XV. Samuel's appearance was a contri- LET. When king Balak had recourfe to forceries and divinations, hoping to procure fome relief, or fair promifes at least from them, God himfelf interpofed, and fo overruled Balaam and all his divinations, that Balak could obtain no favourable answer from them, but quite the reverfe.* In like manner, when king Ahaziah had fent to confult Baalzebub, the dæmon of Ekron, to know whether Numb. xx111. XV. LET. he fhould recover of the fickness he then lay under, hoping, no doubt, to obtain a favourable answer there, as probably he might have done; God himself took care to anticipate the answer by Elijah the prophet, who affured the meffengers, meeting them by the way, that their mafter Ahaziah should not recover, but should furely die.* Thus, probably, was it in the cafe of Saul: when he hoped for a kind anfwer from Samuel, and, it is likely, would have had a very favourable one from fome pretended Samuel, God was pleased to disappoint both the forceress and him, by fending the true Samuel, with a true and faithful meffage, quite contrary to what the woman and Saul had expected: 2 Kings 1. which which fo confounded and difordered LET. him, that he instantly fell into a swoon, and could no longer bear up against the bitter agonies of his mind. The fenfe of the Jewish church, about 300 years before Chrift, is given by the author of the book of Ecclefiafticus, when, fpeaking of Samuel, he says thus-" After his death "he prophefied, and shewed the king "his end, and lifted up his voice from "the earth in prophecy, to blot out "the wickedness of the people." This author plainly enough supposed, that it was Samuel himself who appeared in person, and prophefied to king Saul. Ecclus. XLVI. 20. XV. LET. XVI. LETTER XVI. WE E come now to fome obfervations on the character and conduct of David. And here, the extracts are more fcanty, than one fhould have expected, from Mers. Bayle, Morgan, and Co. or rather from the last retailer of this kind of ware, the Hiftorian of the man after God's own beart. P. 21. David is fcoffed at for his cruelty towards the Ammonites, fhewn by" putting them under faws "and under harrows of iron," &c.* Whatever the words in the original 2 Sam. xii. 29. may XVI. may fignify, it feems but reasonable LET. to conclude, that if David inflicted on thefe people punishments extraordinarily fevere, there must have been an extraordinary caufe. We read in the book of Judges, that the men of Judah "purfued after Adonibezek, "and caught him, and cut off his "thumbs and his great toes." Had nothing more been related, this would have appeared a ftrange inftance of favage and wanton barbarity. But what fays the fuffering prince himfelf?" Threefcore and ten kings 66 having their thumbs and great toes "cut off, gathered their meat under my table; as I have done, fo God "hath requited me."* The cruelties. practised by the Ammonites upon others might be returned, by the just * Judg. 1. 6, 7. |