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most folemn, and powerful affembly, that fat in judgment in any state! made up 'the princes and rulers of every tribe. Among whom, a man of Uriah's alliance and confequence must have many friends; altho' justice should otherwise fail to have its due weight.

THE Talmudifts extend the jurisdiction of this council, even over kings. I know they are generally disbelieved in this point; but I fincerely own, I know not for what reason, especially when it appears from chap. xxxviii. ver. 5. of Jeremiah, that the princes had a power which the king could not controul.

NAY, altho' it should be imagined, that the Sanhedrim did not then fubfift, I think there is fome reafon to believe, that the very priesthood could bring both David and Bathsheba to public justice upon this occafion. This we know, that they were able to put the law of leprofy in execution upon Uzziah, one of the greatest princes of his descent; in the very height and pride of his glory (2 Chron. xxvi. 20, 21.); for altho' he had then an army of four hundred thou

*He was married to the daughter of Ammiel the son of Achitophel.

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fand valiant men under his command, they thrust him out of the temple, and shut him

up in a several-bouse, to the day of his death.

*

THIS then I take to be beyond all doubt the truth of David's cafe. He had committed one great crime; and he was under a kind of neceffity of protecting that, by committing a greater. He could not bear to see the innocent woman he had injured, brought to public infamy; and he could not screen her from it, but by the death of her innocent husband. And thus adultery begat murder. Uriah was fent for the next morning, and charged with dispatches to the general, which contained his own deathwarrant +.

It is melancholy to obferve, that whilft we are toffed upon the waves of this world, the boisterous waves of paffion and appetite,

* In the general the rule of duty is obvious. A man fhould die rather than commit fin; but I cannot take upon me to fay, that there is no poffible exception to this rule I cannot pronounce it impoffible, that one fin may draw men into dilemma's of greater.

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+ Some have imagined, that Uriah forbore going to his own house, from a fufpicion of the king's commerce with his wife. Had this been the cafe, he had certainly examined the dispatches fent by him to Joab.

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the very best men are but too much in the condition of St. Peter in the fea; they walk one step upright, and sink the next. And finking one step, if the hand of mercy be not reached out to rescue them, they must fink deeper. David but this moment sadly repented of one great guilt, and is now upon of perpetrating a greater.

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THE reader will, I believe, be better fatisfied, to take the account of this matter, from the facred hiftorian's own words, 2 Sam. xi. 14, 15, 16, and 17 verses. I can throw no light upon the text by varying them, and GOD forbid I fhould wish to obfcure it. He tells us, that in the morning it came to pass, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and fent it by the hand of Uriah. And he wrote in the letter, faying, Set ye Uriah in the fore-front of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be fmitten, and die. And it came to pass, when Joab obferved the city, that he affigned Uriah unto a place where he knew that valiant men were. And the men of the city went out, and fought with Joab: and there fell fome of the people of David, and Uriah the

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of the fervants Hittite died

URIAH'S

URIAH's known bravery made it easily apprehended, that he would be foremost in danger: and of confequence, being deserted in it, he must die.

THUS fell this brave man; a facrifice to his own heroic vertue, and his prince's guilt. He fell, but not alone; fome of his brave companions in arms* ftood by him to the laft, nor deferted him in death.

WHEN this black and horrid deed was perpetrated, a messenger was immediately dispatched, to carry the news to David; altho' under colour of informing him of the state of the war in general, and the ill fuccess of the last attack. And the meffenger was particularly inftructed, that if he found the king's wrath rife to a high degree, on account of the rashness of their attempt, and too near approach to the city walls, he fhould then add, that Uriab the Hittite was dead also +.

And there fell (faith the text) of the people of the fervants of David: by which I understand some of his worthies, the companions of Uriah.

+ In the text it is, Thy fervant Uriah, &c. This expreffion is, I think, a plain proof, that David's worthies were particularly diftinguished by the name of David's fervants.

JOAB'S

JOA B's meffenger feems to have been a man of uncommon address: who judging it more adviseable, to prevent the king's anger, than to take upon him how to appease it; when he had given his majesty a general account of the army, added a relation of the late unlucky fkirmish, in the following manner; That as they were carrying on their approaches to the city, the enemy fallied upon them, and repulfed them to a confiderable diftance but were foon beaten back, and pursued to the gates of the city. That in the ardour of the purfuit, fome of the Ifraelite forces, approaching too near the walls, fuffered by the fhot of those who defended them: That some of his majesty's fervants were unhappily flain unhappily flain upon that occafion, and among the reft Uriah the Hittite.

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THE king, having all he wanted in the account of Uriah's death, bore the rest of his lofs with fufficient patience; and directed the meffenger to confole his general upon this occafion, by letting him know, that this misfortune must be numbered among the common accidents of war: that the fword made no diftinction between the hero and

the

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