in the flame yet it is no small misery to become a temptation unto another, and to be made but the occasion of others' ruin. Amnon is love-sick of his sister Tamar, and languishes of that unnatural heat. Whither will not wanton lust carry the inordinate minds of pampered and ungoverned youths? None but his halfsister will please the eyes of the young prince of Israel. Ordinary pleasures will not content those, whom the conceit of greatness, youth, and ease, have let loose to their appetite. Perhaps yet, this unkindly flame might in time have gone out alone, had not there been a Jonadab, to blow these coals with ill counsel. It were strange, if great princes should want some pa rasitical followers, that are ready to feed their ill humours. Why art thou, the king's son, so lean from day to day? As if it were unworthy the heir of a king, to suffer either law or conscience to stand in the way of his desires: whereas wise princes know well, that their places give them no privilege of sinning; but call them in rather to so much more strictness, as their example may be more prejudicial. Jonadab was the cousin-german of Amnon. Ill advice is so much more dangerous, as the interest of the giver is more. Had he been a true friend, he had bent all the forces of his dissuasion against the wicked motions of that sinful lust; and had shewed the prince of Israel, how much those lewd desires provoked God and blemished himself; and had lent his hand to strangle them in their first conception. There cannot be a more worthy improvement of friendship, than in a fervent opposition to the sins of them, whom we profess to love. No enemy can be so mortal to great princes, as those officious clients, whose flattery sooths them up in wickedness: these are traitors to the soul, and by a pleasing violence kill the best part eternally. How ready at hand is an evil suggestion! Good counsel is like unto well-water, that must be drawn up with a pump or bucket; ill counsel is like to conduit-water, which, if the cock be but turned, runs out alone. Jonadab hath soon projected, how Amnon shall accomplish his lawless purpose. The way must be to feign himself sick in body, whose mind was sick of lust; and, under this pretence, to procure the presence of her, who had wounded, and only might cure him. The daily increasing languor, and leanness, and paleness of love-sick Amnon, might well give colour to a kerchief and a pallet. Now is it soon told David, that his eldest son is cast upon his sick bed. There needs no suit for his visitation. The careful fa, ther hastens to his bedside; not without doubts and fears. He, that was lately so afflicted, with the sickness of a child that scarce lived to see the light, how sensible must we needs think he would be, of the indisposition of his first-born son, in the prime of his age and hopes! It is not given to any prophet, to foresee all things. Happy had it been for David, if Amnon had been truly sick, and sick unto death; yet who could have persuaded this passionate father, to VOL. I. shew the will of God, than the prediction. God never did any thing, but what he would. He hath sometimes foretold that for trial, which his secret will intended not. He would foretel it; he would not effect it; because he would therefore foretel it, that he might not effect it. His predictions of outward evils are not always absolute; his actions are. David well sees by the event, what the decree of God was concerning his child; which now he could not strive against, without a vain impatience. Till we know the determinations of the Almighty, it is free for us to strive in our prayers ; to strive with him, not against him: when once we know them, it is our duty to sit down in a silent contentation. While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, Who can tell, whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live! but now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again? The grief, that goes before an evil for remedy, can hardly be too much; but that, which follows an evil past remedy, cannot be too little. Even in the saddest accident, death, we may yield something to nature, nothing to impatience. Immoderation of sorrow, for losses past hope of recovery, is more sullen than useful; our stomach may be bewrayed by it, not our wisdom. 2 Sam. xü. AMNON AND TAMAR. It is not possible, that any word of God should fall to the ground. David is not more sure of forgiveness, than smart. Three main sins passed him in this business of Uriah; adultery, murder, dissimulation for all which he receives present payment; for adultery, in the deflouring of his daughter Tamar; for murder, in the killing of his son Amnon; for dissimulation, in the contriving of both. Yet all this was but the beginning of evils. Where the father of the family brings sin home to the house, it is not easily swept out. Unlawful lust propagates itself by example. How justly.is David scourged by the sin of his sons, whom his act taught to offend! Maachah was the daughter of a heathenish king. By her had David that beautiful but unhappy issue, Absalom, and his no less fair sister, Tamar. Perhaps, thus late doth David feel the punishment of that unfit choice. I should have marvelled, if so holy a man had not found crosses in so unequal a match; either in his person, or at least in his seed. Beauty, if it be not well disciplined, proves not a friend, but a traitor. Three of David's children are undone by it at once. What else was guilty of Amnon's incestuous love, Tamar's ravishment, Absalom's pride? It is a blessing to be fair; yet such a blessing, as, if the soul answer not to the face, may lead to a curse. How commonly have we seen the foulest soul dwell fairest ! It was no fault of Tamar's, that she was beautiful: the candle offends not in burning; the foolish fly offends in scorching itself in the flame yet it is no small misery to become a temptation unto another, and to be made but the occasion of others' ruin. Amnon is love-sick of his sister Tamar, and languishes of that unnatural heat. Whither will not wanton lust carry the inordinate minds of pampered and ungoverned youths? None but his halfsister will please the eyes of the young prince of Israel. Ordinary pleasures will not content those, whom the conceit of greatness, youth, and ease, have let loose to their appetite. Perhaps yet, this unkindly flame might in time have gone out alone, had not there been a Jonadab, to blow these coals with ill counsel. It were strange, if great princes should want some parasitical followers, that are ready to feed their ill humours. Why art thou, the king's son, so lean from day to day? As if it were unworthy the heir of a king, to suffer either law or conscience to stand in the way of his desires: whereas wise princes know well, that their places give them no privilege of sinning; but call them in rather to so much more strictness, as their example may be more prejudicial. Jonadab was the cousin-german of Amnon. Ill advice is so much more dangerous, as the interest of the giver is more. Had he been a true friend, he had bent all the forces of his dissuasion against the wicked motions of that sinful lust; and had shewed the prince of Israel, how much those lewd desires provoked God and blemished himself; and had lent his hand to strangle them in their first conception. There cannot be a more worthy improvement of friendship, than in a fervent opposition to the sins of them, whom we profess to love. No enemy can be so mortal to great princes, as those officious clients, whose flattery sooths them up in wickedness: these are traitors to the soul, and by a pleasing violence kill the best part eternally. How ready at hand is an evil suggestion! Good counsel is like unto well-water, that must be drawn up with a pump or bucket; ill counsel is like to conduit-water, which, if the cock be but turned, runs out alone. Jonadab hath soon projected, how Amnon shall accomplish his lawless purpose. The way must be to feign himself sick in body, whose mind was sick of lust; and, under this pretence, to procure the presence of her, who had wounded, and only might cure him. The daily increasing languor, and leanness, paleness of love-sick Amnon, might well give colour to a kerchief and a pallet. and Now is it soon told David, that his eldest son is cast upon his sick bed. There needs no suit for his visitation. The careful fa ther hastens to his bedside; not without doubts and fears. He, that was lately so afflicted, with the sickness of a child that scarce lived to see the light, how sensible must we needs think he would be, of the indisposition of his first-born son, in the prime of his age and hopes! It is not given to any prophet, to foresee all things. Happy had it been for David, if Amnon had been truly sick, and sick unto death; yet who could have persuaded this passionate father, to VOL. I. have been content with this succession of losses, this early loss of his successor? How glad is he to hear, that his daughter Tamar's skill might be likely to fit the diet of so dear a patient! Conceit is wont to rule much, both in sickness and in the cure. Tamar is sent by her father to the house of Amnon. Her hand only must dress that dish, which may please the nice palate of her sick brother. Even the children of kings, in those homelier times, did not scorn to put their fingers to some works of huswifery; She took flour, and did knead it, and did make cakes in his sight, and did bake the cakes, and took a pan, and poured them out before him. Had she not been sometimes used to such domestic employments, she had been now to seek; neither had this been required of her, but upon the knowledge of her skill. She doth not plead the impairing of her beauty by the scorching of the fire; nor thinks her hand too dainty for such mean services; but settles to the work, as one that would rather regard the necessities of her brother, than her own state. Only pride and idleness have ba nished honest and thrifty diligence out of the houses of the great. This was not yet the dish that Amnon longed for. It was the cook, and not the cates, which that wanton eye affected. Unlaw ful acts seek for secrecy. The company is dismissed; Tamar only stays. Good meaning suspects nothing. While she presents the meat she had prepared to her sick brother, herself is made a prey to his outrageous lust. The modest virgin entreats and persuades in vain. She lays before him the sin, the shame, the danger of the fact; and, since none of these can prevail, fain would win time, by the suggestion of impossible hopes. Nothing but violence can stay a resolved sinner: what he cannot by entreaty, he will have by force. If the devil were not more strong in men, than nature, they would never seek pleasure in violence. Amnon hath no sooner fulfilled his beastly desires, than he hates Tamar more than he loved her. Inordinate lust never ends but in discontentment. Loss of spirits and remorse of soul make the remembrance of that act tedious, whose expectation promised delight. If we could see the back of sinful pleasures, ere we behold their face, our hearts could not but be forestalled with a just detestation. Brutish Amnon, it was thyself, whom thou shouldst have hated for this villainy, not thine innocent sister. Both of you lay together; only one committed incest. What was she, but a patient in that impotent fury of lust? How unjustly do carnal men misplace their affections! No man can say, whether that love or this hatred were more unreasonable. Fraud drew Tamar into the house of Amnon; force entertained her within, and drove her out. Fain would she have hid her shame where it was wrought, and may not be allowed it. That roof, under which she came with honour, and in obedience and love, may not be lent her for the time as a shelter of her ignominy. Never any savage could be more barbarous. Shechem had ravished Dinah: his offence did not make her odious: his affection so continued, that he is willing rather to draw blood of himself and his people, than forego her whom he had abused. Amnon, in one hour, is in the excess of love and hate; and is sick of her, for whom he was sick. She, that lately kept the keys of his heart, is now locked out of his doors. Unruly passions run ever into extremities; and are then best appayed, when they are furthest off from reason and modera tion. ; What could Amnon think would be the event of so foul a fact which, as he had not the grace to prevent, so he hath not the care to conceal? If he looked not so high as heaven, what could he imagine would follow hereupon, but the displeasure of a father, the danger of law, the indignation of a brother, the shame and outcries of the world? All which he might have hoped to avoid, by secrecy and plausible courses of satisfaction. It is the just judgment of God upon presumptuous offenders, that they lose their wit, together with their honesty; and are either so blinded, that they cannot foresee the issue of their actions, or so besotted that they do not regard it. Poor Tamar can but bewail that which she could not keep, her virginity; not lost, but torn from her by a cruel violence. She rends her princely robe, and lays ashes on her head, and laments the shame of another's sin, and lives more desolate than a widow in the house of her brother Absalom... In the mean time, what a corrosive must this news needs be to the heart of good David; whose fatherly command had, out of love, cast his daughter into the jaws of this lion! What an insolent affront must he needs construe this, to be offered by a son to a father; that the father should be made the pander of his own daughter to his son! He, that lay upon the ground weeping for but the sickness of an infant, how vexed do we think he was with the villainy of his heir, with the ravishment of his daughter; both of them worse than many deaths! What revenge can he think of for so heinous a crime, less than death; and what less than death is it to him, to think of a revenge? Rape was by the law of God, capital; how much more, when it is seconded with incest! Anger was not punishment enough for so high an offence: yet this is all that I hear of, from so indulgent a father; saving that he makes up the rest with sorrow, punishing his son's outrage in himself. The better natured and more gracious a man is, the more subject he is to the danger of an over-remissness, and the excess of favour and mercy. The mild injustice is no less perilous to the commonwealth, than the cruel. If David (perhaps out of the conscience of his own late offence) will not punish this fact, his son Absalom shall; not out of any care of justice, but in a desire of revenge. Two whole years, hath this sly courtier smothered his indignation, and feigned kindness; else his invitation of Amnon in special had been suspected. Even gallant Absalom was a great sheep-master. The bravery and magnificence of a courtier must be built upon the grounds of frugality. David himself is bidden to this bloody sheep-shearing. It was |