2. Be not backward to improve them —
[Every trial has a voice to us, and is calculated to teach us some important lesson p. Hence the prophet says, " Hear the rod, and him that hath appointed it**," Consider then what it is intended to speak to you : take occasion from it to examine your ways, to see wherein you may have erred, or wherein you may amend your ways. Thus will every event be made a blessing to your souls ; and Samson's riddle be verified in you ; " Out of the eater you will bring forth meat, and out of the strong you will bring forth sweet."]
» Job xlii. 11—16. P Job xxxiii. 14—17, 29, 30.
q Mic. vi. 9.
2 Kings V. 13. And his servants came near, and spake tinto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had hid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? hmv much rather then, ivhen he saith to thee, Wash, and he clean?
MEN miiversally claim a right to " do what they will with their own;" but they are extremely averse to concede that right to God. Indeed there is scarcely any doctrine against which the carnal heart rises with such acrimony, as against the sovereignty of God. Nevertheless we must maintain that the
Governor of the universe ordereth every thing after the counsel of his own will, and dispenseth his gifts " according to his good pleasure which he hath pur- posed in himself." He once chose the Jews for his peculiar people, not for the sake of any righteousness of theirs, but because he had ordained that he would magnify his grace in them : and for the same reason has he now transferred his favours to the Gentiles. Our Lord, in his first sermon at Nazareth, warned his hearers, that, if they rejected his gracious over- tures, the blessings of his Gospel should be trans- ferred to the Gentile world : and, to shew them how futile all their objections were, and how delusive their hopes of impunity in sin, he reminded them, tliat God had in many instances vouchsafed mercy to Gentiles, not only in conjunction with his people, but even in opposition to them : for that there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha; but them had God overlooked, whilst he shewed mercy to Naaman the Syrian ^
The history to which our Lord referred, is that which is contained in the chapter before us : which we propose to consider,
L In a way of literal interpretation —
Under the pressure of a leprosy, which was an incurable disorder, Naaman, the Syrian, applied to Elisha for a cure. Doubtless every thing that the Syrian physicians could devise had been tried, but to no purpose. It happened however that an Israelitish maid, whom the Syrians had taken captive, was living in the service of Naaman ; and that she, knowing what great miracles had been wrought by Elisha, suggested, that by an application to him her master might be restored to health. The idea being suggested to Naaman, he determined without delay to apply for a cure. This he did erroneously at first to the king of Israel ; but afterwards to Elisha him- self: but through his own folly and wickedness he nearly lost the benefit which he was so eager to
a Luke iv. 27.