now refolved to exterminate them from the Face of the Earth. By this Inftance of divine Mercy towards an abandoned People, we are furnished with two excellent Leffons of Morality: First, Never to suffer our Refentment against any who may have injured and offended us, to tranfport us fo far. beyond the Bounds of Reafon and Moderation, as immediately to execute our Vengeance on them; but rather, thro' our Forbearance, afford them an Opportunity of making us fomé Amends; and in cafe they do, to forgive them, and for the future live in Friendship with them. Secondly, We are hereby inftructed to amend our Lives, and by our Repentance avert the Judgments of God; being from hence af fured, that if, notwithstanding the Prohibitions and Threatnings we may have received, we fhall ftill continue abandoned, that tho' he may for fome Time fufpend our Punishment, yet he will certainly execute his Vengeance upon us at the last.

This Command of extirpating this abandoned People was given to Saul, as God's Vicegerent in inflicting the divine Punishment. He therefore could not but be fenfible that he was to execute the divine Purpofe according to the full Letter of it; and in cafe of his Difobedience, he should draw down the Displeasure of his God againft him. But that, it feems, had not fo great

Weight

Weight with him, as a Fear of incurring the Displeasure of his People, if he should: thwart their Wills and Inclinations. Contrary therefore to all Senfe of Duty, and in a direct Oppofition to a pofitive Command just before given him by God, he complies with their Humour, and fpared not only Agag, but preferved likewise the best of the Spoil, but what was vile and refuse, that they utterly destroyed. The Sin then that Saul was hereby guilty of, was an Offence of a moft capital Nature, viz. the fparing an Enemy, and the Prey of an Enemy, that God, as King of Ifrael, had exprefly commanded him to deftroy. His Crime then, confidered in this Light, appears to be what the Prophet exprefly called it, Rebellion, and Stubbornnefs. The Sentence therefore which Samuel pronounced on him by a Command from God, must be allowed to be truly juft and equitable: Because thou haft rejected the Word of the Lord, He hath also rejected thee from being King. For tho' Saul in a ftrict Senfe could not be exprefly chargeable with the Crimes the Amalekites were guilty of; yet his obstinate Difobedience to the divine Command, made him deferving of the fame Punishment, which he should have inflicted on those Idolaters.

Moreover, from this Inftance of Difobedience, and that other he had not long before

fore been guilty of, he discovered a Refractoriness of Difpofition, and no Defire: of complying with the divine Institutions: of the Jewish Religion. A Temper which rendered him as wholly unfit for the Government of Ifrael, as a Prince of the Ro mifo Perfuafion would be to govern in England. Thefe Confiderations therefore, I fhould hope, will fully justify his being rejected by God, and the Confequence thereof; the Government being tranflated from his Family to another, after his Death. Indeed it is faid, that he repented; but from the whole of his future Conduct, it appears, that his Repentance proceeded rather on Account of his Rejection from the Throne of Ifrael, than from any juft and proper Concern he was under for the Crime which he had been guilty of. And therefore, like Efau, he found no Place for Repentance, though he fought it carefully with Tears, This Inftance then fhould make us careful to be fincere in the Sorrow we express for our Sins, which fhould confift in a Hatred of them, as they are displeasing in the Sight of God, and not wholly on Account of the fatal Confequences that may attend them with regard to ourselves.

The Almighty having rejected Saul from being King, or his Vicegerent over Ifrael, on Account of the Rebellion he had been guilty of, in difaheying the divine Com

mand

mand given him by the Prophet, orders Sa muel not any longer to mourn for him, he being filled with Sorrow for the Crime his Sovereign had been guilty of, but that he fhould fill his Horn with Qil, and go to the House of Jeffe the Bethlehemite; for, fays he, I have provided me a King among his Sons. This Commiffion appeared to the Prophet to be attended with great Hazard and Danger, being fenfible, that all the Concern Saul had exprefled for the Crime he had committed, proceeded more from a Fear of his lofing the Crown, than a Senfe of the Guilt he had incurred in what he had done; and he was moreover perfuaded from the Difpofition he had often observed in him, which was naturally impetuous, cruel and vindictive, that he would affuredly revenge himself on the Perfon who fhould attempt to transfer the regal Power from him to any other. These his Appre henfions appeared to him to be fo well grounded, that in his Anfwer to the Almighty, he faid, How can I go? if Saul hear it, he will kill me. The Almighty therefore, that his Servant might efcape the Danger that threatened him, ordered him to conceal his real Purpose and Design in coming to Bethlehem, where Jeffe lived, by taking with him an Heifer, and faying he came to facrifice unto the Lord. For it was customary at that Time that the Pro

phet

phet fhould offer Sacrifices, fometimes in one Place, and fometimes in another, in order to preserve and keep up amongst that People, who were naturally fo very prone to Idolatry, the Belief and Worship of the one living and true God.

But before I proceed any further in this Narrative, I beg leave firft to remove an Objection which Infidels have raised concerning this Order of God to his Prophet, which is this: That God commiffioned Samuel to make use of an Untruth in order to deceive his Sovereign, that he might, with more Eafe and Safety, be guilty of Rebellion against him. But here, let me afk them, of what Untruth was Samuel guilty? Did he not then offer Sacrifice? If we read, we shall find that he fanctified fee and his Sons, and called them to the Sacrifice. Here therefore was no Untruth, nor any Appearance of any. And as to the other Commiffion which God had given him, he had no Business or Authority to mention it, till the Time came that he was to put it in Execution. Befides, this was no more than what common Prudence advised him to; and I know of no divine Command that forbids fuch a Proceeding. For where two Ends are propofed in any particular Commiffion, a Person may without any Viòlation of Truth declare the one, and conceal the other. As to the other Part of the

Charge