grounded upon fo juft and noble a confidence, immediately cried out; Go, and the Lord be with thee!

AND now his care was, to fee his champion properly provided with arms offenfive and defenfive; and accordingly he put his own armour upon him, an helmet of brafs, and a coat of mail. And when David had girded his fword upon his armour, and affayed to go, he found himself encumbered and embaraffed by a warlike apparatus, to which he was unaccustomed; and therefore, defiring to be excufed from makeing use of them, he put them off; and, taking his ftaff in his hand, he choose five smooth stones out of the brook which divided the hoftile armies, and put them in his fhepherd's fcrip; and so, taking his fling in one hand, and his ftaff in the other, he advanced towards his adverfary. Nor was Goliah lefs forward; for he also advanced to the combat with his armour-bearer before him. But when upon a nearer approach to David, he difcerned his youth and beauty, he difdained the effeminacy of his afpect; and, filled with indignation to find himself fo contemptuously paired, and affaulted, like a dog, with ftones and a ftaff, he vented his rage in reproaches and execrations, devoting his adverfary to the wrath and vengeance of his gods; and then, calling aloud to him, bid him advance, that he might give his flesh to the fowls of the air, and the beafts of the field. To thefe taunts and threats David only made this anfwer; Thou comeft to me with a fword, and with a spear, and with

a field;

a fhield; but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of bolts, the God of the armies of Ifrael, whom thou hast defied. And then, inspired with a clear forefight of that juft vengeance which this blafphemy would draw down both upon him, and upon those that abetted him, he adds; This, day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand* and I will fmite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcafes of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth: that all the earth may know, that there is a God in Ifrael. And all this affembly shall know, that the Lord faveth not with fword and spear: for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands.

So faying, he fprung forward with a noble alacrity to meet his antagonist; and, putting his hand into his bag, took thence a stone, and flang it, and fmote the Philiftine in his forehead, that the ftone funk in his forehead, and he fell upon his face to the earth.

THIS done, he ran up to his proftrate enemy, and, standing upon him, drew out his own fword, (for David had none) and cut off his head.

* The difference between these threats is remarkable. Goliah, in full confidence of his own ftrength, bids David come up, and I will give thy flesh, &c. David, confiding only in the protection of Providence, retorts; This day will the Lord deliver thee into my hand; and then tells him what he is to expect.

CHA P. V.

The Friendship of David and Jonathan. Some Difficulties in the facred Text cleared. David's Combat compared with that of Dioxippus the Athenian

Athlete.

ΤΗ HE Philistines, ftruck with a fudden confternation upon the defeat and death of their champion, fled; and the Ifraelites, giving a great fhout of joy, purfued them with a dreadful flaughter, to the gates of Gath and Ekron*, their fenced cities; and then returning, took the fpoil of their camp.

WHEN David returned from the flaughter of the Philistines, Abner the king's general prefented him to Saul with Goliah's head in his hand. What reception Saul gave him, or what converfation David had with him on that occafion, we know not but we have reason to believe, that his fpeech was agreeable to his preceding conduct, fhort and humble, giving OD the glory. All that we are told, is, that Saul inquired whofe fon he was; and that, when their converfation was ended, Jonathan, the king's eldeft fon, conceived the tendereft and ftrongeft affection for him from that moment.

THERE is an inexpreffible dignity in the filence of the Scriptures on this and fuch-like

* The refidences of two of the five Philifine lords.

occafions.

1

occafions. Minute defcription would bring them too near the level of common hiftory; and, on occafions fo very extraordinary, would, with all the ftrictness of truth, debafe them even to an air of romance; whereas, in the prefent management, the writer's end is fully anfwered, by a fhort account of the effects of this conversation upon the heart of a pious, an intelligent, and heroic youth. We now behold this part of the facred hiftory in more than all the dignity of at noble portrait; in which David, bending to his prince, and laying the head of his fierceft foe at his feet, appears in the faireft light, and nobleft attitude, that ever youthful hero was drawn in. Hard indeed would it be, to paint out the congenial joy, the glowing gladnefs of Jonathan's generous heart, upon the fuccefs of fo much piety and virtue; and as hard, perhaps, to fhew the fecret workings of Saul's growing envy, under all the outward femblance of complacence and applaufe.---Sure I am, the fubject hath both dignity and difficulty enough to exercife and perhaps to exhaust the skill of the noblest artist that ever adorned the profeffion.

BUT, however that may be, the friendship of David and Jonathan, fo fuddenly conceived, and fo ftrongly cemented from that moment, is matter of juft admiration with all thinking men, and feems to have fomething in it far tranfcending the ordinary courfe of human affections; or, to fpeak more plainly, feems to have been very peculiarly appointed and raised

by Providence, for the prefervation of David*.

ONE circumftance of this friendship ought not, I think, to be omitted; and that is, that, when Jonath and David made a covenant, Jonathan ftripped himself of the robe that was upon him, and gave it to David, and his garments, even to his fword, and to his bow, and to his girdle. Whether this might not have given rise to that custom which hath obtained among the eaftern monachs, of prefenting fwords or vefts, as marks of favour and esteem, is fubmitted to the reader.

BUT it is time we now return to clear fome difficulties that have embaraffed this part of the facred text.

WHEN David was recommended to Saul, he was recommended as a man prudent and valiant; whereas, when he was going against Goliah, fome years after, he is called, in the facred text, a youth, and a ftripling.

I ANSWER: That the first part of this objection hath been already removed, by fhewing, that altho' David was then very young, yet the Occafion required, that his age and character fhould then be raised as much as poflible (See p. 25, 26,): whereas, both when he was going against a giant, and retu ning from the conqueft, nothing was more natural, than to depress both,

*This friendship is thus fet forth in the facred text: The foul of Jonathan was knit with the foul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own foul. And again Jonathan and David made (or, as it is in the Hebrew, cut) a covenant, because he loved him as his own foul.

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