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CONTEMPLATION II.-MEPHIBOSHETH AND

ZIBA.

2 SAMUEL IX.

So soon as ever David can but breathe himself from the public cares, he casts back his thoughts to the dear remembrance of his Jonathan.

Saul's servant is likely to give him the best intelligence of Saul's sons. The question is therefore moved to Ziba; Remaineth there none of the house of Saul? And, lest suspicion might conceal the remainders of an emulous line, in fear of revenge intended, he adds, On whom I may shew the mercy of God for Jonathan's sake. O friendship worthy of the monuments of eternity! Fit only to requite him, whose love was more than the love of women!

He doth not say, "Is there any of the house of Jonathan ?" but, "of Saul?" that, for his friend's sake, he may shew favour to the posterity of his persecutor. Jonathan's love could not be greater than Saul's malice, which also survived long in his issue; from whom David found a busy and stubborn rivalty for the crown of Israel; yet, as one that gladly buried all the hostility of Saul's house in Jonathan's grave, he asks, Is there any man left of Saul's house, that I may shew him mercy for Jonathan's sake? It is true love, that, overliving the person of a friend, will be inherited of his seed; but to love the posterity of an enemy in a friend, it is the miracle of friendship. The formal amity of the world is confined to a face; or to the possibility of recompense; languishing in the disability, and dying in the decease of the party affected. That love was ever false, that is not ever constant, and the most operative, when it cannot be either known or requited.

To cut off all unquiet competition for the kingdom of Israel, the providence of God had so ordered, that there is none left of the house of Saul, besides the sons of his concubines, save only young and lame Mephibosheth: so young, that he was but five years of age, when David entered upon the government of Israel; so lame, that, if his age had fitted, his impotence had made him unfit for the throne.

Mephibosheth was not born a cripple: it was a heedless nurse that made him so she, hearing of the death of Saul and Jonathan, made such haste to flee, that her young master was lamed with the fall. I wis, there needed no such speed to run away from David; whose love pursues the hidden son of his brother Jonathan. How often doth our ignorant mistaking cause us to run from our best friends; and to catch knocks and maims, of them that profess our protection!

Mephibosheth could not come otherwise than fearfully into the presence of David, whom he knew so long, so spitefully, opposed by the house of Saul. He could not be ignorant, that the fashion of the world is, to build their own security upon the blood of the opposite faction; neither to think themselves safe, while any branch remains springing out of that root of their emulation: Seasonably doth David therefore, first, expel all those unjust doubts, ere he administer his further cordials: Fear not, for I will surely shew thee kindness, for Jonathan thy father's sake; and will restore thee all the fields of Saul thy father; and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually.

David can see neither Saul's blood, nor lame legs, in Mephibosheth, while he sees in him the features of his friend Jonathan how much less shall the God of mercies regard our infirmities, or the corrupt blood of our sinful progenitors, while he beholds us in the face of his Son, in whom he is well pleased!

Favours are wont so much more to affect us, as they are less expected by us. Mephibosheth, as overjoyed with so comfortable a word, and confounded in himself at the remembrance of the contrary deservings of his family, bows himself to the earth, and says, What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?

I find no defect of wit, though of limbs, in Mephibosheth: he knew himself the grand-child of the king of Israel, the son of Jonathan, the lawful heir of both; yet, in regard of his own impotency, and the trespass and rejection of his house, he thus abaseth himself unto David. Humiliation is a right use of God's affliction. What if he were born great? If the sin of his grandfather hath lost his estate, and the hand of his nurse hath deformed and disabled his person, he now forgets what he was, and calls himself worse than he is, A dog: yet, A living dog is better than a dead lion; there is dignity and comfort in life; Mephibosheth is therefore a dead dog unto David. It is not for us to nourish the same spirits in our adverse estate, that we found in our highest prosperity. What use have we made of God's hand, if we be not the lower with our fall? God intends we should carry our cross, not make a fire of it to warm us. is no bearing up our sails in a tempest.

It

Good David cannot disesteem Mephibosheth ever the more for disparaging himself: he loves and honours this humility in the son of Jonathan. There is no more certain way to glory and advancement, than a lowly dejection of ourselves. He, that made himself a dog, and therefore fit only to lie under the table, yea a dead dog, and therefore fit only for the ditch, is raised up to the table of a king; his seat shall be honourable, yea, royal; his fare delicious, his attendants noble. How much more will our gracious God lift up our heads, unto true honour before men and angels, if we can be sincerely humbled in his sight! If we miscall ourselves, in the meanness of our conceits, to him, he

gives us a new name, and sets us at the table of his glory. It is contrary with God and men: if they reckon of us as we set ourselves, he values us according to our abasements.

Like a prince truly munificent and faithful, David promises and performs at once. Ziba, Saul's servant, hath the charge given him, of the execution of that royal word; He shall be the bailiff of this great husbandry of his master Mephibosheth. The land of Saul, however forfeited, shall know no other master than Saul's grand-child.

As yet, Saul's servant had sped better than his son. I read of twenty servants of Ziba, none of Mephibosheth. Earthly possessions do not always admit of equal divisions. The wheel is now turned up; Mephibosheth is a prince, Ziba is his officer.

I cannot but pity the condition of this good son of Jonathan. Into ill hands did honest Mephibosheth fall; first, of a careless nurse; then, of a treacherous servant: she maimed his body; he would have overthrown his estate. After some years of eyeservice to Mephibosheth, wicked Ziba intends to give him a worse fall than his nurse. Never any court was free from detractors, from delators; who, if they see a man to be a cripple, that he cannot go to speak for himself, will be telling tales of him in the ears of the great: such an one was this perfidious Ziba; who, taking the opportunity of David's flight from his son Absalom, follows him with a fair present and a false tale, accusing his impotent master of a foul and traitorous ingratitude; labouring to tread upon his lame lord, to raise himself to honour.

True-hearted Mephibosheth had as good a will as the best. If he could have commanded legs, he had not been left behind David; now, that he cannot go with him, he will not be well without him, and therefore puts himself to a wilful and sullen penance, for the absence and danger of his king: he will not so much as put on clean clothes for the time, as he that could not have any joy in himself, for the want of his lord David.

Unconscionable miscreants care not how they collogue, whom they slander, for a private advantage. Lewd Ziba comes with a gift in his hand, and a smooth tale in his mouth: "O sir, you thought you had a Jonathan at home, but you will find a Saul. It were pity, but he should be set at your table, that would sit in your throne. You thought Saul's land would have contented Mephibosheth, but he would have all yours. Though he be lame, yet he would be climbing. Would you have thought that this cripple could be plotting for your kingdom, now that you are gone aside? Ishbosheth will never die, while Mephibosheth lives. How did he not forget his impotence, and raised up his spirits in hope of a day; and durst say, that now the time was come, wherein the crown should revert to Saul's true heir." O viper! if a serpent bite in secret when he is not charmed, no

better is a slanderer. Honest Mephibosheth in good manners made a dead dog of himself, when David offered him the favour of his board; but Ziba would make him a very dog indeed, an ill-natured cur, that, when David did thus kindly feed him at his own table, would not only bite his fingers, but fly at his throat. But what shall we say to this? Neither earthly sovereignty, nor holiness, can exempt men from human infirmity. Wise and good David hath now but one ear; and that misled with credulity. His charity in believing Ziba makes him uncharitable in distrusting, in censuring Mephibosheth. The detractor hath not only sudden credit given him, but Saul's land. Jonathan's son hath lost, unheard, that inheritance which was given him, unsought. Hearsay is no safe ground of any judgment. Ziba slanders; David believes; Mephibosheth suffers.

Lies shall not always prosper. God will not abide the truth to be ever oppressed. At last, Jonathan's lame son shall be found, as sound in heart as lame in his body. He, whose soul was like his father Jonathan's soul, whose body was like to his grandfather Saul's soul, meets David, as it is high time, upon his return; bestirs his tongue to discharge himself of so foul a slander. The more horrible the crime had been, the more villanous was the unjust suggestion of it, and the more necessary was a just apology; sweetly therefore, and yet passionately, doth he labour to greaten David's favours to him; his own obligations and vileness; shewing himself more affected with his wrong, than with his loss; welcoming David home with a thankful neglect of himself, as not caring that Ziba had his substance, now that he had his king. David is satisfied, Mephibosheth restored to favour and lands: here are two kind hearts well met. David is full of satisfaction from Mephibosheth; Mephibosheth runs over, with joy in David: David, like a gracious king, gives Mephibosheth, as before, Saul's lands to halves with Ziba; Mephibosheth, like a king, gives all to Ziba for joy that God had given him David.

Pardon me, O

All had been well, if Ziba had fared worse. holy and glorious soul of a prophet, of a king, after God's own heart; I must needs blame thee for mercy: a fault that the best and most generous natures are most subject to. It is pity that so good a thing should do hurt; yet we find that the best, misused, is most dangerous. Who should be the pattern of kings, but the king of God? Mercy is the goodliest flower in his crown, much more in theirs, but with a difference: God's mercy is infinite, theirs limited: he says, I will have mercy on whom I will; they must say, I will have mercy on whom I should." And yet he, for all his infinite mercy, hath vessels of wrath; so must they of whom his justice hath said, Thine eye shall not spare them. A good man is pitiful to his beast, shall he therefore make much of toads and snakes? Oh that Ziba should

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go away with any possession, save of shame and sorrow; that he should be coupled with a Mephibosheth in a partnership of estates! Oh that David had changed the word a little!

A division was due here, indeed; but of Ziba's ears from his head, or his head from his shoulders, for going about so maliciously to divide David from the son of Jonathan. An eye for an eye, was God's rule. If that had been true, which Ziba suggested against Mephibosheth, he had been worthy to lose his head with his lands: being false, it had been but reason, Ziba should have changed heads with Mephibosheth. Had not holy David himself been so stung with the venomous tongues, that he cries out in the bitterness of his soul, What reward shall be given thee, O thou false tongue? Even sharp arrows, with hot burning coals! He that was so sensible of himself in Doeg's wrong, doth he feel so little of Mephibosheth in Ziba's? Are these the arrows of David's quiver? Are these his hot burning coals, Thou and Ziba divide? He that had said, Their tongue is a sharp sword, now, that the sword of just revenge is in his hand, is this the blow he gives, Divide the possession? I know not whether excess or want of mercy may prove most dangerous in the great; the one discourages good intentions with fear; the other may encourage wicked practices through presumption: those that are in eminent place must learn the mid-way betwixt both; so pardoning faults, that they may not provoke them; so punishing them, that they may not dishearten virtuous and wellmeant actions: they must learn to sing that absolute ditty, whereof David had here forgotten one part, of Mercy and Judgment.

CONTEMPLATION III.-HANUN, AND DAVID'S AMBASSADORS.

2 SAMUEL X.; 1 CHRONICLES XIX.

It is not the meaning of religion, to make men uncivil. If the king of Ammon were heathenish, yet his kindness may be acknowledged, may be returned, by the king of Israel. I say not, but that perhaps David might maintain too strait a league with that forbidden nation; a little friendship is enough to an idolater but even the : savage cannibals may receive an answer of outward courtesy. If a very dog fawn upon us, we stroke him on the head, and clap him on the side; much less is the common band of humanity untied by grace. Disparity in spiritual professions is no warrant for ingratitude. He, therefore, whose good-nature proclaimed, to shew mercy to any branch of Saul's house, for Jonathan's sake, will now also shew kindness to Hanun, for the sake of Nahash his father.