but all that they had, ox and Sheep, camel and afs; that the memory of fo vile a race might be blotted out from under heaven. A command admirably fitted to spread and to establish the terror of divine vengeance upon guilt over the earth, and, in confequence of that, to reftrain the enormities of mankind. Whereas, had the Amalekites been commanded to be deftroyed, and their fubftance fpared, avarice and intereft might have justly been fufpected as the real motives of this extirpation; and the divine command as a pretence only.

BESIDES all this; tho' Saul might not have enter'd rightly into the reason of the command, nor been influenced either by duty or gratitude to a religious obfervance of it; yet one would think the example of Achan, fo fresh in the hiftory of his own nation, (Job. vii.) who was destroyed, with his whole family, for a like inftance of disobedience, might fufficiently have deterred him from flighting it.

WHEREAS then Saul did not only disobey this command, but acted in manifeft oppofition to the reafon and end of it; fparing the murderous Agag, (in all probability, from B 4

the

the prospect of a rich ranfom) and all the fpoil that was worth faving, and destroying only the refufe; yet was he fo hardened in his ftubborn difobedience, as obftinately to affirm to Samuel's face, that he had executed the divine command. And when that was confuted by the evidence of fact, he then had the hardiness to shift the blame from himself, and to fhield his avarice under the fhew of popular piety : The people (faid he to Samuel) took of the spoil, the chief of the things, which fhould have been utterly deftroyed, to facrifice to the Lord thy God in Gilgal.

To this Samuel made that noble reply, (1 Sam. xv. 22.) And Samuel faid, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt-offerings and facrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than facrifice; and to hearken, than the fat of rams.

WHEN this laft heinous act of difobedi ence was added to Saul's other fins, GoD, by the mouth of his prophet, pronounced the decree of his depofal from the fovereignty; nor could Samuel's long and earneft intercef fion ever prevail to reverse it *.

THIS

*It was poffibly an additional aggravation of Saul's fin, that tho' he had fo ill executed the divine command in relation to Amalek, yet he erected a trophy, (the vulgate

hath

THIS was the state of things, when Samuel was exprefly commanded by GoD, to fill his horn with oil, to go to Bethlehem, and there to anoint one of the fons of Jesse the Bethlelemite (whom GOD fhould then name to him) to fucceed Saul in the kingdom.

THE prophet would gladly have excufed himself from executing this dangerous commiffion, from the apprehenfion of Saul's hearing it, and revenging his depofition upon him. To remove his fears upon this head, GOD commands him to take an heifer, and to give out, that he was come thither to facrifice to the Lord; which, as a prophet, he had a right to do where-ever he thought fit.

He went accordingly; and was no fooner arrived at Bethlehem, but the people crouded about him, in dreadful apprehenfions of his being sent to denounce fome divine threat or vengeance for their fins †. But Samuel foon quieted their fears upon that head, and only let them know, that he

hath it, a triumphal arch) as a monument of his victory over them. Poffibly the first monument of the kind that ever was erected.

Or perhaps, in apprehenfion of his having fled thither from Saul's wrath, and that they might fuffer by fheltering him.

was

was come to facrifice to the LORD; and enjoined them to fanctify themselves for their attendance upon the altar. (It seems fome fanctification was then deemed neceffary, to qualify perfons for their fit attendance on the moft folemn ordinance of religion *): And when the facrifice was over, he called Fee and his fons to the feast, which always followed the facrifice.

UPON the appearance of Eliab the firstborn of fee, the prophet, ftruck with the gracefulness and dignity of his person, hastily concluded him the man appointed to the fovereignty by Almighty GoD. But this his human judgment (which probably was grounded upon the remembrance of a like graceful mien and prefence in Saul) was quickly reproved; and he was given to underftand, that GOD judgeth not, as man too often doth, by appearances and feeming perfections, but by the fecret and unfeen pow ers and difpofitions of the heart.

*Now, however ritual this fanctification might be, yet I believe it is not doubted but that it was intended as an emblem of that purer, and more spiritual sanctification, which fhould be required of all those who commemorate the great facrifice for the fins of the whole world.

IMMEDIATELY fix other fons of fee were ordered to pass in review before the prophet; but none of these had the divine approbation.

THE prophet, (as we may well imagine) fufficiently embaraffed at this fufpenfe of the divine defignation, asked Jesse, if he had no other fon? To which he answered, that he had one more, his youngest, in the fields, keeping his flock. Upon which, the prophet immediately ordered him to be fent for; declaring, that they must not fit down until he came. Jefe obeyed: and when David arrived, (for he was the youngest) GOD immediately ordered the prophet to arise and anoint him; for this was he.

ACCORDINGLY Samuel arofe and anointed him but whether in the midft of his brethren, i.e. in their prefence; or whether from the midst of his brethren, i. e. apart, and in the prefence only of Jeffe, is not fo clear from the text. Tho' the rudenefs, with which they afterwards treated him, makes it more probable, that it was apart: unless we fuppofe that rudeness to have arisen from jealousy, as very poffibly it might.

FROM this account it appears, 1ft, That Samuel very unwillingly anointed another