CONTEMPLATIONS. BOOK XVI. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE AND TRULY NOBLE LORD, FRANCIS, LORD RUSSELL, BARON OF THORNHAUGH, ALL INCREASE OF HONOUR AND HAPPINESS. Right Honourable,—You shall not need to impute it to any other reason besides your virtues, that I have presumed to shroud this piece of my labours under your noble patronage. The world hath taken just notice, how much the Gospel is graced by your real profession; whom neither honour hath made overlie, nor wealth lavish, nor charge miserable, nor greatness licentious. Go on happily in these safe and gainful steps of goodness; and still honour the God that hath honoured you. In the mean time, accept from my unworthy hands these poor Meditations; more high for their subject, than mean for their author: wherein, Shimei's curses shall teach you, how unable either greatness or innocence is, to bear off the blows of ill tongues; and how baseness ever moulds itself according to the advantage of times. Ahithophel's depth, compared with his end, shall show how witless and insensate craft is, when it strives against honesty; and how justly are they forsaken of their reason, that have abandoned God. The blood of Absalom and Sheba proclaims the inevitable revenge of rebellion, which neither in woods nor walls can find safety. The late famine of Israel, for the forgotten violence offered to the Gibeonites, shows what note God takes of our oaths, and what sure vengeance of their violation. David's muster, seconded with the plague of Israel, teaches, how highly God may be offended with sins of the least appearance; how severe to his own; how merciful too that severity. If these my thoughts shall be approved beneficial to any soul, I am rich. I shall vow my prayers to their success, and to the happiness of your honourable family, both in the root and branches; whereto I am, in all humble duty, devoted, JOSEPH HALL. CONTEMPLATION I.-SHIMEI CURSING. 2 SAMUEL XVI. WITH a heavy heart, and a covered head, and a weeping eye, and bare feet, is David gone away from Jerusalem. Never did he with more joy come up to this city, than now he left it with sorrow: how could he do otherwise, whom the insurrection of his own son drove out from his house, from his throne, from the ark of God? And now, when the depth of this grief deserved nothing but compassion, the foul mouth of Shimei entertains David with curses. There is no small cruelty in the picking out of a time for mischief. That word would scarce gall at one season, which at another killeth. The same shaft, flying with the wind, pierces deep, which, against it, can hardly find strength to stick upright. The valour and justice of children condemn it for injuriously cowardly, to strike their adversary when he is once down. It is the murder of the tongue, to insult upon those whom God hath humbled, and to draw blood of that back, which is yet blue from the hand of the Almighty. If Shimei had not presumed upon David's dejection, he durst not have been thus bold; now, he, that perhaps durst not have looked at one of those worthies single, defies them all at once, and doth both cast and speak stones against David and all his army. The malice of base spirits sometimes carries them further, than the courage of the valiant. In all the time of David's prosperity, we heard no news of Shimei his silence and colourable obedience made him pass for a great subject; yet all that while was his heart unsound and traitorous. Peace and good success hide many a false heart, like as the snow-drift covers a heap of dung, which, once melting away, descries the rottenness that lay within. Honour and welfare are but flattering glasses of men's affections. Adversity will not deceive us; but will make a true report, as of our own powers, so of the disposition of others. He, that smiled on David in his throne, curseth him in his flight. If there be any quarrels, any exceptions to be taken against a man, let him look to have them laid in his dish, when he fares the hardest. This practice have wicked men learned of their master, to take the utmost advantages of our afflictions. He that suffers had need to be double armed, both against pain and censure. Every word of Shimei was a slander: he, that took Saul's spear from his head, and repented to have but cut the lap of his garment, is reproached as a man of blood: the man after God's own heart is branded for a man of Belial. He, that was sent for out of the fields to be anointed, is taxed for a usurper. If David's hand were stained with blood, yet not of Saul's house; it was his servant, not his master, that bled by him; yet is the blood of the Lord's anointed cast in David's teeth, by the spite of a false tongue. Did we not see David, after all the proofs of his humble loyalty, shedding the blood of that Amalekite, who did but say he shed Saul's? Did we not hear him lament passionately for the death of so ill a master, chiding the mountains of Gilboa on which he fell, and angrily wishing that no dew might fall where that blood was poured out; and charging the daughters of Israel to weep over Saul, who had clothed them in scarlet? Did we not hear and see him inquiring for any remainder of the house of Saul, that he might show him the kindness of God? Did we not see him honouring lame Mephibosheth, with a princely seat at his own table? Did we not see him revenging the blood of his rival Ishbosheth, upon the heads of Rechab and Baanah? What could any living man have done more, to wipe off these bloody aspersions? Yet is not a Shimei ashamed to charge innocent David, with all the blood of the house of Saul. How is it likely this clamorous wretch had secretly traduced the name of David, all the time of his government, that dares thus accuse him to his face, before all the mighty men of Israel, who were witnesses of the contrary! The greater the person is, the more open do his actions lie to misinterpretation and censure. Every tongue speaks partially, according to the interest he hath in the cause, or the patient. It is not possible, that eminent persons should be free from imputations innocence can no more protect them, than power. : If the patience of David can digest this indignity, his train cannot. Their fingers could not but itch, to return iron for stones. If Shimei rail on David, Abishai rails on Shimei. Shimei is of Saul's family; Abishai of David's: each speaks for his own. Abishai most justly bends his tongue against Shimei, as Shimei against David most unjustly. Had Shimei been any other than a dog, he had never so rudely barked at a harmless passenger; neither could he deserve less than the loss of that head, which had uttered such blasphemies against God's anointed. The zeal of Abishai doth but plead for justice, and is checked; What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah? David said not so much to his reviler, as to his abettor. He well saw, that a revenge was just, but not seasonable. He found the present a fit time, to suffer wrongs, not to right them; he therefore gives way rather meekly to his own humiliation, than to the punishment of another. There are seasons wherein lawful motions are not fit to be cherished: anger doth not become a mourner: one passion at once is enough for the soul. Unadvised zeal may be more prejudicial, than a cold remissness. What if the Lord, for the correction of his servant, have said unto Shimei, Curse David; yet is Shimei's curse no less worthy of Abishai's sword. The sin of Shimei's curse was his own; the smart of the curse was God's. God wills that, as David's chastisement, which he hates, as Shimei's wickedness. That lewd tongue moved from God; it moved lewdly from Satan. Wicked men are never the freer from guilt or punishment, for that hand which the Holy God hath in their offensive actions. David can say, Let him alone, and let him curse, for the Lord hath bidden him; as meaning to give a reason of his own patience, rather than Shimei's impunity. The issue showed, how well David could distinguish betwixt the act of God and of a traitor; Yet |