Why speak ye not a word of bringing the king back?— David, now victorious over a rebel army, had it in his power to take ample revenge of all those whose treachery and infidelity well deserved to be severely chastised; and it is evident, that if he had had any thing revengeful and sanguinary in his nature, he could now want no pretext either of justice or of policy to indulge it to the full: but he was governed by very different principles, and saw the whole affair of his son's rebellion and his own conquest in another light. He knew the first to be the effect of his guilt, and the last the fruit of his penitence and humiliation before God; and therefore made no other change in his conduct, than from prayer and penitence, to gratitude and thanksgiving, and a patient humble expectation of His providential disposal of the event. Nor did he fail of his reward; for now it seemed good to the Great Governor of the world, who at his pleasure stilleth the raging of the sea, and the madness of the people, to turn the hearts of David's subjects, as it were, in one instant in his favour; insomuch that they now returned to their duty with as much and as eager zeal, as they had but a few days before rushed into rebellion against him.

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