them, proportioned to their reputation and merit in arms; and were always ready at hand, for council or aid, as the king's affairs required; and in their hours of leisure, fuperintended and inftructed the youth in their military exercises: and fo anfwered all the purposes of a royal academy, for the science of war. A fcheme for infpiring heroifm, and diffusing military skill and prowess thro' a nation, perhaps beyond any that ever was known in the world! AMONG these heroes of David, Adino the Exnite had the chief feat in all their affemblies (2 Sam. xxiii. 8.); nor is it any way improbable, that the first rank in that society, and first apartment in that palace, might be diftinctions of as much honour amongst them, as the first titles of nobility amongst us. And it is confeffedly a high point of political prudence, to make honorary, rather than pecuniary or profitable diftinétions, the rewards of virtue, and the incitements to it. THE next building of eminence in the old Jerufalem, was the high-priest's palace, generally fuppofed without the city of David; the extent of which may, in fome measure, be estimated from the account we have of the the apportioning of the walls of Jerufalem, in the rebuilding, or rather repair of them, under Nehemiah, (ch. iii. 20, 21.) in these words: Baruch, the fon of Zabbai, earneftly repaired one piece of it, from the turning unto the door of the houfe of Eliashib the high-prieft: and after him, repaired Meremonth the son of Urijah, the son of Koz, the other piece (of the wall), from the door of the houfe of Eliafhab, even to the end of the boufe of Eliafkab. I AM unwilling to give all the offence that fome of my readers may be too much inclined to take, by making the inferences which would obviously follow from this account: And therefore I fhall only observe, that outward diftinctions of ftate and dignity were not then deemed any way inconsistent with the characters of the true minifters of GOD. Rich and blameless* were not then deemed epithets incompatible with the facred name of priest; nor did David imagine, that they who were more immediately fet apart * 'Aqveròs àμúuwv isgeús. Homer. Ilial. 5. And again fpeaking of Hynfanor, he calls him son of the valiant Dolopion prieft of Scamander, who was honoured as a god by the people, Prieft of the fream, and honour'd as a god. for for the fervice of GOD, fhould be precluded from fuch a portion of those bleffings which he pours out upon the earth, as would best enable them to imitate his beneficence. THIS is a fhort account of old Jerufalem under David: But when the temple was afterwards erected upon mount Moriah, an eminence then perhaps equal to Sion; when Millo was added, and the houfe of the foreft of Lebanon, and the palace of Pharaoh's daughter, and Solomon's own palace, which was thirteen years in building; then might the facred writer well cry out, in transport, Let mount Sion. rejoice: let the daughters of Judah be glad. Walk about Sion, and go go round about her; tell the towers thereof, mark well her bulwarks, confider her palaces, that ye may tell it to them that come after. THE next thing remarkable of Jerufalem is its fituation upon more than one eminence, furrounded by an amphitheatre of hills; a fituation as falutary, and as delightful, as can well be imagined, in the centre of Judea, * Suppofing that (as fome criticks do) a palace built in Jerufalem, which I believe it was not. † Pf. xlviii. and, and,what is very remarkable, and well worthy our most serious confideration, in the centre of the whole known world. THIS is a circumftance which the facred writers were well acquainted with, as appears fufficiently from the 5th chap. of Exekiel, ver. 5. Thus faith the Lord God, This is Jerufalem; I have fet it in the midst of the nations and countries round about her. And for what purpose he did this, is clearly illustrated from many other texts; thus in the 50th P. ver. 1, 2. The mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rifing of the fun unto the going down thereof: out of Sion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined. Here the Almighty kept his court; and from hence he sent out his embassadors the prophets, to publish his decrees to the whole world around him, with more eafe, and fpeedier conveyance, than could poffibly have been done from any other region of the habitable world. And that this was the feat and fountain-head of true religion from the beginning, is evidenced beyond all doubt, from the hiftory of the Jewish nation. This was the feat of Melchifedec the king and high-priest of the living God, in the days of Abraham; and how great his dignity was, and how eminently distinguished by that office, evidently appears from Abraham's acknowledging him his fuperior, and bending to him for a bleffing, even when he was eminently the favourite of heaven, and in the height of his glory, just returned from the conquest of kings. How long he continued in this most glorious of all earthly employments,a teacher and an example of true religion, (a fhining light to the furrounding regions of the earth) is no-where faid, or even fuggefted; but evidently long enough to make the fin of Sodom unpardonable, and, poffibly, the fins of fome fucceeding generations in Canaan. WHAT the state of Jerufalem was, from this time to the days of David, no-where appears; but this is certain, that from David to JESUS CHRIST, God was known in her palaces as a fure refuge. Jerufalem was (although with some interruptions) the chief, if not the fole fource of true religion, to the whole habitable world around it. From hence, as from a central point, the light of the law first, and the gofpel afterwards, fhone out to the furrounding nations; and to this end, |