favours aright, should smart with judgments. Kindness repulsed breaks forth into indignation; how much more, when it is repaid with an injurious affront!

David cannot but feel his own cheeks shaven, and his own coat cut, in his ambassadors; they did but carry his person to Hanun; neither can he therefore but appropriate to himself, the kindness or injury offered unto them. He, that did so take to heart the cutting off but the lap of king Saul's garment, when it was laid aside from him, how must he needs be affected with this disdainful halving of his hair and robes, in the person of his deputies!

The name of ambassadors hath been ever sacred; and by the universal law of nations, hath carried in it sufficient protection from all public wrongs; neither hath it been ever violated, without a revenge. O God, what shall we say to those notorious contempts, which are daily cast upon thy spiritual messengers? Is it possible thou shouldest not feel them, thou shouldest not avenge them ? We are made a gazing stock to the world, to angels, and to men ; we are despised and trodden down in the dust; who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?

How obstinate are wicked men, in their perverse resolutions! These foolish Ammonites would rather hire Syrians to maintain a war against Israel in so foul a quarrel, besides the hazard of their own lives, than confess the error of their jealous misconstruction.

It is one of the mad principles of wickedness, that it is a weakness to relent, and rather to die than yield: even ill causes, once undertaken, must be upheld although with blood; whereas the gracious heart, finding his own mistaking, doth not only remit of an ungrounded displeasure, but studies to be revenged of itself, and to give satisfaction to the offended.

The mercenary Syrians are drawn to venture their lives for a fee. Twenty thousand of them are hired into the field against Israel. Fond Pagans, that know not the value of a man! Their blood cost them nothing, and they care not to sell it good cheap. How can we think those men have souls, that esteem a little white earth above themselves; that never inquire into the justice of the quarrel, but the rate of the pay; that can rifle for drams of silver, in the bowels of their own flesh, and either kill or die for a day's wages?

Joab, the wise general of Israel, soon finds where the strength of the battle lay; and so marshals his troops, that the choice of his men should encounter the vanguard of the Syrians. His brother Abishai leads the rest against the children of Ammon; with this covenant of mutual assistance, If the Syrians be too strong for me, then thou shalt help me; but if the children of Ammon be too strong for thee, then will I come and help thee. It is a happy thing, when the captains of God's people join together as brethren, and lend their hand to the aid of each other, against the common adversary. Concord in defence or assault is the way to victory; as, contrarily, the division of the leaders is the overthrow of the army.

Set aside some particular actions, Joab was a worthy captain, both for wisdom and valour. Who could either exhort or resolve better than he; Be of good courage, and let us play the men, for our people, and for the cities of our God; and the Lord do that which seemeth him good? It is not either private glory or profit, that whets his fortitude, but the respect to the cause of God and his people. That soldier can never answer it to God, that strikes not more as a justicer, than as an enemy. Neither doth he content himself with his own courage, but he animates others. The tongue of a commander fights more than his hand. It is enough for private men, to exercise what life and limbs they have; a good leader must, out of his own abundance, put life and spirits into all others, If a lion lead sheep into the field, there is hope of victory, Lastly, when he hath done his best, he resolves to depend upon God for the issue: not trusting to his sword, or his bow, but to the providence of the Almighty for success; as a man religiously awful, and awfully confident, while there should be no want in their own endeavours. He knew well, that the race was not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; therefore he looks up above the hills, whence cometh his salvation. All valour is cowardice to that which is built upon religion.

I marvel not to see Joab victorious, while he is thus godly. The Syrians flee before him, like flocks of sheep; the Ammonites follow them; the two sons of Zeruiah have nothing to do, but to pursue and execute. The throats of the Ammonites are cut, for cutting the beards and coats of the Israelitish messengers.

Neither doth this revenge end in the field; Rabba, the royal city of Ammon, is strongly beleaguered by Joab. The city of waters, after well near a year's siege, yieldeth: the rest can no longer hold.

Now Joab, as one that desireth more to approve himself a loyal and a careful subject than a happy general, sends to his master David, that he should come personally, and encamp against the city, and take it, Lest, saith he, I take it, and it be called after my name. O noble and imitable fidelity of a dutiful servant, that prefers his lord to himself, and is so far from stealing honour from his master's deserts, that he willingly remits of his own to add unto his. The war was not his; he was only employed by his sovereign. The same person, that was wronged in the ambassadors, revengeth by his soldiers. The praise of the act shall, like fountain-water, return to the sea, whence it originally came. To seek a man's own glory is not glory. Alas, how many are there, who, being sent to sue for God, woo for themselves! O God, it is a fearful thing to rob thee of that which is dearest to thee, glory; which, as thou wilt not give to any creature, so much less wilt thou endure that any creature should filch it from thee, and give it to himself. Have thou the honour of all our actions, who givest a being to our actions and us, and in both hast most justly regarded thine own praise. 2 Sam. x. 1 Chron. xix.

DAVID WITH BATHSHEBA AND URIAH.

WITH what unwillingness, with what fear, do I still look upon the miscarriage of the man after God's own heart! O holy prophet, who can promise himself always to stand, when he sees thee fallen, and maimed with the fall? Who can assure himself of an immunity from the foulest sins, when he sees thee offending so heinously, so bloodily? Let prophane eyes behold thee contentedly, as a pattern, as an excuse of sinning; I shall never look upon thee but through tears, as a woful spectacle of human infirmity.

While Joab and all Israel were busy in the war against Ammon, in the siege of Rabbah, Satan finds time to lay siege to the secure heart of David.

Whoever found David thus tempted, thus foiled, in the days of his busy wars? Now only do I see the king of Israel, rising from his bed in the evening. The time was, when he rose up in the morning to his early devotion; when he brake his nightly rest, with public cares, with the business of the state. All that while he was innocent, he was holy; but now that he wallows in the bed of idleness, he is fit to invite temptation. The industrious man hath no leisure to sin the idle hath neither leisure nor power to avoid sin. Exercise is not more wholesome for the body, than for the soul; the remission whereof breeds matter of disease in both. The water, that hath been heated, soonest freezeth; the most active spirit soonest tireth with slacking. The earth stands still, and is all dregs; the heavens ever move, and are pure. We have no reason to complain of the assiduity of work; the toil of action is answered by the benefit; if we did less, we should suffer more. Satan, like an idle companion, if he find us busy, flies back, and sees it no time to entertain vain purposes with us. We cannot please him better, than by casting away our work, to hold chat with him. We cannot yield so far, and be guiltless.

Even David's eyes have no sooner the sleep rubbed out of them, than they rove to wanton prospects. He walks upon his roof, and sees Bathsheba washing herself; inquires after her, sends for her, solicits her to uncleanness. The same spirit, that shut up his eyes in an unseasonable sleep, opens them upon an enticing object: while sin hath such a solicitor, it cannot want either means or opportunity.

I cannot think Bathsheba could be so immodest, as to wash herself openly; especially from her natural uncleanness. Lust is quicksighted: David hath espied her, where she could espy no beholder. His eyes recoil upon his heart, and have smitten him with sinful desire.

There can be no safety to that soul, where the senses are let loose. He can never keep his covenant with God, that makes not a covenant with his eyes. It is an idle presumption to think the outward man may be free, while the inward is safe. He is more than a man, whose heart is not led by his eyes; he is no regenerate man, whose eyes are not restrained by his heart.

O Bathsheba, how wert thou washed from thine uncleanness, when thou yieldedst to go into an adulterous bed! Never wert thou so foul, as now when thou wert new washed. The worst of nature is cleanliness to the best of sin: thou hadst been clean, if thou hadst not washed; yet for thee, I know how to plead infirmity of sex, and the importunity of a king: but what shall I say for thee, O thou royal prophet, and prophetical king of Israel? Where shall I find ought to extenuate that crime, for which God himself hath noted thee? Did not thy holy profession teach thee, to abhor such a sin more than death? Was not thy justice wont to punish this sin, with no less than death? Did not thy very calling call thee, to a protection and preservation of justice, of chastity, in thy subjects? Didst thou want store of wives of thine own? Wert thou restrained from taking more? Was there no beauty in Israel, but in a subject's marriage-bed? Wert thou overcome by the vehement solicitations of an adultress? Wert thou not the tempter, the prosecutor, of this uncleanness? I should accuse thee deeply, if thou hadst not accused thyself. Nothing wanted to greaten thy sin, or our wonder and fear. O God, whither do we go, if thou stay us not? Whoever, amongst the millions of thy servants, could find himself furnished with stronger preservatives against sin? Against whom could such a sin find less pretence of prevailing? Oh keep thou us, that presumptuous sins prevail not over us; so only shall we be free from great offences.

The suits of kings are imperative. Ambition did now prove a bawd to lust. Bathsheba yieldeth to offend God, to dishonour her husband, to clog and wound her own soul, to abuse her body. Dishonesty grows bold, when it is countenanced with greatness. Eminent persons had need be careful of their demands: they sin by authority, that are solicited by the mighty.

Had Bathsheba been mindful of her matrimonial fidelity, perhaps David had been soon checked in his inordinate desire: her facility furthers the sin, The first motioner of evil is most faulty; but, as in quarrels, so in offences, the second blow (which is the consent) makes the fray. Good Joseph was moved to folly by his great and beautiful mistress: this fire fell upon wet tinder, and therefore soon went out.

Sin is not acted alone; if but one party be wise, both escape. It is no excuse, to say, "I was tempted," though by the great, though by the holy and learned. Almost all sinners are misled, by that transformed angel of light. The action is that we must regard, not the person. Let the mover be never so glorious, if he stir us to evil, he must be entertained with defiance.

The God, that knows how to raise good out of evil, blesses an adulterous copulation with that increase, which he denies to the chaste embracements of honest wedlock. Bathsheba hath conceived by David; and now at once conceives a sorrow and care, how to smother the shame of her conception: he that did the fact must hide it.

O David, where is thy repentance? Where is thy tenderness

and compunction of heart? Where are those holy meditations, which had wont to take up thy soul? Alas! instead of clearing thy sin, thou labourest to cloke it; and spendest those thoughts in' the concealing of thy wickedness, which thou shouldest rather have bestowed in preventing it. The best of God's children may not only be drenched in the waves of sin, but lie in them for the time, and perhaps sink twice to the bottom. What hypocrite could have done worse, than study how to cover the face of his sin from the eyes of men, while he regarded not the sting of sin in his soul?

As there are some acts, wherein the hypocrite is a saint, so there are some, wherein the greatest saint upon earth may be a hypocrite. Saul did thus go about to colour his sin, and is cursed. The vessels of mercy and wrath are not ever distinguishable by their actions. He makes the difference, that will have mercy on whom he will, and whom he will, he hardeneth.

It is rare and hard to commit a single sin. David hath abused the wife of Uriah; now he would abuse his person, in causing him to father a false seed. That worthy Hittite is sent for from the wars; and now, after some cunning and far-fetched questions, is dismissed to his house, not without a present of favour. David could not but imagine, that the beauty of his Bathsheba, must needs be attractive enough to a husband, whom long absence in wars had withheld all that while from so pleasing a bed; neither could he think, that, since that face and those breasts had power to allure himself to an unlawful lust, it could be possible, that Uriah should not be invited by them, to an allowed and warrantable fruition.

That David's heart might now the rather strike him, in comparing the chaste resolutions of his servant with his own light incontinence, good Uriah sleeps at the door of the king's palace; making choice of a stony pillow, under the canopy of heaven, rather than the delicate bed of her, whom he thought as honest as he knew fair. The ark, saith he, and Israel, and Judah, dwell in tents; and my lord Joab, and the servants of my lord, abide in the open fields; shall I then go into my house to eat, and drink, and lie with my wife? By thy life, and by the life of thy soul, I will not do this thing.

Who can but be astonished at this change; to see a soldier austere, and a prophet wanton! And how doth that soldier's austerity shame the prophet's wantonness! O zealous and mortified soul, worthy of a more faithful wife, of a more just master, how didst thou overlook all base sensuality, and hatedst to be happy alone! War and lust had wont to be reputed friends. Thy breast is not more full of courage than chastity; and is so far from wandering after forbidden pleasures, that it refuseth lawful.

There is a time to laugh, and a time to mourn; a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embracing. Even the best actions are not always seasonable, much less the indifferent. He, that ever takes liberty to do what he may, shall offend no less, than he that sometimes takes liberty to do what he may not.