times fallen from thewifest and best historians, upon like occafions; with whom I shall be contented, shall be proud, to be ridiculed.

IT were easy to furnish the reader with fufficient inftances: I fhall only trouble him with three, all taken from Plutarch.

BRUTUS and Caffius killed themselves with the fame fwords with which they treacherously murdered Cefar: I say, treacherously murdered; because they lay in his bofom at the same time that they meditated his death. And Calippus was ftabbed with the fame fword wherewith he ftabbed Dio.

ANOTHER Circumftance relating to this battle, is, that the Philistines gained it, as I apprehend, by the advantage of their archers. And And my reasons for thinking fo,

are thus founded:

THERE is no mention of any archer in any of the Philiftine armies or battles before this *. And in this battle, these are the perfons that preffed fo hard upon Saul: And the archers hit him, (fays the text) and he

*It was not, indeed, unknown to them; for Jonathan is celebrated for his skill and dexterity in it; and fo are fome of the worthies who reforted to David: but it seems not to have been yet brought into common use.

was fore wounded of the archers. Now, what we render wounded, the beft criticks interpret frighted which still confirms the opinion, that he killed himself through fear. It was a way of fighting for which he was not prepared, and therefore it threw him into a confternation.

IN the next place, after this battle, David had the Ifraelites taught the ufe of the bow: which, doubtlefs, he would have done much fooner, when he commanded the armies of Saul against the Philistines, had they then gained any advantage over the Ifraelites by means of thefe

weapons.

Now thefe archers were, doubless, of vast advantage to the Philistines, in their attack upon Saul's camp: 1ft, because an affault with that kind of weapon was new and furprizing; and all fuch are generally fuccessful: and, 2dly, because the arrows beat off all that defended the fences of the camp, and deftroyed them at a distance, before they could come to a close fight; which might naturally throw them into terror and confufion.

SIR Ifaac Newton tells us, that those mighty numbers of men, who aided the Philistines against Saul, in the beginning of his reign, were

the

the shepherds expulfed from Egypt by Amafis, fome of whom fled into Phenicia, and others into Arabia Petraa. Now his fon Ammon conquered Arabia: Why then may we not fairly prefume, that these archers, who now aided the Philistines, were either Arabs who fled thither from Ammon, or those Egyptians who fled before to Arabia, and learnt arching there from the natives, who are allowed the best bow-men in the world? Since the time and circumstances fuit, the conjecture will not, I believe, be thought ill-grounded. IN the last place: If this attack upon Saul's camp was encouraged, by the intelligence of Saul's having ftoln out of the camp the evening before then his applying to the Pythonefs, was the immediate cause of his deftruction. And this gives light to that paffage, 1 Chron. X. 13. and at the same time receives light from it, that Saul died for his tranfgreffion which he committed against the Lord, even against the word of the Lord, which he kept not; and also for asking one, who had a familiar spirit, to enquire.

CHAP. XXVI.

A fhort Effay upon the Character of JONATHAN.

W

HEN we meet with any perfon

in hiftory of a very extraordinary character, whose death is, as we think, untimely; and his fate, in appearance, unworthy of his virtue; instead of submitting with profound humility to the difpenfations of Providence, and revering the unfearchable ways of infinite Wisdom, we find a kind of impulse upon the mind, to enquire into the reafons of it. And if we are disappointed in our search, we are too much tempted to repinę at the divine decifions, or, it may be, to impeach them; especially if the character be amiable and interefting, and fuch as we can not help admiring and loving. This, I think, hath, in fome measure, been the cafe of every commentator that hath confidered the fate of Jonathan; and one of them, I find, hath confidered him in the fame light that Virgil does Ripheus :

Cadit & Ripheus juftiffimus unus

Qui fuit in Teucris, & fervantiffimus æqui.
Dis aliter vifum.

A man, in the estimation of the world, the justest of all the Trojans, but not so in the fight of the gods.

THERE are, indeed, few characters among men, more lovely, or more extraordinary, than that of Jonathan; fortitude, fidelity, magnanimity! a foul fufceptible of the most refined friendship, and fuperior to all the temptations of ambition and vanity! and all thefe crowned with the most resigned submiffion to the will of GOD.

THESE are his distinguishing lineaments : but there is no fuch thing as perfection in A finished character were, as one of our English poets well expreffes it, A faultlefs monster, which the world ne'er faw.

man.

Two things I find Jonathan justly chargeable with in the Sacred History. The first is, A moft grievous violation of all the laws of justice, nature, and nations, in fmiting the Philiftine garifon at Geba, in the midst of a profound peace: And the second, A great want of duty to his father, and a very

indecent,