PREFACE.
Some reverend panegyrists* on our late king,** have, a little unfortunately, been fond of comparing him with a monarch in no respect resembling him; except in the length of his reign, thirty and three years: which a lucky text informed them to be the duration of David's sovereignty over the Hebrew nation. Had our good old king died a year sooner, or had we been indulged with him a year longer, the opportunity of applying this text would then have been lost; and in either case we might not have heard of the parallel.
A reverence for the memory of a worthy Prince, has occasioned the world's being troubled with a new history of king David, (which, otherwise might not have appeared) merely to shew how the memory of the British monarch is affected by the comparison.
"Why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right?" is the language of Jesus Christ. "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good;" is the language of the apostle Paul. The liberty thus granted is unlimited; but it is more than mere grant of liberty, these are positive injunctions: let no one then be so timid as to resign an inclination to satisfy just doubts: in Britain, thanks to the obstinate heresy of our brave forefathers, no audacious Romish priest dare prescribe limits to the exercise of our reasoning faculties; and Protestant ones surely will not: nay, they cannot, consistently with those principles which justify their dissent from the Romish communion. An honest desire to obtain truth, will sanctify the most rigid scrutiny into every thing. An apostle has told us, that we are not to believe even an angel from Heaven, who should preach any other gospel than that of Christ;* and, no authority can be so sacred, as to set aside the most valuable distinction of humanity, with which our Creator has furnished us; or to give the lie to our most self-evident conceptions of right and wrong.
* Dr. Chandler, Mr. Palmer and others.
** George the IId.
If that liberty, of which Britons boast the possession, means any thing, it must primarily include freedom of thought; without which there can be no freedom of action. Thus it must mean an uncontrolled power to examine the validity of every proposition offered to our assent; without which power, and the due exercise of it, our assent cannot be the assent of rational beings. If the reformed religion means any thing, it must mean a religion founded by the authority, not of councils and synods, but of conviction, the result of private judgment. True Protestants do not puzzle themselves about the decisions of Trent, Constance, or Dort; they protest against all authoritative dictates; disciples of the meek, the lowly, the humane Jesus, they seek of themselves to judge of right or wrong. Who is most the Protestant, the friend to human kind, and to truth? Those who appeal to the human understanding, and submit to the public judgment whether things are really so or not; or those who say, they are so, they shall be so, you shall acknowledge them to be so, or else——?
* Galatians i. 8.
Let not weak-minded Christians who think truth not able to maintain its authority without legal enforcements, lament what they call licentious abuses of that liberty on which we are happy to congratulate ourselves: injudicious productions of the pen will always meet the treatment they deserve. Fallacious pretensions to reasoning cannot deceive mankind in these liberal times; nor can truth be obscured, when the attention of honest inquiries after it, is properly exerted. If the little historical sketch which follows, and which in fact, exhibits no more than what we have all daily read, without presuming to decide upon; if it really is that audacious calumny which many roundly affirm it to be; it will doubtless be considered as such: if, on the contrary, it contains undeniable matters of fact, fallaciousness will appear in the angry objections against it; and the writer trusts, the futility of such objections, have already been made sufficiently apparent.
The name of David has never been mentioned by divines but with the greatest respect, from the time in which he lived to the present day; and he is always quoted as an illustrious example of holiness! so illustrious, that the greatest instance of purity that ever existed on earth, was frequently saluted by way of eminence, in reference to him, Son of David! so illustrious, that on the death of the late king of Great Britain, many sermons were preached and published, in which, parallels are drawn betwixt him and this standard of piety, in order to justify encomiums on the former, by declaring how nearly he resembled the latter.
In what manner David first acquired, and has ever since maintained, this extraordinary reputation, is not difficult to deduce, he was advanced, by an enraged prophet, from obscurity to the Hebrew throne; and taught by the fate of the unhappy monarch who was raised in the same manner, whom he supplanted, and whose family he crushed, he prudently attached himself to the cause of his patrons,* and they were the trumpeters of his fame. The same order of men, true to their common cause, have continued to sound the praise of this church-hero from generation to generation, unto the present time: in like manner the grand violator of the English constitution obtained the epithet of holy Martyr.
A new scrutiny being made, however, into David's claim to sanctity, which, notwithstanding a very learned defence of him, turned out so greatly to his dishonour; the scene has been shifted by a few whose sense has overbalanced their bigotry by two or three scruples. Some such, like Sheba of old, blow the trumpet and cry, "We have no part in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse!" In this manner have some clerical weather-cocks veered about to an opposite point of the compass; and David, who, till now has been considered as a man who "did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite," has, by one stroke of politics, been resigned to the mercy of his detectors; and the importance of the detection endeavoured to be annihilated, as the easier task; all which appears with rather an ill grace, at a time when it is manifestly extorted.
* The Prophets and Priest.
Thus much being premised relating to the conduct of the champions for orthodoxy, on the occasion of this little squib which has produced so much bustle in the clerical hives, proceed we to say something of the tract itself.
The intention was, without any regard to remote objects, or heed of future consequences, which in fact ought never to be considered in investigating any point; to give a fair undisguised narrative of the life and transactions of David, king of Israel.
This, however, was not so easy to perform, as it was to project; from three difficulties which impeded the execution.
1. It is not easy to conquer the early prejudices of education in favour of the Hebrew nation; which the careful inculcation of their story during our infancy, hinders our seeing in a proper light: so that relations which might shock humanity in what is called prophane history, are read without any emotion but that of reverence, in this. This misconception is in great measure assisted.
2. By their History being written by themselves: and difficult to be corrected.
3. By the broken unconnected manner in which it is transmitted down to us: which renders it impossible to give a complete narrative of any period in it.
A common share of humanity, which a little attention to common sense enabled the author to extend to every nation under Heaven as the objects of it, relieved him from the first of these difficulties: to overcome the other two, he has assumed the liberty of giving his sense to what appears dark, or misrepresented; which he hopes will not be denied him, so long as it is not found that a forced construction is put upon any thing cited; or, that it is represented in any other light than what it naturally appears in, when considered with the freedom, which it is our duty to use in the examination of every historical record.
And lest it should be imagined that too great liberties are taken with the biblical writers; it may not be amiss to mention once for all, that innumerable instances might be produced, to shew that the authority of the Lord, so continually quoted to sanctify every transaction related; constituted for the most part, nothing more than national phrases, which obtained universally among so bigoted a people as on all occasions the Jews appear to have been: one-twelfth part of whom were appropriated to the priesthood! A phraseology in some measure similar obtained in England, at that time, when shunning the cruel talons of papacy, the people rushed into the jaws of wild enthusiasm. That the sense in which the acts of David are here understood, is the most obvious and natural, appears from the amazing pains it has occasioned his champions, to force another upon them. Of this, the Life of David, by Dr. Delany, is a most remarkable instance; but the gross palliations, puerile conjectures, and mean shifts to which he has been driven, prove the difficulty of the task; while they are too frivolous to bias any, but the most Catholic believers.
Mr. Stockhouse, in his History of the Bible, has urged arguments against particular passages, under the title of Objections; so cogent, that his answers to them, certainly could not be satisfactory even to himself.
Dr. Chandler has lately added his name to the list of David's apologists. Strange! that so holy a king should need the exertion of so much learned and critical dexterity, to establish his fame for goodness of heart! This gentleman's performance, which was published as a reply to the first edition of the present work, is a very extraordinary piece; and shews that, great learning is no security for soundness of judgment. The Doctor's book has been considered in a letter addressed to him, and published separately; to which the reader is referred for an examination into the merits of his arguments. In answering the Doctor, new lights opened on many occurrences, which, as far as they could be detached from that particular controversy, are taken into the present edition.
The best of kings is a title which adulation and servility have always conferred on the most contemptible, as well as the most detestable tyrants; and the frequency of its application to the object is ever in proportion as he is undeserving of it. Had the flattering sycophants of king David been satisfied with applying to him this common-place appellation, rational men, who form their conclusions from the result of general experience, would have inferred only that he had been one of the numerous herd of bad princes who have oppressed mankind, and there would have been nothing peculiar either in the fact or the inference. But when the extremity of adulation conferred on David the title of The Man after God's own heart, thinking men, who know the source from which such adulation ever flows, are prepared to expect, in the development of his history, a character pre-eminently wicked, and in this they are not deceived.
All historians of credit agree in describing God's chosen people, the Jews, as the most vicious and detestable of mankind;* their own historians confirm this character of them, and the whole series of facts which constitute their history, prove it beyond a possibility of doubt.
* Tacitus describes the Jewish people as formed of the worst
outcasts of the surrounding nations, collected together by
Moses, and kept for ever separated from the rest of mankind,
by an opposition of manners, and hostility of sentiment. Nam
passimus quisque, spretis religionibus patriis, tributa et
stipes illuc congerebant; unde auctæ Judeorum res—ad versus
omnes alios hostile odium—transgressi in morem eorum, idem
usurpent; nec quidquam prius imbuuntur quam contemnere Deos,
exuere patriam; arentes, liberos, fratres, vilia habere.—
Ticiti Hist. Lib. v.
Among the chosen people of God—the most depraved of all nations—it is pretty certain that the worst and wickedest man of that nation was David, The Man after God's own heart. The truth of this proposition will be abundantly proved in the following short history.
A question will here naturally present itself, how the Jews became so much more vicious and depraved than their neighbours? And to resolve that question, it will be necessary to consider in what respects their laws and customs differed from those of others. It will be found that they differed most essentially from all other nations in the world in two particulars: 1st. They had more religion than any other nation; and, 2dly. They had more priests. Other nations among whom superstitious rites and ceremonies prevailed, were satisfied with practising them on solemn festivals, and occasionally on particular or important events; but the Jews practised their superstition incessantly: none of the common duties, or ordinary functions of life, could be performed by them, without a reference to the rules of their superstition; they were bound to a strict observance of them whenever they ate, drank, or performed any other of the natural functions.* **
* Moses quo sibi in posterum gentem firmaret, novos ritus
coutrariosque ceteris mortalibus indidit; profana illic
omnia, quae apud nos sacra; rursum concessa apud illos, quæ
nobis incesta.—Seperati epulis, discreti cubilibus,
projectissima ad libidinem gens, aliena rum cubitu
abstinent, inter se nihil illicitum, circumcidere genitalia
instituere, ut diversitate noscanttir.—Taciti Hist. Lib. v.
It is impossible to draw a more disgusting picture of a
nation than this elegant and correct historian, in
describing the Jews.
** The Romans, though so numerous and powerful a nation, had
but very few priests, compared to the Jews. The Augurs were
at first only 3, and in process of time were increased to
15. The Arnspices were 12. The Pontifices were at first but
4, and were afterwards increased to 10. The Flamines were
but 3. The Sàlit 12. The Feciales, who were 20 in number,
though classed by authors among the priesthood, were merely
civil officers employed as heralds. And the Vestals, or Nuns
of Rome, were only 4; altogether between 50 and 60. Vide
Kennett's Roman Antiq. And yet Saint Austin, De Cevitate
Dei, Lib. iv. cap. 15, admits that the Romans were so
virtuous, that God gave them the empire of the world because
they were more virtuous than other nations, vet, with true
Christian charity, he says, that they must nevertheless he
damned as heathens. We do not find that the priests of other
enlightened nations of antiquity were proportionality much
more numerous than amoung the Romans. In England at present
the number of the priesthood cannot be much less than
20,000; there are near 10,000 parishes, each having one
priest at least, several two, and some three or more,
exclusive of Deans and Chapters, Prebends, &c. &c. and all
these in the established church, as it is called, exclusive
of a great variety of other sectaries of different
denominations.
Other nations had a few priests dedicated to their gods or idols, seldom exceeding a few dozen in a whole nation but the Jewish priesthood constituted a twelfth part of the whole people, and claimed and exercised the privilege of devouring a tenth part of the produce of the country, without contributing any thing to its productive labour.* And it is probable that the Jewish nation alone, though but a miserable handful of semi-barbarous savages, had more priests than the rest of the then known world collectively, and were consequently more vicious and more enslaved than any other people.
* The Jewish priesthood being one tribe, or twelfth part of
the nation, do not appear to have assumed to themselves much
more than an equal proportion, compared to their numbers, in
taking the tithe or tenth part of the produce of the land,
however unjust it may appear that they should be supported
in idleness at the expence of the industry of the rest: but
the English priesthood, though abundantly numerous, do not
form above one five-hundredth part of the whole nation, yet
they have the conscience to take also the tenth of the whole
produce, which is near fifty times more than their just
share, according to the proportion of their romish models,
from whose example they pretend to derive them.
Mankind have been too long duped by that universal cant of priests, who, in their language, have ever affected to couple religion and morality together, and to represent them as inseparably united, though the slightest attention must show that they are perfectly distinct, and a full and mature consideration of the subject must prove that they are even extremely opposite. They well knew that man, in the most abject state of mental degradation to which superstition could reduce him, must still acknowledge the force and excellence of virtue and morality, and must perceive their necessary tendency to promote his welfare and happiness. They well knew how useful to their own views and interests it would be to persuade him that religion, virtue, and morality, were one and the same, or, at least, intimately and inseparably connected; the credulity of man gave credit to the imposture without examination, and the uniform experience of above 2,000 years has not hitherto been sufficient to undeceive him.
Unhappy man! destined for ever to be the dupe of his own credulity, in opposition to the testimony of his experience, and the evidence of his senses. Does not the history of all ages show, that the most religious nations have always been, and still are, the most vicious and immoral!
Another most formidable evil necessarily results from such a system of superstition, that is, a state of civil slavery, which is always found its universal concomitant. Whenever the human mind is debased and degraded by a system of gross superstition, it becomes incapable of any one manly, liberal, or independent sentiment; every energy of the mind is lost, reason is surrendered, virtue, the chief support, if not the sole foundation of freedom, is banished, and man is fitted to receive the abject yoke of slavery; tyranny and despotism make an easy conquest of him, and the priest is ever ready to rivet his chains, and perpetuate his bondage, by the pretended sanction of Heaven. The power and influence of the priest and the tyrant is ever in proportion to the debasement of man; they have a common interest, have ever made a common cause against him, and have constantly erected their common throne on the ruins of his freedom, his welfare, and his happiness.
Let us not, therefore, be deterred from unmasking to the view of mankind that immense mass of vice and depravity which constitute the foundation of the Jewish superstition; let no blind veneration for that hideous idol deter us from exposing its deformity; let us cultivate that which is truly good and useful; let reason assume her just empire over the mind of man, and credulity, ignorance, and folly, abdicate their usurped dominion: then shall we soon behold the galling fetters of vice and superstition broken by the irresistible power of virtue, morality, and truth.