been carefully recorded: and therefore these of fo great a prince and prophet as David, will not, I prefume, be deemed unworthy the regard of the most incurious reader; especially as they will not take up much

more than one minute of his time.

Now thefe be the last words of David: David the Son of Jesse said, and the man who was raifed up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet pfalmift of Ifrael, faid; The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue. The God of Ifrael faid, the Rock of Ifrael fpake unto me, He that ruleth over men must be juft, ruling in the fear of God: and he shall be as the light of the morning, when the fun rifeth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grafs Springing out of the earth, by clear fhining after rain. Although my boufe be not fo with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and fure: for this is all my falvation, and all my defire, although he make it not to grow.

But the fons of Belial shall be all of them as thorns thrust away, because they cannot be taken with hands. But the man that shall touch

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touch me, must be fenced with iron, and the Staff of a spear, and they shall be utterly burnt with fire in the fame place.

How glorious a conclufion of fo noble an office is this! to recollect God's fignal mercies and bleffings bestowed upon him! His exaltation to royalty, from a low estate! and his gifts of prophecy, poetry and harmony! His fpecial command to him as a king, and his eternal covenant with him and his feed! The continuance of his temporal kingdom, but with no increase of grandeur, in his pofterity! Their sure salvation and protection, whilst they continued in the covenant, made with their father! and the final reprobation, and deftruction of the wicked! and, above all, that bleffed and permanent affurance to the faithful, That the Spirit of the Lord fpake by him, and his word was in his tongue! Thus fealing the truth and certainty of his divine infpiration, and in consequence of that, the facred authority of his writings, to endless generations.

THEN follows the noble catalogue of David's worthies; the nobleft and most truly renowned of all antiquity; inasmuch as there is reafon to believe, that any act of

notorious

notorious guilt excluded from it; for why, otherwise, so great a captain, and so brave a man as, Joab, should be left out of that lift, when his two brothers, and even his armourbearer, are included in it, I own I cannot comprehend. And this conjecture is, I think, ftrengthened, by observing several names in the list of these worthies, 2 Sam. xxiii. left out in the fubfequent lift, 1 Chron. xi. and a good many other names added in this later lift. From whence, I conclude, that fome of the worthies in the first lift, had their names rased out, on account of some subfequent demerit, after the authors of the fecond book of Samuel were dead.

CHAP. XVII.

DAVID'S Numbering of the People: and the Plague which ensued.

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HE people of Ifrael were fcarcely recovered from the calamity of that famine, which infefted them for three years, when they were vifited by another chastisement, apparently more fatal, although of a VOL. III.

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very

very fhort continuance: a peftilence of three days; occafioned by the king's numbering of the people.

THE moft rational account of the matter is this: GOD had given them a command, by Mofes, Exod. xxx. that when they took the fum of the people, after their number, every man so numbered, from twenty years old and upwards, should pay half a shekel to the fanctuary, as a ranfom for his foul to God; under the penalty of a plague, to enfue the neglect of fuch payment: and accordingly that payment was made, when they were numbered, Exod. xxxviii. 24. And furely a most rational and religious capitation this was, indicating, that their lives were the forfeit of their fins, to GOD: who, in mercy, accepted a small ransom for them

* If it be objected, that there are two other numberings mentioned in the Bible, Numb. i. and Numb. xxvi. without any mention of any payment to the fanctuary; I anfwer, That there is indeed no exprefs mention made of any fuch payment, but I think it fufficiently implied in both places; for Numb. i. 54. it is faid, And the children of Ifrael did according to all that the Lord commanded Mofes, And in Numb. xxvi. 4. they are commanded to take the fum of the people, as the Lord commanded Mofes, and the children of Ifrael, which went forth out of the land of Egypt. And we know, that the payment of the half-fhekel made a part of that command.

but

but an equal one for the lives of the highest and the lowest amongst them, inafinuch as they were all of equal value in his fight, with whom there is no acceptance of perfons.

DAVID, now (probably from an impulfe of vanity) defirous to know the strength of his kingdom, which he rightly judged to confift more in the numbers of valiant men, than in the extent of empire, ordered the sum of the people to be taken, from twenty years old and upward; without ordering the Mofaic ranfom to be paid: for which reafon a plague immediately enfued, which destroyed seventy thousand of them, within the time determined by the prophet. And indeed, as the people were now more fignally bleffed by GOD than at any time, the neglect of paying this tribute to their great Sovereign, under whofe protection they were fo wonderfully raised to wealth, and dominion over their enemies, became more odioufly infamous and ungrateful. And it is to me unaccountably aftonishing, how David could be brought to fuffer it: but in truth he did more; he not only fuffered, but injoined and urged it. And, to increase our wonder, David injoined, and Joab remonftrated

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