do lesser things, which he desireth, and thou permittest not.

The fierce beast stands by the carcass; as to avow his own act and to tell who sent him, so to preserve that body which he hath slain. Oh wonderful work of God! the executioner is turned guardian; and, as the officer of the Highest, commands all other creatures to stand aloof from his charge; and commands the fearful ass, that brought this burden thither, not to stir thence, but stand ready pressed, to re-carry it to the sepulchre and now, when he hath sufficiently witnessed to all passengers, that this act was not done on his own hunger, but on the quarrel of his Maker, he delivers up his charge to that old prophet, who was no less guilty of this blood than him

self.

This old seducer hath so much truth, as both to give a right commentary on God's intention in this act for the

terror of the disobedient, and to give his voice to the certainty of that future judgment which his late guest had threatened to Israel. Sometimes it pleaseth the wis dom of God, to express and justify himself, even by the tongues of faulty instruments. Withal, he hath so much faith and courage, as to fetch that carcass from the lion; so much pity and compassion, as to weep for the man of God, to inter him in his own sepulchre; so much love, as to wish himself joined in death to that body, which he had hastened unto death. It is hard to find a man absolutely wicked. Some grace will bewray itself, in the most forsaken breasts.

It is a cruel courtesy, to kill a man, and then to help him to his grave; to betray a man with our breath, and then to bedew him with our tears. The prophet had needed no such friend, if he had not met with such an enemy. The mercies of the wicked are cruel.'—1 Kings xiii.

JEROBOAM'S WIFE.

It is no measuring of God's favor, by the line of outward welfare. Jeroboam, the idolatrous usurper of Israel, prospers better, than the true heirs of David.

see three successions in the throne of Judah. ivy lives, when the oak is dead.

He lives to

Thus the

God

Yet could not that misgotten crown of his keep his head always from aching: he hath his crosses too. whips sometimes more than his own: his enemies smart from him, as well as his children; his children in love, his enemies in judgment. Not simply the rod argues love, but the temper of the hand that wields it, and the back that feels it.

his son.

First, Jeroboam's hand was stricken; now, Abijah the eldest, the best son of Jeroboam, is smitten with sickness. As children are but the pieces of their parents in another skin, so parents are no less stricken in their children, than in their natural limbs. Jeroboam doth not more feel his arm, than his son. Not wicked men only, but beasts may have natural affections. It is no thank to any creature, to love his own.

Nature wrought in Jeroboam, not grace. He is enough

troubled, with his son's disease; no whit bettered. I would have heard him say; 'God follows me with his afflictions. It is for mine impiety. What other measure can I expect from his justice? While mine idols stand, how can I look that my house should prosper? I will turn from my wickedness; O God, turn thou from thy wrath.'

These thoughts were too good for that obdured heart. His son is sick, he is sorrowful; but as an amazed man seeks to go forth at the wrong door, his distraction sends him to a false help. He thinks not of God; he thinks of his prophet: he thinks of the prophet, that had foretold him he should be a king; he thinks not of the God of that prophet, who made him a king. It is the property of a carnal heart, to confine both his obligations and his hopes to the means, neglecting the Author of good. Vain is the respect that is given to the servant, where the Master is contemned.

Extremity draws Jeroboam's thoughts to the prophet; whom else he had not cared to remember. The king of Israel had divines enough of his own; else he must needs have thought them miserable gods, that were not worth a prophet and besides, there was an old prophet (if he yet survived) dwelling within the smoke of his palace, whose visions had been too well approved: why should Jeroboam send so far to an Abijah? Certainly, his heart despised those base priests of his high places; neither could he trust, either to the gods or the clergy of his own making. His conscience rests on the fidelity of that man, whose doctrine he had forsaken. How did this idolater strive against his own heart, while he inwardly despised those, whom he professed to honor; and inwardly honored them, whom he professed to despise! Wicked breasts are false to themselves; neither trusting to their own choice, nor making choice of that which they may dare to trust. They will set a good face on their secretly unpleasing sins; and would rather be self-condemned, than wise and penitent.

As for that old seer, it is like Jeroboam knew his skill, but doubted of his sincerity. That man was too much his neighbor to be good. Abijah's truth had been tried in a

case of his own: he, whose word was found just in the prediction of his kingdom, was well worthy of credit in the news of his son. Experience is a great encouragement of our trust. It is a good matter to be faithful: this loadstone of our fidelity shall draw to us even hearts of iron, and hold them to our reliance; as contrarily, deceit doth both argue and make a bankrupt. Who cau trust, where he is disappointed? O God, so oft, so ever, have we found thee true in all thy promises, in all thy performances, that if we do not seek thee, if we do not trust thee in the sequel, we are worthy of our loss, worthy of thy desertions.

Yet I do not see, that Jeroboam sends to the prophet, for his aid, but for intelligence. Curiosity is guilty of this message, and not devotion. He calls not for the prayers, not for the benediction of that holy man, but for mere information of the event. He well saw what the prayers of a prophet could do. That, which cured his hand, might it not have cured his son? Yet he, that said to a man of God, Entreat the face of the Lord thy God, that he may restore my hand,' says not now in his message to Abijah, 'Entreat thy God to restore my son.' Sin makes such a strangeness betwixt God and man, that the guilty heart either thinks not of suing to God, or fears it. What a poor contentment it was to foreknow that evil, which be could not avoid, and whose notice could but hasten his misery! Yet, thus fond is our restless curiosity, that it seeks ease, in the drawing on of torment. He is worthy of sorrow, that will not stay till it comes to him, but goes to fetch it.

Whom doth Jeroboam send on this message, but his wife; and how, but disguised! Why her, and why thus? Neither durst he trust this errand with another, nor with her in her own form. It was a secret, that Jeroboam sends to a prophet of God: none might know it, but his own bosom, and she that lay in it. If this had been noised in Israel, the example had been dangerous. Who would not have said, 'The king is glad to leave his counterfeit deities, and seek to the true: why should we adhere to them, whom he forsakes?'

As the message must not be known to the people, so