her by night or by
day." When he had thus solemnly addressed himself to God, he converted
his discourse to the multitude, and strongly represented the power and
providence of God to them;--how he had shown all things that were come
to pass to David his father, as many of those things had already come
to pass, and the rest would certainly come to pass hereafter; and how
he had given him his name, and told to David what he should be called
before he was born; and foretold, that when he should be king after
his father's death, he should build him a temple, which since they saw
accomplished, according to his prediction, he required them to bless
God, and by believing him, from the sight of what they had seen
accomplished, never to despair of any thing that he had promised for the
future, in order to their happiness, or suspect that it would not come
to pass.

3. When the king had thus discoursed to the multitude, he looked again
towards the temple, and lifting up his right hand to the multitude, he
said, "It is not possible by what men can do to return sufficient thanks
to God for his benefits bestowed upon them, for the Deity stands in need
of nothing, and is above any such requital; but so far as we have been
made superior, O Lord, to other animals by thee, it becomes us to bless
thy Majesty, and it is necessary for us to return thee thanks for what
thou hast bestowed upon our house, and on the Hebrew people; for with
what other instrument can we better appease thee when thou art angry at
us, or more properly preserve thy favor, than with our voice? which,
as we have it from the air, so do we know that by that air it ascends
upwards [towards thee]. I therefore ought myself to return thee thanks
thereby, in the first place, concerning my father, whom thou hast raised
from obscurity unto so great joy; and, in the next place, concerning
myself, since thou hast performed all that thou hast promised unto
this very day. And I beseech thee for the time to come to afford us
whatsoever thou, O God, hast power to bestow on such as thou dost
esteem; and to augment our house for all ages, as thou hast promised to
David my father to do, both in his lifetime and at his death, that
our kingdom shall continue, and that his posterity should successively
receive it to ten thousand generations. Do not thou therefore fail to
give us these blessings, and to bestow on my children that virtue in
which thou delightest. And besides all this, I hu