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.
But we have better Arguments than bare Conjectures and remote Conclusions to induce us to believe that our Martyr'd Sovereign was highly deserving of this Character, of which we have all the Proof and Demonstration that 'tis possible for one Man to have of the Integrity of another.
'Tis true, God alone is an infallible Judge and Discerner of the Heart; he only beholds with an unerring Eye the Uprightness or Obliquity of Human Thoughts and Intentions; and therefore none but he can absolutely and decisively pronounce of any Person, that he is either Holy and Sincere, or Wicked and Prophane.
But we Men must form our Judgment from the outward Actions, and wheresoever we find a regular Conduct, where all the Duties to God and Man, as far as we can observe, are exactly and punctually discharg'd, where there are no visible Infractions of Divine or Human Laws, or none but such as may be imputed to Human Frailty; we are to look upon a Person so qualified as a Man of Probity and Vertue.
This is no more than is due in common Justice. But Christian Charity will oblige us yet
farther, even where there are some suspicious Appearances, if the Character of the Person be in other Respects unblemish'd; to err (if we must err) on the better Side, and make a favourable Construction.
This is Spoken at large, and not that there is any Occasion for this last Supposal, with Regard to the Subject I am upon: There being nothing in the Behaviour of that excellent Prince, that has so much as an indirect Aspect, nothing I mean that can affect his general Character.
When I affirm this I consider him chiefly as a private Christian, for in his Royal Capacity indeed, as we find him represented, by the designing Artifice of his malicious and restless Enemies, there are faulty Appearances enough. And yet the very Persons, who thus industriously blackned and defam'd him, and loaded him with so many unjust Reproaches on the Account of his Regal Administration; (which can never be so Excellent, as to give no Handle to the Factious, the Guilty, and the Disappointed, to censure and malign it, and will be always liable to Misconstruction, the Reasons of State being so Mysterious) yet cou'd never charge on him any gross Misbehaviour in Point of Moral Duty, any one habitual Vice, or indulg'd Passion, tho' they wanted not Means of prying into his most secret Commerce and private Correspondence, and nothing, we know, is so quick-sighted as Malice.