go along therewith He that hath never gotten these or lost them once may find to his cost when e'er he comes to try that the ties of Duty are not half so strong as the bands of Love nor the Service of the Body comparable to the Affections of the Mind Whereas he that hath gain'd the Heart will certainly be Master of the Hand and Service on Occasion And this was it that Saul foresaw and dreaded so and this was it that David was already in possession of But notwithstanding all this great as he was in Court great as he was in Camp and greater yet in favour of the People he would not venture on the impious Fact still it was The Lord forbid that I should stretch forth my hand against the Lord's anointed The Lord forbid yet David knew it was this very Lord that had rejected Saul from being King that rent the Kingdom from him and that repented he had ever made him King at all Nay David knew himself the Man design'd by God to be his Successor and had accordingly been anointed King by Samuel at the Town of Bethlehem 'T is surely with Ambition as with other Passions the fantastick and imaginary Joys are greater than the experienc'd and substantial ones The Hopes and Expectations far exceed the pleasures of Possession Whatever Cares belong to Crowns they lye conceal'd within their Circles and are more seldom seen than felt and therefore more engage in their pursuits than are contented when they get them But this Temptation found no place with David young and gay and vigorous as he was and even so near the Crown that by conniving at Abishai's Blow he might have been in full and sure possession of it yet he suffered not himself to be transported beyond the Bounds of rigid Honesty and Loyalty and still cries out The Lord forbid Now to conclude and to compleat this Character add Lastly to these great Advantages of being Son-in-law a mighty Man of Valour and accepted in the sight of all the People of knowing Saul rejected and himself design'd for Successor the greatest yet of all Advantages and that is Opportunity that without which all others signifie but little and that with which alone Men serve their turns and make up the defects of all the rest that Pandar to all Sin and fatal Snare of Virtue That that has ruin'd many thousand Souls and betray'd them into most detestable Commissions sometimes against the best Convictions of their Understanding nay and sometimes against their Vows and Resolutions Opportunity that few have Virtue few have Strength sufficient to withstand and of all Opportunities none are so strong and work so powerfully upon the Minds of Men as those that look like Providential ones and seem to come from God Yet this was David's Opportunity and yet withstood Behold said the Men of David to him Chap. 24. and ver 4. Behold the day of which the Lord said unto thee Behold I will deliver thine Enemy into thine hand that thou may'st do unto him as shall seem good unto thee And again in the Chap. of the Text and ver 8. Then said Abishai to David God hath delivered thine Enemy into thine hand this day now therefore let me smite him I pray with the Spear unto the Earth at once and I will not smite him the second time As if he had said Look round you noble Youth and see how Heaven and Earth conspire in your Advancement mark how the Providence of God hath ordered every thing in your behalf contriving every Circumstance to concurr in setting the Crown upon your Head How many Psalms have you compos'd how many Vows how many earnest Prayers have you put up that God would visit your Afflictions confound your Enemies and redeem you from Distress Behold then in this Opportunity your Prayers are answer'd and your Vows returned This is the Day this is the Time of which the Lord said I will deliver thine Enemy into thy hand Is it not he and he alone hath wrought this great Salvation for thee with his own Right-hand and with his holy Arm hath he bestow'd on thee this Victory what could our few and feeble Troops have done against a Royal Army had not the Finger of God been visible in all this Action Had not his gracious Providence dispos'd of all Events in favour of your Claim It is the Lord 's doing and marvellous in all our Eyes improve it therefore to his Honour and the advancing his Designs in setting you over his chosen People Will you withstand the Purposes of God or will you not concurr with his good Providence God hath deliver'd Saul into your hands and do not tempt the Lord by slighting or neglecting of his Times and Seasons 't were Madness and Impiety to let him ' scape You must not think the Lord will work out such Deliverances every Day to Day you are a Conqueror and a King if you but please to Morrow you may be a Rebel and undone and who shall pity you You shall not need to imbrue your own Hands in his Blood you shall not need to incurr the Odium of Commanding such a thing to any else I 'll spare your Fame the Guilt of both permit me only by my self to be the Minister of Providence the Executioner of God's Designs This was the sense and purport of Abishai's Speech and carried so much force and worldly Reason with it that none but one that had the fear of God continually before his Eyes could possibly withstand it or say with David The Lord forbid that I should stretch forth my hand against the Lord's anointed And now having done what right I could to the particular State and Circumstances of Saul and David King and Subject and shew'd such Provocations on the one hand and such Temptations and Advantages on the other as it may be never did before or never will again hereafter happen I am to proceed and consider Secondly the Reason David gave for his refusal of Abishai's and the Soldiers Proffer It is the Lord 's anointed By the Lords anointed is here meant the Man that was by God's designation and appointment anointed King or Captain over all the People which was done by the Ceremony of pouring a Vial of Oyl upon his Head and kissing him So that the anointed of the Lord signifies no more than an ordinary King with us David therefore would not stretch forth his Hand against Saul because he was his King He would fly from before him though he was his King as he did from Keilah and he would gather up 600 Men to guard him from the Violence of I will not say the King but his illegal and blood-thirsty Servants that pursued him But he would not touch the King's Life and because he has express'd no other reason than that he was the Lord's anointed that is a King we must either conclude that the Laws of God or the fundamental Constitutions of the Nation had guarded the Persons
Prince hath thus abandon'd common Honesty broken the sacred Cords that knit Societies and keep up Governments and mutual Correspondences together with Relations Natural and Civil and by his Perjuries provok'd the Vengeance of God and is delivered into the Hands of those whose Innocence and good Credulity he had impos'd on and abus'd almost to their Destruction Oh! what a mighty measure of God's Grace must fill the Heart of him that then could say The Lord forbid that I should stretch forth my hand against the Lord's anointed There are some things besides our Lives and Persons in which if we are touch'd we think our selves extreamly Injur'd and they are specially our Friends our Fortunes and Religion and David was in every one of these affected more or less by Saul's implacable pursuit and hunting after him He was constrain'd to change his Habitation carry his Father and his Mother and his whole Family into a strange Country aged and feeble as they needs must be To be forc'd when one is growing old and stooping with Infirmities to forsake ones Native Place the Dwelling of ones Ancestors the Comforts of good Neighbourhood the usual Prospects and familiar Objects of ones Sight with all the old Conveniencies of Life in the way one is in for a strange Country barbarous Neighbours new Laws and Usages and Tongue unknown must needs be hard and troublesome to humane Nature and an Oppression scarce to be endur'd Yet this was David's Case who felt these Evils in himself but much more sensibly in the Distresses of his Parents who by the fury of the King were driven to Mispeh of the King of Moab And then for his Estate it could not otherwise be but he must suffer much in that respect it was impossible to remove his whole Effects King's have long Hands and piercing Eyes and by their Officers can reach and see at mighty distance And Saul had Harpies in his Court undoubtedly as well as other Kings ready to beg and seize upon the Estates of such as by their Crimes or their Misfortunes were obnoxious to the King's Displeasure Lastly for his Religion Although he suffer'd nothing for or by it yet much he suffer'd for the want of it to be driven away into wicked and idolatrous Country and be debarr'd the exercise of his Religion to be hurried from God's Temple and the communicating in the appointed daily Service of that Holy Place was little less than painful Martyrdom to one so zealously and so devoutly bent as David was Let any Man recount the Evils I have mention'd summ up the Persecutions and the Provocations of King Saul and set before his Eyes himself or any one in David's Case wrong'd in his Honour divorc'd from his Nuptial-Bed against his Will despoil'd of his Estate and Property wounded in the Distresses and Afflictions of his Parents attempted privately to be destroy'd pursued in Publick as an Enemy and hunted like a Partridge on the Mountains and forc'd to wander like a Fugitive and seek his Bread out in desolate Places and in a manner Excommunicated by being barr'd the use and exercise of his Religion Let any Man I say but put himself in these bad Circumstances and find himself in a capacity of delivering himself from out of them as David was and think with himself what he would do No 't is not that I would advise him to Let him rather think what David here did The Lord forbid that I should stretch forth my hand against the Lord's anointed There 's hardly any one of all these single Passages that happens to our selves or our Acquaintance but puts us to extremity and provokes us beyond all Patience we call it an intollerable Oppression and weary Heaven and Earth with our Complaints and think our selves undone till we have found our Satisfaction or Revenge How restless are we in contriving Snares how quick in catching Opportunities and how malicious in improving them to our ill-natur'd purposes Much otherwise was it with Righteous David here who call'd not to his Mind his past Wrongs nor cast his Dangers and Oppressions up to make a terrible Account who consulted not with Flesh and Blood nor debated the Matter with those ill Advisers within his Choler and Revenge who cure one Evil by a hundred worse Yet He as he had most Reason so had he most Opportunities and most Advantages to carve out whatever Satisfaction he might judge sufficient Which is what for his Honour and our Instruction I must Secondly insist on He was first the King's Son-in-law one of the greatest Honours in the Kingdom and an Advancement that must needs draw after it a great many Friends and Favourites and make him strong Alliances at Court and tho' those Friendships commonly live but like Flies while the benign and quickening Influences of the Sun continue and dye upon the Frowns and Lowrings of their Prince yet 't were too hard a reflection on the lightness of those places to think such solid Vertue and unquestion'd Merit as eminently shone in David had not acquir'd him a considerable Party and a well-grounded Interest at Court But Secondly he was a mighty Man of Valour he fought the Lord's Battels he was the Sword and Shield the Horsemen and the Chariots of Israel He was the Scourge of the Philistines and indeed of all the Idolatrous Nations round the great Defender of the Jewish Faith and the Supporter of God's Worship And 't is hard to think a Man thus qualified should fail of bearing sway amongst the Soldiery and being gracious in the Camp and all Men know how far that tends to the promoting and securing any great Designs Thirdly This David was belov'd of all the People the Favourite of his Country the very Idol of the Crowd His Youth his Beauty his attractive Grace and popular Deportment together with his Virtue and his Valour had stol'n the Peoples Hearts and charm'd them so to Love and Admiration that he became the Theme of their perpetual Talk their Songs and Dances were compos'd in honour of his great Archievments and all their Instruments of Joy and Musick were tun'd to his invidious Praises How harsh and rude must those Expressions of their Pleasure be how unmannerly and ill-natur'd a Triumph to have the Women come to meet the King himself and grate him with the burthen of their Song Saul hath slain his thousands and David his ten thousands I do not wonder much when I consider humane Nature that Saul as it follows in the next Verse was very wroth and the saying displeased him and then upon a repetition of that Sentence 't was very natural to inferr What can he have more but the Kingdom 'T is fatal to a Prince to lose himself or suffer any else to get the Affections of his People A King may be as wroth as Ahasuerus was and may decree terrible things and Priests may preach up Patience and Obedience long enough but 't will not do unless the Affections of the Subject
of their Kings from any Violence or else that David abstained out of a principle of Tenderness or from the unreasonableness of the thing it self or from the Infamy that always waited on that wicked Practice The Laws of God did certainly secure the Lives of Kings as well as other Mens if it did no more And it appears by the very name of Treason that the Civil Constitution had preserv'd the Royal Person sacred and inviolable and if we take our Measures from the absolute and arbitrary Sway of all the Eastern Monarchs we cannot but conclude the Customs of Judaea amongst the rest must have conciliated a mighty Awe and Reverence to their Princes And for the unreasonableness of such Attempts it is plain that a Government can't possibly subsist for any time where any kind of Violence is allowed against the Magistrate We see what wicked work is made in some unhappy States where private Executions of Revenge betwixt Particulars are indulg'd or frequently conniv'd at But Government is at an end where Rulers are expos'd to popular Assaults or private Assassinations Besides there is a great indecency in the nature of the thing to see the Lord and Master of a Nation reduc'd to wretched Villany to see the Man whom all the Kingdom honour'd and ador'd despis'd and trampl'd on but most of all to find a Sovereign Arbiter and Disposer of his Subjects Lives to be despoil'd of his own But Lastly 't is and has always been and always will I hope be infamous to shed their Blood Altho' Mankind has generally a relish of Liberty and has for every Age receiv'd the mention of its brave Asserters with Reverence and Esteem yet I know not how where-ever it has been vindicated by the Blood of Kings tho' they were truly very bad it gives some kind of Shock to human Nature and blemishes the glory of the Action Never perhaps was any Man more sitted for the vindicating the ancient Liberties of Rome than M. Brutus was a Sober Vertuous Honest and Disinterested Man freed from all imputation of Revenge or Malice by his Enemies and one that had no other prospect in the World than the redeeming of his Country from its Slavery and yet because he could not compass his Intent but by the death of its brave Ravisher his Vertues and most noble Qualities have all been lost under the Infamy of Parricide and Traytor so natural an abhorrence have all Men for shedding of Princes Blood and taking away their Lives But what then is the World provided for no better than so Hath God indeed subjected all Mankind to the tyrannick impotent and arbitrary Sway of some few Men who have sometimes less Wisdom and frequently less Vertue than their Neighbours it fares but ill it seems with us when our Estates and Properties our Lives and Persons Wives and Daughters our Liberties and our Religion too are put into the hands of some weak wicked or perverse yet uncontrollable Humour will not this Impunity breed greater Licentiousness in Princes and augment the slavery of the Subjects to such degree as it can go no lower and so the sacredness of one Man shall be the ruine of many Thousands In answer to this we must acknowledge that according to Nature and good Reason there seems to be a great deal of Iniquity and Partiality in these Cases but we must say withal that Religion is neither chargeable with these Hardships nor answerable for them God hath declar'd himself in favour of no one sort of Government with respect to all the World nor laid it by Command on all People Our Saviour said His Kingdom was not of this World and did indeed concern himself with nothing of it St. Peter and St. Paul did press Obedience and Subjection on the Christians as they found occasion but then it was Obedience and Subjection to the Laws and different Constitutions of the different Governments they liv'd under and did not thereby change or think of changing them There were no question in the Apostles Days very different Forms of Government in the World some Absolute and some Limited some made their Will the Law and others govern'd according to known and settled Laws some succeeded by way of Inheritance and others were elected to the Rule Now if when St. Peter and St. Paul press the Christians they wrote to to Submission and Obedience they only mean that those particular Christians should obey the parcular Governments they liv'd under then there arises no Obligation to any other Christians to obey their Governours by Virtue of any thing said by these Apostles But if all Christians are hereby understood to be exhorted to Obedience to their Governours as most undoubtedly they are then are all Christians exhorted to pay such Obedience to their Governours as the particular Constitution of the Government they liv'd under call'd for and requir'd And then the Christians who liv'd under an absolute Monarch were to pay such Obedience as that Government requir'd and the Christians who liv'd under a limited and mixed Monarchy were to obey as that Government requir'd and so of all the rest they were all to submit themselves to the several Governments they liv'd under for 't is not to be presum'd that St. Peter and St. Paul by their pressing and commanding Christians to submit to and obey their Governours chang'd the several Forms and Constitutions of Government and requir'd the Christians of a limited and mixed Monarchy to obey their Superiors in the same manner measure and degree as those of an Absolute one did theirs but Christianity requir'd such Obedience as the Laws and Customs of the Country call'd for and exacted at their hands And truly it would be strange to imagine that Christianity should press Men to obey in Instances where the Laws of the Country require no Obedience since every Country is presum'd to understand and consult its own Interest best and to secure such Obedience from the Subjects as would best procure and continue such their Interest And therefore if one Country had liked and approved of such a Form and Constitution of Government and found it best and fittest for it with respect to its Situation and its Neighbourhood and to the Temper and the Genius of its People and Inhabitants if it had pitch'd upon such Laws as it found by Experience most convenient for it if such and such were the Powers and Prerogatives of the Superiours and such and such the Privileges and Immunities of the Subjects Christianity did not intend to alter this and say that the Superiors shall have more Power and a fuller Authority over the People and the People shall have less and fewer Privileges than what are already agreed to on both hands Neither did it come to set the People higher and the Princes lower than they were Christianity did not meddle with these Matters nor say any thing on either side but coming to settle Peace and Quiet Truth and Honesty Justice and Religion in the Hearts