DAVID. 
weighed the nature and ss be of what he was pe 
to do, and ufed, as too many o ave done in hike cafe 
Baththeba her. 
and thereby rendered it almoft impoffible for him to fuporefs 
it. Her compliance feems to have been voluntary, unforced, 
: rft crime being committed, and the 
confequences of it appearing, the unhappy 1 prince 
found himfelf involved in difficulties, out of which he knew 
not how to extricate himfe Confcious guilt, concern for 
his own charaGter, regard (oe the honour of the Ail of 
faw but one way left to fecure that ars a he thought 
himfelf obliged, at any hazard, to obtain. If Uriah lived, 
fhe mult icevitably dic. She muft have fee, fays Jofephus, 
(Aat. 1. vil.c. 7. §. 1.) as an adulcerets by the laws of her 
Whi ? of the two mutt 
Tt is at laft determined, 
that the hufband fhould ‘be facrificed ‘G fave the me 
he Bad 
gratitude. But how was Uriah to be got rid o oifon, 
affaffination, or a falfe charge of treafon, or fome fecret way 
of deftruction, were methods with which the eaftern panes 
David was above them _ 
The m 
a he was 
his king sad: pene) David’s conduG i i3 
crimes, and foften the feverity of the hatter who ae 
them. Davi 
id ng t y 
the man that he dreaded fhould rae took Beth he 
which, as a plurality of wives was not forbidden’ by that 
conftitution and polity ae which he lived, was the leaft 
compenfation ae he could m 
in juftice an to make her. 
iftory to 
s for a confiderable time infen- 
fible and callous, fo that ee the prophet was employed, 
by an artfully compofed fable, to induce the king to pro- 
own condemnation, even without fufpecting, or 
. Bathfheba had ssa a delivered of a fon, 
the fruit of her adulterous commerce with David, and oe 
awas, in the {trictnefs of the letter, 6c conceived” by bis 
ther “in fin, and thapen in iniquity.” David appears . 
have been fond of the child, and, in the midft of his joy on 
at account, Nathan cd: an audience, and executes 
onounced 
ledgment to Nathan, «I have finned againft the Lord.” 
The au he bieas on this occafion fhew his deep fenfe 
wf the ha ene and will be a memorial of 
Vie ces of fuch ‘nity as thofe o 
punifhed. Dav vid 
Thefe and other cireumflances signee in 
the mott lively emotions of grief, which are pa- 
ths tically referred to in the facred writings. The pee period 
David’s-life was difturbed by an attempt o h to 
few e the crown, which, however, he effectually ” en, 
by caufing anc to be confecrated and proclaimed king 
during his ow 
Da vid, iene fettled Solomon’ s fueceffion to the throne, 
The 
were thofe of Abfelom, Renae and Amafa; and the order 
re{pecting Joab, according to every principle of equity and 
juftice, was worthy of a good king, and fit to be given in 
the Jatt moments of his life. It has been faid,. indeed, that 
collected, was too powerful a fubjed 
juftice. He attempted . twice by 
very firft opportunity, after rachis power 
ordering his, execution. It fhould be confidered fa:ther, 
that whatever Joab’s paft fervices had been to David, and 
— sie he had formerly been to him, yet he had 
w been ed in a treafonable confpiracy fe ae rae 
‘5 fet afide the | intended fucceffion to the cro an 
actually proclaimed Adonijah king of _ drig ie fs 
ther’s life; ther enue and even con 
confent. The order refpeGting Shimei a Be wae was 
founded on his having railed at and curfed David, pelting 
him with ftones, and crying out to him, ‘ Come cut, come 
out, thou bloody man, and thou man of Belial, &c.’? 
(2 Sam. xvi This charge againtt David as a bloody 
gz of 
family, was a te to fee that family te- 
jected from the throne, and Davi ced to it in their 
ftead. David very properly reminded “his fucceffor, that 
Shimei was an tmplacable enemy to erfon and 
one who was not to be trufted, and would not El to 
his hatred when a proper opportunity occurred. David’s di- 
rection to Solomon may be underftood to mean, that he 
4hould not put Shimei to death for having curfed him, be- 
ace — his father as ordering Shimei to be put to 
death ; only oe 
him 
et 
> 
i) 
and 
ture. eee ‘- oriecd ree to build a houfe for hime 
fel 
