History of Deborah. LECTURE V. JUDGES V. 12, 13. Awake, awake, Deborah: awake, awake, utter a fong : arife, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou fon of Abinoam. Then he made him that remaineth have dominion over the nobles among the people: the Lord made me have dominion over the mighty. IT is natural for man to look forward to futurity; and to derive a part, at least, of his felicity and importance from the estimation in which he is to be held by pofterity. He knows that his body must foon die, and his connexion with the world be diffolved; but he flatters himself with the fond hope, that his name may furvive his afhes, and that his memory may be cherished and refpected, though his perfon be loft in the grave, and fink into oblivion. When this anticipation, and defire of immortality, ferve as a stimulus to virtuous exertion, and call forth wifdom and goodness, honourably to fulfil their day, the love of fame is a refpectable principle in the individual, because it becomes a blefling to mankind. But to wade to the temple of fame through a fea of blood; to extract" the bubble reputation" from widow's tears and the groans of expiring wretches, is worse than contemptible; it is deteftable, it is monftrous. And, And, whatever national partiality and prejudice may have done, reafon and humanity will always regard fuch characters as Alexander and Cæfar with abhorrence, strip them of their ill-earned glory, and ftigmatize their names to the lateft generations, as the enemies of mankind. The spirit of patriotism, in other refpects noble and excellent, is here faulty, pernicious, and worthy of the feverest cenfure. It encroaches on the facred rights of loving kindness and tender mercy. It encroaches on the more facred prerogatives of high Heaven. It would make the God of the fpirits of all flesh, a party in the quarrels of two petty states, and force the great interefts of an univerfe to bend to the caprice, the pride, the ambition or revenge of fome paltry prince. Hence, the literary monuments of all nations, exhibit a narrow, illiberal, ungenerous, impious fpirit. The warlike genius of Rome acquired the afcendant over her rival Carthage. The literary genius of that gallant people affumed the fuperiority of courfe; and Punic perfidy, barbarity and cowardice, became the fubject of proverbial apothegms, historical records, and poetical rhapsodies. But fuppofe, for a moment, the fcales changed, and the fate of Carthage preponderating, and we fhould have had this whole picture reverfed; and Roman, not Punic faithlefsnefs, cruelty and cowardice had been the burden of the fong, and the object of deteftation. While our notes of triumph rend the vault of heaven, cross that brook, look forward from the fummit of that little hill, where we are celebrating victory with all the infolence of fuccefs, and erecting the monumental column to profperous valour, and nought is to be feen, but fights of woe, no voice is to be heard, but that of lamentation and defpair; while angels, from yonder fphere, look down with pity and concern, fuch as angels feel, on both the victor and the vanquished. "The broad eye of one Creator, takes in all mankind: his laws expand the heart ;" and the "Te Deum," which angels fing E 2 with with rapture, is, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men.” We must carry these ideas with us as a corrective to the vehemence of poetical enthusiasm, and learn ftill to diftinguish between the rapturous praise and cenfure of a female patriot, and the calm, equitable, unbiaffed applaufe or condemnation of unerring wifdom and eternal juftice. In the picture of human nature here fufpended before our eyes, we behold it, as it is, not what it ought, in all refpects, to be. Deborah having proposed her fubject, in plain and fimple terms, in the fecond verfe, and fummoned the princes and potentates of the earth to liften to her fong, as if the whole world were interested in the event she was about to celebrate, fhe presents to them an object fupremely worthy of their attention and reverence, namely, the great JEHOVAH marching in awful ftate before the armies of his people, and delivering to them his dreadful law from Sinai, while univerfal nature bears witness to the presence of the Creator and Lord of all. "The earth trembling, the mountains Tmelting, the powers of heaven fhaken." From thence the turns a weeping eye to the recent miferies of her yet bleeding country, and fummons her compatriots to gratitude and joy, for the deliverance of that day, from the recollection of the cruel reftraints under which they fo lately lived, and the calamities which they endured: and fhe rifes into holy rapture at the thought, that a gracious Providence had not only wrought falvation for his people, but made her the bleffed inftrument of effecting it. But in recalling the memory of former evils, in order to awaken holy joy, fhe fails not to trace thofe evils up to their proper fource, in order to excite holy forrow and contrition; "They chofe new gods; then was war in the gates was there a fhield or fpear feen among forty thoufand in Ifrael ?" * Verse 8. The The great object of the prophetefs is, to imprefs this everlasting and unchangeable truth, that fin is the ruin of any nation, and that falvation is of the Lord. The moment a new god is fet up, behold a new enemy is in the gate. That inftant the idol is pulled down, the hope of Ifrael revives. The poetic question of Deborah," was there a fhield or fpear feen among forty thousand in Ifrael?" expreffes the highest degree of political dejection and diftrefs; and reprefents the infulting foe, as not only filling all their borders with present confternation, but also, undermining all their hope for the time to come; ftripping them of every kind of armour both for defence and attack; to fuch a degree, that not one man, out of forty thoufand, was furnished for the field. * A Jewish Rabbin has given a turn fomewhat dif ferent to the words of the text, and not an abfurd one. "Has Ifrael chofen new gods? then was war in the gates. Was there fhield or fpear feen among forty thousand?" that is to fay, "From the time that Ifrael made choice of strange gods, they were under a neceffity of maintaining war in their gates; or, of fupporting a standing army for defence against the inroads of their enemies. But now that you offer yourselves willingly to the Lord, and put away the ftrange gods which are among you, fee whether you have any need of fhield or fpear against the most formidable and numerous hofts of foes, against the thousands and forty thousands of Canaan? No, JEHOVAH himself is your fhield and buckler, he fights your battles. Heaven and earth combine to deftroy the adverfary, the ftars in their courses fought against Sifera, the river Kifhon fwallows them up. "My heart is toward the governors of Ifrael, that offered themselves willingly among the people. Blefs ye the Lord. Speak, ye that ride on white affes, ye that fit in judgment, and walk by the way. They that are delivered from the noife of archers in the * Sal. Jarchi, page 64. places 1 places of drawing water; there fhall they rehearse the Blefs ye the Lord." They beft knew how little was due to human skill and valour, how much to the gracious and powerful interpofition of Heaven; let them, therefore, lead the band, and afcribe unto Jehovah the glory due unto his name. She next turns to the civil governors and judges of the land, and invites them to continue the fong. "Speak, ye that ride on white affes, ye that fit in judgment, and walk by the way."I Such was the simple state in which the rulers of lfrael travelled from place to place, adminiftering juftice. The ideas, in her addrefs to them, are tender and pathetic, and may be thus extended, "Alas! my affociates in government, it was but yesterday, that we were rulers without subjects, judges with out a tribunal, and without authority; the lives and property of Ifrael were not fecured and protected by law, but were at the disposal of a foreign lawless defpot; and your progrefs through the land in the exercife of your high office, was checked and overawed by a licenfed banditti. Let us rejoice together, that government has reverted to its channel; the highways are no longer blocked |