It came to pass on the seventh day, that the child died— Thus was the first instance of the divine vengeance upon David's guilt speedily and rigidly executed. Other instances of it were fulfilled in their order before his own eyes; and the dreadfullest of all the rest, the sword shall never depart from thine house, sadly and successively fulfilled in his posterity; from the death of Amnon by the order of his own brother, to the slaughter of the sons of Zedekiah by the king of Babylon. Indeed, David's guilt was more signally and dreadfully punished in his own person and in his posterity, than any guilt that I ever heard or read of in any other person since Adam. The Jews are of opinion, that his own decree of repaying the robbery four-fold, was strictly executed upon him. And as he was professedly punished by the death of one of his sons for the murder of Uriah, they imagine that the other three also, who died violent deaths, fell so many sacrifices to the divine justice upon the same account. In this view, can David's example be an encouragement for sin? Who would incur his guilt, to go through such a scene of sorrow and repentance?

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