for the king's fervice, and what it would be treafonable to decline.

THE answer was juft and true, and Sanl knew it to be fo; but, however, it was expedient, (as Saul's circumftances then flood) that there fhould be a plot. A plot, defeated at a dangerous juncture, is a new confirmation of power! perhaps too it was expedient, that a priest should be in it, or, it may be, the whole order, that the whole order fhould be humbled; whofe endowments might be dreaded, and poffeffions envied, and whofe forfeitures might turn to good account; and therefore, without any more trial, or eviction, Ahimelech and all his brethren are configned to the fword. A fatality which hath, from that day to this, attended the priests of GOD, to be all involved, more or lefs, however innocent, in the guilt (whether real or imputed) of every one of their order.

WHETHER Saul learnt this cruelty from the Perfians, of punishing every one of the family for the fuppofed guilt of one, or taught it to them, I cannot fay. This only we know, that the practice was no way authorized or countenanced by the Jewish conftitution or policy, as it was by the Perfian, and as it is at this day by that of Japan.

BUT Saul's cruelty did not ftop here. Not content to extirpate all the priests of Nob at once, (one only excepted, who efcaped we know not how) he finote the whole city with the edge of the fword, both men and women, (faith the text) children and fucklings, and oxen, and affes,

affes, and sheep, with the edge of the fword. And I doubt not but one reafon of this indifcriminate cruelty was, that not one of the pricfts Thould efcape.

THIS man, who was, fome time before, fo delicate in point of piety, as to decline extirpating the finners the Amalekites, and deftroying their cattle, even at the express command of GOD, without referving fomething for facrifice, now made thorough deftruction; nor could less than an intire carnage content him. He that before fpared the murderous Agag, the enemy of GoD, now massacres the innocent Ahimelech, and the reft of his priests, without remorfe! And when his men of war refufed to be employed in fo base a butchery *, Doeg, his informer, (taking to him, fays Jofephus, fome affiftants as wicked as himself) became his executioner.

KINGS, fays the learned Dr. Patrick, never want fome to execute their commands, though never fo bloody. Saul was little better than a madman, and yet had thofe at his beck that I would do as he bid them. It was excellently therefore faid by Justin Martyr, Let us pray, that kings and rulers, together with a royal power, may be found having a fiber mind.

In this (fays Le Clerc) doubtlefs they were praifeworthy; but had been more fo, had they diffuaded and remonstrated against this cruelty, as contrary to all the laws of God and man! And if their reafons and prayers proved ineffectual, they should have treated this command as the dictate of Saul's melancholy, and removed these innocent men out of his way, until he came to himself; and not left their fellow-fubjects a prey to these alien guards, the ufual minifters of tyranny.

I 2

AND

AND here I cannot but obferve, that Saul feems to me to have treated the word priest, on this occafion, as if it had been a term of reproach; for, when he commands them to be massacred, his expreflion is, -Turn and flay the priest of the Lord. And, again; when the foldiers refufed the butchery, Turn thou (fays he to Doeg) and fall upon the priests. Whereas, had he fhewn the leaft reverence to their character, I think he should have chofen rather to have mark'd them by their guilt, than by their function; and fpoken of them on this occafion, under any other appellation, such as that of enemies, traitors, &c. But, poflibly, it was the fashion of the times, to treat the moft venerable name among men with contempt, or he had a mind to have it fo. Whether this be a furer mark of great impiety, or great politeness, the reader will beft judge for himself; as he will beft learn from the hiftory of the world, how far men of this turn (fcoffers of facred things and characters) have been remarkably bleffed or curfed in themfelves and their pofterity. Even kings would do well to remember, that whatever rightful power they may have over priests, as their fubjects, GOD, whofe pricfts they are, hath yet more over

them.

Regum timendorum in proprios greges,
Reges in ipfos imperium eft Jovis.

Kings claim obedience from the flocks they rule;
But Jove's dominion fways the fceptred king.

Two

Two ends Saul attained by this massacre: first, that he weakened the power of the priests, whom he had made his enemies, by flaying fuch a number of them, and ftripping the order of their poffeffions; and, fecondly, that he strengthen'd the hands of his own family, and confirmed the faith of his tribe, then doubtful, by conferring thofe poffeflions upon them: for there seems to be no other reason, befides that already mentioned, why all the inhabitants of the city were deftroyed, but that their poffeffions might be made a prey; unless it were, that his enmity againft GOD, for depriving him of his kingdom, carried him not only to deftroy his pricfts, but alfo the Nethinims and Gibeonites, (if thefe were different orders of men) that fo the tabernacle of God, then at Nob, might be utterly deftitute of all kind of attendance! And this beft accounts for what Jofephus tells us, that Doeg, taking fome men as wicked as himself to his affiftance, flew three hundred and eighty-five perfons.

I SHALL conclude this point with one short obfervation, which hath fcarce efcaped any of the

commentators:

HERE we have a remarkable inftance of GOD's turning the worst devices of the wicked to the purposes of his Providence! Eli had grievously offended GOD; because his fons made themfelves vile, and he restrained them not. For this reafon, GOD denounced his vengeance against his race; and declared, that they fhould be cut off by a sudden and furprising deftruction in one day, (1 Sam. chap. ii. iii.)

and the priesthood transferred to another family. And now the former part of the denunciation was fulfilled, by Saul's unparallel'd cruelty; and the latter, in a way which belongs not to this hiflory to explain.

CHA P. XIV.

The Siege of Keilah raised by David, and the Philiftines defeated. What Return the Men of Keilah intended to make bim for this Benefaction.

THE

HE perfon mentioned in the last chapter to have efcaped from the flaughter of the priests, is Abiathar the son of Akimelech. The moft probable account of this escape, is thus; That, being left to keep the fanctuary, whilst his father, and the rest of the priests, went to wait upon Saul, (for it was not to be imagined, that the tabernacle was left wholly unattended by any one of the order at that time) he, upon the first notice of their deftruction, made his escape; and, having no other recourse, fled to David for protection, to whom he related the deftruction of the LORD's priests.

DAVID received him, as he was bound to do the fon of his benefactor and friend; of whofe deftruction, and that of his whole houfe, he had been the unhappy occafion: And David