put upon them, and which will make the Conduct of David on this Occafion not appear fo bloody and cruel, as it does if taken in the Senfe which our Tranflators have rendered them. This furely must afford a great Relief to the humane Breast, by thus discovering the Injuftice that have been done the Royal Patriarch's Character, and therefore how much more amiable and praise-worthy we ought for the future to efteem it. Now the literal Meaning of the Words is, not that he put them to fuch and fuch Tortures, but that he put them to the Saw, and to Iron Harrows, and to Axes of Iron, and caufed them to go to the Brick-kilns; which really fignifies no more than that he made Slaves of them, and obliged them to work at such servile Employments, as are specified by the Names of Saws, Iron Harrows, Axes of Iron, and the Brick-kilns; it being natural to the Idiom of the Hebrew Language to specify fuch and fuch laborious Work by its peculiar Name. Here indeed it may be objected, that the Author of the Book of Chronicles in his Relation of the Affair now under Confideration, fays, that he cut them with Saws, and with Harrows of Iron, and with Axes. Now in Anfwer to this, I beg Leave to obferve, that the Word in the Original, which is here tranflated to cut, is fhewn by thofe who are well verfed in

the

the Oriental Languages, to fignify likewife, to difperfe, divide, or feparate; and therefore this Paffage may be rendered, that he difperfed, or divided, or feparated them among thefe different Employments, which are fignified by Saws, Axes of Iron, Harrows of Iron, and Brick-kilns. The learned Dr. Chandler, in a Note upon this Paffage obferves, that the Syriac Verfion renders it, "He bound them with Iron Chains, "&c. and thus he bound them all :" And the Arabick; "He bound them all with "Chains, killing none of the Ammonites." Now from these two Interpretations and the others above-mentioned, which as the learned Doctor obferves, are far from being forced, but are agreeable to the proper Senfe and Conftruction of the Words, I think, every impartial Perfon must allow, that in this whole Conduct of David's there is nothing contrary to the plain and open Dictates of Humanity, and confequently that he is not deferving of that Blame and Reproach which has fo generally and liberally been thrown upon him, especially by our late modern Biographer, who has according to his ufual Custom, without knowing why or wherefore, which muft be the Cafe, where People will condemn. without examining the Truth of the Cafe, reprefented David like a Devil, fporting with the Lives of his Fellow-creatures,

and

and delighting himself with the Sight of beholding them expiring under fuch fevere Tortures. This I am afraid he would have done, for I think I may fafely affert, and that without any Breach of Charity, that the Man who can take a Pleasure in vilifying the Character of another, especially one that has always, by the wife and confiderate Part of Mankind, been esteemed as a facred one; and who in all his Writings endeavours as far as lies in his Power to render Men as miferable as he can, not only here but to all Eternity, by unhinging their Faith, in either denying the Truth of the facred Writings, or elfe ridiculing them, and thereby weakening their Authority, the Effect of which will in the Iffue prove the Subverfion of Morality; that a Man, I fay, of this profane and diffolute Turn of Mind, would take an equal Satiffaction in beholding his Fellow-creatures expiring under the fevereft Tortures. But to return from this Digreffion.

Having cleared the Character of David from the Cruelty, which was with fome Colour of Reafon imputed to it from this Paffage of Scripture, I think his Conduc in the other Wars he was engaged in, may be eafily juftified, fince his Behaviour in them was the fame with Joshua's, and the other Deliverers of Ifrael, whofe Conduct on that Account we never find to be either blamed

blamed or reproved. As to his being engaged in those Wars, that was by the Ap pointment of God, who for wife and just Reasons, as I have already fhewn, was determined to extirpate thofe Nations from the Face of the Earth, as their abominable Wickedness had rendered them wholly unworthy of his Fatherly Care and Providence. To cenfure him therefore on this Account is to call in Queftion the Equity and Juftice of the Divine Proceedings, which few, I should hope, who are in the leaft actuated by any religious Awe and Reverence, would be willing to be guilty of. Here then can be no Objection made to his not being thought worthy of ftill poffeffing that truly honourable Title of being called the Man after God's own Heart, notwithstanding the Cavils that have been raised by his, and I may fay too, our Enemies. I will therefore now proceed to the third and laft Particular which I proposed to confider, viz. his Behaviour in the Affair of Uriah the Hittite. The Crime he was guilty of in this Affair, I fhall be far from endeavouring to extenuate, but agree with his Adverfaries, that he then ceased to be the Man after God's own Heart: After having laid before you an impartial Account of this unhappy Affair, as it may well be called, I fhall endeavour to prove, that he again became entitled to that Appellation

of

of being the Man after God's own Heart, from the Sincerity of the Repentance he expreffed for that Affair, and his unexceptionable Behaviour afterwards, never having deviated again into any Prefumptuous Sins, during the Remainder of his Life, the Truth of which will clearly appear from the Account the facred Hiftorian has tranfmitted down to us.