To the REV. SAM. CHANDLER, D.D. F.R. and A. SS. To whom, Sir, could the republication of this little history with more propriety be addressed, than to a gentleman to whom it is under such considerable obligations? When it first appeared, it was honoured with your notice in an especial manner; and is not a little benefited by your labours . You, Sir, with a careful hand noted its errors; and what has stood the test of your strictures is certainly established with additional authority. Whatever mi

Some reverend panegyrists* on our late king,** have, a little unfortunately, been fond of comparing him with a monarch in no respect resembling him; except in the length of his reign, thirty and three years: which a lucky text informed them to be the duration of David's sovereignty over the Hebrew nation. Had our good old king died a year sooner, or had we been indulged with him a year longer, the opportunity of applying this text would then have been lost; and in either case we might not have h

The first establishment of regal government among the Hebrews, was occasioned by the corrupt administration of Joel and Abiah, the two sons of Samuel, whom he had deputed to judge Israel in the decline of his life.* The people, exasperated at the oppression they laboured under, applied to Samuel for redress, testifying a desire to experience a different mode of government, by peremptorily demanding a king.** At this, however, Samuel was greatly displeased: not that his sons had tyrannized over t