for the battle. This found foon inflamed his manly spirit with more than common ardour, to fec, and to fhare in, the engagement. He left his carriage in the care of the officer who guarded the baggage, and ran into the army, and faluted his brethren; and as he talked with them, (both armies being now drawn up in battle array) the Philiftine champion, Goliah of Gath, who, it feems, had now braved the Ifraelite army for forty days together, ftepp'd out, as ufual, to urge his challenge; which he did with a loud and terrible voice, the tenor of which was as follows:

THAT, to spare the effusion of human blood, they fhould decline a general engagement, and leave the decifion of their quarrel to the valour of a fingle champion chofen on each fide, whofe defeat, or victory, fhould détermine that of his country, who were to follow his fate: -Iƒ, fays he, your man be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your fervants; but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then fhall ye be our fervants, and ferve us: concluding all with a bold defiance of the Ifraelite army, and demand of an antagonist.

THE challenge was plaufible; but, however feemingly founded upon fortitude and humanity, was not in reality the effect of either. The cafe was thus: The Philistines had one man amongst them of a very fingular make and character; his ftature was gigantic, and his ftrength proportionable; he was nine feet nine inches high *,

and

*Pliny tells us, that a man of that ftature was brought from Arabia to Rome, in the reign of Claudius, 1. 7. c. 16. where he mentions

and his very arms and armour were more than a load for another man. He is generally believed to be a Philiftine nobleman, and, as a mark of dignity, an armour-bearer carried his fhield before him; a diftinction which Alexander the Great, and other antient heroes, always affected. It is no wonder then, if the Philistines. confided more in the ftrength and prowess of this man, than in that of their mercenary forces, which were their chief strength; and therefore chofe rather to reft their caufe upon his fingle arm, than the issue of a general engagement.

BESIDES all this, they well knew, that such a challenge, from fuch a man, was admirably fitted to strike a general terror into the adverse army, inasmuch as it could not fail to make an impreffion of fear upon the breast of every fingle man in it. If then the Ifraelites accepted the challenge, the Philistines were affured of conqueft; if they declined it, it must be from the impreffion of an univerfal fear, which would better open their way to victory in a general

engagement.

IN this diftrefs David found the forces of his country; Saul and all Ifrael mightily dismayed, not daring fo much as to stand the terror of the Philiftine's prefence, but retiring to their trenches as he approached; and here, as it was natural,

mentions the remains of other men of much greater dimenfions.

• Arrian tells us, (1. 6. p. 244. edit. Gronov.) that Alexander had the shield taken out of the temple of Trojan Pallas, carried before him in all his battles.

their conversation wholly turned upon this champion, and the reward offered by the king to any one that should flay him in combat; no less than the freedom of his family, added to great riches, and the honour of the king's alliance by marriage with one of his daughters; asking one another, (as the manner of men is, who could think of nothing else) Had they feen him; and telling one another, (what every one of them knew) what reward fhould be given to the man that fubdued him.

DAVID listened to their accounts, and mixed in their inquiries with an eager curiosity, expreffing, at the fame time, fome degree of wonder, that no one had yet accepted the challenge: What shall be done, fays he, to the man that killeth this Philiftine, and taketh away the reproach from Ifrael? And again; For who is this uncircumcifed Philiftine, that he should defy the armies of the living God? The workings of David's modefty and valour are finely painted in these questions: his modefty would not fuffer him directly and openly to accept the challenge, and profefs himself Goliah's antagonist ; and yet the fortitude of his own beating breast, and the glory of the undertaking, left him wholly at a loss why others fhould decline it. His eldest brother, Eliab, obferved his ardour, and was offended at it: he, who knew David's fpirit, foon faw his defign; and, filled with indignation, left David fhould atchieve what he himself had not dared to undertake, he reproved him with the most taunting queftions, Why he left

his flock? And what he had to do there? upbraiding him, at the fame time, that nothing but vanity, and a vicious curiofity, had drawn him thither tho', without doubt, he was well acquainted with his true errand. To all this, David (who found his indignation rifing, but would not allow himself to indulge it against his elder brother) made no other reply, than by asking his brother, What he had done to offend him? and whether the greatness of the occafion did not juftify all the queftions he could ask about it? Then, turning to fomebody elfe, he renewed his inquiries; and, ftung with double indignation, at the ill treatment of his brother, and the infolence of the Philiftine, he broke out into such open declarations of accepting the challenge, as were quickly brought before Saul; and, being called and examined in his presence, continued undaunted in his refolution.

SAUL endeavoured to diffuade him from fo rafh and defperate an attempt, by a remonstrance of his youth, and Goliah's confirmed strength, and experienced valour; but to no purpose. David defended his defign, by relation of his fuccefs against enemies full as dangerous as Goliah.

THERE is an united dignity and humility in the relation, which no words but his own can come up to :-Thy fervant, faid he, kept his father's fheep; and there came a lion and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock; and I went out after him, and fmote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and, when he arofe against me, I caught him by his beard, and Smote

fmote him, and flew him. Thy fervant flew both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcifed Philiftine fhall be as one of them, feeing he hath defied the armies of the living God.

HERE We fee, that David's confidence of fuccefs is founded on Goliah's blafphemy, which had debafed him to a brute; and therefore he now carried no more terror with him, than a lion or a bear.

THERE is nothing more offenfive and fhocking to the human ear, than self praile; inafmuch as it is ordinarily the effect of two very offenfive and unlovely paffions, felf love, and intemperate vanity and yet, when it is extorted, as it was here, I know nothing more becoming, or more noble. It is then adorned with all the dignity of felf-defence, under the falfeft imputation of the heaviest guilt. And yet David's temperance and modefty are remarkable even here: he describes his combat with the lion, in the shortest and fimpleft narration that ever was made of fuch a combat-I caught him by his beard, and fmote him, and flew him:-and, to avoid the tedium of dwelling upon his own exploits, fays no more of his combat with the bear, but barely that he flew him.

AND, as if even this were too much, he con· cludes all in the ftyle of a man who had rather efcaped than conquered :-The Lord, who delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philiftine. Upon which, Saul, ftruck with the fteadiness of his refolution VOL. I.

D

grounded