BOOK XVII.

TO MY WORTHILY MUCH HONOURED FRIEND,

SIR HENRY MILDMAY, KNIGHT,

MASTER OF THE JEWEL-HOUSE,

ALL GRACE AND PEACE.

SIR,

BESIDES all private obligations, your very name challengeth from me all due services of love and honour. If I have received mercy to bear any fruit, next under heaven, I may thank the stock wherein I was imped; which was set by no other, than the happy hand of your Right Honourable Grandfather. How have I so long forborne the public testimony of my just gratulations and thankful respects, to so true an heir of his noble virtues! Pardon me, that I pay this debt so late; and accept of this parcel of my well-meant labours: wherein you shall see, Solomon both in his rising and setting: his rising, hopeful and glorious; his declination, fearful. You shall see the proofs of his early graces of mercy, in sparing Adonijah and Abiathar; of justice, in punishing that rival of his, with Joab and Shimei; of wisdom, in his award betwixt the two harlots, and the administration of his court and state; of piety, in building and hallowing the temple; all dashed in his fall; repaired in his repentance. I have no cause to misdoubt, either the acceptation or use of these my high-pitched thoughts; which, together with yourself, and your worthy and virtuous Lady, I humbly commend to the care and blessing of the Highest; who am bound, by your worth and merits, to be ever,

Yours sincerely and thankfully
devoted in all observance,

JOSEPH HALL..

ADONIJAH DEFEATED.

DAVID had not so carefully husbanded his years, as to maintain a vigorous age; he was therefore, what through wars, what with sorrows, what with sickness, decrepit betimes: by that time he was seventy years old, his natural heat was so wasted, that his clothes could not warm him. How many have we known, of more

strength at more age! The holiest soul dwells not in an impreg nable fort. If the revenging angel spared David, yet age and death will not spare him. Neither his new altar, nor his costly sacrifice, can be of force against decay of nature. Nothing but death can prevent the weaknesses of age.

None can blame a people, if, when they have a good king, they are desirous to hold him. David's servants and subjects have commended unto his bed a fair young virgin; not for the heat of lust, but of life; that by this means they night make an outward supply of fuel, for that vital fire, which was well-near extinguished with age.

As it is in the market or the stage, so it is in our life; one goes in, another comes out. When David was withering, Adonijah was in his blossom.

That son, as he was next to Absalom both in the beauty of his body and the time of his birth, so was he too like him in practice. He also, taking advantage of his father's infirmity, will be carving himself of the kingdom of Israel. That he might no whit vary from his pattern, he gets him also chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him.

These two, Absalom and Adonijah, were the darlings of their father. Their father had not displeased them from their childhood; therefore they both displeased him in his age. Those chil dren had need to be very gracious, that are not marred with pampering. It is more than God owes us, if we receive comfort in those children, whom we have over-loved. The indulgence of pa rents at last pays them home in crosses.

It is true, that Adonijah was David's eldest son now remaining, and therefore might seem to challenge the justest title to the crown; but the kingdom of Israel, in so late an erection, had not yet known the right of succession. God himself, that had ordained the government, was as yet the immediate elector: he fetched Saul from among the stuff, and David from the sheepfold; and had now appointed Solomon, from the ferule to the sceptre. And if Adonijah (which is unlike) had not known this, yet it had been his part, to have taken his father with him, in this claim of his succession; and not so to prevent a brother, that he should shoulder out a father; and not so violently to pre-occupy the throne, that he should rather be a rebel than an heir.

As Absalom, so Adonijah, wants not furtherers, in this usurpation, whether spiritual or temporal: Joab the general and Abiathar the priest give both counsel and aid, to so unseasonable a challenge. These two had been firm to David, in all his troubles, in all insurrections; yet now, finding him fastened to the bed of age and death, they shew themselves thus slippery in the loose. Outward happiness and friendship are not known till our last act: in the impotency of either our revenge or recompence, it will easily appear, who loved us for ourselves, who for their own ends.

Had not Adonijah known, that Solomon was designed to the kingdom, both by God and David, he had never invited all the

rest of the king's sons, his brethren, and left out Solomon; who was otherwise the most unlikely, to have been his rival in his honour all the rest were elder than he; and might therefore have had more pretence for their competition. Doubtless, the court of Israel could not but know, that, immediately upon the birth of Solomon, God sent him, by Nathan the prophet, a name and message of love; neither was it for nothing, that God called him Jedidiah; and fore-promised him the honour of building a house to his name; and, in return of so glorious a service, the establish ment of the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever: notwithstanding all which, Adonijah, backed by the strength of a Joab, and the gravity of an Abiathar, will underwork Solomon, and. justle into the not-yet-vacant seat of his father David. Vain men, while, like proud and yet brittle clay, they will be knocking their sides against the solid and eternal decree of God, break themselves in pieces.

I do not find that Adonijah sent any message of threats or unkindness to Zadok the priest, or Nathan the prophet, or Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the other worthies: only he invited them not to his feast, with the king's sons and servants. Sometimes a very omission is an affront and a menace. They well knew, that, since they were not called as guests, they were counted as ene mies. Ceremonies of courtesy, though they be in themselves slight and arbitrary, yet the neglect of them, in some cases, may undergo a dangerous construction.

Nathan was the man, by whom God had sent that errand of grace to David, concerning Solomon, assuring him both to reign and prosper; yet now, when Adonijah's plot was thus on foot, he doth not sit still and depend upon the issue of God's decree, but he bestirs him in the business, and consults with Bathsheba, how at once to save their lives, and to advance Solomon, and defeat Adonijah. God's pre-determination includes the means as well as the end. The same providence, that had ordained a crown to Solomon, a repulse to Adonijah, preservation to Bathsheba and Nathan, had fore-appointed the wise and industrious endeavours of the prophet, to bring about his just and holy purposes: if we would not have God wanting to us, we must not be wanting to ourselves: even when we know what God hath meant to us, we may not be negligent.

The prophets of God did not look for revelation, in all their affairs: in some things, they were left to the counsel of their own hearts. The policy of Nathan was of use, as well as his prophecy that alone hath turned the stream into the right channel. Nothing could be more wisely contrived, than the sending in of Bathsheba to David, with so seasonable and forcible an expostulation; and the seconding of hers, with his own.

Though lust were dead in David, yet the respects of his old matrimonial love lived still; the very presence of Bathsheba pleaded strongly; but her specch more. The time was, when his affection ostended in excess towards her, being then another's; he cannot now

neglect her, being his own: and if either his age or the remorse of his old offence should have set him off, yet she knew his oath was sure; My lord, thou swarest by the Lord thy God unto thine handmaid, saying, Assuredly, Solomon, thy son, shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne. His word had been firm, but his oath was inviolable: we are engaged, if we have promised; but if we have sworn, we are bound. Neither heaven nor earth have any gyves for that man, that can shake off the fetters of an oath; for he cares not for that God, whom he dares invoke to a falsehood; and he, that cares not for God, will not care for man.

Ere Bathsheba can be over the threshold, Nathan (upon compact) is knocking at the door. God's prophet was never but welcome, to the bed-chamber of King David. In a seeming strangeness, he falls upon the same suit, upon the same complaint, with Bathsheba. Honest policies do not misbecome the holiest prophets, She might seem to speak as a woman, as a mother, out of passion; the word of a prophet could not be misdoubted: he therefore, that had formerly brought to David that chiding and bloody mes sage concerning Bathsheba, comes now to David to sue for the life and honour of Bathsheba; and he, that was sent from God to David, to bring the news of a gracious promise of favour unto Solomon, comes now to challenge the execution of it from the hands of a father; and he, whose place freed him from suspicion of a faction, complains of the insolent demeanour and proclamation of Adonijah; what he began with a humble obeisance, shutting up in a lowly and loving expostulation; Is this thing done by my lord the king, and thou hast not shewed thy servant who should sit on the throne of my lord the king after him? As Nathan was of God's counsel, unto David; so was he of David's counsel, both to God and the state: as God therefore, upon all occasions, told Nathan what he meant to do with David; so had David wont, to tell Nathan what he meant to do, in his holy and most important civil affairs. There are cases, wherein it is not unfit for God's prophets to meddle with matters of state. It is no disparagement to religious princes, to impart their counsels unto them, who can requite them with the counsels of God,

That wood, which a single iron could not rive, is soon splitted with a double wedge. The seasonable importunity of Bathsheba and Nathan, thus seconding each other, hath so wrought upon David, that now his love to Adonijah gives place to indignation; nature, to a holy fidelity: and now he renews his ancient oath to Bathsheba, with a passionate solemnity; As the Lord liveth, who hath redeemed my soul out of all adversity, even as I sware unto thee by the Lord God of Israel, saying, Assuredly, Solomon, thy son, shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne in my stead, so will I certainly do this day.

In the decay of David's body, I find not his intellective powers any whit impaired as one therefore, that, from his bed, could with a perfect (if weak) hand, steer the government of Israel, he gives wise and full directions, for the inauguration of Solomon:

Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the captain, receive his grave and princely charge, for the carriage of that so weighty a business. They are commanded to take with them the royal guard, to set Solomon upon his father's mule, to carry him down in state to Gihon, to anoint him with the holy oil of the tabernacle, to sound the trumpets and proclaim him in the streets, to bring him back with triumph and magnificence to the court, and to set him in the royal throne with all the due ceremonies of coronation.

How pleasing was this command to them, who, in Solomon's glory, saw their own safety! Benaiah applauds it; and, not fearing a father's envy, in David's presence wisheth Solomon's throne exalted above his. The people are ravished, with the joy of so hopeful a succession; and break the earth, and fill the heaven, with the noise of their music and shouting.

Solomon's guests had now, at last, better cheer than Adonijah's; whose feast (as all wicked men's) ended in horror. No sooner are their bellies full of meat, than their ears are full of the sound of those trumpets, which at once proclaim Solomon's triumph and their confusion. Ever after the meal is ended, comes the reckon ing. God could as easily have prevented this jollity, as marred it; but he willingly suffers vain men to please themselves for a time, in the conceited success of their own projects, that afterwards their disappointment may be so much the more grievous. No doubt, at this feast there was many a health drunken to Adonijah, many a confident boast of their prosperous design, many a scorn of the despised faction of Solomon; and now, for their last dish, is served up astonishment, and fearful expectation of a just revenge. Jonathan, the son of Abiathar the priest, brings the news of Solomon's solemn and joyful enthronization: now all hearts are cold, all faces pale; and every man hath but life enough to run away. How suddenly is this braving troop dispersed! Adonijah, their new prince, flies to the horns of the altar; as distrusting all hopes of life, save the sanctity of the place, and the mercy of his rival,

So doth the wise and just God befool proud and insolent sinners, in those secret plots, wherein they hope to undermine the true son of David, the Prince of Peace. He suffers them to lay their heads together, and to feast themselves in a jocund security and promise of success; at last, when they are at the height of their joys and hopes, he confounds all their devices, and lays them open to the scorn of the world, and to the anguish of their own guilty hearts. i Kings i.

DAVID'S END, AND SOLOMON'S BEGINNING. IT well became Solomon, to begin his reign in peace. Adonijah receives pardon, upon his good behaviour; and finds the throne of Solomon, as safe as the altar.