keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, &c. to the performance of which God fastened the succession and prosperity of his issues. For this done, (saith God himself,) thou shalt not want one of thy posterity to sit upon the throne of Israel. Secondly, he advised him concerning Joab, who out of doubt had served David from the first assault of Jerusalem to the last of his wars, with incomparable valour and fidelity, saving that he fastened himself to Adonijah, (his master yet living,) and thereby vexed him in his feeble age. But as God hath never left cruelty unrevenged, so was it his will that Joab should drink of the same cup whereof he had enforced other men to taste, and suffer the same violence which himself had unjustly strucken others withal, qui gladio percutit, gladio peribit; for he had bereaved Abner and Amasa of their lives, having against the one the pretence only of his brother's slaughter, whom Abner had slain in the time of war, and could not avoid him; against the other, but a mere jealousy of his growing great in the favour of David. And though Joab assured himself that Abner and Amasa being dead, there was none left either to equal him or supplant him, yet God (deriding the policies of wicked men) raised up Benaiah, the son of Jehoiadah, to pull him from the sanctuary, and to cut him in pieces. For David giveth this cause to Salomon against Joab, that he slew the captains of the host of Israel, and shed blood of battle in peace; and to this apparent and just cause, it is not improbable but that David remembered the ill affection of Joab towards Salomon, which Joab made manifest by the untimely setting up of Adonijah, David yet living. Some other offence Joab had committed against David, of which in these words he put his son Salomon in mind; f Thou knowest also what Joab the son of Seruiah did to me, &c. Now whether this were meant by the killing of Absalom, contrary to the king's desire, or by the proud words used to him when he mourned in Mahanaim for Absalom; or d 1 Kings ii. 4. e I Kings ii. 5. f Ibid. whether it were the publishing of David's letter unto him for the killing of Uriah, thereby to disgrace Salomon as descended of such a mother, the scriptures are silent. True it is, that those great men of war do oftentimes behave themselves exceeding insolently towards their princes, both in respect of their service done, as also because they flatter themselves with an opinion, that either their masters cannot miss them, or that they dare not offend them. But this kind of pride hath overthrown many a worthy man, otherwise deserving great honour and respect. He also gave order to Salomon to rid himself of Shimei, who not long before had cast stones at David, and cursed him to his face. And albeit by reason of his oath and promise David spared Shimei all the time himself lived, yet being dust, and in the grave, he slew him by the hand of Salomon his son 5. Hence it seemeth that king Henry the Seventh of England had his pattern, when he gave order to Henry the Eighth to execute Pool as soon as himself was buried, having made promise to the king of Spain, when he delivered Pool unto him, that while he lived he would never put him to death, nor suffer violent hands to be laid upon him. And yet did not the execution of Joab yield unto Salomon any such great profit or assurance as he hoped for. For he found a young Adad of Idumæa, and Rezin of Damascus, to vex him; who, as the scriptures witness h, were emboldened to enterprise upon Salomon, hearing that David slept with his fathers, and that Joab the captain of the host was dead. Now when David had reigned in all forty years, to wit, in Hebron seven years, and in Jerusalem thirty-three, he died. For his person, he was of small stature, but exceeding strong. For his internal gifts and graces he so far exceeded all other men, as, putting his human frailty apart, he was said by God himself to be a man according to his own heart. The Psalms which he wrote witness his piety and his excellent learning; of whom Jerome to Paulinus: David Si monides noster, Pindarus et Alceus, Flaccus, quoque Catullus, et Serenus, Christum lyra personat, et in decachordo psalterio ab inferis suscitat resurgentem ; "David," saith he, "our Simonides, Pindarus, Alcæus, Horace, Catullus, "and Serenus, he playeth Christ on his harp, and on a ten-stringed psalter he raiseth him up rising from the “dead." And being both a king and a prophet, he foretelleth Christ more lightsomely and lively than all the rest. The Book of the Psalms, saith Glycas, was divided, ordered, and distinguished by Ezekias; but whether all the Psalms were written by David it is diversely disputed. For i Athanasius, Cyprian, Lyranus, and others, conceive divers authors, answering the titles of the several Psalms, as Moses, Salomon, and the rest hereafter named, and that only seventy-three Psalms were composed by David himself, namely, those which are entitled ipsius David. For the fiftieth and the seventy-second, with the ten that follow, are bestowed on Asaph the son of Barachia, eleven other on the sons of Korah, and eleven are ascribed to Moses, to wit, the eightyninth and the ten following, and so they are entitled in the old Hebrew copies, though the Vulgar and Septuagint (three excepted) style them otherwise. The supposed nine authors of these Psalms which David wrate not, k Sixtus Senensis nameth as followeth : Salomon, Moses, (whom AbenEzra, contrary to Jerome, maketh one of David's singers,) Asaph, Ethan-Eziachi, Eman-Eziaira, Idithum, and the three sons of Chore. But St. Chrysostom makes David the sole author of all the Psalms, and so doth St. Augustine, reasoning in this manner. Although, saith he, some there are that ascribe those Psalms only unto David which are overwritten ipsius David, and the rest, entitled ipsi David, to others; this opinion, saith he, voce evangelica Salvatoris ipsius refutatur, ubi ait quod ipse David in Spiritu Christum dixerit esse suum Dominum, quoniam Psalmus 109 sic incipit: Dixit Dominus Domino meo, Sede a dex i Athan. in Synop. Hier. Epist. 134. Lyr. in exp. 1. Ps. k Vide Sixt. Senen. Bib. Sanct. 1. 1. fol. 10. et II. 14. 1 Aug. de Civitate Dei, 1. 13. C. tris meis, &c.; "The voice of the gospel refutes this opin❝ion, where it saith, that David himself in the Spirit calleth "Christ his Lord, because the 109th Psalm begins thus ; "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand,” &c. Lastly, His testimonies are used both by Christ and the apostles, and he was as a pattern to all the kings and princes that succeeded him. His story, and all his particular actions, were written by the prophets, Samuel, Nathan, and Gad, as it is in 1 Chron. xxix. 19. For the several parts of the books of Samuel, which entreat chiefly of David, were, as it seems, written by these three holy men. m Constantine Manasses hath an opinion, that the Trojans, during the time of the siege, sought for succour from David, and that he stayed neuter in that war. But it seemeth that Manasses did miscast the time betwixt David and the Trojan war. For it is generally received, that Troy fell between the times of Abdon and Samson, judges of Israel, about the world's year 2848, and David died in the year 2991. SECT. IX. Of the treasures of David and Salomon. HIS treasures were exceeding great. For it is written in the first of Chronicles, chap. xxii. 14. that he left Salomon for the building of the temple a hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver, and of brass and iron passing all weight, which is more than any king of the world possessed besides himself, and his son to whom he left it. For it amounteth to three thousand three hundred thirty and three cartload, and a third of a cartload of silver, allowing two thousand weight of silver, or six thousand pound sterling to every cartload, besides threescore and seventeen millions of French crowns, or of our money twenty-three millions and one thousand pound; a matter, but for the testimony of the scriptures, exceeding all m Cap. 17. §. 6, 7. in his Annals translated out of Greek into Latin, by Joannes Leunclavius. belief. For that any riches were left him, it doth not appear; seeing that the judges had not any treasure, nor any sovereign power to make levies; but when they went to the wars, they were followed by such voluntaries as the several tribes by turns gave them: seeing also that Saul, who was of a mean parentage, and perpetually vexed and invaded by the Philistines, could not in all likelihood gather great riches, (if any at all,) his territories being exceeding narrow, and thereof the better part possessed by his enemies. Therefore it were not amiss to consider how David, within the space of not very many years, might amass up such mighty treasures. For though parsimony be itself a great revenue, yet needs there must have been other great means. It seems that he made the uttermost profit of all that he had, that was profitable Eusebius, in his ninth book and last chapter de Præparatione Evangelica, citeth the words of Eupolemus, who reporteth that David, among other preparations for the temple, built a navy in Melanis, or, as Villalpandus corrects it, Achanis, a city of Arabia, and from thence sent men to dig for gold in the island Urphe, which Ortelius thinks was Ophir, though Eupolemus, in his place of Eusebius, (erring perhaps in this circumstance,) saith, that this island is in the Red sea; from whence, saith this Eupolemus, they brought gold into Jewry. Pineda, 1. 4. de rebus Salomonis, c. 1. thinks that David did this way also enrich himself, and citeth this testimony of Eupolemus: and yet certainly David had many other ways to gather great riches. Much land doubtless he gained by conquest from the Canaanites and Philistines, besides those fruitful valleys near Jordan in Trachonitis and Basan, and the best of Syria, and other countries bordering the Israelites. These demesnes belike he kept in his own hands, and with his infinite number of captives, which he took in his wars, which were not able to redeem themselves, husbanded those grounds for his greatest advantage. For it is written, 1 Chron. xvii. that Jehonathan was over his treasures in the field, in the villages, in the cities, in the towns; that Ezri was over the labourers that tilled his ground; Simei over |