mafter of the whole defign, he could not have directed the hewing of the ftones, nor adjusted the exact weight of all the utenfils, as he certainly did, with great care, 1 Chron. xxviii. 12, &c.

In the first of these works he imployed all the strangers, that is, profelytes of the land; who, probably, were more skilled in works of that nature: or, poffibly, he chose not to take his own people from the culture of the ground, and the feveral pursuits of rural industry.

He prepared iron and brass in abundance, and without weight, for the joinings (says the text); probably both of the stones and timber, which was all cedar; and fupplied him, in vaft plenty, by the Zidonians and Tyrians. He confidered, that the work was to be great and magnificent, beyond any thing yet known to the world; and therefore the preparations were to be proportionable. This the facred hiftorian fully informs us of, in 1 Chron. xxii. 5. And David faid, Solomon my son is young and tender and the house that is to be builded to the Lord, must be exceeding magnifical, of fame, and of glory, throughout all countries: I will there

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therefore now make preparations for it. So David prepared abundantly before his death : taking care, at the fame time, to inform his fon Solomon fully, of his whole purpose; and exhorting him, who was appointed by God to execute it, to pursue and accomplish it with diligence and vigour; adding, that he himself once had it fully in his intentions to build a boufe unto the Name of the Lord his God; but was exprefly forbidden to purfue his purpose, because he had been a man of war, and had fhed much blood upon the earth; but that GOD had affured him, at the same time, that he would give him a fon, who should be a man of peace, and his name、 Solomon; and that he should build him an house. And upon this ground, he exhorts him to go on with the work: Now, my fon, the Lord be with thee, and profper thee; and build the houfe of the Lord thy God, as be bath faid of thee. He then adds a most earnest exhortation to him, to ferve and to fear GOD, as he hoped for his bleffing upon his house and nation; and concludes with an earnest fupplication to GOD, to inspire his heart with wisdom, and a steady fenfe of duty to him, and to his people.

THIS done, David next proceeds to tell his fon, what preparations he himself had made for the work: Now, behold, in my trouble, I have prepared for the house of the Lord, an hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of filver; and of brass, and iron, without weight (for it is in abundance); timber alfo, and ftone, have I prepared; and thou mayeft add thereto. Moreover, there are workmen with thee in abundance; hewers, and workers of stone and timber, and all manner of cunning men, for every manner of work. Of the gold, the filver, and the brass, and the iron, there is no number. Arife therefore, and be doing; and the Lord be with thee.

DAVID's next care was, to engage all the great men of the realm to be aiding and affifting to his fon, in the carrying on of this great work. And to this purpose he laid his particular commands (as I apprehend) fingly, and apart, upon each of them.

And

*Is not the Lord your God with you? and hath he not given you reft on every fide? for he hath given the inhabitants of the land into mine hand, and the land is fubdued before the Lord, and before his people. Now fet your heart, and your foul, to feek the Lord your God: arife

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And after this, convening them in one body, he publicly exhorted them all to the fame purpose, in an oration, which (to me) is by far the nobleft of the kind, extant in the world. But before I proceed to confider that performance, I muft beg the reader's attention to fome points of great importance antecedent to it.

CHA P. XIX.

A Differtation upon the immenfe Treafures left by DAVID, for building the Temple.

HERE is no one point relating to the

TH
Tracred writing, in which I find

learned men, and critics of all kinds, so greatly and diftantly divided, as this of the treasures left by David, for building the

temple;

therefore, and build ye the fanctuary of the Lord God, to bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and the holy veffels of God, into the houfe that is to be built to the Name of the Lord.

This, I apprehend, is recorded by the facred writer, as the fubftance of David's private exhortations to each of the princes, upon this head.

temple; fome thinking fome thinking them incredibly immense, and others doubling them; fome fufpecting fome numeral errors in the text, and others finking the talent almost to nothing, in order to guard against the suppofition of any fuch errors; whilst others feem to value themselves upon having difcovered new veins of wealth, from whence much greater treasures might have been derived.

IN the midst of this uncertainty, there are. fome points, I think, clear and incontestable.

THE firft is, that there is not the leaft ground to believe, that the Hebrews ever varied their weights and measures, at least before the captivity. And therefore David's talent was the fame with that of Mofes.

THE next plain point is, that the Hebrew talent was of a confiderable weight.

WHAT Mofes's talent was, is known to a demonftration, from the account left us of the first capitation in the wilderness, Exod. xxxviii. 25, 26. in which fix hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty men, being taxed at half a shekel a head, raised a fum of an hundred talents of filver, and a thou

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