under the Tyranny of their Kings, and in that Calamity fhould implore his Affiftance, he would then be deaf to their Intreaties, and hot hearken to the Voice of their Prayer. To this Speech of the Prophet they however paid no Regard, but continued ftill obfinately to infift upon having their Request granted them; and without ftaying to hear what the Prophet had further to alledge, tumultubully cried out, Nay, but we will have a King over us, that we alfo may be like all the Nations and that our King may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our Battles. Samuel, perceiving that they paid no Regard to the Arguments he had urged against their intended Project, applied himfelf again to the divine Majefty, and declared to him the firm Refolution of the People. The Almighty feeing they would not be convinced by Reafon, ordered the Prophet to hearken unto their Voice, and fet over them a King, the Tyranny of whose Government might perhaps afterwards convince them of the Reasonableness of that Objection, the Force of which now they would not in the leaft confider. Upon this the Prophet returned to the People, and difmiffed them for the prefent to their refpective Cities, with a Promife that they fhould have a King to reign over them.

The first Monarch the Almighty appointed to reign over his chofen People,

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was

was Saul the Son of Kish, of the Tribe of Benjamin, a mighty Man of Power; who was a choice young Man and a goodly, and there was not among the Children of Ifrael a goodlier Perfon than he; from his Shoulders and upwards he was higher than any of the People *. From this Description of the divine Hiftorian, concerning Saul the first King of Ifrael, we may observe, that he has wholly confined himself to his exterior Form, without taking the least Notice of his mental Qualifications and Endowments. From this Circumstance, I think, may be drawn the following Inference: That in the Choice the divine Being made in the first Monarch for Ifrael, he regarded only bodily Accomplishments, and that for two Reasons. The first, because an exterior Form, which was graceful and comely to look at, would probably be esteemed by that People as a very recommending Accomplishment, that being one of the principal amongst the Eastern Nations, of which the Monuments of Antiquity furnish us with many Inftances. The fecond, by way of Punishment for their very great Disloyalty and Ingratitude. For the Almighty could forefee that Saul, by his Difobedience, would be a means of their incurring his Anger and Difpleasure; fince it was more than probable, that they who had already been guilty

1 Sam. ix. 2.

of

of fuch frequent and open Rebellions, would not fcruple complying with their King in any thing he should propofe to them, whether agreeable to the Law of God or not. This we shall in the Sequel find was literally fulfilled. Saul indeed, upon his first Acceffion to the Throne of Ifrael, appears to have been very diffident of himself, and to have entertained a proper Regard to the Law of his God; but he was not fo happy as to continue long in the fame Difpofition of Mind: For by the Time he had reigned two Years over Ifrael, we find him facrificing contrary to a Command given him by Samuel, whom he knew to be a Prophet of the Lord, and therefore could not but be fenfible that what he had ordered, was by divine Appointment. If he had not afterwards repeated his Difobedience, this his firft Crime might perhaps have been. excufed; but his Behaviour in the Affair of Amalek, was in fuch direct Oppofition to the Command of God, that he, from that Time, rejected him from being Captain over his People. From this Example we are inftructed, how fatal the leaft Deviation from Virtue is. People feldom grow defperately wicked all at once; but by habituating themfelves to a Course of Sin, they are at length fo entangled therein, that they are often prevailed upon to commit thofe, which at their Initiation, as it were, they would have

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trembled

trembled at the Thoughts of: How careful then ought we to be of firft giving Way to any corrupt Luft or Appetite; for after we are once engaged, we fhall find it very difficult to draw back; and our Paffions by Indulgence will in Time become fo unconquerable, that to fay, Hitherto fhalt thou. come, and no further, we fhall find as difficult to accomplish, as it would be to reftrain the foaming Waves of a raging and tempeftuous Sea. The Truth of this we fhall fee more ftrongly fulfilled, when we fhall come to confider the unhappy Affair of David with regard to Uriah the Hittite. But to return from this Digreffion.

To Perfons who are unacquainted with the divine Oeconomy under the Jewish Government, the Proceedings of the Almighty towards this first Monarch of Ifrael appear difficult to be accounted for. This indeed wholly proceeds from their not rightly comprehending the Nature of the Crime he had committed; to understand the true State of which, it will be neceffary to turn back to that Time, when the Ifraelites first came out of the Land of Egypt. The Cafe now was this: The Amalekites, hearing that the Lord had brought his People out from thence, immediately formed a Defign of oppofing their Paffage. In order to execute their Purpofe, they employed Scouts to discover their March, which, as foon as they had

done,

done, they ordered the Body of their Army to advance, and attacked them in the Rear, in order that they might affault those whofe Infirmities had obliged them to remain in that Situation. This Skirmish was foon followed by a general Engagement, in which Jofua difcomfited Amalek and his People with the Edge of the Sword; for as in this Oppofition they had made against Ifrael, they oppofed God himself, who had taken them under his Guide and Protection, they foon experienced the Truth of this Expreffion in Job ix. 4. Who hath hardened himSelf against him, and hath profpered? After the Almighty had thus given them Victory, he commanded Mofes to preferve a faithful Account of it, in order thereby that Joshua his intended Succeffor might be fenfible, that the Amalekites were by divine Preordination to be extirpated from the Face of the Earth. The Almighty indeed did not immediately inflict this Punishment upon Amalek, that he might fee whether his Forbearance would bring them to a Senfe of their Duty, or they were hardened beyond all Hopes of Amendment: He per

mitted them therefore to remain unmolested for the Space of four hundred Years; when finding them as incorrigible as ever, and being not forgetful of the unworthy Treatment they had hewn towards his People, upon their Departure out of Egypt, was B 4

now