Homepage
Login
Profile
BookClubs
dmBox
Read Ebook: The Life of David; Or The History of the Man After God's Own Heart by Anonymous
Font size:
Background color:
Text color:
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page
Ebook has 131 lines and 23617 words, and 3 pages
Unhappy man! destined for ever to be the dupe of his own credulity, in opposition to the testimony of his experience, and the evidence of his senses. Does not the history of all ages show, that the most religious nations have always been, and still are, the most vicious and immoral!
Another most formidable evil necessarily results from such a system of superstition, that is, a state of civil slavery, which is always found its universal concomitant. Whenever the human mind is debased and degraded by a system of gross superstition, it becomes incapable of any one manly, liberal, or independent sentiment; every energy of the mind is lost, reason is surrendered, virtue, the chief support, if not the sole foundation of freedom, is banished, and man is fitted to receive the abject yoke of slavery; tyranny and despotism make an easy conquest of him, and the priest is ever ready to rivet his chains, and perpetuate his bondage, by the pretended sanction of Heaven. The power and influence of the priest and the tyrant is ever in proportion to the debasement of man; they have a common interest, have ever made a common cause against him, and have constantly erected their common throne on the ruins of his freedom, his welfare, and his happiness.
Let us not, therefore, be deterred from unmasking to the view of mankind that immense mass of vice and depravity which constitute the foundation of the Jewish superstition; let no blind veneration for that hideous idol deter us from exposing its deformity; let us cultivate that which is truly good and useful; let reason assume her just empire over the mind of man, and credulity, ignorance, and folly, abdicate their usurped dominion: then shall we soon behold the galling fetters of vice and superstition broken by the irresistible power of virtue, morality, and truth.
THE LIFE OF DAVID.
Ver 7, compared with chap. ix.
Chap. x. 1.
"In Destiny's dark counsel?, Who sage opinions of the moon sells; To whom all people, far and near, On deep importances repair. When brass or pewter hap to stray, Or linen slinks out of the way; When geese and pullen are seduc'd, And sows of sucking pigs are chous'd: When cattle feel indisposition, And need th' opinion of physician; When murrain reigns in hogs or sheep, And chickens languish of the pip; When yeast and outward means do fail, And have no power to work on ale; When butter does refuse to come. And love proves cross and humoursome; To him with questions and with urine, They for discov'ry flock, or curing.
After Samuel had in private anointed Saul king, and told him his asses were already found, he dismissed him for the present. He then assembled the people for the election of a king: at which assembly, behold, the lot fell on the tribe of Benjamin; and in that, on the family of Matri; and finally, on Saul, the son of Kish. An election somewhat resembling consistories for the appointment of bishops; where the person being previously fixed on, God is solemnly prayed to for a direction of their choice.
Ch. x. 1.
Ch. x. 20, 21.
It is not intended here to give a detail of the reign of king Saul; the notice hitherto taken of him being merely because the life of David could not be properly introduced without mentioning the alteration of government, and the manner in which monarchy was established in Israel: since Samuel's disappointment in Saul, naturally leads to his similar choice of David.
Ver. 33., Ch. xvi. 13.
We now come to the hero of the history.
In the Philistine army was a man of extraordinary size, named Goliah, who came out of their camp, day by day, challenging and defying any one among the Hebrews to single combat, and to rest the decision of their quarrel upon the event; an offer which no one among the Israelites was hitherto found hardy enough to accept.
Ch. xvii. 15.
Ch. xvii. 17.
Ch. xviii. 10.
Ch. xvii. 4, &c.
Here we meet with another stumbling-block. For, though Saul, as has already been observed, had sent to Jesse expressly for his son David; though David had played to him on the harp; though Saul had again sent to Jesse, to desire that David might be permitted to stay with him; and in consequence of this had given him a military appointment about his person; though he had now a fresh conference with him; had just placed his own suit of armour on him; and though all the occurrences must have happened within a small space of time, yet his memory is made so to fail him on a sudden, that he knew nothing either of David, or his parentage! but while David went to meet the giant, he enquired of others, who proved as ignorant as himself, whose son the stripling was? This stumbling-block must likewise be stepped over, for it is not removeable.
Ver. 55., Ch. xviii. 3.
Saul, upon reflection, concluding it dangerous to execute any open act of violence against this young hero, politically hoped to ensnare him, by exalting him high in favour, or to get rid of him by putting him upon his mettle, in performing feats of valour; for a deficiency of valour is not to be numbered among David's faults. It was with this view that the king yet required of him an hundred Philistine foreskins as the condition of becoming his son-in-law. He produced double the number "in full tale."
Ver. 17.
Ver. 10.
Ver. 23., Ver. 25. .
This demand, after David appeals to have fulfilled the prescribed conditions, seems not only unjust, but also, even making allowance for Hebrew customs, very ridiculously expressed. It must have been a glorious sight to have seen David bring the foreskins to king Saul, strung perhaps on a piece of pack-thread, and dangling in his hand, or thrown across his shoulders like a sash: and if Miss Michal was present, how must her pretty little heart exult when the required number being told off, as many more were gallantly presented at her feet!
Ver. 18.
Ver. 20.
Ver. 23.
Ver. 7, 8, 9.
"Ye gods! what havoc does ambition make Among your works!"
During this time, David rescued the city of Keilah from the Philistines, who were besieging it, hoping to make it a garrison for himself.
We next find our young adventurer acting the chief character in a tragi-comedy, which will farther display his title to the appellation of being a Man after God's own heart.
Ver. 13, 14-22.
We are now told another story extremely resembling that of the cave of En-gedi. Saul again pursues David with three thousand chosen men; again fell into his hands during his sleep; only that here David stole upon him in his own camp; he ran away with the king's spear and bottle of water, and Saul went back again as wise as he came.
Ver. 39.
Ch. xxvi.
The opinion of Mons. Bayle seems most probable concerning this adventure, who looks upon it but as another detail of the former affair at En-gedi; and that for very good reasons. For, upon a comparison of both, as laid down in the 23d, 24th, and 26th chapters of 1 Samuel, we may remark,
These reasons prove, beyond doubt, that we are furnished with two relations of the same adventure. To account for the double record, and their variations, must be left to commentators, connectors, and harmonizers, who are used to compromise affairs of this nature.
The Philistines at this time collected their forces together, to attack the Israelites. To which service Achish summoned David, and met with a cheerful compliance.
Josephus.
Ver. 12.
Ch. xxviii. 1.
Ver. 17.
We shall now have an opportunity to observe the conduct of our hero in a regal capacity. The death of Saul facilitated his advancement to a sovereignty, to which he had no pretension, either by the right of inheritance, which was claimed by Ish-bosheth, a remaining son of Saul; nor by popular election, which Saul himself had the shew of; but by the clandestine appointment of an old prophet; which inspired him with hopes, of which, by arms and intrigue, he at length enjoyed the fruition.
David had returned to Ziklag but two days, when on the third, there came to him an Amalekite, who officiously informed him of the event of the battle between the Israelites and Philistines. He owned himself to be the person who killed Saul, after his defeat, at his own request: he being already wounded.
Who can help smiling at the relation of David's tearing his clothes off his back, and bursting into a sorrowful lamentation for the death of a man, to whose destruction he had so freely offered to lend assistance but just before?
There he got his partizans to anoint him king over Judah; at the same time that Abner, Saul's general, had, at Mahanaim, made Ishbosheth,
Ver. 12.
Ver. 13.
Upon the murder of Abner, David again acts the mourner; which has a greater probability of being sincere now, than when he grieved for the unhappy Saul; because the false Abner was preparing to do him essential service, by betraying his master's cause.
Ver. 20.
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page