VER. 12.

THEY (that is, all nations) compaffed me about like bees

THEY are quenched as the fire of thorns *. THE reader has here, in miniature, two of the finest images in Homer: which, if his curiofity demands to be gratified, he will find illustrated and inlarged in the second book of the Iliad. The firft of them ftands thus tranfcribed from Mr. Pope's tranflation:

The follwing hoft

Pour'd forth in millions, darken all the coaft.
As from fome rocky cleft, the shepherd fees
Cluftring in heaps on heaps, the driving bees;
Rolling and blackning, fwarms fucceeding
fwarms;

With deeper murmurs, and more hoarfe alarms:
Dusky they spread, a clofe embody'd croud;
And o'er the vale defcends the living cloud:
So from the tents and fhips, &c.

Ver. 209, &c.

THE next is in the fame book, Ver. 534, &c.

As on fome mountain, thro' the lofty grove,
The crackling flames afcend, and blaze above
The fires expanding, as the winds arife,
Shoot their long beams, and kindle half the skies:

The reader will please to obferve, that these images are, by a notorious blunder in the tranflator of the reading Pfalms, connected as if they were but one.

So

So from the polish'd arms, and brazen fhields, A gleamy fplendor flash'd along the fields. Not lefs their number, &c.

THE candid reader will obferve, that here the idea of an army's refembling a flaming fire, is common both to Homer and David: but the idea of that fire being quenched (when the army was conquered) is peculiar to David.

CHA P. X.

DAVID attempts to remove the Ark to Sion: and at last fucceeds.

WHA

The

HAT the confequences of these two total defeats of the Philiftine confederates were, is no-where explicitly related in Scripture: more than this, that the fame of David went out into all lands, and the Lord brought the fear of him upon all nations. great victories which GOD had given him, by fo fignal an interpofition in his favour, naturally tended to strike a terror of him into all the nations, far and nears and it is reasonable to believe, that the first effect of it was, the flight of the Philistines from thofe Ifraelite cities, which they had seized, upon the death of Saul: and that the Ifraelites gained at least as much by thefe conquefts, as they loft by the defeat of Gilboa, For we find foon after, that David was at reft from all his enemies round about; and it B b 4

is

is not natural to believe, that he could be at reft before he had recovered all thofe Ifraelite cities, which the Philistines had poffeffed themfelves of, after that defeat.

WE learn from the xiiith chapter of the first book of Chronicles, that as foon as David was in quiet poffeffion of the fort of Sion, the first confultation he held with the representatives of his people, was, about removing the ark from Kirjath-jearim to Sion. David well underftood, of what infinite importance it was, to have an authentic symbol, and fure pledge, of the divine presence, depofited in his capital, to which to have folemn and public recourie, upon all emergencies, and great occafions.

SAUL was not bleffed with this right way of thinking, which the people well knew. However, David, in his exhortation to them on this occafion, guards against all cenfure of that prince; and only puts them in mind, that they had not, for fome time paft, been fo folicitous as they ought, to fecure to themselves this blefling: For (fays he) we inquired not at it in the days of Saul, as if the guilt of that omiffion were rather to be placed to their own ac

count.

THE affembly agreed to the proposal, with one confent; and when GOD, upon an humble application made to him by the high-prieft, concurred with them, a refolution was taken, to fun mon all the priests and Levites, and principal men of the whole nation, to attend the folemnity, at a time appointed. And the na

ture and reason of the thing incline me to believe, with the very learned primate Usher, that it was on the enfuing fabbatical year.

So much was David's heart fet upon this point, that it appears from the 132d Pfalm, that, upon the taking of Sion, he had made a folemn vow to GOD, not to take so much as one night's reft, nay not fo much as to put his foot within his doors, till he had fixed upon a proper place, on which to depofit the tabernacle of GOD.

THE providence of GOD had no fooner fettled him in his kingdom, than he took a folemn refolution of fettling the fervice of God in it; well knowing, that purity and fincerity in his worship was the beft and only fure ftay of his own power, and his people's profperity. A refolution truly wife! and worthy the father of that bleffed Redeemer (according to the flesh) who commanded in his Gofpel, Seek ye first the kingdom of GOD, and his righteousness, and all thefe (inferior, earthly) things fhall be added unto you: and, accordingly, this, as I now obferved, was the principal and exprefs purpose of the first convention of his people, to remove and fettle the ark at Sion; and with that the worship of GOD, in all its folemnity.

pur

BUT, before the time appointed for this pofe arrived, the Philistines, and neighbour nations, made the confederacy and incurfions related in the last chapter.

As foon as these were over, David, in purfuance of the refolution before agreed to with

his people, again fummoned all Ifrael, the princes and rulers of the people, with the priests and Levites, from Sihor of Egypt to Hemath, that is, from the Nile to the fountains of Jordan, to attend this great folemnity: And from this fummons we may occafionally conclude, that all this tract of country was now in the poffef fion of Ifrael.

ACCORDINGLY the high-prieft, chief priests, princes, rulers, and leaders of every tribe, in a word, the nobility, clergy, and magiftracy of the whole kingdom, affembled in one body, to the number of thirty thousand men and David, attended by the nobility * of Judah, marched at their head, to bring up the ark from Kirjath-jearim; that ark, which was peculiarly diftinguished and dignified by the name of the ark of God, whofe name is called by the Name of the Lord of hosts, that dwelleth between the cherubims.

THIS, I think, may fairly be confidered, as the nobleft affembly that was ever convened, and met together, in any nation: and we shall form fome notion of it, if we fuppofe the king of Great Britain, at the head of the whole nobility of the realm, all the archbishops, bishops, deans, and chapters of the church, all the choirs of all the cathedrals of his dominions, doubled; all the judges, benchers, and ferjeants of the law, all the representatives of the people in parliament, all the civil magiftracy of the kingdom, and all the officers of the

* So the text fhould be rendered, z Sam. vi. 2. The vulgate fays, The men of Judah.

militia,