an affurance, that all such as are so devoted, are the immediate care of Almighty God; as all those of a contrary character are his abhorrence, and the fure marks of his vengeance. And furely this pfalm, confidered in this light, is one of the nobleft, the bestturned, and best-judged, and beft-adapted compofitions that ever were penned *.

WHETHER Mr. Bayle be fufficiently juftified, in calling this company a troop of banditti, (that is ruffians, robbers, and murderers)

* He begins, by encouraging them to piety, and gratitude to God, from his own example: I will alway give thanks unto the Lord: his praife shall ever be in my mouth. My foul ball make her boaft in the Lord: the humble fhall hear thereof, and be glad. O praise the Lord with me: and let us magnify his name together. I fought the Lord, and he heard me yea, he delivered me out of all my fear. They had an eye unto him, and were lightned and their faces were not afhamed. Lo, the poor crieth, and the Lord beareth him: yea, and faveth him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord tarrieth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them. He then exhorts others to make trial of the fame mercies; to learn the goodness of God, from their own experience. O tafte and fee how gracious the Lord is: bleffed is the man that trufteth in him. O fear the Lord, ye that are his faints: for they that fear him lack nothing. He then affures them, that ftrength and magnanimity are no fecurities from want and diftrefs; whereas truft and confidence in God, is a never-failing fource of every thing that is good: The lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they who feek the Lord, shall want no manner of thing that is good. After which, he fums up all in a moft pathetick and beautiful exhortation to piety, to virtue, and to confidence

derers) and confidering them in the fame light with the affociates of Catiline, the candid reader will judge for himself.

In this fituation David's first care was, to place his father and his mother in safety under the protection of the king of Moab, the chief of those princes which were at enmity with Saul; which he had the more reason to hope for, as being defcended from Ruth, a woman of that nation, and supposed of the royal family.

fidence in God; in full affurance, that as he was the guardian and true protector of virtue in diftrefs, fo was he the unerring observer and steady avenger of wickednefs: Come, ye children, and hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is he that lufteth to live, and would fain fee good days? Keep thỳ tongue from evil, and thy lips that they speak no guile, Efchew evil, and do good: feek peace, and enfué it. The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears aré open unto their prayers. The countenance of the Lord iš against them that do evil to root out the remembrance of The righteous cry, and the Lord them from the earth. beareth them: and delivereth them out of all their troubles. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a contrite heart : and will fave fuch as be of an humble fpirit. Great are the troubles of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of all. He keepeth all his bones: fo that not one of them is broken. But misfortune shall flay the ungodly? and they that hate the righteous fhall be defolate. The Lord delivereth the fouls of his fervants: and all they that put their trust in him shall not be deftitute.

THE

THE king's refidence was at Mizpeh, a strong fortress, where David's parents continued all the time he was in the hold.

His address to the king on this occasion, his refignation, and his dependence upon GOD, are all very remarkable: And he faid unto the king, Let my father and my mother, I pray thee, come forth, and be with you until I know what God will do for me. He could not bear, that his aged parents fhould be tied to a cold cave, and a perilous confinement, exposed to all the hardships of a siege, to dearths, to damps, and dangers of various kinds; and therefore he begs leave of the king to take them from thence, and place them under his protection. To say the truth, it were hard to determine which was most confpicuous, his piety to GOD, or to his parents, on this occafion.

THE king received them graciously and honourably, and lodged them in fome of the apartments of his court; for this feems plainly implied, where the text tells us, that he brought them before the king of Moab, (that is, into his prefence) and they dwelt with him all the while that David was in the bold.

CHAP. XIII.

David flies to the Foreft of Hareth : His Employment there. Saul's Impatience for Revenge finely painted in the Text. The Priests at Nob massacred.

Ho

O W long David continued after this in the cave of Adullam, is not faid. We only know, that he left it, upon the monition of the prophet Gad; whom GOD seems to have raised up at this time on purpofe for his fupport: Abide not in the hold (faid the prophet to him): Depart, and get thee into the land of Judah. GOD had other works and other trials to exercise him in, and therefore he would suffer him to lie no longer buried in a cave. Then David departed, and went into the foreft of Hareth.

Of this forest, Rabbi Solomon says, (I prefume, upon the credit of ancient tradition) that being before dry, barren, and impaffable, it now became fruitful and irriguous; and that David alludes to this in the xxiiid pfalm, where he confiders GOD as his Shepherd,

who

who would, in his own time, lead him into fruitful pastures; and 'till then, he was safe, under his protection, in the most dangerous. fcenes *

WHEN he calls GoD his Shepherd, he plainly implies, that he followed where-ever it pleased GOD to guide him; alluding to the practice of the Afiatick thepherds, who do not drive, but lead their flocks; which are trained to follow them, as David evidently did the guidance of GOD at this time.

THIS, I think, is the most rational comment transmitted to us by the Rabbins.

AND furely it is not impoffible, but that this which was before a barren defart, might now, by a fingular bleffing from GOD upon the industry of David, and his companions, become a green pafture. This conduct, and, in all probability, alluding to this very time, he himself numbers among those wonders which GOD doth for the children of men, pfal.cvii. that he maketh water-springs of a dry ground, and there he fetteth the hungry, that they may build them a city to dwell in: that

*He fhall feed me in a green pasture, and lead me forth befide the waters of comfort. - Tea, though I walk through the valley of the fhadow of death, I will fear no evil.