This absurd and shameful piece of injustice was signed by a dozen
theologians on Dec. 20, 1698, in the same consistory in which they
pretended to take up the defence of King David. A great proof that the
condemnation of Bayle arose from personal feeling is supplied by the
fact of that which happened in 1761, to Mr. Peter Anet, in London. The
doctors Chandler and Palmer, having delivered funeral sermons on the
death of King George II., in which they compared him to King David, Mr.
Anet, who did not regard this comparison as honorable to the deceased
monarch, published his famous dissertation entitled, "The History of the
Man after God's Own Heart." In that work he makes it clear that George
II., a king much more powerful than David, did not fall into the errors
of the Jewish sovereign, and consequently could not display the
penitence which was the origin of the comparison.
He follows, step by step, the Books of Kings, examines the conduct of
David with more severity than Bayle, and on it founds an opinion that
the Holy Spirit does not praise actions of the nature of those
attributed to David. The English author, in fact, judges the king of
Judah upon the notions of justice and injustice which prevail at the
present time.
He cannot approve of the assembly of a band of robbers by David to the
amount of four hundred; of his being armed with the sword of Goliath, by
the high priest Abimelech, from whom he received hallowed bread.
He could not think well of the expedition of David against the farmer,
Nabal, in order to destroy his abode with fire and sword, because Nabal
refused contributions to his troop of robbers; or of the death of Nabal
a few days afterwards, whose widow David immediately espoused.
He condemned his conduct to King Achish, the possessor of a few villages
in the district of Gath. David, at the head of five or six hundred
banditti, made inroads upon the allies of his benefactor Achish. He
pillaged the whole of them, massacred all the inhabitants, men, women,
and children at the breast. And why the children at the breast? For
fear, says the text, these children should carry the news to King
Achish, who was deceived into a belief that these expeditions were
undertaken against the Israelites, by an absolute lie on the part of
David.
Again, Saul loses a battle and wishes his armor-bearer to slay him, who
refuses; he wounds himself, but not effectually, and at his own desire a
young man despatches him, who, carrying the news to David, is massacred
for his pains.
Ishbosheth succeeds his father, Saul, and David makes war upon him.
Finally Ishbosheth is assassinated.
David, possessed of the sole dominion, surprised the little town or
village of Rabbah and put all the inhabitants to death by the most
extraordinary devices--sawing them asunder, destroying them with harrows
and axes of iron, and burning them in brick-kilns.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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