them (m); and yet one would think, that they did not truly keep the publick Faith which they had given; for tho' they did indeed let the Gibeonites live, yet they did not perform this Promife in the publick Senfe in which they feem to have treated with this People; they took from them the very Being of a Nation; reduced them to a State of Servitude, which a brave and valiant People would probably have died a thousand Deaths, rather than have fubmitted to (n): These and other Reflexions that do naturally arife from what the Book of Jofhua offers us upon this Affair, would induce us to enquire, whether the Ifraelites were abfolutely commanded utterly to destroy all the Inhabitants of the feven Nations of Canaan; whether they could upon no Terms enter into a League with any of them; whether what the Ifraelites granted to the Gibeonites upon their Embaffy, was contrary to what God had commanded ; and how they at laft acquitted themselves of the League they had made with them.

I. Were the Ifraelites abfolutely commanded to destroy all the Inhabitants of the Nations, whofe Lands God had given them for an Inheritance? I answer, No. The Direction to the Ifraelites was this: When thou comeft nigh unto a City to fight against it, then proclaim Peace unto it: and it shall be, if it make thee an An

(m) Joh. ix. 20. (2) Libertatem [Says Caius Manlius in Salluft. Lib. de bello Cantilinar.] quam nemo bonus nifi cum vitâ fimul amittit.

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Swer of Peace, and open to thee, then it shall be, that all the People that is found therein, shall be Tributaries unto thee, and shall serve thee (0): Thus the Ifraelites were to behave unto all Cities; unto the Cities of the Hittites, of the Amorites, of the Canaanites, of the Perizzites, of the Hivites, of the Jebufites, and of the Girgafhites (p); as well as unto the Cities of other Nations, as is intimated from what follows: If [Jays Mofes] it will make no Peace with thee, but will make War against thee, then thou shalt befiege it, and when the Lord thy God hath delivered it into thy Hands, thou shalt fmite every Male thereof with the Edge of the Sword: But the Women and the little Ones, and the Cattle, and all that is in the City, even all the Spoil thereof, thou shalt take unto thy Self Thus fhalt thou do unto all the Cities which are very far off from thee, which are not of the Cities of thefe Nations. But of the Cities of thefe People, which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an Inheritance, thou shalt fave alive nothing that breatheth: But thou shalt utterly deftroy them, namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebufites, as the Lord thy God

(0) Deut. xx. 10, 11. (p) Trinas [fays Rabbi Samuel Ben Nachman] Præmifit Jofua Epiftolas in Terram Ifraeliticam, feu potiùs Litteris tria propofuit; qui Fugam mallent, aufugerent; qui Pacem, in Foedus venirent; qui Bellum, arma fufciperent: Unde Girgefæi credentes in Deum O. M. aufugerunt, in Africam fe conferentes- -Gibeonitæ in Foedus veniebant, adeoque Terræ Ifraelitica Incolæ manebant; Reges triginta ac unus Bellum fufceperunt, et cecidere; Gem. Hierofolym. Vid. Selden de Jure Nat. et Gentium, juxta difciplin. Hebræor. Lib. 6. c. 14. p. 726.

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hath commanded thee (s). In these Verfes Mofes directs the Ifraelites how they were to behave towards the Cities of their Enemies, that should attempt to hold out against them: And they were ordered to use a Severity towards the Nations of the Land of their Inheritance, if they refused Peace, greater than towards the Cities of other Nations for the like Obstinacy; which there had been no room to enjoin, if these Nations were to have been utterly destroyed without any Offers of Peace to be made to them: But the Ifraelites were to proclaim Peace to all the Cities of their Enemies; and whatever City accepted the Offer, the Inhabitants of it were to become their Servants: But if the Peace thus offered was refused, then, if the City that rejected it was not one of the Land of their Inheritance, the Ifraelites, as foon as they had reduced it, were to put all the Men to the Sword, and to fpare the Women and little Ones and Cattle, and to take the Spoil: Or, if it was a City of the Land of their Inheritance that had rejected their Offers, then as foon as they could reduce it, they were utterly to destroy all the Inhabitants, and to fave alive nothing that breathed belonging to it. That this is indeed the true Meaning of what Mofes directs, is confirmed from a Remark of Joshua's. He ob

(s) Deut. xx. 12-17. Our prefent Hebrew Copies feem to have omitted the Girgafhites, who were one of the feven Nations. that were to be deftroyed; See Deut. vii. The Samaritan Text fupplies this Defect in this Place, and gives us the feven Nations in this Order, the Canaanites and the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Girgafhites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

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ferves, that as God had purpofed utterly to destroy the Nations of Canaan (t), fo he did not difpofe any of them to accept of Peace from the Ifraelites, in order to their Preservation: There was not, fays he, a City, that made peace with the Children of Ifrael, fave the Hivites, the Inhabitants of Gibeon; all other they took in Battle; for it was of the Lord (u) to harden their Hearts (w), that they should come against Israel in Battle, that he might deftroy them utterly, and that they might have no Favour; but that he might destroy them, as the Lord commanded Mofes (x). Cunaus comments upon this Text very justly to this Porpofe: "It is plain, fays

he, from hence, that these Nations were "therefore extirpated, because they chose ra"ther the Chance of War, than to accept the "Terms which the Ifraelites could offer them: "But if they would have furrender'd when fummoned, undoubtedly they had not been destroyed" (y).

There is a Paffage in the Book of Deuteronomy, which may feem to intimate that these Nations of Canaan were abfolutely to be de

(t) See Wifdom xii. 3. (u) I cannot but obferve how closely the Reflexion of Joshua bere is copied by Homer. In all the Evils that came upon the Greeks from the Difference between Achilles and Agamemnon, Homer fays: Aids ♫o eteλéieto Boλǹ. Il. 1. (w) I have formerly obferved in the Cafe of Pharaoh, what is the true Meaning of the Scripture-Expreffion, of the Lord's hardning any one's Heart. See Vol. II. Book IX. (x) Jofh. xi. 19, 20. (y) Enimvero illud hinc efficitur, deletas propterea eas Gentes effe, quia Belli Fortunam tentare, quàm conficere Pacem in Ifraelitarum Leges maluerunt: Quod fi Fecialibus aufcultâffent, utique jam falus eorum neutiquam in dubio fuiffet. Cunæus de Repub. Hebræor, 1. 2. c. 20. Bb

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stroyed by the Ifraelites, without any Terms of Favour or Mercy. When the Lord thy God, fays Mofes, fhall bring thee into the Land, whither thou goeft to poffefs it, and hath caft out maNations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgafhites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebufites, Seven Nations greater and mightier than thou: And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee, thou shalt fmite them and utterly deftroy them, thou shalt make no Covenant with them, nor fhew Mercy unto them But, thus fhall ye deal with them: Ye shall deftroy their Altars, and break down their Images, and burn their Graven Images with FireAnd thou shalt confume all the People, which the Lord thy God shall deliver thee, thine Eye fhall have no pity upon them (x): I would obferve upon this Text, that it is a Direction to the Ifraelites, what they were to do to thefe Nations, after they had attacked them and fubdued them; but it gave them no Charge to deftroy any People who fhould choose to fubmit and furrender without engaging in a War against them: The Directions given in this Text were to be executed, when the Lord had brought the Ifraelites into the Lands of thefe Nations (a), and had caft out the Inhabitants before them (b); When the Lord had given the People of these Nations into the Hands of the Ifraelites (c), and had difcomfited them, and caufed them

(2) Deut, vii. 1, 2, 5, 16, &c, (c) ver. 3,

(a) ver. 1. (b) ibid,

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