A common share of humanity, which a little attention to common sense enabled the author to extend to every nation under Heaven as the objects of it, relieved him from the first of these difficulties: to overcome the other two, he has assumed the liberty of giving _his_ sense to what appears dark, or misrepresented; which he hopes will not be denied him, so long as it is not found that a forced construction is put upon any thing cited; or, that it is represented in any other light than what it naturally appears in, when considered with the freedom, which it is our duty to use in the examination of every historical record. And lest it should be imagined that too great liberties are taken with the biblical writers; it may not be amiss to mention once for all, that innumerable instances might be produced, to shew that the authority of _the Lord_, so continually quoted to sanctify every transaction related; constituted for the most part, nothing more than national phrases, which obtained universally among so bigoted a people as on all occasions the Jews appear to have been: one-twelfth part of whom were appropriated to the priesthood! A phraseology in some measure similar obtained in England, at that time, when shunning the cruel talons of papacy, the people rushed into the jaws of wild enthusiasm. That the sense in which the acts of David are here understood, is the most obvious and natural, appears from the amazing pains it has occasioned his champions, to force another upon them. Of this, the Life of David, by Dr. Delany, is a most remarkable instance; but the gross palliations, puerile conjectures, and mean shifts to which he has been driven, prove the difficulty of the task; while they are too frivolous to bias any, but the most _Catholic believers_. Mr. Stockhouse, in his History of the Bible, has urged arguments against particular passages, under the title of _Objections_; so cogent, that _his answers_ to them, certainly could not be satisfactory even to himself. Dr. Chandler has lately added his name to the list of David's apologists. Strange! that so holy a king should need the exertion of so much learned and critical dexterity, to establish his fame for goodness of heart! This gentleman's performance, which was published as a reply to the first edition of the present work, is a very extraordinary piece; and shews that, great learning is no security for soundness of judgment. The Doctor's book has been considered in a letter addressed to him, and published separately; to which the reader is referred for an examination into the merits of his arguments. In answering the Doctor, new lights opened on many occurrences, which, as far as they could be detached from that particular controversy, are taken into the present edition.