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 enquired 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 So that assigned as one of the reasons for deposing him. 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 bye, was not sent as a punishment neither; but merely as a hint of remembrance, which ended in hanging the late king's innocent children! but The oracular response dictated no act of expiation; only pointed out the cause of the famine. So that the Gibeonites (who, by the way, had hitherto made no com- • plaints that we knew of) were applied tot, for a knowledge of what recompence they demanded. They required no gifts, neither that for their sakes David should kill any man in Israel (which qualifying expression 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 with-held 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 Engedi, granted the request he must himself have instigated, sparing Mephibosheth, * 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 objects 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 chronolo gical 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. xxl. 2, 3. 1 Sam. xxvi. 21, 27. § Ver. 6. 2 Sam. xxi. 6. who luckily was so unfortunate as to be a cripple, and so much a dependent on David, and kept under his own eye, that he had no room for apprehension for him. He there fore 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 le 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 Oedi. pus, was interrogated concerning his conscience, he replied, -'Tis my slave, my drudge, my supple glove, As I think best: 'tis my obedient conscience. David now, thinking himself securely settled, was moved both by God and bySatant, 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. Eren 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, or three months persecution from enemies, or three days pestilencet. 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 *. 2 Sam. xxiv. 1. + 1 Chron. xxi. 1. 3 Sam. xxiv. 13, 1 Chron. xxi. 18. addition of cloathing 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 heatt. This remedy may be very expedient in cases of extreme age: but why beauty should be a necessary part of the precription, is diflicult to conceive. They sought a fair damsel; and the damsel they found, was very fairt. 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 insuffi cient knowledge of the animal economy, thus to stimulate the old man, and harrass a carcass 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 §. However, the historian has taken care to inform us, that "the king knew her not" an assertion, which, from the premises, there does not appear any reason to controvert. 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 * 1 Kings i. 1. + Ver. 2. Ver. 3, 4. § "Boerhaave frequently told his pupils that an old German prince, in a very infirin state of health, being advised to lie be"tween two young virtuous virgins, grew so healthy and strong, ** that his physicians found it necessary to remove his companions." Mackenzie on Health, p. 70, Note. ¶ Ver. 5. ** Ver. 9, 19, 25. § 1 Kings i. 4. powerful friends. Ile made an entertainment, to which be 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 itselft, which might probably have been suppressed by a due share of Adonijah's good cheer. 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 agreea ble 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 caruest manner: "But me, even мE thy servant, and Za"dok 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 |