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and let not the pit but her mouth upon

me.

16. Hear me, O Lord; for thy loving kindness is good turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.

17. And hide not thy face from thy fervant, for I am in trouble: hear me speedily. 18. Draw nigh unto my foul, and redeem it: deliver me, because of mine enemies.

19. Thou hast known my reproach, and my fhame, and my dishonour: mine adverfaries are all before me.

20. Reproach hath broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. And I looked for fome to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.

LET any ingenuous man, who feels for virtue, and is not feared to fhame, put the queftion to himself: I appeal to his own heart, whether he would not infinitely rather die, than endure the ftate now described ; one day forfaken by his friends, fcorned by his enemies, infulted by his inferiors; the fcoff of libertines, and the fong of fots? What then must we think of the fortitude and magnanimity of that man, who could endure all this, for a series of years? Or ra

ther,

ther, how shall we adore that unfailing mercy, and all-fufficient goodness, which could fupport him thus, under the quickest fense of shame and infamy, and deepest compunctions of conscience; which could enable him to bear up fteadily against guilt, infamy, and the evil world united; from a principle of true religion! And in the end, even rejoice in his fad estate; as he plainly perceived, it must finally tend to promote the true intereft of virtue, and glory of GOD; that is, muft finally tend to promote that interest, which was the great governing principle, and main purpose, of his life !

VOL. III.

A

CHAP.

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CHA P. III.

Some Account of Nathan the Prophet. The Child born of Bathsheba fickens. David fafts, and humbles himself before God in his behalf; but to no purpose. The Child dies. David's remarkable Refignation to the Will of GOD. Solomon is born, and blessed.

T

HAT very curious and exquifite para

ble of Nathan's, recounted in the laft chapter, which placed David's guilt in fo clear a light, and at the same time so hid it from himself, as to extort his own sentence of condemnation, from his own mouth; at once fo well concealed the criminal, and inflamed the crime, as to irritate the king's refentment beyond all the bounds of juftice*. The author of fo masterly a parable naturally awakens the reader's curiofity, to learn some

* By the law of Go, the fheep-thief fhould, at moft, but reftore four-fold, Exod. xxii. 1. If a man shall Steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or fell it; he shall reftore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.

thing of fo extraordinary a perfon. But before I proceed to that head, it will be proper to obferve to the reader, that there is one difficulty in Nathan's charge against David, which none of the commentators have cleared. It is this: It seems to be made a part of David's accufation, That he married Bathsheba Thou haft killed Uriah the Hittite with the fword, AND HAST TAKEN HIS WIFE TO BE THY WIFE. Now, I own, I can fee no guilt in this, other than that of multiplying wives, which the kings of Ifrael were exprefly forbidden to do, Deut. xvii. 17. inasmuch as no law of GoD, or nature, prohibit such a marriage, any otherwife than as they prohibit polygamy. Unless the prophet means, that he murdered Uriah in order to make Bathsheba his wife; which must be owned to be a very crying guilt.

THERE is therefore, I prefume, no room for any other cenfure upon this part of David's conduct. He had injured (as I apprehend) an innocent, and a very valuable woman and the only reparation in his power, and proof of his esteem, was, to make her his wife.

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But, alas! this reparation
either to Uriah or his

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family, or the righteous Arbiter of the earth; or the reproach brought upon the true religion, by this infamous behaviour, in a prince who was the great example, teacher, and guardian of it.

BUT to return to Nathan :

WE learn little more of this great man, in the facred writings, than that he was David's prophet, intimate counsellor, and historiographer and the knowledge of him in this laft character, muft raise the reader's esteem of his modesty to the highest degree: inafmuch as he hath been very careful not to make himself his theme; nor fo much as to mention his own name, where it could be avoided with justice to his hiftory. Jofephus says of him, that he was a polite and a prudent man: one who knew how to temper the severity of wisdom with sweetness of manners. And Grotius compares him to Manius Lepidus: of whom Tacitus fays, That he found him to be a grave and wife man, in those times; who had a talent of turning away the emperor's mind from those cruel purposes, to which the vile flattery of others inclined him; and was, at the fame time, in equal favour and authority with Tiberius.

HE

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