THE narration is fhort and uncircumftantial: but, as I humbly apprehend, the matter was thus:

SAUL, to prevent all delufion, would not tell the Pythone's whom he would have raised, until he brought her to the very cell * or place of her incantations; and then he told her, he would have Samuel called up to him. And the inftant he faid this, fhe, looking into her cell, faw Samuel; and seeing him so unexpectedly, and without the aid of her art, she was affrighted, and cried out: and the king, upon enquiry, hearing that it was an old man with a mantle, believed it was Samuel fhe faw; and ftraitway going to the cell, and perceiving † the prophet, did him obeifance. Immediately Samuel asked him why he had difquieted him, to bring him up ? (Will not this ground a prefumption, that the Pythones had not disturbed him by her incantations? for if she had, the question had been more naturally directed to her)

* For I believe it can be no doubt, that perfons of that character had, all, places peculiarly fet apart for those accurfed rites; and we have reafon to believe, from the xxixth of Isaiah, ver. 4. that they were caverns or cells under-ground.

†The original word fignifies knowing, and sometimes Seeing.

To

To which Saul anfwered, That he was fore distressed; for the Philistines warred against him; and GOD had forfaken him, and would neither anfwer him by dreams, nor prophets: Therefore (fays he) I have called unto thee, that thou mayst make known unto me what I shall do.

Then faid Samuel, Wherefore then doft thou ask of me; Seeing the Lord is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy? And the Lord hath done for himself, as he spake by me; for the Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand, and given it to thy neighbour, even unto David: because thou obeyedft not the voice of the Lord, nor executedft his fierce wrath upon Amalek: therefore hath the Lord done this thing unto thee this day.

In this we see the prophet foretells, that Saul should that day be ftript of the kingdom; and that the kingdom should be divided, and given to David. Then follows, what nothing but infinite and unerring prescience could predict; an exact, minute,

* Saul expreffes himself here in the fame terms that David makes ufe of to fignify his praying to God. Which perfuades me, that Saul invoked him, as fome deluded christians do faints and angels.

precife account of all the circumstances of the then depending event: Moreover, the Lord will alfo deliver Ifrael, with thee, unto the Philistines; and to-morrow shalt thou and tby fons be with me: and also the camp of Ifrael fhall the Lord deliver into the bands of the Philiftines.

I OWN, I am aftonished at the inattention (fhall I call it?) or impiety, or both, of those criticks and commentators, who could afcribe this prediction to the fagacity of an impoftor, or even of the devil. I shall take a proper time to refute them; and, in the mean time, go on with my history.

WHEN Saul heard this dreadful fentence, pronounced upon himself, his family, and his people, the terror of it ftruck him to the heart; and he hafted to get away from that fatal place but as he went, his fears operating upon a mind weakened with guilt, and upon a body exhausted with fatigue and fasting, he loft all power of motion, and fell at his full length upon the floor. The woman feeing this, ran up to him, and, finding the diftreffed and weak condition he was in, endeavoured to perfuade him, as well as fhe could, to take fome fuftenance: which he

abfo

abfolutely refused. Then, calling his fervants to her aid, they all, in a manner, compelled him to confent: So be arofe from the earth; and fat upon the bed. And the woman had fat calf in the house, and she hated and killed it; and took flour and kneaded it, and did bake unleavened bread thereof; and she brought it before Saul, and before his fervants; and they did eat. Then they rofe up; and went away that night.

WHAT remorse, what despair, what defo lation of mind, what horrors of guilt, what terrors and anticipations of divine vengeance, haunted him by the way; may no reader of this history ever learn from his own experience!

CHAP. XXIII.

Other Opinions upon this Head

I

examined.

FIND many learned men of a dif ferent opinion from me, in relation to the reality of Samuel's appearance on this

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осса

:

occasion some imagining, that it was an evil spirit that now appeared unto Saul; and others, that the whole was the work of imposture.

I SHALL give my reasons; and the reader will judge for himself.

IN the first place, then, I readily agree with one party of those that differ from me, that neither this Pythonefs, nor all the devils in hell, could raise up Samuel; nor is there one tittle in the whole narration to fupport or countenance fuch a perfuafion: but I differ entirely from them, in fuppofing all this the work of a juggler.

ift, BECAUSE I can fee nothing ascribed, in this relation, to Samuel, which is not entirely out of character in an impoftor, or absolutely out of the power of the subtilest impoftor that ever lived. And,

2dly, BECAUSE I have as good an opinion of the author of this hiftory, his ability, his integrity, his knowledge of what he wrote about, and his undefigning to deceive, as I can have of any man that ever commented or criticized upon it: and therefore, when he gives me to understand, that the woman faw Samuel, I abfolutely believe that he did. ALLOW