First I say they were both good Men. That _Naboth_ was so, we may very fairly conjecture from his Behaviour in the Matter of the Vineyard; and from the Severity of God's Wrath toward _Ahab_ and his Family, for unjustly putting him to Death. For altho' the Murder even of a wicked Man, either by false Accusation, or secret Treachery, is a very heinous and detestable Thing; (and that Life that is Forfeited to Justice by a thousand real Crimes, yet if innocent _quoad hoc_, and taken away by wicked Subornation, on weak and insufficient Evidence, for that which is not a Crime, or which was not committed, will derive a Sentence of Blood-guiltiness, nay of the Shedding innocent Blood, on the Contrivers and Actors in such an Execution;) yet we cannot suppose, that this is, in so excessive a Degree, provoking, or that it entails the Divine Vengeance on so many Generations, as when the Person Condemn'd is eminent for Piety and Vertue. If indeed we were to judge of Things by their first Appearance, the Carriage of _Naboth_ toward _Ahab_, in denying him his Vineyard, might seem to have been very Churlish and Undutiful, especially when offer'd a _better Vineyard_ in Exchange for it, or an equivolent in _Mony_. And the Kings condescending way of Address, when he thus expresses himself, _If it shall seem good to thee_, and _if it please thee_; might be thought to have deserv'd a better Answer than, _I will not give thee my Vineyard_. But we must consider on the other Hand, that the Thing which the King desir'd, was absolutely Unlawful, and expressly forbid by the Command of God; the smallest Ceremony of whose Appointment could not be dispens'd with. We may learn from _Lev._ 25. and _Num._ 36. how straitly the _Jews_ were enjoyn'd to look upon the Inheritance of their Fathers as Sacred: The very numerical Lands and Possessions were to be continually preserv'd in the respective Families to which they were allotted, and the present Occupants had no Power of totally alienating 'em, but only till they could be redeem'd by one of their Kin, and not so long as that, if a Year of _Jubilee_ should first happen, when all Things were to be restor'd as at the beginning: And even that temporary Alienation was not to be made, but under the Pressure of extreme Necessity, which it seems was not _Naboth_'s Case. So that he look'd on the Proposal, as a Thing he could not with a safe Conscience comply with, and therefore speaks, you see, with some Abhorrence of it, (tho' not altogether so bluntly as _Ahab_ repeated it to his Wife) _The Lord forbid it me, that I shou'd give the Inheritance of my Fathers unto thee_. From this I say, and the other Consideration before-mention'd, we may reasonably infer that _Naboth_ was a Man of Uprightness and Integrity; tho' the Scripture has distinguish'd him by no other Title, but that of _Naboth the Jesraelite_.