Immagini della pagina
PDF
ePub

were called by his name.-The titles given to the books of Scripture are not supposed to be of divine authority: so that perhaps these were improperly called the books of Samuel, and the name, given them in the Septuagint and vulgate, of the first and second books of Kings, is more suitable. Probably Nathan and Gad, or other prophets in the days of David and Solomon, compiled them from the original records. The history contained in them has every mark of authenticity; they coincide with many of the Psalms, and with other parts of Scripture which refer to them; and they are replete with most important instruction.

Saul and his servant indeed cannot be justified, as to the manner in which they purposed to consult Samuel: but surely the Bible is not chargeable with the faults, which it records without approbation.* The verse relative to the word SEER was doubtless added afterwards as an explanatory note.f-Mr. P. says, many senseless and broken passages are found in the 'Bible;' for instance, "Saul reigned one year; and "when he had reigned two years, he chose him two "thousand men." This, however, may fairly mean, that Saul reigned one year before any thing remarkable happened; but after he had reigned two years, or in second year of his reign, according to the Hebrew idiom, the subsequent events took place. Such remarks can only be made, in order to prejudice superficial readers against the Scriptures.

*P. ii. p. 23, 24.
Note, P. ii. p. 34.

+1 Sam. ix. 9.

1 Sam. xiii. 1.

357

Saul had executed the command of God by Samuel, in slaying even the women and children of Amalek: but, probably from respect to royalty, he had spared Agag, whose "sword had made women "childless." In this single instance, Samuel, who had long acted as chief magistrate of Israel, exercised apparent severity; "he hewed Agag in pieces before the "Lord:" and hatred of prophets renders Mr. P. such an humane friend to kings, that he reprobates his impartial conduct in the most virulent manner!*

Mr. P. endeavours to prove, that the writer of these books contradicts himself; because Saul did not recollect David, when he returned from slaying Goliath.†But David was very young when he stood as a musician before Saul. He indeed became Saul's armourbearer, but it does not appear that he entered on actual service; nor is it said that Abner had any acquaintance with him. Saul's mind was disordered, and his affairs in much confusion. Kings, especially such kings as Saul, are approached and served by so many fresh faces, that they are apt literally to forget their old acquaintance. Some years seem to have elapsed, from the time when David left court, to his appearance in a shepherd's dress before Saul in the army. Young persons alter greatly in a little time: yet Saul spake as if he had some confused knowledge of him; so that the charge is hardly plausible.

Mr. P.'s cloquent harangue against the 'callous in• difference and stubbornness of priests,' contains no

* P. ii. p. 60—63. 1 Sam. xv.

† Note, P. ii. p. 51. 1 Sam. xvi. xvii.

argument against the divine authority of the Scriptures. The true minister of Christ will not wish to escape reviling from the man, who calls the Bible a blasphemous fraud. Doubtless numbers will find their minds tranquillized by Mr. P.'s labours; for they will help sinners to shake off all fear of wrath, to indulge a haughty self-important spirit, and to vindicate their impiety and rebellion against God. They will in all respects operate, as the insinuation of the serpent, "Ye shall not surely die," did on the mind of Eve: but should such persons at last find themselves fatally deceived, they will not very agreeably own their obligations to this humane deist, at the day of judgment, and in the eternal world.

KINGS AND CHRONICLES.

Mr. P. says, the Jewish kings were in general a 'parcel of rascals.' I suppose he meant to include the kings of Israel: but they were not Jewish kings. The kings of Israel were indeed universally apostates from the law and instituted worship of God; and no one of them receives a good character from the sacred historian: and therefore I have no objection to this language being applied to them.-The tyranny and persecution of the house of Ahab had been so detestable; that if a Brutus had stabbed any of them, or a modern convention had doomed them to the scaffold, their patriotism would have been applauded: but when God

P. i. p. 25, 25.

employed Jehu to execute vengeance on them, it becomes murder and assassination!*

Mr. P. considers the seventy descendants of Ahab as smiling infants; but they were in general grown men; and they were slain by the elders of Jezreel, who had been the instruments of Jezebel's tyranny, in the murder of Naboth and his sons. We have, however, no more occasion to vindicate Jehu's character, in justifying the conduct of the Lord, who employed him to punish the family of Ahab, and gave him a tempo. ral recompence; than we have to insist on the virtue of the executioner, in justifying the punishment of a murderer.-The Bible is no more answerable for the cruelties recorded in it with marked disapprobation; than Mr. P. is for the cruelty of that party in the French convention, whose conduct he justly execrates. The severities inflicted by the Israelites on the inhabitants of Canaan, many centuries before, cannot be proved to have been the source of those wars, which were carried on between the kingdoms of Israel and Judah: for the relative situation of these kingdoms might account for them; and such bloody contests have continually taken place in other countries, in similar circumstances, though they never read or heard of the Bible.

Mr. P. finds but seventeen kings and one queen in Judah, from the death of Solomon to the captivity: I suppose he omits Jehoahaz and Jeconiah. Of the remaining seventeen, eleven died natural deaths; three

* P. ii. p. 25-27.

were slain in battle; and three were slain by their own servants, none of whom succeeded to the throne. Athaliah, one of the most detestable of usurpers and murderers, was put to death by Jehoiada. From the. accession of David to the captivity, the kingdom of Judah was continued in one family, by lineal descent from father to son, except as the sons of Josiah reigned in succession. This was a space of almost five hundred years, in which there was not a single revolution or civil war, and only one short interruption. Perhaps it would be difficult to find any thing, in universal history, equal to this permanent order and regularity. How many revolutions, usurpations, murders of reigning kings by rivals and subjects, changes in the succession, and civil wars carried on with savage cruelty, are found in the history of England, within the last five hundred years? Yet who thinks this a sufficient reason for reviling the English nation?

The reigns of David, Solomon, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Uzziah, Jotham, Hezekiah, and Josiah, amount together to three hundred and thirteen years; to which we may add the former part of Jehoash's reign, during the life of Jehoiada:* and the greatest part of this time was evidently passed, either in profound peace, or in remarkable prosperity. Let then any impartial man compare the state of Judah, from the accession of David to the death of Josiah, with the same term of years in the history of Greece, or Rome; and he will be constrained to admit, that the condition of Judah was unspeakably most desirable.

2 Kings xiii.

« IndietroContinua »