to a people who could make their own children pass thro' the fire to Moloch? And therefore, whilft others, either from an affectation of more gentlenefs and compaffion in their nature, or the influence of falfe and fantastic notions of mercy, confider David, in the character of a tyrant, exercifing his cruelty in his conquefts, I, for my own part, confider him as the man after God's own heart; inflicting the righteous vengeance of heaven upon a mifcreant race; executing that vengeance upon guilt, (upon these enemies of GOD and goodness *) which Saul was dethroned for not executing: employed in an office, the most abhorrent from his nature, when viewed in the light of affliction to others; and pleafing only, in the light of executing the righteous fentence of GOD upon guilt, So when an angel, by divine command, * Pfal, xxi. 8. Thine hand fhall find out all thine enemies thy right-hand fhall find out thofe that hate thee. IF IF I may be indulged a conjecture, another reafon (or rather, circumftance) of this particular punishment of making the Ammonites pass through the brick-kiln, I take to be this: it was well known, that the Jews were flaves in Egypt; and particularly enflaved in brick-making and clay, Exod. i. 14. It is natural with all people at enmity, to reproach one another with the meanness and baseness of their original. The Ammonites were a cruel and infolent enemy, and nothing could be more natural to fuch fpirits, when they had got any fews in their power, than to cry out, Send the flaves to their brick-kilns; and fo torture them to death. And if so, nothing could be more natural than for the Jews to return them the fame treatment. And very probably it was in allufion to this reproach of their enemies, and to fupport his people under it, that David tells them, Pfalm lxviii. ver. 13. Tho' ye have lien among the pots, yet shall ye be as the swings of a dove covered with filver That is, tho' ye were formerly obfcure and oppreffed flaves, tied down to the drudgery of brick-making and pottery in Egypt, you fhall now be as glorious as you then were contemptible. Tho' ye ye have lien among the pots, yet fhall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with filver, and her feathers with yellow gold. AND how it was, beyond all doubt, (as I humbly apprehend) that David, recollecting the late train of GoD's fignal mercies and deliverances to him, fung out the twenty-first Pfalm in a transport of joy and thanksgiving: The king shall joy in thy Strength, O Lord, and in thy falvation how greatly shall be rejoice! Thou haft given him his heart's defire, and haft not with-holden the request of his lips. Selah. For thou preventeft him with the bleffings of goodness: thou fetteft a crown of pure gold upon his head, &c. CHAP. CHAP. V. Tamar is ravished, and inhumanly treated, by her own Brother. That Rape is revenged by his Death. Abfalom, who flew him, flies to Gefhur. Nathan's prophecies further fulfilled. WH HEN David had taken Rabbah, and all the other cities of Ammon, and punished all the unsubmitting miscreants which he found in them, as they deserved; he returned, with all his people, to Jerufalem ; but had not been long there, before another part of Nathan's prophecy, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, began to be sadly fulfilled upon him. ABSALO M, the son of David by Maacah the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur, had a fister by the fame mother, of fuch fingular beauty, that Amnon, another fon of David's (the first-born of his family) by Ahinoam the Jezreelitefs, fell deeply in love with her; and being confcious, that his paffion was was very criminal, he concealed it for fome time, but at the expence of his health and happiness; racked by the violence of a strong defire, and the terror of indulging it. Amnon, faith the facred writer, (2 Sam. xiii. 2.) was fo vexed, that he fell fick for his fifter Tamar; for he was a virgin, and Amnon thought it hard for him to do any thing to her. It is natural to think, that this paffion is nowhere fo wafteing and vexatious, as where it is unlawful. A quick fenfe of guilt (efpecially where it is enormous, as in the instance before us) ftrikes the foul with horror; and the impoffibility of an innocent gratification, loads that horror with defperation. A conflict too cruel, and too dreadful, for human bearing! Witness the two moft remarkable inftances of it, found in hiftory; that of Antiochus, for Stratonice his mother-in-law; and this of Amnon, for Tamar his fifter. Indeed that of Antiochus appears the lefs criminal of the two; inafmuch as he seemed determined to conceal his, to death *; and at the fame time to haften that death, to prevent its publication, had not the fagacity of Erafiftratus, his phyfician, difcovered it. *Plutarch, in the life of Demetrius. Altho |