confer on their souls also, was speedily constrained to call down judgments upon the people whose wel- fare he was most anxious to promote.
The destruction of so many children for what ap- pears to have been but a small offence, has afforded to infidels an occasion of triumph. But that this dispensation affords no just ground of complaint either against the God of Israel or his holy prophet, will appear, if we consider,
I. The sin committed by the children —
In their treatment of the prophet we behold a mixture,
1. Of contumely —
[The name of " bald head" was not, it is true, any bitter invective ; but it was intended as a reproach ; and the evil of such reproaches consists, not in the term that is used, but in the intent of him that uses it. Oppi'obrious language used to any one is sinful^ ; but as used on tliis occasion, it was an insult to God himself. The mocking of a poor man on account of his poverty is considered by God as a reproach offered to himself, who has appointed him his lot^ : much more therefore was this contemptuous treatment of the prophet an insult to that God, who had called him to the prophetic office. This is plainly declared by our blessed Lord"^ ; and it is confirmed by a similar testimony from the Apostle Paul*^.]
2. Of profaneness —
[Tlie expression " Go up, go up," evidently refers to the recent ascension of Elijah in the fiery chariot : and it inti- mated, that his translation was regarded by them either as a fiction to be disbelieved, or an event to he despised. In either of these views, their guilt was exceeding great : for how could they disbelieve what was immediately attested by that stupen- dous miracle, the forming a dry passage through Jordan by a stroke of Elijah's mantle? It is true, that many of the people of Jericho doubted at the time, and desired Elisha to send fifty men to search for his master, lest he should have been cast upon some mountain or valley : but that very doubt, like the unbelief of Thomas, tended only to confirm the fact that had been denied : and consequently the continuance of unbelief became so much the more criminal, in proportion as the evi- dence had been increased to confirm the fact.
a Matt. V. 22. ^ Prov. xvii. 5.
•^ Luke X. 16. *! 1 Thess. iv. 8.