"nations shall say: Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto "this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger? Then "men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of "the Lord God of their fathers, which he made with them "when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt; and "the Lord rooted them out of their land in anger and in wrath, "and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it "is this day."* Assuredly, as this prediction was illustriously verified in the various fortunes of the Jewish nation under their judges and their kings, even to the total expulsion of the ten tribes, the signal captivity of the remaining two, and their as signal restoration; so it is still more illustriously verified by the present unparalleled dispersion of the Jews and their equally unparalleled preservation as a distinct people, notwithstanding that dispersion. Assuredly they at this day exhibit the most irrefutable proof of an overruling Providence, and of the divine original of those Scriptures which contain the laws they were bound to observe, and predict the calamities which should chastise the breach of that sacred obligation. 66 66 In the devout and beautiful prayer of Solomon, on the consecration of the temple, we find the principle here stated, publicly and solemnly recognised. " Moreover, concerning a stran ger that is not of thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far "country for thy name's sake, (for they shall hear of thy great name, and of thy strong hand, and of thy stretched-out arm) "when he shall come and pray towards this place, hear thou in "heaven thy dwelling-place, and do according to all that the "stranger calleth to thee for: that all people of the earth may "know thy name, to fear thee, as do thy people Israel; and "that they may know that this house which I have builded, is "called by thy name." And again, at the conclusion of this devout address, the monarch prays, "Let these my words, "wherewith I have made supplication before the Lord, be nigh "unto the Lord our God day and night, that he may maintain "the cause of his servant, and the cause of his people Israel, *Deut. xxviii. 9, 10, 15, 37; also xxix. 22, 24, 25, 28. + On this subject consult Newton on the Prophecies, Dissertation vi. vii. viii.; and Lardner's Three Discourses to prove the circumstances of the Jewish People an argument for the truth of the Christian religion, in his tenth volume, p. 63 et seq. 1 Kings, viii. 41-43. "as the matter shall require: that all the people of the earth may "know that the Lord is God, and that there is none else." In this remarkable passage, which is the more decisive as it contains a solemn recognition of the principles and objects of the Jewish Law, proceeding from the highest human authority, and sanctioned by the immediate approbation of God, whose glory filled the house of the Lord during this solemn supplication, we perceive it is clearly laid down, not only that the Jewish scheme was adapted and designed to make "all the people of the earth "know that the Lord was God, and that there was none else;" but also that the stranger from the remotest region, who should be led to believe in and to worship the true God, was not only permitted, but called and encouraged to "pray towards the "temple at Jerusalem," to join in the devotions of the chosen people of God, and equally with them hope for the divine favour, and the acceptance of his prayers; without becoming a citizen of the Jewish state, or submitting to the yoke of the Mosaic ritual or civil law. For the words of Solomon evidently suppose, that the stranger whom he describes as thus supplicating God, remained as he had originally been, "not of the people of Israel." How far the decided superiority of Jehovah over the idols of Egypt and Canaan,‡ and the clear manifestation of divine justice, mercy, and power, so conspicuously exhibited by the deliverance of the Jews from Egypt, and their settlement in the promised land, were effectual in diffusing the knowledge of the true God, it is perhaps impossible accurately to ascertain; that they did * 1 Kings, viii. 59, 60. From 2 Chron. ii. 17, it appears Solomon found in Israel strangers of such a rank of life as were fit to be employed in assisting to build the temple, 153,600. These (as the commentators agree, vide Poli Synopsin, and Patrick, &c.) were proselytes to the worship of the true God, and the observance of the moral law, though not circumcised. Patrick observes, "These were the reliques (as Kimchi "thinks) of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, mentioned "afterwards, ch. viii. 7. But they were not idolaters, for then David would not "have suffered them to dwell in the land. But they worshipped God alone, though "they did not embrace the Jewish religion wholly, by being circumcised. These "David had numbered, that he might know their strength and their condition; "which did not proceed from such vanity as moved him to number his own people; "but out of a prudent care that they might be distinguished from Jews, and be 'employed in such work as he did not think fit to put upon the Israelites." See 1 Chron. xxii. 2. Vide supra, Lect. II. not produce any extended permanent national reformation in any idolatrous country is certain. Indeed to produce such an effect at that period of the world, it seems evident, nothing but such a system of perpetual discipline and control as God exercised over his chosen people, would have been sufficient. The Scripture history, however, supplies various instances of the deep impression made on the minds of those, who were perfectly apprised of the miraculous interpositions of God in behalf of his chosen people. In reciting the plagues of Egypt, we are told, that the magicians, when their own power was clearly exceeded and their arts baffled, acknowledged, "This is "the finger of God."* And when Moses warned the Egyptians of the approaching plague of a very grievous hail, we find, "He "that feared the word of the Lord among the servants of "Pharaoh, made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses."+ On the increasing accumulation of plagues, inflicted in consequence of the impious obduracy of Pharaoh, his servants at length ventured to remonstrate with that proud and inflexible monarch: they said unto him, "How long shall this man (Moses) "be a snare unto us? Let the men go, that they may serve "the Lord their God: knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed?"'+ And we are told that "the man Moses was "very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's "servants, and in the sight of the people." Nor can a more probable account be given of that "mixed multitude" | who accompanied the children of Israel out of Egypt, than that it consisted of Egyptians, deeply convinced, by the miracles they had witnessed, of the supreme divinity of Jehovah, and thence determined to adhere to his worship, and for that purpose join themselves to his chosen people, share the same fortune, and submit to the same law. 66 Verily," On the approach of the Jews to the land of Canaan, we perceive the terror of their God had before them. gone says Rahab to the spies, "I know that the Lord hath given you “the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all "the inhabitants of the land faint because of "have heard how the Lord dried up the waters of the Red Sea you. For we Ibid. x. 7. ¶ Vide Patrick in locum, and Selden de Synedriis, lib. i. ch. iii. p. 776, Vol. I. Tom. II. "for you, when you came out of Egypt; and what you did "unto the two kings of the Amorites that were on the other "side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. And 66 66 as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, "neither did there remain any more courage in any man, be66 cause of you; for the Lord your God, he is God in heaven "above, and in earth beneath." The similar avowal of the Gibeonites is equally express and strong. "From a very far country thy servants are come, because of the name of the “Lord thy God; for we have heard the fame of him, and all "that he did in Egypt, and all that he did to the two kings of "the Amorites that were beyond Jordan. Therefore now make ye a league with us." Their apology for the artifice they had practised is not less striking. "Because," say they, "it was certainly told thy servants, how that the Lord thy God "commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land, and "to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you; "therefore we were sore afraid of our lives because of you, and "therefore we did this thing." 66 66 It cannot be doubted but the Gibeonites being permitted to preserve their lives and property, on condition of becoming "hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation "and for the altar of the Lord," must have renounced idolatry; for the attendance of avowed idolaters at the altar for any purpose, would have been an intolerable profanation. Had the other nations of Canaan imitated their conduct in submitting to the chosen people, and renouncing idolatry, they most probably would also have experienced mercy.§ But relying on the protection of their idols, they encountered the host of Jehovah, and their destruction served to increase and to diffuse the terror of his power: a terror, of which we trace the impression three hundred years after; when the Philistines, hearing that the ark of God had been brought into the camp of Israel, exclaimed, "Wo unto us: who shall deliver us out of the hands "of these mighty gods? These are the gods that smote the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness." ¶ On this occasion, God, by permitting the Israelites to be defeated 66 * Joshua, ii. 9-11. Joshua, ix. 24. Il Vide supra. Ibid. ix. 9-11. ¶ 1 Samuel, iv. 8. and his ark taken, punished their presumption in relying on his protection without repenting of their crimes. While on the idol of the Philistines* and his worshippers, he inflicted such signal chastisement,† without any intervention of human agency, as seems admirably adapted not only to punish but to reform their idolatry; yet in vain: at that period the human mind appears incapable of being thus reformed. The deluded Philistines acknowledged the resistless power of Jehovah; but they were thence stimulated merely to remove the immediate pressure of that power from their idols and themselves. They never once felt the reasonableness of forsaking such base absurdities, and adhering steadily to the worship of the God of Israel. In the reign of Solomon, the tendency of the Jewish scheme to diffuse the knowledge of the true God appears increasingly conspicuous. The prosperity and wealth of this monarch, the magnificence of his temple, and above all, his fame for wisdom, attracted universal attention. "For his fame was in all nations ❝round about, and there came of all people to hear the wisdom "of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth, which had heard "of his wisdom." We have observed the solemn and public manner in which he encouraged the stranger who was not of the people of Israel, to worship the God of Israel. And it is probable many strangers may have been at this period attracted to rank themselves with the worshippers of the true God. Still, however, the human mind appears not to have been prepared for any general and permanent reception of that pure religion, which, acknowledging "God to be a spirit," declares "he must be worshipped in spirit and in truth."§ And when we see that Solomon himself, with all his advantages, did not resist the seductions of idolatry, we cannot wonder if no considerable portion of those who may have been attracted by * On this subject Warburton judiciously observes: "After this transaction we hear "no more of any attempts among the Gentile nations to join the Jewish worship with "their own. They considered the God of Israel as a tutelary Deity, absolutely un"sociable, who would have nothing to do with any but his own people, or with such "particulars as would worship him alone, and therefore in this respect different from "all other tutelary gods, each of which was willing to live in community with the "rest."-Vide Div. Leg. 1 Samuel, ch, v. and vi. 1 Kings, iv. 29 to 34; and x. 1 to 13. |