fhalt make them as a firy oven, in the time of thine anger: the Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire fhall devour them. Their fruit fhalt thou deftroy from the earth, and their feed from among the children of FOR THEY INTENDED EVIL AGAINST

men.

THEE : THEY IMAGINED A MISCHIEVOUS DEVICE, WHICH THEY ARE NOT ABLE TO

PERFORM. THEREFORE halt thou fet them as a butt, &c..

AND now what was David's cruelty? It was evidently this: He inflicted thofe evils. upon the Ammonites, which they were wont to inflict upon others; and which they, at this very time, intended to have inflicted upon Ifrael. He punished the iniquity of their own cruel practices and purposes. He executed that moft equitable law of GoD upon them. And it is certain, that this alone were a fufficient juftification of his conduct, that he made them fuffer the evil they meant to do *. A law, which it were the most valuable intereft of mankind, to have equitably executed, in every fociety

* Deut. xix. 19. The law is here limited to the evil intentions of falfe witneffes, but the equity of it extends to all evil intentions whatsoever: life must go for life, eye for eye, &c.

under

under heaven! and would at once prevent more evil, and punish it in a more rational and juftifiable manner, than all the penal laws that ever were devised!

To confirm this reafoning yet further, we should remember, that the Ammonites were early initiated into all the Canaanite cruelties and therefore, when I find David retorting their own cruelties upon them, I dare no more cenfure or revile him upon this head, than his enemies dare revile the people of Agrigentum, for burning Phalaris in his own bull; or Thefeus the hero, for ftretching Procruftes beyond the dimenfions of his own bed. Even heathen cafuifts have determined, that no law could be more juft, than that which decreed the artists of cruelty to perish by their own arts. What death

then could be cruelty, to a people who could thrust out the eyes of a fubmitting, unconquered enemy? who ripped up the women with child of Gilead* ? a people who could bear the butchery of human victims to Baalpeor? What faw, what harrow, or what brick-kiln, could be punishment enough

* Amos i. 13.

to

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 false 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,
With rifing tempefts shakes a guilty land
Such as, of late, o'er pale Britannia past,
Calm and ferene, he drives the furious blast;
And, PLEAS'D th' Almighty's orders to perform,
Rides in the whirlwind, and directs the ftorm.

* Pfal. xxi. 8. Thine hand fhall find out all thine enemies: thy right-hand shall find out those that hate thee.

IF I may be indulged a conjecture, another reason (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 meannefs and bafeness 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 Jews in their power, than to cry out, Send the flaves to their brick-kilns ; and fo torture them to death. And if fo, 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 support his people under it, that David tells them, Pfalm Ixviii. ver. 13. Tho' ye bave lien among the pots, yet fhall ye be as the wings 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 now 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 fhall joy in thy ftrength, O Lord, and in thy falvation how greatly fhall 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 blessings of goodness: thou fetteft a crown of pure gold upon his bead, &c.

CHAP.