were not yet gathered the vapors were not yet risen yet Elijah heares that which shall be Those that are of Gods Councell can discerne either fauours or iudgements afarre off the slacke apprehensions of carnall hearts make them hard to beleeue that as future which the quick and refined senses of the faithfull perceiue as present Ahab goes vp to his repast Elijah goes vp to his prayers That day had beene painfull to him the vehemence of his spirit drawes him to a neglect of his body The holy man climbes vp to the top of Carmel that now hee may talke with his God alone neither is he sooner ascended than hee casts himselfe downe vpon the earth He bowes his knees to God and bowes his face downe to his knees by this humble posture acknowledging his awfull respects to that Maiesty which hee implored Wee cannot prostrate our bodies or soules too low to that infinitely-glorious Deitie who is the Creator of both His thoughts were more high than his body was low what hee said we know not we know that what he said opened the heauens that for three yeares and an halfe had beene shut vp God had said before I will send raine vpon the earth yet Elijah must pray for what God did promise The promises of the Almighty do not discharge our prayers but suppose them he will doe what he vndertakes but wee must sue for that which wee would haue him doe Our petitions are included in the decrees in the ingagements of God The Prophet had newly seene and caused the fire to descend immediately out of heauen hee doth not looke the water should do so he knew that the raine must come from the clouds and that the clouds must arise from vapours and those vapours from the Sea thence doth he expect them But as not willing that the thoughts of his fixed deuotion should bee distracted he doth not go himself only sends his seruant to bring him the newes of his successe At the first sight nothing appeares Seuen times must he walk to that prospect and not till his last view can discerne ought All that while is the Prophet in his prayers neither is any whit daunted with that delay Hope holds vp the head of our holy desires and perseuerance crownes it If we receiue not an answer to our suits at the sixth motion wee may not bee out of countenance but must try the seuenth At last a little cloud arises out of the Sea of an hand bredth So many so feruent prayers cannot but pull water out of heauen as well as fire Those sighes reflect vpon the earth and from the earth reflect vpon heauen from heauen rebound vpon the Sea and raise vapors vp thence to heauen againe If wee find that our prayers are heard for the substance wee may not cauill at the quantity Euen an hand-broad cloud contents Elijah and fills his heart full of ioy and thankfulnesse Hee knew well this meteor was not at the biggest it was newly borne of the womb of the waters and in some minutes of age must grow to a large stature stay but a while and heauen is couered with it From how small beginnings haue great matters arisen It is no otherwise in all the gracious proceedings of God with the soule scarce sensible are those first works of his spirit in the heart which grow vp at last to the wonder of men and applause of Angels Well did Elijah know that God who is perfection it selfe would not defile his hand with an inchoate and scanted fauour as one therefore that fore-saw the face of heauen ouer-spred with this cloudy spot he sends to Ahab to hasten his charet that the raine stop him not It is long since Ahab feared this let neuer was the newes of a danger more welcome Doubtlesse the King of Israel whiles hee was at his diet lookt long for Elijahs promised showers where is the raine whose sound the Prophet heard how is it that his eares were so much quicker than our eyes We saw his fire to our terror how gladly would we see his waters When now the seruant of Elijah brings him newes from heauen that the clouds were setting forward and if he hastened not would be before him The wind arises the clouds gather the sky thickens Ahab betakes him to his charet Elijah girds vp his loynes and runs before him Surely the Prophet could not want the offer of more ease in his passage but hee will bee for the time Ahabs lacquey that the King and all Israel may see his humility no lesse than his power and may confesse that the glory of those miracles hath not made him insolent He knew that his very sight was monitorie neither could Ahabs minde be beside the miraculous works of God whiles his eye was vpon Elijah neither could the Kings heart bee otherwise than well affected towards the Prophet whiles he saw that himselfe and all Israel had receiued a new Life by his procurement But what newes was here for Iezebel Certainely Ahab minced nothing of the report of all those astonishing accidents If but to salue vp his owne honour in the death of those Baalites he made the best of Elijahs merits he told of his challenge conflict victory of the fire that fell downe from heauen of the conuiction of Israel of the vnauoidable execution of the Prophets of the prediction and fall of those happy showers and lastly of Elijabs officious attendance Who would not haue expected that Iezebel should haue said It is no striuing no dallying with the Almighty No reasonable creature can doubt after so prodigious a decision God hath wonne vs from heauen he must possesse vs Iustly are our seducers perished None but the God that can command fire and water shal be ours There is no Prophet but his But shee contrarily in stead of relenting rageth and sends a message of death to Elijah So let the Gods doe to me and more also if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time Neither scourges nor fauors can work any thing with the obstinately wicked All euill hearts are not equally dis-affectd to good Ahab and Iezebel were both bad enough yet Ahab yeelds to that worke of God which Iezebel stubbornly opposeth Ahab melts with that water with that fire wherewith Iezebel is hardened Ahab was bashfully Iezebel audaciously impious The weaker sex is euer commonly stronger in passion and more vehemently carried with the sway of their desires whether to good or euill She sweares and stamps at that whereat shee should haue trembled Shee sweares by those gods of hers which were not able to saue their Prophets that she will kill the Prophet of God who had scorned her gods and slaine her Prophets It is well that Iezebel could not keepe counsell Her threat preserued him whom she had meant to kill The wisdome and power of God could haue found euasions for his Prophet in her greatest secresie but now he needs
no other meanes of rescue but her own lips She is no lesse vaine than the gods she sweares by In spight of her fury and her oath and her gods Elijah shall liue At once shal shee finde her selfe frustrate and forsworne Shee is now ready to bite her tongue to eat her heart for anger at the disappointment of her cruell Vow It were no liuing for godly men if the hands of Tyrants were allowed to be as bloudie as their hearts Men and Deuils are vnder the restraint of the Almighty neither are their designes more lauish than their executions short Holy Elijah flees for his life we heare not of the command of God but wee would willingly presuppose it So diuine a Prophet should doe nothing without God His heeles were no new refuge As no where safe within the ten Tribes he flees to Beersheba in the territories of Iudah as not there safe from the machinations of Iezebel he flees alone one dayes iourney into the wildernesse there he sits him downe vnder a Iuniper tree and as weary of life no lesse than of his way wishes to rise no more It is enough now O Lord take away my life for I am not better than my Fathers Oh strange and vncouth mutation What is this we heare Elijah fainting and giuing vp that heroicall spirit deiected and prostrate Hee that durst say to Ahabs face It is thou and thy fathers house that troubleth Israel he that could raise the dead open and shut the heauens fetch downe both fire and water with his prayers hee that durst chide and contest with all Israel that durst kill the foure hundred and fifty Baalites with the sword doth he shrinke at the frowns threats of a woman doth he wish to be rid of his life because he feared to lose it Who can expect an vndaunted constancy from flesh and bloud when Elijah failes The strongest and holiest Saint vpon earth is subiect to some qualmes of feare and infirmity To be alwaies and vnchangeably good is proper onely to the glorious Spirits in heauen Thus the wise and holy God will haue his power perfited in our weakenesse It is in vaine for vs whiles wee carry this flesh about vs to hope for so exact health as not to bee cast downe sometimes with fits of spirituall distemper It is no new thing for holy men to wish for death Who can either maruell at or blame the desire of aduantage For the weary traueller to long for rest the prisoner for liberty the banished for home it is so naturall that the contrary disposition were monstrous The benefit of the change is a iust motiue to our appetition but to call for death out of a satiety of Life out of an impatience of suffering is a weakenesse vnbeseeming a Saint It is not enough O Elijah God hath more work yet for thee thy God hath more honored thee than thy fathers and thou shalt liue to honor him Toile and sorrow haue lulled the Prophet asleep vnder his Iuniper tree that wholesome shade was well chosen for his repose whiles death was called for the cozen of death comes vnbidden The Angell of God waits on him in that hard lodging no wildernesse is too solitary for the attendance of those blessed spirits As he is guarded so is hee awaked by that messenger of God and stirred vp from his rest to his repast whiles hee slept his breakfast is made ready for him by those spirituall hands There was a cake baken on the coales and a cruse of water at his head Oh the neuer-ceasing care and prouidence of the Almightie not to be barred by any place by any condition when meanes are wanting to vs when we are wanting to our selues whē to God euen then doth he follow vs with his mercy and cast fauors vpon vs beyond against expectation What variety of purueiance doth hee make for his seruant One while the rauens then the Sareptan now the Angell shall be his Cator none of them without a miracle Those other prouided for him waking this sleeping O God the eye of thy prouidence is not dimmer the hand of thy power is not shorter onely teach thou vs to serue thee to trust thee Needes must the Prophet eat and drinke and sleepe with much comfort whiles he saw that he had such a guardian attendant purueiour and now the second time is he raised by that happy touch to his meale his way Arise and eat because the iourney is too great for thee What needed he to trauell further sith that diuine power could as well protect him in the wildernesse as in Horeb What needed he to eat since hee that meant to sustaine him forty daies with one meale might as well haue sustained him without it God is a most free Agent neither will bee tied to the termes of humane regularities It is enough that hee knowes and approues the reasons of his owne choice and commands Once in forty dayes and nights shall Elijah eat to teach vs what God can doe with little meanes and but once to teach vs what he can doe without meanes Once shall the Prophet eat Man liues by bread and but once Man liues not by bread onely but by euery word that proceeds out of the mouth of God Moses Elijah our Sauiour fasted each of them forty daies and fortie nights the three great fasters met gloriously in Tabor I finde not where God euer honoured any man for feasting It is abstinence not fulnesse that makes a man capable of heauenly visions of diuine glory The iourney was not of it selfe so long the Prophet tooke those wayes those houres which his heart gaue him In the very same mount where Moses first saw God shall Elijah see him one and the same caue as is very probable was the receptacle to both It could not bee but a great confirmation to Elijah to renue the sight of those sensible monuments of Gods fauour and protection to his faithfull predecessor Moses came to see God in the bush of Horeb God came to finde Elijah in the caue of Horeb What doest thou here Elijah The place was directed by a prouidence not by a command Hee is hid sure enough from Iezebel hee cannot be hid from the all-seeing eye of God Whither shall I goe from thy Spirit or Whither shall I flie from thy presence If I ascend vp into Heauen thou art there if I make my bed in Hell behold thou art there If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the vttermost parts of the Sea euen there shall thine hand finde mee and thy right hand shall hold me Twice hath God propounded the same question to Elijah Once in the heart once in the mouth of the caue Twice doth the Prophet answer in the same words Had the first answer satisfied the question had not beene re-demanded Now that sullen answer which Elijah gaue in the darknesse of the caue is challenged into the Light not without an awfull preface The
take part with him in his leprosie The leprosie of Naaman shall cleaue vnto thee and vnto thy seed for euer Oh heauie Talents of Gehezi Oh the horror of this one vnchangeable suit which shall neuer be but loathsomely white noisomely vncleane How much better had beene a light purse and an homely coat with a sound bodie a cleare soule Too late doth that wretched man now finde that hee hath loaded himselfe with a curse that hee hath clad himselfe with shame His sinne shall be red euer in his face in his seed All passengers all posterities shall now say Behold the characters of Gehezies couetousnesse fraud sacriledge The act ouertakes the word Hee went out of his presence a leper as white as snow It is a wofull exchange that Gehezi hath made with Naaman Naaman came a leper returned a Disciple Gehezi came a Disciple returned a leper Naaman left behinde both his disease and his money Gehezi takes vp both his money and his disease Now shall Gehezi neuer looke vpon himselfe but he shall thinke of Naaman whose skinne is transferred vpon him with those talents and shall weare out the rest of his dayes in shame and paine and sorrow His teares may wash off the guilt of his sinne shall not like another Iordan wash off his leprosie that shall euer remaine as an hereditarie monument of diuine seueritie This sonne of the Prophets shall more loud and liuely preach the Iustice of God by his face than others by their tongue Happie was it for him if whiles his skinne was snow-white with leprosie his humbled soule were washed white as snow with the water of true repentance ELISHA raising the Iron blinding the Syrians THere was no losse of Gehezi when he was gone the Prophets increased an ill man in the Church is but like some shrubbie tree in a Garden whose shade keepes better plants from growing A blanke doth better in a roome than an ill filling The view of Gods iust iudgements doth rather draw clients vnto him than alienate them The Kings of Israel had succeeded in Idolatry and hate of sincere Religion yet the Prophets multiply Persecution enlargeth the bounds of the Church These verie tempestuous showres bring vp flowres and herbs in abundance There would haue beene neither so many nor so zealous Prophets in the languishments of peace Besides What maruell is it if the immediate succession of two such noble leaders as Elijah and Elisha established and augmented religion and bred multitudes of Prophets Rather who cannot maruell vpon the knowledge of all their miracles that all Israel did not prophesie It is a good hearing that the Prophets want elbow-roome out of their store not out of the enuie of neighbours or incompetencie of prouision Where vision failes the people perish they are blessed where it abounds When they found themselues straitned they did not presume to carue for themselues but they craued the leaue the counsell of Elisha Let vs goe we pray thee vnto Iordan and take thence euery man a beame and let vs make vs a place where wee may dwell And hee said Goe ye It well becomes the sonnes of the Prophets to enterprise nothing without the allowance of their Superiours Here was a building towards none of the curiousest I doe not see them making meanes for the procurement of some cunning artificers nor for the conquisition of some costly marbles and cedars but euerie man shall hew and square and frame his owne beame No nice termes were stood vpon by these sons of the Prophets Their thoughts were fixed vpon the perfection of a spirituall building As an homely roofe may serue them so their owne hands shall raise it The fingers of these contemplatiue men did not scorne the axe and mallet and chesell It was better being there than in Obadiahs caue they that dwell now contentedly vnder rude sticks will not refuse the squared stones and polished contignations of better times They shall be ill teachers of others that haue not learned both to want and to abound The master of this sacred Societie Elisha is not stately not austere he giues not only passage to this motion of his Collegiates but assistance It was fit the sonnes of the Prophets should haue conuenience of dwelling though not pompe not costlinesse They fall to their worke No man goes slackly about the building of his owne house One of them more regarding the tree than the toole le ts fall the head of his axe into the riuer Poore men are sensible of small losses Hee makes his mone to Elisha Alas master for it was borrowed Had the axe beene his owne the trouble had beene the lesse to forgoe it therefore doth the miscarriage afflict him because it was of a borrowed axe Honest mindes are more carefull of what they haue by loane than by proprietie In lending there is a trust which a good heart cannot disappoint without vexation Alas poore nouices of the Prophet they would be building and were not worth their axes if they would giue their labour they must borrow their instruments Their wealth was spirituall Outward pouertie may well stand with inward riches Hee is rich not that hath the world but that can contemne it Elisha loues and cherishes this iust simplicitie rather will hee worke a miracle than a borrowed axe shall not be restored It might easily be imagined hee that could raise vp the iron out of the bottome of the water could tell where it fell in yet euen that powerfull hand cals for direction In this one point the sonne of the Prophet knowes more than Elisha The notice of all particularities is neither fit for a creature nor communicable A meane man may best know his owne case this Nouice better knowes where his axe fell than his master his master knowes better how to get it out than he There is no reason to be giuen of supernaturall actions The Prophet borrowes an axe to cut an helue for the lost axe Why did he not make vse of that handle which had cast the head Did he hold it vnworthy of respect for that it had abandoned the metall wherewith it was trusted Or did he make choice of a new sticke that the miracle might be the more cleere and vnquestionable Diuine power goes a contrary way to Art Wee first would haue procured the head of the axe and then would haue fitted it with an helue Elisha fits the head to the helue and causes the wood which was light and knew not how to sinke to fetch vp the Iron which was heauie and naturally vncapable of supernatation Whether the metall were stripped of the naturall weight by the same power which gaue it being or whether retaining the wonted poise it was raised vp by some spirituall operation I inquire not Onely I see it swim like Cork vpon the streame of Iordan and moue towards the hand that lost it What creature is not willing to put off the properties of nature at the command of the God