Saul's tyrannical government, to the number of fix hundred men, to protect him from the violence of his unreasonable perfecutor; whom he kept in the most excellent order, exercised in the most friendly fervices, and by whofe valour he gained fignal advantages for his country; but never employed them in oppofition to, or rebellion against the king, or in a fingle inftance to distress or fubvert his government.-Such was the veneration he paid him, and fo facred the regard he had for his life, fuch the generofity of his temper, that though it was thrice in his power to have cut him off, he gloriously spared him, and was abfolutely determined never to deftroy him, whom God had conftituted the king of Ifrael.-His friendship with Jonathan, the king's fon, was a friendship of ftrict honour, whom he never feduced from his allegiance and filial duty; in him Jonathan had fo firm a confidence, that as he knew he would be king, he promised himself he should be the next perfon in dig nity and authority under him; and with his friend David covenanted by oath, that he would not cut off his kindness from his houfe for ever.-Being provoked by a churlish farmer, who evil-treated and abufed his meffengers, he, in the warmth of his temper, fwore he would deftroy him and his family; but was immediately pacified by the addrefs and prudence of a wife, of whom the wretch was unworthy; her he fent in peace and honour to her family, and bleffed for her advice, and keeping him from avenging himself with his own hand.-Being forced to banish himself into an enemy's country, he was faithful to the prince who protected him; and, at the fame time, mindful of the intereft of his own nation, he cut off many of those, who had harraffed and plundered his fellow-fubjects. When preffed by the king, into whofe dominions he retired, to join in a war against his own country, and father-in-law, he prudently gave fuch an answer as his fituation required; neither promifing him the aid demanded of him, nor tying up his hands from ferving his own prince, and the army that fought under him; only affuring him in general, that he had never done any thing that could give him just reafon to think he would refuse to affift him against his enemies.-Upon the death of Saul, he cut off the Amalekite who came to make a merit of having flain him; and by the immediate direction of God, who had promised him the fucceffion, went up to Hebron, where, on a free election, he was anointed king over the house of Judah; and after about feven years conteft, he was unanimously chofen king by all the tribes of Ifrael, according to the word of the Lord by Samuel, upon the death of Ifhbofheth, who was treacheroufly murdered by two of his own captains; whom David juftly cut off for their perfidy, treason, and parricide. As king of Ifrael, he adminiftred justice and judgment to all all his people, was a prince of courage, and great military prudence and conduct; had frequent wars with the neighbouring nations, to which he was generally forced by their invading his dominions, and plundering his fubjects; against them he never loft a battle; he never befieged a city without taking it, nor, as for any thing that can be proved, ufed any feverities. against those he conquered, beyond what the law of arms allowed, his own fafety required, or the cruelties of his enemies rendered juft, by way of retaliation; enriching his people by the spoils he took, and providing large ftores of every thing neceffary for the magnificent temple he intended to erect, in honour of the God of Ifrael.-Having refcued Jerufalem out of the hands of the Jebufites, he made it the capital of his kingdom, and the place of his refidence; and being willing to honour it with the prefence of the ark of God, he brought it to Jerufalem in triumph, and divefting himself of his royal robes, out of reverence to God, he cloathed himself in the habit of his minifters, and with them expreffed his joy by dancing and mufic; contemned only by one haughty woman; whom, as a juft punishment of her infolence, he feems ever to have separated from his bed.-Though his crimes were heinous, and highly aggravated, in the affair of Uriah and Bathfheba, he patiently endured reproof, humbly fubmitted to the punishment appointed him, atoned for his fins, as far as he could, by a fincere repentance, and obtained mercy and forgiveness from God, though not without fome fevere marks of his difpleasure, for the grievous offences he had been guilty of.-A rebellion is raifed against him by his fon Abfalom, whofe life he commanded the general to fpare.-When forced by it to depart from Jerufalem, he prevented the juft punishment of a wretch who curfed and stoned him.-When reftored to his throne, he spared him upon his fubmiffion, and would not permit a fingle man to be put to death in Ifrael, upon account of it.-He, with a noble confidence, made the commander of the rebel forces general of his own army, in the room of Joab, whom he intended to call to an account for murder and treafon.-After this, when obliged, by the command of God, to give up fome of Saul's family to juftice, for the murder of the Gibeonites, he fpared Mephibobeth, Micah, and his family, the male defcendents of Saul and Jonathan, who alone could have any pretence to dispute the crown with him, and furrendered only Saul's baftard children, and thofe of his daughter by Adriel, who had no right or poffible claim to the throne, and who could never give him any uneafinefs in the poffeffion of it; and thus fhewed his inviolable regard for his oaths, his tenderness to Saul, and the warmth of his gratitude and friendship to Jonathan.- In the clofe of his life, and in the near profpect of death, to demonftrate his love of justice, he charges Solomon to punifh with death Joab, for the the base murder of two great men, whom he affaffinated under the pretence of peace and friendfhip; and to manifeft his care of his fucceffor's fafety, and prevent any disturbances in the beginning of his government, he charges him to have an eye on the conduct of an old turbulent rebel, and, except cutting him off, to deal with him according to his prudence, and not to fpare him if he found any thing in him worthy of death.-And as if one thing more was wanting to compleat the catalogue of his noble actions, he profeffed the greateft regard for every appearance of virtue and holiness, and gave the most shining and indifputable proofs of an undiffembled reverence for, and fincere piety to God; ever obeying the direction of his prophets, worthipping him alone throughout the whole of his life, and making the wifeft fettlement to perpetuate the worship of the fame God, throughout all fucceeding generations. of And as to his pfalms, they breathe the genuine difpofition piety; they are wrote with a true fpirit of poetry; the fentiments to be found in them are often the most grand and fublime, which have nothing in pagan poetry to exceed, or equal them; and which, had they been wrote on any other fubjects but thofe of religion, would have been regarded as the proofs of a moft excellent genius; and his admirers would have wondered at the calmnefs and fedatenefs of his temper, who, amidft the multiplicity of his affairs, the variety of the perfecutions he fuffered, the imminent dangers that furrounded him, and the nu merous wars he was engaged in, could find any leisure hours, or tranquil difpofitions, for the polite and delicate entertainments of poetry and mufic. Thefe, Chriftians, are the out-lines of a Jewish prince, whom you justly extol as a man after God's own heart; whom God himfelf called to be king over Ifrael, who faithfully anfwered the purposes for which God raised him; in whofe family he eftablifhed the throne; with whom he made an everlasting covenant; and who was the great progenitor of the Meffiah himfelf, who now reigns over all, and fhall reign till all his enemies are put under his fect. A Vindication of the Right of Proteflant Churches to require the Clergy to fubjcribe to an established Confeffion of Faith and Doctrines, in a charge delivered at a Vifitation in July 1766. By T. Rutherforth, D. D. F. R. S. Archdeacon of Effex, King's Profeffor of Divinity in Cambridge, and Chaplain to her Royal Highnefs the Princefs Dowager of Wales. 8vo. 6d. Cadell, Bathurst, &c. N this charge, the Author does not enquire into the force and meaning of the fubfcription to the XXXIX articles, when it is applied to these articles in particular, but only endeavours to vindicate the general right, which the governors of our own; or of any other proteftant church, have to enjoin, that all those; who are admitted to the office of public teaching in it, fhall fubfcribe to the truth of fome confeffion of faith and doctrines. The univerfal church of Chrift, we are told, is a fociety; which he inftituted, and of which he is the head, including in it all thofe, who profefs to believe in his name, and have been received by baptifm into the number of his difciples. The end and purpose, for which this fociety was inftituted, is to lead men to eternal life by the preservation and advancement of true religion. It is therefore the duty of thofe, who are appointed under him to fuperintend and govern particular churches, which are only parts of the univerfal church, to fecure and promote, as far as they are able, the true faith and doctrines of the gofpel. ་ Now the only legitimate means, of advancing and preferving the true religion of Chrift, are inftructions in the faith and doc trines, which he, and his Apoftles in his name, delivered to mankind, with exhortations and admonitions to attend to them, to embrace them, to perfevere in them, and by a pious and virtuous life and conversation to bring forth the proper fruits of them. Since therefore it is the duty of church-governors to take care, that the people fhould be inftructed in the truth of the Gofpel; they have a right, our Author fays, to require, that all thofe, whom they appoint to be paftors and teachers, fhould first give them fufficient affurance of the foundness of their faith and doctrines. This is all, that they do, we are told, when they require them to fubfcribe to an established confeffion for no church has a right to make ufe of its confeffion as a law, to compel the candidates for holy orders to affent to the propofitions contained in it, but only as a test to discover, whether they do affent to them or not. Our Author now goes on to make fome remarks on fome paffages of the CONFESSIONAL. The Writer, fays he, who led me to employ your thoughts on the fubject of fubfcriptions, allows, that where the methods of promoting christianity are matter of fcripture-precept, or are plainly recommended by fcripture-precedents, they fhould be strictly followed." Now St. Paul in his epistle to Titus, † when he had left him in Crete to ordain elders there, directs, that they fhould be fuch as held faft the faithful word agreeably to what they had been taught and in another of his epiftles he gives the Jike charge to Timothy about the ordaining of deaçons; they were to be fuch, as held the mystery of the faith in a pure confcience. There is no occafion to enquire, whether Timothy 1 Tim. iii. 9. and *Confeffional. p. 29. REV. Sept. 1766, + Tit. i. 5, 9. and Titus, in trying the faith and doctrines of the feveral cardidates, required them to fubicribe their names to a formal confeffion. However this might be, the precept of the apostle is as much in point, as can be defired. For to a man, who has no defign to deceive or to prevaricate, when he finds, that, if he had applied for holy orders to Timothy or Titus, they could not have ordained him confiftently with the commands of St. Paul, unless he had first made an explicit declaration of his faith and doctrines, and they had judged them to be agreeable to the gofpel of Chrift, it can be of no importance, whether he should have been at liberty to make this declaration in words of his own, or have been obliged to ufe a form dictated by them; whether he might have been allowed to fpeak it only, or muft have left it upon record by making it in writing. His words and expreffions, if he had chofen them himself, must have been fuch, as would have left them no more room to doubt of his méaning, than if they had prefcribed them to him; and his declaration, if he made it by speaking, would have been as binding upon his confcience, as if he had given it under his hand. • But might not these primitive church-governors *« be contented with a folemn declaration on the part of teachers and paftors, that they received the fcriptures as the word of God, and would inftruct the people out of them?" As I can fee no diftinction, worth an honest man's regarding, between a fubfcription and a folemn declaration, fo one or two inftances of what happened very early in the church will ferve to fhew us, whether a general profeffion of believing whatever is contained in the fcripture, or of adhering to the doctrine of the apostles, was likely to fatisfy Timothy or Titus, that they, who made it, held faft the faithful word, as they had been taught, the myftery of faith in a pure confcience." We learn from St. Peter, that there were in his time + unlearned and unstable men who wrested the epiftles of St. Paul, and the other scriptures likwife, to their own destruction; and from St. Paul, that there were fome, who, "taking occafion from the doctrine of free grace, flandered the apoftles as having taught, that men might do evil, that good might come." After the epistle to the Romans had been published throughout the whole church, as it poffibly might have been, when thofe to Timothy and Titus were written, the apoftolical doctrine on this head was fo plainly declared, as not to admit of fuch a mifreprefentation. But the inftance nevertheless comes up to my purpose; as it shews, that the meaning of thofe words and expreffions, which were * Confeffional. p. 16. made |