Life and Light and all Things, waiting with patience the Adoption, to wit, the Redemption, of his body; thereby indirectly communicating the most exalted consolation to his Parents on their further separation from him and from their native soil, to sojourn in a strange and idolatrous Land, as giving them the assurance that he had faith in the Promises of GOD, and doubted not that in GOD'S Appointed Season Salvation would come unto his House.

"And the Prophet Gad said unto David, Abide not in the hold; depart, and get thee into the Land of Judah!' Then David departed, and came into the Forest of Hareth."-1 Sam. xxii. 5.

Even in a desert and in a cave, amongst them whose follies and imprudences had made them amenable to the outraged justice of their Country, GOD, for the sake of David, left not Himself without a Witness, and Withheld not from David His Merciful Guidance, but through the Inspiration of The HOLY SPIRIT Operating on the mind of a Fellow-Mortal with David, Imparted to him such Counsel as was profitable towards his temporal good; and David was not unmindful of the Word, but obeyed The SPIRIT of Truth in the spirit of humility and devotion. The Way wherein we should All go, and the Land to which we should All direct our steps, are clearly Pointed out to us by DIVINE Revelation. May, therefore, this act of David, in implicitly obeying The DIVINE Injunction, be adopted by us as an example to go when The LORD Calleth to us, and to take the Way that He Graciously Pointeth out!

* "When Saul heard that David was discovered, and the Men that were with him (now Saul abode in Gibeah under a tree in Ramah, having his spear in his hand, and all his Servants were standing about him ;) then Saul said unto his Servants that stood about him, 'Hear now, ye Benjamites! Will the Son of Jesse give every One of you fields and vineyards, and make you all Captains of Thousands, and Captains of Hundreds; that all of you have conspired against me; and there is None that sheweth me that my Son hath made a league with the Son of Jesse, and there is None of you that is sorry for me, or sheweth unto me that my Son hath stirred up my Servant against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?"-1 Sam. xxii. 6, 8.

Deceiving himself, Saul deceived Others also; for neither was Jonathan leaguing for any purpose hostile to his Father's real interest, nor was David unfriendly to his Master's government, their own safety being at stake, they therefore only shunned the presence of so unnatural a Father, and so bloodthirsty and tyrannical a King; but Saul chose to put a different construction upon their conduct to answer his diabolical purpose, and knowing, in the subtilty of an evil mind, how essential it was to work upon the passions of his People in order to make them instrumental to his object, he artfully paints to them his loving Son as a Rebel to his House, and his faithful Son in Law as a Rival for his Empire. Through what a labyrinth of despicable conduct, ultimately as hateful to ourselves as to Others, does the indulgence of one criminal passion often lead us; and how does it tend to involve Others in unhappiness by making them, through ignorance, Accessories to guilty purposes ! "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil!" thus "sinning as it were with a cart rope," by dragging Others into the train of their abominable courses.

"Then answered Doeg, the Edomite, which was set over the Servants of Saul, and said, I saw the Son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech, the Son of Ahitub: and he inquired of The LORD for him; and gave him victuals, and gave him the sword of Goliath, the Philistine.' Then the King sent to call Ahimelech, the Priest, the Son of Ahitub, and all his Father's House, the Priests that were in Nob: and they came all of them to the King. And Saul said, Hear now, thou Son of Ahitub! And he answered, 'Here I am, my Lord!' And Saul said unto him,

"Why have ye conspired against me, thou and the Son of Jesse, in that thou hast given him bread, and a sword, and hast inquired of GOD for him, that he should rise against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?' Then Ahimelech answered the King, and said, 'And who is so faithful among all thy Servants, as David, which is the King's Son in Law; and goeth at thy bidding, and is honourable in thine House? Did I then begin to inquire of GOD for him? be it far from me! Let not the King impute anything unto his Servant, nor to all the House of my Father! for thy Servant knew nothing of all this, less or more.""-1 Sam. xxii. 9, 15.

How liable are the Best of Men to have their best motives misconstrued! Ahimelech had thought and meant to have furthered the purpose of the King, and would not, perhaps, for any less object, have yielded to David's application, notwithstanding the estimation in which he held him. But our consolation is, that Man's judgment is not the final judgment; and that, though he may kill the body, he cannot destroy the Soul, nor rob it in the Life to Come of its Everlasting Rest. The conclusion drawn by Doeg was not unnatural, if he did not hear what passed between David and Ahimelech, though the greater probability is that he did, from the very nature of the application, and still more from the sanguinary disposition we shall shortly see him exhibit, and from the jealousy he might entertain as a Heathen, and, therefore, seek the destruction of the Israelitish Priesthood. But had not the persecuting spirit of Saul extinguished, with reference to David, all disposition in him to discriminate between right and wrong, in order that he might avoid the awful responsibility of an unrighteous judgment, he would have checked at once the positive belief of Doeg's statement, forbearing till he had heard the defence of the Accused, who, as the Servants and special Ministers of The MOST HIGH, The GOD of all Purity and Holiness, were assuredly not the less entitled to credit for purity of motive, than an Enemy to their faith and an Idolater. Ahimelech came in all the consciousness of innocence, and, though most unexpectedly himself accused, yet seeing with an eagle's eye that the impulse which gave to all the workings of Saul's mind a wrong direction, was the unjust estimate he had formed of the character and principles of David, he, without stopping in the first instance to offer a vindication of himself, breaks out into a dignified and generous assertion of the undervalued merit and mistaken character of David, bearing testimony to his high worth at every hazard of the King's displeasure, and as became a Minister of truth; and then contents himself with a mere declaration of his own guiltlessness, without laying claim to the praise that was rather due to him for having, in intention at least, gone every length that his sacred Office would, without offence to The KING of Kings, admit of, for the supposed advancement of the Royal cause.

"And the King said, 'Thou shalt surely die, Ahimelech, thou and all thy Father's House!' And the King said unto the Footmen that stood about him, Turn and slay the Priests of The LORD! because their hand also is with David; and because they knew when he fled, and did not shew it to me.' But the Servants of the King would not put forth their hand to fall upon the Priests of The LORD. And the King said to Doeg, 'Turn thou, and fall upon the Priests!' And Doeg, the Edomite, turned, and he fell upon the Priests, and slew on that day fourscore and five Persons, that did wear a linen Ephod. And Nob, the City of the Priests, smote he with the edge of the sword, both Men and Women, Children and Sucklings, and oxen, and asses, and sheep, with the edge of the sword."-1 Sam. xxii. 16, 19.

To war against HEAVEN Itself, as it were, is the mind of Saul at last brought. From one evil to another, and another, and another of greater, and still greater magnitude is thus the Soul of Man drawn on, when it rejects the Guidance of The HOLY SPIRIT, and at all hazards seeks to gratify its own vicious pro

pensities. Saul is now numbered with the Dead; and in the Latter Day when he shall stand before his GOD in Judgment, can it be, though once the Anointed of The LORD, that he should not then be numbered with the Transgressors, and have the Sentence of everlasting excommunication from the Favour of The ALMIGHTY Pronounced against him? For how could a Soul so actuated as his was, in the only season of probation allotted him, be fit to hold communion with the pure Spirits of Heaven? Not more opposite would light be from darkness; and into everlasting darkness and despair, with the evil Spirit from The LORD continually upon it, is it to be apprehended that the Soul of Saul, and of Such as are like-minded with him, will then irreversibly be Cast. For though peculiar, in a temporal sense, as was the condition of Saul, comparatively with the majority of Mankind (as being Elected to the high Office of an Earthly King, and that by the Avowed Intercession of GOD Himself, being clothed with all the power that belongs to Majesty, and set over the Chosen People of The MOST HIGH), yet, in a Spiritual sense, the condition of every One, to whom the Grace of The ALMIGHTY is freely Offered to make us Spiritual Kings and Priests, and to give us within our own breasts The Kingdom of Heaven, is far from being dissimilar; and the same awful responsibility and danger await us, if we use such power unworthily, yielding to the dictates of our own evil lusts and desires, and, like the spiritually proud Israelites of old, putting from us the pure Gospel of Truth, and crucifying with them The SPIRITUAL DAVID, The LORD of Life, The SAVIOUR of our Israel. A more fell Executioner of a foul purpose could not Saul have selected than this Edomite, who, with the ingratitude of a serpent, thus stung most vitally yet subtilly the peace of the Master, that so cherished him. How much does it behove us to be careful, when delegating power, not to put any confidence in Man, who hath not the fear of The LORD before his eyes! The true Servants of Saul, who were willing to obey him even unto the death in a legitimate cause, and would have dared every danger in opposing his real Enemies, whether from within or from without his Kingdom, could not be brought to raise their hand against The MOST HIGH. Silent and respectful as was the reproof, yet on a Soul so callous to right feeling as that of Saul, its hoped-for effect was lost, and the relentless and cruel Spirit of a Heathen was called up to send forth upon the People, who were even ignorant of the charge, and the Priests who were not less innocent of the commission of the offence complained of, the sword and firebrand of utter extermination. How will the blood of these Martyrs and Saints, of the Poor and the Fatherless, the Widow and the Orphan, cry out for Judgment on such foul and multitudinous murders! Let us take care that we slay not the pure Graces of The HOLY SPIRIT within us, infinitely more worthy as they are to be cherished, lest we also fall into the same Condemnation !

** "And One of the Sons of Ahimelech, the Son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped, and fled after David. And Abiathar shewed David, that Saul had slain The LORD'S Priests. And David said unto Abiathar, I knew it that day, when Doeg, the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. I have occasioned the death of all the Persons of thy Father's House! Abide thou with me; fear not! for he, that seeketh my life, seeketh thy life; but with me thou shalt be in safeguard.'"-1 Sam. xxii. 20, 23.

Whatever forebodings of the effect of Saul's disappointment in his hope of overtaking David, and of the cause of it being betrayed, and that with a false colouring, by Doeg, might have been in David's mind, we are disarmed in a great measure of any disposition severely to reflect upon him for that, as well as for the positive offence of his departure from truth in his dealings with Ahimelech, since he here makes so ready and candid an avowal of himself being the cause of the fatal consequences that attended them. David was not more than Man, and

infirmities chequered with much of excellence his character. The fury of the persecution, that raged so unjustifiably (and to his mind, perhaps, unaccountably,) against him, drove him to acts, that in other circumstances, he would probably have revolted at. But how deep soever was his offence, when it is brought to his remembrance, we find him confessing faithfully his sin, and sorrowing with a godly sorrow for its commission. It is this mind that is peculiarly Acceptable to GOD, and through the abundance of His Mercy (DIVINE Justice being Satisfied by the Sufferings of His SON, Operating by Relation as effectually before as after His Incarnation) "our sins, though they be as scarlet (if we repent of them like David), shall be whiter than snow. The Fulness of The Gospel Light might lead a Christian Sinner, having offended like David, to surrender himself up to his implacable Enemy, lest as great or even a worse evil should overtake Others, who might, with equal innocence, suffer in his cause: knowing that without DIVINE Permission neither a Doeg nor a Saul could hurt a hair of his head. But the example of confession, set us by David, teaches us one of the most important exercises of the heart in its pursuit of Heavenly Peace.

The conduct of the Son of Ahimelech, bereaved as he was of a home, and of all that rendered home dear to him, and himself holding his life in jeopardy, and all this as the effect of David's conduct, and as the consequence of a seeming partiality for him, yet instead of betraying David to Saul, which would at least have brought unto him pardon and reconciliation from Saul, exhibits such confidence in David, that he unhesitatingly places himself under his protection, hoping and trusting that The LORD, in His Appointed Season, would Be on his side, and turn their respective sorrows, deep and enlarged as they then were, into that joy which no Man taketh away.

"Then they told David, saying, 'Behold, the Philistines fight against Keilah, and they rob the threshing floors.' Therefore David enquired of The LORD, saying, 'Shall I go, and smite these Philistines?' And The LORD Said unto David, Go, and smite the Philistines, and save Keilah !'”—1 Sam. xxiii. 1, 2.

The heart of David still beat high with the love of his Country, notwithstanding his unmerited exile from it, and was still actuated by the love of justice, notwithstanding the measure of injustice that was dealt out to him; persecuted and oppressed himself, yet could he not bear that violence should be laid on Others, who were defenceless, without his standing forth their Champion and Protector. Fearless of Man, except The LORD'S Anointed, he forbore to give his valour sway, till he had consulted The SPIRIT of his GOD; unwilling to take anything in hand without DIVINE Permission. And why should Man in this our day act otherwise? It is The Same GOD, Whom David thus reverently inquired of, That now Ruleth over all the Kingdoms of the World; and in Him is no Variableness, neither Shadow of Turning: His Arm is not Shortened, that He cannot Save, nor His Wisdom Lessened, that He cannot Guide; neither are we less or greater, to do anything of ourselves, than David; why, therefore, should we not piously seek DIVINE Counsel in all the works of our hands, and in all the workings of our hearts! for if we seek It in the right way, by earnest prayer and stedfast meditation on the Word of GOD, we shall assuredly find It.

6

'And David's Men said unto him, Behold, we be afraid here in Judah; how much more then, if we come to Keilah against the Armies of the Philistines?' Then David enquired of The LORD yet again. And The LORD Answered him, and Said,Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will Deliver the Philistines into thine hand.'"-1 Sam. xxiii. 3, 4.

It is evident that David set himself in the way to follow The LORD'S Commandment, and that he gave orders among his People to make themselves ready for the battle; but they, after communing among themselves, being Some of them of

a character not having the holy fear of GOD, gave way to the fears of Man, and, therefore, called in question the policy of the measure which David proposed to them. Unexpected as such an obstacle probably was to him, David set about removing it in the way that was most satisfactory to his own mind, by laying the Consideration of it in supplication and submission before his GOD. And The ALMIGHTY Graciously Accepted his prayer, and Poured DIVINE Instruction into his heart; Giving him the Assurance of OMNIPOTENCE, that he should overcome his Enemy, how formidable soever that Enemy might seem, or that Others thought them. It is thus that He Graciously Deals with All without distinction of age, or rank, or sex, who, beset with spiritual Adversaries and the temptations of this World, both from within and from without, much more crafty and powerful in themselves, and infinitely more destructive in their effects, earnestly seek His Counsel with a heart predisposed to follow It; and when He Giveth or Promiseth Protection, no Enemy can even approach to hurt them.

"So David and his Men went to Keilah, and fought with the Philistines, and brought away their cattle, and smote them with a great slaughter. So David saved the Inhabitants of Keilah."-1 Sam. xxiii. 5.

The Followers of David were not distrustful of his word, that The LORD had held Communion with him and Encouraged the encounter; but their conduct shewed their confidence in his sincerity, and their belief that the Arm of The LORD was Stretched forth in his Defence, and that the Promise of The ALMIGHTY would not fail; for their fears were dissipated, and they trusted that The LORD, The GOD of Battles, would Give them the Victory; nor in that trust were they mistaken.

**“And it came to pass when Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech, fled to David to Keilah, that he came down with an Ephod in his hand. And it was told Saul, that David was come to Keilah. And Saul said, 'GOD hath Delivered him into mine hand; for he is shut in, by entering into a Town that hath gates and bars.' And Saul called all the People together to war, to go down to Keilah, to besiege David and his Men. And David knew that Saul secretly practised mischief against him: and he said to Abiathar the Priest, Bring hither the Ephod!' Then said David, ‘O LORD GOD of Israel! Thy Servant hath certainly heard that Saul seeketh to come to Keilah, to destroy the City for my sake. Will the Men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? Will Saul come down, as Thy Servant hath heard? O LORD GOD of Israel, I beseech Thee, Tell Thy Servant!' And The LORD Said, 'He will come down.' Then said David, Will the Men of Keilah deliver me and my Men into the hand of Saul?' And The LORD Said, They will deliver thee up.' Then David and his Men, which were about six Hundred, arose and departed out of Keilah, and went whithersoever they could go. And it was told Saul, that David was escaped from Keilah; and he forbare to go forth."-1 Sam. xxiii. 6, 13.

The Ephod and the robe of Ephod were of the garments that the Priests, in imitation of Aaron, had been appointed to wear, that "their sound should be heard, when they went in unto the Holy Place before The LORD, and when they came out, that they died not." (Exod. xxviii. 35.) In the presence, therefore, of an appointed Minister of GOD, David inquired of GOD through him, thus reverencing, though banished from the Holy Temple made with hands, the Ordinances of That GOD; and virtually acknowledging that in the Fulness of His Grace GOD had Made his Body the Temple of The HOLY GHOST. David had had private intimation from the Camp of Saul of the further violence meditated against him, and against Others on his account; whether this were derived from Jonathan or from other Channels, is not mentioned, though it is more probable from the latter, since Saul, conscious of Jonathan's attachment to David, would