Indeed we have decisive proof, that it was with reluctance, and almost by compulsion, that the Jews executed the sentence of divine justice on the condemned nations; because it is certain, that as soon as the terror of immediate punishment on themselves was in any degree withdrawn, they neglected to execute the divine command, they spared the remaining Canaanites, they indulged their own indolence by reposing in peace, or their pride and avarice, by reducing their enemies to slaves or tributaries; and in process of time began to regard them with affection, to court their alliance, to imitate their manners, and finally, participate in their idolatry and their licentiousness.

If then the severities which at first they were compelled to exercise against these idolaters, had a tendency to excite in the minds of both parties, sentiments of alienation and hostility towards each other; let it be remembered, that this tendency was useful and necessary, and that these severities, far from being continued longer, or carried further, than was essentially requi

site

site for the purposes of the divine œconomy, would at first seem not to have been carried far enough. If the Jews could not be entirely prevented from mixing with the Canaanites, even by the mutual hostility which such measures, as they were commanded and compelled to employ, appear calculated to produce; how instant, and total, and inseparable, would have been the union of those nations, had any milder measures been employed; and how entirely would the scheme of setting apart a chosen and peculiar people, to preserve the worship and the oracles of God, have been defeated. How impracticable would it have: been to mark out one peculiar nation, tribe or family, from whom the Messiah might be proved to descend, by whom the word of prophecy might be preserved, and its accomplishment attested. In a word, suppose this part of the Jewish dispensation changed, and it appears probable, as far as human sagacity can determine, that the whole scheme must have been abandoned, or effected by means to us inconceivable. When, therefore, we ask, why the sword.

of

of the Jews was employed for the punishment of the condemned nations of Canaan, rather than any other means? We answer, that no other mode of punishment could have so effectually guarded the Jews from being seduced by the allurements of idolatry, and involved in all the guilt and profanation, all the multiplied cruelties and impurities, which idolatry necessarily introduced. The degree of alienation and hostility thus excited in both parties, accomplished this purpose of the divine administration as far as was indispensably necessary, with less extensive infliction of miraculous punishment than any other conceivable mode. All the nations of Canaan might have been swept off by a pestilence, and the Jews placed, without resistance, in the possession of their territory; but even with this most extensive destruction of the condemned nations, would the Jews have been equally guarded against the contagion of idolatry, from every surrounding state? Would they have been filled with the same terror of impiety, superstitious cruelty and licentiousness, as when they themselves were compelled to become executioners

executioners of divine vengeance for these crimes? Assuredly not. With the strong tendency to imitate the manners and adopt the corruptions of idolatry, which the Jews afterwards displayed, it seems probable that, if this scheme had not been adopted, to alienate them as strongly as possible from its votaries, nothing could have prevented their immediate and total apostacy, but miraculously rendering the surrounding world a wilderness, or restraining the Jewish nation, by some uninterrupted and supernatural force, from all commerce with every other people.

Thus wild, unnatural and impracticable, are the expedients which seem necessary to be substituted, when we suppose any departure from what has been the real process of the divine dispensations. Is it not then irrational and unjust, to accuse this part of the divine œconomy as too severe, when it is certain it was barely severe enough to effect the preservation of the word and worship of the one true God, in a single nation? Is it not unjust to charge it with a tendency to deprave the morals of the Jews,

when

it

it seems to have been the only effectual method of inspiring them with a detestation of all the foulest crimes to the seduction of which they were most exposed, and impressing a fearful apprehension of the punishment which must attend their perpetration?

But the punishment of the Canaanites by the sword of the Jews, rather than by any other mode, seems to have promoted the objects of the divine œconomy, not only by rendering it more practicable to keep the chosen people a separate race, alienated from the society, and guarded against the seductions of idolaters; but by PREPARING THE WAY, FOR

TERMINATING THE MIRACULOUS INTERPOSITION UNDER WHICH IT HAD BEEN

NECESSARY TO DISCIPLINE THE JEWISH NATION, leaving at the same time such deep and awful impressions on their mind, as ought to preserve them permanently obedient

to the divine Law.

The great support of idol worship, was the fixed opinion, that the idols of each nation were its faithful guardian gods, securing its temporal prosperity, and above all, its success in war; combating on the side of their

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