good days march from Jezreel; and therefore the Philistines were at least two days march from Saul, when David left them.

BUT it will appear, from a way of reasoning intelligible to every man of common understanding, that the Aphek here mentioned must be nearer to Ziklag, and farther from Jezreel.

THE city of Ziklag was, in the first distribution of the country, given to the tribe of Ju-.. dah; and, in the fecond, to that of Simeon: from whence it plainly appears, that it was fituate in the confines of those two tribes. Now from Gilboa to the nearest part of Simeon is more than 110 geometric miles in a direct line, without allowing for the winding of roads (and, with that allowance, at least 120). And for the truth of this, I appeal to every man that can handle a scale and compafs. If then Aphek, where David left the Philistines, was, as our adverfaries fuppofe, in the valley of Jezreel, at the foot of Gilboa; then David marched at least 120 miles in the space of two days and an half; for he returned from thence to Ziklag carly enough on the third day to pursue the Amalekites, who were a confiderable way off, and overtook them that very night.

Now I am affured by military men, that twenty miles a day on foot is great marching, even for men every way appointed and fitted for expedition; and, confequently, that Aphek we fpeak of cannot be prefumed to have been more than fifty miles from Ziklag.

Now

Now if David, with his light band of active and expeditious rovers, cannot well be prefumed to have marched more than fifty miles in two days and an half, Achifh with his whole army cannot, I believe, be fuppofed to have completed the reft of the way to Jezreel [70 miles] in less than five days (at least, so I am affured by an eminent and experienced captain). And if their armies did not confift of horse, chariots, and light-armed archers, who might, on occafion, be taken up by the chariots, or behind the horfemen; five days, in fo hot a climate, were, perhaps, too fmall an allowance for fuch a march. And, furely, we must allow them one day's reft, after fo long a march, before the battle. It is madness to imagine, that Achifh fhould, with a weary army, and without being under a neceffity, attempt upon Saul fo advantageously encamped. Nor will it, I believe, be thought unreasonable, to allow Saul one day to furvey the strength and number of his adverfaries, and at least one more to apply to GOD in the feveral ways of Urim, prophets, and dreams*, before his fears carried him to Endor. Then will it be on the eve of the eighth day from David's departure, at fooneft, that Saul confulted the Pthonefs; and there is not the least reason to doubt, that the battle was fought the very next day after. And the Amalekite, who fled from

* If we allow the first night for applying to God by dreams, we cannot allow lefs than the next day for applying by prophets and Urim.

thence

thence that day towards night, might reach Da vid at Ziklag on the third day, inclufive, from the battle; that is, on the third day, inclufive, from David's laft return to Ziklag. If then we suppose him and his army to have refted one day, after all this fatigue, before their return, and to have spent three days in their return * (which, confidering their own fatigue, and that of the women, children, flocks and herds, which came along with them, will not, I believe, be deemed unreasonable); then will David's fecond arrival at Ziklag be on the eighth day after his departure from the Philistines; that is, on the very day on which Jofephus affures us the battle with the Philiftines was fought for it was fought (as he tells us) on the day of David's return to Ziklag from the flaughter of the Amalekites; and his authority is of weight enough in this point, becaufe fuch a tradition might eafily be transmitted with truth.

THIS, I hope, will be deemed a fair and rational account of the matter; I am fure, it is a candid one.

BUT ftill it is objected; That fuppofing this to be the cafe, as I have ftated it, yet ftill this perfonator of Samuel falfifics: because he says in one place, that Saul and his fons should be with him, i. c. among the dead, to-morrrow; and in another, The Lord hath done this thing

As the Amalekites spent three days in their march from Ziklag, to the place where David overtook them.

unto

unto thee this day. Now one of these assertions must be false, even though we fuppofe this spoken in the prophetic ftyle; which, to imply the certainty of the prediction, fpeaks of things to come as already paft; for Saul and his fons could not be killed this day, and to

morrow too.

I ANSWER; That both affertions were perfectly confiftent, and ftrictly true.

THE Jewish day began at fix o'clock in the evening; and therefore, whatever was to come to pass on the enfuing day, (i. e. light) was, in propriety of common fpeech, to happen tomorrow; and yet at the fame time might, in a true, a proper, and a philofophic fenfe, be faid to come to pass on this very day.

CHA P. XXVIII.

David receives an Account of Saul and Jonathan's Death. His Lamentation upon that Head.

THE third day after David's return to Zik

*

lag from the flaughter of the Amalekites a young man arrived from Saul's camp with all the marks of ill news upon him; his cloaths rent, and earth upon his head: and when he

* In the Hebrew it is, from the camp, from with Saul. This plainly fhews, that the battle was in the camp.

came

came before David, he fell down to the earth, and did obeisance. David was ftruck with the fight, and asked him, with great eagerness, Whither and whence he came? He answered, That he had escaped from the camp of Ifrael. And when David carneftly inquired, How matters went there? he replied, That the army was put to flight, with a great flaughter; and that Saul and Jonathan fell among the reft. David then inquired the certainty of the account, How he knew, that Saul and Jonathan were dead? The young man told him, That as he happened by chance upon mount Gilboa, he faw Saul leaning upon his fpear, and the chariots † and horsemen following hard after him; that the king called to him, and asked him, Who he was? And, being anfwered, That he was an Amalekite, begged him to ftand upon him, and kill him, being in great diftrefs, becaufe his life was yet whole in him; and that he did as the king commanded, being very fure, that he could not recover of the wounds he had already received. And, to confirm his relation, he pre

*

*There always are a great number of ftrollers that follow camps, and this lad, probably, was one of them. Their bufinefs is pillage, and stripping the dead. This lad, it feems, knew his bufinefs, and got the start of the Philiftines in the pillage of Saul.

+ This Amalekite was as great a lyar as Sinon; but, it feems, not altogether fo dextrous. Whether an account of chariots purfuing upon a mountain hath an air of probability, military men will beft determine.

Saul, in the true history, was afraid of being flain by the uncircumcifed: And how was the matter mended, by defiring to die by the hand of an Amalekite?

VOL. I.

T

fented