Joshua, to the first election of a king in the person of Saul, when taken together, distinct from the intervals of occasional relapses into idolatry, above three hundred and fifty seem to have passed under the government of the various judges, whom God raised up at different periods, to recall his people from their errors, and retain them in the observance of his Law. And children of Israel transgressed the divine Law, and were punished distinct from the rest. Thus it is recorded, Judges, x. 7. 8. "That the Lord delivered Israel into "the hands of the children of Ammon, and they oppressed them eighteen years, all "the children of Israel which were on the other side Jordan, in the land of the "Amorites." Something similar to this appears to have been the case in the deliverance wrought by Shamgar, Judges iii. 31; and even the servitude to Jabin, king of Canaan, Judges iv. 2, does not appear to have been universal, though it is said he mightily oppressed the children of Israel; for it is said "Deborah judged Israel at that time." But the following periods appear to have been clearly periods of tranquillity, during which the Israelites lived under their own law. From the time when Joshua took the whole land, and the land rested from war, Joshua, ch. xi. 23, about 1445 years before Christ, to the time when God delivered them into the hands of the king of Mesopotamia, about the year A. C. 1410 Judges, iii. 11-the land had peace under Othniel iii. 30-under Ehud and his successors v. 31-under Deborah and Barak, and their successors viii. 28-under Gideon 35 years. 40 ditto. 80 ditto. 40 ditto. 40 ditto. 23 ditto. 22 ditto. 7 ditto. 7 ditto. 10 ditto. 8 ditto. 25 ditto. 337 Total Without taking into the amount the forty years during which Eli had judged Israel, 1 Sam. iv. 18, during which the worship of the true God, and the observance of the law, had been in a great measure preserved, though not perfectly; this would make the period during which the law of Moses was the regular established religion of Israel, 377 years out of the 450 under the Judges; and it must be recollected, that it was always the religion of probably a great multitude of the people, though the public idolatry of others brought down the judgments of God: and above all, let it not be forgotten, that those idolators did not renounce the worship of Jehovah, but only added to it the worship of idols. They corrupted, but never entirely forsook, their national religion; and such corruption never implied any doubt of its divine original, or any positive disbelief of the Mosaic miracles. If with Usber in his Chronology, and others, we suppose the periods of tranquillity above to have been only partial, we must also admit the idolatries through the entire period of the Judges to have been also partial, and the argument will be unaffected. that during the lives of each of these judges, there was ro material apostasy from the national religion, and no material interruption of the public tranquility and prosperity by these punishments, which always attended such apostasy. It is peculiarly necessary to notice this circumstance, because, by a superficial reader of the sacred history, the whole period under the judges may be easily mistaken as one uninterrupted series of idolatries and crimes; from his not observing that the lapses which incurred punishment, and the divine deliverances which attended repentance, are related so fully and distinctly as to occupy almost the entire narrative; while very long periods, when, under the government of their judges, "the people followed God, and the land enjoyed peace," are passed over in a single verse, as productive of no occurrence which required a particular detail. The situation of the Jewish nation, during the government of its judges, seems calculated to promote the efficacy of that system of discipline under which it was placed, by the very circumstance which at first view appears most repugnant to it, the want of a close union and common interest between the different tribes. If, on the one side, this prevented them from regularly uniting under a common leader, except when such a one was pointed out by some clear manifestation of the divine will in his appointment, and divine aid in his support, and thus left them both as tribes and individuals, to do what was "right in their own eyes,”* without any immediate visible and regular control; this very circumstance on the other hand, enabled the Deity to exhibit more conspicuously the operation of that particular providence, which he had declared should distribute temporal prosperity and calamity according to the degree of obedience or disobedience to the Mosaic Law; and which not only the people collectively, but each distinct tribe and family should manifest; and thus gr dually to imprint more deeply on the whole nation the necessity of obedience to the divine will, by examples within their immediate observance, and the full force of which they could distinctly comprehend. Now the exercise of such a particular providence over a numerous and widely-extended nation, where one supreme government from the very first had uniformly controlled the ontire, and rendered each tribe and family less obviously the masters * Judges, xvii. 6. of their own conduct, must have been more gradual and extended in its operation, and less plainly discriminative and observable, than in the situation of the Jews under their judges. This cir cumstance though not noticed (as far as I can recollect) by writers on this subject, appears to me to have been the most decided effect, and therefore to supply the most satisfactory explanation of this part of the divine economy. And be it observed, that this mode of exhibiting the particular providence of God in the distribution of temporal blessings, was the more necessary, as the Jewish people was the only one which acknowledged the authority of Jehovah, or expected any such administration of providence. All the surrounding nations looked up to their own idols as their guardian gods; and the general superiority of Jehovah over these had been sufficiently displayed in the circumstances attending the deliverance of the Jews from Egypt, and their settlement in Canaan. But it was still requisite that it should be proved, that merely belonging to the chosen people, and acknowledging the general authority of Jehovah, would be insufficient to secure his protection, except to this was added an humble and vigilant obedience to that law which God had promulgated, and by the observance of which alone the purposes of the divine economy could be completely fulfilled. That this plan was pursued under the judges, in distributing prosperity or calamity to the different tribes, according to their good or ill conduct, we have many instances. Thus we are told that Judah and Simeon went to attack and dispossess the Canaanites who were remaining in the territory allotted for their inheritance; and that the Lord was with them, and gave their arms success as far as they continued their confidence in the divine aid. A similar observation is made with regard to the tribe of Joseph. While five other tribes are enumerated, who, indulging their own indolence, or destitute of sufficient faith in the divine aid, would not drive out the Canaanites, but were satisfied with making them tributaries. And the subsequent history shows, that this was the cause of the severest calamities to these tribes. For these nations soon became "thorns in their "sides," the instruments of the divine chastisement, merited by this disobedience, and the subsequent idolatries to which it led. Judges, ch. i. nineteen first verses. Ibid. l. 21, 27, 29, 30, 33. + Ibid. i. 22. 66 The history of the manner in which "God rendered the "wickedness of Abimelech which he did unto his father, in slaying his seventy brethren: And all the evil of the men of "Shechem did God render upon their heads: and upon them "came the curse of Jotham, the son of Jerubbaal," supplies another striking instance of the administration of Providence here supposed. These and various other facts supply additional instances of the same administration of Providence. The apparent severity in some of these instances either arose from the operation of human passions in the agents employed or permitted to execute these judgments, without being miraculously controlled in their conduct; or if directly commanded, we may be well assured was indispensably necessary to effect the purposes of the divine economy, when even that degree of severity was not sufficient entirely to prevent subsequent offences. Indeed the objection so frequently, but so causelessly advanced, that the supposed divine government over the Jews was not as completely effectual as might naturally be expected, shows the divine interference was confined to cases of unquestioned necessity, and interrupted as little as possible the operation of the laws of nature, and the regular course of moral discipline, under which mankind is placed. We are entirely † incompetent judges a priori of the degree of interference which ought to have taken place under such a particular providence as God exercised over the Jews, as well as of the effects which ought to have been produced by it. The existence of such a system is proved by undeniable facts, and its effects have evidently been highly important; and this should satisfy our doubts, and excite our gratitude. To insist on more extensive discoveries of the reasons and process of the divine government is equally irrational and presumptuous. As the object of these Lectures does not require, and their limits will not allow, a minute inquiry into the whole series of the Jewish history, and the discussion of every difficulty or objection which may appear to arise from it; I shall proceed to point out such leading circumstances in the progress of this dispensation, as may illustrate its general tendency to prevent the existence, or check the spread of those idolatries and apostasies, which form the subject of our present discussion. * Judges, the entire ch. ix. particularly ver. 56 and 57, Butler's Analogy, Part III. ch. iii. particularly p. 260. The ESTABLISHMENT OF THE REGAL FORM OF GOVERNMENT IN JUDEA forms a distinguished era in the history of the chosen people. It has been already remarked, that this change has been provided for in the divine economy, having been foretold, in the prophetic declaration of Moses delivered to the assembled nation shortly before his death, in such a manner as supplies a striking proof of the authenticity of the Pentateuch. It was not however established until above 400 years had elapsed, and then with circumstances deserving accurate attention, as they appear to illustrate strongly the character of the Jewish people, as well as the kind of discipline, and degree of control, which the divine wisdom thought fit to exercise over this chosen race. It is related, that the elders of Israel came unto Samuel, and said unto him,† "Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not "in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the "nations." This inconvenience arising from the misconduct of the sons of Samuel was so plainly temporary and easily removable, that it could have been but a mere pretence. The real motive undoubtedly was, that they should be governed “like "all the other nations;" a motive originating in their not sufficiently attending to the divine interpositions of the judges, but yielding to their ardent and culpable fondness for the manners and customs of the surrounding idolatrous states. This fondness they were restrained from indulging, by the control of that theocracy established by the Mosaic Law: a control which in all probability they secretly hoped, would be less strict if they changed the form of their civil government. This criminal disposition God exposes and reprobates. "They have not," says he to the Prophet, "rejected thee, but they have rejected me, "that I should not reign over them. According to all the "works which they have done since the day that I brought "them up out of Egypt unto this day wherewith they have "forsaken me, and served other gods: so do they also unto "thee," Yet the Divinity would not exercise such a resistless control as totally to disregard the choice of his people, and chain down their free will: this would have been inconsistent with his character as a moral governor. He indeed commands the Pro * Deut. xvii. from ver. 14, compared with 1 Sam. viii. x. and xii. 1 Sam. viii, 5. |