"a lying spirit" which leads you on to destruction.

It was decreed that, after all, the stroke o divine judgment should not fall on him but by his own blind obstinacy,-that he should be left to bring it on himself. And accordingly a warn ing was sent him, which it was in his power to attend to and profit by. But he hated the prophet for being the bearer of unpleasant tidings, and, by a strange and absurd inconsistency, though he acknowledged that he was a "man by whom he might inquire of the Lord," yet indulged his aversion and displeasure, till at length he persuaded himself (as every one will do, sooner or later, who endeavours earnestly to deceive himself) that the prophecy was false, and that he should return in peace from the battle.

It is recorded by Josephus, that the other prophets persuaded Ahab to disbelieve Micaiah, on the ground that Elijah, who they said was a greater prophet than he, had foretold that in the same place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth (which was close to the city of Samaria) they should lick the blood of Ahab. And this,

they urged, could not be fulfilled, if he was to be killed (as Micaiah foretold) at Ramoth-Gilead. This tradition does not seem unlikely to be true; for at first sight the two prophecies do not seem compatible; though we know both were fulfilled.

The servants (at least one of them) of this foolish king seem to have partaken of their master's absurd inconsistency. The one who was sent to fetch the prophet, urges him very seriously to frame such a prediction as should be agreeable to the king. "Behold now, the words of the prophets declare good unto the king with one mouth: let thy word, I pray thee, be like the word of one of them, and speak that which is good." As if the truth, or falsity of his prediction were a thing of no consequence; or as if it had rested with the prophet to give good or ill success to the king, instead of his merely having the knowledge what the event was to be.

The prophet answered, as any man must have done, who was at all impressed with the awful and solemn commission he bore, and the deep responsibility laid upon him, "As

the Lord liveth, what the Lord saith unto me, that will I speak." He did so speak; and with no other effect than increasing the displeasure against him of the foolish king; who was therefore left to rush headlong on his own ruin.

He had, indeed, numerous false prophets who encouraged him; but had he not taken pains to sear his conscience,-had he but recollected and laid to heart all that was past, he might have had good reason to be assured that they were all deluded, and that Micaiah alone spoke the truth. He might have reflected on his own repeated and outrageous rebellion against the Lord, in worshipping idols, and leading his subjects into the same sin,-in persecuting,—that is, suffering his queen to persecute (which is the same thing) the prophets of the true God,—in shedding the innocent blood of Naboth on a false charge, because he coveted his land. All this, and the warnings he had received from the mouth of Elijah,-some of which, such as the famine sent on the land, had been already confirmed by the event,-might have led him to expect that God's long-deferred, but sure

judgments, would at length come upon him. But these were unpleasant thoughts, and therefore he strove to chase them from his mind: he hated them, because, like the prophet Micaiah, they did not prophesy good, but evil concerning him;" and thus, with the folly which we laugh at in a silly child, who hides its face from what it fears, and fancies itself safe in not seeing its danger, he resolved not to listen to what he was loth to believe: he turned his displeasure not against his own sins, which had brought on the judgment, but against the prophet who warned him of it; and went forward, selfblinded, to destruction.

Painful must certainly have been the task assigned to the prophet Micaiah. For he not only had an unpleasant message to deliver, but he foresaw also that his warning would be in vain. In the vision presented before his eyes, and related by him (which, of course, is not to be considered as what literally took place, but as a means of informing his understanding, and of impressing on his mind the knowledge of the future)—in this vision it was revealed to him that the lying spirit with which Ahab's prophets were possessed

should succeed in deluding him to his death; "Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also." The prophet therefore knew that his warning, though it was likely to have a serviceable effect on the people who heard him, by leading them, when they should see the truth of his and of Elijah's predictions, to believe in the true God and fear Him, yet would produce no effect on Ahab, except to draw down his displeasure and cruelty on himself; and thus to aggravate the sins of that wicked prince by his neglect of this last warning sent him.

Painful therefore and burdensome in every respect must have been the office here assigned to the prophet: but, nevertheless, he well knew that he was bound to discharge it faithfully, at his own peril. His folly and presumption would have been like that of Ahab, and his punishment no less, had he dared to invent a pretended prophecy for his own convenience, and to shape such an answer as should be agreeable to the hearers, and suited to advance his own interest and popularity at the expense of truth. And therefore, grievous to all parties as was the task, he firmly kept to his resolution of speaking