When Ishbosheth and his friends heard of the fate of Abner, who had been the very life of their cause; it dejected all their spirits; and two villains, named Rechab and Baanah, hoping to make their fortunes by the public calamity, went and murdered their master king Ishbosheth, as he was reposing himself during the heat of the day, and brought his head to David*. But not reflecting on an obvious maxim in politics, they like the Amalekite before, who claimed the merit of killing Saul, soon found that, he thought it adviseable to punish the traitors, whatever he thought of the treason.** * 2 Sam. iv. 5, &c. ** Ver. 12. Had David reflected on all the circumstances which led to this murder, with that tenderness becoming a person professing so much piety, his compunction would have greatly embarrassed him in the proper behaviour on this occasion. For if these two execrable villains deserved punishment, what did _he_ merit who was the primary cause of so nefarious an action? Two poor rogues from subordinate views, effected by assassination what David sought at the head of an army, which naturally reminds us of the pirate and Alexander. So strangely do relative circumstances bias our judgment of things essentially alike. Had David aspired to no other sceptre than his shepherd's crook, the villains had not presumed on the usurper's gratitude; and Ish-bosheth, who was a quiet prince, might have reigned long an honour to himself and a blessing to his country. Ish-bosheth does not appear to have been a man of parts, qualified to contend with such an antagonist as David; for nothing is recorded of him: Abner was the person who raised him; and had he lived, would as easily have deposed him, and though no qualifications are a security against assassination, yet, as in the case of another unfortunate monarch, Darius, king of Persia; such cowardly wretches generally take the advantage of precipitating misfortunes already commenced, that they may pay their court to the rising sun. The murder of this unhappy son of an unhappy father, advanced David to the dignity to which he aspired,* (though we shall see in a passage which reflects no great honour on him, that Saul had more sons yet living.) He was now in his thirty-eighth year; having reigned seven years and an half in Hebron** over the tribe of Judah.