i. to the end The next day, when the Philistines came to take a view of the field of battle, finding From 1. Sam. the bodies of Saul and his sons among the slain, they stripped them of their armour, cut off their heads, and sent expresses to every place of their victory. * Their armour they sent to the temple of Ashtaroth, their heads they fixed up in the temple of Dagon, and their bodies they hung upon gibbets against the walls of Bethshan. But the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead, hearing of this indignity, and retaining a grateful sense of the services Saul had done them, sent a party of their best soldiers by night, who took down their bodies, and brought them away to Jabesh, where the people first † burnt the remains of their flesh; next honourably interred their bones and ashes in a grove that was near their city; and then, for the space of +2 seven days, fasted, and made great lamentation for them. 86 THE OBJECTION. THOUGH the first book of Samuel (whoever its author was) contains a great variety of history, and is pregnant with many remarkable transactions; yet whoever takes an accurate survey of them, will find them so loaded with absurdities and contradictions, as utterly destroy their credibility. For whatever motives the Israelites might have for carrying the ark along with them to the war, if the real presence of God went along with it, we can hardly conceive how the Philistines could possibly take it captive; and if there was no Divine power attending it, how it came to work those wonders wherever it abode, and to inflict upon its enemies such sore punishments for their detention of it. Its enemies indeed, (upon this supposition) had cause enough to endeavour to get rid of it; but it is a matter of some admiration, why the Israelites, when they had it returned to them, did not carry it directly to Shiloh, and there reposite it in the tabernacle, its proper habitation. It looks indeed, as if they were afraid of it, and willing to shift it from one to another, after it had made such havoc among the poor people of Bethshemesh, as to destroy above fifty thousand of them, an incredible number! merely We have taken notice before, that it was an ancient custom among sundry nations, to hang up the arms, and other spoils taken from the enemy, in the temples of their gods, as trophies and monuments of their victory; and need only remark here, that the same custom prevailed among the Greeks and Romans, as appears from this passage of Virgil. Multaque prætereà sacris in postibus arma, Captivi pendent currus, curvæque secures, Et crista capitum, et portarum ingentia claustra Spiculaque, clypeique, ereptaque rostra carinis. Eneid vii. + It is certain that the usage among the Hebrews was not to burn, but to embalm the bodies of their dead with aromatic spices; but in this case the people of Jabesh might act otherwise, either because the bodies of Saul and his sons were by this time so dried or corrupted, that they were not fit to be embalmed; or because they were apprehensive, that if they should embalm them, and so bury them, the people of Bethshan might at one time or other come and dig them up, and fix them against their walls again; and there Calmet's and Le Clerc's Commentaries. It seems a little strange, that we nowhere read of any general mourning that was made for Saul and his sons who died in battle; but the national troubles which followed upon his death, might perhaps be an obstruction to this. David and his men mourned but one day for Saul: And therefore, when it is said of the Jabeshites, that they fasted seven days, their fasting must not be understood in a strict sense, as if they ate nothing all this time, but in a more large and general signification, as it is used both in sacred and profane writers, viz. that they lived very abstemiously, ate little, and that seldom, and that but mean food, and instead of wine drank water only; Calmet Commentary, and Pool's Annotations. A. M. 2888, for presuming to peep into it, though they had received it with the greatest respect &c. or 4301. and congratulations but just before. Ant. Chris. 1116, &c. or 1110. The Israelites, it must be owned, were, upon several accounts, a very rebellious people; but it is difficult to conceive where their great iniquity lay in desiring a king, as other nations had; especially since Samuel's sons ruled so badly, and God, in his great wisdom, had pre-ordained that, when they came into the promised land, their government should be regal. This king, we understand, was to be elected by God; but it looks a little envious, and as if he had given them a king in his wrath, to make choice of one out of the meanest of all the tribes, and for no other good qualification, that we read of, but merely the tallness of his stature. The state and dignity, however, to which he was advanced, was not so great, since, after his election, we find him (a) acting in the capacity of a shepherd; nor was his enjoyment of the throne attended with much felicity, since God turned his enemy so soon, and rejected him for not destroying the whole race of the Amalekites. (b) God's command indeed, to have every thing belonging to Amalek, men and women, infants and sucklings, oxen and sheep, camels and asses, utterly destroyed, for an offence done four hundred years before, and to prosecute revenge upon a people, whose only crime was, their being the unhappy descendants of those who had originally done it; seems to bear as hard upon the justice and goodness of God, as his sending Samuel to Bethlehem to anoint David king, and bidding him, at the same time, pretend that he came only to offer a sacrifice, reflects upon his truth and veracity. It may very well be questioned, however, by what authority Samuel could offer any sacrifice (since he was not of the sacerdotal order) on such altars as were prohibited, and in such places as were not appointed for these offices, to the manifest violation of God's laws: And much more may it be wondered at, that a man of his pacific character should fall upon a poor captive king, and cut him in pieces with his own hands, even in the presence of his own sovereign, who, out of his clemency, had thought proper to save him; and so set himself above the jurisdiction of God's anointed, and in the face of his authority. What Saul's particular distemper was, it is no easy matter to determine; but since the Scripture expresses it by (c) "an evil spirit from the Lord," it is difficult to conceive how David, by playing upon his harp, (even (d) though he might sing to it likewise) could ever be able to dispossess him. The power of music is confessedly great; and yet we find it had little or no effect upon Saul, since he still continued crazed and delirious. For to what other cause can we impute his (e) strange forgetfulness of David, who had been so frequently in his presence, and (f) found such favour in his sight; (g) whose attendance he had requested of his father, and whose service in curing his malady, he had requited with the honourable post of his armour-bearer; with whom (h) he had a conference but just before, and seen him both put on and off his armour; and, after all this, could any but a madman enquire of his general (who knew it seems as little as his master) (i) whose son this stripling was? Whether David himself was really delirious, or only pretended to be so when he came to the court of Achish, is a question that admits of some debate; but it seems as if he were not much better, when he made not only Gath, which was the capital of the Philistines, and the city where Goliah had dwelt, the place of his refuge, but (as if he meant on purpose to provoke the inhabitants thereof) took the sword of the champion along with him, whom he had so lately slain. Well was it for him, if, to secure him from harm, God deprived him of his senses at this juncture; for to extricate himself from a premunire he had voluntarily run into, by personating the madman, or pretending to be a (a) 1 Sam. xi. 5. (d) Joph's Jewish i. to the end. fool, was but a mean trick; as his opening an asylum afterwards, not for his own rela- From 1 Sam tions only, but for every one that was in debt, or distress, or discontent with the government, was certainly an unjust artifice. Saul certainly was his avowed enemy, and pursued him with implacable malice; and therefore it would have been much more excusable in him, if he had eased himself of this adversary, when Providence threw opportunities in his way, than to meditate the murder of Nabal and his family, (a) merely because he would not pay contributions to him and his gang of desperadoes: And though reservedness to an enemy may be very commendable, yet his deep dissimulation to Achish, when there was no occasion for it; his entering into league with the enemy of his country, joining his forces, and going to war with him, promising him great services, if once they came to action, and when he was desired to withdraw, parting with the utmost reluctance, are instances of such a base and perfidious spirit, as a brave man should rather chuse to die than be guilty of. (b) In a word, however, David may be called in Scripture," the man after God's own heart," yet in these, and several other instances, he is found sadly prevaricating, and much inferior to the character of Saul, who scorned to make use of any mean arts, even for the preservation of his life; who, instead of betaking himself to the enemies of God for shelter (as David did), chose voluntarily to die, rather than to fall into their hands; and (c) though he knew assuredly that he was to fall in the battle, yet persisted in his resolution to stand by his fate, rather than betray his army, or expose his royal dignity to scorn." In the fourth chapter of this book of Samuel, we read, that, upon a defeat which the ANSWER. Israelites had received from the Philistines, the elders of Israel advised together in council what might be the occasion of their ill success; "wherefore, say they, hath God smitten us to-day before the Philistines?" The justness of their cause, they thought, was enough to entitle them to God's favour, how wicked soever they were in their lives; and therefore, without any thoughts of amending these, they devised another expedient that would not fail of securing them victory: (d) "Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord, say they, out of Shiloh, that, when it comes among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies." (e) They had good reason to look upon the ark of the covenant as a certain token of the presence of God among them, and of his protection over them. They had had frequent experience of battles won by virtue of his presence, and lost in the absence of it; and whenever they had this token of the Divine assistance along with them, they always esteemed themselves invincible. They remembered the story of the walls of Jericho (ƒ) falling down by the power of this ark's seven times surrounding them. They had heard (g) of the defeat which their forefathers had suffered when they presumed to march against the Canaanites without their leader, and without this ark; and were fond enough to imagine, that God himself might be looked upon as overcome, if the Philistines should have the advantage, when the ark of his presence was with them. By this means, therefore, they thought to interest his honour in the war, and make him responsible (as it were) for any disaster that should befal them; and upon these motives it was that they sent for the ark. But because they presumed to send for it without ever consulting God, as they used to do upon all momentous affairs; because the iniquities of the people were become so enormous as not to deserve any longer the Divine Presence among them; and because the flagitiousness of the priests (who were killed in defending the ark) had for a long time called for some judgment upon them; that therefore his predictions concerning (a) 1 Sam. xxii. 2. Jewish History, lib. vi. cap. 14. (f) Josh. vi. 4. VOL. II. (b) Christianity as old as the Creation, p. 244. (c) Josephus's (e) Calmet's Commentary. Ant. Chris. 1116, &c. or 1110. A. M. 2988, the sons of Eli might be fulfilled, he permitted the ark to be taken, as thinking it more &c. or 4301. inconsistent with his honour to afford assistance to the wicked and presumptuous, than to admit of the profanation even of the most sacred things. What an affliction the loss of this ark was to the people of Israel, we may learn from the sad fate of Eli and his daughter-in-law, who both died for grief at the bare hearing of it; and therefore we may suppose, that a farther reason for God's permitting it, might be to bring his own people to a sense of their apostacy and ingratitude to him, when they came to consider what a damage they suffered in the departure of this symbol of his presence, which was deservedly esteemed (a) the glory of Israel. What afflictions the taking or withholding the ark brought upon the Philistines, the fall of their god Dagon, the mice, the emerods, the pestilence, and other sore judgments, do abundantly testify; and therefore we may suppose yet farther, that God's design in permitting this capture of the ark, was to demonstrate his power among the heathens, and to let the Philistines know, that his dominion reached every where; that he was equally the Lord both of the conquerors and conquered; and that the pretended deities whom they adored, in comparison of him, were of no avail. It was from an intent, therefore, to illustrate his Almighty Power, and not from any inability to preserve it, that God suffered this ark of the covenant to be taken; and though what the Jews call the Schechinah, or visible token of God's presence, which abode under the two cherubims, upon the propitiatory, or covering of the ark, in the shape of the cloud, might not be so apparent after it fell into the hands of the Philistines; yet that it had Divine and miraculous power attending it, is evident by their own confession, who, upon seeing the destruction that its presence had occasioned, do frankly declare, that (b) "the ark of the God of Israel should not abide with them, because his hand was sore upon them, and upon Dagon their god." It was a particular prohibition, (c) that not only the common people, but even the Levites themselves, should not dare to look into the ark, or any other of the holy utensils belonging to the service of God, upon pain of death; and the severity of this law will not seem so unreasonable, when it is considered, that in every nation it was always accounted a great profaneness, and frequently attended with exemplary punishments, for such as were not initiated, (d) to obtrude into the mysteries of religion; and that, if the Philistines, for their irreverence to the ark, were treated with less rigour than the Bethshemites, it was because the former were not instructed in the laws of God, nor obliged to observe them. It must be acknowledged, indeed, that there is a mistake in our translation, as well as in several others. Bethshemesh is a place of no great note in Sacred History, and (e) by Josephus it is called no more than a village; and therefore it is hardly conceiveable, how it could contain such a number as fifty thousand and threescore and ten inhabitants, or why God, who is goodness itself, should make such a slaughter among those who received his ark with so much joy, and testified their gladness by their oblation of sacrifices. To solve this difficulty, therefore, some have observed, that the words in the original, and according to their natural construction, stand thus :-He smote of the people threescore and ten men, fifty thousand men ; where there is plainly wanting some particle or other to make the sense complete. They observe further, that, if this is to be taken for a total sum, the order of the words is plainly inverted, and that the thousands should go before the inferior numbers, as is usual in all languages; and therefore since there is a manifest defect in the copy, they think it not amiss to supply it with the particle Mem, out of, which in many other instances is known to be omitted, and here makes the sense complete; viz. that of the people of Bethshemesh, for their irre (a) 1 Sam. iv. 22. (c) Numb. iv. 20. (d) Vide Huetü verence to the ark, he smote seventy men out of fifty thousand. For, though fifty thou- From 1 Sau sand men can hardly be supposed in so small a place; yet, upon hearing of the arrivali. to the end. of the ark, the country might flock in from other parts, and in a few days make up that number; and though, possibly, most of them might be guilty of the same profane rudeness, yet God, in his great clemency, might punish no more than seventy of them, and that on purpose to deter others from the like irreverence. For it is not unlikely, that these people might hold the ark in more contempt, since the time that it had been con-. quered (as it were), and led captive by their enemies; and, for this reason, God might the rather exert his vindictive arm, on purpose to teach them, that this symbol of his presence had lost none of its miraculous power, by the ill usage it had met with in its absence. Upon the removal of the ark from Bethshemesh, (a) it is not unlikely that there was a general assembly of the elders of Israel, and that, to prevent the like offence, the ceremony was performed with the greatest order and solemnity; but why it was not carried to Shiloh, and reposited in the tabernacle, the most probable opinion is, that, after the death of Eli, the Philistines had destroyed the place, and the tabernacle was removed from thence to Nob, where it continued until the death of Samuel. As Kirjathjearim therefore stood at no great distance, was a place of considerable strength, and had a remarkable eminence in it proper for the reception of the ark, thither it was ordered to be removed for the present, with a design, no doubt, to have it restored to its ancient seat at a convenient season: But, through the neglect of religion as well as the disturbance of the times, its removal was deferred from day to day; so that though David first brought it to the house of Obed-Edom, and then to his palace at Sion, yet we no where read † of its being replaced in the tabernacle any more. When Samuel was highly displeased with the elders of Israel for desiring a king, and thereupon applied himself for advice, the answer which God returned him was this: (b)" Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee; for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them." These are, no doubt, the words of an angry Sovereign, resenting the slight put upon his government and the indignity done to his person; and therefore, to give a full answer to the objection, we shall first consider the nature of the government they were under, and of that which they desired, and from thence deduce the several aggravations of their guilt, in being so importunate for a change. Josephus, (c) in his book against Apion, has these remarkable words; "Several nations have their several forms of government, and their diversities of customs. Some governments are committed to a single person, others to a certain number of select men, and others again to all the people in general; but our lawgiver (says he) has de (a) Calmet's Commentary. The future history of this sacred ark is this: After the building of the temple at Jerusalem, Solomon had it removed from Sion, into a proper place that was consecrated for it, where it remained with all suitable respect till the times of the latter kings of Judah, who gave themselves up to idolatry, and were not afraid to put the images of their gods in the holy place itself. Hereupon the priests, being unable to endure this profanation, took the ark, and carried it from place to place, that by this means it might escape the fury of these impious princes. But Josiah, who was a good man, and restored the true worship of God, commanded them to bring it back to the sanctuary, and forbade them to carry it into the coun try, as they had done. The Talmudists, however, have a tradition, that Solomon, having learned by re velation, that the Assyrians would one day burn the |