—"'Tis my slave, my drudge, my supple glove,
My upper garment, to put on, throw off,
As I think best: 'tis my obedient conscience."
David, now thinking himself securely settled, was moved both by God**** and by Satan,(5) to cause his subjects to be numbered: which is, oddly enough, imputed as a great sin in him to require: for, poor man, according to the premises, he was but a passive instrument in the affair.
* 2 Sam. 6.
** 1 Sam. xxiv. 21, 22.
*** 2 Sam. xxi. 6.
**** Chap. xxiv. 1.
(5) 1 Chron. xxi. l.
Even David should have his due. The prophet Gad called him to account for it; and as a punishment for this sin of compulsion, propounded to him for his choice three kinds of plagues, one of which his subjects thereby necessarily incurred seven years famine, three months persecution from enemies, or three days pestilence.* David chose the latter.
It may be as well to decline this story, as to enter into, any more particular consideration of it. From the above state of the case, the intelligent reader will need no assistance in making his own private reflections on it.
We have now attended David down to the decline of his life: when his natural heat so far decayed, that no addition of clothing** could retain a proper degree of warmth. His physicians prescribed a young woman to cherish him in his bed, by imparting to him a share of juvenile heat.*** This remedy may be very expedient in cases of extreme age: but why beauty should be a necessary part of the prescription is difficult to conceive. They sought a fair damsel; and the damsel they found, was very fair.**** Possibly David might himself direct the delicacy of the choice: but if his physicians intended it as a compliment to their master, it indicated a very insufficient knowledge of the animal oeconomy: thus to stimulate the old man, and harass a carcase already sufficiently worn out: whereas a virgin of homelier features, at the same time that she would have furnished an equal degree of warmth, would have been less liable to put wicked thoughts in the patient's head.(5) However, the historian has taken care to inform us, that "the king knew her not:"(6) an assertion, which, from the premises, there does not appear any reason to controvert.
* 2 Sam. xxiv. 13., 1 Chron. xxi. 12.
** 1 Kings, i. 1.
*** Ver. 2.
**** Ver. 8, 4.
(5) "Boerhaave frequently told his pupils that an old German
prince, in a very infirm state of health, being advised to
lie between two young virtuous virgins, grew so healthy and
strong, that his physicians found it necessary to remove his
companions." Mackenzie on Health, p. 70, Notes.
(6) l Kings, i. 4.
While the king lay in this debilitated extremity of life, he was destined to experience yet another mortification from his children. Adonijah his eldest son, since the death of Absalom, taking advantage of his father's incapacity, foolishly assumed the title of king,* which, had he been a little less precipitate, would have soon fallen to him, perhaps, without contest. For though David afterwards is represented as having secret intentions to alter the succession, yet the countenance shewn to his pretension by Joab, the general, by Abiathar the priest, and even by all his other brothers,** seem to indicate, that had Adonijah been more prudent, we should not now have heard so much of the wisdom of Solomon, It is possible Adonijah might, even as it was, have maintained his anticipated dignity, had he not, like Saul before, slighted his most powerful friends. He made an entertainment, to which he invited all his brothers, except Solomon;*** but what ruined him, was his not inviting Nathan the prophet; it was there the grudge began: and the exclusion from this merry bout, and the confidence of the party, caused the prophet's loyalty to exert itself,**** which might probably have been suppressed by a due share of Adonijah's good cheer.
* Ver. 5.
** Ver. 9, 19, 25.
*** Ver. 9, 10,
**** Ver. 11.
Let not the writer be accused of putting a malicious construction upon every transaction he produces. Pray, reader, turn to your bible: in the tenth verse of the first chapter of the first book of Kings, you will find a remark that Nathan was not called to the feast. The very next verse begins, "Wherefore, Nathan spake unto Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon," &c. He was certainly nettled at the slight put on him, and some others, in not being invited to Adonijah's feast, else he would not have insisted on that circumstance; which had better been waved. The supposition is not so ridiculous as has been represented; for surely the probability of Nathan's being corrupted, was not less than that of David's sons; who, yet, all of them, except Solomon, (who, had he been invited, had some private reasons to the contrary, which their proceedings shew them to have been aware of) were agreeable to settling the succession on their elder brother; though certainly as much interested in the disposal of the kingdom, as Nathan could be.