had lifted up a hand against him till the last extremity''. They were blinded however by their own passion, and overlooked every thing for the gratification of it. Joab never once reflected on the baseness of the action he was about to perpetrate, nor on the loss which Da\ad and the whole nation would sustain, nor on the account which he should one day give of it to God; but with horrid treachery, and deliberate cruelty, plunged the dagger into the side of Abner.
Alas ! alas ! how awfully has this scene been renewed amongst us ! It was no political animosity, but revenge alone, that instigated the murderer to the commission of his crime. Under the influence of that infernal passion he proceeded in the most deliberate manner to execute his cruel purpose. Thoughts of mercy and compassion found no place in his bosom. The injury that would be done to a fellow-creature, (who would in one instant be hurried into the presence of his God ;) the bereavement that would be felt by all his family, and the loss that would be sustained by the whole nation, (a loss to all appearance irreparable ;) seemed to him as nothing, when weighed against the gratifications of revenge : nay, the thought of his owii account that he should have to give at the judgment-seat of Christ could interpose no bar to the execution of his design. Yea, after the perpetration of the deed, he justified his act, and, like Joab, continued impenitent to his dying-hour.
Ah ! what an evil is revenge ! What need have we to guard against the very thought of it rising in our hearts ! Truly, we know not to what an extent the inundation may reach, when once the smallest breach is made in the dam that obstructs this current ®.]
We all are called upon at this time to mourn on
the sad occasion : for it is certain,
II. That the crimes of individuals will be imputed to us as national, if they be not nationally re- probated and deplored —
[Of this David was aware ; and therefore he endeavoured to avert the gmlt from the nation, by calling on them all to humble themselves before God, and to express in penitential sorrow their abhorrence of the crime *^. On this occasion he himself set them the example: he mourned, he wept, he fasted: he followed the corpse to the grave : he poured out the most pathetic lamentations over it; reflecting with just severity on the atrocity of the crime ; and lamenting that he had not power to inflict punishment on the ofienders^: and it was greatly to
^ 2 Sam. ii. 20 — 23. ^ Prov. xvii. 14.
f ver. 28, 29, 31. s ver. 33, 34, 35, 39.