avoided without injustice or Corruption of the National Laws) "But now" (said the Prophet) "thy Kingdom shall

not continue:" (the very evil, of all others the most dreaded by the anxious Monarch, and which he hoped to avoid by meanly yielding to THE SUPPOSED NECESSITY) "The Lord" (continues the Prophet) "hath sought him "a man after his own heart, and the "Lord hath commanded him (to be)

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Captain over his people, because “thou hast not kept (that) which the "Lord commanded thee." (1 Sam. xiii. 1-14.) A more remarkable Example of the bad policy and extreme danger of dispensing with the Laws of God for purposes of State cannot easily be found!

Nevertheless,

even after this, the mercy and forbearance of GOD to Saul was manifested in many remarkable instances; and the anointing of the

New

New King was probably postponed that the reigning Monarch might be favoured with time and opportunity to retrieve by obedience, what he had lost by following the dictates of his own will and pleasure in direct opposition to God's Laws; for in so doing he was guilty of the most notorious and manifest resistance to the eternal Spirit of God with which he had been so wonderfully endowed!

But the very next act of Providence in his favour was abused by the rashness of the Monarch in refusing to ask advice of GOD, even after he had summoned the High Priest for that purpose." Withdraw thine hand"-said Saul to the Priest; for he would not wait for the divine answer already demanded, but hastily followed the dictates of his own will, and thereby sullied the glory of that most wonderful victory, which the Spirit of God had

wrought

wrought by the hand of his Princely Son, the truly noble and generous Jonathan: and though Jonathan him self as well as his victory, might be truly esteemed, according to the proper in

terpretation of his name," the Gift of "Jehovah,"* (-A Gift, indeed of inexpressible value, not only to a Father, but to a whole nation, if we consider his virtuous and rare character; a Man whose love of Justice and Equity could not be biassed by the most pressing necessities of Self-preservation and private Interest! See p. 100 to 102 in the preceeding Tract) yet the Life of this ex

*The author has since discovered, by grammatical rules drawn from plain examples of the Hebrew Scriptures, that this name--(which seems to be an abbreviation of 777) must be differently interpreted. The nominative noun precedes a verb in Kal, which, therefore, must be rendered in the present tense, Jekovah giveth, and not Dominus dedit, in the perfect tense, as rendered by the learned Dr. Lyttleton and others. Nevertheless, in either way, it is still sufficiently implied in the meaning of the name, that the worthy person who was distinguished by it was considered as the Gift of Jehovah.. cellent

B

cellent Man, this Gift of Jehovah, was forfeited, on the very day of his glorious triumph, by a rash oath or curse of his unthankful Father. " Cursed be THE "MAN" (said Saul) "that eateth any " food until evening," &c. and afterwards, when Jonathan was proved by Lot to be "THE MAN"-" God do so, " and more also" (said Saul)" for thou "shall surely die Jonathan!"-but " the "people rescued Jonathan that he died "not"—(1 Sam. xiv. 1-45.)—Nevertheless he was afterwards cut off from the kingdom by an untimely death, (nay, Saul's own hand had previously aimed at his LIFE with a Javelin, because he was too honourable to accept even of Royalty on illegal and unjust terms) but the loss was to the Royal House and the Public, to whom he had been given by God, and not to Jonathan himself for his just spirit was formed and prepared for a better world, where "the

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;

Righteous shall shine forth as the

"Sun,

Sun, in the Kingdom of their Father!? (Matt. xiii. 43.) This unhappy temporal fate of Jonathan, however, did not take place, it seems, 'till several years afterwards at the close of Saul's reign; for God's mercy to Saul was yet prolonged from time to time, and

he

gave him victory over all the neighbouring tyrannical nations, which had oppressed and plundered Israel: so that Saul had ample opportunity to retrjeve by obedience to God's Will, what he had forfeited by preferring and executing, contrary to Law and Reason, the hasty determinations of his own Will; and his fate was by no means absolutely determined, until he had proved himself totally unworthy of further confidence, by failing in such a trial of his obedience as left no room for the least hope of his amendment !

The Almighty had determined tò pour out his final vengeance upon an

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