And Uriah said unto David, The ark, and Israel, and Judah, abide in tents; and my lord Joab, and the servants of my lord, are encamped in the open fields; shall I then go into mine house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? [as] thou livest, and [as] thy soul liveth, I will not do this thing.
Ver. 11. And Uriah said unto David.] Vir robustior spiritu quam corpore Urias: Uriah was a man all over, having a golden soul in an iron body. His name signifieth the fire of God; and surely the fire of zeal was kindled by God's Spirit upon the hearth of his heart, which made him thus resolute to abridge himself even of lawful delights, in a time of common calamity. See the like in Nehemiah, Neh 1:4-5 Daniel and his fellows, Dan 1:9 those good captives. Psa 137:1-9 And that any Baruch at such a time seeketh great things for himself, and is not even sick at heart for the breaches of Joseph, father Latimer's reason holdeth good; Deest ignis; there wanteth that flame of God, Son 8:6 Uriah's public spirit. Common dangers or calamities should, like the rapt motion, carry our hearts contrary to the ways of our own private occasions.
And my lord Joab.] Josephus saith that Uriah was Joab's armourbearer. See here how he fortifieth his resolutions against evil with strongest reasons: we had need to do so daily, looking well to our hearts, as the Dutchmen do to their banks, which if they should not, the sea would soon make a breach upon them. Hereby we shall become "steadfast and unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord." But what a dead lethargy had sin and Satan cast good David into, that hearing all this from Uriah, he yet repented not of his unlawful pleasures, taken at such an unfitting time! How can any presume of not sinning, saith a reverend man, a or despair for sin, when we find David thus fallen, risen?
a Dr Hall.