authority which controuled their natural defires, is manifeft from their not sparing even the cattle, and even refraining to appropriate to themfelves the treasure which they found in Jericho, which was the first fruits of their conquefts, and to be devoted to God. The Ifraelites have often been compared to barbarous conquerors and cruel murderers; but let other conquerors and affaffins be produced, who refrained from plunder as thefe did. That they were not actuated by mere rage and revenge is evident from their having received no particular provocation, not indeed, having had any perfonal intercourfe with the inhabitants of Canaan. Their motives, it is evident, must have been of a very different nature from those of common robbers and murderers, and, in the eye of reafon, it is the motive that determines the nature of the action.

It is alfo remarkable that, notwithstanding the paffion the Ifraelites may be fuppofed to have had for war, which would have been inflamed by the rapidity of their conquefts, they were forbidden to extend them beyond the boundaries of the land of Canaan; and the conftitution of their government was altogether unfuited to extenfive empire.

It would be a fufficient reafon for the extermination of the Canaanites by the fword of the children of Ifrael, if, as is very poffible, it was the beft method of impreffing the minds of the Ifraelites themfelves with a juft idea of the heinous nature of . idolatry,

idolatry, and to make fufficient provifion against their being feduced into the fame abominable practices. If their living only in the neighbourhood of idolatrous nations was fo unfafe for this people, as their history fhews it to have been, what danger would they not have been in, if they had fpared the old inhabitants of Canaan, and fuffered them to live unmolefted among them.

I would obferve, however, that the order to exterminate utterly in the cafe of the Canaanites; though expreffed in abfolute terms, is fuppofed by fome to have been conditional in fact, and that their lives were to have been fpared upon their fubmiffion, and especially on their forfaking idolatry.

This fuppofition is fufficiently analogous to other threatnings in the fcriptures (the nature of which is explained by the prophet Ezekiel xxxiii. 14.) as that of Jonah against the Ninevites. He was commiffioned to fay that in forty years Nineveh fhould be overthrown, Jonah iii. 4. and yet we fee that, upon repentance, that city was spared.

It is plain in fact, that the Ifraelites either did not understand the command to be abfolute, or they knowingly tranfgreffed it, even in the best and most flourishing state of their affairs; for mention is made of the remains of the Canaanitish nations living in fubjection to the Ifraelites even to the times of the kings. 1 Kings, ix. 20, 21.

All

All the people that were left, of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebufites, which were not of the children of Ifrael, their chil iren that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Ifrael alfo were not able utterly to destroy, upon those did Solomon levý a tribute of bond fervice unto this day. It is plain from this paffage that, though before the days of David and Solomon, the Ifraelites could not entirely fubdue those nations, they were then wholly re. duced, and at the mercy of their conquerors; and we no where read of their being blamed for the favour they fhewed them, as Saul was in the cafe of the Amalekites, who were reduced by war. We alfo read Judges, i. 28. It came to pass that when Ifrael was firong, that they put the Canaanites to tribute, and did not utterly drive them out. And it must be obferved that Uriah, one of David's principal heroes was a Hittite.

Befides the reafon and end for which the order for the extermination of the Canaanites was given, which was, left the children of Ifrael should be inticed by them into idolatry, entirely ceased upon their fubmiffion, and abandoning their idol worhip.

Laftly, it is pretty clearly inferred, that this order was conditional, from finding that if the hearts of the Canaanites had not been hardened to oppofe the Ifraelites, they would not have been cut off. Joshua, xi. 19, 20. There was not a city that made

peace

peace with the children of Ifrael fave the Hivites. For it was of the Lord to har den their hearts, that they should come against Ifrael in battle, that he might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favour, but. that he might defroy them, as the Lord commanded Mofes, i. e. evidently in cafe of oppofition only. As to the Lord's hardening their hearts, there is nothing peculiar in it in this case, and, it will be explained hereafter.

The orders which the Jews had, not to spare even their nearest relations, if they should attempt to feduce them into idolatry, has been made. the foundation of the fame charge of cruelty, and has alfo been cenfured as a perfecution on the account of religious principles. But it should be confidered, that the very reason for fetting apart the Jewish nation to be the theatre of the extraordinary providence of God, refpecting the whole world of mankind, which was at that time univerfally finking into idolatry, was to fecure the belief of the great and important doctrine of the divine unity, and univerfal moral government; and that this, which was the great object both of the religious conftitution, and alfo of the civil government of the Hebrews, would have been defeated, if the most effectual provifion had not been made for fecuring to the one true God the allegiance of this one nation, and their adherence to the purity of his worship.

Befides,

Befides, it being abfolutely neceffary to the great purposes of the Jewish difpenfations, that a special and extraordinary providence fhould conftantly attend that people, making them profperous and flourishing fo long as they preferved the purity of their religion, and involving them in national calamity and diftrefs whenever they departed from it, the Ifraelites themselves would not have been fairly dealt with, if every poffible avenue had not been guarded against the introduction of so deftructive an evil. And, after all, we fee that, even these seemingly rigorous methods, were not quite fufficient for the purpofe; and that the divine being was obliged, as we may fay, to teach his useful leffons to the world by the punishment, as well as profperity of his favourite people; but in either of these cafes, their example was of the fame benefit to the world at large.

It should also be confidered, that the idolatry of the antient Gentile world, and especially that of the inhabitants of Canaan, was by no means a system of merely fpeculative opinions; but a courfe of the moft atrocious and abominable practices, "enjoining the cruel murder of numberless innocent children, as well as other human victims, and the most shocking lewdness, together with other vices of the most unnatural and deteftable nature. And furely it becomes a wife legislator, to restrain the commiffion of fuch deftructive vices as thefe.

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