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If the Lord

express it by) Wherefore doth my Lord thus purfue after bis fervant? For what have I done? or what evil is in my hand? Now therefore, I pray thee, let my lord the king hear the words of his fervant. bath ftirred thee up against me, let him accept an offering; i. e. if God hath excited you against me, on the score of any guilt for which I deserve to die; behold, here I am, ready to be facrificed in atonement for it: but if they be the children of men, curfed be they before the Lord; for they have driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord, faying, Go ferve other gods*. Now therefore let not my blood fall to the earth before the face of the Lord: for the king of Ifrael is come out to feek a flea, as when one doth bunt a partridge in the mountains.

THIS reasoning, this duty, this fubmiffion not only foftened, but even humbled the haughty and obdurate heart of Saul; humbled it, if not into a thorough penitent

* Driving a man among idolaters, was, in effect, forcing him to become an idolater; and a man's forcing another to be fo, was as criminal, as if he were himself an idolater. It is very remarkable, that David here laments no present lofs, or exclufion from juft right, other than that of being thut out from the divine ordinances, and forced among the worshippers of idols.

con

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confeffion, yet, at least, into an open ac→ knowledgment of guilt and folly I have finned (fays he): return, my fon David for I will no more do thee harm, because my foul was precious in thine eyes this day: behold, I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly.

UPON which David defired, he would please to order one of his fervants to come to him, and take back the king's fpear; and then added this folemn prayer and appeal to GOD: The Lord render to every man his righteoufness, and his faithfulness: for the Lord delivered thee into my hand to day; but I would not stretch forth mine hand against the Lord's anointed. And behold, as thy life was much fet by this day in mine eyes; fo let my life be much fet by in the eyes of the Lord, and let him deliver me out of all tribulation.

AFTER which, Saul concluded with this kind and prophetick farewel: Blessed be thou, my fon David: thou jhalt both do great things, and alfo fhalt ftill prevail.

So David went on his way, and Saul returned to his place.

CHAP.

CHAP. XX.

Mr. Bayle's Objections to this part of the Sacred Hiftory confidered.

T

HE reader, who hath been converfant in fome late fashionable writings, will not, I believe, be furprized to find this part of the Sacred History variously objected to; nor will he, I hope, be displeased to see those objections confuted and caft down in their full strength.

IN the first place, it is objected, That David was at too great a distance for this conversation, which is faid to have followed after the taking away of Saul's fpear; for the text exprefly fays, that when he began it, he ftood upon the top of an hill, afar off.

I ANSWER, Ist, That this expreffion, afar off, may admit of two very plain, and yet very different fenfes. Saul now stood on the top of one hill, and David on the top of another contiguous to it; the distance, then, from Saul to David, reckoning the defcent of one hill and the afcent of the other, might really be confiderable, especially in

a coun

a country where the hills are high, steep, and precipitous, and both the descent and afcent winding and difficult, which is the cafe of Judea; and yet the real distance in a right line between those fummits very inconfiderable. And this I take to have been the cafe. David therefore might at the fame time be near enough to Saul to hear, and to be heard by him; and yet, with regard to the distance and danger of a pursuit from him, really afar off.

I ANSWER, 2dly, That this converfation, as appears from the tenor of the relation, was held in the calm and filence of the morning; at which time it is almost incredible to say at what distance the human voice may be heard with clearness and diftinction, especially in a clear, elastick air, such as that of Judea : and it is beyond all doubt, that men have often heard even the crowing of a cock at a much greater distance than is neceffary to be supposed in this conference. And yet many of these founds united are not equal to the force of one human voice exerted in all its articulate ftrength.

THE intelligent reader will, I am fure, gladly fave me the trouble of a fuller confu

tation.

THE

THE next objection is of more weight, as it comes from a man of allowed learning and parts, I mean Mr. Bayle. But, perhaps, it may lose some of its weight, when the reader fhall please to confider, that it comes from a great broacher of paradoxes, an industrious diffenter from men of learning, and a known patron of all the errors that ever obtained in the world from its foundation; a a defender even of contrary and contradictory errors. However, let his reafons, not his authority, be weigh'd in this dispute.

His main objection is, That these accounts of Saul's danger, and David's generofity, in the cave, and in the camp, are in reality but two different relations of one and the fame tranfaction. And his reafons for believing

fo are as follow:

ift, BECAUSE the Scriptures make no reflexions, in the fecond relation, upon this repeated ingratitude of Saul, in perfecuting David, after he had before given him his life. And,

2dly, BECAUSE the fpeeches on the second occafion are pretty near the same with thofe on the first.

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