all those Desarts had entertained the like design but were as happily prevented as the treacherous Keylites Nabal the churl whose flocks had been protected by him from all Thieves and Robbers refused to gratifie him with some part of that superfluity which was provided for his Sheerers And though his Brethren and some few of his next Relations had repaired unto him yet generally his friends and kindred look upon him as a man forlorn whom they could neither privately supply without manifest danger nor openly relieve without certain ruine 7. And yet he was not so deserted but that some companies resorted to him from all parts of the Realm either to mend their own condition or to sweeten his Not altogether men of such desperate fortunes as Nabal the old churl reported and perhaps believed Some of them questionless might be persons no less eminent both for place and quality as for their good affections to him though generally they were as the Scripture telleth us either is debt or discontent or some great distress that is to say such as were either discontented with the Tyranny of the present Government or were indebted to some cruel and unmerciful creditors from whom they could expect no favour and as little Justice or in a word were otherwise distressed upon some suspition that they were wedded to the Interest of the son of Iess The taking of these few Volunteers for a guard to his person is publiquely declared to be the Levying of a War against the King and all the Forces of the Realm must be forthwith armed to suppress those men who were not able to withstand the twelfth part of a Tribe This drives him once again to the Court of Akish where he found better entertainment then he did before because he came accompanyed with a Train of couragious followers from whom the Barbarous King assured himself of no mean assistance in his next Wars against his Neighbours without excepting those of the house of Israel 8. But now the Tide begins to turn and a strong floud of mercies of flow in upon him As there is no deep Valley but neer some high Mountain so neer unto this Vale of Misery was a Hill of Mercy and we shall see him climb the top of it without any great difficulty Akish beholds him as a person so depressed and injured by the power of Saul that no reconciliation could be made between them and thereupon bestows upon him the strong Town of Ziglag to serve for him and his adherents as a City of Refuge to which his party might resort upon all occasions And for his better welcome thither the news of Saul's uncomfortable but unpittied death is swiftly posted to him on the wing of Fame which opened the first passage to him for the Crown of Israel For now there dayly came unto him many men of note and merit whose names are on record in the Book of Chronicles affirmed there to be mighty men experienced in the use of Arms Captains of Hundreds and of Thousands and such as seemed to carry Victory in their very countenances And they came thither in such numbers as they made up a great Host like the Host of God as the Scripture calls it that is to say a puissant and mighty Army fit for the undertaking of the noblest actions By whose incouragement but chiefly at the instigation of the men of Iudah who had repaired to Ziglag amongst the rest he goes up to Hebron the Principal City of that Tribe having first taken Gods direction commission with him There he is cheerfully received and anointed King King only over Iudah his own native Tribe the rest of Israel still adhering to the house of Saul For Abner Captain of Saul's Host and one as neer to him in bloud as in place and power had gained so far upon the Military men that they agreed to set the Crown upon the head of Ishbosheth the eldest of Saul's Sons which survived his Father And this he did not on design to divide the Kingdom to break it into two and set up Scepter against Scepter as Ieroboam and on the death of Solomon but with a purpose to compel the men of Iudah by force of Arms to cast off David to unite themselves to the rest of Israel and all together to be subject to a Prince of the house of Saul A Prince indeed of no great parts affirmed to be a person of a dull and unactive spirit more given to ease and pleasures then to deeds of Arms magis extra vitia quam cum virtutibus in the words of Tacitus but fit enough to bear the Title of a King whilest Abner and the Souldiers managed all affairs as to them seems best 9. This brings new troubles upon David though they held not long A breach is made between the new King and that great Commander Who being impatient of rebuke and netled with some words which escaped his Master resolves upon delivering the whose Kingdom to the hands of David to which end he maintains a Treaty with him and concludes the business But before all things could be setled the Titulary King is murthered by the two sons of Rimmon both of them Captains in his Army both Natives of the Tribe of Benjamin his Fathers Tribe and possibly both of them of some kindred and relation to him This puts an end unto the war the west of Israel seconding the Tribe of Iudah and altogether calling upon David to accept the Government To which end they annoynt him the third time and own him by that Sacred Ceremony for their Soveraign Prince And such as Prince as must have somewhat in him of the Priest and the Prophet also For Rex est mixta persona cum Sacerdote as our Lawyers tels us and capable on that account of the Sacred Unction if some of our Masters of the Ceremonies have not been mistaken But so it was that those of Benjamin could not so easily forget their late pretentions to the Crown of Israel which they had held successively under two great Princes and therefore came not up to Hebron with the rest of the Tribes to confer the Kingdom upon David but to obtain it for themselves as Iosephus telleth us A secret not to be concealed from David a discerning Prince and one that was well studied in his own concernments Who therefore to cut off their hopes and prevent their practises resolves to get into his hands the strong City of Sion Which standing in a corner of the Tribe of Benjamin might serve for a sufficient bridle to hold them in if they should practise any thing against his quiet for the time to come And being afterward inlarged at the charge of David by taking in the City of Salim and building all from Millo inward as the Scripture telleth us he caused it to be called Hierusalem peopled it with such Families as he might confide in and made
in the first of Chro. ch 26. So far was David from conceiving that sacred Orders were a super-sedeas to all civill prudence and that he might not lawfully make use of the abilities of any of his Subjects of what sort soever as Councellours Iudges Officers or what else he pleased 41. Thus David did and thus our David hath done also He made it his first act to close the breaches in this Church both in Doctrine and Discipline and to restore the antient government of Bishops according to Gods words and the primitive practice He takes care that Divine service be officiated with as much solemnity as in the best and happiest times of his predecessors adorns his Chappel in a costly and magnificent manner gathereth together the best voices in his whole dominions and intermingleth them with Musical Instruments which seem to carry a resemblance to that heavenly Harmony which some ascribe unto the Spheres A form of service highly magnyfied by the primitive Christian and such as gained exceedingly upon mens affections St. Austin when an Heathen or at best a Manichâ—e found two temptations to invite him to the Christian Churches that is to say to hear the eloquence of St. Ambrose when he was in the Pulpit and the Hâ—rmonious Melody which was made in the Quire And it is hard to say which of the two prevailed most towards his Conversion The musick of the Church so mollified his stony heart that it drew tears from his eys ut flevi ad cantus Ecclesiae tuae and thereby made him apter for all such impressions of the Holy Spirit as afterwards advanced him highly in the favour both of God and Men Retained on this account as he after tells us in all the Churches of those times both Greek and Latin Ut per oblectamenta aurium in firmior assurgat animus in pietatis affectum because it did compose mens thoughts and calm their passions and fit them to the serious and the grave performance of religious Offices Which makes it seem the greater wonder that any man preferred and dignified in the Church of England should in a Sermon preached and printed and exposed to sale compare the heavenly musick in Cathedral Churches to that confused medley of the Flute the Sackbut and the Harp the Psaltery the Cornet and the Dulcimer which played before the Golden Image advanced by Nebucadnezzar in the fields of Babylon But he hath-long since smarted for his folly and so let him go 42. Our English David stays not here but looks upon the services and the sufferings of the Regular Clergy some of which he restoreth to their former fortunes and raises others unto greater then they had before All the Episcopal Sees but one are filled with Learned and Religious Prelates of whom the tongue of envy hatred malice and uncharitableness can speak no reproach And as the Sees are filled with Learned and Religious Prelates so is it to be hoped that by the Piety of these times those Prelates shall be re-established in those Powers and Priviledges which the Iniquity of the last Times hath taken from them Without which they must pass for Cyphers in the Church-Arithmetick disabled from proceeding in the work of God of less esteem amongst their friends and a scorn to their adversaries The State was never better served then when the Messengers of Peace were the Ministers of it when Kings asked Counsel of the Priests and that the Priests were Counsellors Officers and Judges in their several times Which David must needs know as well as any being a Prince replenished with the Spirit of God or else he had not called them to those imployments which the Scripture speaks of 43. Thus hath the King performed his duty we must next do ours and pay our thankfulness to God on the knees of our hearts for the advancement of our David to the Throne of his Fathers and thereby giving us such a fair and blessed Sun-shine after a long Egyptian darkness and so miraculous a calm upon the back of that most dreadful intermixture of Thunder and Lightning the roaring of the Cannons and the burning of Towns which was never equalled in this Nation Which as it ought to be our duty to the last day of our lives so more particularly of this day which by the Piety of the State hath been set apart for the Celebration for the commemorating of that kindness that marvellous great kindness which he hath shewed to us and to his Anointed in the chief City of our Nation the abstract or Epitomie of the whole as before was said Such Festivals as these come not within the censure of our nicer spirits Those which have quarrelled at the rest the Festivals of Christ and his Apostles and his Virgin Mother do yet allow of Feriae repentinae ex re nata institutae as they please to phrase it Such as are instituted and ordained upon new Emergencies If any thing displease them in it it is the setling of it by a Law to be made perpetual to be a day of Thankfulness and Commemoration to succeeding Ages Which being the adding of a new to the ancient Festivals may spur on those which are in eminent place and power to rejoyn the old Festivals to the new and cause them both to be observed with such Christian Piety that all men laying aside their Trades and profane Imployments may diligently repair to their Parish Churches to set forth God's most worthy praise to hear his most holy Word and to ask those things which be requisite and necessary both for the body and the Soul according to the Laws and Statutes in that case provided But as for this particular day it is to be observed as our Feast of Purim in memory of our deliverance from the hands of Haman and Haman's being hanged upon the Gallouse of his own preparing together with his ten sons mark the number well all executed by the Common Hang-man on the same account A day of praising God in our Publique Churches of Feasting and Rejoycing in our private Houses of Joy and Triumphs in our Streets A day to be observed with all due Solemnity as being the Birth-day of the King and the Kingdom too 44. And so it cannot choose but do if we look back upon the miseries of the former Tyranny as well in our Spiritual Concernments as our Civil Rights And then reflect upon this Day as it was celebrated by all sorts of People at the King's Reduction And first if we take notice of the miseries of the times preceding in reference to Spiritual matters we may observe our Publique Liturgie disgraced and at last discharged to make way for the rash seditious and inconsiderate evaporations of those turbulent spirits whose very Prayers in fine were turned into Sin The Pulpits every where left open to all sorts of Mechanicks and either no Priests made at all or none but such as were of Ieroboam's making Priests of the lowest of the People abhorring
it from thenceforth the chief seat of his Royal Residence Never till now was David setled in the Kingdom and now he growes considerable in the eyes of all forain Princes who court him and send presents to him and trie all means imaginable to obtain his favour 10. And thus the Scepter promised to the Tribe of Iudah is put into the hands of David the Son of Iesse one of the chief Princes of that Tribe And all this done at such a time when they had all the reason in the world to fear the contrary The Government having passed through many Tribes from Moses of the race of Levi to Ioshua the Son of Nun of the seed of Ephraim and so from one Tribe to another until it came to Saul of the stock of Benjamin And this may seem to have been done for these reasons chiefly First That the Tribe of Iudah might not claim the Kingdom otherwise then by Gods donation as possibly they might have done if they had entred on the Government upon the death of Moses by any Military Vote or Popular election or in relation to that Primogeniture which was vested in them by the last Will and Testament of their Father Iacob And 2ly It was so done that the people being sensible of the inconveniences of the former Government the miseries which they had indured in the times of Anarchie and the extremities which they had been reduced to in the Reign of Saul might with a greater cheerfulness imbrace a Prince of the Royal Family whom God had so miraculously preserved and commended to them 11. And it may seem to have been kept so long from David for two Reasons also First that he being trained up in the School of experience and hammered on the Anvile of Affliction might be the better qualified for mannaging all affairs of State then if he had been educated in the pride and pleasures of a Princes Court And Secondly it was so disposed of that being to be married to the Realm of Israel he might more passionately long to inâ—oy his Spouse then if she had cast her self into his imbraces at the first making of the Contract And this was done according to the custome of the Iewish Nation who use to place some fitting and convenient interval betwixt the Espousal and the Wedding for which St. Austin gives this reason Ne vilem habeat maritus datam quam non suspiravit sponsus dilatam for fear saith he lest otherwise the Bridegroom might despise her in the first fruition for whom he had not longed with some vehement passion But being longed for and long looked for they are met at last to the full comfort of both parties the pleasure of Almighty God and the joy of the Nation 12. Such was Gods kindness unto David expressed in his marvellous preservation when he was compassed round about with invincible dangers his exaltation to the Throne from keeping sheep to be the Shepherd of his people and therefore not a kindeness a great kindeness only but misericordia mirabilis in St. Hieroms reading a marvellous great kindeness as my Text assures me For what particular is there in all this kindeness which is not marvellous mirabile in oculis nostris as marvellous in our eyes as it was in his And not a marvellous kindeness only but miserecordia mirifica a kindness which wrought wonders as Tremelius reads it What can it else be thought but a singular miracle that God should for so many years preserve this poor fugitive Prince both from the treachery of his friends and the power of his enemies that he should finde more favour in the Land of Moab then he durst hope for in the place of his birth and breeding that men from all parts of the Kingdom should resort unto him when he had neither Town of War to secure their persons nor any stock of money and provisions to maintain their Families That Akish and the men of Gath should lay aside their animosities against him for the death of Goliah and put into his hands a piece of such strength and consequence as might inable him to create unto them a far greater mischief 13. And was it not as great a miracle if it were not greater that Saul should come to such a miserable and calamitous end without ingaging David in a ruinous and destructive War against those men which were designed to be his Subjects That God should so incline the hearts of the men of Iudah as to accept him for their King and thereby to involve themselves in a tedious War when all the rest of the Tribes adhered still to Abner and the Sons of Saul That God was pleased to make to use of any of Davids party for the destruction of Sauls house but acted that great work by Abner and the Sons of 〈◊〉 being the Kings near kinsmen and his chief Commanders That all the Tribes of Israel should unite together to set and Crown upon his head whom they had formerly pursued from one place to another till they had forced him to take Sanctuary in a forain Nation That all this should be done without noyse or trouble more then the noyse of joyful shouts and acclamations and the short trouble of an easie though a martial progress That there should be so few men killed on either side between the death of Saul and the Crowning of David and that God should put into his hands the strong Fort of Sion which neither Saul nor any of the Judges nor Ioshua himself nor Gideon nor Ieptha Duo Fulmina belli the veriest Thunder-bolts of War had before attempted 14. And yet the kindeness was the greater and the more miraculous considering that it was extended to spiritual mercies and not confined to temporal preservations and external benefits For notwithstanding the horrid murther of Abimelech the terrible massacre of so many Priests and the unmerciful sacking of the City of Nob Abiathar the next High-priest and many others doubtless of that Sacred Order joyned themselves unto him Abiathar was too great a person and too well beloved not to bring some attendants with him and who more like to bear him company then the Priests and Levites Not so much out of care to preserve themselves as to do service unto him whom the Lord had chosen By means whereof not only he but all his followers were instructed in the things of God and thereby kept from-being any way infected with those gross Idolatries which were predominant in Moab and the Court of Gath. Than which there could be nothing more conducible to his future advancement or which could more indear him to the Iewish Nation when they came once to be assured that neither flatteries could intice him nor great threats affright him nor hope of promised aid allure him from standing fast to the Religion of his Fathers to the Law of Moses And more then so Abiathar brought along with him the sacred Ephod by which the High-priest used to consult with