SERMON XIII Duty of fetting Bounds to our Defires. 2 KINGS IV. 13. And he said unto him, Say now unto her, Behold, thou haff been careful for us with all this care;-what is to be done for thee? -would it thou be spoken for to the king, or the captain of the hoftAnd fhe answered, I dwell among mine own people. THE first part of the text is the word which the prophet Elisha puts into the mouth of his fervant Gehazi, as a meffage of thanks to the woman of Shunam for her great kindness and hofpitality; of which, after the acknowledgment of his just sense, which Gehazi is bid to deliver in the words—“ Be "hold, thou haft been careful for us with all this 66 care ;"'—he directs him to inquire in what man-› ner he may beft make a return in discharge of the obligation" What fhall be done for thee? "Wouldst thou be spoken for to the king, or the "captain of the hoft?" The last part of the text is the Shunamite's answer, which implies a refufal of the honour or advantage which the prophet intended to bring upon her by fuch an application, which he indirectly expreffes in her contentment and fa-· tisfaction with what he enjoyed in her prefent ftation; "I dwell among mine own people." This inftance of felf-denial in the Shunamite, is but pro-perly the introduction to her story, and gives rife to that long and very pathetic tranfaction which follows in the fupernatural grant of a child, which GOD had many years denied her,the affecting. lofs of him as foon as he was grown up,-and his refloration to life by Elifha, after he had been fome time dead; the whole of which, though extremely interefting, and forming fuch incidents, as would afford sufficient matter for instruction, yet,, as it will not fall within the intention of this difcourfe, I thall: beg leave at this time barely to confider those previous circumstances of it, to which the text confines me; upon which I fhall enlarge with fuch reflections as occur, and then proceed to that practical use and exhortation, which will naturally fall from it. We find that after Elifha had refcued the diftref fed widow and her two fons from the hands of the creditor, by the miraculous multiplication of her oil,that he paffed on to Shunam, where, we read, was a great woman, and the constrained him to eat bread; and fo it was, that as often as he pal fed by, he turned in thither to eat bread. The facred hiftorian speaks barely of her temporal condi tion and station in life" That she was a great "woman;" but defcribes not the more material part of her, her virtues and character, because they were more evidently to be difcovered from the transaction itself; from which it appears, that she was not only wealthy, but likewife charitable, and of a very confiderate turn of mind. For after many repeated invitations and entertainments at her house, fiuding his occafions called him to a frequent paffage that way;fhe moves her husband to fet up and furnish a lodging for him, with all the conveniencies which the fimplicity of thofe times required: "And the faid unto her husband, Behold now, I perceive that this is an holy man of GOD, which paffeth by us continually; let us make him a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall, and let us fet for him there a bed, and a table, and a ftool, and a candlestick; and it shall be when he cometh to us, that he fhall turn in thither.". She per ceived he was a holy man,-she had had many opportunities, as he paffed by them continually, of observing his behaviour and deportment, which she had carefully remarked, and saw plainly what he was. That the fanctity and fimplicity of his manners, the severity of his life,—and zeal for the religion of his GOD, and the uncommon fervency of his devotion, when he worshipped before him, which feemed his whole bufinefs and employment upon earth;-all befpoke him not a man of this world, but one whofe heart and affections were fixed upon another object, which was dearer and more important to him. But as fuch outward appearnces may, and often have been counterfeited, fo that the actions of a man are certainly the only interpreters to be relied on, whether fuch colours are true or false fo he had heard that all was of a piece there, and that he was throughout confiftent; that he had never in any one inftance of his life acted as if he had any views in the affairs of this world, in which he had never interested himself at all, but where the glory of his Gon, or the good and prefervation of his fellow-creatures, at first inclined him: that, in a late inftance, before he came to Shunam, he had done one of the kindest and most charitable actions that a good man could have done, in affifting the widow and fatherlefs; and, as the fact was fingluar, and had just happened before her knowledge of him, no doubt she had heard the story with all the tender circumstances which a true report would give it in his favour; namely, that a certain woman whose husband was lately dead, and had left her with her children in a very helpless condition_very deftitute-and, what was ftill worfe, charged with a debt she was not able to pay ;—that her creditor bore exceeding hard upon her, and finding her little wroth in fubftance, was going to take the advantage which the law allowed of feizing her two fons for his bondfmen; so that she had not only lost her husband, which had made her miferable enough already, but was going to be bereaved of her children, which were the only comfort and support of her life that upon her coming to Elisha with this fad ftory, he was touched with compaffion for her misfortunes, and had ufed all the power and intereft which he had with his God to relieve and befriend her; which, in an unheard-of manner, by the miraculous increase of her oil, which was the only substance she had left, he had fo bountifully effected, as not only to difentangle her from her difficulties in paying the debt, but withal, what was ftill more generous, to enable her to live comfortably the remainder of her days. She confidered, that charity and compaffion was fo leading a virtue, and had fuch an influence upon every other part of a man's character, as to be a fufficient proof by itfelf of the inward difpofition and goodness of the heart; but that so engaging an inftance of it as this, exercifed in fo kind and fo feasonable a manner, was a demonstration of his,-and that he was in truth, what outward circumstances befpoke, a holy man of GOD.As the Shunamite's principle and motive for her hofpitality to Elifha was juft, as it fprung from an idea of the worth and merit of her gueft, fo likewife was the manner of doing it kind and confiderate. It is obfervable, the does not folicit her husband to affign him an apartment in her own house, but to build him a chamber on the wall apart she confidered,that true piety wanted no witneffes, and was always moft at eafe when moft private that the tumult and distraction of a large family were not fit for the filent meditations of fo holy a man, who would perpetually there meet with something either to interrupt his devotion, or offend the purity of his manners;-that moreover, under fuch an independent roof, where he could take shelter as often as his occafions required, the thought he might tafte the pleafure which was natural to man, in poffeffing fomething like what he could call his own,—and, what is no fmall part of conferring a favour, he would fcarce feel the : |