all those Desarts had entertained the like design but were as happily prevented as the treacherous Keylites Nabal the churl whose flocks had been protected by him from all Thieves and Robbers refused to gratifie him with some part of that superfluity which was provided for his Sheerers And though his Brethren and some few of his next Relations had repaired unto him yet generally his friends and kindred look upon him as a man forlorn whom they could neither privately supply without manifest danger nor openly relieve without certain ruine 7. And yet he was not so deserted but that some companies resorted to him from all parts of the Realm either to mend their own condition or to sweeten his Not altogether men of such desperate fortunes as Nabal the old churl reported and perhaps believed Some of them questionless might be persons no less eminent both for place and quality as for their good affections to him though generally they were as the Scripture telleth us either is debt or discontent or some great distress that is to say such as were either discontented with the Tyranny of the present Government or were indebted to some cruel and unmerciful creditors from whom they could expect no favour and as little Justice or in a word were otherwise distressed upon some suspition that they were wedded to the Interest of the son of Iess The taking of these few Volunteers for a guard to his person is publiquely declared to be the Levying of a War against the King and all the Forces of the Realm must be forthwith armed to suppress those men who were not able to withstand the twelfth part of a Tribe This drives him once again to the Court of Akish where he found better entertainment then he did before because he came accompanyed with a Train of couragious followers from whom the Barbarous King assured himself of no mean assistance in his next Wars against his Neighbours without excepting those of the house of Israel 8. But now the Tide begins to turn and a strong floud of mercies of flow in upon him As there is no deep Valley but neer some high Mountain so neer unto this Vale of Misery was a Hill of Mercy and we shall see him climb the top of it without any great difficulty Akish beholds him as a person so depressed and injured by the power of Saul that no reconciliation could be made between them and thereupon bestows upon him the strong Town of Ziglag to serve for him and his adherents as a City of Refuge to which his party might resort upon all occasions And for his better welcome thither the news of Saul's uncomfortable but unpittied death is swiftly posted to him on the wing of Fame which opened the first passage to him for the Crown of Israel For now there dayly came unto him many men of note and merit whose names are on record in the Book of Chronicles affirmed there to be mighty men experienced in the use of Arms Captains of Hundreds and of Thousands and such as seemed to carry Victory in their very countenances And they came thither in such numbers as they made up a great Host like the Host of God as the Scripture calls it that is to say a puissant and mighty Army fit for the undertaking of the noblest actions By whose incouragement but chiefly at the instigation of the men of Iudah who had repaired to Ziglag amongst the rest he goes up to Hebron the Principal City of that Tribe having first taken Gods direction commission with him There he is cheerfully received and anointed King King only over Iudah his own native Tribe the rest of Israel still adhering to the house of Saul For Abner Captain of Saul's Host and one as neer to him in bloud as in place and power had gained so far upon the Military men that they agreed to set the Crown upon the head of Ishbosheth the eldest of Saul's Sons which survived his Father And this he did not on design to divide the Kingdom to break it into two and set up Scepter against Scepter as Ieroboam and on the death of Solomon but with a purpose to compel the men of Iudah by force of Arms to cast off David to unite themselves to the rest of Israel and all together to be subject to a Prince of the house of Saul A Prince indeed of no great parts affirmed to be a person of a dull and unactive spirit more given to ease and pleasures then to deeds of Arms magis extra vitia quam cum virtutibus in the words of Tacitus but fit enough to bear the Title of a King whilest Abner and the Souldiers managed all affairs as to them seems best 9. This brings new troubles upon David though they held not long A breach is made between the new King and that great Commander Who being impatient of rebuke and netled with some words which escaped his Master resolves upon delivering the whose Kingdom to the hands of David to which end he maintains a Treaty with him and concludes the business But before all things could be setled the Titulary King is murthered by the two sons of Rimmon both of them Captains in his Army both Natives of the Tribe of Benjamin his Fathers Tribe and possibly both of them of some kindred and relation to him This puts an end unto the war the west of Israel seconding the Tribe of Iudah and altogether calling upon David to accept the Government To which end they annoynt him the third time and own him by that Sacred Ceremony for their Soveraign Prince And such as Prince as must have somewhat in him of the Priest and the Prophet also For Rex est mixta persona cum Sacerdote as our Lawyers tels us and capable on that account of the Sacred Unction if some of our Masters of the Ceremonies have not been mistaken But so it was that those of Benjamin could not so easily forget their late pretentions to the Crown of Israel which they had held successively under two great Princes and therefore came not up to Hebron with the rest of the Tribes to confer the Kingdom upon David but to obtain it for themselves as Iosephus telleth us A secret not to be concealed from David a discerning Prince and one that was well studied in his own concernments Who therefore to cut off their hopes and prevent their practises resolves to get into his hands the strong City of Sion Which standing in a corner of the Tribe of Benjamin might serve for a sufficient bridle to hold them in if they should practise any thing against his quiet for the time to come And being afterward inlarged at the charge of David by taking in the City of Salim and building all from Millo inward as the Scripture telleth us he caused it to be called Hierusalem peopled it with such Families as he might confide in and made
it from thenceforth the chief seat of his Royal Residence Never till now was David setled in the Kingdom and now he growes considerable in the eyes of all forain Princes who court him and send presents to him and trie all means imaginable to obtain his favour 10. And thus the Scepter promised to the Tribe of Iudah is put into the hands of David the Son of Iesse one of the chief Princes of that Tribe And all this done at such a time when they had all the reason in the world to fear the contrary The Government having passed through many Tribes from Moses of the race of Levi to Ioshua the Son of Nun of the seed of Ephraim and so from one Tribe to another until it came to Saul of the stock of Benjamin And this may seem to have been done for these reasons chiefly First That the Tribe of Iudah might not claim the Kingdom otherwise then by Gods donation as possibly they might have done if they had entred on the Government upon the death of Moses by any Military Vote or Popular election or in relation to that Primogeniture which was vested in them by the last Will and Testament of their Father Iacob And 2ly It was so done that the people being sensible of the inconveniences of the former Government the miseries which they had indured in the times of Anarchie and the extremities which they had been reduced to in the Reign of Saul might with a greater cheerfulness imbrace a Prince of the Royal Family whom God had so miraculously preserved and commended to them 11. And it may seem to have been kept so long from David for two Reasons also First that he being trained up in the School of experience and hammered on the Anvile of Affliction might be the better qualified for mannaging all affairs of State then if he had been educated in the pride and pleasures of a Princes Court And Secondly it was so disposed of that being to be married to the Realm of Israel he might more passionately long to inâ—oy his Spouse then if she had cast her self into his imbraces at the first making of the Contract And this was done according to the custome of the Iewish Nation who use to place some fitting and convenient interval betwixt the Espousal and the Wedding for which St. Austin gives this reason Ne vilem habeat maritus datam quam non suspiravit sponsus dilatam for fear saith he lest otherwise the Bridegroom might despise her in the first fruition for whom he had not longed with some vehement passion But being longed for and long looked for they are met at last to the full comfort of both parties the pleasure of Almighty God and the joy of the Nation 12. Such was Gods kindness unto David expressed in his marvellous preservation when he was compassed round about with invincible dangers his exaltation to the Throne from keeping sheep to be the Shepherd of his people and therefore not a kindeness a great kindeness only but misericordia mirabilis in St. Hieroms reading a marvellous great kindeness as my Text assures me For what particular is there in all this kindeness which is not marvellous mirabile in oculis nostris as marvellous in our eyes as it was in his And not a marvellous kindeness only but miserecordia mirifica a kindness which wrought wonders as Tremelius reads it What can it else be thought but a singular miracle that God should for so many years preserve this poor fugitive Prince both from the treachery of his friends and the power of his enemies that he should finde more favour in the Land of Moab then he durst hope for in the place of his birth and breeding that men from all parts of the Kingdom should resort unto him when he had neither Town of War to secure their persons nor any stock of money and provisions to maintain their Families That Akish and the men of Gath should lay aside their animosities against him for the death of Goliah and put into his hands a piece of such strength and consequence as might inable him to create unto them a far greater mischief 13. And was it not as great a miracle if it were not greater that Saul should come to such a miserable and calamitous end without ingaging David in a ruinous and destructive War against those men which were designed to be his Subjects That God should so incline the hearts of the men of Iudah as to accept him for their King and thereby to involve themselves in a tedious War when all the rest of the Tribes adhered still to Abner and the Sons of Saul That God was pleased to make to use of any of Davids party for the destruction of Sauls house but acted that great work by Abner and the Sons of 〈◊〉 being the Kings near kinsmen and his chief Commanders That all the Tribes of Israel should unite together to set and Crown upon his head whom they had formerly pursued from one place to another till they had forced him to take Sanctuary in a forain Nation That all this should be done without noyse or trouble more then the noyse of joyful shouts and acclamations and the short trouble of an easie though a martial progress That there should be so few men killed on either side between the death of Saul and the Crowning of David and that God should put into his hands the strong Fort of Sion which neither Saul nor any of the Judges nor Ioshua himself nor Gideon nor Ieptha Duo Fulmina belli the veriest Thunder-bolts of War had before attempted 14. And yet the kindeness was the greater and the more miraculous considering that it was extended to spiritual mercies and not confined to temporal preservations and external benefits For notwithstanding the horrid murther of Abimelech the terrible massacre of so many Priests and the unmerciful sacking of the City of Nob Abiathar the next High-priest and many others doubtless of that Sacred Order joyned themselves unto him Abiathar was too great a person and too well beloved not to bring some attendants with him and who more like to bear him company then the Priests and Levites Not so much out of care to preserve themselves as to do service unto him whom the Lord had chosen By means whereof not only he but all his followers were instructed in the things of God and thereby kept from-being any way infected with those gross Idolatries which were predominant in Moab and the Court of Gath. Than which there could be nothing more conducible to his future advancement or which could more indear him to the Iewish Nation when they came once to be assured that neither flatteries could intice him nor great threats affright him nor hope of promised aid allure him from standing fast to the Religion of his Fathers to the Law of Moses And more then so Abiathar brought along with him the sacred Ephod by which the High-priest used to consult with
26. Et De quo loquitur Propheta vel populus fidelis And in this place may be asked in the Eunuch's words Of whom here speaks the Prophet either of himself or of some other Not of himself alone saith Cassianus an old Christian Writer but in behalf of all Gods children of his faithful servants The Books of Psalms is so composed saith Athanasius that every man may read his own Story in them and find therein his own particular concernments and that as punctually as if the purpose of the Psalm had been addressed and fitted only unto his occasions Let it be so and then Who may not find the quality of our late afflictions and our deliverance together in this present Psalm and read the state of our affairs in the Story of David and then draw down an easie and familiar parallel betwixt the Persons and the mercies and the places too A parallel right worthy of the pen of Plutarch if any such were found amongst us but such as seems to have been done in part already by laying before you David's troubles and his great deliverance And therefore passing by those things which apply themselves and those in which the Story of both Princes seems to make but one we will observe the method which is used by Plutarch in laying down the points in which they differ or those wherein one party seems to have preheminence above the other 27. First then It may be truly said of our English David as Commodus not without vain-glory did affirm of himself Quem Primum Sol Principem hominem vidit that he was born a Prince and that the Sun did never otherwise behold him then as Heir to a Kingdom Which cannot be affirmed of David nor of David's Ancestors though all of them might live in expectation of obtaining that Scepter which had been promised to that Tribe in the person of Iudah And as his Birth was higher so his Fall was lower and his afflictions so much greater and the more insupportable because he was more tenderly bred and less able to bear them Nay they were greater in themselves then the heavyest sorrows that ever fell upon David in the time of his troubles who kept himself most commonly unto those retreats which his own Countrey did afford him and when he was compelled to retire to Moab or to sojourn in the Realm of Gath neither Saul's malice nor his power did pursue him there But so it was not in the case of our Royal Exile Driven out of all the Forts and Cities of his own Dominions by the power of his Enemies and by their practises not suffered to remain in France nor to be entertained in Holland compelled to shift from one Imperial City to another from the Higher to the Lower Germany but pursued in all seldom nor never free from their trains and treacheries who would not think themselves secure but in his destruction Sic aquilam fugiunt trepidae Columbae Never was Patridge flown at with a swifter wing by a well-train'd Falcon nor game more hotly followed by the fiercest Hounds than this poor Prince was chased by those mighty Hunters those Nimrods those Robusti Venatores as the Scripture calls them who had the building of that Babel which they raised amongst us They had their cunning Lime-hounds to draw Dry-foot after him and plyed the chase with all the Kennil at his Heels when the Hunt was up not with a purpose to call off when they had breathed their Horses or tryed their Dogs but with a merciless retreat to hunt him down and then to wash their cruel and accursed hands in his precious bloud as is accustomed in the fall of a Buck of Stagg 28. And as the dangers which accompanyed our English David were more transcendent in respect of his Sacred Person so were they far more grievous to him in respect of his party whose tears he put into his bottles whose stripes he bare on his own body and whose calamities did more afflict his righteous Soul then his own misfortunes And if we look upon his Party with an equal eye we shall soon find them to have suffered more and far heavier pressures in his cause and quarrel then all the Hebrew Nations did for the sake of David We read indeed of 85. Priests slaughtered by the cruelty and command of Saul But we may read of more than twenty times that number of our Regular Clergy all the Bishops Deans and Dignitaries and almost all the Heads of Houses imprisoned plundered sequestred ejected their wives and children miserably turn'd out of doors some of them left for dead in the open streets And why all this but for adhering to his Majesty and his Fathers house and to the Laws and the Religion here established and for no crime else But then again we do not read of any man of quality in the Tribes of Israel condemned and executed or otherwise deprived of Lands and Liberties for his well wishing unto David Amongst us nothing was more common than the imprisoning of our choisest and most able Gentry selling the Goods confiscating the Lands and calling those in question for their very lives whose known fidelity was imputed to them for their only crime For now we had attained to that height of wretchedness that Loyalty must pass for Treason and Treason must be Unicum eorum crimen quivacabant crimine as in the worst and most deplorable condition of the Roman Empire And thereupon it was concluded in the School of Tyrannus that they who were so prodigal of their Money Arms and Victuals to another man especially to one marked out for ruine by their mighty Masters should have no bread to feed their Families or money to maintain themselves or other Arms but Prayers and Tears to save them from the violence of unjust Oppression even from Death it self 29. Besides it might be some alleviation unto David's followers to suffer by the hands of a lawful King a King set over them by God by the Lord himself whose Power they were not to resist whose Person was too Sacred and his Authority too transcendent to be called in question But it must be a torment unexpressible to a generous spirit to be trode underfoot by an Adoni-bezek to have their lives and Vineyards taken from them at the will of an Ahab to see the Bramble Reign as King over all the Trees our tallest Oakes felled down by a shrub of yesterday and all the goodly Cedars of the Church grubbed up to make room for a stinking Elder 30. In the next place as the calamities which fell upon our English David and his faithful followers were more in number and more grievous then all those which had been suffered by the other so was the kindness of the Lord more marvellous in his preservation the hand of God more visible in his Restitution And first the kindness was more marvellous in his Preservation because we do not find that David ever hazarded his own