IT could neither be denied nor diffembled, that he was now reduced to great distress; but, great as his diftreffes were, he had been redeemed from greater. His enemies looked upon him as a dead man; but they forgot, how eafily the hand of God could raise him up again, as from the grave; and not only renew, but augment his grandeur. Thou which haft fhewed me great and fore troubles, fhalt quicken me again; and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth

fhalt increase my greatness

Thou

I will also praise thee upon the pfaltery, &c.—For they are confounded, they are brought into shame, that seek my hurt.

So he confided, and fo it came to pass; and Achitophel, the enemy's arch-counsellor, was the first inftance of GOD's vengeance upon that rebel-race. For, finding his hellish, but falutary advice to Abfalom, despised, and foreseeing from thence, that David muft quickly prevail against his infatuated enemies, he immediately returned to his own city, put his houfhold in order, and (in desperation) banged himself, fays the text, and died.

WHEN he had contrived, infpired, diffused, and propagated evil, through an innumerable

numerable multitude, and loaded his foul with all the horrors of complicated guilt, that hell could devife; treachery, rebellion, inceft, parricide! he hurried it to all the vengeance due to it from eternal justice; to prevent all poffibility of reparation and repentance, he died in the act of selfmurder. So perished the great Machiavel of that age; the very wisest of the very wifemen of this world! whofe God is their belly, whofe glory is their fhame, and whofe end is deftruction.

BUT it is time to return to David

DAVID and his fon now set themselves to make the best preparations they could the one to carry on his unnatural rebellion, and the other to defeat it.

AND here, perhaps, the reader may not think it amifs to leave them a-while, and employ a few moments in reflections, not foreign from the affair before us.

AND firft: It is remarkable, that this rebellion was, in all appearance, the real, although remote confequence of David's adultery. For Bathsheba was the daughter of Eliam *, and we find Eliam, the fon of

*

2 Sam. xi. 3.

Achitophel, among David's worthies † ; confequently, this Eliam was, in all probability, the father of Bathsheba; and if so, then may we fairly conclude, that Achitophel engaged in this conspiracy, in revenge for the dishonour done to his family, in the perfon of Bathfheba, which no fubfequent marriage could repair or efface and I think, we may plainly perceive, in the determined cruelty of Achitophel's advice and refolution to deftroy David with his own hands, all the malice and rancour of a particular and perfonal revenge. And if this be the true ftate, of the cafe, which I am far from adventuring to pronounce, (for indeed there are strong probabilities on the other fide) then was verified that fine observation, in the Wisdom of Solomon, (recounted among the appointments of Providence) That wherewithal a man finneth, by the fame alfo shall be be punished.

In the next place, I cannot but reflect with astonishment, upon the applause which Mr. Bayle hath gained; and with horror, upon the evil errors he hath fpread by his cafuiftry and particularly in the article of +2 Sam. xxiii. 34.

David. He is very angry with Hufhai for deceiving Abfalom; but much more with David, for advising him to it. A conduct which he loads with all the guilt of feducing his friend into a damnable fin, which he should rather have loft his crown, than have fuffered him to commit.

IF Mr. Bayle had been acquainted with the first principles and rudiments of the law of nature, he could not but know, that Abfalom, a traitor, a murderer, a rebel, (and, as far as in him lay, a parricide) had (as fuch) forfeited all the rights of society: but more especially as a rebel; for a rebel, who fets himself to overturn the established government, order, and of peace any community, does, by that hoftile attempt, actually divest himself of all social rights in that community. And confequently Hufhai could no more be guilty of fin, in deceiving him, in order to defeat the purposes of his villainy, than he could be guilty of a fip, in deceiving a mad dog, and turning him away from murdering his best friends.

It is fcarcely to be imagined, how any cafuift could be fo fillily fcrupulous, as to make the leaft doubt, whether any man in

his fenfes had a right to deceive a mad-man, (whose only demerit is a disturbed brain) and delude him from his evil purposes: how much more then, a deliberate, determined traitor, who had forfeited all the rights of humanity, as well as fociety! a black parricide, mad with pride, ambition, and cruelty! the worst exceffes and outrages of a corrupt heart! To defeat the horrid purposes of this monster's villainy, to rob him of the glory of maffacring the best friends of his family, of imbruing his hands in the blood of all his brethren, and crowning rebellion and murder with parricide! to take measures to restore this wretch, once more, to the mercy of a tender forgiving father; and, in confequence, to repentance, and a right sense of duty, to fave his foul alive! How crying a guilt was it in David, to form a defign of effecting all this; and how damnable a fin in Hufbai, to execute it!

CHA P.