such deities; but so far was the uxorious king blinded with affection, that he gave not passage only to the idolatry of his heathenish wives, but furtherance.

So did he doat upon their persons, that he humoured them in their sins; their act is therefore his, because his eyes winked at it, his hand advanced it. He that built a temple to the living God, for himself and Israel, in Sion, built a temple to Chemosh in the Mount of Scandal, for his mistresses of Moab, in the very face of God's house. No hill about Jerusalem was free from a chapel of devils; each of his dames had their puppets, their altars, their incense: because Solomon feeds them in their superstition, he draws the sin home to himself, and is branded for what he should have forbidden.

very permission appropriates crimes to us. We need no more guiltiness of any sin, than our willing toleration.

Who can but yearn, and fear, to see the woeful wreck of so rich and goodly a vessel? O Solomon, wert not thou he, whose younger years God honoured with a message and style of love? to whom God twice appeared, and, in a gracious vision, renewed the covenant of his favour? whom he singled out from all the generation of men, to be the founder of that glorious temple, which was no less clearly the type of heaven, than thou wert of Christ, the Son of the everliving God? Wert not thou that deep sea of wisdom, which God ordained to send forth rivers and fountains of all divine and human knowledge to all nations, to all ages? wert not thou one of those select secretaries, whose hand it pleased the Almighty to employ in three pieces of the divine monuments of sacred scriptures? Which of us dares ever hope to aspire unto thy graces? which of us can promise to secure ourselves from thy ruins? We fall, O God, we fall to the lowest hell, if thou prevent us not, if thou sustain us not! "6 "Uphold thou me, according to thy word, that I may live, and let me not be ashamed of my hope. Order my steps in thy word, and let not any iniquity have dominion over me." All our weakness is in ourselves, all our strength is in thee. O God, be thou strong in our weakness, that our weak knees may be ever steady in thy strength. But, in the midst of the horror of this spectacle, able to affright all the sons of men, behold some glimpse of comfort. Was it of Solomon that David his father prophesied; "Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand?" If sensible grace, yet final mercy

was not taken from that beloved of God; in the hardest of this winter, the sap was gone down to the root, though it shewed not in the branches. Even while Solomon removed, that word stood fast, "He shall be my Son, and I will be his Father." He that foresaw his sin, threatened and limited his correction. "If he break my statutes, and keep not my commandments, then will I visit his transgression with a rod, and his iniquity with stripes; nevertheless, my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail; my covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my mouth." Behold, the favour of God doth not depend upon Solomon's obedience! If Solomon shall suffer his faithfulness to fail towards his God, God will not requite him with the failing of his faithfulness to Solomon; if Solomon break his covenant with God, God will not break his covenant with the father of Solomon, with the son of David: he shall smart, he shall not perish. O gracious word of the God of all mercies, able to give strength to the languishing, comfort to the despairing, to the dying, life! Whatsoever we are, thou wilt be still thyself, O Holy One of Israel, true to thy covenant, constant to thy decree; the sins of thy chosen can neither frustrate thy counsel, nor outstrip thy mercies.

Now I see Solomon, of a wanton lover, a grave preacher of mortification; I see him quenching those inordinate flames with the tears of his repentance. Methinks I hear him sighing deeply, betwixt every word of that his solemn penance which he would needs enjoin himself before all the world. "I have applied my heart to know the wickedness of folly, even the foolishness of madness, and I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is as nets and snares, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall be delivered from her, but the sinner shall be taken by her."

Solomon was taken as a sinner, delivered as a penitent. His soul escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers; the snare was broken, and he delivered. It is good for us that he was both taken and delivered; taken, that we might not presume; and, that we might not despair, delivered. He sinned, that we might not sin; he recovered, that we may not sink under our sin.

But, O the justice of God, inseparable from his mercy; Solomon's sin shall not escape the rod of men: rather than so wise an offender shall want enemies, God shall raise up three

adversaries unto Solomon, Hadad the Edomite, Bezon the king of Aram, Jeroboam the son of Nebat: whereof two were foreign, one domestical. Nothing but love and peace sounded in the name of Solomon, nothing else was found in his reign, while he held in good terms with his God; but, when once he fell foul with his Maker, all things began to be troubled. There are whips laid up against the time of Solomon's foreseen offence, which are now brought forth for his correction. On purpose was Hadad, the son of the king of Edom, hid in a corner of Egypt, from the sword of David and Joab, that he might be reserved for a scourge to the exorbitant son of David. God would have us make account that our peace ends with our innocence. The same sin that sets debate betwixt God and us, arms the creatures against us; it were pity we should be at any quiet, while we are fallen out with the God of peace.

BOOK XVIII.

CONTEMPLATION I.
Rehoboam.

WHO would not but have looked that seven hundred wives, and three hundred concubines, should have furnished Solomon's palace with choice of heirs, and have peopled Israel with royal issue? and now, behold, Solomon hath by all these but one son, and him by an Ammonitess! Many a poor man hath an houseful of children by one wife, while this great king has but one son by many housefuls of wives. Fertility is not from the means, but from the author: it was for Solomon that David sung, of old, "Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward!" How oft doth God deny this heritage of heirs, where he gives the largest heritage of lands, and gives most of these living possessions, where he gives least of the dead, that his blessings may be acknowledged free unto both, entailed upon neither!

As the greatest persons cannot give themselves children, so the wisest cannot give their children wisdom. Was it not of Rehoboam that Solomon said, "I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun, because I should leave it to

the man that shall be after me; and who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool; yet shall he rule over all my labour, wherein I have laboured, and shewed myself wise under the sun?" All Israel found that Solomon's wit was not propagated: many a fool hath had a wiser son than this wisest father; amongst many sons, it is no news to find some one defective; Solomon hath but one son, and he no miracle of wisdom. God gives purposely so eminent an instance, to teach men to look up to heaven, both for heirs and graces.

Solomon was both the king of Israel, and the father of Rehoboam, when he was scarce out of his childhood: Rehoboam enters into the kingdom at a ripe age; yet Solomon was the man, and Rehoboam the child. Age is no just measure of wisdom; there are beardless sages, and grey-headed children; not the ancient are wise, but the wise are ancient. Israel wanted not for thousands that were wiser than Rehoboam: yet, because they knew him to be the son of Solomon, no man makes question of his government in the case of succession into kingdoms we may not look into the qualities of the person, but into the right. So secure is Solomon of the people's fidelity to David's seed, that he follows not his father's example, in setting his son by him in his own throne; here was no danger of a rivality to enforce it, no eminency in the son to merit it: it sufficeth him to know that no bond can be surer than the natural allegiance of subjects. I do not find that the following kings stood upon the confirmation of their people; but, as those that knew the way to their throne, ascended their steps without aid. As yet the sovereignty of David's house was green, and unsettled: Israel therefore doth not now come to attend Rehoboam, but Rehoboam goes up to meet Israel they come not to his Jerusalem, but he goes to their Shechem: "To Shechem were all Israel come to make him king." If loyalty drew them together, why not rather to Jerusalem? there the majesty of his father's temple, the magnificence of his palace, the very stones in those walls, besides the strength of his guard, had pleaded strongly for their subjection. Shechem had been many ways fatal, was every way incommodious. It is an infinite help or disadvantage that arises from circumstances: the very place puts Israel in mind of a rebellion; there Abimelech had raised up his treacherous usurpation over, and against his brethren; there Gaal against Abimelech; there was Joseph sold by his brethren; as if the

very soil had been stained with perfidiousness. The time is no less ill chosen; Rehoboam had ill counsel ere he bewrayed it; for had he speedily called up Israel, before Jeroboam could have been sent for out of Egypt, he had found the way clear; a little delay may lose a great deal of opportunity; what shall we say of both, but that misery is led in by infatu ation?

Had not Israel been somewhat predisposed to a mutiny, they had never sent into Egypt for such a spokesman as Jeroboam, a fugitive, a traitor to Solomon: long had that crafty conspirator lurked in a foreign court. The alliances of princes are not ever necessary bonds of friendship: the brother-in-law of Solomon harbours this suake in his bosom, and gives that heat, which is repaid with a sting to the posterity of so near an ally; and now Solomon's death calls him back to his native soil. That Israel would entertain a rebel, it was an ill sign; worse yet, that they would countenance him; worst of all, that they would employ him. Nothing doth more bewray evil intentions, than the choice of vicious agents. Those that mean well, will not hazard either the success, or credit of their actions upon offensive instruments; none but the sluttish will wipe their faces with foul cloths. Upright hearts would have said, as David did to God, so to his anointed; "Do not I hate them that hate thee? yea, I hate them with a perfect hatred." Jeroboam's head had been a fit present to have been tendered unto their new king; and now, instead thereof, they tender themselves to Jeroboam, as the head of their faction.

Had not Rehoboam wanted spirits, he had first, after Solomon's example, done justice to his father's traitor, and then have treated of mercy towards his subjects; the people soon found the weakness of their new sovereign, else they durst not have spoken to him by so obnoxious a tongue; "Thy father made our yoke grievous, make thou it lighter, and we will serve thee:" Doubtless the crafty head of Jeroboam was in this suit which his mouth uttered in the name of Israel: nothing could have been more subtile; it seemed a promise, it was a threat; that which seemed a supplication, was a complaint; humility was but a vail for discontentment; one hand held a paper, the other a sword. Had they said, Free us from tributes, the capitulation had been gross, and strongly favouring of sedition; now they say, "Ease us;" they