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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of David, by Anonymous
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
-re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
-with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
-
-
-Title: The Life of David
-       Or, The History of The Man After God's Own Heart
-
-Author: Anonymous
-
-Release Date: October 8, 2012 [EBook #40980]
-
-Language: English
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF DAVID ***
-
-
-
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40980 ***
 
 Produced by David Widger
 
@@ -2589,358 +2569,4 @@ men._
 
 End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of David, by Anonymous
 
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+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40980 ***
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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of David, by Anonymous
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
-re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
-with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
-
-
-Title: The Life of David
-       Or, The History of The Man After God's Own Heart
-
-Author: Anonymous
-
-Release Date: October 8, 2012 [EBook #40980]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF DAVID ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by David Widger
-
-
-
-
-
-THE LIFE OF DAVID
-
-OR, THE HISTORY OF THE MAN AFTER GOD'S OWN HEART
-
-Omnia probate, benum tenete.--S. P.
-
-Reprinted From The Edition Op 1766.
-
-London:
-
-Printed And Published By J. Carlile, 55, Fleet-Street.
-
-
-
-To the REV. SAM. CHANDLER,
-
-D.D. F.R. and A. SS.
-
-To whom, Sir, could the republication of this little history with more
-propriety be addressed, than to a gentleman to whom it is under such
-considerable obligations? When it first appeared, it was honoured with
-your notice in an especial manner; and is not a little benefited by your
-_labours_. You, Sir, with a _careful_ hand noted its errors; and what
-has stood the test of your strictures is certainly established with
-additional authority. Whatever might be the motives which influenced _so
-vigorous_ an exertion of your _learned_ and _critical_ powers--powers
-so universally acknowledged and respected, the author of this piece
-will not now inquire: it is sufficient to him, that they operated to the
-extending the knowledge of his tract, among that class of readers who
-stood most in need of the information it furnished; and he is persuaded
-you will with pleasure hear his assurances, that the work owes no small
-share of what approbation it may have gained, to your _elaborate review_
-of it. Several worthy pious persons having candidly declared in private
-conversation, (and unknowingly to the author himself) that the perusal
-of your book really strengthened the facts advanced in the history. For
-this, therefore, he considers you as entitled to his thanks; and that
-his acknowledgments might be as public as the obligation, no method of
-conveyance seemed more proper, than to prefix them to this new Edition
-of "_The History of the Man after God's own Heart._"
-
-He scorns, Sir, to follow the practice of Dedicators in common, who,
-from venal motives, surfeit their patrons with fulsome adulation:
-he will not, therefore, call the blushes into your countenance, by
-expressing his private sentiments of your _learned_ Review of this
-Historical Sketch, farther than by one observation; which is, that had
-you been totally unknown in the republic of letters before, your apology
-for the death of Uriah would alone have raised your literary fame beyond
-the power of envious detraction. However, not to offend your modesty, he
-desists from farther encomiums; but with a wish that you may long live
-to enjoy the reputation acquired by so _laudable_ a performance, he
-concludes with subscribing himself,
-
-Sir, your greatly obliged, and very humble Admirer.
-
-
-
-
-PREFACE.
-
-Some reverend panegyrists* on our late king,** have, a little
-unfortunately, been fond of comparing him with a monarch in no respect
-resembling him; except in the length of his reign, thirty and three
-years: which a lucky text informed them to be the duration of David's
-sovereignty over the Hebrew nation. Had our good old king died a year
-sooner, or had we been indulged with him a year longer, the opportunity
-of applying this text would then have been lost; and in either case we
-might not have heard of the parallel.
-
-A reverence for the memory of a worthy Prince, has occasioned the
-world's being troubled with a new history of king David, (which,
-otherwise might not have appeared) merely to shew how the memory of the
-British monarch is affected by the comparison.
-
-"Why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right?" is the language of
-Jesus Christ. "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good;" is the
-language of the apostle Paul. The liberty thus granted is unlimited; but
-it is more than mere grant of liberty, these are positive injunctions:
-let no one then be so timid as to resign an inclination to satisfy
-just doubts: in Britain, thanks to the obstinate heresy of our brave
-forefathers, no audacious Romish priest dare prescribe limits to the
-exercise of our reasoning faculties; and Protestant ones surely will
-not: nay, they cannot, consistently with those principles which justify
-their dissent from the Romish communion. An honest desire to obtain
-truth, will sanctify the most rigid scrutiny into every thing. An
-apostle has told us, that we are not to believe even an angel from
-Heaven, who should preach any other gospel than that of Christ;* and,
-no authority can be so sacred, as to set aside the _most valuable
-distinction of humanity_, with which our Creator has furnished us; or to
-give the lie to our most self-evident conceptions of right and wrong.
-
-     * Dr. Chandler, Mr. Palmer and others.
-
-     **  George the IId.
-
-
-If that liberty, of which Britons boast the possession, means any thing,
-it must primarily include freedom of thought; without which there can be
-no freedom of action. Thus it must mean an uncontrolled power to examine
-the validity of every proposition offered to our assent; without which
-power, and the due exercise of it, our assent cannot be the assent of
-rational beings. If the reformed religion means any thing, it must mean
-a religion founded by the authority, not of councils and synods, but
-of conviction, the result of private judgment. True Protestants do not
-puzzle themselves about the decisions of Trent, Constance, or Dort; they
-protest against all authoritative dictates; disciples of the meek, the
-lowly, the humane Jesus, they seek of themselves to judge of right or
-wrong. Who is most the Protestant, the friend to human kind, and to
-truth? Those who appeal to the human understanding, and submit to the
-public judgment whether things are really so or not; or those who say,
-they are so, they shall be so, you shall acknowledge them to be so, or
-else----?
-
-     * Galatians i. 8.
-
-Let not weak-minded Christians who think truth not able to maintain its
-authority without legal enforcements, lament what they call licentious
-abuses of that liberty on which we are happy to congratulate ourselves:
-injudicious productions of the pen will always meet the treatment they
-deserve. Fallacious pretensions to reasoning cannot deceive mankind in
-these liberal times; nor can truth be obscured, when the attention of
-honest inquiries after it, is properly exerted. If the little historical
-sketch which follows, and which in fact, exhibits no more than what we
-have all daily read, without presuming to decide upon; if it really
-is that audacious calumny which many roundly affirm it to be; it will
-doubtless be considered as such: if, on the contrary, it contains
-undeniable matters of fact, fallaciousness will appear in the angry
-objections against it; and the writer trusts, the futility of such
-objections, have already been made sufficiently apparent.
-
-The name of David has never been mentioned by divines but with the
-greatest respect, from the time in which he lived to the present day;
-and he is always quoted as an illustrious example of holiness! so
-illustrious, that the greatest instance of purity that ever existed on
-earth, was frequently saluted by way of eminence, in reference to him,
-_Son of David!_ so illustrious, that on the death of the late king
-of Great Britain, many sermons were preached and published, in which,
-parallels are drawn betwixt him and this standard of piety, in order to
-justify encomiums on the former, by declaring how nearly he resembled
-the latter.
-
-In what manner David first acquired, and has ever since maintained, this
-extraordinary reputation, is not difficult to deduce, he was advanced,
-by an enraged prophet, from obscurity to the Hebrew throne; and taught
-by the fate of the unhappy monarch who was raised in the same manner,
-whom he supplanted, and whose family he crushed, he prudently attached
-himself to the cause of his patrons,* and they were the trumpeters
-of his fame. The same order of men, true to their common cause, have
-continued to sound the praise of this church-hero from generation to
-generation, unto the present time: in like manner the grand violator of
-the English constitution obtained the epithet of _holy Martyr_.
-
-A new scrutiny being made, however, into David's claim to sanctity,
-which, notwithstanding a very learned defence of him, turned out so
-greatly to his dishonour; the scene has been shifted by a few whose
-sense has overbalanced their bigotry by two or three scruples. Some
-such, like Sheba of old, blow the trumpet and cry, "We have no part in
-David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse!" In this manner
-have some clerical weather-cocks veered about to an opposite point of
-the compass; and David, who, till now has been considered as a man who
-"did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and turned not aside
-from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only
-in the matter of Uriah the Hittite," has, by one stroke of politics,
-been resigned to the mercy of his detectors; and the importance of the
-detection endeavoured to be annihilated, as the easier task; all which
-appears with rather an ill grace, at a time when it is manifestly
-extorted.
-
-     * The Prophets and Priest.
-
-Thus much being premised relating to the conduct of the champions for
-orthodoxy, on the occasion of this little squib which has produced so
-much bustle in the clerical hives, proceed we to say something of the
-tract itself.
-
-The intention was, without any regard to remote objects, or heed of
-future consequences, which in fact ought _never_ to be considered in
-investigating any point; to give a fair undisguised narrative of the
-life and transactions of David, king of Israel.
-
-This, however, was not so easy to perform, as it was to project; from
-three difficulties which impeded the execution.
-
-1. It is not easy to conquer the early prejudices of education in favour
-of the Hebrew nation; which the careful inculcation of their story
-during our infancy, hinders our seeing in a proper light: so that
-relations which might shock humanity in what is called prophane history,
-are read without any emotion but that of reverence, in _this_. This
-misconception is in great measure assisted.
-
-2. By their History being written _by themselves_: and difficult to be
-corrected.
-
-3. By the broken unconnected manner in which it is transmitted down
-to us: which renders it impossible to give a complete narrative of any
-period in it.
-
-A common share of humanity, which a little attention to common sense
-enabled the author to extend to every nation under Heaven as the objects
-of it, relieved him from the first of these difficulties: to overcome
-the other two, he has assumed the liberty of giving _his_ sense to what
-appears dark, or misrepresented; which he hopes will not be denied him,
-so long as it is not found that a forced construction is put upon any
-thing cited; or, that it is represented in any other light than what it
-naturally appears in, when considered with the freedom, which it is our
-duty to use in the examination of every historical record.
-
-And lest it should be imagined that too great liberties are taken with
-the biblical writers; it may not be amiss to mention once for all, that
-innumerable instances might be produced, to shew that the authority of
-_the Lord_, so continually quoted to sanctify every transaction related;
-constituted for the most part, nothing more than national phrases, which
-obtained universally among so bigoted a people as on all occasions the
-Jews appear to have been: one-twelfth part of whom were appropriated
-to the priesthood! A phraseology in some measure similar obtained in
-England, at that time, when shunning the cruel talons of papacy, the
-people rushed into the jaws of wild enthusiasm. That the sense in which
-the acts of David are here understood, is the most obvious and natural,
-appears from the amazing pains it has occasioned his champions, to force
-another upon them. Of this, the Life of David, by Dr. Delany, is a most
-remarkable instance; but the gross palliations, puerile conjectures,
-and mean shifts to which he has been driven, prove the difficulty of the
-task; while they are too frivolous to bias any, but the most _Catholic
-believers_.
-
-Mr. Stockhouse, in his History of the Bible, has urged arguments against
-particular passages, under the title of _Objections_; so cogent, that
-_his answers_ to them, certainly could not be satisfactory even to
-himself.
-
-Dr. Chandler has lately added his name to the list of David's
-apologists. Strange! that so holy a king should need the exertion of so
-much learned and critical dexterity, to establish his fame for goodness
-of heart! This gentleman's performance, which was published as a reply
-to the first edition of the present work, is a very extraordinary piece;
-and shews that, great learning is no security for soundness of judgment.
-The Doctor's book has been considered in a letter addressed to him, and
-published separately; to which the reader is referred for an examination
-into the merits of his arguments. In answering the Doctor, new lights
-opened on many occurrences, which, as far as they could be detached from
-that particular controversy, are taken into the present edition.
-
-The best of kings is a title which adulation and servility have always
-conferred on the most contemptible, as well as the most detestable
-tyrants; and the frequency of its application to the object is ever in
-proportion as he is undeserving of it. Had the flattering sycophants
-of king David been satisfied with applying to him this common-place
-appellation, rational men, who form their conclusions from the result of
-general experience, would have inferred only that he had been one of the
-numerous herd of bad princes who have oppressed mankind, and there would
-have been nothing peculiar either in the fact or the inference. But
-when the extremity of adulation conferred on David the title of _The
-Man after God's own heart_, thinking men, who know the source from which
-such adulation ever flows, are prepared to expect, in the development of
-his history, a character pre-eminently wicked, and in this they are not
-deceived.
-
-All historians of credit agree in describing _God's chosen people_,
-the _Jews_, as the most vicious and detestable of mankind;* their own
-historians confirm this character of them, and the whole series of facts
-which constitute their history, prove it beyond a possibility of doubt.
-
-     * Tacitus describes the Jewish people as formed of the worst
-     outcasts of the surrounding nations, collected together by
-     Moses, and kept for ever separated from the rest of mankind,
-     by an opposition of manners, and hostility of sentiment. Nam
-     passimus quisque, spretis religionibus patriis, tributa et
-     stipes illuc congerebant; unde auctæ Judeorum res--ad versus
-     omnes alios hostile odium--transgressi in morem eorum, idem
-     usurpent; nec quidquam prius imbuuntur quam contemnere Deos,
-     exuere patriam; arentes, liberos, fratres, vilia habere.--
-     Ticiti Hist. Lib. v.
-
-Among _the chosen people of God_--the most depraved of all nations--it
-is pretty certain that the worst and wickedest man of that nation was
-David, _The Man after God's own heart_. The truth of this proposition
-will be abundantly proved in the following short history.
-
-A question will here naturally present itself, how the Jews became so
-much more vicious and depraved than their neighbours? And to resolve
-that question, it will be necessary to consider in what respects their
-laws and customs differed from those of others. It will be found that
-they differed most essentially from all other nations in the world in
-two particulars: 1st. They had more religion than any other nation;
-and, 2dly. They had more priests. Other nations among whom superstitious
-rites and ceremonies prevailed, were satisfied with practising them on
-solemn festivals, and occasionally on particular or important events;
-but the Jews practised their superstition incessantly: none of the
-common duties, or ordinary functions of life, could be performed by
-them, without a reference to the rules of their superstition; they
-were bound to a strict observance of them whenever they ate, drank, or
-performed any other of the natural functions.* **
-
-
-     * Moses quo sibi in posterum gentem firmaret, novos ritus
-     coutrariosque ceteris mortalibus indidit; profana illic
-     omnia, quae apud nos sacra; rursum concessa apud illos, quæ
-     nobis incesta.--Seperati epulis, discreti cubilibus,
-     projectissima ad libidinem gens, aliena rum cubitu
-     abstinent, inter se nihil illicitum, circumcidere genitalia
-     instituere, ut diversitate noscanttir.--Taciti Hist. Lib. v.
-     It is impossible to draw a more disgusting picture of a
-     nation than this elegant and correct historian, in
-     describing the Jews.
-
-     ** The Romans, though so numerous and powerful a nation, had
-     but very few priests, compared to the Jews. The Augurs were
-     at first only 3, and in process of time were increased to
-     15. The Arnspices were 12. The Pontifices were at first but
-     4, and were afterwards increased to 10. The Flamines were
-     but 3. The Sàlit 12. The Feciales, who were 20 in number,
-     though classed by authors among the priesthood, were merely
-     civil officers employed as heralds. And the Vestals, or Nuns
-     of Rome, were only 4; altogether between 50 and 60. Vide
-     Kennett's Roman Antiq. And yet Saint Austin, De Cevitate
-     Dei, Lib. iv. cap. 15, admits that the Romans were so
-     virtuous, that God gave them the empire of the world because
-     they were more virtuous than other nations, vet, with true
-     Christian charity, he says, that they must nevertheless he
-     damned as heathens. We do not find that the priests of other
-     enlightened nations of antiquity were proportionality much
-     more numerous than amoung the Romans. In England at present
-     the number of the priesthood cannot be much less than
-     20,000; there are near 10,000 parishes, each having one
-     priest at least, several two, and some three or more,
-     exclusive of Deans and Chapters, Prebends, &c. &c. and all
-     these in the established church, as it is called, exclusive
-     of a great variety of other sectaries of different
-     denominations.
-
-
-Other nations had a few priests dedicated to their gods or idols,
-seldom exceeding a few dozen in a whole nation but the Jewish priesthood
-constituted a twelfth part of the whole people, and claimed and
-exercised the privilege of devouring a tenth part of the produce of the
-country, without contributing any thing to its productive labour.* And
-it is probable that the Jewish nation alone, though but a miserable
-handful of semi-barbarous savages, had more priests than the rest of the
-then known world collectively, and were consequently more vicious and
-more enslaved than any other people.
-
-     * The Jewish priesthood being one tribe, or twelfth part of
-     the nation, do not appear to have assumed to themselves much
-     more than an equal proportion, compared to their numbers, in
-     taking the tithe or tenth part of the produce of the land,
-     however unjust it may appear that they should be supported
-     in idleness at the expence of the industry of the rest: but
-     the English priesthood, though abundantly numerous, do not
-     form above one five-hundredth part of the whole nation, yet
-     they have the conscience to take also the tenth of the whole
-     produce, which is near fifty times more than their just
-     share, according to the proportion of their romish models,
-     from whose example they pretend to derive them.
-
-Mankind have been too long duped by that universal _cant_ of priests,
-who, in their language, have ever affected to couple _religion and
-morality_ together, and to represent them as _inseparably united_,
-though the slightest attention must show that they are perfectly
-_distinct_, and a full and mature consideration of the subject must
-prove that they are even extremely _opposite_. They well knew that man,
-in the most abject state of mental degradation to which superstition
-could reduce him, must still acknowledge the force and excellence of
-virtue and morality, and must perceive their necessary tendency to
-promote his welfare and happiness. They well knew how useful to their
-own views and interests it would be to persuade him that religion,
-virtue, and morality, were one and the same, or, at least, intimately
-and inseparably connected; the credulity of man gave credit to the
-imposture without examination, and the uniform experience of above 2,000
-years has not hitherto been sufficient to undeceive him.
-
-Unhappy man! destined for ever to be the dupe of his own credulity, in
-opposition to the testimony of his experience, and the evidence of his
-senses. Does not the history of all ages show, that the most religious
-nations have always been, and still are, the most vicious and immoral!
-
-Another most formidable evil necessarily results from such a system of
-superstition, that is, a state of civil slavery, which is always found
-its universal concomitant. Whenever the human mind is debased and
-degraded by a system of gross superstition, it becomes incapable of any
-one manly, liberal, or independent sentiment; every energy of the mind
-is lost, reason is surrendered, virtue, the chief support, if not the
-sole foundation of freedom, is banished, and man is fitted to receive
-the abject yoke of slavery; tyranny and despotism make an easy conquest
-of him, and the priest is ever ready to rivet his chains, and perpetuate
-his bondage, by the pretended sanction of Heaven. The power and
-influence of the priest and the tyrant is ever in proportion to the
-debasement of man; they have a common interest, have ever made a common
-cause against him, and have constantly erected their common throne on
-the ruins of his freedom, his welfare, and his happiness.
-
-Let us not, therefore, be deterred from unmasking to the view of mankind
-that immense mass of vice and depravity which constitute the foundation
-of the Jewish superstition; let no blind veneration for that hideous
-idol deter us from exposing its deformity; let us cultivate that which
-is truly good and useful; let reason assume her just empire over the
-mind of man, and credulity, ignorance, and folly, abdicate their usurped
-dominion: then shall we soon behold the galling fetters of vice and
-superstition broken by the irresistible power of virtue, morality, and
-truth.
-
-
-
-
-THE LIFE OF DAVID.
-
-The first establishment of regal government among the Hebrews, was
-occasioned by the corrupt administration of Joel and Abiah, the two sons
-of Samuel, whom he had deputed to judge Israel in the decline of his
-life.* The people, exasperated at the oppression they laboured under,
-applied to Samuel for redress, testifying a desire to experience a
-different mode of government, by peremptorily demanding a king.** At
-this, however, Samuel was greatly displeased: not that his sons had
-tyrannized over the people, for of that he takes no manner of notice,
-neither exculpating them, nor promising the people redress; his chagrin
-arose from this violent resumption of the supreme magistracy out of
-the hands of his family; a circumstance for which he expresses great
-resentment.*** He consults the Lord, and not knowing else how the
-insurrection might terminate, in his name yields to their desires;
-promising them a king with vengeance to them.**** "For,"(5) says the
-Lord, "they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I
-should not reign over them."(6) The people, nevertheless, resolving to
-free themselves from present oppression, at the hazard of the threatened
-judgments, obstinately persisted in their demand, and dispersed not
-without a promise of compliance.
-
-     * 1 Sam. viii. 3.
-
-     ** Ver. 5.
-
-     *** Ver. 6, &c.
-
-     **** Ver. 11, &c.
-
-     (5) Ver 7, compared with chap. ix.
-
-     (6) Chap. x. 1.
-
-Samuel, to all outward appearance, chose the most impartial method of
-choosing a king, which was by lot, from among the people assembled by
-tribes; but prudently pitches upon his man, previous to the election;
-the whole tenor of his conduct manifesting, that he intended to give
-them a king in name, but still to retain the supreme authority in
-his own hands, by choosing one who should continue subordinate to his
-dictates. Opportunely for his purpose, a young countryman, named Saul,
-having rambled about to seek his fathers asses, which had strayed, and
-finding all search after them vain, applied to Samuel as a prophet,*
-with a fee in his hand, to gain intelligence of his beasts.
-
-We gather from several passages in Jewish history, that there were
-seminaries of prophets, i.e. the universities of the times, where
-youth were trained up to the mystery of prophesying. We find there were
-false prophets, nonconformists, not of the establishment; we find that
-even the true ones were liable to be imposed on by their brethren;**
-and we find moreover, by this instance, that prophets did not disdain
-to give assistance in their prophetical character, concerning domestic
-matters, for reasonable gratuities. A chief among the prophets, one
-who had been a judge over Israel, is applied to in a pecuniary way, for
-intelligence concerning lost cattle.***
-
-     * 1 Sam. ix. 7, 8.
-
-     ** 1 Kings, xiii. 18., Josephus in loco.
-
-     *** Pretensions to divinations continue to this day, though,
-     in the opinion of reformed churches, all prophesying and
-     miracles have long since ceased. These modern prophets are
-     drolly ridiculed by our facetious countryman, Butler, in the
-     person of Sydrophel, a dealer,
-
-          "In Destiny's dark counsel?,
-          Who sage opinions of the moon sells;
-          To whom all people, far and near,
-          On deep importances repair.
-          When brass or pewter hap to stray,
-          Or linen slinks out of the way;
-          When geese and pullen are seduc'd,
-          And sows of sucking pigs are chous'd:
-          When cattle feel indisposition,
-          And need th' opinion of physician;
-          When murrain reigns in hogs or sheep,
-          And chickens languish of the pip;
-          When yeast and outward means do fail,
-          And have no power to work on ale;
-          When butter does refuse to come.
-          And love proves cross and humoursome;
-          To him with questions and with urine,
-          They for discov'ry flock, or curing.
-
-
-It has been said, that this is the only instance recorded of a prophet
-being applied to for purposes of this nature; but it appears that it
-was usual for men to have recourse to prophets, and that the phrase was,
-"Come, and let us go to the seer;"* and that prophetical intelligence
-was paid for, is evident from the inquiry between Saul and his servant,
-concerning their ability to gratify him.**
-
-But, to proceed: Saul not only found his asses, but a kingdom into the
-bargain; and had the spirit of the Lord given;*** to him which we
-find taken away**** again, when he proved untractable: though it seems
-somewhat odd, how he could possibly prove disobedient, while he acted
-under the influence of this Divine Spirit! For, the possibility being
-admitted, the advantage of inspiration is difficult to be conceived.
-
-After Samuel had in private(5) anointed Saul king, and told him his
-asses were already found, he dismissed him for the present. He then
-assembled the people for the election of a king: at which assembly,
-behold, the lot fell on the tribe of Benjamin; and in that, on the
-family of Matri; and finally, on Saul, the son of Kish.(6) An election
-somewhat resembling consistories for the appointment of bishops; where
-the person being previously fixed on, God is solemnly prayed to for a
-direction of their choice.
-
-     * 1 Sam. ix. 9.
-
-     ** Ver. 7, 8.
-
-     *** Ch.x. 6.
-
-     **** Ch. xvi. 19.
-
-     (5) Ch. x. 1.
-
-     (6) Ch. x. 20, 21.
-
-
-It is not intended here to give a detail of the reign of king Saul;
-the notice hitherto taken of him being merely because the life of David
-could not be properly introduced without mentioning the alteration of
-government, and the manner in which monarchy was established in Israel:
-since Samuel's disappointment in Saul, naturally leads to his similar
-choice of David.
-
-The disobedience of Saul, in daring to sacrifice without his patron the
-prophet,* who failed of coming according to his appointment; and his
-lenity and prudence, in sparing the king, and some cattle, from a nation
-which Samuel, in the name of the Lord, had commanded him utterly
-to extirpate,** irrevocably lost him the favour of this imperious
-inexorable prophet: and, in the end, produced the miserable destruction
-not only of himself, but of his family: which will occasion no surprise,
-when we consider the absolute dominion and ascendency which the Jewish
-priests maintained over this ignorant superstitious people. A dominion
-which every article in the Levitical law enlarged and strengthened.
-
-We are not to imagine that the sparing Agag, king of the Amalekites, was
-the only cause of this rupture between him and Samuel. For we may gather
-from other parts of his history, that Saul was not over-well affected
-towards his patrons the Levites;*** in subjection to whom he had too
-much spirit to continue. Samuel quickly perceived he had mistaken his
-man, he haughtily avowed his intention of deposing him;**** and ordering
-Agag to be brought into his presence, he hewed him in pieces--"before
-the Lord."(5)
-
-     * 1 Sam. xiii. 8-14.
-
-     ** Ch. xv. 3.
-
-     *** Ch. 22.18,19. and Ch. xxviii. 9.
-
-     **** Ch. xiii. 14. xv. 26. 28.
-
-     (5) Ver. 33., Ch. xvi. 13.
-
-We now come to the hero of the history.
-
-In pursuance of his intention to make another king, Samuel went under
-the pretence of a sacrifice, and anointed another country youth, which
-was David, the youngest son of Jesse, the Bethlehemite; and gave him
-the spirit of the Lord, which he had just taken from poor Saul.
-The king, in the mean time, reflecting on the precariousness of his
-situation, now that the priests, on the part of Samuel, were incensed
-against him; and well knowing their influence among his subjects, fell
-into a melancholy disorder of mind,* which his physicians were unable to
-remove.**
-
-This was artfully made the occasion of introducing David to court. The
-king was advised to divert himself with music; and David was contrived
-to be recommended to him for his skill on the harp.*** Saul accordingly
-sent to Jesse, to request his son; which was immediately complied
-with: and David was detained at court, in the capacity of the king's
-armour-bearer.**** Here the story begins to grow confused, beyond
-_lay_-skill to reconcile. A war with the Philistines is abruptly
-introduced; in the midst of the relation of which, we are abruptly
-informed that David returned from Saul to feed his father's sheep(5)
-again; from whence his father sent him with provisions for his brothers,
-who were in the army.(6) What can be thought of this? Jesse hardly
-recalled his son from the honourable post of armour-bearer to the king;
-it is not likely that he was turned off, since we afterwards find him
-playing on the harp to the king, as before;(7) neither was it proper
-employment for the king's armour-bearer to be feeding sheep, when the
-army was in the field, and his majesty with them in person! Why--the
-most easy method is to take it as we find it; to suppose it to be right,
-and go quietly on with the story.
-
-In the Philistine army was a man of extraordinary size, named Goliah,
-who came out of their camp, day by day, challenging and defying any one
-among the Hebrews to single combat, and to rest the decision of their
-quarrel upon the event; an offer which no one among the Israelites was
-hitherto found hardy enough to accept.(8)
-
-     *1 Sam. xvi. 14.
-
-     ** Josephus.
-
-     *** 1 Sam. xvi. 18.
-
-     **** Ver. 21.
-
-     (5) Ch. xvii. 15.
-
-     (6) Ch. xvii. 17.
-
-     (7) Ch. xviii. 10.
-
-     (8) Ch. xvii. 4, &c.
-
-David is said to have arrived at the army just as it was forming for
-engagement; at which time the giant advanced as before, with reproachful
-menaces; and, after having enquired carefully concerning what reward
-would be given to the conquerer of this giant, and learning that great
-riches and the king's daughter were to be the prizes of conquest, David
-courageously declared before Saul his acceptance of the challenge,*
-notwithstanding the contempt with which his offer had been treated.
-
-Saul, relying on the youth's ardour and assurance of victory, girded his
-own armour on him:** but David put it off again, trusting entirely to a
-pouch of stones, and his own skill in slinging.*** The success answered
-his hopes, and stamped, what would otherwise have been deemed a rash
-undertaking, with a more respectable name; he knocked Goliath down with
-a stone; then ran in upon him, cut his head off with his own sword, and
-brought it triumphantly to the king of Israel.**** The consequence was
-the defeat of the 'Philistines.
-
-Here we meet with another stumbling-block. For, though Saul, as has
-already been observed, had sent to Jesse expressly for his son David;
-though David had played to him on the harp; though Saul had again sent
-to Jesse, to desire that David might be permitted to stay with him; and
-in consequence of this had given him a military appointment about his
-person; though he had now a fresh conference with him; had just placed
-his own suit of armour on him; and though all the occurrences must have
-happened within a small space of time, yet his memory is made so to fail
-him on a sudden, that he knew nothing either of David, or his parentage!
-but while David went to meet the giant, he enquired of others, who
-proved as ignorant as himself, whose son(5) the stripling was? This
-stumbling-block must likewise be stepped over, for it is not removeable.
-
-     *1 Sam. xvii. 32.
-
-     ** Ver. 38.
-
-     *** Ver. 40.
-
-     ****Ver. 49.
-
-     (5) Ver. 55., Ch. xviii. 3.
-
-
-The reputation which this gallant action procured to David, soon gained
-him advancement in the army, and a warm friendship with Saul's son,
-Jonathan. But the inordinate acclamations of the people, on account of
-the death of the Philistine giant, "Saul hath slain his thousands, and
-David his ten thousands;"* a rhodomontade out of measure extravagant,
-when we compare the two subjects of the contrast, justly occasioned Saul
-to view David with a jealous eye. We have all the reason in the world to
-believe that Samuel and the priests made every possible advantage of an
-adventure so fortunate for their intended king, to improve his growing
-popularity, which even at its outset had so far exceeded all bounds of
-decency: "What," said Saul, "can he have more but the kingdom?"** and we
-may therefore conclude that the king saw enough to alarm him; for we are
-told, that "Saul eyed David from that day and forward,"***Thus we find
-that on the following day, while David played as usual on his harp
-before Saul, the king cast a javelin at him,**** which David avoided.
-Saul then made him captain over a thousand, saying, "Let not mine
-hand be upon him, but let the hand of the Philistines be upon him," an
-expression however which is evidently put into Saul's mouth, since it is
-impossible he could have made use of it openly. He made him the offer of
-his daughter Merab for his wife, in consequence of the defeat of Goliah;
-but she, we know not why, was given to another;(5) afterwards he gave
-him Michal: and David's modesty (6) on this occasion was incomparably
-well acted; he knowing himself, at the same time, to be secretly
-intended for the kingdom by Samuel.
-
-Saul, upon reflection, concluding it dangerous to execute any open act
-of violence against this young hero, politically hoped to ensnare him,
-by exalting him high in favour, or to get rid of him by putting him upon
-his mettle, in performing feats of valour; for a deficiency of valour is
-not to be numbered among David's faults. It was with this view that
-the king yet required of him an hundred Philistine foreskins(7) as the
-condition of becoming his son-in-law. He produced double the number "in
-full tale."(8)
-
-     * 1 Sam. xxii. 7.
-
-     ** Ch. xviii. 8.
-
-     *** Ver. 9.
-
-     **** Ver. 11.
-
-     (5) Ver. 17.
-
-     (6) Ver. 10.
-
-     (7) Ver. 23., Ver. 25. (according to Josephus 600 heads).
-
-     (8) 1 Sam. xviii. 27.
-
-
-This demand, after David appeals to have fulfilled the prescribed
-conditions, seems not only unjust, but also, even making allowance
-for Hebrew customs, very ridiculously expressed. It must have been a
-glorious sight to have seen David bring the foreskins to king Saul,
-strung perhaps on a piece of pack-thread, and dangling in his hand, or
-thrown across his shoulders like a sash: and if Miss Michal was present,
-how must her pretty little heart exult when the required number being
-told off, as many more were gallantly presented at her feet!
-
-David still advanced in his military** reputation, and met with a
-powerful advocate in the person of Jonathan, his brother-in-law and
-faithful friend, who effected a temporary reconciliation between him
-and Saul;*** at which time Saul swore he would no more attempt his life.
-Nevertheless, whether it was that he could not get the better of his
-jealousy, or that he discovered more than is transmitted down to us, we
-know not; consequences incline us to the last conjecture: Saul made two
-more attempts to kill him;**** from one of which he was protected by
-his wife Michal; and finding it not safe to stay at court, he fled to
-Samuel, in Ramah.(5) Hither Saul sent messengers to apprehend him;(6)
-but these, it seems, seeing Samuel presiding over a company of prophets,
-and prophesying, were seized with a spirit of prophesying also; and not
-only so, but it is related that Saul finding this, went at last himself,
-to just the same purpose; for he likewise prophesied,(7) stripping off
-his cloaths, in which ridiculous condition he continued for a day and a
-night.
-
-     ** Ver. 30. xix. 8.
-
-     *** Ver. 4.
-
-     **** Ver. 10, 11.
-
-     (5) Ver. 18.
-
-     (6) Ver. 20.
-
-     (7) Ver. 23.
-
-This is an extreme odd relation! That the solemn appearance of an
-assembly of prophets, presided over by a person so respectable, and
-heretofore of such great authority in Judea, might influence, in an
-extraordinary manner, persons entrusted with a commission to apprehend
-or kill a man patronized by these prophets, exhibits nothing wonderful;
-they might easily perhaps, be prophesied out of their errand; and might
-then prophesy in concert. Prophesy is a vague term, not always limited
-to the prediction of future events; the extempore preaching of many
-dissenters, and the discourses of the Quakers, who profess to speak as
-the Spirit gives them utterance, seem to come under the term prophesy.
-These persons can work themselves and others into such fits of
-enthusiastic intoxication, that they believe themselves agitated by
-supernatural influence. Such might be the prophesying here mentioned.
-But Saul prophesied! so it is said. Had the subject of Saul's
-prophesying, been transmitted down to us, it might have greatly
-illustrated this passage in the history; but no, he is barely said to
-have _prophesied_; and we are prudently left to guess what. Being thus
-at liberty, we, among other expositors, may easily surmise what he might
-take for his text, and was the general tenor of his discourse, on this
-particular occasion.
-
-Afterward David had a private interview* with Jonathan; for he durst not
-venture to appear at court. At this meeting, Jonathan, who had conceived
-too great an affection for this man, and was at length seduced by him
-from the duty and allegiance which he owed to his father and king,
-solemnly promised** that he would sound his father's intentions on the
-next day, which being the festival of the new moon, David's attendance
-was expected at the king's table; and that he would warn him of any
-danger intended him.
-
-     * 1 Sam. x. 1.
-
-     ** Ver. 12.
-
-David lay hid in the field until Jonathan brought him the required
-intelligence; and when the king inquired, concerning him, Jonathan as
-had been before concerted, said that he had requested leave to go and
-perform a family sacrifice at Bethlehem. Saul's reply on this occasion
-is very pertinent, and shows his antipathy to David not to have been
-the causeless inveteracy of a disordered mind. "Then Saul's anger was
-kindled against Jonathan, and he said unto him, Thou son of the perverse
-rebellious woman, do not I know that thou hast chosen the son of
-Jesse to thine own confusion, and unto the confusion of thy mother's
-nakedness? For as long as the son of Jesse liveth upon the ground, thou
-shalt not be established, nor thy kingdom: wherefore now send and fetch
-him unto me; for he shall surely die."* Jonathan expostulated with his
-father, and had a javelin hurled at him for his reward.**
-
-David being advertised, according to agreement, of the king's
-disposition toward him, retired to Ahimelech, the high priest, at the
-city of Nob who treated him with shew-bread, and armed him with the
-sword of Goliah, which had been hung up and consecrated to God.***
-
-We may consider David's resuming this sword, after its dedication as
-a religious trophy, whatever gloss may be put on his interview with
-Ahimelech, to be a clear manifestation of hostile intentions, or a
-declaration of war against his father-in-law, for which he now took the
-first opportunity to prepare. Thus accoutred, he fled out of Judea, to
-Achish, king of Gath;**** intending, as we have good reason to believe,
-to enter into a treaty of alliance with him against the Hebrews; but
-the popular cry was against him before he accomplished any thing, or at
-least any thing that has reached our times.
-
-     * Ver. 30, 81. Josephus in loco.
-
-     ** Ver. 33.
-
-     *** 1 Sam. xxi. 1.
-
-     **** Ver. 9. Josephus.
-
-
-Here David appears to disadvantage in point of policy: for though his
-carrying with him the sword of Goliah was artful enough, and likely to
-collect followers in Judea, since it was a continual witness of that
-prowess which had gained him such extraordinary reputation; yet, for
-him, under this circumstance, to throw himself into the power of the
-Philistines, among those very people from whose champion he had ravished
-_that sword_, was the highest imprudence! and we perceive he might
-have suffered for it, had not he made use of a stratagem to procure his
-release, which he effected by acting the madman.* Mankind seems to have
-been very easily imposed on in those days.
-
-David, now thinking it time openly to avow his design of disputing the
-crown with Saul, went to a cave called Adullam, which he appointed the
-place of rendezvous for his partizans. Here we are told he collected
-together a company of debtors, vagrants, and disaffected persons, to the
-number of four hundred; and opened his rebellion, by putting himself at
-the head of this body of men:** men, whose desperate situations under
-the government in being, rendered them fit agents to disturb it, and
-proved the surest bond to connect them to a partizan thus embarked in
-an enterprize against it. Hither also came to him his father and all his
-brethren; and the first movement that he made was to go to the king of
-Moab, to obtain a retreat for his father and mother, until he knew the
-event of his enterprise.***
-
-By the advice of the prophet Gad, David next marched into the land of
-Judah:**** Gad, no doubt hoped, that as the young adventurer was of that
-tribe, he would there meet with considerable reinforcement. When Saul
-heard of this insurrection, he pathetically laments his misfortune to
-those about him, that they, and even his son Jonathan, should conspire
-against him.(5)
-
-     * 1 Sam. xxi. 13.
-
-     ** Ch. xxii. 2.
-
-     *** Ver. 2.
-
-     **** Ver. 6.
-
-     (5) Ver. 7, 8, 9.
-
-
-Then started up one Doeg, an Edomite, who informed Saul, that he had
-seen David harboured by the priests in Nob. Upon this, Saul summoned all
-those belonging to that city before him, with Ahimelech their chief,
-who began to excuse himself as well as he could; but Saul remembering,
-without doubt, the threatening of Samuel, concerning the affair of
-king Agag;* and considering these priests as traitors, from this
-corroborating evidence against them, he commanded them all to be slain,
-to the number of eighty-five persons.** Moreover, agreeable to the
-barbarous usage of that nation, the massacre included the whole city of
-Nob, man and beast, young and old, without exception.
-
-Though the king's rage in this instance exceeded not only the bounds of
-humanity, but also of good policy, it nevertheless serves to show how
-deeply the priests were concerned in the rebellion of David; since
-he could not be mad enough to commit so flagrant an act, without some
-colourable pretence;*** and shows also that Saul had not so great an
-opinion of their holiness as we, at this distance of time, are, by their
-own annals, instructed to have. Had Saul been more implicit, he might
-have enjoyed the name of king, have continued the dupe of the priests,
-have died in peace, and his children have succeeded quietly to the
-inheritance. But,
-
-     "Ye gods! what havoc does ambition make
-     Among your works!"
-
-During this time, David rescued the city of Keilah from the
-Philistines,(5) who were besieging it, hoping to make it a garrison for
-himself.
-
-     * 1 Sam. xiii. 14, xv. 26, 28.
-
-     ** Ch. xxii. 16-18.
-
-     *** Ver. 19.
-
-     **** In so small a territory as Judea, the difference
-     between the king and his son-in-law, so popular a man, could
-     not be unknown to persons in any measure removed from the
-     vulgar. Therefore, Ahmeleoh's pleas of ignorance did not
-     deserve credit.
-
-     (5) 1 Sam. xxiii. 3.
-
-
-But upon the approach of Saul, not thinking himself able to maintain it,
-being as yet but six hundred strong, and not choosing to confide in the
-inhabitants, whose loyalty even his recent kindness to them could not
-corrupt, he therefore abandoned it, and retired to the wilderness.*
-This passage alone is amply sufficient to confirm the reality of David's
-rebellious intentions; it is, therefore, worth analyzing. That he
-delivered this city from the depredations of the Philistines, and that
-by this action he hoped to purchase the friendship of the inhabitants,
-are acknowledged: the use to which he intended to convert this
-friendship, is the point to be ascertained. Saul was advancing to
-suppress him. Had he seduced them from their allegiance, and obtained
-the expected protection, he would have deprived Saul of this city, which
-city might have been considered as a garrison. The old plea, of
-his providing only for his personal safety, against his malignant
-persecutor, has often been urged; but his intended retention of a city,
-to secure that safety, was a flagrant rebellious intention. Had he
-gained this one city, as his strength increased, he would have concluded
-as many more as he could have procured, necessary for his preservation,
-until he had monopolized the whole country, agreeable to the grant of
-Samuel, which would then have justified the usurpation; but disappointed
-in the first step, by the loyalty, miscalled treachery, of the Keilites,
-he evacuated the town, having lost the recompence of his labour, and
-with his men "went whithersoever they could go."** In the wilderness
-Jonathan came privately to see him, and piously engages in the cause
-against his own father, by covenant; in which it was agreed, that if
-David succeeded, of which Jonathan is very confident, _he_ was to be a
-partaker of his good fortune but as Jonathan was not to join him openly,
-he went home again.
-
-Saul, having received intelligence of David's retreats, pursued him from
-place to place, until he was called off by news of an invasion of the
-land by the Philistines;*** whether of David's procuring or not, we are
-uncertain: thus much is certain, and does not discredit the supposition,
-that he quickly after took refuge among those Philistines.
-
-     * 1 Sam. xxiii. 13.
-
-     ** Ib.
-
-     *** Ver. 16-18, 27.
-
-After repelling the invaders, Saul, however, returned to the wilderness
-of Engedi, in pursuit of David, with three thousand chosen men. At
-this place we are told of an odd adventure, which put the life of Saul
-strangely into the power of David. He turned in to repose himself*
-alone in a cave, wherein at that time, David and his myrmidons were
-secreted.**
-
-     * The words are, "to cover his feet:" which Josephus and
-     others, mistake to mean, that he retired into the cave to
-     ease nature. But in Judges, iii. 21. we find that expression
-     to imply, that the servants of Eulon, king of Moab, supposed
-     their master to have locked himself in, to repose himself
-     with sleep, in his summer-chamber. This is farther
-     corroborated, in Ruth, iii. 7. where, when Boaz had eaten
-     his supper, he laid down on a heap of corn, doubtless to
-     take his rest. Ruth, by her mother's instruction, went,
-     uncovered his feet, and lay down by him--to have some
-     refreshment likewise. For, in the middle of the night, when
-     the man awaked, surprised at finding an unexpected
-     bedfellow, and demanded who she was, the kind wench replied--
-     "I am Ruth, thine hand-maid; spread therefore thy skirt
-     over thine hand-maid, for thou art a near kinsman." In the
-     present instance, it is evident, Saul slept in the cave; as
-     he discovered not the operation that had been performed on
-     his robe, till David called after him, to apprize him
-     thereof.
-
-     ** 1 Sam. xxiv. 3.
-
-
-This, one would imagine to have been a fine opportunity for him to have
-given a finishing stroke to his fortune, by killing Saul, and jumping
-into, the throne at once: but David knew better what he was about,
-than to act so rashly. He could entertain no hopes that the Jews would
-receive for their king a man who, with such great seeming holiness,
-should imbrue his hands in the blood of the Lord's anointed. Beside,
-what evidently destroys the boasted merit of David's forbearance toward
-Saul, in this instance, is an obvious, though overlooked consideration,
-that, compared with David, Saul had a strong army with, him; and had the
-king been missing, had he been observed to enter the cave without coming
-out again; and upon search, had he been there found murdered, there
-would not have escaped, of all that pertained to David, any that
-_pissed against this wall_. Of this David could not be insensible;
-and therefore, only privately cut off the skirt of Saul's robe,* and
-suffered him to depart in peace. When the king was gone out from
-the cave, David calls after him, and artfully makes a merit of his
-forbearance, protesting an innocency, to which his being in arms was,
-however, a flat** contradiction. Saul freely and gratefully acknowledges
-himself indebted to him for his life, and seems so well convinced of his
-own precarious situation, that he candidly confesses it; only tying
-him down with an oath,*** not to destroy his children after him--an
-obligation which, in due time, we shall see in what manner remembered
-and fulfilled by David.
-
-     *1 Sam. xxiv. 4.
-
-     ** Ver. 8-15.
-
-     *** Ver. 21.
-
-Saul must certainly have been greatly fatigued, or strangely overseen,
-to have let David catch him at so great a disadvantage--a conduct
-not usual with good generals. Yet, while we credit the relation, the
-meanness of his reply to David's harangue, can be no otherwise accounted
-for. Saul does not appear to have wanted resolution on other
-occasions; but to acknowledge his assurance that David would obtain the
-sovereignty, and poorly to entreat a fugitive rebel in behalf of his
-family! is a conduct not even to be palliated, but upon the foregoing
-supposition. We must either condemn the general or the king, neither of
-which characters appear with extraordinary lustre upon this occasion.
-David, on the other hand, dissembles admirably here, pretending to Saul
-a _great reverence_ for the Lord's anointed, though conscious, at
-the same time, that _he was also_ the Lord's anointed, and anointed
-purposely to supersede the other Lord's anointed; and, moreover, was at
-this very time aiming to put his election in force! But, as the people
-were not of his council, and he knew their great regard for religious
-sanctions, it was certainly prudent in him to set an example of piety,
-in an instance of which he hoped, in time, to reap the benefit himself:
-About this time Samuel died.*
-
-We next find our young adventurer acting the chief character in a
-tragi-comedy, which will farther display his title to the appellation of
-being a Man after God's own heart.
-
-There dwelt then at Maon, a blunt rich old farmer, whose name was Nabal.
-David hearing of him, and that he was at that time sheep-shearing, sent
-a detachment of his followers to levy a contribution upon him,** making
-a merit of his forbearance, in that he had not stolen his sheep, and
-murdered his shepherds.*** Nabal, who, to be sure, was not the most
-courteous man in the world, upon receiving this extraordinary message,
-gave them but a very indifferent reply, including a flat denial. "Who,"
-says he, "is David? and who is the son of Jesse? There be many servants
-nowadays that break away every man from his master. Shall I then take
-my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers,
-and give unto men whom I know not whence they be?"**** Upon receiving
-this answer, David, without hesitation, directly formed his resolution;
-and arming himself, with a number of his followers, vowed to butcher
-him, _and all that belonged to him_, before the next morning.(5) And how
-was this pious intention diverted? Why, Abigail, the charming Abigail!
-Nabal's wife, resolved, unknown to her spouse, to try the force
-of beauty, in mollifying this incensed hero, whose disposition for
-gallantry, and warm regard for the fair sex, was probably not unknown at
-that time. Her own curiosity also might not be a little excited; for the
-ladies have at all times been universally fond of military gentlemen: no
-wonder, therefore, that Mrs. Abigail, the wife of a cross country clown,
-was willing to seize this opportunity of getting acquaintance with
-captain David.
-
-     * 1 Sam. xxv. 1.
-
-     ** Ver. 5--9.
-
-     *** Ver. 7.
-
-     **** Ver. 10, 11.
-
-     (5) Ver. 13, 14-22.
-
-And this motive certainly had its force, since she could not as yet have
-known David's intention: we may observe she was told of it by David at
-their meeting.* She prepared a present, and went to David, saying,
-very sententiously, "Upon me, my Lord, upon me let this iniquity be:"**
-judging, very humanely, that could she get him to transfer his
-revenge upon _her_, she might possibly contrive to pacify him, without
-proceeding to disagreeable extremities. Nor was she wrong in her
-judgment; for we are told, "So David received of her hand that which she
-had brought him, and said unto her, go up in peace to thine house; see
-I have hearkened to thy voice, _and have accepted thy person_."*** But
-however agreeable this meeting might have been to Abigail, we do not
-find that Nabal was so well pleased with the composition his wife had
-made for him; for when he came to understand so much of the story as she
-chose to inform him of, he guessed the remainder, broke his heart, and
-died in ten days afterward. David loses no time, but returned God thanks
-for the old fellow's death, and then Mrs. Abigail was promoted to the
-honour of being one of the Captain's ladies.(5)
-
-We are now told another story extremely resembling that of the cave of
-En-gedi. Saul again pursues David with three thousand chosen men; again
-fell into his hands during his sleep; only that here David stole upon
-him in his own camp; he ran away with the king's spear and bottle of
-water, and Saul went back again as wise as he came.(6)
-
-     * I Sam. xxv. 34.
-
-     ** Ver. 24.
-
-     *** Ver. 35.
-
-     ****Ver. 37,38.
-
-     (5) Ver. 39.
-
-     (6) Ch. xxvi.
-
-The opinion of Mons. Bayle seems most probable concerning this
-adventure, who looks upon it but as another detail of the former affair
-at En-gedi; and that for very good reasons. For, upon a comparison of
-both, as laid down in the 23d, 24th, and 26th chapters of 1 Samuel, we
-may remark,
-
-I. That in each relation Saul pursues him with the same number of chosen
-men.
-
-II. That both adventures happened at or very near the same place.
-
-III. That in each story David comes upon Saul in much the same manner,
-withholds his people from killing him, and contents himself with taking
-away a testimonial of the king's having been in his power.
-
-IV. That in the second account, When David is pleading the injustice of
-Saul's persecuting him, as he terms it, he does not strengthen his plea
-by representing to him that this was the _second time_ of his sparing
-him, when he had his life so entirely in his power; and that Saul's
-pursuing him this second time, was a flagrant instance of ingratitude,
-after what had happened on the former occasion.
-
-V. That in the second relation, Saul, when he acknowledges David's
-forbearance and mercy to him in the present instance, makes no mention
-of _any former obligation_ of this kind, although it was so recent, and
-in the main circumstance so similar.
-
-VI. That the historian, who evidently intended to blacken the character
-of Saul, and whiten that of David, does not make the least observation
-himself, in the second narrative, of reference to the first.
-
-These reasons prove, beyond doubt, that we are furnished with two
-relations of the same adventure. To account for the double record,
-and their variations, must be left to commentators, connectors, and
-harmonizers, who are used to compromise affairs of this nature.
-
-David finding that with his present strength, he was unable to maintain
-any footing in Judea, puts himself once more under the protection of
-Achish, king of Gath.* Achish, who does not appear to have been a very
-powerful prince, seemed to consider David alone, and David at the head
-of a little army, as two very different persons: for he now assigned
-him a place named Ziklag, for a habitation, where he remained a year and
-four months.**
-
-     * 1 Sam. xxvii. 1-3.
-
-     ** 1 Sam. xxvii. 6, 7.
-
-
-As he had now a quiet residence, those who entertain an opinion of
-David's sanctity, would be apt to suppose he would here confine himself
-to agriculture, to composing psalms, and to singing them to his harp;
-but David found employment more suited to his genius. It is not intended
-here to be insinuated that he might not sing psalms, at leisure times;
-but his more important business was to lead his men put to plunder the
-adjacent country. We have the names of some nations, as they are called,
-but which must have been small distinct communities, like the
-present camps of wandering Moors and Arabs, over whom he extended
-his depredations: these are the Geshurites, the Gezrites, and the
-Amalekites.** Of these people he made a total massacre, at those places
-where he made his inroads; saying, very prudently, "Lest they should
-tell of us, saying, so did David, and so will be his manner, all the
-while he dwelleth in the country of the Philistines."***
-
-After thus carefully endeavouring to avoid detection, he brings his
-booty home, which consisted of all which those miserable victims
-possessed.**** He made presents of this to his benefactor king
-Achis,(5)| who, demanding where he had made his incursion, was answered,
-against the south of Judah, &c.(6) intending by this falsity to
-insinuate to the king his aversion to his own countrymen, and attachment
-to him. "And Achish believed David, saying, he hath made his people
-Israel utterly to abhor him; therefore he shall be my servant for
-ever,"(7)
-
-The Philistines at this time collected their forces together, to attack
-the Israelites. To which service Achish summoned David,(8) and met with
-a cheerful compliance.
-
-     ** Ver. 8.
-
-     *** Ver. 9, 11.
-
-     **** Query, whether David might not compose a psalm
-          upon this occasion.
-
-     (5) Josephus.
-
-     (6) 1 Sam. xxvii. 10.
-
-     (7) Ver. 12.
-
-     (8) Ch. xxviii. 1.
-
-"Surely," says David, "thou shalt know what thy servant can do."* He
-accordingly marched his adherents with the troops of king Achish; but
-when the princes of the Philistines saw a company of Hebrews in their
-army, they were much surprized, and questioned Achish concerning them.
-The account which Achish gave of them, did not satisfy the princes, who
-justly feared their captain might prove a dangerous auxiliary. "Make
-this fellow return," said they, "that he may go again to the place which
-thou hast appointed him, and let him not go down with us to the battle,
-lest in the battle he be an adversary to us: for wherewith should be
-reconcile himself to his master; should it not be with the heads of
-these men David was accordingly dismissed, very much mortified at their
-distrust of him.**
-
-Here now was a signal evidence of David's righteousness! The Hebrews,
-according to their own testimony, understood themselves to be the
-favourite people of God, and David is delivered down to us as a
-distinguished character for piety among this peculiarly esteemed people.
-Yet could this very man, without any hesitation, freely join himself and
-company, to an army of uncircumcised idolators, marching with hostile
-intentions against his countrymen! His advocates indeed pretend, that
-had his offers been accepted, he would nevertheless have gone over to
-the Israelites, at the commencement of the battle: this is taking off
-the charge of one crime, by imputing to him another equally bad--a most
-base act of treachery! As, however, the Israelites, on the foundation of
-their own intimacy with the Deity, thought they had no more obligations
-to a moral conduct towards the heathens, than the Roman Catholics now
-imagine they have to keep faith with heretics; these advocates endeavour
-to preserve the piety of David's character, at the expence of what
-David, according to this method of arguing, did extremely well without,
-on all occasions; namely, _honesty_.***
-
-     * 1 Sam. xxviii. 2.
-
-     ** Ch. xxix. 4.
-
-     *** Ver. 8, 11.
-
-Upon his return to Ziklag, he found that, during his absence, the
-Amalekites had made reprisals upon him, and burnt Ziklag; and had
-carried off all the women captives.* But in the relation there is one
-remark well worth noting, which is that "they slew not any either great
-or small"**--so much more moderation had these poor heathens in their
-just revenge, than the enlightened David in his unprovoked insult. If
-they came to avenge so savage an insult, it shewed great consideration
-in them to spare the innocent, the guilty being absent: if they only
-came on the common principle of plunder, the bare comparison of the
-different treatment of the sufferers in each instance, speaks forcibly
-without amplification. Upon this misfortune, his band began to mutiny,
-and were on the point of stoning*** him; when he, who knew how to soothe
-them, enquired of the Lord what he should do? and evaded their rage, by
-inspiring them with a resolution to pursue the Amalekites, and with the
-hopes of recovering all their losses. He, therefore, with four hundred
-picked men, set out on the pursuit, and by the way found a straggler****
-who had fainted: after recovering him, they gained, by his means,
-intelligence of their route. David came upon them unexpectedly, at a
-place where they were, without apprehension, regaling themselves after
-their success: and though David's men recovered all they had lost,
-together with other booty, and found their wives and children unhurt:
-yet could not their captain resist so inviting an opportunity of
-gratifying his delight in blood-shedding: the pursuit and slaughter
-continued from the twilight (we know not whether of the morning or
-evening) of one day, until the evening of the next. None escaped but a
-party which rode upon camels.(5)
-
-     * 1 Sam. xxi. 1.
-
-     ** Ver. 2.
-
-     *** Ver. 6.
-
-     **** Ver. 11.
-
-     (5) Ver. 17.
-
-Of the spoil taken from these people, David sent presents to the elders
-of his own tribe of Judah, "and to all the places where David himself
-and his men were wont to haunt."* By which means he kept them attached
-to his interest.
-
-The dispute between the Philistine and Hebrew armies, did not terminate
-but by the defeat of the latter, the death of Saul, and of three of his
-sons.**
-
-Such was the catastrophe of king Saul! a man advanced from the humble
-state of a shepherd, by the prophet Samuel, to be his deputy in the
-government of the Hebrew nations under the specious name of king: a man,
-who allowing for the _peculiar complexion_ of the people over whom he
-was placed; does not, on the whole, seem to suffer by comparison with
-any other king in the _same_ history; or whose character appears to be
-stained with any conspicuous fault, except that he was one degree less
-cruel than his haughty patron: and was disobedient enough to endeavour
-to be in effect, what he was only intended to be in name. On the whole,
-he appears to have been strangely irresolute and inconsistent with
-himself; and is perhaps represented more so than he might really have
-been: but the undertaking to render himself independent was an arduous
-task for one in his situation; therefore his actions and professions
-might sometimes disagree. However, it is impossible to argue from every
-expression that may be produced; we must form our judgment from leading
-events, and corresponding expressions; and determine as they tally with
-probability. If Saul himself, however he is represented as subscribing
-to it, was really assured of David's destination to supersede him by
-divine decree, there was nothing left for him but resignation: Can man
-fight against God? since therefore his continual aim was to destroy
-David, it argues against this assurance: and if Saul himself was mad,
-surely his soldiers were not: how came he to find an army as mad as
-himself, to persecute the Lord's anointed.
-
-     * 1 Sam. xxx. 31.
-
-     ** Ch. xxxi.
-
-We shall now have an opportunity to observe the conduct of our hero in
-a regal capacity. The death of Saul facilitated his advancement to
-a sovereignty, to which he had no pretension, either by the right of
-inheritance, which was claimed by Ish-bosheth, a remaining son of Saul;
-nor by popular election, which Saul himself had the shew of; but by
-the clandestine appointment of an old prophet; which inspired him
-with hopes, of which, by arms and intrigue, he at length enjoyed the
-fruition.
-
-David had returned to Ziklag but two days, when on the third, there came
-to him an Amalekite, who officiously informed him of the event of the
-battle between the Israelites and Philistines. He owned himself to be
-the person who killed Saul, after his defeat, at his own request: he
-being already wounded.
-
-He hoped to be well rewarded for his news, by David; whose intentions
-were so well known, that he presented him with Saul's crown and
-bracelet*. But, alas! he knew not David, and perished in the experiment:
-David ordering him to be killed for daring to slay the Lord's
-anointed.** David's treatment of this Amalekite, is agreeable to the
-customary rules of politics; and has nothing therefore remarkable in
-it, farther than it is rendered so by peculiar circumstances. Saul
-was declared to be rejected by God, and David was the pretender to his
-throne; it may therefore be imagined by some, that this man might have
-had some claim to _his_ private gratitude, especially considering the
-account the Amalekite gave of the matter.
-
-Who can help smiling at the relation of David's tearing his clothes off
-his back, and bursting into a sorrowful lamentation for the death of a
-man, to whose destruction he had so freely offered to lend assistance
-but just before?
-
-Upon this alteration of affairs, David, asking counsel of the Lord, was
-advised to leave Ziklag, and go to Hebron, one of the cities of Judah;
-whither he and all his men repaired.***
-
-     * 2 Sam. 10.
-
-     ** Ver. 15.
-
-     *** 2 Sam. ii. 1.
-
-There he got his partizans to anoint him king over Judah; at the same
-time that Abner, Saul's general, had, at Mahanaim, made Ishbosheth,
-
-Saul's son, king over Israel.* It may be remarked here, that David did
-not seem to claim in right of the sacred unction bestowed on him long
-since by Samuel. He realized his title indeed, as soon as he could make
-it out, by the law of force: but if his divine title to the Hebrew crown
-was universally known, and if, as has been urged, Ish-bosheth had none
-at all, how came David's title not to be universally acknowledged? Did
-only one tribe believe in it? Yet David, with the divine grant, was
-obliged to obtain the sovereignty by arms and intrigue! just for all
-the world like the wicked, who attain their desires by exactly the same
-means, to all external appearance. Upon this division of the kingdom,
-a battle was fought at the pool of Gibeon, between the army of
-Ish-bosheth, commanded by general Abner, and that of David, headed
-by Joab: victory declared in favour of the latter, with small loss on
-either side, except that Joab lost his brother Ahasel, who was killed by
-Abner's own hand.**
-
-We must here be content with general hints; being only informed that
-"there was long war between the house of Saul and the house, of David:
-but David waxed stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul waxed
-weaker and weaker."*** What very much conduced to this, was an ill-timed
-quarrel between king Ish-bosheth and general Abner, concerning one of
-Saul's concubines, with whom Abner had been too familiar:**** and his
-resentment of the notice taken of this amour, occasioned a treaty to be
-negociated between him and David, whom Abner engaged to establish over
-all Israel.(5) David accepted his offer, but demanded, as a preliminary,
-the restoration of his first wife Michal;(6) who, during the disputes
-between him and Saul; had been espoused to another.(7)
-
-     * 2 Sam. ii. 4, 8.
-
-     ** Ver. 17, 23.
-
-     *** 2 Sam. iii. 1.
-
-     **** 2 Sam. iii. 7.
-
-     (5) Ver. 12.
-
-     (6) Ver. 13.
-
-     (7) 1 Sam. xxv. 44.
-
-
-This demand he likewise made openly, by an express message to
-Ishbosheth, who kindly complied with it: the poor man who had since
-married her, following her weeping all the way.**
-
-It is impossible to avoid noting David's amorous disposition here;
-which could not be content with six wives, who bare him children*** (no
-mention of those who did not), but was yet so warm, that it took the
-lead even in his most important concerns.--We will not pretend to assign
-the cause of that sad disorder, the symptoms of which are described in
-the 38th Psalm.
-
-After Abner had traitorously endeavoured to advance the interest of
-David****; he had an interview with him;(5) which, quickly after he
-returned, coming to the ears of Joab; he, who does not appear to have
-been acquainted with the secret spring which actuated Abner's zeal for
-the cause of David; represented to him the imprudence of admitting a man
-among them, who to all appearance came only as a spy. Unknown to David,
-he sent for him back again, and privately stabbed him, in revenge
-for the loss of his brother Asahel.(6) This was a most base piece of
-treachery, worthy the servant of such a master: to assassinate a man in
-cool blood, in revenge for an action which was committed in the heat of
-battle, in self-defence, and even after fair warning given.
-
-Upon the murder of Abner, David again acts the mourner;(7) which has a
-greater probability of being sincere now, than when he grieved for the
-unhappy Saul; because the false Abner was preparing to do him essential
-service, by betraying his master's cause.
-
-     ** 2 Sam. iii. 15, 16.
-
-     *** Ver. 2, &c.
-
-     **** Ver. 17.
-
-     (5) Ver. 20.
-
-     (6) Ver. 27.
-
-     (7) Ver. 31, &c.
-
-
-But the event proved full as advantageous to David; as will presently
-appear.
-
-When Ishbosheth and his friends heard of the fate of Abner, who had
-been the very life of their cause; it dejected all their spirits; and
-two villains, named Rechab and Baanah, hoping to make their fortunes by
-the public calamity, went and murdered their master king Ishbosheth,
-as he was reposing himself during the heat of the day, and brought his
-head to David*. But not reflecting on an obvious maxim in politics, they
-like the Amalekite before, who claimed the merit of killing Saul, soon
-found that, he thought it adviseable to punish the traitors, whatever he
-thought of the treason.**
-
-     * 2 Sam. iv. 5, &c.
-
-     ** Ver. 12.
-
-
-Had David reflected on all the circumstances which led to this murder,
-with that tenderness becoming a person professing so much piety, his
-compunction would have greatly embarrassed him in the proper behaviour
-on this occasion. For if these two execrable villains deserved
-punishment, what did _he_ merit who was the primary cause of so
-nefarious an action? Two poor rogues from subordinate views, effected by
-assassination what David sought at the head of an army, which naturally
-reminds us of the pirate and Alexander. So strangely do relative
-circumstances bias our judgment of things essentially alike. Had David
-aspired to no other sceptre than his shepherd's crook, the villains
-had not presumed on the usurper's gratitude; and Ish-bosheth, who was
-a quiet prince, might have reigned long an honour to himself and a
-blessing to his country.
-
-Ish-bosheth does not appear to have been a man of parts, qualified to
-contend with such an antagonist as David; for nothing is recorded of
-him: Abner was the person who raised him; and had he lived, would as
-easily have deposed him, and though no qualifications are a security
-against assassination, yet, as in the case of another unfortunate
-monarch, Darius, king of Persia; such cowardly wretches generally take
-the advantage of precipitating misfortunes already commenced, that they
-may pay their court to the rising sun.
-
-The murder of this unhappy son of an unhappy father, advanced David
-to the dignity to which he aspired,* (though we shall see in a passage
-which reflects no great honour on him, that Saul had more sons yet
-living.) He was now in his thirty-eighth year; having reigned seven
-years and an half in Hebron** over the tribe of Judah.
-
-Although David was now invested with that supremacy which had been the
-aim of his endeavours since the time that Samuel inspired him with the
-spirit of ----- ambition; yet could not his enterprising genius continue
-satisfied with such an exaltation. The first object of his attention
-now, was the city of Jerusalem, then inhabited by the Jebusites; (but it
-was of no importance who inhabited it, if David conceived a desire for
-it): this city he besieged and the inhabitants relying on the strength
-of their fortifications, out of derision planted cripples on their
-ramparts to guard their walls; saying "except thou take away the blind
-and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither."*** Nevertheless David
-carried the place, and made it his chief city.****
-
-N. B. He supplied himself with, more wives and concubines out of his new
-acquisition.(5)
-
-While he was thus amorously engaged, the Philistines hearing that he Was
-made king over all Israel, came and disturbed him; but David according
-to the usual term _smote them_;(6) and his strokes were always
-sufficiently felt.
-
-The comic tale of David's bringing home the ark will not be long dwelt
-upon; it may only be remarked, that it was brought on a new cart, drawn
-by oxen; and that Uzzah some way or other lost his life, to, as the text
-reads, was smote _by the Lord_,(7) for his impiety in saving the ark
-from being overturned.(8)
-
-     * 2 Sam. v. 3, 1 Chron. xi. 3.
-
-     ** 2 Sam. ii. 11.
-
-     *** Chap. v. 6. Josephus.
-
-     **** Ver. 7. 9., 1 Chron; xi. 5. 7.
-
-     (5) 2 Sam. v. 13.
-
-     (6) Ver. 20, 25., 1 Chron. xiv. 11.
-
-     (7)  Query, whether the Lord did not sometimes smite
-          by the hands of the priest.
-
-     (8)  Sam. vi. 7.
-
-
-But if "the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looked on the outward
-appearance, but the Lord looked into the heart." the intention of Uzzah
-was indisputably good, and the alledged crime surely pardonable; the
-seeming exigency precluding all hesitation and reflection. Had the ark
-been really overturned for want of this careful prevention, Uzzah might
-then, it would be naturally imagined, have been rather _smote_ for
-neglecting to save it. However, it was no longer trusted to prophane
-hands, but carried the remainder of the way upon the more holy shoulders
-of the Levites,* with great parade: attended by musicians, and by David
-himself who, dressed in a linen ephod, _danced before the Lord with all
-his might_ and this, in such a frantic indecent manner, that he exposed
-his nakedness to the bye-standers. Wherefore his wife Michal sneered at
-him: "How glorious was the king of Israel today, who uncovered himself
-to-day in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain
-fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself."** David, it seems, was of a
-different opinion; for he told her he _would_ play before the Lord; and
-would be yet _more vile_ than she had represented him;--adding, "and of
-the maid-servants which thou hast spoken of, of them shall I be had in
-honour."*** Some staunch zealots have very prudently spiritualized
-this part of David's answer, and given the mystical sense of it; the
-prophane, who are content with the evident signification of words,
-having construed it no otherwise than into an insinuation that he had no
-cause to be ashamed of what he exposed. Fie on them!
-
-This story is concluded with a remark as odd as the rest of
-it:--"Therefore Michal, the daughter of Saul, had no child until the day
-of her death.(5)
-
-     * 1 Chron. xv. 2, 15.
-
-     ** 2 Sam. vi. 14.
-
-     *** Ver. 20.
-
-     **** Ver. 22.
-
-     (5) Ver. 23.
-
-For, if Michal had hitherto borne no children, neither to David, nor
-to her immediate husband, her barrenness must have been constitutional;
-and, preceding her offence, could not be a punishment inflicted in
-consequence of it. Moreover, if, on the other hand, she _had_ borne him
-children, and this disgrace to her was the consequence of a resolution
-made by her husband David, that she should have no more children
-_by him_: her quiet resignation, under this imposed widowhood, is by
-inference a high compliment on this poor woman's conjugal virtue! which
-was far from the historian's intention to bestow. Indeed there is great
-reason to credit Michal, and to believe that David really behaved with
-all the extravagance she ascribes to him: for she appeared before
-this affair as a discreet kind of a woman; no instance of folly being
-produced in her, unless the contrivances she made use of to save her
-husband from the effects of her father's rage may be allowed to bear
-such interpretation. Whatever judgment however is passed upon Michal's
-censure of David's behaviour in this procession, it showed great cruelty
-and ingratitude in him to fix so disgraceful a stigma on her; and not
-to make allowance for female indiscretion, the worst name that could be
-bestowed on her fault.
-
-After this, David smote the Philistines, not sparing even Gath, that
-city which had so humanely protected him.* He then smote the Moabites,
-putting to the sword two-thirds of the nation, by causing them to lie
-prostrate on the ground, and measuring them by lines; "even with two
-lines measured he to put to death; and with one full line to keep
-alive:"** so systematic was his wrath! Hadadezar, king of Zobah, was the
-next whom he smote; who being assisted by the Syrians of Damascus, he
-next smote them.*** Yet all this smiting and slaying is so obscurely
-mentioned, that we know nothing of the offences committed against this
-mighty chief, to excite such blood-thirsty indignation.
-
-     * Sam. viii.  1., Chron. xviii. 1.
-
-     ** 2 Sam. viii. 2.
-
-     *** Ver. 3. 5.,  1 Chron. xviii. 3, 5.
-
-Indeed, the cause is, without much difficulty, deducible from the
-produce of these wars, which sufficiently indicate the nature of David's
-_thirst._ Great quantities of gold, silver, and brass, are said to have
-been brought to Jerusalem;* and the priests may with reason be supposed
-to be the instigators to these wars; since we find all the plunder
-surrendered to them.** We have therefore no cause to wonder at the
-exalted praises they have bestowed upon the instrument of their wealth.
-He is said to have "gat him a name, when he returned from smiting the
-Syrians."*** --This may very easily be credited; but it is to be feared,
-that if the name he gat from the Jews, and that which he gat from the
-Syrians were compared, they would not accord extremely well together.
-
-David was at this time seized with a _temporary_ fit of gratitude toward
-a lame son of his old friend Jonathan, named Mephibosheth, to whom he
-restored all the private patrimony of his grandfather Saul, and took
-him into his family;**** not without due consideration, it is to be
-supposed; since by that means he kept him under his own eye. But this
-gratitude, was not lasting; for upon an accusation preferred against him
-by his servant, David readily bestowed all Mephibosheth's possessions
-upon that servant;(5) yet, when the accusation was found to be
-false, instead of equitably punishing the asperser of innocence, and
-reinstating Mephibosheth in his former favour, he restored to him but
-half the forfeiture of his supposed guilt,(6) leaving the villain
-Ziba in the quiet possession of the other half, as the reward of his
-treachery.--But of this in its proper place.
-
-The next memorable act recorded of David, is the only acknowledged crime
-that he ever committed; all his other transactions being reputed "right
-in the eyes of the Lord."(7)
-
-     * 2 Sam. viii. 7, 8, 10., 1 Chron. xviii, 2, 4, 8, 10.
-
-     ** 2 Sam. viii. 11., 1 Chron. xviii. 11.
-
-     *** 2 Sam. viii. 13.
-
-     **** Chap. ix. 1.
-
-     (5) Chap. xvi. 4.
-
-     (6) Chap. xix. 29.
-
-     (7) 1 Kings xv. 5, compared with 1 Chron. xxi. 1.
-
-
-In the midst of an obscure detail of smiting and slaying; in revenge
-for the contemptuous treatment of some ambassadors, sent by him with
-compliments of condolence; but who, perhaps deservedly, were considered
-as spies; while Joab was with the army prosecuting the siege of Rabbah,
-a chief city of the Ammonites; David, then at Jerusalem, walking one
-evening on the roof of his palace, perceived from that eminence a
-handsome woman bathing herself.* Fired with the sight, he sent to
-enquire who she was: and understanding she was Bathsheba, wife to Uriah,
-who was at that time opportunely absent in the army under Joab, he
-caused her to be brought to him directly, (no ceremony in the case)
-and after gratifying his inclination, sent her home again.** Some time
-after, the woman finding herself with child, naturally informed the
-king of it. He, never at a loss for ways and means, immediately ordered
-Uriah home;*** of whom he enquired news concerning the operations of the
-campaign, and then dismissed him to his own house, sending after him a
-present of victuals.**** David intended the good man a little relaxation
-from the fatigues of war, that he might kiss his wife, and be cheated
-into a child more than he had a natural right to; but whether Uriah
-had received any intimation of the honour his Majesty had done him; or
-whether he honestly meant the self-denial which he professed, we are
-not advertised: however, Uriah would not go home but slept in the
-guard-room, with the king's servants.(5) David took care to be informed
-of this, and questioned Uriah concerning the reason of it. Uriah urged
-a scruple of conscience against going to enjoy any indulgence at
-home, while the ark, Joab, and the army remained in tents in the open
-field.(6) He was detained another night; when David made him drunk,(7)
-waiting to see what effect that might have. It was still the same;
-Uriah, like many other drunken men, was resolved not to go home.
-
-     *2 Sam. xi. 2.
-
-     ** Ver. 4.
-
-     *** Ver. 6.
-
-     **** Ver. 8.
-
-     (5) Ver. 9.
-
-     (6) Ver. 11.
-
-     (7) Ver. 35.
-
-David, finding him so obstinate, altered his plan of operations, and
-determined then to get rid of him for ever. To which intent, he sent
-him back to the camp, with a letter to the general. "And he wrote in the
-letter, saying, Set ye Uriah in the fore-front of the hottest battle,
-and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten and die."* This
-instruction was accordingly complied with;** and then Bathsheba, like
-another Abigail, was taken into David's seraglio.***
-
-Nathan the prophet read David an arch lecture upon this subject;**** and
-he, who took care not to disagree With his best friends, bore with the
-reproof, and humbled himself accordingly.
-
-This complicated crime committed by David is universally allowed;
-but people think so little for them selves, that even _this_ would
-be qualified, were it not found ready condemned to their hand in the
-relation of it. This crime is given up too, as the _only stain_ in
-David's character: but the circumstances of it will not permit this to
-be granted, abstracted from any consideration of the man. For, though a
-generally good man may, in a sudden start of any of the passions,
-lose government of himself so far, as to violate conjugal fidelity, or
-perhaps suddenly to kill another; yet a deliberate scheme, including
-_two_ such crimes, can be concerted only by a _bad heart_. It is also to
-be remarked respecting his famous repentance of this black transaction,
-that he shewed no tokens of relenting until it was extorted from him
-by artifice! and that even then, though he mourned his crime, he never
-entertained a thought of relinquishing future commerce with the woman so
-wickedly obtained, but kept her until he died! and altered the regular
-course of succession, in favour of a son he had by her.(5)
-
-It is hoped the supposition may be allowed, that the noise this
-righteous affair made, might be one motive for Joab's desiring David to
-come and partake some of the honours of the campaign:(6) an opportunity
-of which he prudently laid hold: but--fatal was his presence wherever he
-appeared.
-
-     * 2 Sam. xi. 15.
-
-     ** Ver. 17.
-
-     *** Ver. 27.
-
-     **** Ch. xii. 1.
-
-     (5) Kings i. 13.
-
-     (6) 2 Sam. xii. 27, 28.
-
-
-How shall a person subject to the feelings of humanity, (a security of
-more avail among men than the most binding laws) how shall a man, not
-steeled to a very Jew, find expressions suited to the occasion, when he
-relates the treatment of this poor city, Rabbah? The study would be as
-difficult as unnecessary; the simple unexaggerated tale, if seriously
-attended to, will shock the humane reader sufficiently. The city was
-taken and plundered; and David "brought forth the people that were
-therein, and put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under
-axes of iron, and made them pass through the brick-kiln, and thus did he
-unto all the cities of the children of Ammon."**
-
-     * It is supposed that the ancient slavery of the Jews to the
-     Egyptians, and the labour they were employed in by their
-     lordly taskmasters, the making bricks, might be a current
-     reproachful jeer upon the Jews, when any quarrel happened
-     between them find their neighbours; and that the making
-     their prisoners pass through the brick-kiln, was a cruel
-     method of revenging such affronts. A conjecture not
-     improbable.
-
-     ** 2 Sam. xii. 31., 1 Chron. xx. 3.
-
-
-The precise punishments here alluded to are not understood at this time:
-writers being much divided in their expositions of these words; but that
-extraordinary punishments are meant, cannot admit of a doubt; for though
-_believers_ expound the putting the Ammonites _under_ saws and harrows,
-into the making slaves of them, and that these were the tools with which
-they laboured; yet this will not agree with the latter of the texts
-whose authority is mentioned in the note; where it is said, that he
-[David] "cut them with saws and with harrows of iron, and with axes."
-And should more evidence be yet required, Josephus also writes, that
-"the men were put to death by exquisite torments." The general truth of
-the fact stands therefore unimpeached. And is it thus the people of God,
-headed by a man styled, in a peculiar manner, _the man after God's own
-heart_, used the prisoners of war? _Bella! horrida bella!_
-
-It would not be easy to select any period of any history more bloody,
-or abounding more in wickedness of various dyes than that which is the
-object of the reader's present attention. Instances succeed so quick
-that the relation of one is scarcely concluded, but fresh ones obtrude
-upon notice.--But now horrors of a different hue demand our attention.
-
-Ammon, one of our hero's sons, ravished his sister Tamar, and then
-turned her out of doors.* Absalom, her brother by the same mother,
-seemingly took no notice of it, until two years after; when he invited
-all his brothers to a feast at his sheep-shearing; where he made Amnon
-drunk, and murdered him** in so deliberate, and yet so determined was
-his revenge! Absalom on this account, fled out of Judea, for three
-years*** until, at the entreaty of Joab, he was invited home again
-by his father, whose favourite he was.**** But though he returned to
-Jerusalem, yet would not his father see him for two years more.(5)
-
-Absalom, during his exile, conceived a design of deposing his father;
-for after their reconciliation, his first attention was to render
-himself popular. To this end he set up a splendid equipage:(6) but
-politically increased his affability with his magnificence: rising up
-early, and planting himself in the way, to salute all who came to
-his father's levee. Of these he kindly enquired their business, or
-grievances; throwing out hints of the king's remissness in the execution
-of justice, and how uprightly he would conduct himself, were their
-causes to be determined by him.(7)
-
-     * 2 Sam. xiii. 14
-
-     ** Ver. 28.
-
-     *** Ver. 88.
-
-     **** Chap. xiv. 21, 24.
-
-     (5) Ver. 28.
-
-     (6) Chap. xv. 1.
-
-     (7) Ver 2, 4.
-
-The profession of piety is universally, and was in particular a-mong
-this people, the most successful disguise for crafty designing men to
-assume. When Absalom, therefore, thought his scheme sufficiently ripe
-for execution, he desired leave of his father to go to Hebron, to
-perform a vow made by him while a refugee in Syria.* At Hebron he set
-up his standard, and his followers assembled in such numbers, and the
-defection was so general, that David thought it adviseable to retire
-from Jerusalem.**
-
-With him he took all his family and dependants, except ten concubines,
-whom he left in his palace to keep house.*** The priests, Zadock and
-Abiather, with the ark, would also have gone with him; but he thought it
-would be more for his service for them to remain in the city as spies;
-to send him intelligence how matters went.**** It is no inconsiderable
-part of politics to know how to suit men with proper employments,
-Ahitophel, his prime minister, joined the malecontents;(5)
-to balance which misfortune, David prevailed on Hushai, a trusty man of
-some importance, to remain in the city, that he might ingratiate
-himself with Absalom, thwart the counsels of Ahitophel, and transmit
-intelligence to him from time to time through the conveyance of the
-priests, whose sons were to carry on the correspondence.(6) Having
-concerted matters thus, he evacuated Jerusalem, and Absalom entered(7)
-it.
-
-When David was upon his journey from the city, he was met by Ziba,
-servant to Mephibosheth, with asses and provisions for his majesty's
-accommodation in his retreat:(8) of whom, when David enquired why
-Mephibosheth did not come with him; this treacherous servant told him
-that he staid behind at Jerusalem, hoping to obtain the kingdom of his
-grandfather, during this disturbance:(9) by which lying aspersion, he
-gained a grant of all his master's possessions.
-
-     * 2 Sam. xv. 7.
-
-     ** Ver. 12,14.
-
-     *** Ver. 16.
-
-     **** Ver. 27,28,
-
-     (5) Ver. 12, 31.
-
-     (6) Ver. 32, &c.
-
-     (7) Ver. 37,
-
-     (8) 2 Sam. xvi. 1.
-
-     (9) Ver. 3.
-
-Here we may introduce a circumstance, which is so far material, as it
-serves to shew, that the sanctity of David was not quite so universally
-assented to, as may be imagined, while he was living; and his actions
-not only fresh in memory, but more perfectly known, than possibly, was
-prudent to transmit to these distant ages.
-
-As David prosecuted his flight, he was met by a man of Saul's family,
-whose name was Shimei. This man as he came on, kept muttering curses
-between his teeth, and at length cast stones at the King and his
-attendants, calling out to him, "Come out, come out, thou bloody man,
-and thou man of Belial; the Lord hath returned upon thee all the blood
-of the house of Saul, in whose stead thou hast reigned, and the Lord
-hath delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son; and behold
-thou art taken in thy mischief because thou art a bloody man."* This is
-pathetic, and truly characteristic of the person to whom the speech
-was addressed. Some of his retinue were at the point of silencing; this
-brawler with the "ultima ratio regum;"** but David prevented
-it,*** wisely considering this not to be a season for proceeding to
-extremities.
-
-Absalom, in the mean time, being come to Jerusalem, like a buck of
-spirit, took the damsels which his father had left to keep house, and
-cuckolded the old man by way of bravado, on the top of it****; in a tent
-erected for this heroic purpose!
-
-Ahitophel advised Absalom to select twelve thousand men, and pursue
-David directly, before he had time to recover his surprize;(5) which was
-certainly the best resolution that could have been formed. But Hushai,
-as was concerted, proposed a different plan of operations; opposing to
-the former, the well known valour and military skill of the old king;
-and the hazard of making him and his men desperate.(6)
-
-     * 2 Sam. xvi 7, 8.
-
-     ** The motto on French cannon.
-
-     *** 2 Sam. xvi. 9, 10.
-
-     **** Ver. 21, 22.
-
-     (5) Chap. xvii. 1.
-
-     (6) Ver. 8.
-
-He advised a collection of all the troops in the kingdom; that success
-might be in a manner insured; and that Absalom should command them in
-person. By which means, he affirmed that they should overwhelm David and
-his party, wherever they found him.* Hushai gained the ascendancy; and
-when he knew that his scheme was accepted, he gave immediate notice to
-the priests:** with instructions for David how to conduct himself.***
-David divided his forces into three bodies; commanded by Joab, Abishai,
-and Ittai: but by the prudent care of his men, was not permitted to
-hazard his person, by being present in action.**** When he had reviewed
-his army, he gave his generals especial charge to preserve the life
-of Absalom; and with a policy that reflects honour upon his military
-knowledge, expected the enemy in the wood Ephraim:(5) a covert
-situation, being the most judicious that could be chosen, for a small
-army(6) to encounter one more numerous. David's men were tried veterans,
-among whom were the remains of those who served under, and lived with
-him at Gath;(7) whereas, Absalom's army must have consisted chiefly of
-fresh men. The battle decided in favour of David(8) with great slaughter
-of the rebel army: and as Absalom fled on a mule, his hair, which is
-celebrated for its beauty and quantity, entangled in the boughs of an
-oak, and he remained suspended in the air; while his mule ran away from
-between his legs.(9) He was observed in this condition by a man who went
-and told Joab; and he, who consulted the safety of David, rather than
-his parental weakness in behalf of an unnatural son, killed Absalom with
-a dart.(10)
-
-David grieved immoderately for this reprobate son, on whom he had
-misplaced a great affection:(11) and though he had _acted_ the mourner
-on several former occasions, this is the only one, in which his
-sincerity need not be questioned.
-
-     * 2 Sam. xiii. 11.
-
-     ** Ver. 15.
-
-     *** Ver. 16.
-
-     **** Chap. xviii. 1-3
-
-     (5) Ver. 4-6.
-
-     (6) According to Josephus, David had but four thousand men.
-
-     (7)  2 Sam. xv. 18.
-
-     (8) Chap. xviii. 7.
-
-     (9) Ver. 9.
-
-     (10) Ver. 14.
-
-     (11) Ver. 33., Chap. xix. 4.
-
-
-It is true, he might be really concerned at the murder of Abner; but men
-circumstances ought to be attended to; Abner was killed prematurely;
-he had not finished his treacherous negociation; David had much to hope
-from him; but--when his expectations had been answered, it is far from
-being improbable, that he would have found an opportunity himself to
-have got rid of a man, on whom he could have placed no reliance. But to
-return.
-
-David was roused from his lamentations by the reproaches of his
-victorious general,* who flushed with success, told him the truth, but,
-perhaps, told it too coarsely. It is evident that Joab now lost the
-favour of his master, which the murder of Abner, the killing Absalom in
-direct contradiction to David's express order; and lastly, his want of
-sympathy, and his indelicacy in the present instance, were the apparent
-causes.
-
-After the battle, he invited Amasa, Absalom's vanquished general, to
-return to his duty: very imprudently and unaccountably promising him the
-chief command of his army in the stead of Joab;** which was seemingly
-but an unthankful return for the victory that officer had just gained
-him, and for his attachment to his interest all along. Amasa, it is
-true, was a near relation; but Joab, according to Josephus, stood in
-the same degree of consanguinity; they being both the sons of David's
-sisters, this offer must therefore have been rashly influenced by his
-resentment against Joab, as before mentioned.
-
-The remains of Absalom's scattered army dispersed to their homes in
-the best and most private manner they could:*** but David inadvertantly
-plunged himself into fresh troubles, by causing himself to be conducted
-home by a detachment from the tribe of Judah.**** This occasioned
-disputes between that and the other tribes. They accused Judah of
-stealing their king from them.(5)
-
-     * 2 Sam. xix. 5-7.
-
-     ** Ver. 13.
-
-     *** Ver. 3,
-
-     **** Ver. 11, 15.
-
-     (5) Ver. 41.
-
-
-Judah replied, that they gave their attendance, because the king was of
-their tribe; and that it was their own free will:* the others rejoined
-that they had ten parts in the king, and that their advice should have
-been asked as to the bringing him back.** At this juncture, one Sheba
-took advantage of the discontent, "and blew a trumpet, and said, we have
-no part in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: every
-man to his tent, O Israel."*** The consequence of this, was a second
-insurrection. Amasa was ordered to assemble an army to suppress it;
-but not proceeding with the desired speed, Abishai was afterward
-commissioned with the same trust; Amasa and Abishai met and proceeded
-together, and were joined by Joab and his men. But Joab, not thoroughly
-liking to serve under a man he had so lately vanquished, and having as
-few scruples of conscience as his old master, made short work, stabbed
-Amasa, and reassumed the command of the whole army.****
-
-Being once again supreme in command, Joab proceeded directly to the
-reduction of the malecontents who shut themselves up in the city of Abel
-of Beth-maacha: he battered the town, but by the negociation of a woman,
-the inhabitants agreed to throw Sheba's head to him over the wall; which
-they performed;(5) and thus was quiet once more restored. Joab returned
-to Jerusalem, where we are told that he was general over all the host
-of Israel.(6) Not a syllable appears of any notice taken by David of
-the murder of the general by himself appointed: and of the assassin's
-usurping the command of the army.
-
-Not finding room in its proper place, it shall now be noticed, that
-when David was returning to Jerusalem from the reduction of Absalom's
-rebellion; with the men of Judah, who came to escort him, Shimei, the
-Benjamite,(7) joined him at the head of a party of his own tribe.
-
-     * 2 Sam. xix. 42.
-
-     ** Ver. 43.
-
-     *** Chap. xx. 1.
-
-     **** Ver. 7, 9.
-
-     (5) Ver. 15, 16, &c.
-
-     (6) Ver. 23.
-
-     (7) Ver. 16.
-
-
-This man, who at a former meeting, so freely bestowed his maledictions
-on David when a fugitive: upon this change of circumstances, reflecting
-on the king's vindictive temper, came now to make his submission: David
-accepted his acknowledgements, and confirmed his pardon with an oath.*
-
-We shall have occasion to refer to this passage anon.
-
-Mephibosheth came also to welcome David on his return, and undeceive him
-with regard to the false Ziba's representation of him;--but he appears
-to have met with no other redress, than a remittance of _half the grant_
-made to Ziba of his estate.**
-
-     * 2 Sam. xix. 28.
-
-     ** Ver. 29.
-
-These intestine troubles put David upon pondering how to secure himself,
-as far as he could forecast, from any future disturbance.
-
-It is the part of good politicians, not only to form wise designs
-themselves, but also to make proper advantage of public occurrences,
-that all events indiscriminately may, more or less, lead to the purposes
-wanted to be obtained. Of this policy we shall observe David to be
-mindful, in the ensuing transaction. Not that a panegyric upon his
-contrivance in this instance is by any means intended; for certainly
-a more barefaced transaction was never exhibited: such indeed as could
-only have been attempted among the poor bigoted Jews. It is sufficient,
-however, that it answered David's purpose; than which more could not
-have been expected from the most complete stroke that refined politics
-ever produced. But view it in a moral light, and certainly a blacker
-piece of ingratitude and perfidy can hardly be imagined. It was
-impossible to continue the narrative without prefacing thus much.
-
-David having with much trouble, from his competition with Ish-bosheth,
-established himself upon the Jewish throne; and having in the latter
-part of his reign been vexed, and driven to disagreeable extremities,
-by the seditious humour of his subjects, the rebellion of his own son
-Absalom, and the revolt of Sheba; his mind now fell a prey to suspicion.
-He called to remembrance that some of Saul's family were yet living;
-whom, lest they should hereafter prove thorns in his side, he concluded
-it expedient to cut of.
-
-Whenever David projected any scheme, a religious plea, and the
-assistance of his old friends,* were never wanting. A famine befel
-Judea, which continued three years: probably occasioned by the preceding
-intestine commotions. "David inquired of the Lord: and the Lord
-answered, it is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the
-Gibeonites."** But where is this crime recorded? Samuel charged Saul
-with no such slaughter: he reproached him with a contrary fault, an act
-of _mercy!_ which is assigned as one of the reasons for deposing him.
-So that this crime was not recollected,*** till many years after the man
-was dead! and then God punishes--whom? a whole nation, with three years
-famine: which, by the by, was not sent as a punishment neither; but
-merely as a hint of remembrance, which ended in hanging the late king's
-innocent children!
-
-The oracular response dictated no act of expiation; but only pointed out
-the _cause_ of the famine. So that the Gibeonites (who, by the way, had
-hitherto made no complaints that we know of) were applied to**** for a
-knowledge of what recompence they demanded.
-
-     * The prophets and priests.
-
-     ** 2 Sam. xxi. 1.
-
-     *** If God sought vengeance for a particular act of cruelty
-     perpetrated by Saul: when was vengeance demanded for David's
-     massacre of the Edomites, the Moabites, the Ammonites, the
-     Jebusites, and others, who at times became the object of
-     David's wrath? That the charge may allude to some former
-     affair, is not contested; it is, however, truly remarkable,
-     that there should be no chronological record of a fact,
-     which after such a length of time demanded an expiation so
-     awfully hinted, and so extraordinary in its circumstances!
-
-     **** 2 Sam. xxi. 2, 3.
-
-They required no gifts, neither that for their sakes David should kill
-any man in Israel (which qualifying expressions seems artfully intended;
-since they only required David to _deliver_ the men to _them_, that
-_they_ might kill them); but that seven of Saul's sons, should be
-surrendered to them, that they might hang them up--_unto the Lord_.*
-David, not withheld by any motives of gratitude toward the posterity of
-his unhappy father-in-law, but in direct violation of his oath at
-the cave of En-gedi,** granted the request he must himself have
-instigated,*** sparing only Mephibosheth, who luckily was so unfortunate
-as to be a cripple, and so much a dependant on David, and kept under
-his own eye, that he had no room for apprehension from him. He therefore
-reserved Mephibosheth, in memory of another oath between him and
-his father Jonathan. Mephibosheth having such a shocking scene to
-contemplate, and, considering his decrepitude, might (as he really was)
-with little hazard be preserved, as an evidence of probity in this pious
-king.
-
-A conscience of convenient flexibility is of great use: thus David being
-under obligation by two oaths, forgot one, and remembered the other.
-When Creon, in OEdipus, was interrogated concerning his conscience, he
-replied--
-
-     --"'Tis my slave, my drudge, my supple glove,
-     My upper garment, to put on, throw off,
-     As I think best: 'tis my obedient conscience."
-
-David, now thinking himself securely settled, was moved both by God****
-and by Satan,(5) to cause his subjects to be numbered: which is,
-oddly enough, imputed as a great sin in him to require: for, poor
-man, according to the premises, he was but a passive instrument in the
-affair.
-
-     * 2 Sam. 6.
-
-     ** 1 Sam. xxiv. 21, 22.
-
-     *** 2 Sam. xxi. 6.
-
-     **** Chap. xxiv. 1.
-
-     (5) 1 Chron. xxi. l.
-
-
-Even David should have his due. The prophet Gad called him to account
-for it; and as a punishment for this sin of compulsion, propounded to
-him for his choice three kinds of plagues, one of which _his subjects_
-thereby necessarily incurred seven years famine, three months
-persecution from enemies, or three days pestilence.* David chose the
-latter.
-
-It may be as well to decline this story, as to enter into, any more
-particular consideration of it. From the above state of the case, the
-intelligent reader will need no assistance in making his own private
-reflections on it.
-
-We have now attended David down to the decline of his life: when his
-natural heat so far decayed, that no addition of clothing** could retain
-a proper degree of warmth. His physicians prescribed a young woman to
-cherish him in his bed, by imparting to him a share of juvenile heat.***
-This remedy may be very expedient in cases of extreme age: but why
-beauty should be a necessary part of the prescription is difficult to
-conceive. They sought a _fair damsel_; and the damsel they found, was
-_very fair._**** Possibly David might himself direct the delicacy of
-the choice: but if his physicians intended it as a compliment to
-their master, it indicated a very insufficient knowledge of the animal
-oeconomy: thus to stimulate the old man, and harass a carcase already
-sufficiently worn out: whereas a virgin of homelier features, at the
-same time that she would have furnished an equal degree of warmth, would
-have been less liable to put wicked thoughts in the patient's head.(5)
-However, the historian has taken care to inform us, that "the king knew
-her not:"(6) an assertion, which, from the premises, there does not
-appear any reason to controvert.
-
-     * 2 Sam. xxiv. 13., 1 Chron. xxi. 12.
-
-     ** 1 Kings, i. 1.
-
-     *** Ver. 2.
-
-     **** Ver. 8, 4.
-
-     (5) "Boerhaave frequently told his pupils that an old German
-     prince, in a very infirm state of health, being advised to
-     lie between two young virtuous virgins, grew so healthy and
-     strong, that his physicians found it necessary to remove his
-     companions." Mackenzie on Health, p. 70, Notes.
-
-     (6) l Kings, i. 4.
-
-While the king lay in this debilitated extremity of life, he was
-destined to experience yet another mortification from his children.
-Adonijah his eldest son, since the death of Absalom, taking advantage
-of his father's incapacity, foolishly assumed the title of king,* which,
-had he been a little less precipitate, would have soon fallen to him,
-perhaps, without contest. For though David afterwards is represented as
-having secret intentions to alter the succession, yet the countenance
-shewn to his pretension by Joab, the general, by Abiathar the priest,
-and even by all his other brothers,** seem to indicate, that had
-Adonijah been more prudent, we should not now have heard so much of the
-wisdom of Solomon, It is possible Adonijah might, even as it was,
-have maintained his anticipated dignity, had he not, like Saul before,
-slighted his most powerful friends. He made an entertainment, to which
-he invited all his brothers, except Solomon;*** but what ruined him, was
-his not inviting Nathan the prophet; it was _there_ the grudge began:
-and the exclusion from this merry bout, and the confidence of the party,
-caused the prophet's loyalty to exert itself,**** which might probably
-have been suppressed by a due share of Adonijah's good cheer.
-
-     * Ver. 5.
-
-     ** Ver. 9, 19, 25.
-
-     *** Ver. 9, 10,
-
-     **** Ver. 11.
-
-Let not the writer be accused of putting a malicious construction upon
-every transaction he produces. Pray, reader, turn to your bible: in the
-tenth verse of the first chapter of the first book of Kings, you will
-find a remark that Nathan was not called to the feast. The very next
-verse begins, "Wherefore, Nathan spake unto Bathsheba, the mother of
-Solomon," &c. He was certainly nettled at the slight put on him, and
-some others, in not being invited to Adonijah's feast, else he would
-not have insisted on that circumstance; which had better been waved. The
-supposition is not so ridiculous as has been represented; for surely
-the probability of Nathan's being corrupted, was not less than that of
-David's sons; who, yet, all of them, except Solomon, (who, had he
-been invited, had some private reasons to the contrary, which their
-proceedings shew them to have been aware of) were agreeable to settling
-the succession on their elder brother; though certainly as much
-interested in the disposal of the kingdom, as Nathan could be.
-
-Nathan and Bathsheba concerted to inform David of this matter;* where
-the affronted prophet could not forget the slight put upon him; but,
-it being foremost in his mind, he insists upon the circumstance of
-exclusion, in an earnest manner; "But me, even me, thy servant, and
-Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and thy servant
-Solomon, hath he not called;"** which spake the cause of his officious
-loyalty but too plainly. David here acknowledges the promise by which
-he waved the right of primogeniture in favour of Solomon, Bathsheba's
-son.*** He now directed him to be set upon a mule, to be proclaimed and
-anointed king of Israel, by his appointment.**** The acclamations of the
-people upon this raree-shew disturbed the opposite party at their
-table; and an event, so unexpected, quite disconcerted them: they all
-dispersed;(5) Adonijah ran to the tabernacle, and took sanctuary at
-the altar. He obtained of Solomon a conditional promise of pardon,(6)
-depending on his good behaviour.(7)
-
-     * 1 Kings i. 13.
-
-     ** Ver. 26.
-
-     *** Ver. 30.
-
-     **** Ver. 33, 38.
-
-     (5) Ver. 41, 49, 50.
-
-     (6) Ver. 52.
-
-     (7) Solomon soon found a pretence, ridiculous enough, but
-     sufficient in his eyes, to get rid of Adonijah, when his
-     father was dead.
-
-
-And now, methinks, some gentlewoman, of more than feminine patience,
-whose curiosity may have prevailed with her to proceed thus for, may
-here exclaim; "It must be granted, Sir! that David had his faults; and
-who has not? but what does that prove? only that he was a man. If he
-was frail, his repentance was exemplary; as you may perceive, if you
-can prevail with yourself to read some of his psalms. Indeed, after your
-ill-treatment of the scripture, it will avail little to tell you that
-you contradict those inspired penmen, who expressly stile David, _the
-Man after God's own heart_. Nay, your writing against him, under that
-epithet, shews sufficiently the rancour and impiety of _your heart_; so
-that I am fearful there are small hopes of reclaiming you."--Good Madam!
-hear me calmly, and we shall part excellent friends yet. Had David not
-been selected from the rest of mankind, why then--it is possible--hardly
-possible--he might pass in the gross, with the rest of the Jewish kings.
-But, when he is exalted and placed in a conspicuous point of view, as an
-eminent example of piety! he then necessarily attracts our notice in an
-especial manner, and we are naturally led to wonder, that a more happy
-subject of panegyric had not been chosen. If he was an holy psalmist; if
-he is styled the Man after God's own heart; he also lived the life here
-exhibited: and his capability of uniting such contrarities, does but
-augment his guilt!
-
-Yet, even in his psalms, he frequently breathes nothing but blood,
-and the most rancorous resentment against his enemies. Of these take
-a specimen or two, from the elegant _ekeings_ out of that transcendent
-pair of geniuses, Messrs. Thomas Sternhold and John Hopkins; in
-recommendation of whose version, and the taste of our countrymen, it
-may be truly affirmed, that their psalms have gone through more editions
-than the works of any other poet, or brace of poets, whatever.
-
-Psalm lxviii. 22-24.
-
-     And he shall wound the head of all
-     His enemies also,
-     The hairy scalp of such as on
-     In wickedness do go.
-
-     From Basan 1 will bring, said he,
-     My people and my sheep,
-     And all my own, as I have done.
-     From dangers of the deep.
-
-     And make them dip their feet in blood
-     Of those that hate my name;
-     The tongues of dogs they shall be red
-     With licking of the same.
-
-
-Again, in Psalm lxix. 24--27.
-
-     Lord, turn their table to a snare,
-     To take themselves therein,
-     And when they think full well to fare,
-     Then rap them in their gin:
-     And let their eyes be dark and blind,
-
-     That they may nothing see;
-     Bow down their backs, and let them find
-     Themselves in thrall to be:
-     Pour out thy wrath as hot as fire,
-
-     That it on them may fall,
-     Let thy displeasure in thine ire
-     Take hold upon them all.
-     As desarts dry their house disgrace,
-     Their seed do thou expel,
-     That none thereof possess their place,
-     Nor in their tents once dwell.
-
-
-Very pious ejaculations for the whole congregation to _sing to the
-praise and glory of God!_
-
-David's failings, as they are qualifyingly termed, are generally
-mentioned as exceptions to the uniform piety of his character: but, if
-David ever performed any truly laudable actions, _those_ are the real
-exceptions to the general baseness which stains the whole of a life
-uncommonly criminal.
-
-The writer does not pledge himself to reconcile rapine and cruelty,
-with morality and religion; there are Commentators who love these knotty
-affairs; to them they are left. When the vindictive tenor of any of
-David's psalms has been insisted on, the translation is immediately
-censured; prudently enough; as every one who has sense to perceive
-the incongruity between such bloody wishes and denunciations, and the
-acknowledged purity and mercy of the All-beneficent Father of Nature,
-may not have learning enough to dispute about Hebrew points, and to make
-them point what meaning he pleases. However, such a one, by comparing
-the labours of Hebrew critics, may yet be enabled to form some sort of
-judgment between them. For instance, in that terrible 109th psalm, it
-is certain our Doctors in Divinity do not like it: but something must be
-done with it: some, therefore, say, that the verbs are not translated in
-their proper tenses, and that prophetic declarations are thus mistaken
-for the Psalmist's execrations: others again say, that to be sure they
-_are_ imprecations, but not the imprecations of David; but those of his
-enemies on him, which he there only relates! O happy men! why do not we
-all learn Hebrew? His exemplary repentance is pleaded; is it any where
-to be found but in the psalms? "By their fruits ye shall know them."
-If David was ever truly pious, we shall certainly perceive it in his
-behaviour on his death-bed. _There_, it is to be hoped, we shall find
-him forgiving his enemies, and dying in charity with all mankind. This
-is what all mankind in general make a point of, from the saint to the
-malefactor. David, therefore, must certainly give us an extraordinary
-instance of his attention to this important evidence of contrition,
-But what shall we think, when we see this Nero of the Hebrews die in a
-manner uniform and consistent with the whole course of his life? What
-will be our reflections, when we find him, with his last accents,
-delivering two cruel and inhuman murders in charge to his son Solomon?
-Murders still further aggravated by the included crimes of ingratitude
-and perjury! one of them to be executed on his old faithful general,
-Joab, who powerfully assisted him on all occasions, and who adhered to
-him in all his extremities, till at the last, when he had justifiable
-cause for chagrin: but who, notwithstanding, had not appeared against
-him in actual hostility; but only drank a glass of wine with the
-malcontents. It will avail nothing to plead the private faults of the
-man; we are now to consider him as relative to David, in his public
-capacity. In which light we must loath the master, who died meditating
-black ingratitude against so faithful, so useful a servant. For even
-his defection at last may, perhaps, admit of being interpreted into a
-patronization of that particular plan for the succession, rather than
-into a rebellion against the superannuated monarch.
-
-His other charge was against Shimei, who reviled David at his retreat
-from Jerusalem, during Absalom's rebellion; but who made his submission
-to him, when he returned victorious: and whose pardon David had sealed
-with a solemn oath.*
-
-Attend we now to the cause of these reflections. After exhorting Solomon
-on his death-bed, to keep the statutes of the Lord, David proceeds:
-
-"Moreover, thou knowest also what Joab, the son of Zeruiah, did to me,
-and what he did to the two captains of the hosts of Israel, unto Abner
-the son of Ner, and unto Amasa the son of Jether, whom he slew, and shed
-the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war upon his girdle that
-was about his loins, and in his shoes that were on his feet."
-
-"Do therefore according to thy wisdom, and let NOT HIS HOAR HEAD GO DOWN
-TO THE GRAVE IN PEACE."**
-
-This was afterwards fulfilled in the basest manner, by the administrator
-to this pious testament.
-
-David concludes thus:
-
-"And behold, thou hast with thee Shimei, the son of Gera, a Benjaminite
-of Bahurim, which cursed me with a grievous curse, in the day when I
-went to Mahanaim; but he came down to meet me at Jordan, and I sware to
-him by the Lord, saying, I will not put thee to death with the sword:
-
-"Now, therefore, hold him not guiltless: for thou art a wise man, and
-knowest what thou oughtest to do unto him; but his hoar head bring
-thou down to the grave with BLOOD."*** --That is to say, 'It is true, I
-promised not to put him to death, but thou art a wise man, and knowest
-what thou oughtest to do; thou knowest thyself not to be bound by that
-obligation; therefore his hoar head, &c. So saying, he expired!
-
-     * 2  Sam. xix. 23.
-
-     ** 1 Kings ii. 5, 6.
-
-     *** Ver. 8, 9.
-
-
-This command was also executed in a manner, worthy of a son of SUCH A
-FATHER.
-
-To take a retrospect view of the foregoing narrative; in few words may
-be seen the sum total of the whole. A shepherd: youth is chosen by
-a disgusted, prophet, to be the instrument of his revenge on an
-untractable king. To this, end he is inspired with ambitious hopes, by
-a private inauguration; is introduced to court, in the capacity of a
-harper; and by knocking down a man with a stone whom, if he had missed
-once, he had four more chances of hitting, and from whom, at the last,
-he could have, easily ran away; he was advanced to the dignity of
-son-in-law to the king. So sudden and unlooked for a promotion within
-sight of the throne, stimulated expectations already awakened; and Saul
-soon perceived reasons to repent his alliance with him. Being obliged to
-retire from the court, he assembled a gang of ruffians, the acknowledged
-outcasts of their country, and became the ringleader of a lawless
-company of banditti. In this capacity he seduces his brother-in-law,
-Jonathan, from his allegieance and filieal duty; and covenants with him,
-that if he obtained the kingdom, Jonathan should be the next person in
-authority under him.
-
-He obtains a settlement in the dominions of a Philistine prince where
-instead of applying himself laudably to the arts of cultivation he
-subsists by plundering and butchering the neighbouring nations.
-
-He offered his assistance to the Philistine armies, in a war against his
-own country, and father-in-law; and is much disgusted at their distrust
-of his sincerity. He however, availed himself of the defeat and death of
-Saul, and made a push for the kingdom.
-
-Of this he gained only his own tribe of Judah: but strengthened by this
-usurpation, he contested the remainder with Saul's son, Ishbosbeth,
-whom he persecuted to the grave: Ishbosbeth being assassinated by two
-villains, with intention to pay their court to the usurper. He is now
-king of Israel: In which capacity he plundered and massacred all his
-neighbours round him at discretion. He defiled, the wife of one of his
-officers, while her husband was absent in the army: and finding she was
-with child by him, He, to prevent a discovery, added murder to
-adultery; which being accomplished, he took the widow directly into his
-well-stocked seraglio. He then repaired to the army, where he treated
-the subjected enemies: with the most wanton inhumanity. A rebellion is
-raised against him by his son Absalom, which he suppressed, and invited
-over the rebel-general, to whom he gave the supreme command of his army,
-to the prejudice of the victorious Joab. After this, he cut off the
-remainder of Saul's family, in defiance to the solemn oath by which he
-engaged to spare that unhappy race; reserving only one cripple from whom
-he had not apprehensions: and who, being the son of Jonathan, gave him
-the opportunity of making a merit of his gratitude.
-
-When he lay on his death-bed, where all mankind resign their resentments
-and animosities, his latest breath was employed in dictating two
-posthumous murders to his son Solomon! and, as if one crime more was
-wanting to complete the black catalogue; he cloathed all his actions
-with the most consummate hypocrisy: professing all along the greatest
-regard for every appearance of virtue and holiness. These, Christians!
-are the outlines of the life of a Jew, whom you are not ashamed to
-continue extolling as a man after God's own heart!
-
-This Britons! is the king to whom your late excellent monarch* has been
-compared!
-
-     * George II.
-
-What an impiety to the Majesty of Heaven!
-
-What an affront to the memory of an honest prince! It is with great joy
-the writer of these memoirs takes his leave of a story, with which, by
-this time he is sufficiently disgusted. He entered upon it, however,
-from honest motives; and he concludes it with the consciousness of having
-performed a work, which he flatters himself will prove acceptable to
-all who entertain adequate conceptions of the eternal rectitude of that
-great Creator of the universe, whom they profess to adore. He despises
-all the pious ravings and anathemas which have been thundered against
-him by some reverend inquisitors: he expected them, has exposed them;
-and hopes he may, without offence finally reply in the words of their
-forgotten master, "Father forgive them, for they _know not_ what
-they do." Those who estimate a man's religion by his implicitness to
-prescribed notions, and who think it their duty to stifle their living
-objections in compliance to the dead letter; (for objections they will
-have, and very strong ones too) such have, and will undoubtedly
-be shocked at this publication. Such may produce numerous texts in
-opposition to what is here produced; and can inspired writers be
-inconsistent with themselves? It is not at present necessary to discuss
-that question. Argue that point among yourselves; the printer will at
-least profit by your disputes; though you may happen to
-
-     ----Explain a thing till all men doubt it.
-     And write about the subject, and about it:
-     So spins the silk-worm small its slender store,
-     And labours till it clouds itself all o'er.
-
-This, yet, is none of his concern. The love of truth is a motive
-which ought to supersede every other consideration: for every other
-consideration is subordinate in comparison with it. Truth requires no
-tenderness of investigation, and scorns all subterfuges. It is, when
-displayed,
-
-     ----divinely bright.
-     One dear, unchang'd, and universal light.
-
-To rescue truth, therefore, from obscurity and disguise, is the most
-rational way of giving
-
-_Glory to God in the highest; and on earth, peace: good-will toward
-men._
-
-
-
-
-
-
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-
-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of David, by Anonymous
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
-re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
-with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
-
-
-Title: The Life of David
-       Or, The History of The Man After God's Own Heart
-
-Author: Anonymous
-
-Release Date: October 8, 2012 [EBook #40980]
-Last Updated: January 26, 2013
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF DAVID ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by David Widger
-
-
-
-
-
-</pre>
-    <div style="height: 8em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h1>
-      THE LIFE OF DAVID
-    </h1>
-    <h2>
-      OR, THE HISTORY OF THE MAN AFTER GOD'S OWN HEART
-    </h2>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <h4>
-      Omnia probate, benum tenete.&mdash;S. P. <br /><br /><br /> Reprinted From
-      The Edition Op 1766. <br /><br /> London: <br /><br /> Printed And Published
-      By J. Carlile, 55, Fleet-Street.
-    </h4>
-    <p>
-      <br /> <br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <br /> <br />
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      To the REV. SAM. CHANDLER,
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      D.D. F.R. and A. SS.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      To whom, Sir, could the republication of this little history with more
-      propriety be addressed, than to a gentleman to whom it is under such
-      considerable obligations? When it first appeared, it was honoured with
-      your notice in an especial manner; and is not a little benefited by your
-      <i>labours</i>. You, Sir, with a <i>careful</i> hand noted its errors; and
-      what has stood the test of your strictures is certainly established with
-      additional authority. Whatever might be the motives which influenced <i>so
-      vigorous</i> an exertion of your <i>learned</i> and <i>critical</i> powers&mdash;powers
-      so universally acknowledged and respected, the author of this piece will
-      not now inquire: it is sufficient to him, that they operated to the
-      extending the knowledge of his tract, among that class of readers who
-      stood most in need of the information it furnished; and he is persuaded
-      you will with pleasure hear his assurances, that the work owes no small
-      share of what approbation it may have gained, to your <i>elaborate review</i>
-      of it. Several worthy pious persons having candidly declared in private
-      conversation, (and unknowingly to the author himself) that the perusal of
-      your book really strengthened the facts advanced in the history. For this,
-      therefore, he considers you as entitled to his thanks; and that his
-      acknowledgments might be as public as the obligation, no method of
-      conveyance seemed more proper, than to prefix them to this new Edition of
-      "<i>The History of the Man after God's own Heart.</i>"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He scorns, Sir, to follow the practice of Dedicators in common, who, from
-      venal motives, surfeit their patrons with fulsome adulation: he will not,
-      therefore, call the blushes into your countenance, by expressing his
-      private sentiments of your <i>learned</i> Review of this Historical
-      Sketch, farther than by one observation; which is, that had you been
-      totally unknown in the republic of letters before, your apology for the
-      death of Uriah would alone have raised your literary fame beyond the power
-      of envious detraction. However, not to offend your modesty, he desists
-      from farther encomiums; but with a wish that you may long live to enjoy
-      the reputation acquired by so <i>laudable</i> a performance, he concludes
-      with subscribing himself,
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Sir, your greatly obliged, and very humble Admirer.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /> <br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <br /> <br />
-    </p>
-    <blockquote>
-      <p class="toc">
-        <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
-      </p>
-      <p>
-        <br />
-      </p>
-      <p class="toc">
-        <a href="#link2H_PREF"> PREFACE. </a>
-      </p>
-      <p class="toc">
-        <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> THE LIFE OF DAVID. </a>
-      </p>
-    </blockquote>
-    <p>
-      <br /> <br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_PREF" id="link2H_PREF">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      PREFACE.
-    </h2>
-    <p>
-      Some reverend panegyrists* on our late king,** have, a little
-      unfortunately, been fond of comparing him with a monarch in no respect
-      resembling him; except in the length of his reign, thirty and three years:
-      which a lucky text informed them to be the duration of David's sovereignty
-      over the Hebrew nation. Had our good old king died a year sooner, or had
-      we been indulged with him a year longer, the opportunity of applying this
-      text would then have been lost; and in either case we might not have heard
-      of the parallel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      A reverence for the memory of a worthy Prince, has occasioned the world's
-      being troubled with a new history of king David, (which, otherwise might
-      not have appeared) merely to shew how the memory of the British monarch is
-      affected by the comparison.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right?" is the language of
-      Jesus Christ. "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good;" is the
-      language of the apostle Paul. The liberty thus granted is unlimited; but
-      it is more than mere grant of liberty, these are positive injunctions: let
-      no one then be so timid as to resign an inclination to satisfy just
-      doubts: in Britain, thanks to the obstinate heresy of our brave
-      forefathers, no audacious Romish priest dare prescribe limits to the
-      exercise of our reasoning faculties; and Protestant ones surely will not:
-      nay, they cannot, consistently with those principles which justify their
-      dissent from the Romish communion. An honest desire to obtain truth, will
-      sanctify the most rigid scrutiny into every thing. An apostle has told us,
-      that we are not to believe even an angel from Heaven, who should preach
-      any other gospel than that of Christ;* and, no authority can be so sacred,
-      as to set aside the <i>most valuable distinction of humanity</i>, with
-      which our Creator has furnished us; or to give the lie to our most
-      self-evident conceptions of right and wrong.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * Dr. Chandler, Mr. Palmer and others.
-
-     **  George the IId.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      If that liberty, of which Britons boast the possession, means any thing,
-      it must primarily include freedom of thought; without which there can be
-      no freedom of action. Thus it must mean an uncontrolled power to examine
-      the validity of every proposition offered to our assent; without which
-      power, and the due exercise of it, our assent cannot be the assent of
-      rational beings. If the reformed religion means any thing, it must mean a
-      religion founded by the authority, not of councils and synods, but of
-      conviction, the result of private judgment. True Protestants do not puzzle
-      themselves about the decisions of Trent, Constance, or Dort; they protest
-      against all authoritative dictates; disciples of the meek, the lowly, the
-      humane Jesus, they seek of themselves to judge of right or wrong. Who is
-      most the Protestant, the friend to human kind, and to truth? Those who
-      appeal to the human understanding, and submit to the public judgment
-      whether things are really so or not; or those who say, they are so, they
-      shall be so, you shall acknowledge them to be so, or else&mdash;&mdash;?
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * Galatians i. 8.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      Let not weak-minded Christians who think truth not able to maintain its
-      authority without legal enforcements, lament what they call licentious
-      abuses of that liberty on which we are happy to congratulate ourselves:
-      injudicious productions of the pen will always meet the treatment they
-      deserve. Fallacious pretensions to reasoning cannot deceive mankind in
-      these liberal times; nor can truth be obscured, when the attention of
-      honest inquiries after it, is properly exerted. If the little historical
-      sketch which follows, and which in fact, exhibits no more than what we
-      have all daily read, without presuming to decide upon; if it really is
-      that audacious calumny which many roundly affirm it to be; it will
-      doubtless be considered as such: if, on the contrary, it contains
-      undeniable matters of fact, fallaciousness will appear in the angry
-      objections against it; and the writer trusts, the futility of such
-      objections, have already been made sufficiently apparent.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The name of David has never been mentioned by divines but with the
-      greatest respect, from the time in which he lived to the present day; and
-      he is always quoted as an illustrious example of holiness! so illustrious,
-      that the greatest instance of purity that ever existed on earth, was
-      frequently saluted by way of eminence, in reference to him, <i>Son of
-      David!</i> so illustrious, that on the death of the late king of Great
-      Britain, many sermons were preached and published, in which, parallels are
-      drawn betwixt him and this standard of piety, in order to justify
-      encomiums on the former, by declaring how nearly he resembled the latter.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In what manner David first acquired, and has ever since maintained, this
-      extraordinary reputation, is not difficult to deduce, he was advanced, by
-      an enraged prophet, from obscurity to the Hebrew throne; and taught by the
-      fate of the unhappy monarch who was raised in the same manner, whom he
-      supplanted, and whose family he crushed, he prudently attached himself to
-      the cause of his patrons,* and they were the trumpeters of his fame. The
-      same order of men, true to their common cause, have continued to sound the
-      praise of this church-hero from generation to generation, unto the present
-      time: in like manner the grand violator of the English constitution
-      obtained the epithet of <i>holy Martyr</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      A new scrutiny being made, however, into David's claim to sanctity, which,
-      notwithstanding a very learned defence of him, turned out so greatly to
-      his dishonour; the scene has been shifted by a few whose sense has
-      overbalanced their bigotry by two or three scruples. Some such, like Sheba
-      of old, blow the trumpet and cry, "We have no part in David, neither have
-      we inheritance in the son of Jesse!" In this manner have some clerical
-      weather-cocks veered about to an opposite point of the compass; and David,
-      who, till now has been considered as a man who "did that which was right
-      in the eyes of the Lord, and turned not aside from any thing that he
-      commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah
-      the Hittite," has, by one stroke of politics, been resigned to the mercy
-      of his detectors; and the importance of the detection endeavoured to be
-      annihilated, as the easier task; all which appears with rather an ill
-      grace, at a time when it is manifestly extorted.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * The Prophets and Priest.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      Thus much being premised relating to the conduct of the champions for
-      orthodoxy, on the occasion of this little squib which has produced so much
-      bustle in the clerical hives, proceed we to say something of the tract
-      itself.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The intention was, without any regard to remote objects, or heed of future
-      consequences, which in fact ought <i>never</i> to be considered in
-      investigating any point; to give a fair undisguised narrative of the life
-      and transactions of David, king of Israel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      This, however, was not so easy to perform, as it was to project; from
-      three difficulties which impeded the execution.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      1. It is not easy to conquer the early prejudices of education in favour
-      of the Hebrew nation; which the careful inculcation of their story during
-      our infancy, hinders our seeing in a proper light: so that relations which
-      might shock humanity in what is called prophane history, are read without
-      any emotion but that of reverence, in <i>this</i>. This misconception is
-      in great measure assisted.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      2. By their History being written <i>by themselves</i>: and difficult to
-      be corrected.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      3. By the broken unconnected manner in which it is transmitted down to us:
-      which renders it impossible to give a complete narrative of any period in
-      it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      A common share of humanity, which a little attention to common sense
-      enabled the author to extend to every nation under Heaven as the objects
-      of it, relieved him from the first of these difficulties: to overcome the
-      other two, he has assumed the liberty of giving <i>his</i> sense to what
-      appears dark, or misrepresented; which he hopes will not be denied him, so
-      long as it is not found that a forced construction is put upon any thing
-      cited; or, that it is represented in any other light than what it
-      naturally appears in, when considered with the freedom, which it is our
-      duty to use in the examination of every historical record.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      And lest it should be imagined that too great liberties are taken with the
-      biblical writers; it may not be amiss to mention once for all, that
-      innumerable instances might be produced, to shew that the authority of <i>the
-      Lord</i>, so continually quoted to sanctify every transaction related;
-      constituted for the most part, nothing more than national phrases, which
-      obtained universally among so bigoted a people as on all occasions the
-      Jews appear to have been: one-twelfth part of whom were appropriated to
-      the priesthood! A phraseology in some measure similar obtained in England,
-      at that time, when shunning the cruel talons of papacy, the people rushed
-      into the jaws of wild enthusiasm. That the sense in which the acts of
-      David are here understood, is the most obvious and natural, appears from
-      the amazing pains it has occasioned his champions, to force another upon
-      them. Of this, the Life of David, by Dr. Delany, is a most remarkable
-      instance; but the gross palliations, puerile conjectures, and mean shifts
-      to which he has been driven, prove the difficulty of the task; while they
-      are too frivolous to bias any, but the most <i>Catholic believers</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Mr. Stockhouse, in his History of the Bible, has urged arguments against
-      particular passages, under the title of <i>Objections</i>; so cogent, that
-      <i>his answers</i> to them, certainly could not be satisfactory even to
-      himself.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dr. Chandler has lately added his name to the list of David's apologists.
-      Strange! that so holy a king should need the exertion of so much learned
-      and critical dexterity, to establish his fame for goodness of heart! This
-      gentleman's performance, which was published as a reply to the first
-      edition of the present work, is a very extraordinary piece; and shews
-      that, great learning is no security for soundness of judgment. The
-      Doctor's book has been considered in a letter addressed to him, and
-      published separately; to which the reader is referred for an examination
-      into the merits of his arguments. In answering the Doctor, new lights
-      opened on many occurrences, which, as far as they could be detached from
-      that particular controversy, are taken into the present edition.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The best of kings is a title which adulation and servility have always
-      conferred on the most contemptible, as well as the most detestable
-      tyrants; and the frequency of its application to the object is ever in
-      proportion as he is undeserving of it. Had the flattering sycophants of
-      king David been satisfied with applying to him this common-place
-      appellation, rational men, who form their conclusions from the result of
-      general experience, would have inferred only that he had been one of the
-      numerous herd of bad princes who have oppressed mankind, and there would
-      have been nothing peculiar either in the fact or the inference. But when
-      the extremity of adulation conferred on David the title of <i>The Man
-      after God's own heart</i>, thinking men, who know the source from which
-      such adulation ever flows, are prepared to expect, in the development of
-      his history, a character pre-eminently wicked, and in this they are not
-      deceived.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      All historians of credit agree in describing <i>God's chosen people</i>,
-      the <i>Jews</i>, as the most vicious and detestable of mankind;* their own
-      historians confirm this character of them, and the whole series of facts
-      which constitute their history, prove it beyond a possibility of doubt.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * Tacitus describes the Jewish people as formed of the worst
-     outcasts of the surrounding nations, collected together by
-     Moses, and kept for ever separated from the rest of mankind,
-     by an opposition of manners, and hostility of sentiment. Nam
-     passimus quisque, spretis religionibus patriis, tributa et
-     stipes illuc congerebant; unde auctæ Judeorum res&mdash;ad versus
-     omnes alios hostile odium&mdash;transgressi in morem eorum, idem
-     usurpent; nec quidquam prius imbuuntur quam contemnere Deos,
-     exuere patriam; arentes, liberos, fratres, vilia habere.&mdash;
-     Ticiti Hist. Lib. v.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      Among <i>the chosen people of God</i>&mdash;the most depraved of all
-      nations&mdash;it is pretty certain that the worst and wickedest man of
-      that nation was David, <i>The Man after God's own heart</i>. The truth of
-      this proposition will be abundantly proved in the following short history.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      A question will here naturally present itself, how the Jews became so much
-      more vicious and depraved than their neighbours? And to resolve that
-      question, it will be necessary to consider in what respects their laws and
-      customs differed from those of others. It will be found that they differed
-      most essentially from all other nations in the world in two particulars:
-      1st. They had more religion than any other nation; and, 2dly. They had
-      more priests. Other nations among whom superstitious rites and ceremonies
-      prevailed, were satisfied with practising them on solemn festivals, and
-      occasionally on particular or important events; but the Jews practised
-      their superstition incessantly: none of the common duties, or ordinary
-      functions of life, could be performed by them, without a reference to the
-      rules of their superstition; they were bound to a strict observance of
-      them whenever they ate, drank, or performed any other of the natural
-      functions.* **
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * Moses quo sibi in posterum gentem firmaret, novos ritus
-     coutrariosque ceteris mortalibus indidit; profana illic
-     omnia, quae apud nos sacra; rursum concessa apud illos, quæ
-     nobis incesta.&mdash;Seperati epulis, discreti cubilibus,
-     projectissima ad libidinem gens, aliena rum cubitu
-     abstinent, inter se nihil illicitum, circumcidere genitalia
-     instituere, ut diversitate noscanttir.&mdash;Taciti Hist. Lib. v.
-     It is impossible to draw a more disgusting picture of a
-     nation than this elegant and correct historian, in
-     describing the Jews.
-
-     ** The Romans, though so numerous and powerful a nation, had
-     but very few priests, compared to the Jews. The Augurs were
-     at first only 3, and in process of time were increased to
-     15. The Arnspices were 12. The Pontifices were at first but
-     4, and were afterwards increased to 10. The Flamines were
-     but 3. The Sàlit 12. The Feciales, who were 20 in number,
-     though classed by authors among the priesthood, were merely
-     civil officers employed as heralds. And the Vestals, or Nuns
-     of Rome, were only 4; altogether between 50 and 60. Vide
-     Kennett's Roman Antiq. And yet Saint Austin, De Cevitate
-     Dei, Lib. iv. cap. 15, admits that the Romans were so
-     virtuous, that God gave them the empire of the world because
-     they were more virtuous than other nations, vet, with true
-     Christian charity, he says, that they must nevertheless he
-     damned as heathens. We do not find that the priests of other
-     enlightened nations of antiquity were proportionality much
-     more numerous than amoung the Romans. In England at present
-     the number of the priesthood cannot be much less than
-     20,000; there are near 10,000 parishes, each having one
-     priest at least, several two, and some three or more,
-     exclusive of Deans and Chapters, Prebends, &amp;c. &amp;c. and all
-     these in the established church, as it is called, exclusive
-     of a great variety of other sectaries of different
-     denominations.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      Other nations had a few priests dedicated to their gods or idols, seldom
-      exceeding a few dozen in a whole nation but the Jewish priesthood
-      constituted a twelfth part of the whole people, and claimed and exercised
-      the privilege of devouring a tenth part of the produce of the country,
-      without contributing any thing to its productive labour.* And it is
-      probable that the Jewish nation alone, though but a miserable handful of
-      semi-barbarous savages, had more priests than the rest of the then known
-      world collectively, and were consequently more vicious and more enslaved
-      than any other people.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * The Jewish priesthood being one tribe, or twelfth part of
-     the nation, do not appear to have assumed to themselves much
-     more than an equal proportion, compared to their numbers, in
-     taking the tithe or tenth part of the produce of the land,
-     however unjust it may appear that they should be supported
-     in idleness at the expence of the industry of the rest: but
-     the English priesthood, though abundantly numerous, do not
-     form above one five-hundredth part of the whole nation, yet
-     they have the conscience to take also the tenth of the whole
-     produce, which is near fifty times more than their just
-     share, according to the proportion of their romish models,
-     from whose example they pretend to derive them.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      Mankind have been too long duped by that universal <i>cant</i> of priests,
-      who, in their language, have ever affected to couple <i>religion and
-      morality</i> together, and to represent them as <i>inseparably united</i>,
-      though the slightest attention must show that they are perfectly <i>distinct</i>,
-      and a full and mature consideration of the subject must prove that they
-      are even extremely <i>opposite</i>. They well knew that man, in the most
-      abject state of mental degradation to which superstition could reduce him,
-      must still acknowledge the force and excellence of virtue and morality,
-      and must perceive their necessary tendency to promote his welfare and
-      happiness. They well knew how useful to their own views and interests it
-      would be to persuade him that religion, virtue, and morality, were one and
-      the same, or, at least, intimately and inseparably connected; the
-      credulity of man gave credit to the imposture without examination, and the
-      uniform experience of above 2,000 years has not hitherto been sufficient
-      to undeceive him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Unhappy man! destined for ever to be the dupe of his own credulity, in
-      opposition to the testimony of his experience, and the evidence of his
-      senses. Does not the history of all ages show, that the most religious
-      nations have always been, and still are, the most vicious and immoral!
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Another most formidable evil necessarily results from such a system of
-      superstition, that is, a state of civil slavery, which is always found its
-      universal concomitant. Whenever the human mind is debased and degraded by
-      a system of gross superstition, it becomes incapable of any one manly,
-      liberal, or independent sentiment; every energy of the mind is lost,
-      reason is surrendered, virtue, the chief support, if not the sole
-      foundation of freedom, is banished, and man is fitted to receive the
-      abject yoke of slavery; tyranny and despotism make an easy conquest of
-      him, and the priest is ever ready to rivet his chains, and perpetuate his
-      bondage, by the pretended sanction of Heaven. The power and influence of
-      the priest and the tyrant is ever in proportion to the debasement of man;
-      they have a common interest, have ever made a common cause against him,
-      and have constantly erected their common throne on the ruins of his
-      freedom, his welfare, and his happiness.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Let us not, therefore, be deterred from unmasking to the view of mankind
-      that immense mass of vice and depravity which constitute the foundation of
-      the Jewish superstition; let no blind veneration for that hideous idol
-      deter us from exposing its deformity; let us cultivate that which is truly
-      good and useful; let reason assume her just empire over the mind of man,
-      and credulity, ignorance, and folly, abdicate their usurped dominion: then
-      shall we soon behold the galling fetters of vice and superstition broken
-      by the irresistible power of virtue, morality, and truth.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /> <br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      THE LIFE OF DAVID.
-    </h2>
-    <p>
-      The first establishment of regal government among the Hebrews, was
-      occasioned by the corrupt administration of Joel and Abiah, the two sons
-      of Samuel, whom he had deputed to judge Israel in the decline of his
-      life.* The people, exasperated at the oppression they laboured under,
-      applied to Samuel for redress, testifying a desire to experience a
-      different mode of government, by peremptorily demanding a king.** At this,
-      however, Samuel was greatly displeased: not that his sons had tyrannized
-      over the people, for of that he takes no manner of notice, neither
-      exculpating them, nor promising the people redress; his chagrin arose from
-      this violent resumption of the supreme magistracy out of the hands of his
-      family; a circumstance for which he expresses great resentment.*** He
-      consults the Lord, and not knowing else how the insurrection might
-      terminate, in his name yields to their desires; promising them a king with
-      vengeance to them.**** "For,"(5) says the Lord, "they have not rejected
-      thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them."(6)
-      The people, nevertheless, resolving to free themselves from present
-      oppression, at the hazard of the threatened judgments, obstinately
-      persisted in their demand, and dispersed not without a promise of
-      compliance.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * 1 Sam. viii. 3.
-
-     ** Ver. 5.
-
-     *** Ver. 6, &amp;c.
-
-     **** Ver. 11, &amp;c.
-
-     (5) Ver 7, compared with chap. ix.
-
-     (6) Chap. x. 1.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      Samuel, to all outward appearance, chose the most impartial method of
-      choosing a king, which was by lot, from among the people assembled by
-      tribes; but prudently pitches upon his man, previous to the election; the
-      whole tenor of his conduct manifesting, that he intended to give them a
-      king in name, but still to retain the supreme authority in his own hands,
-      by choosing one who should continue subordinate to his dictates.
-      Opportunely for his purpose, a young countryman, named Saul, having
-      rambled about to seek his fathers asses, which had strayed, and finding
-      all search after them vain, applied to Samuel as a prophet,* with a fee in
-      his hand, to gain intelligence of his beasts.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      We gather from several passages in Jewish history, that there were
-      seminaries of prophets, i.e. the universities of the times, where youth
-      were trained up to the mystery of prophesying. We find there were false
-      prophets, nonconformists, not of the establishment; we find that even the
-      true ones were liable to be imposed on by their brethren;** and we find
-      moreover, by this instance, that prophets did not disdain to give
-      assistance in their prophetical character, concerning domestic matters,
-      for reasonable gratuities. A chief among the prophets, one who had been a
-      judge over Israel, is applied to in a pecuniary way, for intelligence
-      concerning lost cattle.***
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * 1 Sam. ix. 7, 8.
-
-     ** 1 Kings, xiii. 18., Josephus in loco.
-
-     *** Pretensions to divinations continue to this day, though,
-     in the opinion of reformed churches, all prophesying and
-     miracles have long since ceased. These modern prophets are
-     drolly ridiculed by our facetious countryman, Butler, in the
-     person of Sydrophel, a dealer,
-
-          "In Destiny's dark counsel?,
-          Who sage opinions of the moon sells;
-          To whom all people, far and near,
-          On deep importances repair.
-          When brass or pewter hap to stray,
-          Or linen slinks out of the way;
-          When geese and pullen are seduc'd,
-          And sows of sucking pigs are chous'd:
-          When cattle feel indisposition,
-          And need th' opinion of physician;
-          When murrain reigns in hogs or sheep,
-          And chickens languish of the pip;
-          When yeast and outward means do fail,
-          And have no power to work on ale;
-          When butter does refuse to come.
-          And love proves cross and humoursome;
-          To him with questions and with urine,
-          They for discov'ry flock, or curing.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      It has been said, that this is the only instance recorded of a prophet
-      being applied to for purposes of this nature; but it appears that it was
-      usual for men to have recourse to prophets, and that the phrase was,
-      "Come, and let us go to the seer;"* and that prophetical intelligence was
-      paid for, is evident from the inquiry between Saul and his servant,
-      concerning their ability to gratify him.**
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      But, to proceed: Saul not only found his asses, but a kingdom into the
-      bargain; and had the spirit of the Lord given;*** to him which we find
-      taken away**** again, when he proved untractable: though it seems somewhat
-      odd, how he could possibly prove disobedient, while he acted under the
-      influence of this Divine Spirit! For, the possibility being admitted, the
-      advantage of inspiration is difficult to be conceived.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      After Samuel had in private(5) anointed Saul king, and told him his asses
-      were already found, he dismissed him for the present. He then assembled
-      the people for the election of a king: at which assembly, behold, the lot
-      fell on the tribe of Benjamin; and in that, on the family of Matri; and
-      finally, on Saul, the son of Kish.(6) An election somewhat resembling
-      consistories for the appointment of bishops; where the person being
-      previously fixed on, God is solemnly prayed to for a direction of their
-      choice.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * 1 Sam. ix. 9.
-
-     ** Ver. 7, 8.
-
-     *** Ch.x. 6.
-
-     **** Ch. xvi. 19.
-
-     (5) Ch. x. 1.
-
-     (6) Ch. x. 20, 21.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      It is not intended here to give a detail of the reign of king Saul; the
-      notice hitherto taken of him being merely because the life of David could
-      not be properly introduced without mentioning the alteration of
-      government, and the manner in which monarchy was established in Israel:
-      since Samuel's disappointment in Saul, naturally leads to his similar
-      choice of David.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The disobedience of Saul, in daring to sacrifice without his patron the
-      prophet,* who failed of coming according to his appointment; and his
-      lenity and prudence, in sparing the king, and some cattle, from a nation
-      which Samuel, in the name of the Lord, had commanded him utterly to
-      extirpate,** irrevocably lost him the favour of this imperious inexorable
-      prophet: and, in the end, produced the miserable destruction not only of
-      himself, but of his family: which will occasion no surprise, when we
-      consider the absolute dominion and ascendency which the Jewish priests
-      maintained over this ignorant superstitious people. A dominion which every
-      article in the Levitical law enlarged and strengthened.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      We are not to imagine that the sparing Agag, king of the Amalekites, was
-      the only cause of this rupture between him and Samuel. For we may gather
-      from other parts of his history, that Saul was not over-well affected
-      towards his patrons the Levites;*** in subjection to whom he had too much
-      spirit to continue. Samuel quickly perceived he had mistaken his man, he
-      haughtily avowed his intention of deposing him;**** and ordering Agag to
-      be brought into his presence, he hewed him in pieces&mdash;"before the
-      Lord."(5)
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * 1 Sam. xiii. 8-14.
-
-     ** Ch. xv. 3.
-
-     *** Ch. 22.18,19. and Ch. xxviii. 9.
-
-     **** Ch. xiii. 14. xv. 26. 28.
-
-     (5) Ver. 33., Ch. xvi. 13.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      We now come to the hero of the history.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In pursuance of his intention to make another king, Samuel went under the
-      pretence of a sacrifice, and anointed another country youth, which was
-      David, the youngest son of Jesse, the Bethlehemite; and gave him the
-      spirit of the Lord, which he had just taken from poor Saul. The king, in
-      the mean time, reflecting on the precariousness of his situation, now that
-      the priests, on the part of Samuel, were incensed against him; and well
-      knowing their influence among his subjects, fell into a melancholy
-      disorder of mind,* which his physicians were unable to remove.**
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      This was artfully made the occasion of introducing David to court. The
-      king was advised to divert himself with music; and David was contrived to
-      be recommended to him for his skill on the harp.*** Saul accordingly sent
-      to Jesse, to request his son; which was immediately complied with: and
-      David was detained at court, in the capacity of the king's
-      armour-bearer.**** Here the story begins to grow confused, beyond <i>lay</i>-skill
-      to reconcile. A war with the Philistines is abruptly introduced; in the
-      midst of the relation of which, we are abruptly informed that David
-      returned from Saul to feed his father's sheep(5) again; from whence his
-      father sent him with provisions for his brothers, who were in the army.(6)
-      What can be thought of this? Jesse hardly recalled his son from the
-      honourable post of armour-bearer to the king; it is not likely that he was
-      turned off, since we afterwards find him playing on the harp to the king,
-      as before;(7) neither was it proper employment for the king's
-      armour-bearer to be feeding sheep, when the army was in the field, and his
-      majesty with them in person! Why&mdash;the most easy method is to take it
-      as we find it; to suppose it to be right, and go quietly on with the
-      story.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In the Philistine army was a man of extraordinary size, named Goliah, who
-      came out of their camp, day by day, challenging and defying any one among
-      the Hebrews to single combat, and to rest the decision of their quarrel
-      upon the event; an offer which no one among the Israelites was hitherto
-      found hardy enough to accept.(8)
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     *1 Sam. xvi. 14.
-
-     ** Josephus.
-
-     *** 1 Sam. xvi. 18.
-
-     **** Ver. 21.
-
-     (5) Ch. xvii. 15.
-
-     (6) Ch. xvii. 17.
-
-     (7) Ch. xviii. 10.
-
-     (8) Ch. xvii. 4, &amp;c.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      David is said to have arrived at the army just as it was forming for
-      engagement; at which time the giant advanced as before, with reproachful
-      menaces; and, after having enquired carefully concerning what reward would
-      be given to the conquerer of this giant, and learning that great riches
-      and the king's daughter were to be the prizes of conquest, David
-      courageously declared before Saul his acceptance of the challenge,*
-      notwithstanding the contempt with which his offer had been treated.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Saul, relying on the youth's ardour and assurance of victory, girded his
-      own armour on him:** but David put it off again, trusting entirely to a
-      pouch of stones, and his own skill in slinging.*** The success answered
-      his hopes, and stamped, what would otherwise have been deemed a rash
-      undertaking, with a more respectable name; he knocked Goliath down with a
-      stone; then ran in upon him, cut his head off with his own sword, and
-      brought it triumphantly to the king of Israel.**** The consequence was the
-      defeat of the 'Philistines.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Here we meet with another stumbling-block. For, though Saul, as has
-      already been observed, had sent to Jesse expressly for his son David;
-      though David had played to him on the harp; though Saul had again sent to
-      Jesse, to desire that David might be permitted to stay with him; and in
-      consequence of this had given him a military appointment about his person;
-      though he had now a fresh conference with him; had just placed his own
-      suit of armour on him; and though all the occurrences must have happened
-      within a small space of time, yet his memory is made so to fail him on a
-      sudden, that he knew nothing either of David, or his parentage! but while
-      David went to meet the giant, he enquired of others, who proved as
-      ignorant as himself, whose son(5) the stripling was? This stumbling-block
-      must likewise be stepped over, for it is not removeable.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     *1 Sam. xvii. 32.
-
-     ** Ver. 38.
-
-     *** Ver. 40.
-
-     ****Ver. 49.
-
-     (5) Ver. 55., Ch. xviii. 3.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      The reputation which this gallant action procured to David, soon gained
-      him advancement in the army, and a warm friendship with Saul's son,
-      Jonathan. But the inordinate acclamations of the people, on account of the
-      death of the Philistine giant, "Saul hath slain his thousands, and David
-      his ten thousands;"* a rhodomontade out of measure extravagant, when we
-      compare the two subjects of the contrast, justly occasioned Saul to view
-      David with a jealous eye. We have all the reason in the world to believe
-      that Samuel and the priests made every possible advantage of an adventure
-      so fortunate for their intended king, to improve his growing popularity,
-      which even at its outset had so far exceeded all bounds of decency:
-      "What," said Saul, "can he have more but the kingdom?"** and we may
-      therefore conclude that the king saw enough to alarm him; for we are told,
-      that "Saul eyed David from that day and forward,"***Thus we find that on
-      the following day, while David played as usual on his harp before Saul,
-      the king cast a javelin at him,**** which David avoided. Saul then made
-      him captain over a thousand, saying, "Let not mine hand be upon him, but
-      let the hand of the Philistines be upon him," an expression however which
-      is evidently put into Saul's mouth, since it is impossible he could have
-      made use of it openly. He made him the offer of his daughter Merab for his
-      wife, in consequence of the defeat of Goliah; but she, we know not why,
-      was given to another;(5) afterwards he gave him Michal: and David's
-      modesty (6) on this occasion was incomparably well acted; he knowing
-      himself, at the same time, to be secretly intended for the kingdom by
-      Samuel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Saul, upon reflection, concluding it dangerous to execute any open act of
-      violence against this young hero, politically hoped to ensnare him, by
-      exalting him high in favour, or to get rid of him by putting him upon his
-      mettle, in performing feats of valour; for a deficiency of valour is not
-      to be numbered among David's faults. It was with this view that the king
-      yet required of him an hundred Philistine foreskins(7) as the condition of
-      becoming his son-in-law. He produced double the number "in full tale."(8)
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * 1 Sam. xxii. 7.
-
-     ** Ch. xviii. 8.
-
-     *** Ver. 9.
-
-     **** Ver. 11.
-
-     (5) Ver. 17.
-
-     (6) Ver. 10.
-
-     (7) Ver. 23., Ver. 25. (according to Josephus 600 heads).
-
-     (8) 1 Sam. xviii. 27.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      This demand, after David appeals to have fulfilled the prescribed
-      conditions, seems not only unjust, but also, even making allowance for
-      Hebrew customs, very ridiculously expressed. It must have been a glorious
-      sight to have seen David bring the foreskins to king Saul, strung perhaps
-      on a piece of pack-thread, and dangling in his hand, or thrown across his
-      shoulders like a sash: and if Miss Michal was present, how must her pretty
-      little heart exult when the required number being told off, as many more
-      were gallantly presented at her feet!
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      David still advanced in his military** reputation, and met with a powerful
-      advocate in the person of Jonathan, his brother-in-law and faithful
-      friend, who effected a temporary reconciliation between him and Saul;***
-      at which time Saul swore he would no more attempt his life. Nevertheless,
-      whether it was that he could not get the better of his jealousy, or that
-      he discovered more than is transmitted down to us, we know not;
-      consequences incline us to the last conjecture: Saul made two more
-      attempts to kill him;**** from one of which he was protected by his wife
-      Michal; and finding it not safe to stay at court, he fled to Samuel, in
-      Ramah.(5) Hither Saul sent messengers to apprehend him;(6) but these, it
-      seems, seeing Samuel presiding over a company of prophets, and
-      prophesying, were seized with a spirit of prophesying also; and not only
-      so, but it is related that Saul finding this, went at last himself, to
-      just the same purpose; for he likewise prophesied,(7) stripping off his
-      cloaths, in which ridiculous condition he continued for a day and a night.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     ** Ver. 30. xix. 8.
-
-     *** Ver. 4.
-
-     **** Ver. 10, 11.
-
-     (5) Ver. 18.
-
-     (6) Ver. 20.
-
-     (7) Ver. 23.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      This is an extreme odd relation! That the solemn appearance of an assembly
-      of prophets, presided over by a person so respectable, and heretofore of
-      such great authority in Judea, might influence, in an extraordinary
-      manner, persons entrusted with a commission to apprehend or kill a man
-      patronized by these prophets, exhibits nothing wonderful; they might
-      easily perhaps, be prophesied out of their errand; and might then prophesy
-      in concert. Prophesy is a vague term, not always limited to the prediction
-      of future events; the extempore preaching of many dissenters, and the
-      discourses of the Quakers, who profess to speak as the Spirit gives them
-      utterance, seem to come under the term prophesy. These persons can work
-      themselves and others into such fits of enthusiastic intoxication, that
-      they believe themselves agitated by supernatural influence. Such might be
-      the prophesying here mentioned. But Saul prophesied! so it is said. Had
-      the subject of Saul's prophesying, been transmitted down to us, it might
-      have greatly illustrated this passage in the history; but no, he is barely
-      said to have <i>prophesied</i>; and we are prudently left to guess what.
-      Being thus at liberty, we, among other expositors, may easily surmise what
-      he might take for his text, and was the general tenor of his discourse, on
-      this particular occasion.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Afterward David had a private interview* with Jonathan; for he durst not
-      venture to appear at court. At this meeting, Jonathan, who had conceived
-      too great an affection for this man, and was at length seduced by him from
-      the duty and allegiance which he owed to his father and king, solemnly
-      promised** that he would sound his father's intentions on the next day,
-      which being the festival of the new moon, David's attendance was expected
-      at the king's table; and that he would warn him of any danger intended
-      him.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * 1 Sam. x. 1.
-
-     ** Ver. 12.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      David lay hid in the field until Jonathan brought him the required
-      intelligence; and when the king inquired, concerning him, Jonathan as had
-      been before concerted, said that he had requested leave to go and perform
-      a family sacrifice at Bethlehem. Saul's reply on this occasion is very
-      pertinent, and shows his antipathy to David not to have been the causeless
-      inveteracy of a disordered mind. "Then Saul's anger was kindled against
-      Jonathan, and he said unto him, Thou son of the perverse rebellious woman,
-      do not I know that thou hast chosen the son of Jesse to thine own
-      confusion, and unto the confusion of thy mother's nakedness? For as long
-      as the son of Jesse liveth upon the ground, thou shalt not be established,
-      nor thy kingdom: wherefore now send and fetch him unto me; for he shall
-      surely die."* Jonathan expostulated with his father, and had a javelin
-      hurled at him for his reward.**
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      David being advertised, according to agreement, of the king's disposition
-      toward him, retired to Ahimelech, the high priest, at the city of Nob who
-      treated him with shew-bread, and armed him with the sword of Goliah, which
-      had been hung up and consecrated to God.***
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      We may consider David's resuming this sword, after its dedication as a
-      religious trophy, whatever gloss may be put on his interview with
-      Ahimelech, to be a clear manifestation of hostile intentions, or a
-      declaration of war against his father-in-law, for which he now took the
-      first opportunity to prepare. Thus accoutred, he fled out of Judea, to
-      Achish, king of Gath;**** intending, as we have good reason to believe, to
-      enter into a treaty of alliance with him against the Hebrews; but the
-      popular cry was against him before he accomplished any thing, or at least
-      any thing that has reached our times.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * Ver. 30, 81. Josephus in loco.
-
-     ** Ver. 33.
-
-     *** 1 Sam. xxi. 1.
-
-     **** Ver. 9. Josephus.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      Here David appears to disadvantage in point of policy: for though his
-      carrying with him the sword of Goliah was artful enough, and likely to
-      collect followers in Judea, since it was a continual witness of that
-      prowess which had gained him such extraordinary reputation; yet, for him,
-      under this circumstance, to throw himself into the power of the
-      Philistines, among those very people from whose champion he had ravished
-      <i>that sword</i>, was the highest imprudence! and we perceive he might
-      have suffered for it, had not he made use of a stratagem to procure his
-      release, which he effected by acting the madman.* Mankind seems to have
-      been very easily imposed on in those days.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      David, now thinking it time openly to avow his design of disputing the
-      crown with Saul, went to a cave called Adullam, which he appointed the
-      place of rendezvous for his partizans. Here we are told he collected
-      together a company of debtors, vagrants, and disaffected persons, to the
-      number of four hundred; and opened his rebellion, by putting himself at
-      the head of this body of men:** men, whose desperate situations under the
-      government in being, rendered them fit agents to disturb it, and proved
-      the surest bond to connect them to a partizan thus embarked in an
-      enterprize against it. Hither also came to him his father and all his
-      brethren; and the first movement that he made was to go to the king of
-      Moab, to obtain a retreat for his father and mother, until he knew the
-      event of his enterprise.***
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      By the advice of the prophet Gad, David next marched into the land of
-      Judah:**** Gad, no doubt hoped, that as the young adventurer was of that
-      tribe, he would there meet with considerable reinforcement. When Saul
-      heard of this insurrection, he pathetically laments his misfortune to
-      those about him, that they, and even his son Jonathan, should conspire
-      against him.(5)
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * 1 Sam. xxi. 13.
-
-     ** Ch. xxii. 2.
-
-     *** Ver. 2.
-
-     **** Ver. 6.
-
-     (5) Ver. 7, 8, 9.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      Then started up one Doeg, an Edomite, who informed Saul, that he had seen
-      David harboured by the priests in Nob. Upon this, Saul summoned all those
-      belonging to that city before him, with Ahimelech their chief, who began
-      to excuse himself as well as he could; but Saul remembering, without
-      doubt, the threatening of Samuel, concerning the affair of king Agag;* and
-      considering these priests as traitors, from this corroborating evidence
-      against them, he commanded them all to be slain, to the number of
-      eighty-five persons.** Moreover, agreeable to the barbarous usage of that
-      nation, the massacre included the whole city of Nob, man and beast, young
-      and old, without exception.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Though the king's rage in this instance exceeded not only the bounds of
-      humanity, but also of good policy, it nevertheless serves to show how
-      deeply the priests were concerned in the rebellion of David; since he
-      could not be mad enough to commit so flagrant an act, without some
-      colourable pretence;*** and shows also that Saul had not so great an
-      opinion of their holiness as we, at this distance of time, are, by their
-      own annals, instructed to have. Had Saul been more implicit, he might have
-      enjoyed the name of king, have continued the dupe of the priests, have
-      died in peace, and his children have succeeded quietly to the inheritance.
-      But,
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     "Ye gods! what havoc does ambition make
-     Among your works!"
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      During this time, David rescued the city of Keilah from the
-      Philistines,(5) who were besieging it, hoping to make it a garrison for
-      himself.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * 1 Sam. xiii. 14, xv. 26, 28.
-
-     ** Ch. xxii. 16-18.
-
-     *** Ver. 19.
-
-     **** In so small a territory as Judea, the difference
-     between the king and his son-in-law, so popular a man, could
-     not be unknown to persons in any measure removed from the
-     vulgar. Therefore, Ahmeleoh's pleas of ignorance did not
-     deserve credit.
-
-     (5) 1 Sam. xxiii. 3.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      But upon the approach of Saul, not thinking himself able to maintain it,
-      being as yet but six hundred strong, and not choosing to confide in the
-      inhabitants, whose loyalty even his recent kindness to them could not
-      corrupt, he therefore abandoned it, and retired to the wilderness.* This
-      passage alone is amply sufficient to confirm the reality of David's
-      rebellious intentions; it is, therefore, worth analyzing. That he
-      delivered this city from the depredations of the Philistines, and that by
-      this action he hoped to purchase the friendship of the inhabitants, are
-      acknowledged: the use to which he intended to convert this friendship, is
-      the point to be ascertained. Saul was advancing to suppress him. Had he
-      seduced them from their allegiance, and obtained the expected protection,
-      he would have deprived Saul of this city, which city might have been
-      considered as a garrison. The old plea, of his providing only for his
-      personal safety, against his malignant persecutor, has often been urged;
-      but his intended retention of a city, to secure that safety, was a
-      flagrant rebellious intention. Had he gained this one city, as his
-      strength increased, he would have concluded as many more as he could have
-      procured, necessary for his preservation, until he had monopolized the
-      whole country, agreeable to the grant of Samuel, which would then have
-      justified the usurpation; but disappointed in the first step, by the
-      loyalty, miscalled treachery, of the Keilites, he evacuated the town,
-      having lost the recompence of his labour, and with his men "went
-      whithersoever they could go."** In the wilderness Jonathan came privately
-      to see him, and piously engages in the cause against his own father, by
-      covenant; in which it was agreed, that if David succeeded, of which
-      Jonathan is very confident, <i>he</i> was to be a partaker of his good
-      fortune but as Jonathan was not to join him openly, he went home again.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Saul, having received intelligence of David's retreats, pursued him from
-      place to place, until he was called off by news of an invasion of the land
-      by the Philistines;*** whether of David's procuring or not, we are
-      uncertain: thus much is certain, and does not discredit the supposition,
-      that he quickly after took refuge among those Philistines.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * 1 Sam. xxiii. 13.
-
-     ** Ib.
-
-     *** Ver. 16-18, 27.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      After repelling the invaders, Saul, however, returned to the wilderness of
-      Engedi, in pursuit of David, with three thousand chosen men. At this place
-      we are told of an odd adventure, which put the life of Saul strangely into
-      the power of David. He turned in to repose himself* alone in a cave,
-      wherein at that time, David and his myrmidons were secreted.**
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * The words are, "to cover his feet:" which Josephus and
-     others, mistake to mean, that he retired into the cave to
-     ease nature. But in Judges, iii. 21. we find that expression
-     to imply, that the servants of Eulon, king of Moab, supposed
-     their master to have locked himself in, to repose himself
-     with sleep, in his summer-chamber. This is farther
-     corroborated, in Ruth, iii. 7. where, when Boaz had eaten
-     his supper, he laid down on a heap of corn, doubtless to
-     take his rest. Ruth, by her mother's instruction, went,
-     uncovered his feet, and lay down by him&mdash;to have some
-     refreshment likewise. For, in the middle of the night, when
-     the man awaked, surprised at finding an unexpected
-     bedfellow, and demanded who she was, the kind wench replied&mdash;
-     "I am Ruth, thine hand-maid; spread therefore thy skirt
-     over thine hand-maid, for thou art a near kinsman." In the
-     present instance, it is evident, Saul slept in the cave; as
-     he discovered not the operation that had been performed on
-     his robe, till David called after him, to apprize him
-     thereof.
-
-     ** 1 Sam. xxiv. 3.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      This, one would imagine to have been a fine opportunity for him to have
-      given a finishing stroke to his fortune, by killing Saul, and jumping
-      into, the throne at once: but David knew better what he was about, than to
-      act so rashly. He could entertain no hopes that the Jews would receive for
-      their king a man who, with such great seeming holiness, should imbrue his
-      hands in the blood of the Lord's anointed. Beside, what evidently destroys
-      the boasted merit of David's forbearance toward Saul, in this instance, is
-      an obvious, though overlooked consideration, that, compared with David,
-      Saul had a strong army with, him; and had the king been missing, had he
-      been observed to enter the cave without coming out again; and upon search,
-      had he been there found murdered, there would not have escaped, of all
-      that pertained to David, any that <i>pissed against this wall</i>. Of this
-      David could not be insensible; and therefore, only privately cut off the
-      skirt of Saul's robe,* and suffered him to depart in peace. When the king
-      was gone out from the cave, David calls after him, and artfully makes a
-      merit of his forbearance, protesting an innocency, to which his being in
-      arms was, however, a flat** contradiction. Saul freely and gratefully
-      acknowledges himself indebted to him for his life, and seems so well
-      convinced of his own precarious situation, that he candidly confesses it;
-      only tying him down with an oath,*** not to destroy his children after him&mdash;an
-      obligation which, in due time, we shall see in what manner remembered and
-      fulfilled by David.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     *1 Sam. xxiv. 4.
-
-     ** Ver. 8-15.
-
-     *** Ver. 21.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      Saul must certainly have been greatly fatigued, or strangely overseen, to
-      have let David catch him at so great a disadvantage&mdash;a conduct not
-      usual with good generals. Yet, while we credit the relation, the meanness
-      of his reply to David's harangue, can be no otherwise accounted for. Saul
-      does not appear to have wanted resolution on other occasions; but to
-      acknowledge his assurance that David would obtain the sovereignty, and
-      poorly to entreat a fugitive rebel in behalf of his family! is a conduct
-      not even to be palliated, but upon the foregoing supposition. We must
-      either condemn the general or the king, neither of which characters appear
-      with extraordinary lustre upon this occasion. David, on the other hand,
-      dissembles admirably here, pretending to Saul a <i>great reverence</i> for
-      the Lord's anointed, though conscious, at the same time, that <i>he was
-      also</i> the Lord's anointed, and anointed purposely to supersede the
-      other Lord's anointed; and, moreover, was at this very time aiming to put
-      his election in force! But, as the people were not of his council, and he
-      knew their great regard for religious sanctions, it was certainly prudent
-      in him to set an example of piety, in an instance of which he hoped, in
-      time, to reap the benefit himself: About this time Samuel died.*
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      We next find our young adventurer acting the chief character in a
-      tragi-comedy, which will farther display his title to the appellation of
-      being a Man after God's own heart.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      There dwelt then at Maon, a blunt rich old farmer, whose name was Nabal.
-      David hearing of him, and that he was at that time sheep-shearing, sent a
-      detachment of his followers to levy a contribution upon him,** making a
-      merit of his forbearance, in that he had not stolen his sheep, and
-      murdered his shepherds.*** Nabal, who, to be sure, was not the most
-      courteous man in the world, upon receiving this extraordinary message,
-      gave them but a very indifferent reply, including a flat denial. "Who,"
-      says he, "is David? and who is the son of Jesse? There be many servants
-      nowadays that break away every man from his master. Shall I then take my
-      bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and
-      give unto men whom I know not whence they be?"**** Upon receiving this
-      answer, David, without hesitation, directly formed his resolution; and
-      arming himself, with a number of his followers, vowed to butcher him, <i>and
-      all that belonged to him</i>, before the next morning.(5) And how was this
-      pious intention diverted? Why, Abigail, the charming Abigail! Nabal's
-      wife, resolved, unknown to her spouse, to try the force of beauty, in
-      mollifying this incensed hero, whose disposition for gallantry, and warm
-      regard for the fair sex, was probably not unknown at that time. Her own
-      curiosity also might not be a little excited; for the ladies have at all
-      times been universally fond of military gentlemen: no wonder, therefore,
-      that Mrs. Abigail, the wife of a cross country clown, was willing to seize
-      this opportunity of getting acquaintance with captain David.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * 1 Sam. xxv. 1.
-
-     ** Ver. 5&mdash;9.
-
-     *** Ver. 7.
-
-     **** Ver. 10, 11.
-
-     (5) Ver. 13, 14-22.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      And this motive certainly had its force, since she could not as yet have
-      known David's intention: we may observe she was told of it by David at
-      their meeting.* She prepared a present, and went to David, saying, very
-      sententiously, "Upon me, my Lord, upon me let this iniquity be:"**
-      judging, very humanely, that could she get him to transfer his revenge
-      upon <i>her</i>, she might possibly contrive to pacify him, without
-      proceeding to disagreeable extremities. Nor was she wrong in her judgment;
-      for we are told, "So David received of her hand that which she had brought
-      him, and said unto her, go up in peace to thine house; see I have
-      hearkened to thy voice, <i>and have accepted thy person</i>."*** But
-      however agreeable this meeting might have been to Abigail, we do not find
-      that Nabal was so well pleased with the composition his wife had made for
-      him; for when he came to understand so much of the story as she chose to
-      inform him of, he guessed the remainder, broke his heart, and died in ten
-      days afterward. David loses no time, but returned God thanks for the old
-      fellow's death, and then Mrs. Abigail was promoted to the honour of being
-      one of the Captain's ladies.(5)
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      We are now told another story extremely resembling that of the cave of
-      En-gedi. Saul again pursues David with three thousand chosen men; again
-      fell into his hands during his sleep; only that here David stole upon him
-      in his own camp; he ran away with the king's spear and bottle of water,
-      and Saul went back again as wise as he came.(6)
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * I Sam. xxv. 34.
-
-     ** Ver. 24.
-
-     *** Ver. 35.
-
-     ****Ver. 37,38.
-
-     (5) Ver. 39.
-
-     (6) Ch. xxvi.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      The opinion of Mons. Bayle seems most probable concerning this adventure,
-      who looks upon it but as another detail of the former affair at En-gedi;
-      and that for very good reasons. For, upon a comparison of both, as laid
-      down in the 23d, 24th, and 26th chapters of 1 Samuel, we may remark,
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      I. That in each relation Saul pursues him with the same number of chosen
-      men.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      II. That both adventures happened at or very near the same place.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      III. That in each story David comes upon Saul in much the same manner,
-      withholds his people from killing him, and contents himself with taking
-      away a testimonial of the king's having been in his power.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      IV. That in the second account, When David is pleading the injustice of
-      Saul's persecuting him, as he terms it, he does not strengthen his plea by
-      representing to him that this was the <i>second time</i> of his sparing
-      him, when he had his life so entirely in his power; and that Saul's
-      pursuing him this second time, was a flagrant instance of ingratitude,
-      after what had happened on the former occasion.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      V. That in the second relation, Saul, when he acknowledges David's
-      forbearance and mercy to him in the present instance, makes no mention of
-      <i>any former obligation</i> of this kind, although it was so recent, and
-      in the main circumstance so similar.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      VI. That the historian, who evidently intended to blacken the character of
-      Saul, and whiten that of David, does not make the least observation
-      himself, in the second narrative, of reference to the first.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      These reasons prove, beyond doubt, that we are furnished with two
-      relations of the same adventure. To account for the double record, and
-      their variations, must be left to commentators, connectors, and
-      harmonizers, who are used to compromise affairs of this nature.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      David finding that with his present strength, he was unable to maintain
-      any footing in Judea, puts himself once more under the protection of
-      Achish, king of Gath.* Achish, who does not appear to have been a very
-      powerful prince, seemed to consider David alone, and David at the head of
-      a little army, as two very different persons: for he now assigned him a
-      place named Ziklag, for a habitation, where he remained a year and four
-      months.**
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * 1 Sam. xxvii. 1-3.
-
-     ** 1 Sam. xxvii. 6, 7.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      As he had now a quiet residence, those who entertain an opinion of David's
-      sanctity, would be apt to suppose he would here confine himself to
-      agriculture, to composing psalms, and to singing them to his harp; but
-      David found employment more suited to his genius. It is not intended here
-      to be insinuated that he might not sing psalms, at leisure times; but his
-      more important business was to lead his men put to plunder the adjacent
-      country. We have the names of some nations, as they are called, but which
-      must have been small distinct communities, like the present camps of
-      wandering Moors and Arabs, over whom he extended his depredations: these
-      are the Geshurites, the Gezrites, and the Amalekites.** Of these people he
-      made a total massacre, at those places where he made his inroads; saying,
-      very prudently, "Lest they should tell of us, saying, so did David, and so
-      will be his manner, all the while he dwelleth in the country of the
-      Philistines."***
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      After thus carefully endeavouring to avoid detection, he brings his booty
-      home, which consisted of all which those miserable victims possessed.****
-      He made presents of this to his benefactor king Achis,(5)| who, demanding
-      where he had made his incursion, was answered, against the south of Judah,
-      &amp;c.(6) intending by this falsity to insinuate to the king his aversion
-      to his own countrymen, and attachment to him. "And Achish believed David,
-      saying, he hath made his people Israel utterly to abhor him; therefore he
-      shall be my servant for ever,"(7)
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Philistines at this time collected their forces together, to attack
-      the Israelites. To which service Achish summoned David,(8) and met with a
-      cheerful compliance.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     ** Ver. 8.
-
-     *** Ver. 9, 11.
-
-     **** Query, whether David might not compose a psalm
-          upon this occasion.
-
-     (5) Josephus.
-
-     (6) 1 Sam. xxvii. 10.
-
-     (7) Ver. 12.
-
-     (8) Ch. xxviii. 1.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      "Surely," says David, "thou shalt know what thy servant can do."* He
-      accordingly marched his adherents with the troops of king Achish; but when
-      the princes of the Philistines saw a company of Hebrews in their army,
-      they were much surprized, and questioned Achish concerning them. The
-      account which Achish gave of them, did not satisfy the princes, who justly
-      feared their captain might prove a dangerous auxiliary. "Make this fellow
-      return," said they, "that he may go again to the place which thou hast
-      appointed him, and let him not go down with us to the battle, lest in the
-      battle he be an adversary to us: for wherewith should be reconcile himself
-      to his master; should it not be with the heads of these men David was
-      accordingly dismissed, very much mortified at their distrust of him.**
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Here now was a signal evidence of David's righteousness! The Hebrews,
-      according to their own testimony, understood themselves to be the
-      favourite people of God, and David is delivered down to us as a
-      distinguished character for piety among this peculiarly esteemed people.
-      Yet could this very man, without any hesitation, freely join himself and
-      company, to an army of uncircumcised idolators, marching with hostile
-      intentions against his countrymen! His advocates indeed pretend, that had
-      his offers been accepted, he would nevertheless have gone over to the
-      Israelites, at the commencement of the battle: this is taking off the
-      charge of one crime, by imputing to him another equally bad&mdash;a most
-      base act of treachery! As, however, the Israelites, on the foundation of
-      their own intimacy with the Deity, thought they had no more obligations to
-      a moral conduct towards the heathens, than the Roman Catholics now imagine
-      they have to keep faith with heretics; these advocates endeavour to
-      preserve the piety of David's character, at the expence of what David,
-      according to this method of arguing, did extremely well without, on all
-      occasions; namely, <i>honesty</i>.***
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * 1 Sam. xxviii. 2.
-
-     ** Ch. xxix. 4.
-
-     *** Ver. 8, 11.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      Upon his return to Ziklag, he found that, during his absence, the
-      Amalekites had made reprisals upon him, and burnt Ziklag; and had carried
-      off all the women captives.* But in the relation there is one remark well
-      worth noting, which is that "they slew not any either great or small"**&mdash;so
-      much more moderation had these poor heathens in their just revenge, than
-      the enlightened David in his unprovoked insult. If they came to avenge so
-      savage an insult, it shewed great consideration in them to spare the
-      innocent, the guilty being absent: if they only came on the common
-      principle of plunder, the bare comparison of the different treatment of
-      the sufferers in each instance, speaks forcibly without amplification.
-      Upon this misfortune, his band began to mutiny, and were on the point of
-      stoning*** him; when he, who knew how to soothe them, enquired of the Lord
-      what he should do? and evaded their rage, by inspiring them with a
-      resolution to pursue the Amalekites, and with the hopes of recovering all
-      their losses. He, therefore, with four hundred picked men, set out on the
-      pursuit, and by the way found a straggler**** who had fainted: after
-      recovering him, they gained, by his means, intelligence of their route.
-      David came upon them unexpectedly, at a place where they were, without
-      apprehension, regaling themselves after their success: and though David's
-      men recovered all they had lost, together with other booty, and found
-      their wives and children unhurt: yet could not their captain resist so
-      inviting an opportunity of gratifying his delight in blood-shedding: the
-      pursuit and slaughter continued from the twilight (we know not whether of
-      the morning or evening) of one day, until the evening of the next. None
-      escaped but a party which rode upon camels.(5)
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * 1 Sam. xxi. 1.
-
-     ** Ver. 2.
-
-     *** Ver. 6.
-
-     **** Ver. 11.
-
-     (5) Ver. 17.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      Of the spoil taken from these people, David sent presents to the elders of
-      his own tribe of Judah, "and to all the places where David himself and his
-      men were wont to haunt."* By which means he kept them attached to his
-      interest.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The dispute between the Philistine and Hebrew armies, did not terminate
-      but by the defeat of the latter, the death of Saul, and of three of his
-      sons.**
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Such was the catastrophe of king Saul! a man advanced from the humble
-      state of a shepherd, by the prophet Samuel, to be his deputy in the
-      government of the Hebrew nations under the specious name of king: a man,
-      who allowing for the <i>peculiar complexion</i> of the people over whom he
-      was placed; does not, on the whole, seem to suffer by comparison with any
-      other king in the <i>same</i> history; or whose character appears to be
-      stained with any conspicuous fault, except that he was one degree less
-      cruel than his haughty patron: and was disobedient enough to endeavour to
-      be in effect, what he was only intended to be in name. On the whole, he
-      appears to have been strangely irresolute and inconsistent with himself;
-      and is perhaps represented more so than he might really have been: but the
-      undertaking to render himself independent was an arduous task for one in
-      his situation; therefore his actions and professions might sometimes
-      disagree. However, it is impossible to argue from every expression that
-      may be produced; we must form our judgment from leading events, and
-      corresponding expressions; and determine as they tally with probability.
-      If Saul himself, however he is represented as subscribing to it, was
-      really assured of David's destination to supersede him by divine decree,
-      there was nothing left for him but resignation: Can man fight against God?
-      since therefore his continual aim was to destroy David, it argues against
-      this assurance: and if Saul himself was mad, surely his soldiers were not:
-      how came he to find an army as mad as himself, to persecute the Lord's
-      anointed.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * 1 Sam. xxx. 31.
-
-     ** Ch. xxxi.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      We shall now have an opportunity to observe the conduct of our hero in a
-      regal capacity. The death of Saul facilitated his advancement to a
-      sovereignty, to which he had no pretension, either by the right of
-      inheritance, which was claimed by Ish-bosheth, a remaining son of Saul;
-      nor by popular election, which Saul himself had the shew of; but by the
-      clandestine appointment of an old prophet; which inspired him with hopes,
-      of which, by arms and intrigue, he at length enjoyed the fruition.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      David had returned to Ziklag but two days, when on the third, there came
-      to him an Amalekite, who officiously informed him of the event of the
-      battle between the Israelites and Philistines. He owned himself to be the
-      person who killed Saul, after his defeat, at his own request: he being
-      already wounded.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He hoped to be well rewarded for his news, by David; whose intentions were
-      so well known, that he presented him with Saul's crown and bracelet*. But,
-      alas! he knew not David, and perished in the experiment: David ordering
-      him to be killed for daring to slay the Lord's anointed.** David's
-      treatment of this Amalekite, is agreeable to the customary rules of
-      politics; and has nothing therefore remarkable in it, farther than it is
-      rendered so by peculiar circumstances. Saul was declared to be rejected by
-      God, and David was the pretender to his throne; it may therefore be
-      imagined by some, that this man might have had some claim to <i>his</i>
-      private gratitude, especially considering the account the Amalekite gave
-      of the matter.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Who can help smiling at the relation of David's tearing his clothes off
-      his back, and bursting into a sorrowful lamentation for the death of a
-      man, to whose destruction he had so freely offered to lend assistance but
-      just before?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Upon this alteration of affairs, David, asking counsel of the Lord, was
-      advised to leave Ziklag, and go to Hebron, one of the cities of Judah;
-      whither he and all his men repaired.***
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * 2 Sam. 10.
-
-     ** Ver. 15.
-
-     *** 2 Sam. ii. 1.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      There he got his partizans to anoint him king over Judah; at the same time
-      that Abner, Saul's general, had, at Mahanaim, made Ishbosheth,
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Saul's son, king over Israel.* It may be remarked here, that David did not
-      seem to claim in right of the sacred unction bestowed on him long since by
-      Samuel. He realized his title indeed, as soon as he could make it out, by
-      the law of force: but if his divine title to the Hebrew crown was
-      universally known, and if, as has been urged, Ish-bosheth had none at all,
-      how came David's title not to be universally acknowledged? Did only one
-      tribe believe in it? Yet David, with the divine grant, was obliged to
-      obtain the sovereignty by arms and intrigue! just for all the world like
-      the wicked, who attain their desires by exactly the same means, to all
-      external appearance. Upon this division of the kingdom, a battle was
-      fought at the pool of Gibeon, between the army of Ish-bosheth, commanded
-      by general Abner, and that of David, headed by Joab: victory declared in
-      favour of the latter, with small loss on either side, except that Joab
-      lost his brother Ahasel, who was killed by Abner's own hand.**
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      We must here be content with general hints; being only informed that
-      "there was long war between the house of Saul and the house, of David: but
-      David waxed stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul waxed weaker and
-      weaker."*** What very much conduced to this, was an ill-timed quarrel
-      between king Ish-bosheth and general Abner, concerning one of Saul's
-      concubines, with whom Abner had been too familiar:**** and his resentment
-      of the notice taken of this amour, occasioned a treaty to be negociated
-      between him and David, whom Abner engaged to establish over all Israel.(5)
-      David accepted his offer, but demanded, as a preliminary, the restoration
-      of his first wife Michal;(6) who, during the disputes between him and
-      Saul; had been espoused to another.(7)
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * 2 Sam. ii. 4, 8.
-
-     ** Ver. 17, 23.
-
-     *** 2 Sam. iii. 1.
-
-     **** 2 Sam. iii. 7.
-
-     (5) Ver. 12.
-
-     (6) Ver. 13.
-
-     (7) 1 Sam. xxv. 44.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      This demand he likewise made openly, by an express message to Ishbosheth,
-      who kindly complied with it: the poor man who had since married her,
-      following her weeping all the way.**
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It is impossible to avoid noting David's amorous disposition here; which
-      could not be content with six wives, who bare him children*** (no mention
-      of those who did not), but was yet so warm, that it took the lead even in
-      his most important concerns.&mdash;We will not pretend to assign the cause
-      of that sad disorder, the symptoms of which are described in the 38th
-      Psalm.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      After Abner had traitorously endeavoured to advance the interest of
-      David****; he had an interview with him;(5) which, quickly after he
-      returned, coming to the ears of Joab; he, who does not appear to have been
-      acquainted with the secret spring which actuated Abner's zeal for the
-      cause of David; represented to him the imprudence of admitting a man among
-      them, who to all appearance came only as a spy. Unknown to David, he sent
-      for him back again, and privately stabbed him, in revenge for the loss of
-      his brother Asahel.(6) This was a most base piece of treachery, worthy the
-      servant of such a master: to assassinate a man in cool blood, in revenge
-      for an action which was committed in the heat of battle, in self-defence,
-      and even after fair warning given.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Upon the murder of Abner, David again acts the mourner;(7) which has a
-      greater probability of being sincere now, than when he grieved for the
-      unhappy Saul; because the false Abner was preparing to do him essential
-      service, by betraying his master's cause.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     ** 2 Sam. iii. 15, 16.
-
-     *** Ver. 2, &amp;c.
-
-     **** Ver. 17.
-
-     (5) Ver. 20.
-
-     (6) Ver. 27.
-
-     (7) Ver. 31, &amp;c.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      But the event proved full as advantageous to David; as will presently
-      appear.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When Ishbosheth and his friends heard of the fate of Abner, who had been
-      the very life of their cause; it dejected all their spirits; and two
-      villains, named Rechab and Baanah, hoping to make their fortunes by the
-      public calamity, went and murdered their master king Ishbosheth, as he was
-      reposing himself during the heat of the day, and brought his head to
-      David*. But not reflecting on an obvious maxim in politics, they like the
-      Amalekite before, who claimed the merit of killing Saul, soon found that,
-      he thought it adviseable to punish the traitors, whatever he thought of
-      the treason.**
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * 2 Sam. iv. 5, &amp;c.
-
-     ** Ver. 12.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      Had David reflected on all the circumstances which led to this murder,
-      with that tenderness becoming a person professing so much piety, his
-      compunction would have greatly embarrassed him in the proper behaviour on
-      this occasion. For if these two execrable villains deserved punishment,
-      what did <i>he</i> merit who was the primary cause of so nefarious an
-      action? Two poor rogues from subordinate views, effected by assassination
-      what David sought at the head of an army, which naturally reminds us of
-      the pirate and Alexander. So strangely do relative circumstances bias our
-      judgment of things essentially alike. Had David aspired to no other
-      sceptre than his shepherd's crook, the villains had not presumed on the
-      usurper's gratitude; and Ish-bosheth, who was a quiet prince, might have
-      reigned long an honour to himself and a blessing to his country.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Ish-bosheth does not appear to have been a man of parts, qualified to
-      contend with such an antagonist as David; for nothing is recorded of him:
-      Abner was the person who raised him; and had he lived, would as easily
-      have deposed him, and though no qualifications are a security against
-      assassination, yet, as in the case of another unfortunate monarch, Darius,
-      king of Persia; such cowardly wretches generally take the advantage of
-      precipitating misfortunes already commenced, that they may pay their court
-      to the rising sun.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The murder of this unhappy son of an unhappy father, advanced David to the
-      dignity to which he aspired,* (though we shall see in a passage which
-      reflects no great honour on him, that Saul had more sons yet living.) He
-      was now in his thirty-eighth year; having reigned seven years and an half
-      in Hebron** over the tribe of Judah.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Although David was now invested with that supremacy which had been the aim
-      of his endeavours since the time that Samuel inspired him with the spirit
-      of &mdash;&mdash;- ambition; yet could not his enterprising genius
-      continue satisfied with such an exaltation. The first object of his
-      attention now, was the city of Jerusalem, then inhabited by the Jebusites;
-      (but it was of no importance who inhabited it, if David conceived a desire
-      for it): this city he besieged and the inhabitants relying on the strength
-      of their fortifications, out of derision planted cripples on their
-      ramparts to guard their walls; saying "except thou take away the blind and
-      the lame, thou shalt not come in hither."*** Nevertheless David carried
-      the place, and made it his chief city.****
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      N. B. He supplied himself with, more wives and concubines out of his new
-      acquisition.(5)
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      While he was thus amorously engaged, the Philistines hearing that he Was
-      made king over all Israel, came and disturbed him; but David according to
-      the usual term <i>smote them</i>;(6) and his strokes were always
-      sufficiently felt.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The comic tale of David's bringing home the ark will not be long dwelt
-      upon; it may only be remarked, that it was brought on a new cart, drawn by
-      oxen; and that Uzzah some way or other lost his life, to, as the text
-      reads, was smote <i>by the Lord</i>,(7) for his impiety in saving the ark
-      from being overturned.(8)
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * 2 Sam. v. 3, 1 Chron. xi. 3.
-
-     ** 2 Sam. ii. 11.
-
-     *** Chap. v. 6. Josephus.
-
-     **** Ver. 7. 9., 1 Chron; xi. 5. 7.
-
-     (5) 2 Sam. v. 13.
-
-     (6) Ver. 20, 25., 1 Chron. xiv. 11.
-
-     (7)  Query, whether the Lord did not sometimes smite
-          by the hands of the priest.
-
-     (8)  Sam. vi. 7.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      But if "the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looked on the outward
-      appearance, but the Lord looked into the heart." the intention of Uzzah
-      was indisputably good, and the alledged crime surely pardonable; the
-      seeming exigency precluding all hesitation and reflection. Had the ark
-      been really overturned for want of this careful prevention, Uzzah might
-      then, it would be naturally imagined, have been rather <i>smote</i> for
-      neglecting to save it. However, it was no longer trusted to prophane
-      hands, but carried the remainder of the way upon the more holy shoulders
-      of the Levites,* with great parade: attended by musicians, and by David
-      himself who, dressed in a linen ephod, <i>danced before the Lord with all
-      his might</i> and this, in such a frantic indecent manner, that he exposed
-      his nakedness to the bye-standers. Wherefore his wife Michal sneered at
-      him: "How glorious was the king of Israel today, who uncovered himself
-      to-day in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain
-      fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself."** David, it seems, was of a
-      different opinion; for he told her he <i>would</i> play before the Lord;
-      and would be yet <i>more vile</i> than she had represented him;&mdash;adding,
-      "and of the maid-servants which thou hast spoken of, of them shall I be
-      had in honour."*** Some staunch zealots have very prudently spiritualized
-      this part of David's answer, and given the mystical sense of it; the
-      prophane, who are content with the evident signification of words, having
-      construed it no otherwise than into an insinuation that he had no cause to
-      be ashamed of what he exposed. Fie on them!
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      This story is concluded with a remark as odd as the rest of it:&mdash;"Therefore
-      Michal, the daughter of Saul, had no child until the day of her death.(5)
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * 1 Chron. xv. 2, 15.
-
-     ** 2 Sam. vi. 14.
-
-     *** Ver. 20.
-
-     **** Ver. 22.
-
-     (5) Ver. 23.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      For, if Michal had hitherto borne no children, neither to David, nor to
-      her immediate husband, her barrenness must have been constitutional; and,
-      preceding her offence, could not be a punishment inflicted in consequence
-      of it. Moreover, if, on the other hand, she <i>had</i> borne him children,
-      and this disgrace to her was the consequence of a resolution made by her
-      husband David, that she should have no more children <i>by him</i>: her
-      quiet resignation, under this imposed widowhood, is by inference a high
-      compliment on this poor woman's conjugal virtue! which was far from the
-      historian's intention to bestow. Indeed there is great reason to credit
-      Michal, and to believe that David really behaved with all the extravagance
-      she ascribes to him: for she appeared before this affair as a discreet
-      kind of a woman; no instance of folly being produced in her, unless the
-      contrivances she made use of to save her husband from the effects of her
-      father's rage may be allowed to bear such interpretation. Whatever
-      judgment however is passed upon Michal's censure of David's behaviour in
-      this procession, it showed great cruelty and ingratitude in him to fix so
-      disgraceful a stigma on her; and not to make allowance for female
-      indiscretion, the worst name that could be bestowed on her fault.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      After this, David smote the Philistines, not sparing even Gath, that city
-      which had so humanely protected him.* He then smote the Moabites, putting
-      to the sword two-thirds of the nation, by causing them to lie prostrate on
-      the ground, and measuring them by lines; "even with two lines measured he
-      to put to death; and with one full line to keep alive:"** so systematic
-      was his wrath! Hadadezar, king of Zobah, was the next whom he smote; who
-      being assisted by the Syrians of Damascus, he next smote them.*** Yet all
-      this smiting and slaying is so obscurely mentioned, that we know nothing
-      of the offences committed against this mighty chief, to excite such
-      blood-thirsty indignation.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * Sam. viii.  1., Chron. xviii. 1.
-
-     ** 2 Sam. viii. 2.
-
-     *** Ver. 3. 5.,  1 Chron. xviii. 3, 5.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      Indeed, the cause is, without much difficulty, deducible from the produce
-      of these wars, which sufficiently indicate the nature of David's <i>thirst.</i>
-      Great quantities of gold, silver, and brass, are said to have been brought
-      to Jerusalem;* and the priests may with reason be supposed to be the
-      instigators to these wars; since we find all the plunder surrendered to
-      them.** We have therefore no cause to wonder at the exalted praises they
-      have bestowed upon the instrument of their wealth. He is said to have "gat
-      him a name, when he returned from smiting the Syrians."*** &mdash;This may
-      very easily be credited; but it is to be feared, that if the name he gat
-      from the Jews, and that which he gat from the Syrians were compared, they
-      would not accord extremely well together.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      David was at this time seized with a <i>temporary</i> fit of gratitude
-      toward a lame son of his old friend Jonathan, named Mephibosheth, to whom
-      he restored all the private patrimony of his grandfather Saul, and took
-      him into his family;**** not without due consideration, it is to be
-      supposed; since by that means he kept him under his own eye. But this
-      gratitude, was not lasting; for upon an accusation preferred against him
-      by his servant, David readily bestowed all Mephibosheth's possessions upon
-      that servant;(5) yet, when the accusation was found to be false, instead
-      of equitably punishing the asperser of innocence, and reinstating
-      Mephibosheth in his former favour, he restored to him but half the
-      forfeiture of his supposed guilt,(6) leaving the villain Ziba in the quiet
-      possession of the other half, as the reward of his treachery.&mdash;But of
-      this in its proper place.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The next memorable act recorded of David, is the only acknowledged crime
-      that he ever committed; all his other transactions being reputed "right in
-      the eyes of the Lord."(7)
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * 2 Sam. viii. 7, 8, 10., 1 Chron. xviii, 2, 4, 8, 10.
-
-     ** 2 Sam. viii. 11., 1 Chron. xviii. 11.
-
-     *** 2 Sam. viii. 13.
-
-     **** Chap. ix. 1.
-
-     (5) Chap. xvi. 4.
-
-     (6) Chap. xix. 29.
-
-     (7) 1 Kings xv. 5, compared with 1 Chron. xxi. 1.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      In the midst of an obscure detail of smiting and slaying; in revenge for
-      the contemptuous treatment of some ambassadors, sent by him with
-      compliments of condolence; but who, perhaps deservedly, were considered as
-      spies; while Joab was with the army prosecuting the siege of Rabbah, a
-      chief city of the Ammonites; David, then at Jerusalem, walking one evening
-      on the roof of his palace, perceived from that eminence a handsome woman
-      bathing herself.* Fired with the sight, he sent to enquire who she was:
-      and understanding she was Bathsheba, wife to Uriah, who was at that time
-      opportunely absent in the army under Joab, he caused her to be brought to
-      him directly, (no ceremony in the case) and after gratifying his
-      inclination, sent her home again.** Some time after, the woman finding
-      herself with child, naturally informed the king of it. He, never at a loss
-      for ways and means, immediately ordered Uriah home;*** of whom he enquired
-      news concerning the operations of the campaign, and then dismissed him to
-      his own house, sending after him a present of victuals.**** David intended
-      the good man a little relaxation from the fatigues of war, that he might
-      kiss his wife, and be cheated into a child more than he had a natural
-      right to; but whether Uriah had received any intimation of the honour his
-      Majesty had done him; or whether he honestly meant the self-denial which
-      he professed, we are not advertised: however, Uriah would not go home but
-      slept in the guard-room, with the king's servants.(5) David took care to
-      be informed of this, and questioned Uriah concerning the reason of it.
-      Uriah urged a scruple of conscience against going to enjoy any indulgence
-      at home, while the ark, Joab, and the army remained in tents in the open
-      field.(6) He was detained another night; when David made him drunk,(7)
-      waiting to see what effect that might have. It was still the same; Uriah,
-      like many other drunken men, was resolved not to go home.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     *2 Sam. xi. 2.
-
-     ** Ver. 4.
-
-     *** Ver. 6.
-
-     **** Ver. 8.
-
-     (5) Ver. 9.
-
-     (6) Ver. 11.
-
-     (7) Ver. 35.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      David, finding him so obstinate, altered his plan of operations, and
-      determined then to get rid of him for ever. To which intent, he sent him
-      back to the camp, with a letter to the general. "And he wrote in the
-      letter, saying, Set ye Uriah in the fore-front of the hottest battle, and
-      retire ye from him, that he may be smitten and die."* This instruction was
-      accordingly complied with;** and then Bathsheba, like another Abigail, was
-      taken into David's seraglio.***
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Nathan the prophet read David an arch lecture upon this subject;**** and
-      he, who took care not to disagree With his best friends, bore with the
-      reproof, and humbled himself accordingly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      This complicated crime committed by David is universally allowed; but
-      people think so little for them selves, that even <i>this</i> would be
-      qualified, were it not found ready condemned to their hand in the relation
-      of it. This crime is given up too, as the <i>only stain</i> in David's
-      character: but the circumstances of it will not permit this to be granted,
-      abstracted from any consideration of the man. For, though a generally good
-      man may, in a sudden start of any of the passions, lose government of
-      himself so far, as to violate conjugal fidelity, or perhaps suddenly to
-      kill another; yet a deliberate scheme, including <i>two</i> such crimes,
-      can be concerted only by a <i>bad heart</i>. It is also to be remarked
-      respecting his famous repentance of this black transaction, that he shewed
-      no tokens of relenting until it was extorted from him by artifice! and
-      that even then, though he mourned his crime, he never entertained a
-      thought of relinquishing future commerce with the woman so wickedly
-      obtained, but kept her until he died! and altered the regular course of
-      succession, in favour of a son he had by her.(5)
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It is hoped the supposition may be allowed, that the noise this righteous
-      affair made, might be one motive for Joab's desiring David to come and
-      partake some of the honours of the campaign:(6) an opportunity of which he
-      prudently laid hold: but&mdash;fatal was his presence wherever he
-      appeared.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * 2 Sam. xi. 15.
-
-     ** Ver. 17.
-
-     *** Ver. 27.
-
-     **** Ch. xii. 1.
-
-     (5) Kings i. 13.
-
-     (6) 2 Sam. xii. 27, 28.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      How shall a person subject to the feelings of humanity, (a security of
-      more avail among men than the most binding laws) how shall a man, not
-      steeled to a very Jew, find expressions suited to the occasion, when he
-      relates the treatment of this poor city, Rabbah? The study would be as
-      difficult as unnecessary; the simple unexaggerated tale, if seriously
-      attended to, will shock the humane reader sufficiently. The city was taken
-      and plundered; and David "brought forth the people that were therein, and
-      put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron,
-      and made them pass through the brick-kiln, and thus did he unto all the
-      cities of the children of Ammon."**
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * It is supposed that the ancient slavery of the Jews to the
-     Egyptians, and the labour they were employed in by their
-     lordly taskmasters, the making bricks, might be a current
-     reproachful jeer upon the Jews, when any quarrel happened
-     between them find their neighbours; and that the making
-     their prisoners pass through the brick-kiln, was a cruel
-     method of revenging such affronts. A conjecture not
-     improbable.
-
-     ** 2 Sam. xii. 31., 1 Chron. xx. 3.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      The precise punishments here alluded to are not understood at this time:
-      writers being much divided in their expositions of these words; but that
-      extraordinary punishments are meant, cannot admit of a doubt; for though
-      <i>believers</i> expound the putting the Ammonites <i>under</i> saws and
-      harrows, into the making slaves of them, and that these were the tools
-      with which they laboured; yet this will not agree with the latter of the
-      texts whose authority is mentioned in the note; where it is said, that he
-      [David] "cut them with saws and with harrows of iron, and with axes." And
-      should more evidence be yet required, Josephus also writes, that "the men
-      were put to death by exquisite torments." The general truth of the fact
-      stands therefore unimpeached. And is it thus the people of God, headed by
-      a man styled, in a peculiar manner, <i>the man after God's own heart</i>,
-      used the prisoners of war? <i>Bella! horrida bella!</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It would not be easy to select any period of any history more bloody, or
-      abounding more in wickedness of various dyes than that which is the object
-      of the reader's present attention. Instances succeed so quick that the
-      relation of one is scarcely concluded, but fresh ones obtrude upon notice.&mdash;But
-      now horrors of a different hue demand our attention.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Ammon, one of our hero's sons, ravished his sister Tamar, and then turned
-      her out of doors.* Absalom, her brother by the same mother, seemingly took
-      no notice of it, until two years after; when he invited all his brothers
-      to a feast at his sheep-shearing; where he made Amnon drunk, and murdered
-      him** in so deliberate, and yet so determined was his revenge! Absalom on
-      this account, fled out of Judea, for three years*** until, at the entreaty
-      of Joab, he was invited home again by his father, whose favourite he
-      was.**** But though he returned to Jerusalem, yet would not his father see
-      him for two years more.(5)
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Absalom, during his exile, conceived a design of deposing his father; for
-      after their reconciliation, his first attention was to render himself
-      popular. To this end he set up a splendid equipage:(6) but politically
-      increased his affability with his magnificence: rising up early, and
-      planting himself in the way, to salute all who came to his father's levee.
-      Of these he kindly enquired their business, or grievances; throwing out
-      hints of the king's remissness in the execution of justice, and how
-      uprightly he would conduct himself, were their causes to be determined by
-      him.(7)
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * 2 Sam. xiii. 14
-
-     ** Ver. 28.
-
-     *** Ver. 88.
-
-     **** Chap. xiv. 21, 24.
-
-     (5) Ver. 28.
-
-     (6) Chap. xv. 1.
-
-     (7) Ver 2, 4.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      The profession of piety is universally, and was in particular a-mong this
-      people, the most successful disguise for crafty designing men to assume.
-      When Absalom, therefore, thought his scheme sufficiently ripe for
-      execution, he desired leave of his father to go to Hebron, to perform a
-      vow made by him while a refugee in Syria.* At Hebron he set up his
-      standard, and his followers assembled in such numbers, and the defection
-      was so general, that David thought it adviseable to retire from
-      Jerusalem.**
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      With him he took all his family and dependants, except ten concubines,
-      whom he left in his palace to keep house.*** The priests, Zadock and
-      Abiather, with the ark, would also have gone with him; but he thought it
-      would be more for his service for them to remain in the city as spies; to
-      send him intelligence how matters went.**** It is no inconsiderable part
-      of politics to know how to suit men with proper employments, Ahitophel,
-      his prime minister, joined the malecontents;(5) to balance which
-      misfortune, David prevailed on Hushai, a trusty man of some importance, to
-      remain in the city, that he might ingratiate himself with Absalom, thwart
-      the counsels of Ahitophel, and transmit intelligence to him from time to
-      time through the conveyance of the priests, whose sons were to carry on
-      the correspondence.(6) Having concerted matters thus, he evacuated
-      Jerusalem, and Absalom entered(7) it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When David was upon his journey from the city, he was met by Ziba, servant
-      to Mephibosheth, with asses and provisions for his majesty's accommodation
-      in his retreat:(8) of whom, when David enquired why Mephibosheth did not
-      come with him; this treacherous servant told him that he staid behind at
-      Jerusalem, hoping to obtain the kingdom of his grandfather, during this
-      disturbance:(9) by which lying aspersion, he gained a grant of all his
-      master's possessions.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * 2 Sam. xv. 7.
-
-     ** Ver. 12,14.
-
-     *** Ver. 16.
-
-     **** Ver. 27,28,
-
-     (5) Ver. 12, 31.
-
-     (6) Ver. 32, &amp;c.
-
-     (7) Ver. 37,
-
-     (8) 2 Sam. xvi. 1.
-
-     (9) Ver. 3.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      Here we may introduce a circumstance, which is so far material, as it
-      serves to shew, that the sanctity of David was not quite so universally
-      assented to, as may be imagined, while he was living; and his actions not
-      only fresh in memory, but more perfectly known, than possibly, was prudent
-      to transmit to these distant ages.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      As David prosecuted his flight, he was met by a man of Saul's family,
-      whose name was Shimei. This man as he came on, kept muttering curses
-      between his teeth, and at length cast stones at the King and his
-      attendants, calling out to him, "Come out, come out, thou bloody man, and
-      thou man of Belial; the Lord hath returned upon thee all the blood of the
-      house of Saul, in whose stead thou hast reigned, and the Lord hath
-      delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son; and behold thou
-      art taken in thy mischief because thou art a bloody man."* This is
-      pathetic, and truly characteristic of the person to whom the speech was
-      addressed. Some of his retinue were at the point of silencing; this
-      brawler with the "ultima ratio regum;"** but David prevented it,*** wisely
-      considering this not to be a season for proceeding to extremities.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Absalom, in the mean time, being come to Jerusalem, like a buck of spirit,
-      took the damsels which his father had left to keep house, and cuckolded
-      the old man by way of bravado, on the top of it****; in a tent erected for
-      this heroic purpose!
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Ahitophel advised Absalom to select twelve thousand men, and pursue David
-      directly, before he had time to recover his surprize;(5) which was
-      certainly the best resolution that could have been formed. But Hushai, as
-      was concerted, proposed a different plan of operations; opposing to the
-      former, the well known valour and military skill of the old king; and the
-      hazard of making him and his men desperate.(6)
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * 2 Sam. xvi 7, 8.
-
-     ** The motto on French cannon.
-
-     *** 2 Sam. xvi. 9, 10.
-
-     **** Ver. 21, 22.
-
-     (5) Chap. xvii. 1.
-
-     (6) Ver. 8.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      He advised a collection of all the troops in the kingdom; that success
-      might be in a manner insured; and that Absalom should command them in
-      person. By which means, he affirmed that they should overwhelm David and
-      his party, wherever they found him.* Hushai gained the ascendancy; and
-      when he knew that his scheme was accepted, he gave immediate notice to the
-      priests:** with instructions for David how to conduct himself.*** David
-      divided his forces into three bodies; commanded by Joab, Abishai, and
-      Ittai: but by the prudent care of his men, was not permitted to hazard his
-      person, by being present in action.**** When he had reviewed his army, he
-      gave his generals especial charge to preserve the life of Absalom; and
-      with a policy that reflects honour upon his military knowledge, expected
-      the enemy in the wood Ephraim:(5) a covert situation, being the most
-      judicious that could be chosen, for a small army(6) to encounter one more
-      numerous. David's men were tried veterans, among whom were the remains of
-      those who served under, and lived with him at Gath;(7) whereas, Absalom's
-      army must have consisted chiefly of fresh men. The battle decided in
-      favour of David(8) with great slaughter of the rebel army: and as Absalom
-      fled on a mule, his hair, which is celebrated for its beauty and quantity,
-      entangled in the boughs of an oak, and he remained suspended in the air;
-      while his mule ran away from between his legs.(9) He was observed in this
-      condition by a man who went and told Joab; and he, who consulted the
-      safety of David, rather than his parental weakness in behalf of an
-      unnatural son, killed Absalom with a dart.(10)
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      David grieved immoderately for this reprobate son, on whom he had
-      misplaced a great affection:(11) and though he had <i>acted</i> the
-      mourner on several former occasions, this is the only one, in which his
-      sincerity need not be questioned.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * 2 Sam. xiii. 11.
-
-     ** Ver. 15.
-
-     *** Ver. 16.
-
-     **** Chap. xviii. 1-3
-
-     (5) Ver. 4-6.
-
-     (6) According to Josephus, David had but four thousand men.
-
-     (7)  2 Sam. xv. 18.
-
-     (8) Chap. xviii. 7.
-
-     (9) Ver. 9.
-
-     (10) Ver. 14.
-
-     (11) Ver. 33., Chap. xix. 4.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      It is true, he might be really concerned at the murder of Abner; but men
-      circumstances ought to be attended to; Abner was killed prematurely; he
-      had not finished his treacherous negociation; David had much to hope from
-      him; but&mdash;when his expectations had been answered, it is far from
-      being improbable, that he would have found an opportunity himself to have
-      got rid of a man, on whom he could have placed no reliance. But to return.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      David was roused from his lamentations by the reproaches of his victorious
-      general,* who flushed with success, told him the truth, but, perhaps, told
-      it too coarsely. It is evident that Joab now lost the favour of his
-      master, which the murder of Abner, the killing Absalom in direct
-      contradiction to David's express order; and lastly, his want of sympathy,
-      and his indelicacy in the present instance, were the apparent causes.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      After the battle, he invited Amasa, Absalom's vanquished general, to
-      return to his duty: very imprudently and unaccountably promising him the
-      chief command of his army in the stead of Joab;** which was seemingly but
-      an unthankful return for the victory that officer had just gained him, and
-      for his attachment to his interest all along. Amasa, it is true, was a
-      near relation; but Joab, according to Josephus, stood in the same degree
-      of consanguinity; they being both the sons of David's sisters, this offer
-      must therefore have been rashly influenced by his resentment against Joab,
-      as before mentioned.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The remains of Absalom's scattered army dispersed to their homes in the
-      best and most private manner they could:*** but David inadvertantly
-      plunged himself into fresh troubles, by causing himself to be conducted
-      home by a detachment from the tribe of Judah.**** This occasioned disputes
-      between that and the other tribes. They accused Judah of stealing their
-      king from them.(5)
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * 2 Sam. xix. 5-7.
-
-     ** Ver. 13.
-
-     *** Ver. 3,
-
-     **** Ver. 11, 15.
-
-     (5) Ver. 41.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      Judah replied, that they gave their attendance, because the king was of
-      their tribe; and that it was their own free will:* the others rejoined
-      that they had ten parts in the king, and that their advice should have
-      been asked as to the bringing him back.** At this juncture, one Sheba took
-      advantage of the discontent, "and blew a trumpet, and said, we have no
-      part in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man
-      to his tent, O Israel."*** The consequence of this, was a second
-      insurrection. Amasa was ordered to assemble an army to suppress it; but
-      not proceeding with the desired speed, Abishai was afterward commissioned
-      with the same trust; Amasa and Abishai met and proceeded together, and
-      were joined by Joab and his men. But Joab, not thoroughly liking to serve
-      under a man he had so lately vanquished, and having as few scruples of
-      conscience as his old master, made short work, stabbed Amasa, and
-      reassumed the command of the whole army.****
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Being once again supreme in command, Joab proceeded directly to the
-      reduction of the malecontents who shut themselves up in the city of Abel
-      of Beth-maacha: he battered the town, but by the negociation of a woman,
-      the inhabitants agreed to throw Sheba's head to him over the wall; which
-      they performed;(5) and thus was quiet once more restored. Joab returned to
-      Jerusalem, where we are told that he was general over all the host of
-      Israel.(6) Not a syllable appears of any notice taken by David of the
-      murder of the general by himself appointed: and of the assassin's usurping
-      the command of the army.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Not finding room in its proper place, it shall now be noticed, that when
-      David was returning to Jerusalem from the reduction of Absalom's
-      rebellion; with the men of Judah, who came to escort him, Shimei, the
-      Benjamite,(7) joined him at the head of a party of his own tribe.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * 2 Sam. xix. 42.
-
-     ** Ver. 43.
-
-     *** Chap. xx. 1.
-
-     **** Ver. 7, 9.
-
-     (5) Ver. 15, 16, &amp;c.
-
-     (6) Ver. 23.
-
-     (7) Ver. 16.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      This man, who at a former meeting, so freely bestowed his maledictions on
-      David when a fugitive: upon this change of circumstances, reflecting on
-      the king's vindictive temper, came now to make his submission: David
-      accepted his acknowledgements, and confirmed his pardon with an oath.*
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      We shall have occasion to refer to this passage anon.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Mephibosheth came also to welcome David on his return, and undeceive him
-      with regard to the false Ziba's representation of him;&mdash;but he
-      appears to have met with no other redress, than a remittance of <i>half
-      the grant</i> made to Ziba of his estate.**
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * 2 Sam. xix. 28.
-
-     ** Ver. 29.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      These intestine troubles put David upon pondering how to secure himself,
-      as far as he could forecast, from any future disturbance.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It is the part of good politicians, not only to form wise designs
-      themselves, but also to make proper advantage of public occurrences, that
-      all events indiscriminately may, more or less, lead to the purposes wanted
-      to be obtained. Of this policy we shall observe David to be mindful, in
-      the ensuing transaction. Not that a panegyric upon his contrivance in this
-      instance is by any means intended; for certainly a more barefaced
-      transaction was never exhibited: such indeed as could only have been
-      attempted among the poor bigoted Jews. It is sufficient, however, that it
-      answered David's purpose; than which more could not have been expected
-      from the most complete stroke that refined politics ever produced. But
-      view it in a moral light, and certainly a blacker piece of ingratitude and
-      perfidy can hardly be imagined. It was impossible to continue the
-      narrative without prefacing thus much.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      David having with much trouble, from his competition with Ish-bosheth,
-      established himself upon the Jewish throne; and having in the latter part
-      of his reign been vexed, and driven to disagreeable extremities, by the
-      seditious humour of his subjects, the rebellion of his own son Absalom,
-      and the revolt of Sheba; his mind now fell a prey to suspicion. He called
-      to remembrance that some of Saul's family were yet living; whom, lest they
-      should hereafter prove thorns in his side, he concluded it expedient to
-      cut of.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Whenever David projected any scheme, a religious plea, and the assistance
-      of his old friends,* were never wanting. A famine befel Judea, which
-      continued three years: probably occasioned by the preceding intestine
-      commotions. "David inquired of the Lord: and the Lord answered, it is for
-      Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites."** But
-      where is this crime recorded? Samuel charged Saul with no such slaughter:
-      he reproached him with a contrary fault, an act of <i>mercy!</i> which is
-      assigned as one of the reasons for deposing him. So that this crime was
-      not recollected,*** till many years after the man was dead! and then God
-      punishes&mdash;whom? a whole nation, with three years famine: which, by
-      the by, was not sent as a punishment neither; but merely as a hint of
-      remembrance, which ended in hanging the late king's innocent children!
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The oracular response dictated no act of expiation; but only pointed out
-      the <i>cause</i> of the famine. So that the Gibeonites (who, by the way,
-      had hitherto made no complaints that we know of) were applied to**** for a
-      knowledge of what recompence they demanded.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * The prophets and priests.
-
-     ** 2 Sam. xxi. 1.
-
-     *** If God sought vengeance for a particular act of cruelty
-     perpetrated by Saul: when was vengeance demanded for David's
-     massacre of the Edomites, the Moabites, the Ammonites, the
-     Jebusites, and others, who at times became the object of
-     David's wrath? That the charge may allude to some former
-     affair, is not contested; it is, however, truly remarkable,
-     that there should be no chronological record of a fact,
-     which after such a length of time demanded an expiation so
-     awfully hinted, and so extraordinary in its circumstances!
-
-     **** 2 Sam. xxi. 2, 3.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      They required no gifts, neither that for their sakes David should kill any
-      man in Israel (which qualifying expressions seems artfully intended; since
-      they only required David to <i>deliver</i> the men to <i>them</i>, that <i>they</i>
-      might kill them); but that seven of Saul's sons, should be surrendered to
-      them, that they might hang them up&mdash;<i>unto the Lord</i>.* David, not
-      withheld by any motives of gratitude toward the posterity of his unhappy
-      father-in-law, but in direct violation of his oath at the cave of
-      En-gedi,** granted the request he must himself have instigated,*** sparing
-      only Mephibosheth, who luckily was so unfortunate as to be a cripple, and
-      so much a dependant on David, and kept under his own eye, that he had no
-      room for apprehension from him. He therefore reserved Mephibosheth, in
-      memory of another oath between him and his father Jonathan. Mephibosheth
-      having such a shocking scene to contemplate, and, considering his
-      decrepitude, might (as he really was) with little hazard be preserved, as
-      an evidence of probity in this pious king.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      A conscience of convenient flexibility is of great use: thus David being
-      under obligation by two oaths, forgot one, and remembered the other. When
-      Creon, in OEdipus, was interrogated concerning his conscience, he replied&mdash;
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     &mdash;"'Tis my slave, my drudge, my supple glove,
-     My upper garment, to put on, throw off,
-     As I think best: 'tis my obedient conscience."
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      David, now thinking himself securely settled, was moved both by God****
-      and by Satan,(5) to cause his subjects to be numbered: which is, oddly
-      enough, imputed as a great sin in him to require: for, poor man, according
-      to the premises, he was but a passive instrument in the affair.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * 2 Sam. 6.
-
-     ** 1 Sam. xxiv. 21, 22.
-
-     *** 2 Sam. xxi. 6.
-
-     **** Chap. xxiv. 1.
-
-     (5) 1 Chron. xxi. l.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      Even David should have his due. The prophet Gad called him to account for
-      it; and as a punishment for this sin of compulsion, propounded to him for
-      his choice three kinds of plagues, one of which <i>his subjects</i>
-      thereby necessarily incurred seven years famine, three months persecution
-      from enemies, or three days pestilence.* David chose the latter.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It may be as well to decline this story, as to enter into, any more
-      particular consideration of it. From the above state of the case, the
-      intelligent reader will need no assistance in making his own private
-      reflections on it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      We have now attended David down to the decline of his life: when his
-      natural heat so far decayed, that no addition of clothing** could retain a
-      proper degree of warmth. His physicians prescribed a young woman to
-      cherish him in his bed, by imparting to him a share of juvenile heat.***
-      This remedy may be very expedient in cases of extreme age: but why beauty
-      should be a necessary part of the prescription is difficult to conceive.
-      They sought a <i>fair damsel</i>; and the damsel they found, was <i>very
-      fair.</i>**** Possibly David might himself direct the delicacy of the
-      choice: but if his physicians intended it as a compliment to their master,
-      it indicated a very insufficient knowledge of the animal oeconomy: thus to
-      stimulate the old man, and harass a carcase already sufficiently worn out:
-      whereas a virgin of homelier features, at the same time that she would
-      have furnished an equal degree of warmth, would have been less liable to
-      put wicked thoughts in the patient's head.(5) However, the historian has
-      taken care to inform us, that "the king knew her not:"(6) an assertion,
-      which, from the premises, there does not appear any reason to controvert.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * 2 Sam. xxiv. 13., 1 Chron. xxi. 12.
-
-     ** 1 Kings, i. 1.
-
-     *** Ver. 2.
-
-     **** Ver. 8, 4.
-
-     (5) "Boerhaave frequently told his pupils that an old German
-     prince, in a very infirm state of health, being advised to
-     lie between two young virtuous virgins, grew so healthy and
-     strong, that his physicians found it necessary to remove his
-     companions." Mackenzie on Health, p. 70, Notes.
-
-     (6) l Kings, i. 4.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      While the king lay in this debilitated extremity of life, he was destined
-      to experience yet another mortification from his children. Adonijah his
-      eldest son, since the death of Absalom, taking advantage of his father's
-      incapacity, foolishly assumed the title of king,* which, had he been a
-      little less precipitate, would have soon fallen to him, perhaps, without
-      contest. For though David afterwards is represented as having secret
-      intentions to alter the succession, yet the countenance shewn to his
-      pretension by Joab, the general, by Abiathar the priest, and even by all
-      his other brothers,** seem to indicate, that had Adonijah been more
-      prudent, we should not now have heard so much of the wisdom of Solomon, It
-      is possible Adonijah might, even as it was, have maintained his
-      anticipated dignity, had he not, like Saul before, slighted his most
-      powerful friends. He made an entertainment, to which he invited all his
-      brothers, except Solomon;*** but what ruined him, was his not inviting
-      Nathan the prophet; it was <i>there</i> the grudge began: and the
-      exclusion from this merry bout, and the confidence of the party, caused
-      the prophet's loyalty to exert itself,**** which might probably have been
-      suppressed by a due share of Adonijah's good cheer.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * Ver. 5.
-
-     ** Ver. 9, 19, 25.
-
-     *** Ver. 9, 10,
-
-     **** Ver. 11.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      Let not the writer be accused of putting a malicious construction upon
-      every transaction he produces. Pray, reader, turn to your bible: in the
-      tenth verse of the first chapter of the first book of Kings, you will find
-      a remark that Nathan was not called to the feast. The very next verse
-      begins, "Wherefore, Nathan spake unto Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon,"
-      &amp;c. He was certainly nettled at the slight put on him, and some
-      others, in not being invited to Adonijah's feast, else he would not have
-      insisted on that circumstance; which had better been waved. The
-      supposition is not so ridiculous as has been represented; for surely the
-      probability of Nathan's being corrupted, was not less than that of David's
-      sons; who, yet, all of them, except Solomon, (who, had he been invited,
-      had some private reasons to the contrary, which their proceedings shew
-      them to have been aware of) were agreeable to settling the succession on
-      their elder brother; though certainly as much interested in the disposal
-      of the kingdom, as Nathan could be.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Nathan and Bathsheba concerted to inform David of this matter;* where the
-      affronted prophet could not forget the slight put upon him; but, it being
-      foremost in his mind, he insists upon the circumstance of exclusion, in an
-      earnest manner; "But me, even me, thy servant, and Zadok the priest, and
-      Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and thy servant Solomon, hath he not
-      called;"** which spake the cause of his officious loyalty but too plainly.
-      David here acknowledges the promise by which he waved the right of
-      primogeniture in favour of Solomon, Bathsheba's son.*** He now directed
-      him to be set upon a mule, to be proclaimed and anointed king of Israel,
-      by his appointment.**** The acclamations of the people upon this
-      raree-shew disturbed the opposite party at their table; and an event, so
-      unexpected, quite disconcerted them: they all dispersed;(5) Adonijah ran
-      to the tabernacle, and took sanctuary at the altar. He obtained of Solomon
-      a conditional promise of pardon,(6) depending on his good behaviour.(7)
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * 1 Kings i. 13.
-
-     ** Ver. 26.
-
-     *** Ver. 30.
-
-     **** Ver. 33, 38.
-
-     (5) Ver. 41, 49, 50.
-
-     (6) Ver. 52.
-
-     (7) Solomon soon found a pretence, ridiculous enough, but
-     sufficient in his eyes, to get rid of Adonijah, when his
-     father was dead.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      And now, methinks, some gentlewoman, of more than feminine patience, whose
-      curiosity may have prevailed with her to proceed thus for, may here
-      exclaim; "It must be granted, Sir! that David had his faults; and who has
-      not? but what does that prove? only that he was a man. If he was frail,
-      his repentance was exemplary; as you may perceive, if you can prevail with
-      yourself to read some of his psalms. Indeed, after your ill-treatment of
-      the scripture, it will avail little to tell you that you contradict those
-      inspired penmen, who expressly stile David, <i>the Man after God's own
-      heart</i>. Nay, your writing against him, under that epithet, shews
-      sufficiently the rancour and impiety of <i>your heart</i>; so that I am
-      fearful there are small hopes of reclaiming you."&mdash;Good Madam! hear
-      me calmly, and we shall part excellent friends yet. Had David not been
-      selected from the rest of mankind, why then&mdash;it is possible&mdash;hardly
-      possible&mdash;he might pass in the gross, with the rest of the Jewish
-      kings. But, when he is exalted and placed in a conspicuous point of view,
-      as an eminent example of piety! he then necessarily attracts our notice in
-      an especial manner, and we are naturally led to wonder, that a more happy
-      subject of panegyric had not been chosen. If he was an holy psalmist; if
-      he is styled the Man after God's own heart; he also lived the life here
-      exhibited: and his capability of uniting such contrarities, does but
-      augment his guilt!
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Yet, even in his psalms, he frequently breathes nothing but blood, and the
-      most rancorous resentment against his enemies. Of these take a specimen or
-      two, from the elegant <i>ekeings</i> out of that transcendent pair of
-      geniuses, Messrs. Thomas Sternhold and John Hopkins; in recommendation of
-      whose version, and the taste of our countrymen, it may be truly affirmed,
-      that their psalms have gone through more editions than the works of any
-      other poet, or brace of poets, whatever.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Psalm lxviii. 22-24.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     And he shall wound the head of all
-     His enemies also,
-     The hairy scalp of such as on
-     In wickedness do go.
-
-     From Basan 1 will bring, said he,
-     My people and my sheep,
-     And all my own, as I have done.
-     From dangers of the deep.
-
-     And make them dip their feet in blood
-     Of those that hate my name;
-     The tongues of dogs they shall be red
-     With licking of the same.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      Again, in Psalm lxix. 24&mdash;27.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     Lord, turn their table to a snare,
-     To take themselves therein,
-     And when they think full well to fare,
-     Then rap them in their gin:
-     And let their eyes be dark and blind,
-
-     That they may nothing see;
-     Bow down their backs, and let them find
-     Themselves in thrall to be:
-     Pour out thy wrath as hot as fire,
-
-     That it on them may fall,
-     Let thy displeasure in thine ire
-     Take hold upon them all.
-     As desarts dry their house disgrace,
-     Their seed do thou expel,
-     That none thereof possess their place,
-     Nor in their tents once dwell.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      Very pious ejaculations for the whole congregation to <i>sing to the
-      praise and glory of God!</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      David's failings, as they are qualifyingly termed, are generally mentioned
-      as exceptions to the uniform piety of his character: but, if David ever
-      performed any truly laudable actions, <i>those</i> are the real exceptions
-      to the general baseness which stains the whole of a life uncommonly
-      criminal.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The writer does not pledge himself to reconcile rapine and cruelty, with
-      morality and religion; there are Commentators who love these knotty
-      affairs; to them they are left. When the vindictive tenor of any of
-      David's psalms has been insisted on, the translation is immediately
-      censured; prudently enough; as every one who has sense to perceive the
-      incongruity between such bloody wishes and denunciations, and the
-      acknowledged purity and mercy of the All-beneficent Father of Nature, may
-      not have learning enough to dispute about Hebrew points, and to make them
-      point what meaning he pleases. However, such a one, by comparing the
-      labours of Hebrew critics, may yet be enabled to form some sort of
-      judgment between them. For instance, in that terrible 109th psalm, it is
-      certain our Doctors in Divinity do not like it: but something must be done
-      with it: some, therefore, say, that the verbs are not translated in their
-      proper tenses, and that prophetic declarations are thus mistaken for the
-      Psalmist's execrations: others again say, that to be sure they <i>are</i>
-      imprecations, but not the imprecations of David; but those of his enemies
-      on him, which he there only relates! O happy men! why do not we all learn
-      Hebrew? His exemplary repentance is pleaded; is it any where to be found
-      but in the psalms? "By their fruits ye shall know them." If David was ever
-      truly pious, we shall certainly perceive it in his behaviour on his
-      death-bed. <i>There</i>, it is to be hoped, we shall find him forgiving
-      his enemies, and dying in charity with all mankind. This is what all
-      mankind in general make a point of, from the saint to the malefactor.
-      David, therefore, must certainly give us an extraordinary instance of his
-      attention to this important evidence of contrition, But what shall we
-      think, when we see this Nero of the Hebrews die in a manner uniform and
-      consistent with the whole course of his life? What will be our
-      reflections, when we find him, with his last accents, delivering two cruel
-      and inhuman murders in charge to his son Solomon? Murders still further
-      aggravated by the included crimes of ingratitude and perjury! one of them
-      to be executed on his old faithful general, Joab, who powerfully assisted
-      him on all occasions, and who adhered to him in all his extremities, till
-      at the last, when he had justifiable cause for chagrin: but who,
-      notwithstanding, had not appeared against him in actual hostility; but
-      only drank a glass of wine with the malcontents. It will avail nothing to
-      plead the private faults of the man; we are now to consider him as
-      relative to David, in his public capacity. In which light we must loath
-      the master, who died meditating black ingratitude against so faithful, so
-      useful a servant. For even his defection at last may, perhaps, admit of
-      being interpreted into a patronization of that particular plan for the
-      succession, rather than into a rebellion against the superannuated
-      monarch.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      His other charge was against Shimei, who reviled David at his retreat from
-      Jerusalem, during Absalom's rebellion; but who made his submission to him,
-      when he returned victorious: and whose pardon David had sealed with a
-      solemn oath.*
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Attend we now to the cause of these reflections. After exhorting Solomon
-      on his death-bed, to keep the statutes of the Lord, David proceeds:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Moreover, thou knowest also what Joab, the son of Zeruiah, did to me, and
-      what he did to the two captains of the hosts of Israel, unto Abner the son
-      of Ner, and unto Amasa the son of Jether, whom he slew, and shed the blood
-      of war in peace, and put the blood of war upon his girdle that was about
-      his loins, and in his shoes that were on his feet."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Do therefore according to thy wisdom, and let NOT HIS HOAR HEAD GO DOWN
-      TO THE GRAVE IN PEACE."**
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      This was afterwards fulfilled in the basest manner, by the administrator
-      to this pious testament.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      David concludes thus:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "And behold, thou hast with thee Shimei, the son of Gera, a Benjaminite of
-      Bahurim, which cursed me with a grievous curse, in the day when I went to
-      Mahanaim; but he came down to meet me at Jordan, and I sware to him by the
-      Lord, saying, I will not put thee to death with the sword:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Now, therefore, hold him not guiltless: for thou art a wise man, and
-      knowest what thou oughtest to do unto him; but his hoar head bring thou
-      down to the grave with BLOOD."*** &mdash;That is to say, 'It is true, I
-      promised not to put him to death, but thou art a wise man, and knowest
-      what thou oughtest to do; thou knowest thyself not to be bound by that
-      obligation; therefore his hoar head, &amp;c. So saying, he expired!
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * 2  Sam. xix. 23.
-
-     ** 1 Kings ii. 5, 6.
-
-     *** Ver. 8, 9.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      This command was also executed in a manner, worthy of a son of SUCH A
-      FATHER.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      To take a retrospect view of the foregoing narrative; in few words may be
-      seen the sum total of the whole. A shepherd: youth is chosen by a
-      disgusted, prophet, to be the instrument of his revenge on an untractable
-      king. To this, end he is inspired with ambitious hopes, by a private
-      inauguration; is introduced to court, in the capacity of a harper; and by
-      knocking down a man with a stone whom, if he had missed once, he had four
-      more chances of hitting, and from whom, at the last, he could have, easily
-      ran away; he was advanced to the dignity of son-in-law to the king. So
-      sudden and unlooked for a promotion within sight of the throne, stimulated
-      expectations already awakened; and Saul soon perceived reasons to repent
-      his alliance with him. Being obliged to retire from the court, he
-      assembled a gang of ruffians, the acknowledged outcasts of their country,
-      and became the ringleader of a lawless company of banditti. In this
-      capacity he seduces his brother-in-law, Jonathan, from his allegieance and
-      filieal duty; and covenants with him, that if he obtained the kingdom,
-      Jonathan should be the next person in authority under him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He obtains a settlement in the dominions of a Philistine prince where
-      instead of applying himself laudably to the arts of cultivation he
-      subsists by plundering and butchering the neighbouring nations.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He offered his assistance to the Philistine armies, in a war against his
-      own country, and father-in-law; and is much disgusted at their distrust of
-      his sincerity. He however, availed himself of the defeat and death of
-      Saul, and made a push for the kingdom.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Of this he gained only his own tribe of Judah: but strengthened by this
-      usurpation, he contested the remainder with Saul's son, Ishbosbeth, whom
-      he persecuted to the grave: Ishbosbeth being assassinated by two villains,
-      with intention to pay their court to the usurper. He is now king of
-      Israel: In which capacity he plundered and massacred all his neighbours
-      round him at discretion. He defiled, the wife of one of his officers,
-      while her husband was absent in the army: and finding she was with child
-      by him, He, to prevent a discovery, added murder to adultery; which being
-      accomplished, he took the widow directly into his well-stocked seraglio.
-      He then repaired to the army, where he treated the subjected enemies: with
-      the most wanton inhumanity. A rebellion is raised against him by his son
-      Absalom, which he suppressed, and invited over the rebel-general, to whom
-      he gave the supreme command of his army, to the prejudice of the
-      victorious Joab. After this, he cut off the remainder of Saul's family, in
-      defiance to the solemn oath by which he engaged to spare that unhappy
-      race; reserving only one cripple from whom he had not apprehensions: and
-      who, being the son of Jonathan, gave him the opportunity of making a merit
-      of his gratitude.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When he lay on his death-bed, where all mankind resign their resentments
-      and animosities, his latest breath was employed in dictating two
-      posthumous murders to his son Solomon! and, as if one crime more was
-      wanting to complete the black catalogue; he cloathed all his actions with
-      the most consummate hypocrisy: professing all along the greatest regard
-      for every appearance of virtue and holiness. These, Christians! are the
-      outlines of the life of a Jew, whom you are not ashamed to continue
-      extolling as a man after God's own heart!
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      This Britons! is the king to whom your late excellent monarch* has been
-      compared!
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     * George II.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      What an impiety to the Majesty of Heaven!
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      What an affront to the memory of an honest prince! It is with great joy
-      the writer of these memoirs takes his leave of a story, with which, by
-      this time he is sufficiently disgusted. He entered upon it, however, from
-      honest motives; and he concludes it with the consciousness of having
-      performed a work, which he flatters himself will prove acceptable to all
-      who entertain adequate conceptions of the eternal rectitude of that great
-      Creator of the universe, whom they profess to adore. He despises all the
-      pious ravings and anathemas which have been thundered against him by some
-      reverend inquisitors: he expected them, has exposed them; and hopes he
-      may, without offence finally reply in the words of their forgotten master,
-      "Father forgive them, for they <i>know not</i> what they do." Those who
-      estimate a man's religion by his implicitness to prescribed notions, and
-      who think it their duty to stifle their living objections in compliance to
-      the dead letter; (for objections they will have, and very strong ones too)
-      such have, and will undoubtedly be shocked at this publication. Such may
-      produce numerous texts in opposition to what is here produced; and can
-      inspired writers be inconsistent with themselves? It is not at present
-      necessary to discuss that question. Argue that point among yourselves; the
-      printer will at least profit by your disputes; though you may happen to
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     &mdash;&mdash;Explain a thing till all men doubt it.
-     And write about the subject, and about it:
-     So spins the silk-worm small its slender store,
-     And labours till it clouds itself all o'er.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      This, yet, is none of his concern. The love of truth is a motive which
-      ought to supersede every other consideration: for every other
-      consideration is subordinate in comparison with it. Truth requires no
-      tenderness of investigation, and scorns all subterfuges. It is, when
-      displayed,
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     &mdash;&mdash;divinely bright.
-     One dear, unchang'd, and universal light.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      To rescue truth, therefore, from obscurity and disguise, is the most
-      rational way of giving
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <i>Glory to God in the highest; and on earth, peace: good-will toward men.</i>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 6em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-
-
-
-
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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of David, by Anonymous
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
-re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
-with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
-
-
-Title: The Life of David
-       Or, The History of The Man After God's Own Heart
-
-Author: Anonymous
-
-Release Date: October 8, 2012 [EBook #40980]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ASCII
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF DAVID ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by David Widger
-
-
-
-
-
-THE LIFE OF DAVID
-
-OR, THE HISTORY OF THE MAN AFTER GOD'S OWN HEART
-
-Omnia probate, benum tenete.--S. P.
-
-Reprinted From The Edition Op 1766.
-
-London:
-
-Printed And Published By J. Carlile, 55, Fleet-Street.
-
-
-
-To the REV. SAM. CHANDLER,
-
-D.D. F.R. and A. SS.
-
-To whom, Sir, could the republication of this little history with more
-propriety be addressed, than to a gentleman to whom it is under such
-considerable obligations? When it first appeared, it was honoured with
-your notice in an especial manner; and is not a little benefited by your
-_labours_. You, Sir, with a _careful_ hand noted its errors; and what
-has stood the test of your strictures is certainly established with
-additional authority. Whatever might be the motives which influenced _so
-vigorous_ an exertion of your _learned_ and _critical_ powers--powers
-so universally acknowledged and respected, the author of this piece
-will not now inquire: it is sufficient to him, that they operated to the
-extending the knowledge of his tract, among that class of readers who
-stood most in need of the information it furnished; and he is persuaded
-you will with pleasure hear his assurances, that the work owes no small
-share of what approbation it may have gained, to your _elaborate review_
-of it. Several worthy pious persons having candidly declared in private
-conversation, (and unknowingly to the author himself) that the perusal
-of your book really strengthened the facts advanced in the history. For
-this, therefore, he considers you as entitled to his thanks; and that
-his acknowledgments might be as public as the obligation, no method of
-conveyance seemed more proper, than to prefix them to this new Edition
-of "_The History of the Man after God's own Heart._"
-
-He scorns, Sir, to follow the practice of Dedicators in common, who,
-from venal motives, surfeit their patrons with fulsome adulation:
-he will not, therefore, call the blushes into your countenance, by
-expressing his private sentiments of your _learned_ Review of this
-Historical Sketch, farther than by one observation; which is, that had
-you been totally unknown in the republic of letters before, your apology
-for the death of Uriah would alone have raised your literary fame beyond
-the power of envious detraction. However, not to offend your modesty, he
-desists from farther encomiums; but with a wish that you may long live
-to enjoy the reputation acquired by so _laudable_ a performance, he
-concludes with subscribing himself,
-
-Sir, your greatly obliged, and very humble Admirer.
-
-
-
-
-PREFACE.
-
-Some reverend panegyrists* on our late king,** have, a little
-unfortunately, been fond of comparing him with a monarch in no respect
-resembling him; except in the length of his reign, thirty and three
-years: which a lucky text informed them to be the duration of David's
-sovereignty over the Hebrew nation. Had our good old king died a year
-sooner, or had we been indulged with him a year longer, the opportunity
-of applying this text would then have been lost; and in either case we
-might not have heard of the parallel.
-
-A reverence for the memory of a worthy Prince, has occasioned the
-world's being troubled with a new history of king David, (which,
-otherwise might not have appeared) merely to shew how the memory of the
-British monarch is affected by the comparison.
-
-"Why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right?" is the language of
-Jesus Christ. "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good;" is the
-language of the apostle Paul. The liberty thus granted is unlimited; but
-it is more than mere grant of liberty, these are positive injunctions:
-let no one then be so timid as to resign an inclination to satisfy
-just doubts: in Britain, thanks to the obstinate heresy of our brave
-forefathers, no audacious Romish priest dare prescribe limits to the
-exercise of our reasoning faculties; and Protestant ones surely will
-not: nay, they cannot, consistently with those principles which justify
-their dissent from the Romish communion. An honest desire to obtain
-truth, will sanctify the most rigid scrutiny into every thing. An
-apostle has told us, that we are not to believe even an angel from
-Heaven, who should preach any other gospel than that of Christ;* and,
-no authority can be so sacred, as to set aside the _most valuable
-distinction of humanity_, with which our Creator has furnished us; or to
-give the lie to our most self-evident conceptions of right and wrong.
-
-     * Dr. Chandler, Mr. Palmer and others.
-
-     **  George the IId.
-
-
-If that liberty, of which Britons boast the possession, means any thing,
-it must primarily include freedom of thought; without which there can be
-no freedom of action. Thus it must mean an uncontrolled power to examine
-the validity of every proposition offered to our assent; without which
-power, and the due exercise of it, our assent cannot be the assent of
-rational beings. If the reformed religion means any thing, it must mean
-a religion founded by the authority, not of councils and synods, but
-of conviction, the result of private judgment. True Protestants do not
-puzzle themselves about the decisions of Trent, Constance, or Dort; they
-protest against all authoritative dictates; disciples of the meek, the
-lowly, the humane Jesus, they seek of themselves to judge of right or
-wrong. Who is most the Protestant, the friend to human kind, and to
-truth? Those who appeal to the human understanding, and submit to the
-public judgment whether things are really so or not; or those who say,
-they are so, they shall be so, you shall acknowledge them to be so, or
-else----?
-
-     * Galatians i. 8.
-
-Let not weak-minded Christians who think truth not able to maintain its
-authority without legal enforcements, lament what they call licentious
-abuses of that liberty on which we are happy to congratulate ourselves:
-injudicious productions of the pen will always meet the treatment they
-deserve. Fallacious pretensions to reasoning cannot deceive mankind in
-these liberal times; nor can truth be obscured, when the attention of
-honest inquiries after it, is properly exerted. If the little historical
-sketch which follows, and which in fact, exhibits no more than what we
-have all daily read, without presuming to decide upon; if it really
-is that audacious calumny which many roundly affirm it to be; it will
-doubtless be considered as such: if, on the contrary, it contains
-undeniable matters of fact, fallaciousness will appear in the angry
-objections against it; and the writer trusts, the futility of such
-objections, have already been made sufficiently apparent.
-
-The name of David has never been mentioned by divines but with the
-greatest respect, from the time in which he lived to the present day;
-and he is always quoted as an illustrious example of holiness! so
-illustrious, that the greatest instance of purity that ever existed on
-earth, was frequently saluted by way of eminence, in reference to him,
-_Son of David!_ so illustrious, that on the death of the late king
-of Great Britain, many sermons were preached and published, in which,
-parallels are drawn betwixt him and this standard of piety, in order to
-justify encomiums on the former, by declaring how nearly he resembled
-the latter.
-
-In what manner David first acquired, and has ever since maintained, this
-extraordinary reputation, is not difficult to deduce, he was advanced,
-by an enraged prophet, from obscurity to the Hebrew throne; and taught
-by the fate of the unhappy monarch who was raised in the same manner,
-whom he supplanted, and whose family he crushed, he prudently attached
-himself to the cause of his patrons,* and they were the trumpeters
-of his fame. The same order of men, true to their common cause, have
-continued to sound the praise of this church-hero from generation to
-generation, unto the present time: in like manner the grand violator of
-the English constitution obtained the epithet of _holy Martyr_.
-
-A new scrutiny being made, however, into David's claim to sanctity,
-which, notwithstanding a very learned defence of him, turned out so
-greatly to his dishonour; the scene has been shifted by a few whose
-sense has overbalanced their bigotry by two or three scruples. Some
-such, like Sheba of old, blow the trumpet and cry, "We have no part in
-David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse!" In this manner
-have some clerical weather-cocks veered about to an opposite point of
-the compass; and David, who, till now has been considered as a man who
-"did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and turned not aside
-from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only
-in the matter of Uriah the Hittite," has, by one stroke of politics,
-been resigned to the mercy of his detectors; and the importance of the
-detection endeavoured to be annihilated, as the easier task; all which
-appears with rather an ill grace, at a time when it is manifestly
-extorted.
-
-     * The Prophets and Priest.
-
-Thus much being premised relating to the conduct of the champions for
-orthodoxy, on the occasion of this little squib which has produced so
-much bustle in the clerical hives, proceed we to say something of the
-tract itself.
-
-The intention was, without any regard to remote objects, or heed of
-future consequences, which in fact ought _never_ to be considered in
-investigating any point; to give a fair undisguised narrative of the
-life and transactions of David, king of Israel.
-
-This, however, was not so easy to perform, as it was to project; from
-three difficulties which impeded the execution.
-
-1. It is not easy to conquer the early prejudices of education in favour
-of the Hebrew nation; which the careful inculcation of their story
-during our infancy, hinders our seeing in a proper light: so that
-relations which might shock humanity in what is called prophane history,
-are read without any emotion but that of reverence, in _this_. This
-misconception is in great measure assisted.
-
-2. By their History being written _by themselves_: and difficult to be
-corrected.
-
-3. By the broken unconnected manner in which it is transmitted down
-to us: which renders it impossible to give a complete narrative of any
-period in it.
-
-A common share of humanity, which a little attention to common sense
-enabled the author to extend to every nation under Heaven as the objects
-of it, relieved him from the first of these difficulties: to overcome
-the other two, he has assumed the liberty of giving _his_ sense to what
-appears dark, or misrepresented; which he hopes will not be denied him,
-so long as it is not found that a forced construction is put upon any
-thing cited; or, that it is represented in any other light than what it
-naturally appears in, when considered with the freedom, which it is our
-duty to use in the examination of every historical record.
-
-And lest it should be imagined that too great liberties are taken with
-the biblical writers; it may not be amiss to mention once for all, that
-innumerable instances might be produced, to shew that the authority of
-_the Lord_, so continually quoted to sanctify every transaction related;
-constituted for the most part, nothing more than national phrases, which
-obtained universally among so bigoted a people as on all occasions the
-Jews appear to have been: one-twelfth part of whom were appropriated
-to the priesthood! A phraseology in some measure similar obtained in
-England, at that time, when shunning the cruel talons of papacy, the
-people rushed into the jaws of wild enthusiasm. That the sense in which
-the acts of David are here understood, is the most obvious and natural,
-appears from the amazing pains it has occasioned his champions, to force
-another upon them. Of this, the Life of David, by Dr. Delany, is a most
-remarkable instance; but the gross palliations, puerile conjectures,
-and mean shifts to which he has been driven, prove the difficulty of the
-task; while they are too frivolous to bias any, but the most _Catholic
-believers_.
-
-Mr. Stockhouse, in his History of the Bible, has urged arguments against
-particular passages, under the title of _Objections_; so cogent, that
-_his answers_ to them, certainly could not be satisfactory even to
-himself.
-
-Dr. Chandler has lately added his name to the list of David's
-apologists. Strange! that so holy a king should need the exertion of so
-much learned and critical dexterity, to establish his fame for goodness
-of heart! This gentleman's performance, which was published as a reply
-to the first edition of the present work, is a very extraordinary piece;
-and shews that, great learning is no security for soundness of judgment.
-The Doctor's book has been considered in a letter addressed to him, and
-published separately; to which the reader is referred for an examination
-into the merits of his arguments. In answering the Doctor, new lights
-opened on many occurrences, which, as far as they could be detached from
-that particular controversy, are taken into the present edition.
-
-The best of kings is a title which adulation and servility have always
-conferred on the most contemptible, as well as the most detestable
-tyrants; and the frequency of its application to the object is ever in
-proportion as he is undeserving of it. Had the flattering sycophants
-of king David been satisfied with applying to him this common-place
-appellation, rational men, who form their conclusions from the result of
-general experience, would have inferred only that he had been one of the
-numerous herd of bad princes who have oppressed mankind, and there would
-have been nothing peculiar either in the fact or the inference. But
-when the extremity of adulation conferred on David the title of _The
-Man after God's own heart_, thinking men, who know the source from which
-such adulation ever flows, are prepared to expect, in the development of
-his history, a character pre-eminently wicked, and in this they are not
-deceived.
-
-All historians of credit agree in describing _God's chosen people_,
-the _Jews_, as the most vicious and detestable of mankind;* their own
-historians confirm this character of them, and the whole series of facts
-which constitute their history, prove it beyond a possibility of doubt.
-
-     * Tacitus describes the Jewish people as formed of the worst
-     outcasts of the surrounding nations, collected together by
-     Moses, and kept for ever separated from the rest of mankind,
-     by an opposition of manners, and hostility of sentiment. Nam
-     passimus quisque, spretis religionibus patriis, tributa et
-     stipes illuc congerebant; unde auctae Judeorum res--ad versus
-     omnes alios hostile odium--transgressi in morem eorum, idem
-     usurpent; nec quidquam prius imbuuntur quam contemnere Deos,
-     exuere patriam; arentes, liberos, fratres, vilia habere.--
-     Ticiti Hist. Lib. v.
-
-Among _the chosen people of God_--the most depraved of all nations--it
-is pretty certain that the worst and wickedest man of that nation was
-David, _The Man after God's own heart_. The truth of this proposition
-will be abundantly proved in the following short history.
-
-A question will here naturally present itself, how the Jews became so
-much more vicious and depraved than their neighbours? And to resolve
-that question, it will be necessary to consider in what respects their
-laws and customs differed from those of others. It will be found that
-they differed most essentially from all other nations in the world in
-two particulars: 1st. They had more religion than any other nation;
-and, 2dly. They had more priests. Other nations among whom superstitious
-rites and ceremonies prevailed, were satisfied with practising them on
-solemn festivals, and occasionally on particular or important events;
-but the Jews practised their superstition incessantly: none of the
-common duties, or ordinary functions of life, could be performed by
-them, without a reference to the rules of their superstition; they
-were bound to a strict observance of them whenever they ate, drank, or
-performed any other of the natural functions.* **
-
-
-     * Moses quo sibi in posterum gentem firmaret, novos ritus
-     coutrariosque ceteris mortalibus indidit; profana illic
-     omnia, quae apud nos sacra; rursum concessa apud illos, quae
-     nobis incesta.--Seperati epulis, discreti cubilibus,
-     projectissima ad libidinem gens, aliena rum cubitu
-     abstinent, inter se nihil illicitum, circumcidere genitalia
-     instituere, ut diversitate noscanttir.--Taciti Hist. Lib. v.
-     It is impossible to draw a more disgusting picture of a
-     nation than this elegant and correct historian, in
-     describing the Jews.
-
-     ** The Romans, though so numerous and powerful a nation, had
-     but very few priests, compared to the Jews. The Augurs were
-     at first only 3, and in process of time were increased to
-     15. The Arnspices were 12. The Pontifices were at first but
-     4, and were afterwards increased to 10. The Flamines were
-     but 3. The Salit 12. The Feciales, who were 20 in number,
-     though classed by authors among the priesthood, were merely
-     civil officers employed as heralds. And the Vestals, or Nuns
-     of Rome, were only 4; altogether between 50 and 60. Vide
-     Kennett's Roman Antiq. And yet Saint Austin, De Cevitate
-     Dei, Lib. iv. cap. 15, admits that the Romans were so
-     virtuous, that God gave them the empire of the world because
-     they were more virtuous than other nations, vet, with true
-     Christian charity, he says, that they must nevertheless he
-     damned as heathens. We do not find that the priests of other
-     enlightened nations of antiquity were proportionality much
-     more numerous than amoung the Romans. In England at present
-     the number of the priesthood cannot be much less than
-     20,000; there are near 10,000 parishes, each having one
-     priest at least, several two, and some three or more,
-     exclusive of Deans and Chapters, Prebends, &c. &c. and all
-     these in the established church, as it is called, exclusive
-     of a great variety of other sectaries of different
-     denominations.
-
-
-Other nations had a few priests dedicated to their gods or idols,
-seldom exceeding a few dozen in a whole nation but the Jewish priesthood
-constituted a twelfth part of the whole people, and claimed and
-exercised the privilege of devouring a tenth part of the produce of the
-country, without contributing any thing to its productive labour.* And
-it is probable that the Jewish nation alone, though but a miserable
-handful of semi-barbarous savages, had more priests than the rest of the
-then known world collectively, and were consequently more vicious and
-more enslaved than any other people.
-
-     * The Jewish priesthood being one tribe, or twelfth part of
-     the nation, do not appear to have assumed to themselves much
-     more than an equal proportion, compared to their numbers, in
-     taking the tithe or tenth part of the produce of the land,
-     however unjust it may appear that they should be supported
-     in idleness at the expence of the industry of the rest: but
-     the English priesthood, though abundantly numerous, do not
-     form above one five-hundredth part of the whole nation, yet
-     they have the conscience to take also the tenth of the whole
-     produce, which is near fifty times more than their just
-     share, according to the proportion of their romish models,
-     from whose example they pretend to derive them.
-
-Mankind have been too long duped by that universal _cant_ of priests,
-who, in their language, have ever affected to couple _religion and
-morality_ together, and to represent them as _inseparably united_,
-though the slightest attention must show that they are perfectly
-_distinct_, and a full and mature consideration of the subject must
-prove that they are even extremely _opposite_. They well knew that man,
-in the most abject state of mental degradation to which superstition
-could reduce him, must still acknowledge the force and excellence of
-virtue and morality, and must perceive their necessary tendency to
-promote his welfare and happiness. They well knew how useful to their
-own views and interests it would be to persuade him that religion,
-virtue, and morality, were one and the same, or, at least, intimately
-and inseparably connected; the credulity of man gave credit to the
-imposture without examination, and the uniform experience of above 2,000
-years has not hitherto been sufficient to undeceive him.
-
-Unhappy man! destined for ever to be the dupe of his own credulity, in
-opposition to the testimony of his experience, and the evidence of his
-senses. Does not the history of all ages show, that the most religious
-nations have always been, and still are, the most vicious and immoral!
-
-Another most formidable evil necessarily results from such a system of
-superstition, that is, a state of civil slavery, which is always found
-its universal concomitant. Whenever the human mind is debased and
-degraded by a system of gross superstition, it becomes incapable of any
-one manly, liberal, or independent sentiment; every energy of the mind
-is lost, reason is surrendered, virtue, the chief support, if not the
-sole foundation of freedom, is banished, and man is fitted to receive
-the abject yoke of slavery; tyranny and despotism make an easy conquest
-of him, and the priest is ever ready to rivet his chains, and perpetuate
-his bondage, by the pretended sanction of Heaven. The power and
-influence of the priest and the tyrant is ever in proportion to the
-debasement of man; they have a common interest, have ever made a common
-cause against him, and have constantly erected their common throne on
-the ruins of his freedom, his welfare, and his happiness.
-
-Let us not, therefore, be deterred from unmasking to the view of mankind
-that immense mass of vice and depravity which constitute the foundation
-of the Jewish superstition; let no blind veneration for that hideous
-idol deter us from exposing its deformity; let us cultivate that which
-is truly good and useful; let reason assume her just empire over the
-mind of man, and credulity, ignorance, and folly, abdicate their usurped
-dominion: then shall we soon behold the galling fetters of vice and
-superstition broken by the irresistible power of virtue, morality, and
-truth.
-
-
-
-
-THE LIFE OF DAVID.
-
-The first establishment of regal government among the Hebrews, was
-occasioned by the corrupt administration of Joel and Abiah, the two sons
-of Samuel, whom he had deputed to judge Israel in the decline of his
-life.* The people, exasperated at the oppression they laboured under,
-applied to Samuel for redress, testifying a desire to experience a
-different mode of government, by peremptorily demanding a king.** At
-this, however, Samuel was greatly displeased: not that his sons had
-tyrannized over the people, for of that he takes no manner of notice,
-neither exculpating them, nor promising the people redress; his chagrin
-arose from this violent resumption of the supreme magistracy out of
-the hands of his family; a circumstance for which he expresses great
-resentment.*** He consults the Lord, and not knowing else how the
-insurrection might terminate, in his name yields to their desires;
-promising them a king with vengeance to them.**** "For,"(5) says the
-Lord, "they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I
-should not reign over them."(6) The people, nevertheless, resolving to
-free themselves from present oppression, at the hazard of the threatened
-judgments, obstinately persisted in their demand, and dispersed not
-without a promise of compliance.
-
-     * 1 Sam. viii. 3.
-
-     ** Ver. 5.
-
-     *** Ver. 6, &c.
-
-     **** Ver. 11, &c.
-
-     (5) Ver 7, compared with chap. ix.
-
-     (6) Chap. x. 1.
-
-Samuel, to all outward appearance, chose the most impartial method of
-choosing a king, which was by lot, from among the people assembled by
-tribes; but prudently pitches upon his man, previous to the election;
-the whole tenor of his conduct manifesting, that he intended to give
-them a king in name, but still to retain the supreme authority in
-his own hands, by choosing one who should continue subordinate to his
-dictates. Opportunely for his purpose, a young countryman, named Saul,
-having rambled about to seek his fathers asses, which had strayed, and
-finding all search after them vain, applied to Samuel as a prophet,*
-with a fee in his hand, to gain intelligence of his beasts.
-
-We gather from several passages in Jewish history, that there were
-seminaries of prophets, i.e. the universities of the times, where
-youth were trained up to the mystery of prophesying. We find there were
-false prophets, nonconformists, not of the establishment; we find that
-even the true ones were liable to be imposed on by their brethren;**
-and we find moreover, by this instance, that prophets did not disdain
-to give assistance in their prophetical character, concerning domestic
-matters, for reasonable gratuities. A chief among the prophets, one
-who had been a judge over Israel, is applied to in a pecuniary way, for
-intelligence concerning lost cattle.***
-
-     * 1 Sam. ix. 7, 8.
-
-     ** 1 Kings, xiii. 18., Josephus in loco.
-
-     *** Pretensions to divinations continue to this day, though,
-     in the opinion of reformed churches, all prophesying and
-     miracles have long since ceased. These modern prophets are
-     drolly ridiculed by our facetious countryman, Butler, in the
-     person of Sydrophel, a dealer,
-
-          "In Destiny's dark counsel?,
-          Who sage opinions of the moon sells;
-          To whom all people, far and near,
-          On deep importances repair.
-          When brass or pewter hap to stray,
-          Or linen slinks out of the way;
-          When geese and pullen are seduc'd,
-          And sows of sucking pigs are chous'd:
-          When cattle feel indisposition,
-          And need th' opinion of physician;
-          When murrain reigns in hogs or sheep,
-          And chickens languish of the pip;
-          When yeast and outward means do fail,
-          And have no power to work on ale;
-          When butter does refuse to come.
-          And love proves cross and humoursome;
-          To him with questions and with urine,
-          They for discov'ry flock, or curing.
-
-
-It has been said, that this is the only instance recorded of a prophet
-being applied to for purposes of this nature; but it appears that it
-was usual for men to have recourse to prophets, and that the phrase was,
-"Come, and let us go to the seer;"* and that prophetical intelligence
-was paid for, is evident from the inquiry between Saul and his servant,
-concerning their ability to gratify him.**
-
-But, to proceed: Saul not only found his asses, but a kingdom into the
-bargain; and had the spirit of the Lord given;*** to him which we
-find taken away**** again, when he proved untractable: though it seems
-somewhat odd, how he could possibly prove disobedient, while he acted
-under the influence of this Divine Spirit! For, the possibility being
-admitted, the advantage of inspiration is difficult to be conceived.
-
-After Samuel had in private(5) anointed Saul king, and told him his
-asses were already found, he dismissed him for the present. He then
-assembled the people for the election of a king: at which assembly,
-behold, the lot fell on the tribe of Benjamin; and in that, on the
-family of Matri; and finally, on Saul, the son of Kish.(6) An election
-somewhat resembling consistories for the appointment of bishops; where
-the person being previously fixed on, God is solemnly prayed to for a
-direction of their choice.
-
-     * 1 Sam. ix. 9.
-
-     ** Ver. 7, 8.
-
-     *** Ch.x. 6.
-
-     **** Ch. xvi. 19.
-
-     (5) Ch. x. 1.
-
-     (6) Ch. x. 20, 21.
-
-
-It is not intended here to give a detail of the reign of king Saul;
-the notice hitherto taken of him being merely because the life of David
-could not be properly introduced without mentioning the alteration of
-government, and the manner in which monarchy was established in Israel:
-since Samuel's disappointment in Saul, naturally leads to his similar
-choice of David.
-
-The disobedience of Saul, in daring to sacrifice without his patron the
-prophet,* who failed of coming according to his appointment; and his
-lenity and prudence, in sparing the king, and some cattle, from a nation
-which Samuel, in the name of the Lord, had commanded him utterly
-to extirpate,** irrevocably lost him the favour of this imperious
-inexorable prophet: and, in the end, produced the miserable destruction
-not only of himself, but of his family: which will occasion no surprise,
-when we consider the absolute dominion and ascendency which the Jewish
-priests maintained over this ignorant superstitious people. A dominion
-which every article in the Levitical law enlarged and strengthened.
-
-We are not to imagine that the sparing Agag, king of the Amalekites, was
-the only cause of this rupture between him and Samuel. For we may gather
-from other parts of his history, that Saul was not over-well affected
-towards his patrons the Levites;*** in subjection to whom he had too
-much spirit to continue. Samuel quickly perceived he had mistaken his
-man, he haughtily avowed his intention of deposing him;**** and ordering
-Agag to be brought into his presence, he hewed him in pieces--"before
-the Lord."(5)
-
-     * 1 Sam. xiii. 8-14.
-
-     ** Ch. xv. 3.
-
-     *** Ch. 22.18,19. and Ch. xxviii. 9.
-
-     **** Ch. xiii. 14. xv. 26. 28.
-
-     (5) Ver. 33., Ch. xvi. 13.
-
-We now come to the hero of the history.
-
-In pursuance of his intention to make another king, Samuel went under
-the pretence of a sacrifice, and anointed another country youth, which
-was David, the youngest son of Jesse, the Bethlehemite; and gave him
-the spirit of the Lord, which he had just taken from poor Saul.
-The king, in the mean time, reflecting on the precariousness of his
-situation, now that the priests, on the part of Samuel, were incensed
-against him; and well knowing their influence among his subjects, fell
-into a melancholy disorder of mind,* which his physicians were unable to
-remove.**
-
-This was artfully made the occasion of introducing David to court. The
-king was advised to divert himself with music; and David was contrived
-to be recommended to him for his skill on the harp.*** Saul accordingly
-sent to Jesse, to request his son; which was immediately complied
-with: and David was detained at court, in the capacity of the king's
-armour-bearer.**** Here the story begins to grow confused, beyond
-_lay_-skill to reconcile. A war with the Philistines is abruptly
-introduced; in the midst of the relation of which, we are abruptly
-informed that David returned from Saul to feed his father's sheep(5)
-again; from whence his father sent him with provisions for his brothers,
-who were in the army.(6) What can be thought of this? Jesse hardly
-recalled his son from the honourable post of armour-bearer to the king;
-it is not likely that he was turned off, since we afterwards find him
-playing on the harp to the king, as before;(7) neither was it proper
-employment for the king's armour-bearer to be feeding sheep, when the
-army was in the field, and his majesty with them in person! Why--the
-most easy method is to take it as we find it; to suppose it to be right,
-and go quietly on with the story.
-
-In the Philistine army was a man of extraordinary size, named Goliah,
-who came out of their camp, day by day, challenging and defying any one
-among the Hebrews to single combat, and to rest the decision of their
-quarrel upon the event; an offer which no one among the Israelites was
-hitherto found hardy enough to accept.(8)
-
-     *1 Sam. xvi. 14.
-
-     ** Josephus.
-
-     *** 1 Sam. xvi. 18.
-
-     **** Ver. 21.
-
-     (5) Ch. xvii. 15.
-
-     (6) Ch. xvii. 17.
-
-     (7) Ch. xviii. 10.
-
-     (8) Ch. xvii. 4, &c.
-
-David is said to have arrived at the army just as it was forming for
-engagement; at which time the giant advanced as before, with reproachful
-menaces; and, after having enquired carefully concerning what reward
-would be given to the conquerer of this giant, and learning that great
-riches and the king's daughter were to be the prizes of conquest, David
-courageously declared before Saul his acceptance of the challenge,*
-notwithstanding the contempt with which his offer had been treated.
-
-Saul, relying on the youth's ardour and assurance of victory, girded his
-own armour on him:** but David put it off again, trusting entirely to a
-pouch of stones, and his own skill in slinging.*** The success answered
-his hopes, and stamped, what would otherwise have been deemed a rash
-undertaking, with a more respectable name; he knocked Goliath down with
-a stone; then ran in upon him, cut his head off with his own sword, and
-brought it triumphantly to the king of Israel.**** The consequence was
-the defeat of the 'Philistines.
-
-Here we meet with another stumbling-block. For, though Saul, as has
-already been observed, had sent to Jesse expressly for his son David;
-though David had played to him on the harp; though Saul had again sent
-to Jesse, to desire that David might be permitted to stay with him; and
-in consequence of this had given him a military appointment about his
-person; though he had now a fresh conference with him; had just placed
-his own suit of armour on him; and though all the occurrences must have
-happened within a small space of time, yet his memory is made so to fail
-him on a sudden, that he knew nothing either of David, or his parentage!
-but while David went to meet the giant, he enquired of others, who
-proved as ignorant as himself, whose son(5) the stripling was? This
-stumbling-block must likewise be stepped over, for it is not removeable.
-
-     *1 Sam. xvii. 32.
-
-     ** Ver. 38.
-
-     *** Ver. 40.
-
-     ****Ver. 49.
-
-     (5) Ver. 55., Ch. xviii. 3.
-
-
-The reputation which this gallant action procured to David, soon gained
-him advancement in the army, and a warm friendship with Saul's son,
-Jonathan. But the inordinate acclamations of the people, on account of
-the death of the Philistine giant, "Saul hath slain his thousands, and
-David his ten thousands;"* a rhodomontade out of measure extravagant,
-when we compare the two subjects of the contrast, justly occasioned Saul
-to view David with a jealous eye. We have all the reason in the world to
-believe that Samuel and the priests made every possible advantage of an
-adventure so fortunate for their intended king, to improve his growing
-popularity, which even at its outset had so far exceeded all bounds of
-decency: "What," said Saul, "can he have more but the kingdom?"** and we
-may therefore conclude that the king saw enough to alarm him; for we are
-told, that "Saul eyed David from that day and forward,"***Thus we find
-that on the following day, while David played as usual on his harp
-before Saul, the king cast a javelin at him,**** which David avoided.
-Saul then made him captain over a thousand, saying, "Let not mine
-hand be upon him, but let the hand of the Philistines be upon him," an
-expression however which is evidently put into Saul's mouth, since it is
-impossible he could have made use of it openly. He made him the offer of
-his daughter Merab for his wife, in consequence of the defeat of Goliah;
-but she, we know not why, was given to another;(5) afterwards he gave
-him Michal: and David's modesty (6) on this occasion was incomparably
-well acted; he knowing himself, at the same time, to be secretly
-intended for the kingdom by Samuel.
-
-Saul, upon reflection, concluding it dangerous to execute any open act
-of violence against this young hero, politically hoped to ensnare him,
-by exalting him high in favour, or to get rid of him by putting him upon
-his mettle, in performing feats of valour; for a deficiency of valour is
-not to be numbered among David's faults. It was with this view that
-the king yet required of him an hundred Philistine foreskins(7) as the
-condition of becoming his son-in-law. He produced double the number "in
-full tale."(8)
-
-     * 1 Sam. xxii. 7.
-
-     ** Ch. xviii. 8.
-
-     *** Ver. 9.
-
-     **** Ver. 11.
-
-     (5) Ver. 17.
-
-     (6) Ver. 10.
-
-     (7) Ver. 23., Ver. 25. (according to Josephus 600 heads).
-
-     (8) 1 Sam. xviii. 27.
-
-
-This demand, after David appeals to have fulfilled the prescribed
-conditions, seems not only unjust, but also, even making allowance
-for Hebrew customs, very ridiculously expressed. It must have been a
-glorious sight to have seen David bring the foreskins to king Saul,
-strung perhaps on a piece of pack-thread, and dangling in his hand, or
-thrown across his shoulders like a sash: and if Miss Michal was present,
-how must her pretty little heart exult when the required number being
-told off, as many more were gallantly presented at her feet!
-
-David still advanced in his military** reputation, and met with a
-powerful advocate in the person of Jonathan, his brother-in-law and
-faithful friend, who effected a temporary reconciliation between him
-and Saul;*** at which time Saul swore he would no more attempt his life.
-Nevertheless, whether it was that he could not get the better of his
-jealousy, or that he discovered more than is transmitted down to us, we
-know not; consequences incline us to the last conjecture: Saul made two
-more attempts to kill him;**** from one of which he was protected by
-his wife Michal; and finding it not safe to stay at court, he fled to
-Samuel, in Ramah.(5) Hither Saul sent messengers to apprehend him;(6)
-but these, it seems, seeing Samuel presiding over a company of prophets,
-and prophesying, were seized with a spirit of prophesying also; and not
-only so, but it is related that Saul finding this, went at last himself,
-to just the same purpose; for he likewise prophesied,(7) stripping off
-his cloaths, in which ridiculous condition he continued for a day and a
-night.
-
-     ** Ver. 30. xix. 8.
-
-     *** Ver. 4.
-
-     **** Ver. 10, 11.
-
-     (5) Ver. 18.
-
-     (6) Ver. 20.
-
-     (7) Ver. 23.
-
-This is an extreme odd relation! That the solemn appearance of an
-assembly of prophets, presided over by a person so respectable, and
-heretofore of such great authority in Judea, might influence, in an
-extraordinary manner, persons entrusted with a commission to apprehend
-or kill a man patronized by these prophets, exhibits nothing wonderful;
-they might easily perhaps, be prophesied out of their errand; and might
-then prophesy in concert. Prophesy is a vague term, not always limited
-to the prediction of future events; the extempore preaching of many
-dissenters, and the discourses of the Quakers, who profess to speak as
-the Spirit gives them utterance, seem to come under the term prophesy.
-These persons can work themselves and others into such fits of
-enthusiastic intoxication, that they believe themselves agitated by
-supernatural influence. Such might be the prophesying here mentioned.
-But Saul prophesied! so it is said. Had the subject of Saul's
-prophesying, been transmitted down to us, it might have greatly
-illustrated this passage in the history; but no, he is barely said to
-have _prophesied_; and we are prudently left to guess what. Being thus
-at liberty, we, among other expositors, may easily surmise what he might
-take for his text, and was the general tenor of his discourse, on this
-particular occasion.
-
-Afterward David had a private interview* with Jonathan; for he durst not
-venture to appear at court. At this meeting, Jonathan, who had conceived
-too great an affection for this man, and was at length seduced by him
-from the duty and allegiance which he owed to his father and king,
-solemnly promised** that he would sound his father's intentions on the
-next day, which being the festival of the new moon, David's attendance
-was expected at the king's table; and that he would warn him of any
-danger intended him.
-
-     * 1 Sam. x. 1.
-
-     ** Ver. 12.
-
-David lay hid in the field until Jonathan brought him the required
-intelligence; and when the king inquired, concerning him, Jonathan as
-had been before concerted, said that he had requested leave to go and
-perform a family sacrifice at Bethlehem. Saul's reply on this occasion
-is very pertinent, and shows his antipathy to David not to have been
-the causeless inveteracy of a disordered mind. "Then Saul's anger was
-kindled against Jonathan, and he said unto him, Thou son of the perverse
-rebellious woman, do not I know that thou hast chosen the son of
-Jesse to thine own confusion, and unto the confusion of thy mother's
-nakedness? For as long as the son of Jesse liveth upon the ground, thou
-shalt not be established, nor thy kingdom: wherefore now send and fetch
-him unto me; for he shall surely die."* Jonathan expostulated with his
-father, and had a javelin hurled at him for his reward.**
-
-David being advertised, according to agreement, of the king's
-disposition toward him, retired to Ahimelech, the high priest, at the
-city of Nob who treated him with shew-bread, and armed him with the
-sword of Goliah, which had been hung up and consecrated to God.***
-
-We may consider David's resuming this sword, after its dedication as
-a religious trophy, whatever gloss may be put on his interview with
-Ahimelech, to be a clear manifestation of hostile intentions, or a
-declaration of war against his father-in-law, for which he now took the
-first opportunity to prepare. Thus accoutred, he fled out of Judea, to
-Achish, king of Gath;**** intending, as we have good reason to believe,
-to enter into a treaty of alliance with him against the Hebrews; but
-the popular cry was against him before he accomplished any thing, or at
-least any thing that has reached our times.
-
-     * Ver. 30, 81. Josephus in loco.
-
-     ** Ver. 33.
-
-     *** 1 Sam. xxi. 1.
-
-     **** Ver. 9. Josephus.
-
-
-Here David appears to disadvantage in point of policy: for though his
-carrying with him the sword of Goliah was artful enough, and likely to
-collect followers in Judea, since it was a continual witness of that
-prowess which had gained him such extraordinary reputation; yet, for
-him, under this circumstance, to throw himself into the power of the
-Philistines, among those very people from whose champion he had ravished
-_that sword_, was the highest imprudence! and we perceive he might
-have suffered for it, had not he made use of a stratagem to procure his
-release, which he effected by acting the madman.* Mankind seems to have
-been very easily imposed on in those days.
-
-David, now thinking it time openly to avow his design of disputing the
-crown with Saul, went to a cave called Adullam, which he appointed the
-place of rendezvous for his partizans. Here we are told he collected
-together a company of debtors, vagrants, and disaffected persons, to the
-number of four hundred; and opened his rebellion, by putting himself at
-the head of this body of men:** men, whose desperate situations under
-the government in being, rendered them fit agents to disturb it, and
-proved the surest bond to connect them to a partizan thus embarked in
-an enterprize against it. Hither also came to him his father and all his
-brethren; and the first movement that he made was to go to the king of
-Moab, to obtain a retreat for his father and mother, until he knew the
-event of his enterprise.***
-
-By the advice of the prophet Gad, David next marched into the land of
-Judah:**** Gad, no doubt hoped, that as the young adventurer was of that
-tribe, he would there meet with considerable reinforcement. When Saul
-heard of this insurrection, he pathetically laments his misfortune to
-those about him, that they, and even his son Jonathan, should conspire
-against him.(5)
-
-     * 1 Sam. xxi. 13.
-
-     ** Ch. xxii. 2.
-
-     *** Ver. 2.
-
-     **** Ver. 6.
-
-     (5) Ver. 7, 8, 9.
-
-
-Then started up one Doeg, an Edomite, who informed Saul, that he had
-seen David harboured by the priests in Nob. Upon this, Saul summoned all
-those belonging to that city before him, with Ahimelech their chief,
-who began to excuse himself as well as he could; but Saul remembering,
-without doubt, the threatening of Samuel, concerning the affair of
-king Agag;* and considering these priests as traitors, from this
-corroborating evidence against them, he commanded them all to be slain,
-to the number of eighty-five persons.** Moreover, agreeable to the
-barbarous usage of that nation, the massacre included the whole city of
-Nob, man and beast, young and old, without exception.
-
-Though the king's rage in this instance exceeded not only the bounds of
-humanity, but also of good policy, it nevertheless serves to show how
-deeply the priests were concerned in the rebellion of David; since
-he could not be mad enough to commit so flagrant an act, without some
-colourable pretence;*** and shows also that Saul had not so great an
-opinion of their holiness as we, at this distance of time, are, by their
-own annals, instructed to have. Had Saul been more implicit, he might
-have enjoyed the name of king, have continued the dupe of the priests,
-have died in peace, and his children have succeeded quietly to the
-inheritance. But,
-
-     "Ye gods! what havoc does ambition make
-     Among your works!"
-
-During this time, David rescued the city of Keilah from the
-Philistines,(5) who were besieging it, hoping to make it a garrison for
-himself.
-
-     * 1 Sam. xiii. 14, xv. 26, 28.
-
-     ** Ch. xxii. 16-18.
-
-     *** Ver. 19.
-
-     **** In so small a territory as Judea, the difference
-     between the king and his son-in-law, so popular a man, could
-     not be unknown to persons in any measure removed from the
-     vulgar. Therefore, Ahmeleoh's pleas of ignorance did not
-     deserve credit.
-
-     (5) 1 Sam. xxiii. 3.
-
-
-But upon the approach of Saul, not thinking himself able to maintain it,
-being as yet but six hundred strong, and not choosing to confide in the
-inhabitants, whose loyalty even his recent kindness to them could not
-corrupt, he therefore abandoned it, and retired to the wilderness.*
-This passage alone is amply sufficient to confirm the reality of David's
-rebellious intentions; it is, therefore, worth analyzing. That he
-delivered this city from the depredations of the Philistines, and that
-by this action he hoped to purchase the friendship of the inhabitants,
-are acknowledged: the use to which he intended to convert this
-friendship, is the point to be ascertained. Saul was advancing to
-suppress him. Had he seduced them from their allegiance, and obtained
-the expected protection, he would have deprived Saul of this city, which
-city might have been considered as a garrison. The old plea, of
-his providing only for his personal safety, against his malignant
-persecutor, has often been urged; but his intended retention of a city,
-to secure that safety, was a flagrant rebellious intention. Had he
-gained this one city, as his strength increased, he would have concluded
-as many more as he could have procured, necessary for his preservation,
-until he had monopolized the whole country, agreeable to the grant of
-Samuel, which would then have justified the usurpation; but disappointed
-in the first step, by the loyalty, miscalled treachery, of the Keilites,
-he evacuated the town, having lost the recompence of his labour, and
-with his men "went whithersoever they could go."** In the wilderness
-Jonathan came privately to see him, and piously engages in the cause
-against his own father, by covenant; in which it was agreed, that if
-David succeeded, of which Jonathan is very confident, _he_ was to be a
-partaker of his good fortune but as Jonathan was not to join him openly,
-he went home again.
-
-Saul, having received intelligence of David's retreats, pursued him from
-place to place, until he was called off by news of an invasion of the
-land by the Philistines;*** whether of David's procuring or not, we are
-uncertain: thus much is certain, and does not discredit the supposition,
-that he quickly after took refuge among those Philistines.
-
-     * 1 Sam. xxiii. 13.
-
-     ** Ib.
-
-     *** Ver. 16-18, 27.
-
-After repelling the invaders, Saul, however, returned to the wilderness
-of Engedi, in pursuit of David, with three thousand chosen men. At
-this place we are told of an odd adventure, which put the life of Saul
-strangely into the power of David. He turned in to repose himself*
-alone in a cave, wherein at that time, David and his myrmidons were
-secreted.**
-
-     * The words are, "to cover his feet:" which Josephus and
-     others, mistake to mean, that he retired into the cave to
-     ease nature. But in Judges, iii. 21. we find that expression
-     to imply, that the servants of Eulon, king of Moab, supposed
-     their master to have locked himself in, to repose himself
-     with sleep, in his summer-chamber. This is farther
-     corroborated, in Ruth, iii. 7. where, when Boaz had eaten
-     his supper, he laid down on a heap of corn, doubtless to
-     take his rest. Ruth, by her mother's instruction, went,
-     uncovered his feet, and lay down by him--to have some
-     refreshment likewise. For, in the middle of the night, when
-     the man awaked, surprised at finding an unexpected
-     bedfellow, and demanded who she was, the kind wench replied--
-     "I am Ruth, thine hand-maid; spread therefore thy skirt
-     over thine hand-maid, for thou art a near kinsman." In the
-     present instance, it is evident, Saul slept in the cave; as
-     he discovered not the operation that had been performed on
-     his robe, till David called after him, to apprize him
-     thereof.
-
-     ** 1 Sam. xxiv. 3.
-
-
-This, one would imagine to have been a fine opportunity for him to have
-given a finishing stroke to his fortune, by killing Saul, and jumping
-into, the throne at once: but David knew better what he was about,
-than to act so rashly. He could entertain no hopes that the Jews would
-receive for their king a man who, with such great seeming holiness,
-should imbrue his hands in the blood of the Lord's anointed. Beside,
-what evidently destroys the boasted merit of David's forbearance toward
-Saul, in this instance, is an obvious, though overlooked consideration,
-that, compared with David, Saul had a strong army with, him; and had the
-king been missing, had he been observed to enter the cave without coming
-out again; and upon search, had he been there found murdered, there
-would not have escaped, of all that pertained to David, any that
-_pissed against this wall_. Of this David could not be insensible;
-and therefore, only privately cut off the skirt of Saul's robe,* and
-suffered him to depart in peace. When the king was gone out from
-the cave, David calls after him, and artfully makes a merit of his
-forbearance, protesting an innocency, to which his being in arms was,
-however, a flat** contradiction. Saul freely and gratefully acknowledges
-himself indebted to him for his life, and seems so well convinced of his
-own precarious situation, that he candidly confesses it; only tying
-him down with an oath,*** not to destroy his children after him--an
-obligation which, in due time, we shall see in what manner remembered
-and fulfilled by David.
-
-     *1 Sam. xxiv. 4.
-
-     ** Ver. 8-15.
-
-     *** Ver. 21.
-
-Saul must certainly have been greatly fatigued, or strangely overseen,
-to have let David catch him at so great a disadvantage--a conduct
-not usual with good generals. Yet, while we credit the relation, the
-meanness of his reply to David's harangue, can be no otherwise accounted
-for. Saul does not appear to have wanted resolution on other
-occasions; but to acknowledge his assurance that David would obtain the
-sovereignty, and poorly to entreat a fugitive rebel in behalf of his
-family! is a conduct not even to be palliated, but upon the foregoing
-supposition. We must either condemn the general or the king, neither of
-which characters appear with extraordinary lustre upon this occasion.
-David, on the other hand, dissembles admirably here, pretending to Saul
-a _great reverence_ for the Lord's anointed, though conscious, at
-the same time, that _he was also_ the Lord's anointed, and anointed
-purposely to supersede the other Lord's anointed; and, moreover, was at
-this very time aiming to put his election in force! But, as the people
-were not of his council, and he knew their great regard for religious
-sanctions, it was certainly prudent in him to set an example of piety,
-in an instance of which he hoped, in time, to reap the benefit himself:
-About this time Samuel died.*
-
-We next find our young adventurer acting the chief character in a
-tragi-comedy, which will farther display his title to the appellation of
-being a Man after God's own heart.
-
-There dwelt then at Maon, a blunt rich old farmer, whose name was Nabal.
-David hearing of him, and that he was at that time sheep-shearing, sent
-a detachment of his followers to levy a contribution upon him,** making
-a merit of his forbearance, in that he had not stolen his sheep, and
-murdered his shepherds.*** Nabal, who, to be sure, was not the most
-courteous man in the world, upon receiving this extraordinary message,
-gave them but a very indifferent reply, including a flat denial. "Who,"
-says he, "is David? and who is the son of Jesse? There be many servants
-nowadays that break away every man from his master. Shall I then take
-my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers,
-and give unto men whom I know not whence they be?"**** Upon receiving
-this answer, David, without hesitation, directly formed his resolution;
-and arming himself, with a number of his followers, vowed to butcher
-him, _and all that belonged to him_, before the next morning.(5) And how
-was this pious intention diverted? Why, Abigail, the charming Abigail!
-Nabal's wife, resolved, unknown to her spouse, to try the force
-of beauty, in mollifying this incensed hero, whose disposition for
-gallantry, and warm regard for the fair sex, was probably not unknown at
-that time. Her own curiosity also might not be a little excited; for the
-ladies have at all times been universally fond of military gentlemen: no
-wonder, therefore, that Mrs. Abigail, the wife of a cross country clown,
-was willing to seize this opportunity of getting acquaintance with
-captain David.
-
-     * 1 Sam. xxv. 1.
-
-     ** Ver. 5--9.
-
-     *** Ver. 7.
-
-     **** Ver. 10, 11.
-
-     (5) Ver. 13, 14-22.
-
-And this motive certainly had its force, since she could not as yet have
-known David's intention: we may observe she was told of it by David at
-their meeting.* She prepared a present, and went to David, saying,
-very sententiously, "Upon me, my Lord, upon me let this iniquity be:"**
-judging, very humanely, that could she get him to transfer his
-revenge upon _her_, she might possibly contrive to pacify him, without
-proceeding to disagreeable extremities. Nor was she wrong in her
-judgment; for we are told, "So David received of her hand that which she
-had brought him, and said unto her, go up in peace to thine house; see
-I have hearkened to thy voice, _and have accepted thy person_."*** But
-however agreeable this meeting might have been to Abigail, we do not
-find that Nabal was so well pleased with the composition his wife had
-made for him; for when he came to understand so much of the story as she
-chose to inform him of, he guessed the remainder, broke his heart, and
-died in ten days afterward. David loses no time, but returned God thanks
-for the old fellow's death, and then Mrs. Abigail was promoted to the
-honour of being one of the Captain's ladies.(5)
-
-We are now told another story extremely resembling that of the cave of
-En-gedi. Saul again pursues David with three thousand chosen men; again
-fell into his hands during his sleep; only that here David stole upon
-him in his own camp; he ran away with the king's spear and bottle of
-water, and Saul went back again as wise as he came.(6)
-
-     * I Sam. xxv. 34.
-
-     ** Ver. 24.
-
-     *** Ver. 35.
-
-     ****Ver. 37,38.
-
-     (5) Ver. 39.
-
-     (6) Ch. xxvi.
-
-The opinion of Mons. Bayle seems most probable concerning this
-adventure, who looks upon it but as another detail of the former affair
-at En-gedi; and that for very good reasons. For, upon a comparison of
-both, as laid down in the 23d, 24th, and 26th chapters of 1 Samuel, we
-may remark,
-
-I. That in each relation Saul pursues him with the same number of chosen
-men.
-
-II. That both adventures happened at or very near the same place.
-
-III. That in each story David comes upon Saul in much the same manner,
-withholds his people from killing him, and contents himself with taking
-away a testimonial of the king's having been in his power.
-
-IV. That in the second account, When David is pleading the injustice of
-Saul's persecuting him, as he terms it, he does not strengthen his plea
-by representing to him that this was the _second time_ of his sparing
-him, when he had his life so entirely in his power; and that Saul's
-pursuing him this second time, was a flagrant instance of ingratitude,
-after what had happened on the former occasion.
-
-V. That in the second relation, Saul, when he acknowledges David's
-forbearance and mercy to him in the present instance, makes no mention
-of _any former obligation_ of this kind, although it was so recent, and
-in the main circumstance so similar.
-
-VI. That the historian, who evidently intended to blacken the character
-of Saul, and whiten that of David, does not make the least observation
-himself, in the second narrative, of reference to the first.
-
-These reasons prove, beyond doubt, that we are furnished with two
-relations of the same adventure. To account for the double record,
-and their variations, must be left to commentators, connectors, and
-harmonizers, who are used to compromise affairs of this nature.
-
-David finding that with his present strength, he was unable to maintain
-any footing in Judea, puts himself once more under the protection of
-Achish, king of Gath.* Achish, who does not appear to have been a very
-powerful prince, seemed to consider David alone, and David at the head
-of a little army, as two very different persons: for he now assigned
-him a place named Ziklag, for a habitation, where he remained a year and
-four months.**
-
-     * 1 Sam. xxvii. 1-3.
-
-     ** 1 Sam. xxvii. 6, 7.
-
-
-As he had now a quiet residence, those who entertain an opinion of
-David's sanctity, would be apt to suppose he would here confine himself
-to agriculture, to composing psalms, and to singing them to his harp;
-but David found employment more suited to his genius. It is not intended
-here to be insinuated that he might not sing psalms, at leisure times;
-but his more important business was to lead his men put to plunder the
-adjacent country. We have the names of some nations, as they are called,
-but which must have been small distinct communities, like the
-present camps of wandering Moors and Arabs, over whom he extended
-his depredations: these are the Geshurites, the Gezrites, and the
-Amalekites.** Of these people he made a total massacre, at those places
-where he made his inroads; saying, very prudently, "Lest they should
-tell of us, saying, so did David, and so will be his manner, all the
-while he dwelleth in the country of the Philistines."***
-
-After thus carefully endeavouring to avoid detection, he brings his
-booty home, which consisted of all which those miserable victims
-possessed.**** He made presents of this to his benefactor king
-Achis,(5)| who, demanding where he had made his incursion, was answered,
-against the south of Judah, &c.(6) intending by this falsity to
-insinuate to the king his aversion to his own countrymen, and attachment
-to him. "And Achish believed David, saying, he hath made his people
-Israel utterly to abhor him; therefore he shall be my servant for
-ever,"(7)
-
-The Philistines at this time collected their forces together, to attack
-the Israelites. To which service Achish summoned David,(8) and met with
-a cheerful compliance.
-
-     ** Ver. 8.
-
-     *** Ver. 9, 11.
-
-     **** Query, whether David might not compose a psalm
-          upon this occasion.
-
-     (5) Josephus.
-
-     (6) 1 Sam. xxvii. 10.
-
-     (7) Ver. 12.
-
-     (8) Ch. xxviii. 1.
-
-"Surely," says David, "thou shalt know what thy servant can do."* He
-accordingly marched his adherents with the troops of king Achish; but
-when the princes of the Philistines saw a company of Hebrews in their
-army, they were much surprized, and questioned Achish concerning them.
-The account which Achish gave of them, did not satisfy the princes, who
-justly feared their captain might prove a dangerous auxiliary. "Make
-this fellow return," said they, "that he may go again to the place which
-thou hast appointed him, and let him not go down with us to the battle,
-lest in the battle he be an adversary to us: for wherewith should be
-reconcile himself to his master; should it not be with the heads of
-these men David was accordingly dismissed, very much mortified at their
-distrust of him.**
-
-Here now was a signal evidence of David's righteousness! The Hebrews,
-according to their own testimony, understood themselves to be the
-favourite people of God, and David is delivered down to us as a
-distinguished character for piety among this peculiarly esteemed people.
-Yet could this very man, without any hesitation, freely join himself and
-company, to an army of uncircumcised idolators, marching with hostile
-intentions against his countrymen! His advocates indeed pretend, that
-had his offers been accepted, he would nevertheless have gone over to
-the Israelites, at the commencement of the battle: this is taking off
-the charge of one crime, by imputing to him another equally bad--a most
-base act of treachery! As, however, the Israelites, on the foundation of
-their own intimacy with the Deity, thought they had no more obligations
-to a moral conduct towards the heathens, than the Roman Catholics now
-imagine they have to keep faith with heretics; these advocates endeavour
-to preserve the piety of David's character, at the expence of what
-David, according to this method of arguing, did extremely well without,
-on all occasions; namely, _honesty_.***
-
-     * 1 Sam. xxviii. 2.
-
-     ** Ch. xxix. 4.
-
-     *** Ver. 8, 11.
-
-Upon his return to Ziklag, he found that, during his absence, the
-Amalekites had made reprisals upon him, and burnt Ziklag; and had
-carried off all the women captives.* But in the relation there is one
-remark well worth noting, which is that "they slew not any either great
-or small"**--so much more moderation had these poor heathens in their
-just revenge, than the enlightened David in his unprovoked insult. If
-they came to avenge so savage an insult, it shewed great consideration
-in them to spare the innocent, the guilty being absent: if they only
-came on the common principle of plunder, the bare comparison of the
-different treatment of the sufferers in each instance, speaks forcibly
-without amplification. Upon this misfortune, his band began to mutiny,
-and were on the point of stoning*** him; when he, who knew how to soothe
-them, enquired of the Lord what he should do? and evaded their rage, by
-inspiring them with a resolution to pursue the Amalekites, and with the
-hopes of recovering all their losses. He, therefore, with four hundred
-picked men, set out on the pursuit, and by the way found a straggler****
-who had fainted: after recovering him, they gained, by his means,
-intelligence of their route. David came upon them unexpectedly, at a
-place where they were, without apprehension, regaling themselves after
-their success: and though David's men recovered all they had lost,
-together with other booty, and found their wives and children unhurt:
-yet could not their captain resist so inviting an opportunity of
-gratifying his delight in blood-shedding: the pursuit and slaughter
-continued from the twilight (we know not whether of the morning or
-evening) of one day, until the evening of the next. None escaped but a
-party which rode upon camels.(5)
-
-     * 1 Sam. xxi. 1.
-
-     ** Ver. 2.
-
-     *** Ver. 6.
-
-     **** Ver. 11.
-
-     (5) Ver. 17.
-
-Of the spoil taken from these people, David sent presents to the elders
-of his own tribe of Judah, "and to all the places where David himself
-and his men were wont to haunt."* By which means he kept them attached
-to his interest.
-
-The dispute between the Philistine and Hebrew armies, did not terminate
-but by the defeat of the latter, the death of Saul, and of three of his
-sons.**
-
-Such was the catastrophe of king Saul! a man advanced from the humble
-state of a shepherd, by the prophet Samuel, to be his deputy in the
-government of the Hebrew nations under the specious name of king: a man,
-who allowing for the _peculiar complexion_ of the people over whom he
-was placed; does not, on the whole, seem to suffer by comparison with
-any other king in the _same_ history; or whose character appears to be
-stained with any conspicuous fault, except that he was one degree less
-cruel than his haughty patron: and was disobedient enough to endeavour
-to be in effect, what he was only intended to be in name. On the whole,
-he appears to have been strangely irresolute and inconsistent with
-himself; and is perhaps represented more so than he might really have
-been: but the undertaking to render himself independent was an arduous
-task for one in his situation; therefore his actions and professions
-might sometimes disagree. However, it is impossible to argue from every
-expression that may be produced; we must form our judgment from leading
-events, and corresponding expressions; and determine as they tally with
-probability. If Saul himself, however he is represented as subscribing
-to it, was really assured of David's destination to supersede him by
-divine decree, there was nothing left for him but resignation: Can man
-fight against God? since therefore his continual aim was to destroy
-David, it argues against this assurance: and if Saul himself was mad,
-surely his soldiers were not: how came he to find an army as mad as
-himself, to persecute the Lord's anointed.
-
-     * 1 Sam. xxx. 31.
-
-     ** Ch. xxxi.
-
-We shall now have an opportunity to observe the conduct of our hero in
-a regal capacity. The death of Saul facilitated his advancement to
-a sovereignty, to which he had no pretension, either by the right of
-inheritance, which was claimed by Ish-bosheth, a remaining son of Saul;
-nor by popular election, which Saul himself had the shew of; but by
-the clandestine appointment of an old prophet; which inspired him
-with hopes, of which, by arms and intrigue, he at length enjoyed the
-fruition.
-
-David had returned to Ziklag but two days, when on the third, there came
-to him an Amalekite, who officiously informed him of the event of the
-battle between the Israelites and Philistines. He owned himself to be
-the person who killed Saul, after his defeat, at his own request: he
-being already wounded.
-
-He hoped to be well rewarded for his news, by David; whose intentions
-were so well known, that he presented him with Saul's crown and
-bracelet*. But, alas! he knew not David, and perished in the experiment:
-David ordering him to be killed for daring to slay the Lord's
-anointed.** David's treatment of this Amalekite, is agreeable to the
-customary rules of politics; and has nothing therefore remarkable in
-it, farther than it is rendered so by peculiar circumstances. Saul
-was declared to be rejected by God, and David was the pretender to his
-throne; it may therefore be imagined by some, that this man might have
-had some claim to _his_ private gratitude, especially considering the
-account the Amalekite gave of the matter.
-
-Who can help smiling at the relation of David's tearing his clothes off
-his back, and bursting into a sorrowful lamentation for the death of a
-man, to whose destruction he had so freely offered to lend assistance
-but just before?
-
-Upon this alteration of affairs, David, asking counsel of the Lord, was
-advised to leave Ziklag, and go to Hebron, one of the cities of Judah;
-whither he and all his men repaired.***
-
-     * 2 Sam. 10.
-
-     ** Ver. 15.
-
-     *** 2 Sam. ii. 1.
-
-There he got his partizans to anoint him king over Judah; at the same
-time that Abner, Saul's general, had, at Mahanaim, made Ishbosheth,
-
-Saul's son, king over Israel.* It may be remarked here, that David did
-not seem to claim in right of the sacred unction bestowed on him long
-since by Samuel. He realized his title indeed, as soon as he could make
-it out, by the law of force: but if his divine title to the Hebrew crown
-was universally known, and if, as has been urged, Ish-bosheth had none
-at all, how came David's title not to be universally acknowledged? Did
-only one tribe believe in it? Yet David, with the divine grant, was
-obliged to obtain the sovereignty by arms and intrigue! just for all
-the world like the wicked, who attain their desires by exactly the same
-means, to all external appearance. Upon this division of the kingdom,
-a battle was fought at the pool of Gibeon, between the army of
-Ish-bosheth, commanded by general Abner, and that of David, headed
-by Joab: victory declared in favour of the latter, with small loss on
-either side, except that Joab lost his brother Ahasel, who was killed by
-Abner's own hand.**
-
-We must here be content with general hints; being only informed that
-"there was long war between the house of Saul and the house, of David:
-but David waxed stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul waxed
-weaker and weaker."*** What very much conduced to this, was an ill-timed
-quarrel between king Ish-bosheth and general Abner, concerning one of
-Saul's concubines, with whom Abner had been too familiar:**** and his
-resentment of the notice taken of this amour, occasioned a treaty to be
-negociated between him and David, whom Abner engaged to establish over
-all Israel.(5) David accepted his offer, but demanded, as a preliminary,
-the restoration of his first wife Michal;(6) who, during the disputes
-between him and Saul; had been espoused to another.(7)
-
-     * 2 Sam. ii. 4, 8.
-
-     ** Ver. 17, 23.
-
-     *** 2 Sam. iii. 1.
-
-     **** 2 Sam. iii. 7.
-
-     (5) Ver. 12.
-
-     (6) Ver. 13.
-
-     (7) 1 Sam. xxv. 44.
-
-
-This demand he likewise made openly, by an express message to
-Ishbosheth, who kindly complied with it: the poor man who had since
-married her, following her weeping all the way.**
-
-It is impossible to avoid noting David's amorous disposition here;
-which could not be content with six wives, who bare him children*** (no
-mention of those who did not), but was yet so warm, that it took the
-lead even in his most important concerns.--We will not pretend to assign
-the cause of that sad disorder, the symptoms of which are described in
-the 38th Psalm.
-
-After Abner had traitorously endeavoured to advance the interest of
-David****; he had an interview with him;(5) which, quickly after he
-returned, coming to the ears of Joab; he, who does not appear to have
-been acquainted with the secret spring which actuated Abner's zeal for
-the cause of David; represented to him the imprudence of admitting a man
-among them, who to all appearance came only as a spy. Unknown to David,
-he sent for him back again, and privately stabbed him, in revenge
-for the loss of his brother Asahel.(6) This was a most base piece of
-treachery, worthy the servant of such a master: to assassinate a man in
-cool blood, in revenge for an action which was committed in the heat of
-battle, in self-defence, and even after fair warning given.
-
-Upon the murder of Abner, David again acts the mourner;(7) which has a
-greater probability of being sincere now, than when he grieved for the
-unhappy Saul; because the false Abner was preparing to do him essential
-service, by betraying his master's cause.
-
-     ** 2 Sam. iii. 15, 16.
-
-     *** Ver. 2, &c.
-
-     **** Ver. 17.
-
-     (5) Ver. 20.
-
-     (6) Ver. 27.
-
-     (7) Ver. 31, &c.
-
-
-But the event proved full as advantageous to David; as will presently
-appear.
-
-When Ishbosheth and his friends heard of the fate of Abner, who had
-been the very life of their cause; it dejected all their spirits; and
-two villains, named Rechab and Baanah, hoping to make their fortunes by
-the public calamity, went and murdered their master king Ishbosheth,
-as he was reposing himself during the heat of the day, and brought his
-head to David*. But not reflecting on an obvious maxim in politics, they
-like the Amalekite before, who claimed the merit of killing Saul, soon
-found that, he thought it adviseable to punish the traitors, whatever he
-thought of the treason.**
-
-     * 2 Sam. iv. 5, &c.
-
-     ** Ver. 12.
-
-
-Had David reflected on all the circumstances which led to this murder,
-with that tenderness becoming a person professing so much piety, his
-compunction would have greatly embarrassed him in the proper behaviour
-on this occasion. For if these two execrable villains deserved
-punishment, what did _he_ merit who was the primary cause of so
-nefarious an action? Two poor rogues from subordinate views, effected by
-assassination what David sought at the head of an army, which naturally
-reminds us of the pirate and Alexander. So strangely do relative
-circumstances bias our judgment of things essentially alike. Had David
-aspired to no other sceptre than his shepherd's crook, the villains
-had not presumed on the usurper's gratitude; and Ish-bosheth, who was
-a quiet prince, might have reigned long an honour to himself and a
-blessing to his country.
-
-Ish-bosheth does not appear to have been a man of parts, qualified to
-contend with such an antagonist as David; for nothing is recorded of
-him: Abner was the person who raised him; and had he lived, would as
-easily have deposed him, and though no qualifications are a security
-against assassination, yet, as in the case of another unfortunate
-monarch, Darius, king of Persia; such cowardly wretches generally take
-the advantage of precipitating misfortunes already commenced, that they
-may pay their court to the rising sun.
-
-The murder of this unhappy son of an unhappy father, advanced David
-to the dignity to which he aspired,* (though we shall see in a passage
-which reflects no great honour on him, that Saul had more sons yet
-living.) He was now in his thirty-eighth year; having reigned seven
-years and an half in Hebron** over the tribe of Judah.
-
-Although David was now invested with that supremacy which had been the
-aim of his endeavours since the time that Samuel inspired him with the
-spirit of ----- ambition; yet could not his enterprising genius continue
-satisfied with such an exaltation. The first object of his attention
-now, was the city of Jerusalem, then inhabited by the Jebusites; (but it
-was of no importance who inhabited it, if David conceived a desire for
-it): this city he besieged and the inhabitants relying on the strength
-of their fortifications, out of derision planted cripples on their
-ramparts to guard their walls; saying "except thou take away the blind
-and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither."*** Nevertheless David
-carried the place, and made it his chief city.****
-
-N. B. He supplied himself with, more wives and concubines out of his new
-acquisition.(5)
-
-While he was thus amorously engaged, the Philistines hearing that he Was
-made king over all Israel, came and disturbed him; but David according
-to the usual term _smote them_;(6) and his strokes were always
-sufficiently felt.
-
-The comic tale of David's bringing home the ark will not be long dwelt
-upon; it may only be remarked, that it was brought on a new cart, drawn
-by oxen; and that Uzzah some way or other lost his life, to, as the text
-reads, was smote _by the Lord_,(7) for his impiety in saving the ark
-from being overturned.(8)
-
-     * 2 Sam. v. 3, 1 Chron. xi. 3.
-
-     ** 2 Sam. ii. 11.
-
-     *** Chap. v. 6. Josephus.
-
-     **** Ver. 7. 9., 1 Chron; xi. 5. 7.
-
-     (5) 2 Sam. v. 13.
-
-     (6) Ver. 20, 25., 1 Chron. xiv. 11.
-
-     (7)  Query, whether the Lord did not sometimes smite
-          by the hands of the priest.
-
-     (8)  Sam. vi. 7.
-
-
-But if "the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looked on the outward
-appearance, but the Lord looked into the heart." the intention of Uzzah
-was indisputably good, and the alledged crime surely pardonable; the
-seeming exigency precluding all hesitation and reflection. Had the ark
-been really overturned for want of this careful prevention, Uzzah might
-then, it would be naturally imagined, have been rather _smote_ for
-neglecting to save it. However, it was no longer trusted to prophane
-hands, but carried the remainder of the way upon the more holy shoulders
-of the Levites,* with great parade: attended by musicians, and by David
-himself who, dressed in a linen ephod, _danced before the Lord with all
-his might_ and this, in such a frantic indecent manner, that he exposed
-his nakedness to the bye-standers. Wherefore his wife Michal sneered at
-him: "How glorious was the king of Israel today, who uncovered himself
-to-day in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain
-fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself."** David, it seems, was of a
-different opinion; for he told her he _would_ play before the Lord; and
-would be yet _more vile_ than she had represented him;--adding, "and of
-the maid-servants which thou hast spoken of, of them shall I be had in
-honour."*** Some staunch zealots have very prudently spiritualized
-this part of David's answer, and given the mystical sense of it; the
-prophane, who are content with the evident signification of words,
-having construed it no otherwise than into an insinuation that he had no
-cause to be ashamed of what he exposed. Fie on them!
-
-This story is concluded with a remark as odd as the rest of
-it:--"Therefore Michal, the daughter of Saul, had no child until the day
-of her death.(5)
-
-     * 1 Chron. xv. 2, 15.
-
-     ** 2 Sam. vi. 14.
-
-     *** Ver. 20.
-
-     **** Ver. 22.
-
-     (5) Ver. 23.
-
-For, if Michal had hitherto borne no children, neither to David, nor
-to her immediate husband, her barrenness must have been constitutional;
-and, preceding her offence, could not be a punishment inflicted in
-consequence of it. Moreover, if, on the other hand, she _had_ borne him
-children, and this disgrace to her was the consequence of a resolution
-made by her husband David, that she should have no more children
-_by him_: her quiet resignation, under this imposed widowhood, is by
-inference a high compliment on this poor woman's conjugal virtue! which
-was far from the historian's intention to bestow. Indeed there is great
-reason to credit Michal, and to believe that David really behaved with
-all the extravagance she ascribes to him: for she appeared before
-this affair as a discreet kind of a woman; no instance of folly being
-produced in her, unless the contrivances she made use of to save her
-husband from the effects of her father's rage may be allowed to bear
-such interpretation. Whatever judgment however is passed upon Michal's
-censure of David's behaviour in this procession, it showed great cruelty
-and ingratitude in him to fix so disgraceful a stigma on her; and not
-to make allowance for female indiscretion, the worst name that could be
-bestowed on her fault.
-
-After this, David smote the Philistines, not sparing even Gath, that
-city which had so humanely protected him.* He then smote the Moabites,
-putting to the sword two-thirds of the nation, by causing them to lie
-prostrate on the ground, and measuring them by lines; "even with two
-lines measured he to put to death; and with one full line to keep
-alive:"** so systematic was his wrath! Hadadezar, king of Zobah, was the
-next whom he smote; who being assisted by the Syrians of Damascus, he
-next smote them.*** Yet all this smiting and slaying is so obscurely
-mentioned, that we know nothing of the offences committed against this
-mighty chief, to excite such blood-thirsty indignation.
-
-     * Sam. viii.  1., Chron. xviii. 1.
-
-     ** 2 Sam. viii. 2.
-
-     *** Ver. 3. 5.,  1 Chron. xviii. 3, 5.
-
-Indeed, the cause is, without much difficulty, deducible from the
-produce of these wars, which sufficiently indicate the nature of David's
-_thirst._ Great quantities of gold, silver, and brass, are said to have
-been brought to Jerusalem;* and the priests may with reason be supposed
-to be the instigators to these wars; since we find all the plunder
-surrendered to them.** We have therefore no cause to wonder at the
-exalted praises they have bestowed upon the instrument of their wealth.
-He is said to have "gat him a name, when he returned from smiting the
-Syrians."*** --This may very easily be credited; but it is to be feared,
-that if the name he gat from the Jews, and that which he gat from the
-Syrians were compared, they would not accord extremely well together.
-
-David was at this time seized with a _temporary_ fit of gratitude toward
-a lame son of his old friend Jonathan, named Mephibosheth, to whom he
-restored all the private patrimony of his grandfather Saul, and took
-him into his family;**** not without due consideration, it is to be
-supposed; since by that means he kept him under his own eye. But this
-gratitude, was not lasting; for upon an accusation preferred against him
-by his servant, David readily bestowed all Mephibosheth's possessions
-upon that servant;(5) yet, when the accusation was found to be
-false, instead of equitably punishing the asperser of innocence, and
-reinstating Mephibosheth in his former favour, he restored to him but
-half the forfeiture of his supposed guilt,(6) leaving the villain
-Ziba in the quiet possession of the other half, as the reward of his
-treachery.--But of this in its proper place.
-
-The next memorable act recorded of David, is the only acknowledged crime
-that he ever committed; all his other transactions being reputed "right
-in the eyes of the Lord."(7)
-
-     * 2 Sam. viii. 7, 8, 10., 1 Chron. xviii, 2, 4, 8, 10.
-
-     ** 2 Sam. viii. 11., 1 Chron. xviii. 11.
-
-     *** 2 Sam. viii. 13.
-
-     **** Chap. ix. 1.
-
-     (5) Chap. xvi. 4.
-
-     (6) Chap. xix. 29.
-
-     (7) 1 Kings xv. 5, compared with 1 Chron. xxi. 1.
-
-
-In the midst of an obscure detail of smiting and slaying; in revenge
-for the contemptuous treatment of some ambassadors, sent by him with
-compliments of condolence; but who, perhaps deservedly, were considered
-as spies; while Joab was with the army prosecuting the siege of Rabbah,
-a chief city of the Ammonites; David, then at Jerusalem, walking one
-evening on the roof of his palace, perceived from that eminence a
-handsome woman bathing herself.* Fired with the sight, he sent to
-enquire who she was: and understanding she was Bathsheba, wife to Uriah,
-who was at that time opportunely absent in the army under Joab, he
-caused her to be brought to him directly, (no ceremony in the case)
-and after gratifying his inclination, sent her home again.** Some time
-after, the woman finding herself with child, naturally informed the
-king of it. He, never at a loss for ways and means, immediately ordered
-Uriah home;*** of whom he enquired news concerning the operations of the
-campaign, and then dismissed him to his own house, sending after him a
-present of victuals.**** David intended the good man a little relaxation
-from the fatigues of war, that he might kiss his wife, and be cheated
-into a child more than he had a natural right to; but whether Uriah
-had received any intimation of the honour his Majesty had done him; or
-whether he honestly meant the self-denial which he professed, we are
-not advertised: however, Uriah would not go home but slept in the
-guard-room, with the king's servants.(5) David took care to be informed
-of this, and questioned Uriah concerning the reason of it. Uriah urged
-a scruple of conscience against going to enjoy any indulgence at
-home, while the ark, Joab, and the army remained in tents in the open
-field.(6) He was detained another night; when David made him drunk,(7)
-waiting to see what effect that might have. It was still the same;
-Uriah, like many other drunken men, was resolved not to go home.
-
-     *2 Sam. xi. 2.
-
-     ** Ver. 4.
-
-     *** Ver. 6.
-
-     **** Ver. 8.
-
-     (5) Ver. 9.
-
-     (6) Ver. 11.
-
-     (7) Ver. 35.
-
-David, finding him so obstinate, altered his plan of operations, and
-determined then to get rid of him for ever. To which intent, he sent
-him back to the camp, with a letter to the general. "And he wrote in the
-letter, saying, Set ye Uriah in the fore-front of the hottest battle,
-and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten and die."* This
-instruction was accordingly complied with;** and then Bathsheba, like
-another Abigail, was taken into David's seraglio.***
-
-Nathan the prophet read David an arch lecture upon this subject;**** and
-he, who took care not to disagree With his best friends, bore with the
-reproof, and humbled himself accordingly.
-
-This complicated crime committed by David is universally allowed;
-but people think so little for them selves, that even _this_ would
-be qualified, were it not found ready condemned to their hand in the
-relation of it. This crime is given up too, as the _only stain_ in
-David's character: but the circumstances of it will not permit this to
-be granted, abstracted from any consideration of the man. For, though a
-generally good man may, in a sudden start of any of the passions,
-lose government of himself so far, as to violate conjugal fidelity, or
-perhaps suddenly to kill another; yet a deliberate scheme, including
-_two_ such crimes, can be concerted only by a _bad heart_. It is also to
-be remarked respecting his famous repentance of this black transaction,
-that he shewed no tokens of relenting until it was extorted from him
-by artifice! and that even then, though he mourned his crime, he never
-entertained a thought of relinquishing future commerce with the woman so
-wickedly obtained, but kept her until he died! and altered the regular
-course of succession, in favour of a son he had by her.(5)
-
-It is hoped the supposition may be allowed, that the noise this
-righteous affair made, might be one motive for Joab's desiring David to
-come and partake some of the honours of the campaign:(6) an opportunity
-of which he prudently laid hold: but--fatal was his presence wherever he
-appeared.
-
-     * 2 Sam. xi. 15.
-
-     ** Ver. 17.
-
-     *** Ver. 27.
-
-     **** Ch. xii. 1.
-
-     (5) Kings i. 13.
-
-     (6) 2 Sam. xii. 27, 28.
-
-
-How shall a person subject to the feelings of humanity, (a security of
-more avail among men than the most binding laws) how shall a man, not
-steeled to a very Jew, find expressions suited to the occasion, when he
-relates the treatment of this poor city, Rabbah? The study would be as
-difficult as unnecessary; the simple unexaggerated tale, if seriously
-attended to, will shock the humane reader sufficiently. The city was
-taken and plundered; and David "brought forth the people that were
-therein, and put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under
-axes of iron, and made them pass through the brick-kiln, and thus did he
-unto all the cities of the children of Ammon."**
-
-     * It is supposed that the ancient slavery of the Jews to the
-     Egyptians, and the labour they were employed in by their
-     lordly taskmasters, the making bricks, might be a current
-     reproachful jeer upon the Jews, when any quarrel happened
-     between them find their neighbours; and that the making
-     their prisoners pass through the brick-kiln, was a cruel
-     method of revenging such affronts. A conjecture not
-     improbable.
-
-     ** 2 Sam. xii. 31., 1 Chron. xx. 3.
-
-
-The precise punishments here alluded to are not understood at this time:
-writers being much divided in their expositions of these words; but that
-extraordinary punishments are meant, cannot admit of a doubt; for though
-_believers_ expound the putting the Ammonites _under_ saws and harrows,
-into the making slaves of them, and that these were the tools with which
-they laboured; yet this will not agree with the latter of the texts
-whose authority is mentioned in the note; where it is said, that he
-[David] "cut them with saws and with harrows of iron, and with axes."
-And should more evidence be yet required, Josephus also writes, that
-"the men were put to death by exquisite torments." The general truth of
-the fact stands therefore unimpeached. And is it thus the people of God,
-headed by a man styled, in a peculiar manner, _the man after God's own
-heart_, used the prisoners of war? _Bella! horrida bella!_
-
-It would not be easy to select any period of any history more bloody,
-or abounding more in wickedness of various dyes than that which is the
-object of the reader's present attention. Instances succeed so quick
-that the relation of one is scarcely concluded, but fresh ones obtrude
-upon notice.--But now horrors of a different hue demand our attention.
-
-Ammon, one of our hero's sons, ravished his sister Tamar, and then
-turned her out of doors.* Absalom, her brother by the same mother,
-seemingly took no notice of it, until two years after; when he invited
-all his brothers to a feast at his sheep-shearing; where he made Amnon
-drunk, and murdered him** in so deliberate, and yet so determined was
-his revenge! Absalom on this account, fled out of Judea, for three
-years*** until, at the entreaty of Joab, he was invited home again
-by his father, whose favourite he was.**** But though he returned to
-Jerusalem, yet would not his father see him for two years more.(5)
-
-Absalom, during his exile, conceived a design of deposing his father;
-for after their reconciliation, his first attention was to render
-himself popular. To this end he set up a splendid equipage:(6) but
-politically increased his affability with his magnificence: rising up
-early, and planting himself in the way, to salute all who came to
-his father's levee. Of these he kindly enquired their business, or
-grievances; throwing out hints of the king's remissness in the execution
-of justice, and how uprightly he would conduct himself, were their
-causes to be determined by him.(7)
-
-     * 2 Sam. xiii. 14
-
-     ** Ver. 28.
-
-     *** Ver. 88.
-
-     **** Chap. xiv. 21, 24.
-
-     (5) Ver. 28.
-
-     (6) Chap. xv. 1.
-
-     (7) Ver 2, 4.
-
-The profession of piety is universally, and was in particular a-mong
-this people, the most successful disguise for crafty designing men to
-assume. When Absalom, therefore, thought his scheme sufficiently ripe
-for execution, he desired leave of his father to go to Hebron, to
-perform a vow made by him while a refugee in Syria.* At Hebron he set
-up his standard, and his followers assembled in such numbers, and the
-defection was so general, that David thought it adviseable to retire
-from Jerusalem.**
-
-With him he took all his family and dependants, except ten concubines,
-whom he left in his palace to keep house.*** The priests, Zadock and
-Abiather, with the ark, would also have gone with him; but he thought it
-would be more for his service for them to remain in the city as spies;
-to send him intelligence how matters went.**** It is no inconsiderable
-part of politics to know how to suit men with proper employments,
-Ahitophel, his prime minister, joined the malecontents;(5)
-to balance which misfortune, David prevailed on Hushai, a trusty man of
-some importance, to remain in the city, that he might ingratiate
-himself with Absalom, thwart the counsels of Ahitophel, and transmit
-intelligence to him from time to time through the conveyance of the
-priests, whose sons were to carry on the correspondence.(6) Having
-concerted matters thus, he evacuated Jerusalem, and Absalom entered(7)
-it.
-
-When David was upon his journey from the city, he was met by Ziba,
-servant to Mephibosheth, with asses and provisions for his majesty's
-accommodation in his retreat:(8) of whom, when David enquired why
-Mephibosheth did not come with him; this treacherous servant told him
-that he staid behind at Jerusalem, hoping to obtain the kingdom of his
-grandfather, during this disturbance:(9) by which lying aspersion, he
-gained a grant of all his master's possessions.
-
-     * 2 Sam. xv. 7.
-
-     ** Ver. 12,14.
-
-     *** Ver. 16.
-
-     **** Ver. 27,28,
-
-     (5) Ver. 12, 31.
-
-     (6) Ver. 32, &c.
-
-     (7) Ver. 37,
-
-     (8) 2 Sam. xvi. 1.
-
-     (9) Ver. 3.
-
-Here we may introduce a circumstance, which is so far material, as it
-serves to shew, that the sanctity of David was not quite so universally
-assented to, as may be imagined, while he was living; and his actions
-not only fresh in memory, but more perfectly known, than possibly, was
-prudent to transmit to these distant ages.
-
-As David prosecuted his flight, he was met by a man of Saul's family,
-whose name was Shimei. This man as he came on, kept muttering curses
-between his teeth, and at length cast stones at the King and his
-attendants, calling out to him, "Come out, come out, thou bloody man,
-and thou man of Belial; the Lord hath returned upon thee all the blood
-of the house of Saul, in whose stead thou hast reigned, and the Lord
-hath delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son; and behold
-thou art taken in thy mischief because thou art a bloody man."* This is
-pathetic, and truly characteristic of the person to whom the speech
-was addressed. Some of his retinue were at the point of silencing; this
-brawler with the "ultima ratio regum;"** but David prevented
-it,*** wisely considering this not to be a season for proceeding to
-extremities.
-
-Absalom, in the mean time, being come to Jerusalem, like a buck of
-spirit, took the damsels which his father had left to keep house, and
-cuckolded the old man by way of bravado, on the top of it****; in a tent
-erected for this heroic purpose!
-
-Ahitophel advised Absalom to select twelve thousand men, and pursue
-David directly, before he had time to recover his surprize;(5) which was
-certainly the best resolution that could have been formed. But Hushai,
-as was concerted, proposed a different plan of operations; opposing to
-the former, the well known valour and military skill of the old king;
-and the hazard of making him and his men desperate.(6)
-
-     * 2 Sam. xvi 7, 8.
-
-     ** The motto on French cannon.
-
-     *** 2 Sam. xvi. 9, 10.
-
-     **** Ver. 21, 22.
-
-     (5) Chap. xvii. 1.
-
-     (6) Ver. 8.
-
-He advised a collection of all the troops in the kingdom; that success
-might be in a manner insured; and that Absalom should command them in
-person. By which means, he affirmed that they should overwhelm David and
-his party, wherever they found him.* Hushai gained the ascendancy; and
-when he knew that his scheme was accepted, he gave immediate notice to
-the priests:** with instructions for David how to conduct himself.***
-David divided his forces into three bodies; commanded by Joab, Abishai,
-and Ittai: but by the prudent care of his men, was not permitted to
-hazard his person, by being present in action.**** When he had reviewed
-his army, he gave his generals especial charge to preserve the life
-of Absalom; and with a policy that reflects honour upon his military
-knowledge, expected the enemy in the wood Ephraim:(5) a covert
-situation, being the most judicious that could be chosen, for a small
-army(6) to encounter one more numerous. David's men were tried veterans,
-among whom were the remains of those who served under, and lived with
-him at Gath;(7) whereas, Absalom's army must have consisted chiefly of
-fresh men. The battle decided in favour of David(8) with great slaughter
-of the rebel army: and as Absalom fled on a mule, his hair, which is
-celebrated for its beauty and quantity, entangled in the boughs of an
-oak, and he remained suspended in the air; while his mule ran away from
-between his legs.(9) He was observed in this condition by a man who went
-and told Joab; and he, who consulted the safety of David, rather than
-his parental weakness in behalf of an unnatural son, killed Absalom with
-a dart.(10)
-
-David grieved immoderately for this reprobate son, on whom he had
-misplaced a great affection:(11) and though he had _acted_ the mourner
-on several former occasions, this is the only one, in which his
-sincerity need not be questioned.
-
-     * 2 Sam. xiii. 11.
-
-     ** Ver. 15.
-
-     *** Ver. 16.
-
-     **** Chap. xviii. 1-3
-
-     (5) Ver. 4-6.
-
-     (6) According to Josephus, David had but four thousand men.
-
-     (7)  2 Sam. xv. 18.
-
-     (8) Chap. xviii. 7.
-
-     (9) Ver. 9.
-
-     (10) Ver. 14.
-
-     (11) Ver. 33., Chap. xix. 4.
-
-
-It is true, he might be really concerned at the murder of Abner; but men
-circumstances ought to be attended to; Abner was killed prematurely;
-he had not finished his treacherous negociation; David had much to hope
-from him; but--when his expectations had been answered, it is far from
-being improbable, that he would have found an opportunity himself to
-have got rid of a man, on whom he could have placed no reliance. But to
-return.
-
-David was roused from his lamentations by the reproaches of his
-victorious general,* who flushed with success, told him the truth, but,
-perhaps, told it too coarsely. It is evident that Joab now lost the
-favour of his master, which the murder of Abner, the killing Absalom in
-direct contradiction to David's express order; and lastly, his want of
-sympathy, and his indelicacy in the present instance, were the apparent
-causes.
-
-After the battle, he invited Amasa, Absalom's vanquished general, to
-return to his duty: very imprudently and unaccountably promising him the
-chief command of his army in the stead of Joab;** which was seemingly
-but an unthankful return for the victory that officer had just gained
-him, and for his attachment to his interest all along. Amasa, it is
-true, was a near relation; but Joab, according to Josephus, stood in
-the same degree of consanguinity; they being both the sons of David's
-sisters, this offer must therefore have been rashly influenced by his
-resentment against Joab, as before mentioned.
-
-The remains of Absalom's scattered army dispersed to their homes in
-the best and most private manner they could:*** but David inadvertantly
-plunged himself into fresh troubles, by causing himself to be conducted
-home by a detachment from the tribe of Judah.**** This occasioned
-disputes between that and the other tribes. They accused Judah of
-stealing their king from them.(5)
-
-     * 2 Sam. xix. 5-7.
-
-     ** Ver. 13.
-
-     *** Ver. 3,
-
-     **** Ver. 11, 15.
-
-     (5) Ver. 41.
-
-
-Judah replied, that they gave their attendance, because the king was of
-their tribe; and that it was their own free will:* the others rejoined
-that they had ten parts in the king, and that their advice should have
-been asked as to the bringing him back.** At this juncture, one Sheba
-took advantage of the discontent, "and blew a trumpet, and said, we have
-no part in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: every
-man to his tent, O Israel."*** The consequence of this, was a second
-insurrection. Amasa was ordered to assemble an army to suppress it;
-but not proceeding with the desired speed, Abishai was afterward
-commissioned with the same trust; Amasa and Abishai met and proceeded
-together, and were joined by Joab and his men. But Joab, not thoroughly
-liking to serve under a man he had so lately vanquished, and having as
-few scruples of conscience as his old master, made short work, stabbed
-Amasa, and reassumed the command of the whole army.****
-
-Being once again supreme in command, Joab proceeded directly to the
-reduction of the malecontents who shut themselves up in the city of Abel
-of Beth-maacha: he battered the town, but by the negociation of a woman,
-the inhabitants agreed to throw Sheba's head to him over the wall; which
-they performed;(5) and thus was quiet once more restored. Joab returned
-to Jerusalem, where we are told that he was general over all the host
-of Israel.(6) Not a syllable appears of any notice taken by David of
-the murder of the general by himself appointed: and of the assassin's
-usurping the command of the army.
-
-Not finding room in its proper place, it shall now be noticed, that
-when David was returning to Jerusalem from the reduction of Absalom's
-rebellion; with the men of Judah, who came to escort him, Shimei, the
-Benjamite,(7) joined him at the head of a party of his own tribe.
-
-     * 2 Sam. xix. 42.
-
-     ** Ver. 43.
-
-     *** Chap. xx. 1.
-
-     **** Ver. 7, 9.
-
-     (5) Ver. 15, 16, &c.
-
-     (6) Ver. 23.
-
-     (7) Ver. 16.
-
-
-This man, who at a former meeting, so freely bestowed his maledictions
-on David when a fugitive: upon this change of circumstances, reflecting
-on the king's vindictive temper, came now to make his submission: David
-accepted his acknowledgements, and confirmed his pardon with an oath.*
-
-We shall have occasion to refer to this passage anon.
-
-Mephibosheth came also to welcome David on his return, and undeceive him
-with regard to the false Ziba's representation of him;--but he appears
-to have met with no other redress, than a remittance of _half the grant_
-made to Ziba of his estate.**
-
-     * 2 Sam. xix. 28.
-
-     ** Ver. 29.
-
-These intestine troubles put David upon pondering how to secure himself,
-as far as he could forecast, from any future disturbance.
-
-It is the part of good politicians, not only to form wise designs
-themselves, but also to make proper advantage of public occurrences,
-that all events indiscriminately may, more or less, lead to the purposes
-wanted to be obtained. Of this policy we shall observe David to be
-mindful, in the ensuing transaction. Not that a panegyric upon his
-contrivance in this instance is by any means intended; for certainly
-a more barefaced transaction was never exhibited: such indeed as could
-only have been attempted among the poor bigoted Jews. It is sufficient,
-however, that it answered David's purpose; than which more could not
-have been expected from the most complete stroke that refined politics
-ever produced. But view it in a moral light, and certainly a blacker
-piece of ingratitude and perfidy can hardly be imagined. It was
-impossible to continue the narrative without prefacing thus much.
-
-David having with much trouble, from his competition with Ish-bosheth,
-established himself upon the Jewish throne; and having in the latter
-part of his reign been vexed, and driven to disagreeable extremities,
-by the seditious humour of his subjects, the rebellion of his own son
-Absalom, and the revolt of Sheba; his mind now fell a prey to suspicion.
-He called to remembrance that some of Saul's family were yet living;
-whom, lest they should hereafter prove thorns in his side, he concluded
-it expedient to cut of.
-
-Whenever David projected any scheme, a religious plea, and the
-assistance of his old friends,* were never wanting. A famine befel
-Judea, which continued three years: probably occasioned by the preceding
-intestine commotions. "David inquired of the Lord: and the Lord
-answered, it is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the
-Gibeonites."** But where is this crime recorded? Samuel charged Saul
-with no such slaughter: he reproached him with a contrary fault, an act
-of _mercy!_ which is assigned as one of the reasons for deposing him.
-So that this crime was not recollected,*** till many years after the man
-was dead! and then God punishes--whom? a whole nation, with three years
-famine: which, by the by, was not sent as a punishment neither; but
-merely as a hint of remembrance, which ended in hanging the late king's
-innocent children!
-
-The oracular response dictated no act of expiation; but only pointed out
-the _cause_ of the famine. So that the Gibeonites (who, by the way, had
-hitherto made no complaints that we know of) were applied to**** for a
-knowledge of what recompence they demanded.
-
-     * The prophets and priests.
-
-     ** 2 Sam. xxi. 1.
-
-     *** If God sought vengeance for a particular act of cruelty
-     perpetrated by Saul: when was vengeance demanded for David's
-     massacre of the Edomites, the Moabites, the Ammonites, the
-     Jebusites, and others, who at times became the object of
-     David's wrath? That the charge may allude to some former
-     affair, is not contested; it is, however, truly remarkable,
-     that there should be no chronological record of a fact,
-     which after such a length of time demanded an expiation so
-     awfully hinted, and so extraordinary in its circumstances!
-
-     **** 2 Sam. xxi. 2, 3.
-
-They required no gifts, neither that for their sakes David should kill
-any man in Israel (which qualifying expressions seems artfully intended;
-since they only required David to _deliver_ the men to _them_, that
-_they_ might kill them); but that seven of Saul's sons, should be
-surrendered to them, that they might hang them up--_unto the Lord_.*
-David, not withheld by any motives of gratitude toward the posterity of
-his unhappy father-in-law, but in direct violation of his oath at
-the cave of En-gedi,** granted the request he must himself have
-instigated,*** sparing only Mephibosheth, who luckily was so unfortunate
-as to be a cripple, and so much a dependant on David, and kept under
-his own eye, that he had no room for apprehension from him. He therefore
-reserved Mephibosheth, in memory of another oath between him and
-his father Jonathan. Mephibosheth having such a shocking scene to
-contemplate, and, considering his decrepitude, might (as he really was)
-with little hazard be preserved, as an evidence of probity in this pious
-king.
-
-A conscience of convenient flexibility is of great use: thus David being
-under obligation by two oaths, forgot one, and remembered the other.
-When Creon, in OEdipus, was interrogated concerning his conscience, he
-replied--
-
-     --"'Tis my slave, my drudge, my supple glove,
-     My upper garment, to put on, throw off,
-     As I think best: 'tis my obedient conscience."
-
-David, now thinking himself securely settled, was moved both by God****
-and by Satan,(5) to cause his subjects to be numbered: which is,
-oddly enough, imputed as a great sin in him to require: for, poor
-man, according to the premises, he was but a passive instrument in the
-affair.
-
-     * 2 Sam. 6.
-
-     ** 1 Sam. xxiv. 21, 22.
-
-     *** 2 Sam. xxi. 6.
-
-     **** Chap. xxiv. 1.
-
-     (5) 1 Chron. xxi. l.
-
-
-Even David should have his due. The prophet Gad called him to account
-for it; and as a punishment for this sin of compulsion, propounded to
-him for his choice three kinds of plagues, one of which _his subjects_
-thereby necessarily incurred seven years famine, three months
-persecution from enemies, or three days pestilence.* David chose the
-latter.
-
-It may be as well to decline this story, as to enter into, any more
-particular consideration of it. From the above state of the case, the
-intelligent reader will need no assistance in making his own private
-reflections on it.
-
-We have now attended David down to the decline of his life: when his
-natural heat so far decayed, that no addition of clothing** could retain
-a proper degree of warmth. His physicians prescribed a young woman to
-cherish him in his bed, by imparting to him a share of juvenile heat.***
-This remedy may be very expedient in cases of extreme age: but why
-beauty should be a necessary part of the prescription is difficult to
-conceive. They sought a _fair damsel_; and the damsel they found, was
-_very fair._**** Possibly David might himself direct the delicacy of
-the choice: but if his physicians intended it as a compliment to
-their master, it indicated a very insufficient knowledge of the animal
-oeconomy: thus to stimulate the old man, and harass a carcase already
-sufficiently worn out: whereas a virgin of homelier features, at the
-same time that she would have furnished an equal degree of warmth, would
-have been less liable to put wicked thoughts in the patient's head.(5)
-However, the historian has taken care to inform us, that "the king knew
-her not:"(6) an assertion, which, from the premises, there does not
-appear any reason to controvert.
-
-     * 2 Sam. xxiv. 13., 1 Chron. xxi. 12.
-
-     ** 1 Kings, i. 1.
-
-     *** Ver. 2.
-
-     **** Ver. 8, 4.
-
-     (5) "Boerhaave frequently told his pupils that an old German
-     prince, in a very infirm state of health, being advised to
-     lie between two young virtuous virgins, grew so healthy and
-     strong, that his physicians found it necessary to remove his
-     companions." Mackenzie on Health, p. 70, Notes.
-
-     (6) l Kings, i. 4.
-
-While the king lay in this debilitated extremity of life, he was
-destined to experience yet another mortification from his children.
-Adonijah his eldest son, since the death of Absalom, taking advantage
-of his father's incapacity, foolishly assumed the title of king,* which,
-had he been a little less precipitate, would have soon fallen to him,
-perhaps, without contest. For though David afterwards is represented as
-having secret intentions to alter the succession, yet the countenance
-shewn to his pretension by Joab, the general, by Abiathar the priest,
-and even by all his other brothers,** seem to indicate, that had
-Adonijah been more prudent, we should not now have heard so much of the
-wisdom of Solomon, It is possible Adonijah might, even as it was,
-have maintained his anticipated dignity, had he not, like Saul before,
-slighted his most powerful friends. He made an entertainment, to which
-he invited all his brothers, except Solomon;*** but what ruined him, was
-his not inviting Nathan the prophet; it was _there_ the grudge began:
-and the exclusion from this merry bout, and the confidence of the party,
-caused the prophet's loyalty to exert itself,**** which might probably
-have been suppressed by a due share of Adonijah's good cheer.
-
-     * Ver. 5.
-
-     ** Ver. 9, 19, 25.
-
-     *** Ver. 9, 10,
-
-     **** Ver. 11.
-
-Let not the writer be accused of putting a malicious construction upon
-every transaction he produces. Pray, reader, turn to your bible: in the
-tenth verse of the first chapter of the first book of Kings, you will
-find a remark that Nathan was not called to the feast. The very next
-verse begins, "Wherefore, Nathan spake unto Bathsheba, the mother of
-Solomon," &c. He was certainly nettled at the slight put on him, and
-some others, in not being invited to Adonijah's feast, else he would
-not have insisted on that circumstance; which had better been waved. The
-supposition is not so ridiculous as has been represented; for surely
-the probability of Nathan's being corrupted, was not less than that of
-David's sons; who, yet, all of them, except Solomon, (who, had he
-been invited, had some private reasons to the contrary, which their
-proceedings shew them to have been aware of) were agreeable to settling
-the succession on their elder brother; though certainly as much
-interested in the disposal of the kingdom, as Nathan could be.
-
-Nathan and Bathsheba concerted to inform David of this matter;* where
-the affronted prophet could not forget the slight put upon him; but,
-it being foremost in his mind, he insists upon the circumstance of
-exclusion, in an earnest manner; "But me, even me, thy servant, and
-Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and thy servant
-Solomon, hath he not called;"** which spake the cause of his officious
-loyalty but too plainly. David here acknowledges the promise by which
-he waved the right of primogeniture in favour of Solomon, Bathsheba's
-son.*** He now directed him to be set upon a mule, to be proclaimed and
-anointed king of Israel, by his appointment.**** The acclamations of the
-people upon this raree-shew disturbed the opposite party at their
-table; and an event, so unexpected, quite disconcerted them: they all
-dispersed;(5) Adonijah ran to the tabernacle, and took sanctuary at
-the altar. He obtained of Solomon a conditional promise of pardon,(6)
-depending on his good behaviour.(7)
-
-     * 1 Kings i. 13.
-
-     ** Ver. 26.
-
-     *** Ver. 30.
-
-     **** Ver. 33, 38.
-
-     (5) Ver. 41, 49, 50.
-
-     (6) Ver. 52.
-
-     (7) Solomon soon found a pretence, ridiculous enough, but
-     sufficient in his eyes, to get rid of Adonijah, when his
-     father was dead.
-
-
-And now, methinks, some gentlewoman, of more than feminine patience,
-whose curiosity may have prevailed with her to proceed thus for, may
-here exclaim; "It must be granted, Sir! that David had his faults; and
-who has not? but what does that prove? only that he was a man. If he
-was frail, his repentance was exemplary; as you may perceive, if you
-can prevail with yourself to read some of his psalms. Indeed, after your
-ill-treatment of the scripture, it will avail little to tell you that
-you contradict those inspired penmen, who expressly stile David, _the
-Man after God's own heart_. Nay, your writing against him, under that
-epithet, shews sufficiently the rancour and impiety of _your heart_; so
-that I am fearful there are small hopes of reclaiming you."--Good Madam!
-hear me calmly, and we shall part excellent friends yet. Had David not
-been selected from the rest of mankind, why then--it is possible--hardly
-possible--he might pass in the gross, with the rest of the Jewish kings.
-But, when he is exalted and placed in a conspicuous point of view, as an
-eminent example of piety! he then necessarily attracts our notice in an
-especial manner, and we are naturally led to wonder, that a more happy
-subject of panegyric had not been chosen. If he was an holy psalmist; if
-he is styled the Man after God's own heart; he also lived the life here
-exhibited: and his capability of uniting such contrarities, does but
-augment his guilt!
-
-Yet, even in his psalms, he frequently breathes nothing but blood,
-and the most rancorous resentment against his enemies. Of these take
-a specimen or two, from the elegant _ekeings_ out of that transcendent
-pair of geniuses, Messrs. Thomas Sternhold and John Hopkins; in
-recommendation of whose version, and the taste of our countrymen, it
-may be truly affirmed, that their psalms have gone through more editions
-than the works of any other poet, or brace of poets, whatever.
-
-Psalm lxviii. 22-24.
-
-     And he shall wound the head of all
-     His enemies also,
-     The hairy scalp of such as on
-     In wickedness do go.
-
-     From Basan 1 will bring, said he,
-     My people and my sheep,
-     And all my own, as I have done.
-     From dangers of the deep.
-
-     And make them dip their feet in blood
-     Of those that hate my name;
-     The tongues of dogs they shall be red
-     With licking of the same.
-
-
-Again, in Psalm lxix. 24--27.
-
-     Lord, turn their table to a snare,
-     To take themselves therein,
-     And when they think full well to fare,
-     Then rap them in their gin:
-     And let their eyes be dark and blind,
-
-     That they may nothing see;
-     Bow down their backs, and let them find
-     Themselves in thrall to be:
-     Pour out thy wrath as hot as fire,
-
-     That it on them may fall,
-     Let thy displeasure in thine ire
-     Take hold upon them all.
-     As desarts dry their house disgrace,
-     Their seed do thou expel,
-     That none thereof possess their place,
-     Nor in their tents once dwell.
-
-
-Very pious ejaculations for the whole congregation to _sing to the
-praise and glory of God!_
-
-David's failings, as they are qualifyingly termed, are generally
-mentioned as exceptions to the uniform piety of his character: but, if
-David ever performed any truly laudable actions, _those_ are the real
-exceptions to the general baseness which stains the whole of a life
-uncommonly criminal.
-
-The writer does not pledge himself to reconcile rapine and cruelty,
-with morality and religion; there are Commentators who love these knotty
-affairs; to them they are left. When the vindictive tenor of any of
-David's psalms has been insisted on, the translation is immediately
-censured; prudently enough; as every one who has sense to perceive
-the incongruity between such bloody wishes and denunciations, and the
-acknowledged purity and mercy of the All-beneficent Father of Nature,
-may not have learning enough to dispute about Hebrew points, and to make
-them point what meaning he pleases. However, such a one, by comparing
-the labours of Hebrew critics, may yet be enabled to form some sort of
-judgment between them. For instance, in that terrible 109th psalm, it
-is certain our Doctors in Divinity do not like it: but something must be
-done with it: some, therefore, say, that the verbs are not translated in
-their proper tenses, and that prophetic declarations are thus mistaken
-for the Psalmist's execrations: others again say, that to be sure they
-_are_ imprecations, but not the imprecations of David; but those of his
-enemies on him, which he there only relates! O happy men! why do not we
-all learn Hebrew? His exemplary repentance is pleaded; is it any where
-to be found but in the psalms? "By their fruits ye shall know them."
-If David was ever truly pious, we shall certainly perceive it in his
-behaviour on his death-bed. _There_, it is to be hoped, we shall find
-him forgiving his enemies, and dying in charity with all mankind. This
-is what all mankind in general make a point of, from the saint to the
-malefactor. David, therefore, must certainly give us an extraordinary
-instance of his attention to this important evidence of contrition,
-But what shall we think, when we see this Nero of the Hebrews die in a
-manner uniform and consistent with the whole course of his life? What
-will be our reflections, when we find him, with his last accents,
-delivering two cruel and inhuman murders in charge to his son Solomon?
-Murders still further aggravated by the included crimes of ingratitude
-and perjury! one of them to be executed on his old faithful general,
-Joab, who powerfully assisted him on all occasions, and who adhered to
-him in all his extremities, till at the last, when he had justifiable
-cause for chagrin: but who, notwithstanding, had not appeared against
-him in actual hostility; but only drank a glass of wine with the
-malcontents. It will avail nothing to plead the private faults of the
-man; we are now to consider him as relative to David, in his public
-capacity. In which light we must loath the master, who died meditating
-black ingratitude against so faithful, so useful a servant. For even
-his defection at last may, perhaps, admit of being interpreted into a
-patronization of that particular plan for the succession, rather than
-into a rebellion against the superannuated monarch.
-
-His other charge was against Shimei, who reviled David at his retreat
-from Jerusalem, during Absalom's rebellion; but who made his submission
-to him, when he returned victorious: and whose pardon David had sealed
-with a solemn oath.*
-
-Attend we now to the cause of these reflections. After exhorting Solomon
-on his death-bed, to keep the statutes of the Lord, David proceeds:
-
-"Moreover, thou knowest also what Joab, the son of Zeruiah, did to me,
-and what he did to the two captains of the hosts of Israel, unto Abner
-the son of Ner, and unto Amasa the son of Jether, whom he slew, and shed
-the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war upon his girdle that
-was about his loins, and in his shoes that were on his feet."
-
-"Do therefore according to thy wisdom, and let NOT HIS HOAR HEAD GO DOWN
-TO THE GRAVE IN PEACE."**
-
-This was afterwards fulfilled in the basest manner, by the administrator
-to this pious testament.
-
-David concludes thus:
-
-"And behold, thou hast with thee Shimei, the son of Gera, a Benjaminite
-of Bahurim, which cursed me with a grievous curse, in the day when I
-went to Mahanaim; but he came down to meet me at Jordan, and I sware to
-him by the Lord, saying, I will not put thee to death with the sword:
-
-"Now, therefore, hold him not guiltless: for thou art a wise man, and
-knowest what thou oughtest to do unto him; but his hoar head bring
-thou down to the grave with BLOOD."*** --That is to say, 'It is true, I
-promised not to put him to death, but thou art a wise man, and knowest
-what thou oughtest to do; thou knowest thyself not to be bound by that
-obligation; therefore his hoar head, &c. So saying, he expired!
-
-     * 2  Sam. xix. 23.
-
-     ** 1 Kings ii. 5, 6.
-
-     *** Ver. 8, 9.
-
-
-This command was also executed in a manner, worthy of a son of SUCH A
-FATHER.
-
-To take a retrospect view of the foregoing narrative; in few words may
-be seen the sum total of the whole. A shepherd: youth is chosen by
-a disgusted, prophet, to be the instrument of his revenge on an
-untractable king. To this, end he is inspired with ambitious hopes, by
-a private inauguration; is introduced to court, in the capacity of a
-harper; and by knocking down a man with a stone whom, if he had missed
-once, he had four more chances of hitting, and from whom, at the last,
-he could have, easily ran away; he was advanced to the dignity of
-son-in-law to the king. So sudden and unlooked for a promotion within
-sight of the throne, stimulated expectations already awakened; and Saul
-soon perceived reasons to repent his alliance with him. Being obliged to
-retire from the court, he assembled a gang of ruffians, the acknowledged
-outcasts of their country, and became the ringleader of a lawless
-company of banditti. In this capacity he seduces his brother-in-law,
-Jonathan, from his allegieance and filieal duty; and covenants with him,
-that if he obtained the kingdom, Jonathan should be the next person in
-authority under him.
-
-He obtains a settlement in the dominions of a Philistine prince where
-instead of applying himself laudably to the arts of cultivation he
-subsists by plundering and butchering the neighbouring nations.
-
-He offered his assistance to the Philistine armies, in a war against his
-own country, and father-in-law; and is much disgusted at their distrust
-of his sincerity. He however, availed himself of the defeat and death of
-Saul, and made a push for the kingdom.
-
-Of this he gained only his own tribe of Judah: but strengthened by this
-usurpation, he contested the remainder with Saul's son, Ishbosbeth,
-whom he persecuted to the grave: Ishbosbeth being assassinated by two
-villains, with intention to pay their court to the usurper. He is now
-king of Israel: In which capacity he plundered and massacred all his
-neighbours round him at discretion. He defiled, the wife of one of his
-officers, while her husband was absent in the army: and finding she was
-with child by him, He, to prevent a discovery, added murder to
-adultery; which being accomplished, he took the widow directly into his
-well-stocked seraglio. He then repaired to the army, where he treated
-the subjected enemies: with the most wanton inhumanity. A rebellion is
-raised against him by his son Absalom, which he suppressed, and invited
-over the rebel-general, to whom he gave the supreme command of his army,
-to the prejudice of the victorious Joab. After this, he cut off the
-remainder of Saul's family, in defiance to the solemn oath by which he
-engaged to spare that unhappy race; reserving only one cripple from whom
-he had not apprehensions: and who, being the son of Jonathan, gave him
-the opportunity of making a merit of his gratitude.
-
-When he lay on his death-bed, where all mankind resign their resentments
-and animosities, his latest breath was employed in dictating two
-posthumous murders to his son Solomon! and, as if one crime more was
-wanting to complete the black catalogue; he cloathed all his actions
-with the most consummate hypocrisy: professing all along the greatest
-regard for every appearance of virtue and holiness. These, Christians!
-are the outlines of the life of a Jew, whom you are not ashamed to
-continue extolling as a man after God's own heart!
-
-This Britons! is the king to whom your late excellent monarch* has been
-compared!
-
-     * George II.
-
-What an impiety to the Majesty of Heaven!
-
-What an affront to the memory of an honest prince! It is with great joy
-the writer of these memoirs takes his leave of a story, with which, by
-this time he is sufficiently disgusted. He entered upon it, however,
-from honest motives; and he concludes it with the consciousness of having
-performed a work, which he flatters himself will prove acceptable to
-all who entertain adequate conceptions of the eternal rectitude of that
-great Creator of the universe, whom they profess to adore. He despises
-all the pious ravings and anathemas which have been thundered against
-him by some reverend inquisitors: he expected them, has exposed them;
-and hopes he may, without offence finally reply in the words of their
-forgotten master, "Father forgive them, for they _know not_ what
-they do." Those who estimate a man's religion by his implicitness to
-prescribed notions, and who think it their duty to stifle their living
-objections in compliance to the dead letter; (for objections they will
-have, and very strong ones too) such have, and will undoubtedly
-be shocked at this publication. Such may produce numerous texts in
-opposition to what is here produced; and can inspired writers be
-inconsistent with themselves? It is not at present necessary to discuss
-that question. Argue that point among yourselves; the printer will at
-least profit by your disputes; though you may happen to
-
-     ----Explain a thing till all men doubt it.
-     And write about the subject, and about it:
-     So spins the silk-worm small its slender store,
-     And labours till it clouds itself all o'er.
-
-This, yet, is none of his concern. The love of truth is a motive
-which ought to supersede every other consideration: for every other
-consideration is subordinate in comparison with it. Truth requires no
-tenderness of investigation, and scorns all subterfuges. It is, when
-displayed,
-
-     ----divinely bright.
-     One dear, unchang'd, and universal light.
-
-To rescue truth, therefore, from obscurity and disguise, is the most
-rational way of giving
-
-_Glory to God in the highest; and on earth, peace: good-will toward
-men._
-
-
-
-
-
-
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