eminently professed; and had afterwards gone himself thither, and entered with divine raptures and ecstasy into their devotions; they received this extraordinary news with all the wonder and amazement it deserved. And, in the height of their surprise, they cried out, Is Saul also amongst the prophets? i. e. Is Saul, who throughout his whole reign, hath so much slighted and contemned the Law, and would, conduct all his actions by the mere rules of human Policy, is he at length become studious of and zealous for the Law of God? And the miracle, of such a change in a Politician, brought it into a proverb before the mistake was found out. This matter will receive farther light from what we are told, in the same story, concerning DAVID; a man of so opposite a character, with regard to his sentiments of the Law, that it appears to have been for this difference only that he was decreed by GOD to succeed the other, in his kingdom. Now David, the story tells us, sojourned for some time in this School.--So David fled and escaped, and came to Samuel at Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him, and HE AND SAMUEL WENT AND DWELT IN NAIOTH *. And here it was, as we may reasonably conclude, that he so greatly cultivated and improved his natural disposition of love and zeal for the Law, as to merit that most glorious of all titles, THE MAN AFTER GOD'S OWN HEART; for, till now, his way of life had been very distant from accomplishments, of this nature; his childhood and youth were spent in the country; and his early manhood in camps and courts + But it is of importance to the cause of truth to know, that this CHARACTER was not given him for his PRIVATE morals, but his PUBLIC; his zeal for the advancement of the glory of the THEOCRACY. This is seen from the first mention of him under this appellation, by Samuel, who tells Saul-But now thy kingdom shall not continue.-The Lord hath sought him A MAN AFTER HIS OWN HEART, and the Lord hath commanded him to be Captain over his People . And again, God himself says, I have chosen Ferusalem that my name might be 1 Sam. xix. 18. + See note [UUUU] at the end of this Book. 1 Sam. xiii. 14. X 4 there, there, and have chosen DAVID to be over my people Israel. Here David's vicegerency, we see, is represcnted to be as necessary to the support of the Economy, as God's peculiar residence in Jerusalem. Conformably to these ideas it was, that Hosea, prophesying of the restoration of the Jews, makes the God of Israel and his Vicegerent inseparable parts of the Economy. -Afterwards shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their GOD and DAVID their KING†; i. e. they shall have the same zeal for the dispensation which king David had; and on account of which they shall honour his memory. Now if we would but seck for the reason of this pre-eminence, in David's public, not in his private character, we should see it afforded no occasion of scandal. His zeal for the Law was constantly the same: as is manifest by this distinguishing circumstance, that he never fell into Idolatry. But the phrase itself, of a man after God's own heart, is best explained in the case of Samuel. ELI the prophet was rejected, and SAMUEL put in his place just in the same manner that DAVID superseded SAUL. On this occasion, when God's purpose was denounced to Eli, we find it expressed in the same manner-And I will raise me up a faithful priest, THAT SHALL DO ACCORDING TO THAT WHICH IS IN MINE HEART . What was then in God's heart (to speak in the language of humanity) the context tells us, The establishment of his Dispensation. Thus, we see, the man after God's own heart is the man who seconds God's views in the support of the Theocracy. No other virtue was here in question. Though in an indefinite way of speaking, where the subject is only the general relation of man to God, no one can, indeed, be called a man after God's own heart, but he who uses his best endeavours to imitate God's purity as far as miserable humanity will allow, in the uniform practice of every virtue. By this time, therefore, I presume, the serious Reader will be disposed to take for just what it is worth, that refined observation of the noble author of the Characteristics, where he says, "It is not possible, by the Muse's 66 art, to make that royal Hero appear amiable in human eyes, who found such favour in the eve of Heaven. "Such are mere human hearts, that they can hardly "find the least sympathy with that ONLY ONE which "had the character of being after the pattern of the Almighty *His lordship seems willing to make any thing the test of truth, but that only which has a claim to it, RIGHT REASON. Sometimes this test is RIDICULE; here, it is the ART OF POETRY-it is not possible (says he) for the Muse's art to make that royal Hero appear amiable in human eyes. Therefore, because DAVID was not a character to be managed by the Poct, for the Hero of a fiction, he was not a fit instrument in the hands of God, to support a Theocracy: and having nothing amiable in the eyes of our noble Critic, there could be nothing in him to make him acceptable to his Maker. But when classical criticism goes beyond its bounds, it is liable to be bewildered: as here. The noble Author assures us that David was the only man characterized, to be AFTER GOD'S OWN HEART, whereas we see the very same character is given of Samuel; and both honoured with this glorious appellation for the same reason. II. As for the GREAT SANHEDRIM, it seems to have been established after the failure of Prophecy. And concerning the members of this body, the Rabbins tell us, there was a tradition, that they were bound to be skilled in all sciences . So far is certain, that they extended their jurisdiction to the judging of doctrines and opinions, as appears by their deputation to JESUS, to know by what authority he did his great works. And as the address of our blessed Saviour on this occasion deserves well to be illustrated, I shall set down the occurrence as it is recorded by St. Matthew:-" When he was come into the temple, the chief priests and "the elders of the people came unto him as he was "teaching, and said, By what authority dost thou these things? And who gave thee this authority? And JESUS answered and said unto them, I also will ask you one thing, which if you tell me, I in like wise will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of * Advice to an Author, Sect. 3. vol. i. "John, "John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, "From heaven, he will say unto us, Why did ye not "then believe him? But if we shall say, Of men; we fear "the people for all hold John as a prophet. And "they answered JESUS, and said, We cannot tell. And "he said unto them, Neither tell I you by what au"thority I do these things." We are not to suppose this to be a captious evasion of a question made by those whose authority he did not acknowledge. On the contrary, it was a direct reply to an acknowledged jurisdiction, (as JESUS was obedient to all the institutions of his country) convincing them that the question needed not, even on the principles of that jurisdiction, any precise answer. They sent to him to know the authority on which he acted. He asks them whether they had yet determined of John's: they say, they had not. replies JESUS, "I need not tell you my authority; since the Sanhedrim's not having yet determined of John's, shews such a determination unnecessary; or at least, since (both by John's account and mine) he is represented as the forerunner of my mission, it is fit to begin with his pretensions first." The address and reasoning of this reply are truly divine. Then The foregoing observations concerning this method of divine wisdom, in the establishment of the Jewish Theocracy, will be much supported, if we contrast it with that which Providence was pleased to take in the pro pagation of Christianity. The blessed JESUS came down to teach mankind a spiritual Religion, the object of each individual as such; and offered to their acceptance on the sole force of its own evidence. The Propagators of this religion had no need to be endowed with worldly authority or learning; for here was no Body of men to be conducted nor no civil Policy or government to be erected or administered. Had JESUS, on the contrary, made choice of the Great and Learned for this employment, they had discredited their own success. It might have been then objected, that the Gospel had made its way by the aid of human power or sophistry. To preserve, therefore, the splen * Chap. xxi. 23, & seq. dour dour of its evidence unsullied, the meanest and most illiterate of a barbarous people were made choice of, for the instruments of God's last great Revelation to mankind: armed with no other power but of Miracles, and that only for the credence of their mission; and with no other wisdom but of Truth, and that only to be proposed freely to the understandings of Particulars. St. Pauh, who had fathomed the mysterious depths of divine wisdom under each Economy, was so penetrated with the view of this last Dispensation, that he breaks out into this rapturous and triumphant exclamation, Where is the Wise? Where is the Scribe? Where is the Disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world * ? to But further, Divine wisdom so wonderfully contrived, that the inability and ignorance of the Propagators of Christianity were as useful to the advancement of this Religion, as the authority and wisdom of the Leader of the Jews were for the establishment of theirs. I shall only give one instance out of many which will occur to an attentive reader of the Evangelic history. When JESUS had chosen these mean and weak instruments of his power, he suffered them to continue in their national prejudices concerning his Character; the nature of his kingdom; and the extent of his jurisdiction; as the sole human means of keeping them attached to his service, not only during the course of their attendance on his ministry, but for some time after his resurrection, and the descent of the Holy Ghost upon them; that Power which was to lead them into all truth; but by just and equal steps. Let us see the use of this, in the fol lowing circumstance: From the order of the whole of Gon's Dispensation to mankind, as laid down in Scripture, we learn, that the offer of the Gospel was to be first fairly made to the Jews; and then afterwards to the Gentiles. Now when, soon after the ascension of our Lord, the Church was forced, by the persecution of the Synagogue, to leave Judea, and to disperse itself through all the regions round about; had the Apostles, on this dispersion, been fully instructed in the design of God to call the Gentiles into his church, resentment for i Cor. i. 20. their |