Dangers, at the Hazard of their Lives, in Expectation that the Almighty is to refcue them from them. But this, I must inform them, is a particular Inftance, and not to be made a general Example of. Besides, David here had just Reason to expofe himfelf in the Manner he did, because he was thereby to convince an inveterate Enemy, how cruelly and unjustly he behaved towards him, in thus pursuing after him. But for People to run themfelves into Dangers, without any just Cause or Reason, and then expect God fhould rescue them from them, is tempting the Almighty, instead of placing a religious Confidence in Him. Now the Chriftian Religion forbids us to tempt the Lord our God; if therefore, after fuch a Prohibition, we will ftill continue thus to provoke God, we must then expect to meet with the fatal Confequences of fo wicked and foolish a Conduct. But to return from this Digreffion.

As foon as David and Abifbai were come to the Place where the Army lay, they perceived Saul was afleep within his Tent, and Abner and the Soldiers in the fame Condit tion about him. Abishai, who appears to have had a great Value and Refpect for David, and was therefore enraged againft Saul on Account of his unworthy Behaviour to wards him, was eager to dispatch him, and thereby free him from any farther Care and Danger.

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Danger. This Day, fays he, bath God deli vered thine Enemy into thy Hand. Now therefore let me finite him, I pray thee, with the Spear, even to the Earth at once; and I will not Smite him a fecond Time. But David's Piety and Duty were as ftrong as before, influenced by their Motives, he would by no Means confent to an Action his Confcience could not justify to him and he was fenfible his permitting another to do it, when it was in his Power to prevent him, was the fame as if he had done it himself. He therefore, with great Piety, and as became a Servant of the most High, laid his Injunc◄ tions upon Abishai, to destroy him not; faying, Who can stretch forth his Hand against the Lord's anointed, and be guiltless? As the Lord lives, the Lord fhall fmite him, or his Day fhall come to die, or be fhall defcend into Battle and perifh. The Lord forbid that I fhould firetch forth my Hand against the Lord's anointed. If fuch an Inftance of Piety, and I may call it too, Chriftian Moderation, had been recorded, as I before remarked, by any profane Hiftorian, how highly would it have been extolled? The Compaffion and Generolity which Alexander fhew to the Fa mily of Darius, have ever been fpoke of with its juft Commendation: And the Chaftity of Scipio, when he refigned the beautiful Captive to her faithful Lover Indibilis and the modeft and generous Behaviour of

Edward

Edward the Black Prince, after the Battle of Poitiers, towards John King of France, whom he had taken Prifoner; have always been esteemed to reflect greater Honour upon those illuftrious Heroes, than their Bravery and Conduct in the Day of Battle. Yet but one of these Inftances, viz. that of the Roman General's Continency and Moderation, is to be compared with the pious and loyal Refolution of the Jewish Patriarch, in the Cafe before us. But notwithstanding this, our modern, Biographer paints him as a Ruffian, Traitor, Rebel and Murderer. I will appeal to any unprejudiced Breast, whether any Man, unless one of the fame Difpofition with which he defcribes David to be of, could thus pervert the Senfe of Things, and run counter to all Truth, in order to fhew his Malice against Revelation and the Religion of his Country. But not content with detracting from the Merit of David's Actions, he endeavours to deny one of thefe Tranfactions, and boldly afferts, without being able to produce any Proof of it, that this Discovery of Saul by David, recorded in the 26th Chapter, is the fame with that mentioned in the 24th. But if we examine into the Particulars of thefe two Stories, we fhall perceive fo great a Difference between them, that one would wonder how any Man could attempt to impofe upon his Countrymen fo abfurd and

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flagrant

flagrant a Falfity. I fuppofe he imagined every Body blind but himself, or perhaps vainly thought (for he appears to have no fmall Share of that) that People would pay a greater Regard to his Animadverfions upon the facred Writings, than they do to the facred Records themselves. But whatever the Vanity of this Writer might induce him to think, I hope and believe there are many honest and worthy Perfons, who will be wife enough not to take Things wholly upon the Credit of what he fays, without firft examining the Grounds upon which he proceeds. This Manner of acting, he, who pretends to be a great Friend to Perfons having the Liberty of examining the Truth of the Doctrines they are required to believe, before they embrace them, will by no Means be against any one's taking. We will therefore, without any further Apology, examine the Particulars of these two Chapters, as they are fet down by the divine Hiftorian and, I make no Doubt, we fhall be able to fhew that the Facts recorded in each of them are different.

And firft, in the 24th Chapter, the Hif torian informs us, that Saul laid himself down to fleep in a Cave at Engedi. In the 26th, that he pitched in the Hill of Hachilah, in the Wilderness of Ziph. In the former it is faid, that David cut off Saul's Skirt ; in the latter there is no Mention of that: But we

are

are informed, that he ordered Abishai to take away the Spear that was at his Bolfter, and the Crufe of Water. In the former, Saul enlarges upon David's Generofity, and intreats him to extend it to his Family after his Death: In the latter, he only acknow ledges the Injuftice and Cruelty of his Be haviour towards David; promifes that he will no more purfue him (which Promise, we find, he afterwards kept) and invites him to Court again, of which there was not the least Mention in the former Cafe. There are many other Particulars in which these two Cafes differ; but thefe, I have mentioned, are fufficient to shew how little Regard to Truth that Author must have, who could think of impofing fuch a Story upon the Public: Or at leaft it is a Demon4 ftration, that he talked at Random, and proves that he was wholly unacquainted with the History from whence he quoted his Facts; in which Cafe, how well quali fied he was to become either a faithful Hiftorian, or an impartial Biographer, I shall leave to the candid Reader to determine. How black then must his Heart be, who could take a Pleasure in defaming fo facred a Character; and rather than not render it as odious as poffible, was determined either to mifreprefent Facts from what they really were, or elfe invent Falfities, in order to make it appear as vile as he could? But

not