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fhort as it is, it contains an exhortation to unity, beginning in the prince, and diffused through the people, illuftrated by two images, the most apt and beautiful that ever were imagined. Kingdoms are confidered as bodies politic, of which the king is the head, and the people, in their several ranks and orders, the parts and members. A fpirit of union beginning upon the prince, whose person is facred, is like oil poured upon the head of Aaron, which naturally defcends, and spreads itself over all the parts of the body, and diffuses beauty and fragrance over the whole, reaching even to the skirts of the garment, Oil is, without queftion, the finest emblem of union, that ever was conceived! It is a substance confifting of very small parts, which yet, by their mutual adhesion, conftitute one uniform, well united, and useful body. The facred oil carries the idea, and the advantage, of union yet further; which being extracted from various fpices, yet made up one well cohering and more valuable compound. The next image carries the exhorta

3. Like as the dew of Hermon, which fell upon the bill of Sion.

4. For there the Lord promifed his bleffing, and life for evermore.

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tion to union, and the advantages of it, yet higher.

HERMON was the general name of one mountain, comprehending many leffer and lower hills, under the furround of a greater. Union, in any nation, is the gift of God; and therefore unity among brethren, beginning from the king, is like the dew of heaven, which, falling firft upon the higher fummit of Hermon, (refreshing and enriching, where-ever it falls) naturally defcends to Sion, a lower; and thence, even to the humble valleys.

SION was the centre of union to all the tribes; there GOD himself had promised his people rest, and peace from their enemies; which, however, were of little value without union and harmony among themfelves.

CHAP

CHA P. XV.

Judea is vifited with a Famine. The Caufe of the Divine Wrath. The Means and Method appointed to appeafe it. Mr. Chubb's Charge against DAVID, upon this Head, confidered and refuted.

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BOUT this time there arose a famine in Judea, which continued three years. It is very poffible, that, for the first year, David might have afcribed this calamity to Abfalom's rebellion; which, by diverting the people from their wonted industry, and cutting off many of their labouring hands, left the country, for fome time, uncultivated: the natural confequence of which was, a scarcity of corn. But as this rebellion was of fhort continuance, and the famine long outlafted all the natural effects of it, David could not long hefitate, to afcribe it to fome other caufe. But however, as he had, in the true fpirit of a provident ruler, erected granaries and storehoufes,

houfes, for provifions of all kinds, in all parts of his dominions *; and by that means made ample provision for the fustenance of his people, in any exigence that should arise; he was the better enabled to bear this miffortune with equanimity, and intire refignation to the All-ruling Will. And accordingly, whatever remedies or reliefs he might have fought for from natural caufes, and private and public prayers to Almighty GoD, he made no application for the extraordinary aid and interpofition of Providence, till the third year: but in the third year, being well convinced, that the vifitation was judicial, he applied himself to the facred oracle of GoD, to learn the cause of this extraordinary and continued calamity; and was anfwered, That it was for Saul, and his bloody houfe, because he flew the Gibeonites.

THE history of the Gibeonites is well known: they were a remnant of the Amorites, (that abandoned race, whom God, for their infufferable abominations, had de

*This appears clearly from 1 Chron. xxvii. 25. And over the ftore-houses in the fields, in the cities, and in the villages, and in the caftles, was Jehonathan, &c.

voted to destruction) who, though they obtained a league for their lives and properties from the children of Ifrael by fraud; yet, forafmuch as Joshua and the elders had confirmed it by oath, they thought themselves bound to keep it; only tying them down to the fervitude of fupplying the tabernacle with wood and water for the public facrifices, and service of those who attend upon them.

THIS unhappy people, notwithstanding it is agreed, on all hands, (from the tradition. of the Jews) that they had renounced their idolatry, and performed the other conditions of their covenant, Saul fought all occafions to destroy and did fo, to fuch a degree of guilt, as drew down the divine judgment upon the land.

WHEN David had learned the true cause of the public calamity, under which the land laboured, and had been directed (as Jofephus informs us) to refer himself to the Gibeonites, for the measures that should be taken to expiate the guilt; he immediately fent for that afflicted people, and afked them - What shall I do for you? And wherewith fhall I make the atonement,

that

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